Due to Intel releasing new chipsets often a lot of people might think that the motherboard market has a big focus on Intel boards. As I have seen in the past on our forums, our Facebook, and even at our events there is still a large AMD following that is hungry for the latest and greatest to support their preferred vender as well. Well when looking to lock in a board for future AM3+ testing I ended up with the Asus Crosshair V Formula in my hands. Today I’m going to dig into it and see what makes it Asus’s flagship AMD board.

Product Name: Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z

Review Sample Provided by: Asus

Written by: Wes

Pictures by: Wes

 

Specifications

CPU

AMD AM3+ FX™/Phenom™ II/Athlon™ II/Sempron™ 100 Series Processors

Supports AM3+ 32 nm CPU

Supports CPU up to 8 cores

Supports CPU up to 140 W

AMD Cool 'n' Quiet™ Technology

Chipset

AMD 990FX/SB950

Memory

4 x DIMM, Max. 32GB, DDR3 2133(O.C.)/2000(O.C.)/1800(O.C.)/1600/1333/1066 Hz ECC, Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory

Dual Channel Memory Architecture

Multi-GPU Support

Supports NVIDIA® 3-Way SLI™ Technology

Supports AMD 3-Way CrossFireX™ Technology

Expansion Slots

3 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (dual x16 or x16, x8, x8)

1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode)

1 x PCIe 2.0 x1

1 x PCI

Storage

AMD SB950 controller :

6 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), red

Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10

ASMedia® ASM1061 controller :

1 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), red

1 x eSATA 6Gb/s port(s), red

LAN

Intel®, 1 x Gigabit LAN Controller(s)

Audio

SupremeFX X-Fi 2 built-in 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC

- Supports : Jack-detection, Multi-streaming, Front Panel Jack-retasking

Audio Feature :

- X-Fi® Xtreme Fidelity™

- EAX® Advanced™ HD 5.0

- THX® TruStudio PRO™

- Creative ALchemy

- Blu-ray audio layer Content Protection

- Optical S/PDIF out port(s) at back panel

USB Ports

ASMedia® USB 3.0 controller :

6 x USB 3.0 port(s) (4 at back panel, blue, 2 at mid-board)

AMD SB950 controller :

12 x USB 2.0 port(s) (8 at back panel, black+white, 4 at mid-board)

ROG Exclusive Features

ROG Connect :

- RC Diagram

- RC Remote

- RC Poster

- GPU TweakIt

Extreme Engine Digi+ :

- 8 + 2 phase power design

UEFI BIOS features :

- ROG BIOS Print

- GPU.DIMM Post

GameFirst

iROG

Extreme Tweaker

Overclocking Protection :

- COP EX (Component Overheat Protection - EX)

- Voltiminder LED

- ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)

Special Features

ASUS TPU :

- CPU Level Up

Core Unlocker

ASUS Exclusive Features :

- MemOK!

- Ai Charger+

ASUS Quiet Thermal Solution :

- ASUS Fan Xpert

ASUS EZ DIY :

- ASUS Q-Shield

- ASUS O.C. Profile

- ASUS EZ Flash 2

- ASUS MyLogo 3

ASUS Q-Design :

- ASUS Q-LED (CPU, DRAM, VGA, Boot Device LED)

- ASUS Q-Connector

Back I/O Ports

1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port(s)

1 x eSATA 6Gb/s

1 x LAN (RJ45) port(s)

4 x USB 3.0

8 x USB 2.0 (white port can be switched to ROG Connect)

1 x Optical S/PDIF out

6 x Audio jack(s)

1 x Clear CMOS button(s)

Internal I/O Ports

1 x USB 3.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 2 USB 3.0 port(s)

2 x USB 2.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 4 USB 2.0 port(s)

7 x SATA 6Gb/s connector(s)

2 x CPU Fan connector(s)

3 x Chassis Fan connector(s)

3 x Optional Fan connector(s)

1 x S/PDIF out header(s)

1 x 24-pin EATX Power connector(s)

1 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power connector(s)

1 x 4-pin ATX 12V Power connector(s)

1 x Front panel audio connector(s) (AAFP)

1 x System panel(s)

8 x ProbeIt Measurement Points

3 x Thermal sensor connector(s)

1 x En/Dis-able Clr CMOS header(s)

1 x EZ Plug connector(s) (4-pin Molex power connector)

1 x Power-on button(s)

1 x Reset button(s)

1 x CPU Level Up button(s)

1 x ROG Connect switch(es)

1 x Go Button(s)

Accessories

User's manual

I/O Shield

6 x SATA 6Gb/s cable(s)

1 x 3-Way SLI bridge(s)

1 x SLI bridge(s)

1 x CrossFire cable(s)

1 x Q-connector(s) (2 in 1)

1 x ROG Connect cable(s)

1 x Cable ties pack(s)

1 x ROG theme label(s)

1 x 12 in 1 ROG Cable Label(s)

BIOS

32Mb Flash ROM, UEFI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.5, ACPI2.0a, Multi-Language BIOS

Manageability

WOL by PME, WOR by PME, PXE

Support Disc

Drivers

Sound Blaster® X-Fi 2 Utility

Kaspersky® Anti-Virus

DAEMON Tools Pro Standard

ROG CPU-Z

ASUS Utilities

Form Factor

ATX Form Factor

12 inch x 9.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm )

 

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garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #35997 19 Dec 2014 16:14
Today I show a little AMD love and check out an AM3+ board from Asus. Its not exactly a spring chicken, but how does it compare to today's latest and greatest? Lets find out!

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