WEBVTT 00:00:07.680 --> 00:00:16.800 Welcome to my unboxing of the Crosshair 4 Formula. This is a 990X motherboard. 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:20.480 It is an AMD motherboard, hence the Crosshair branding on the Republic of 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:24.960 Gamers. It is compatible with all the latest AM3 CPUs. That one's got thermal 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 00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:32.800 compatible with upcoming AM3 Plus CPUs. 00:00:31.359 --> 00:00:40.440 So, that means we're going to be able to put uh so far undisclosed unreleased 00:00:36.559 --> 00:00:42.559 CPUs into this motherboard with no 00:00:40.440 --> 00:00:46.320 complications. Very, very cool. So, Socket M3 Plus supports 32 nm CPU up to 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 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. 00:00:55.680 --> 00:01:02.000 So add up to 16 dual 16x or 1688. So 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:07.680 that means you got full support for three-way uh graphics technologies using 00:01:05.360 --> 00:01:10.320 uh PCIe 8x native bandwidth for all three which means you're not going to 00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:14.560 see any performance degradation. Supports three-way NVIDIA SLI and 00:01:12.320 --> 00:01:20.640 Crossfire X technology. Okay, we've got support for six Theta 3 6 GB per second 00:01:16.960 --> 00:01:23.360 ports as well as an additional as media 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:28.720 controller with giving us an external SATA 6 Gbit per second. So the ESATA on 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 00:01:31.119 --> 00:01:37.520 had like a super high-speed SSD as an external drive, you could get the most 00:01:34.880 --> 00:01:42.320 out of it. Okay. Intel gigabit LAN. That's kind of interesting on an AMD 00:01:39.680 --> 00:01:46.560 board, but uh yeah, I I support that decision. Intel LAN is very well 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:51.759 regarded. And we have an as media USB3 controller giving us four at the back 00:01:48.399 --> 00:01:54.240 and two at the midboard. Okay, let's go 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 00:01:56.079 --> 00:02:05.840 back there, and that is that yes, this board has full support for NVIDIA SLI 00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:09.280 technology on an AMD chipset. Wow. So, 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:11.280 it supports Crossfire X and SLI. It's 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:15.760 got ROG Connect, which means you can plug into an external computer and you 00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:19.920 can uh control the settings of the board itself. It has Extreme Engine Digi Plus, 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:24.400 which is their combination of analog and digital design elements for the PWM. 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:30.160 It's got game first, which is the Intel Ethernet, which is in theory lower 00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:32.000 latency and faster. Supreme FX X52. 00:02:30.160 --> 00:02:36.560 Okay. And that pretty much does it. Oh, it includes Demon Tools. Interesting. I 00:02:34.239 --> 00:02:41.120 like Demon Tools. Wouldn't mind a free copy of that with my 00:02:38.280 --> 00:02:45.680 motherboard. Okay, let's open this baby up and see what we got for accessories. 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 00:02:48.720 --> 00:02:55.360 to right angle. So, all right angle cables. Crossfire bridge, SLI bridge. 00:02:53.440 --> 00:02:59.200 This still amuses me that there's SLI compatibility on this board. We have Q 00:02:57.519 --> 00:03:03.840 connectors. So that is for the front panel headers as well as one of the 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:09.519 front USB 2 headers. We got some zip ties included. We got an IO shield with 00:03:06.239 --> 00:03:11.599 their puffy shiny backing on it. We have 00:03:09.519 --> 00:03:15.040 a Crosshair 5 formula series user guide as well as a drivers and utilities DVD. 00:03:13.760 --> 00:03:19.360 Download the latest from the ASUS website. We also have their handy cable 00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:22.720 labels. So, when you're bundling cables and routing them all somewhere, you 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 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 00:03:28.959 --> 00:03:35.120 you put on the side of your case. 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 00:03:37.440 --> 00:03:46.000 3-way SLI bridge included. And finally, the ROG Connect cable, which is just a 00:03:42.640 --> 00:03:48.400 straight USB A2A cable. Now, let's have 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 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:56.959 Gamers boards, it is a very high-end 00:03:55.200 --> 00:04:02.599 board. It looks high-end, it feels high-end, and it performs high-end. You 00:03:59.760 --> 00:04:06.560 can take that to the bank. This thing actually looks great. 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 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 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. 