Asus ROG Crosshair IV Formula

Introduction

Published: 27th April 2010 | Source: Asus | Price: ~£169 | Author: Milind Chidrawar

It's Here...

It's been a busy week in the Overclock3D labs... While I'm sure many of you will have relished the warmth and sunshine of the weekend and perhaps a select few of you may have even participated in Sunday's London Marathon too, unfortunately the same cannot be said for our reviewing squad. They have been trapped indoors running a different sort of marathon; an extensive regime of component photography, tweaking and benchmarking. Yes, it's been a tiring week, but it has most certainly paid off as today we're proud to present a fully fledged review of the Asus ROG Crosshair IV Formula 890FX motherboard.

Following on from our previously published preview of the motherboard we can safely say that Asus, ROG and the board itself needs no introduction. For those who need a brief reminder of the Crosshair IV Formula's fundamental specifications they are as follows.

Form Factor	ATX, 12" x 9.6" (30.5cm x 24.5cm)
Processor Support	AMD Socket AM3 Sempron 100/Athlon II X2/X3/X4 and Phenom II X2/X3/X4 Processors
Chipset	AMD 890FX / SB850
Memory	4 x DIMM, Max. 16 GB 2000(OC)/1600/1333/1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory Dual Channel memory architecture
Expansion Slots	4 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (Operates in Dual 16x/16x, Triple 16x/8x/8x or Quad 8x/8x/8x/8x) 2 x PCI
Multi-GPU Support	ATi CrossfireX Supported
Storage	AMD SB850 Southbridge 6 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports JMicron 363 SATA Controller. 1x e-SATA 3.0Gb/s 1 x SATA 3.0Gb/s
LAN	One Marvell 8059 PCI Express LAN 10/100/1000
Audio	Creative SupremeFX X-Fi 7.1 Audio - 8 Channel High Definition Audio CODEC - EAX Advanced HD 4.0 - X-Fi CMSS 3D - X-Fi Crystalizer - Creative ALChemy - Supports Blu-ray audio layer content protection - Supports 1 Optical S/PDIF out port at back I/O - Supports 1 x S/PDIF out header - Supports Jack-Detection, Multi-Screaming, Front Panel Jack-Retasking
USB	AMD SB850 Southbridge - 12 x USB 2.0 ports (7 x Rear, 5 x Internal) NEC USB 3.0 Controller - 2 x rear USB 3.0 ports
Firewire	2 x 1394a ports (1x Rear I/O, 1x Onboard)
Back Panel I/O	1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x e-SATA 1 x LAN 6 x USB2.0/1.1 ports 1 x IEEE1394a port 1 x Clear CMOS switch

The Crosshair IV Formula looks brilliant on paper. However, it has much to achieve in order to surpass it's predecessor. On that note I believe it's time to cut the red tape and get testing!

Most Recent Comments

26-04-2010, 23:11:36

tinytomlogan

Its finally time to find out how good this board really is!

Continue Reading Quote

27-04-2010, 00:32:17

I Hunta x

Mmmm pretty damn sexy mobo, any news on the Extreme? (£ / Release dates?)Quote

27-04-2010, 01:02:38

Warzone

Wow, this is cheap for a ROG and that is, if it does turn out to launch around this price.

I suspect the Extreme would be more, am guessing around ~£200?Quote

27-04-2010, 01:33:23

I Hunta x

Yeah i was thinking around the £225 mark, got a few months till my course starts so more than enough time for some more boards running the new chipset to come out and compare the performance/overclocks, i just hope these keep ahead of them as "Well it is the best board i can buy for it" is more than a good enough excuse to buy such a good looking mobo.Quote

27-04-2010, 03:31:58

alexhull24

Compared to intel offerings with similar features, £167 seems like good value to me. Compared to other AMD boards it's a little pricey, but the performance looks hard to beat.Quote

27-04-2010, 06:13:25

tinytomlogan

Its a very nice board, Im a sucker for good looks it does kinda help its a doddle to use aswell.Quote

27-04-2010, 06:47:18

alexhull24

The inbuilt overclocking features seem quite well executed considering it's such a fine art with a wide range of chips out there. Certainly good to get someone started.

I'm glad they adopted the red/black colours, looks nicer than the C3F imo and brings it into line with the intel boards.Quote

27-04-2010, 07:21:15

tinytomlogan

Ive been saying for a long time that AMD need better motherboards, the Crosshairs seem to be the motherboards I was hoping for both in performace and most importantly looks.Quote

27-04-2010, 11:55:03

Nelly

My first Asus motherboard in 5 years which was an AMD board i.e. Asus A8N-Sli Premium which worked 8+ hours a day for over 4 years before I sold it for only £40 less than I bought it for!

I've never been one for motherboard looks but I must admit I did get suckered in, was the first thing that caught my eye about it, just waiting for my 1090T to arrive - can't wait to get it hooked up.

The worse review I've seen so far out of everyones is bit-tech, lack of depth, lack of benchmarks, lack of detail etc.

Enjoyed the review, can't find fault with it to be honest, not just saying that either if I thought it was crap I would say so.Quote

27-04-2010, 14:31:56

delusion77

Looks like a sick board. If I didnt already have an i7, Id go for this board and the 1090T no questions askedQuote

28-04-2010, 15:31:29

barkaway

it would have been nice if U had tested the 8GB green set dominator from corsair with this nice board8)Quote

29-04-2010, 06:33:24

tinytomlogan

We cant test everything when the first review goes live dude

Quote

29-04-2010, 06:37:16

barkaway

Cant is such an ugly word

Quote

29-04-2010, 06:38:21

AMD_PBz

Well I have said 8gb kit which I'll be more than happy to give a full run down once the extreme board becomes available

Quote

29-04-2010, 06:57:05

barkaway

the reason why i want em to test the 8GB set is that i have one myself, but i have never had the chance to test it cause i dont have the motherboard for it

not yet anyways:-PQuote

29-04-2010, 07:04:40

tinytomlogan

Quote:

Originally Posted by name='barkaway'

the reason why i want em to test the 8GB set is that i have one myself, but i have never had the chance to test it cause i dont have the motherboard for it

not yet anyways:-P

What I said dude is we have 1 review up for the Hex, there will be more to come. Patience young padawan.Quote

29-04-2010, 07:13:50

barkaway

hey i am patient, bt not that young:-PQuote

Asus ROG Crosshair IV Formula

Introduction

Published: 27th April 2010 | Source: Asus | Price: ~£169 | Author: Milind Chidrawar

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