ASUS Crosshair IV Formula – AM3 – AMD 890FX – DDR3 – Republic of Gamers – ATX Motherboard

5 Responses to ASUS Crosshair IV Formula – AM3 – AMD 890FX – DDR3 – Republic of Gamers – ATX Motherboard

1. Peeved Kitten

   November 4, 2010 at 4:51 pm

   Review from Peeved Kitten for the ASUS Crosshair IV Formula – AM3 – AMD 890FX – DDR3 – Republic of Gamers – ATX Motherboard
   The Rating is:
   I ordered this through Amazon with 2 day shipping and it showed up the next morning. I use this board in conjunction with an AMD PII 1090T Thuban, 4gb of DDR3, a BFG Nvidia 9800 GTX+ OC, 32 gb high speed ssd and a 500gb 6gbs pair of data drives raided together.

   This motherboard is awesome, it’s excellent for gamers but is tuned for over-clocking. I have actually used almost every feature on the board and have to admit, they are REALLY useful.

   Their are a couple of issues though. You MUST update the BIOS (this is a no brainer and should be done regularly) and there is a bug with Vdroops and LLC= Load Line Calibration. Right now if you turn LLC off, the system suffers a MASSIVE V-droop. IE: set the system at 1.47v and it return 1.356v at load. Turning LLC on can cut back on the Vdroop, however it also raises your operating temperature a bit and is unstable with a high overclock. ASUS is working on this already, a fix should be on the way shortly, until then you can compensate by finding how large the Vdroop is and over-volting the difference. Not what I recommend doing, but it works.
2. Michael D. Hanlon

   November 4, 2010 at 4:58 pm

   Review from Michael D. Hanlon for the ASUS Crosshair IV Formula – AM3 – AMD 890FX – DDR3 – Republic of Gamers – ATX Motherboard
   The Rating is:
   This is an amazing MOBO for the features, specs, BIOS bonuses, and quality of manufacturing. AsusTek makes fantastic products and their ROG series is top notch. I too purchased this with the 965 Black edition and am nothing short of amazed and blown away by the capabilities of both. Given I am new to OC’ing this MOBO makes it so easy. The buttons are life savers (reset and auto OC, plus core unlocker). Seriously I do not see the advantage of Intel and the premium they charge. AMD makes exceptional products and given the cost savings I truly see AMD/ATI as the superior choice.

   One interesting note is…. I pulled my HDD from my HP p6510f that has Win7 Home Premium; once the machine POSTed Windows failed to load, it would reboot and attempt to repair. After scouring the forums it appears that this is a pirate-prevention fail safe from MSFT. Given that the OS recognizes all of this new hardware as a new machine it prevents the OS boot due to hardware changes. I cannot recover using my system discs because it is not an “HP product”. Thus I will need to purchase a new HDD and a copy of the Win 7 system build OEM. It is a small price to pay given how awesome this MOBO and CPU pair is…. But it is pertinent to those who wish to upgrade their MOBO on their machine.
3. Fursnake

   November 4, 2010 at 5:04 pm

   Review from Fursnake for the ASUS Crosshair IV Formula – AM3 – AMD 890FX – DDR3 – Republic of Gamers – ATX Motherboard
   The Rating is:
   Purchased this motherboard in conjunction with an AMD 965 Black Edition Quad Core processor and the two make for a great setup. This mobo is a real treat, has a lot of great utilities and functions for custom profiles, overclocking and more. Easy to install and setup and made for a vrey hassle free RAID array setup. Plenty of PCI-e slot spacing for going up to triple SLI or Crossfire configurations, but spacing does not really allow for a 4th grpahics card….which is overkill anyhow. Even the onboard sound is pretty decent. Really liking this motherboard!
4. William Scarbrough

   November 4, 2010 at 5:57 pm

   Review from William Scarbrough for the ASUS Crosshair IV Formula – AM3 – AMD 890FX – DDR3 – Republic of Gamers – ATX Motherboard
   The Rating is:
   Asus has hit a homerun with this mobo! Using the Asus Crosshair IV Formula and my new AMD 1055t Athlon II x6 processor, I was able to easily OC the stock 2.8 Ghz proccy to 3.76 Ghz with almost no effort whatsoever. I had originally intended to go with the AMD 1090t proccy but couldn’t see paying almost $100 extra (at that time). I realize now the Black Edition processors are a little better with faster through put but I’m still very happy.
   
