ASUS Crosshair V Formula Pro Reviews

With Creative audio drivers and one of the best AM3+ UEFIs around, this is a great motherboard for overclockers, despite its expense

We do not need to once again list all the advantages of the Asus Crosshair V Formula mainboard to estimate its superiority over the competitors: they are all more than obvious, especially in comparison. We stopped at 4.5 GHz frequency during our overclocking experiments, but that occurred because of our CPU and its cooling system, and not because of the mainboard. I am sure that the mainboard can easily hit higher frequencies. It even tried to work with the memory at 2133 MHz, although it was way beyond the comfort zone for our particular memory modules. Had we used faster memory, I am certain this frequency would have been conquered successfully. A mainboard like that makes you a king. No wonder that AMD selected this particular mainboard to accompany their new CPUs at launch. Yes, the processors turned out not quite what we had expected them to be, but if you made up your mind to go with a Socket AM3+ processor, then it will be very hard to find a better mainboard than Asus Crosshair V Formula. Therefore, we are proud to award this product with our Editor’s Choice title as a great mainboard for computer enthusiasts that allows to unveil full potential of the new AMD processors:

Picking our favorite 990FX motherboard of the three represented here was tough, but ultimately we’ve decided to give the Asus CrossHair V Formula our Editor’s Choice award. We have been using this motherboard for weeks and through multiple driver releases, OS installs, and UEFI updates, it has been nothing but rock-solid and reliable throughout. We also think the Asus CrossHair V Formula looks good and its layout is excellent. Asus includes a nice array of accessories, and the board’s UEFI setup utility is among the best we have come across on any motherboard to date, and not just with AMD-based boards either. The CrossHair V Formula is also priced right in the middle of the pack at $229. Those of you looking to lay the foundation for a future Bulldozer build would be well served by the Asus CrossHair V Formula.

ASUS has once again put together a hell of a motherboard. The Crosshair V Formula overclocks like a beast, runs for days under stress, has a great layout, and of course comes in our favorite HardOCP red and black color combination. (You think that is a coincidence? ) It was easy to use, and besides a couple of flukes in our testing which is not unusual, which I cannot pin on ASUS, the board worked perfectly. Republic of Gamers boards were notorious for being overpriced when these first came to market, but ASUS has adjusted that in the last year or so. This board is selling for at Newegg for $240. This is not cheap, but that is far from expensive for the feature set you are getting. You can also pick up the Thunderbolt edition of this motherboard for $310 that comes with ROG LAN and Audio Card combination. While I cannot comment on this officially, I would guess the Crosshair V Formula and its BIOS feature set will work out very well when it comes to overclocking the upcoming Bulldozer/Zambezi desktop processors that we hope to see next month.

The Crosshair V is without question the most impressive AM3+ board I have worked with to date. Installation was flawless, BIOS support was mature and quick, and the overwhelming amount of features integrated into this board is staggering. Not only are there a lot of features, but the design is so well thought out and implemented that there is no performance or stability degradation with all of the bells and whistles enabled and running. This is truly a fantastic board with about everything one could use (or imagine) actually being integrated on the motherboard.

The ASUS Crosshair V Formula is the next evolution of the Republic of Gamers AMD motherboard line up. When it comes down to it, it is a rock solid board with all the trimmings!

If Bulldozer is top notch performance at a bargain price, it'll be worth buying a high end motherboard like this to get the most out of it.

The ASUS Crosshair V Formula is clearly targeted to the serious overclocking enthusiast, providing a series of options and fine-tuning adjustments not available on competing products (you can lower the CPU voltage down to zero volt, for example). Some of the features clearly targeted to the enthusiast include the support for seven four-pin fans (three of them adjustable through three optional thermal sensors), voltage measuring points, voltage monitoring LEDs, and the ROG Connect feature. As expected, it comes with a series of high-end options, such as four PCI Express x16 slots (working at x16/x1/x16/x4 or x16/x8/x8/x4), six USB 3.0 ports, seven SATA-600 ports, a professional-grade audio quality with optical SPDIF output, Gigabit Ethernet port controlled by a high-end chip, and gold-plated analog audio connectors. Even though the ASUS Crosshair V Formula is mainly targeted to the forthcoming CPUs based on the AMD “Bulldozer” architecture, it is already available on the market, supporting current-generation CPUs.

Overall, the ASUS Crosshair V Formula is one motherboard that deserves to be held on the pedestal it created. Throughout the whole review, it did not falter and not once did I have a problem with the usability. NVIDIA users will definitely be pleased with the inclusion of SLI support and the ability to use the ROG Xpander, giving users the freedom to finally choose their path. I am looking forward to seeing the future AMD AM3+ boards from ASUS and its Thunderbolt add-on for the combo set. With the new features I encountered on the ASUS Crosshair V Formula, I don't think I can ever go back to the older boards I was using. Call me spoiled, but this motherboard just set my expectations high for the new chipset and delivered in a awesome way.

The ASUS Crosshair V Formula 990FX motherboard is set for an MSRP of $239. That's really not bad at all for the amount of features found on the board. Seven SATA 6Gb/s ports, six USB 3.0 ports, and ASUS even went higher than normal on the audio and LAN, choosing the Intel GbE and SupremeFX X-Fi 2. The $239 price tag puts you lower than many enthusiast boards, but a little high for a mainstream offering. However, with all the features the Crosshair V Formula motherboard offers, I think it certainly sits above mainstream.