1 00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:16,800 Welcome to my unboxing of the Crosshair 4 Formula. This is a 990X motherboard. 2 00:00:14,400 --> 00:00:20,480 It is an AMD motherboard, hence the Crosshair branding on the Republic of 3 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:24,960 Gamers. It is compatible with all the latest AM3 CPUs. That one's got thermal 4 00:00:23,039 --> 00:00:31,359 compound all over it, so not going to show that off too much. but it is also 5 00:00:27,519 --> 00:00:32,800 compatible with upcoming AM3 Plus CPUs. 6 00:00:31,359 --> 00:00:40,440 So, that means we're going to be able to put uh so far undisclosed unreleased 7 00:00:36,559 --> 00:00:42,559 CPUs into this motherboard with no 8 00:00:40,440 --> 00:00:46,320 complications. Very, very cool. So, Socket M3 Plus supports 32 nm CPU up to 9 00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:51,160 eight cores. Okay, well, they're going to go ahead and say it then. Um, it's 10 00:00:48,640 --> 00:01:00,079 cool and quiet up to 140 watt CPU support. Here we go. 3 PCI E 2.06 Nex. 11 00:00:55,680 --> 00:01:02,000 So add up to 16 dual 16x or 1688. So 12 00:01:00,079 --> 00:01:07,680 that means you got full support for three-way uh graphics technologies using 13 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:10,320 uh PCIe 8x native bandwidth for all three which means you're not going to 14 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:14,560 see any performance degradation. Supports three-way NVIDIA SLI and 15 00:01:12,320 --> 00:01:20,640 Crossfire X technology. Okay, we've got support for six Theta 3 6 GB per second 16 00:01:16,960 --> 00:01:23,360 ports as well as an additional as media 17 00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:28,720 controller with giving us an external SATA 6 Gbit per second. So the ESATA on 18 00:01:25,759 --> 00:01:33,280 this board is actually SATA 3 6 GB per second. That's kind of cool. So if you 19 00:01:31,119 --> 00:01:37,520 had like a super high-speed SSD as an external drive, you could get the most 20 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:42,320 out of it. Okay. Intel gigabit LAN. That's kind of interesting on an AMD 21 00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:46,560 board, but uh yeah, I I support that decision. Intel LAN is very well 22 00:01:43,920 --> 00:01:51,759 regarded. And we have an as media USB3 controller giving us four at the back 23 00:01:48,399 --> 00:01:54,240 and two at the midboard. Okay, let's go 24 00:01:51,759 --> 00:01:58,320 ahead and get this guy opened up. And I guess I spoiled my big surprise on the 25 00:01:56,079 --> 00:02:05,840 back there, and that is that yes, this board has full support for NVIDIA SLI 26 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:09,280 technology on an AMD chipset. Wow. So, 27 00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:11,280 it supports Crossfire X and SLI. It's 28 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:15,760 got ROG Connect, which means you can plug into an external computer and you 29 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:19,920 can uh control the settings of the board itself. It has Extreme Engine Digi Plus, 30 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:24,400 which is their combination of analog and digital design elements for the PWM. 31 00:02:22,319 --> 00:02:30,160 It's got game first, which is the Intel Ethernet, which is in theory lower 32 00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:32,000 latency and faster. Supreme FX X52. 33 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:36,560 Okay. And that pretty much does it. Oh, it includes Demon Tools. Interesting. I 34 00:02:34,239 --> 00:02:41,120 like Demon Tools. Wouldn't mind a free copy of that with my 35 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:45,680 motherboard. Okay, let's open this baby up and see what we got for accessories. 36 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:50,560 So, we have six SATA 36 GB per second cables. That's uh they are all straight 37 00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:55,360 to right angle. So, all right angle cables. Crossfire bridge, SLI bridge. 