Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices is all set to go ahead with the launch of its brand new desktop Bulldozer processors, also known as the Zambezi by many. And keeping in mind of this new offering from the chip giant, many motherboard manufacturers have already come up with their own AM3+ enabled products. Now, considering how these new-generation AM3+ motherboards are backwards compatible with the existing AM3 processors, one must agree, it was a pretty wise decision on the part of the manufacturers to get over with all the preparations beforehand.
And when every other company was busy upgrading their arsenal for this next-gen technology, how could one expect ASUS, the technology superstar from Taiwan, lag behind the rests in the race? Of course, that would be a super-foolish assumption to make! Nevertheless, Asus did come up with its own offering to keep its fan-boys upgraded as the technologies around them advances. The company jumped into the AM3+ compatible motherboard race, with the launch of the ASUS Crosshair V Formula 990FX Motherboard.
Once launched, there was hardly anything one could possibly do to keep us away from testing this R2,700 little-monster. So, the Crosshair V Formula 990FX was eventually laid on our testing-table, and a few hours later, here’s what we came up with:
To begin with, no matter how sound your T.Q. (technology quotient) really is, admit it, its still the outer look that makes the first impression on your mind about any product. And trust me, it did not skip the minds of the geniuses at Asus-- the Crosshair V Formula 990FX is pretty good looking with the “Republic of Gamers” touch being obvious in the design.
The product is compatible with almost all the leading processor types currently floating around in the market, including the likes of the AMD AM3+, Phenom II, Athlon II, and Sempron 100 Series Processors. It supports CPUs with upto 8 cores and 140 W.
And when it comes to the essential features, we found that the product is sort of well ahead of most of its contemporary competitors. The overclocking performance, for instance, was amazingly way better than an overwhelming majority of the products that previously we tested.
About the core frequency, well in that department, the product did not exhibit any extraordinary capabilities. But nonetheless, its still pretty good, and certainly good enough not to let the factor make any negative impact on your mind.
Asus’ efforts of making the product power-efficient by taking the best out of its EPU are clearly visible in the product. However, there were a lot of scopes left untouched that could have made a pretty good impact in making the product less power consuming.
As mentioned in the box, it is compatible with 4 X DIMM (max 32 GB), DDR3, 1800/2000/2133 (O.C) /1066/1333/1600 (MHz) memory types.
The LAN feature is standard and comes with 1 x Gigabit LAN Controllers-- no problem whatsoever as far our findings are concerned.
And other aspects such as Multi-GPU Support, Expansion Slots, Storage, Audio, BIOS etc. are also capable of meeting much more than what you would probably expect from the product.
So, did we find the product to be worth the R2,700 (or so) price tag it comes along with? Yes, that’s what we felt like. Do we recommend it? Yes, we do. Now if you wish to grab this stellar product or would like more information on motherboards, CPUs and other hardware/accessories; just email us at sales@evetech or call us at 012 653 0033.
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