ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z Pro Reviews

The board is made keeping the newer AM3+ processors in mind such as FX-8350. With the exception of 3DMark and PCMark benchmarks, rest would pretty much performance in a same way. Still, you need to know that such boards like this would appeal more to LN2 extreme overclockers who wants to set a good record with one of the FX series processors and/or GPU(s). Asus should put Intel Gigabyte Ethernet on Pro/Deluxe/Sabertooth Series boards. For those who are sending large data files across LAN, that would be more appreciated by such users wouldn’t need an ROG board. And Hold on: Just because I said it would appeal more to LN2 Extreme overclockers, doesn’t mean it applies only to those who use LN2 to overclock. You’re getting a lot of setting options to tweak and fine tune your board. If you’re an enthusiast and ready to spend time on this board and get the most out of it, then its worth. The value of such boards always depends on the end user and his ability to use the board properly. But you’re getting a LOT of I/O connectivity, 8x SATA 6Gb/s ports, 6x USB 3.0 ports in total and LN2 mode. Its expensive for most, but its worth it for few considering that this motherboard is making lot of records in HWBOT.

I have had the luxury of owning the ASUS Crosshair V Formula Z, as well as most of the competitions flagships in the 990FX flavor and after putting the screws to all of them, I really find it difficult to not consider the Formula Z the Flagship for the entire chipset by any number of metrics. As by now you have seen time and time again, the real difference amongst motherboards of the same chipset is the feature set. What is so very impressive about the motherboards leaving the dock at ASUS is the completeness of the package. From the drool over good looks of the true black multilayer PCB, with the innovative and very stylish black and red heatsinks, with a hidden ROG insignia tucked away to the glowing red line of the EMI 'no fly zone' that provides noise free HD hi-fi. You are hard pressed to find a better looking board in the AM3+ range of products. The Crosshair V Formula Z is simply one of those boards that brought about the transparent left side.

AMD enthusiasts will want to take a long, hard look at this board. It offers a compelling package for the price. The issue is again the seeming dead end socket that it embraces. Vishera looks about as good as it will get. I am not entirely certain that there will be a significant refresh of Vishera parts (eg. FX-8450 or the like). Still, it is hard to ignore this product.

The ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z is an incredibly feature rich motherboard for the price. It is well built and well designed. It has more overclocking BIOS options than you will probably ever need and possibly more than you would ever want. For the diehard AMD overclocker, the Crosshair V Formula-Z should be the perfect motherboard. Had we stellar overclocking results with our FX-8350 sample the motherboard would have likely rated a Gold award, but we have just not seen that first hand.

AMD may not be as efficient as Intel processors but at the end of theday they have proven to be more than worthy at gaming and everyday computing or at least doing what most of us do daily. After using the FX-8150 & FX-8350 for a little while we would see no reason why any gamer looking for a decent build on a budget couldnt snag one up and have a very potent machine. The Crosshair V Formula-Z is a great board as we have seen from so many ROG boards before it. ASUS truly has taken what they have learned from other platforms and added the best of the best including board level tuning to give this board a real edge both in gaming and in the overclocking side of things. Items such as the T-Topology memory design, SupremeFX III Audio, Special Windows 8 features and overall BIOS/UEFI enhancements and Extreme Engine DIGI+ II components all culminate to make an amazing board that is more than capable of making any AMD gaming rig really spring to life.