38 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:59,200 This still amuses me that there's SLI compatibility on this board. We have Q 39 00:02:57,519 --> 00:03:03,840 connectors. So that is for the front panel headers as well as one of the 40 00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:09,519 front USB 2 headers. We got some zip ties included. We got an IO shield with 41 00:03:06,239 --> 00:03:11,599 their puffy shiny backing on it. We have 42 00:03:09,519 --> 00:03:15,040 a Crosshair 5 formula series user guide as well as a drivers and utilities DVD. 43 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:19,360 Download the latest from the ASUS website. We also have their handy cable 44 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:22,720 labels. So, when you're bundling cables and routing them all somewhere, you 45 00:03:20,959 --> 00:03:25,920 won't lose track of which is which when you're plugging them into your drive. We 46 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:32,440 got a quick start guide. We have one of those huge ROG stickers that you I guess 47 00:03:28,959 --> 00:03:35,120 you put on the side of your case. 48 00:03:32,440 --> 00:03:40,319 Um, yeah, I'm not not real sold on the ROG sticker. It's all good. We got a 49 00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:46,000 3-way SLI bridge included. And finally, the ROG Connect cable, which is just a 50 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:48,400 straight USB A2A cable. Now, let's have 51 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:55,200 a look at the board itself. So, this is, as with all of ASUS's ROG, Republic of 52 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:56,959 Gamers boards, it is a very high-end 53 00:03:55,200 --> 00:04:02,599 board. It looks high-end, it feels high-end, and it performs high-end. You 54 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:06,560 can take that to the bank. This thing actually looks great. 55 00:04:04,879 --> 00:04:10,319 This is one of the better looking ROG boards that I have uh that I have ever 56 00:04:08,720 --> 00:04:15,120 seen. So, why don't we start with the CPU socket area? So, here you can see we 57 00:04:12,959 --> 00:04:21,120 have a black socket. and they're calling it AM3B. So, this is an AM3 Plus socket. 58 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:27,440 It is uh fully compatible with AM3 Plus CPUs as indicated by the black color. We 59 00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:28,800 also have the standard AMD mounting 60 00:04:27,440 --> 00:04:32,639 mechanism around it. Although, you can see it's missing those those pieces of 61 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:35,600 plastic that bridge it together. No big deal. It uses the same mounting holes, 62 00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:40,400 the same mounting clips. This is going to be fully compatible with pretty much 63 00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:45,520 any AMD CPU cooler going back several socket generations. We have a really 64 00:04:43,120 --> 00:04:50,080 slick looking PWM cooler here with a heat pipe running down the middle of it. 65 00:04:47,520 --> 00:04:54,560 So, it's got a kind of a matte black and anodized red finish to it. Looks really 66 00:04:53,360 --> 00:05:00,000 good. So, you can actually see the chipset down there. So, this is cooling 67 00:04:56,560 --> 00:05:01,919 both the chipset as well as the PWM. 68 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:06,320 Now, this I haven't seen yet. So, I have an 8 pin CPU power connector in its 69 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:11,360 ideal location on the top left edge of the board. And I also have a four pin. 70 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:15,520 So, it looks like ASUS is allowing you to deliver a tremendous amount of power 71 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:20,400 to the CPU socket, but they have not opted to go with dual 8 pins, which we 72 00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:24,080 have seen on some high-end boards in the past. So, there's probably a reason for 73 00:05:22,479 --> 00:05:28,320 it, but there you go. So, you've got one 8 pin and one four pin CPU power 74 00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:31,600 connector. Okay, I'm going to do all the fan headers later cuz there seems to be 75 00:05:29,840 --> 00:05:37,280 a ton of them. We've got a go button. We've got four dual channel DDR3 slots. 76 00:05:35,199 --> 00:05:40,400 So, these are easy install slots, which means there's no clip on the one side. 77 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:44,000 You slide the module in like this. Push it down, clip it in, just like that. All 78 00:05:42,479 --> 00:05:46,800 right. Here we've got our 24 pin connector in its ideal location along 79 00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:52,080 the right hand edge. And there's the midboard USB 3 connector. So, this is a 80 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:56,080 great location for this. I very much prefer this to having it down here 81 00:05:53,840 --> 00:06:01,280 because this is closer to the front of your case, which is where it should be. 82 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:04,800 All right. We have six SATA 3 6 Gbit per second ports that are running off of the 83 00:06:02,880 --> 00:06:09,120 AMD controller which is under this heat sink. And then we have this one running 84 00:06:07,039 --> 00:06:13,600 off of a custom chip. So that's a third party chip. I would use all of these 85 00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:18,160 before I go and use this one. Here's our front panel connectors. So your uh power 86 00:06:15,840 --> 00:06:24,639 switch, your LEDs, all that good stuff. We've got two USB 2.0 front panel 87 00:06:21,120 --> 00:06:26,880 connectors. We've got an overse button. 