00:04:18.160 --> 00:04:27.440 It is uh fully compatible with AM3 Plus CPUs as indicated by the black color. We 00:04:24.320 --> 00:04:28.800 also have the standard AMD mounting 00:04:27.440 --> 00:04:32.639 mechanism around it. Although, you can see it's missing those those pieces of 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:35.600 plastic that bridge it together. No big deal. It uses the same mounting holes, 00:04:34.320 --> 00:04:40.400 the same mounting clips. This is going to be fully compatible with pretty much 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:45.520 any AMD CPU cooler going back several socket generations. We have a really 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:50.080 slick looking PWM cooler here with a heat pipe running down the middle of it. 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 00:04:53.360 --> 00:05:00.000 good. So, you can actually see the chipset down there. So, this is cooling 00:04:56.560 --> 00:05:01.919 both the chipset as well as the PWM. 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 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. 00:05:08.960 --> 00:05:15.520 So, it looks like ASUS is allowing you to deliver a tremendous amount of power 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 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 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 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 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. 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:40.400 So, these are easy install slots, which means there's no clip on the one side. 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 00:05:42.479 --> 00:05:46.800 right. Here we've got our 24 pin connector in its ideal location along 00:05:45.520 --> 00:05:52.080 the right hand edge. And there's the midboard USB 3 connector. So, this is a 00:05:50.320 --> 00:05:56.080 great location for this. I very much prefer this to having it down here 00:05:53.840 --> 00:06:01.280 because this is closer to the front of your case, which is where it should be. 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 00:06:02.880 --> 00:06:09.120 AMD controller which is under this heat sink. And then we have this one running 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 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 00:06:15.840 --> 00:06:24.639 switch, your LEDs, all that good stuff. We've got two USB 2.0 front panel 00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:26.880 connectors. We've got an overse button. 00:06:24.639 --> 00:06:31.360 We have a start and reset switch built in. Love these. These are very handy for 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, 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:40.080 we've also got this, which is good. This is a four pin auxiliary power connector. 00:06:38.880 --> 00:06:43.880 If you're actually going to load four graphics cards or even three into this 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:48.560 board, you should probably be using this. Okay. We have an ROG connect 00:06:46.400 --> 00:06:52.560 switch over here. So, what that is for is for using the external computer to 00:06:50.639 --> 00:06:56.080 change settings on your board. So, you'll just turn that on. You plug into 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 00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:04.800 to the races. Now, this board has six expansion slots total. So, you can see 00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:11.360 the top slot spot is empty. You've got four PCIe 16x slots. So, these are 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 00:07:13.599 --> 00:07:19.680 PCIe 1X slot, one PCI slot in addition 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 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 00:07:27.520 --> 00:07:35.800 in the top right corner. Okay. Then there's one, two down here, three down 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:40.880 here along the bottom edge. So, that's six. Wait, seven so far. And finally, 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 00:07:43.840 --> 00:07:48.400 controllers. Outstanding. All right, let's have a 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 00:07:50.960 --> 00:07:56.879 total of six. One PS2 keyboard mouse combo port, a clear SIMOS button. This 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 00:07:59.039 --> 00:08:05.759 got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven USB 2.0 ports, e SATA, that's 00:08:03.440 --> 00:08:11.680 running SATA 36 Gbit per second, I remind you, optical audio out, more USB 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:14.240 3, the ROG connect, the Intel gigabit 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:18.720 LAN, and then those look goldplated. We got goldplated 7.1 audio out. So, what 00:08:17.360 --> 00:08:22.560 that means is these are going to be more robust, more durable connectors than you 00:08:20.960 --> 00:08:27.440 would see if they were not goldplated. The mounting mechanism for the um 00:08:24.960 --> 00:08:31.360 chipset and PWM heat sinks is outstanding. We've actually got back 00:08:29.120 --> 00:08:36.640 plates on here that are using thermal interface material to uh in all 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:40.240 likelihood interface with thermal heat producing components on the back of the 00:08:38.159 --> 00:08:45.040 board. We've also got a nice robust metal AMD back plate to go along with 00:08:43.039 --> 00:08:48.320 the plastic clips on the front. So, those are going to be very, very solid. 00:08:46.800 --> 00:08:52.080 Thank you for checking out my unboxing and first look at the Crosshair 5 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:57.040 formula. Don't forget to subscribe to Linus Tech Tips for more unboxings, 00:08:53.519 --> 00:08:57.040 reviews, and other computer videos.