   My first impression of the packaging was simply “WOW”. Normally you expect to get a mobo in a box that’s been clear-tape sealed with a disk an instruction booklet and a CD and perhaps some cables/ribbons. This package is like no other mobo you’ll ever buy. An extremely detailed booklet with plenty of info on anything and everything about the board and it’s features as well as Bios tips. Cables, tie straps, and an amazing rear IO plate that put my faith back into premium quality mobos. Also included is an ROG (Republic Of Gamers) badge sticker as well as a pretty large side case sticker that goes perfectly with my Red and Silver Backtrack 4 logo . Assembly of the board is standard except for the RAM slots which feature one end clip on each slot. Yep, no more fumbling around underneath wires to have to pop out your RAM sticks with two latches, this feature alone is enough for me to be happy but it doesn’t stop there. Asus has gone out of their way to deliver not only performance but a great assembled package that shows the pride of the ROG community. Some (including one of my closest friends) balked at the color scheme until he got a longer look at it. Admittedly, red wouldn’t have been my first choice either since I like blue and green better but it quickly grows on you aesthetically. Now, many have complained about the heat of the Northbridge which in some cases featured incorrect standoff heights. For a new and “featured” product it was sad to see such a blatant mistake which also proved a lack of QC/QA on Asus’ part before shipping (IMO) on one of their premiere and premium prodcuts. However, with that said, I was one of the fortunate ones who had no problems with the heat of the NB.
   
   Assembly was typical like any other motherboard until it came time to start it up. I have to admit this was the first time ever I had no problems running it correctly the first time with absolutely no flaws. Loaded in Windows Ultimate 7 64 bit and away it went.
   
   For this build I opted for all top of the line products including: Corsair H70 proc cooler, 8Gb G.Skill Flare RAM, OCZ 850w GamerXStream PSU, Diamond ATI 1Gb DDR5 5870 GPU, Antec BluRay BD ROM, LG DVD/CD reader/burner, NZXT Sentry 2 LE Fan Controller, Lian Li 4 port mini-duckbill light switches, Cooler Master Sickle Blade Fans (6), Antec 1200 case, Sabrent 51 in 1 card reader, WD RE3 Enterprise Edition 1Tb drives (2), Corsair C300 64 Gb SSD, Bulgin LED Power Switch, Flatron 24″ HDMI monitor,Logitech G19 Keyboard and last but not lease the Logitech G5 gaming mouse. And all fed through a Logitech 540 5.1 sound system.
   
   My intention was to future proof this build as much as possible within a set budget and I’ve easily accomplished that with a few dollars leftover. The lighted switches, buttons on the motherboard are flat out sexy too. I’ve also got to admit the AMD 890 chipset totally rocks! My previous system was an Asus A8N32-SLI Premium mobo with an AMD Opteron 170 which is still a good build but nothing compared to the newest screamer! If you’re looking for performance, capability, consistency and overclocking capabilities I would have to put this at position #1 with a bullet!
   
   I had originally intended to use the Noctua NHD14 cooler which is mammoth but fits my case, until that is, I attempted to put it in with the performance RAM from G.Skill. If you’re intending to use the Noctua cooler you can only use standard side cover heat spreaders on your RAM. Forget about the add-on top heat spreader such as the G.Skill Flare or Corsair Dominators, it just won’t fit. The bottom 3-5 fins of the NHD14 hit the top of the RAM and will not seat anywhere near the top of your processor as it should. Hence the Corsair H70 which works like a charm and provides excellent cooling.
5. Ricardo Garcia

   November 4, 2010 at 6:11 pm

   Review from Ricardo Garcia for the ASUS Crosshair IV Formula – AM3 – AMD 890FX – DDR3 – Republic of Gamers – ATX Motherboard
   The Rating is:
   This is my 3rd ASUS motherboard that I have purchased. Maximum PC rated this motherboard a 9 out of 10 and this was after I had purchased it. Every ASUS motherboard that I have bought it becomes not only a better product but it has become more simpler to install the drivers and everything that comes with it. I have never had any issue with any motherboard seem like these motherboard could last forever LOL! The only time I have ever replaced a ASUS motherboard was the fact that it was time to upgrade.