88 00:06:24,639 --> 00:06:31,360 We have a start and reset switch built in. Love these. These are very handy for 89 00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:36,880 me. And then we have front panel audio. Here's the X5 Supreme FX. And moving up, 90 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:40,080 we've also got this, which is good. This is a four pin auxiliary power connector. 91 00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:43,880 If you're actually going to load four graphics cards or even three into this 92 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:48,560 board, you should probably be using this. Okay. We have an ROG connect 93 00:06:46,400 --> 00:06:52,560 switch over here. So, what that is for is for using the external computer to 94 00:06:50,639 --> 00:06:56,080 change settings on your board. So, you'll just turn that on. You plug into 95 00:06:54,240 --> 00:07:00,639 the ROG Connect port right there. This is not a normal USB port. And it's off 96 00:06:58,560 --> 00:07:04,800 to the races. Now, this board has six expansion slots total. So, you can see 97 00:07:02,240 --> 00:07:11,360 the top slot spot is empty. You've got four PCIe 16x slots. So, these are 98 00:07:08,400 --> 00:07:17,440 capable of running it up to 16 8x8x for 3-way SLI or Crossfire. You have one 99 00:07:13,599 --> 00:07:19,680 PCIe 1X slot, one PCI slot in addition 100 00:07:17,440 --> 00:07:22,800 to those. And I did promise to tell you guys about all of the four pin fan 101 00:07:21,440 --> 00:07:29,680 headers on this board. There's a ton of them. Okay. So, there's 1 2 3 4 up here 102 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:35,800 in the top right corner. Okay. Then there's one, two down here, three down 103 00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:40,880 here along the bottom edge. So, that's six. Wait, seven so far. And finally, 104 00:07:39,360 --> 00:07:45,319 one at the back here for your chassis fan. So, that's eight four pin PWM fan 105 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:48,400 controllers. Outstanding. All right, let's have a 106 00:07:47,039 --> 00:07:53,360 look at the IO shield. At the back, we got four USB 3.0 ports. So, that is a 107 00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:56,879 total of six. One PS2 keyboard mouse combo port, a clear SIMOS button. This 108 00:07:55,520 --> 00:08:00,400 is the best place in the world for a clear SIMOS button. Big fan. Okay, we've 109 00:07:59,039 --> 00:08:05,759 got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven USB 2.0 ports, e SATA, that's 110 00:08:03,440 --> 00:08:11,680 running SATA 36 Gbit per second, I remind you, optical audio out, more USB 111 00:08:08,560 --> 00:08:14,240 3, the ROG connect, the Intel gigabit 112 00:08:11,680 --> 00:08:18,720 LAN, and then those look goldplated. We got goldplated 7.1 audio out. So, what 113 00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:22,560 that means is these are going to be more robust, more durable connectors than you 114 00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:27,440 would see if they were not goldplated. The mounting mechanism for the um 115 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:31,360 chipset and PWM heat sinks is outstanding. We've actually got back 116 00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:36,640 plates on here that are using thermal interface material to uh in all 117 00:08:33,919 --> 00:08:40,240 likelihood interface with thermal heat producing components on the back of the 118 00:08:38,159 --> 00:08:45,040 board. We've also got a nice robust metal AMD back plate to go along with 119 00:08:43,039 --> 00:08:48,320 the plastic clips on the front. So, those are going to be very, very solid. 120 00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:52,080 Thank you for checking out my unboxing and first look at the Crosshair 5 121 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:57,040 formula. Don't forget to subscribe to Linus Tech Tips for more unboxings, 122 00:08:53,519 --> 00:08:57,040 reviews, and other computer videos.