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Asus Crosshair II Formula Review & Overclocking - PAGE 1
William Henning - Wednesday, May 14th, 2008


As usual, when a new chipset appears, Asus makes several motherboards based on it with varying levels of features aimed towards various levels of enthusiasts. And of course, the more features, the larger the price tag.

We last looked at the Asus M3N-HT Deluxe, and while I found it to be a good board, I was dissapointed with its memory performance.

Today we look at a higher-end Nvidia 780a based motherboard from Asus, the new Crosshair II Forumula, which is part of their "Gamers Republic" series of boards aimed straight at enthusiasts. As you will see from the extensive specifications below (taken from Asus' site), the board is certainly not short of features - but a great feature list is for naught if the board does not perform well.

Specifications

CPU
AMD Socket AM2+ Processors
AMD Phenom™ FX / Phenom / Athlon™ / Sempron™
AMD Socket AM2 for AMD Athlon 64 X2 / Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64 / Sempron
AMD Cool'n'Quiet™ Technology
Chipset
NVIDIA nForce® 780a SLI
System Bus
Up to 5200/MT/s HyperTransport™ 3.0 interface for AM2+ CPU
2000 / 1600 MT/s for AM2 CPU
Memory
4 x DIMM, Max. 8 GB, DDR2 1066/800/667 ECC,Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel memory architecture
*When installing total memory of 4GB capacity or more, Windows® 32-bit operation system may only recognize less than 3GB. Hence, a total installed memory of less than 3GB is recommended.
Expansion Slots
3 x PCIe 2.0 x16 support NVIDIA SLI Tech @ dual x16 or 3-way@x8, x8, x 8
2 x PCIe1.0 x1, PCIex1_1 (black) is compatible with audio slot
2 x PCIe x1
VGA
Integrated graphics
512MB Maximum shared memory of MB
Supports HDMI™ Technology with HDCP compliant with max. resolution 1920 x 1200
Supports D-Sub with max. resolution 1920 × 1440 @ 75 Hz
Multi VGA output support: DVI & D-Sub
Hybrid SLI Support
Scalable Link Interface (SLI™)
Support NVIDIA Hybrid SLI-Ready graphics cards
Storage
Southbridge
1 xUltraDMA 133/100/66/33
6 xSATA 3 Gb/s ports
Support RAID 0,1,0+1,5,JBOD
LAN
Dual Gigabit LAN, both featuring AI NET2
Audio
SupremeFX II Audio Card
ADI 1988B 8 -Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
Coaxial / Optical S/PDIF out ports at back I/O
ASUS Noise Filter
IEEE 1394
2 x 1394a ports (1 port at back I/O, 1 port onboard)
USB
12 USB 2.0 ports (6 ports at mid-board, 6 ports at back panel)
Overclocking Features
Extreme Tweaker
New 8+2 phase power design
Intelligent overclocking tools
- CPU Level Up
- AI Overclocking (intelligent CPU frequency tuner)
- ASUS AI Booster Utility
- O.C Profile
Overclocking Protection<
- COP EX (Component Overheat Protection EX)
- Voltiminder LED
- ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)
Special Features
LCD Poster
ROG BIOS Wallpaper
Onboard Switches: Power / Reset / Clr CMOS(at rear)
Q-Connector
ASUS EZ Flash2
ASUS CrashFree BIOS2
Stack Cool 2
ASUS Q-Shield
ASUS MyLogo3
Uses 100% All High-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors!
Back Panel I/O Ports
1 x D-Sub
1 x PS/2 Keyboard
1 x HDMI
1 x IEEE 1394a
2 x LAN(RJ45) port
6 x USB 2.0/1.1
1 x Clr CMOS switch
1 x Optical + 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Output
Internal I/O Connectors
3 x USB connectors support additional 6 USB 2.0 ports
1 x Floppy disk drive connector
1 x IDE connector
6 x SATA connectors
1 x IEEE 1394a connector
1 x CPU Fan connector
3 x Chassis Fan connector
1 x Power Fan connector
3 x thermal sensor connectors
1 x S/PDIF Out connector
1 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power connector
24-pin ATX Power connector
1 x En/Dis-able Clr CMOS connector
1 x LCD Poster
Chassis Intrusion connector
System Panel
BIOS
8 Mb Flash ROM
DMI 2.0
AMI BIOS
PnP
WfM 2.0
SM BIOS 2.4a
ACPI 2.0a
Multi-language BIOS
Manageability
WOL by PME,WOR by PME,Chasis Intrusion,PXE
Accessories
3-Way SLI Bridge
SLI Bridge
HDMI/DVI converter
ASUS Optional Fan
3 in 1 ASUS Q-Connector Kit
UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable
Floppy disk drive cable
SATA cables
SATA power cables
2-port USB2.0 module+IEEE1394a module
ASUS Q-Shield
Cable Ties
User's manual
Support Disc
The hottest DX10 Game: Company of Heroes:Opposing Fronts
Support DVD:
Drivers
ASUS PC Probe II
ASUS Update
ASUS AI Suite
Futuremark ® 3DMark® 06 Advanced Edition
Kaspersky® Anti-Virus
Image-editing software
Form Factor
ATX Form Factor
12 inch x 9.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm )

Let's see how this board will perform...

next: The Board »

Article Index

1.Introduction
2.The Board
3.The BIOS
4.More BIOS
5.Test Setup & Benchmarks Used
6.Business Winstone & Content Creation
7.WinRAR & HDTach
8.LAME MP3 & TMPGEnc
9.Call of Duty & Commanche 4
10.Doom 3 & Quake 4
11.Halo, Jedi Knight & UT4K
12.Sandra
13.RightMark Read & Write
14.RightMark Latency & Bandwidth
15.Overclocking & Conclusion

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