1 00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:08,480 Yes, many requests for this one. Many, many requests. This is the Crosshair 4 2 00:00:06,160 --> 00:00:12,559 Extreme and it contains all of the latest technologies. In fact, some that 3 00:00:10,960 --> 00:00:19,439 have been around for a while but just took well a lot of months to actually be 4 00:00:16,640 --> 00:00:26,080 implemented on anything. This has the Hydrolologics engine by Lucid. So what 5 00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:29,920 that means is that you have support for 6 00:00:26,080 --> 00:00:33,840 not only ATI Crossfire X but also 7 00:00:29,920 --> 00:00:36,800 multi-GPU support for mix and match here 8 00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:41,840 up here. So cross links 3 technology mix and match vendors and cards and whatever 9 00:00:40,239 --> 00:00:45,840 else you could possibly want to mix and match for graphics cards. So experience 10 00:00:44,239 --> 00:00:49,440 true graphics freedom. You can run two Radeon cards. You can run two GeForce 11 00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:54,160 cards. You can run a GeForce and a Radeon. You can run mismatched GeForce 12 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:58,160 cards or match GeForce cards. It doesn't matter. It's not an SLI ready 13 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:04,400 motherboard. Please note the absence of an SLI logo. This is an AMD board with 14 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:07,280 an AMD 890 FX chipset, but you can still 15 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:13,040 run two GeForce cards thanks to the Hydrolologics chipset right there from 16 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:16,799 Lucid. Okay, it's a Republic of Gamers board, so you've got ROG connect, so you 17 00:01:15,119 --> 00:01:21,439 can plug in another computer and you can make any changes to the system settings 18 00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:24,880 that you could want to. It has USB BIOS flashback. That would be really nice, 19 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:29,119 actually. That's a cool feature. So, you just throw a USB with the BIOS on it, 20 00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:34,320 you plug it into the back, and you boot up and it restores it. Very cool. You've 21 00:01:31,439 --> 00:01:37,520 got uh Oh, yeah. I believe that one is so that you can use Bluetooth to 22 00:01:35,759 --> 00:01:43,280 overclock through your phone or something like that. So, that's a pretty neat feature if you're into that. And 3D 23 00:01:41,439 --> 00:01:46,399 Mark Vantage Advanced Edition is included. Let's have a look at the back 24 00:01:45,119 --> 00:01:52,720 of the box and see what they have to say. It's all of the exact same stuff. 25 00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:53,840 Wow. Okay. Five PCIe 16X slots. Now, 26 00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:58,240 we're going to have to have a look at the manual for a change. I know. I don't 27 00:01:56,479 --> 00:02:01,360 think I've ever actually shown you the manual for a motherboard during an 28 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:08,080 unboxing, but we're going to have to do that to find out exactly how the 29 00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:11,039 Hydrolologics engine splits up those PCI 30 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:16,480 Express lanes because it actually acts as um as an intermediary between the 31 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:20,560 chipset and the graphics cards and that's how it performs its magic where 32 00:02:18,319 --> 00:02:23,280 it takes two mismatched cards and and takes the performance of them and adds 33 00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:30,200 them together and makes more performance. So, let's have a look at the accessories. First, we have 34 00:02:30,560 --> 00:02:37,840 What on earth is this? We'll be back in a moment. This is a Bluetooth riser 35 00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:42,640 card. I got it figured out. We have a USB cable for ROG Connect. We've got an 36 00:02:40,640 --> 00:02:49,920 IO shield, which is black and looks cool. We have some temperature probes. 37 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:52,239 Very nice. We have some cable ties. We 38 00:02:49,920 --> 00:02:57,680 have a Q connectors. We have a Crossfire bridge. 39 00:02:54,879 --> 00:03:00,720 We have voltage readout little plugs and you plug those into the 40 00:02:59,440 --> 00:03:08,640 board and then you plug your multimeter into there and you can read the voltages of a bunch of various aspects of the 41 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:12,480 board. We have a FireWire USB IO PCI 42 00:03:08,640 --> 00:03:14,959 back plate. We have one, two, three bags 43 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:18,959 of two. So that's a total of six SATA 3 cables. And then we have two SATA 2 44 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:24,319 cables. Please note those cables are identical other than the color. 45 00:03:21,599 --> 00:03:27,599 We have a Crosshair for four extreme motherboard DVD which you should throw 46 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:31,200 away and download the latest from the ASUS website. And we have labels for 47 00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:35,040 your SATA cables as well as the manual. So give me a moment. I'm going to look 48 00:03:32,239 --> 00:03:40,480 this up and I'll be as you can see this is a very complicated chart. And hold 49 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:44,560 on, cameraman, don't move the camera. Uh look at this paragraph so that if people 50 00:03:42,799 --> 00:03:48,480 want to, they can freeze the video and read it. Don't move. Don't move. Don't 51 00:03:46,799 --> 00:03:52,799 zoom. Steady hands. Steady hands, cameraman. There you go. Okay. So, 52 00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:59,200 basically what happens is if you want to run Crossfire, just native Crossfire, 53 00:03:55,519 --> 00:04:02,640 you use PCIe slots one and three. Okay. 54 00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:05,439 If you run want to run Lucid Hydra, 55 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:11,120 okay, so that's uh ATI, NVIDIA, or X, which is mixed multiGPU mode, then you 56 00:04:08,959 --> 00:04:15,760 can use any one of these combinations here. Crossfire X will also work with 57 00:04:13,599 --> 00:04:18,479 these com with these combinations. But if you want to run it natively, it's 58 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:23,280 here. Depending where you want to install your theoretical RAID card or 59 00:04:20,479 --> 00:04:28,800 other PCIe peripheral, you can get varying um 60 00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:35,440 uh widths for the PCIe lanes. So you can get up to 16x, 16x, 16x for triple VGA 61 00:04:33,199 --> 00:04:40,000 mode. And then if you want to run quad VGA, you'll have to settle for 16, 16, 62 00:04:37,759 --> 00:04:43,680 8, and 8. So there you have it. Let's keep going with this unboxing 63 00:04:42,400 --> 00:04:50,160 and we'll have a look at the board itself. U that is really like 64 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:53,840 yeah I don't know it throws a lot of uh it looks like it probably threw a lot of 65 00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:59,280 complications into the engineering process. I mean when you're figuring out 66 00:04:55,919 --> 00:05:01,280 how to how to optimize you know which 67 00:04:59,280 --> 00:05:07,280 ones are running off the bridge chip and which ones are running natively off the 68 00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:09,280 chipset and like all this stuff. It's um 69 00:05:07,280 --> 00:05:13,680 a miracle they managed to make a board like this at all actually 70 00:05:11,759 --> 00:05:18,400 and a high-end one no less. Look at that. Okay, so that is a very very nice 71 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:21,840 looking board. So why don't we start with the general layout. The first thing 72 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:25,440 we're going to find on this board is a CPU socket. That's an AM3 socket 73 00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:31,520 compatible with the latest quad core and six core CPUs from AMD. Up here in the 74 00:05:29,199 --> 00:05:36,800 top left, you will find an 8pin CPU power connector as well as a very 75 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:40,000 elaborate looking PWM and chipset cooling solution. So you can see there's 76 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:46,080 a heat pipe. Actually, I'm going to get you to get a slightly different angle on this. First of all, there's fins down 77 00:05:43,759 --> 00:05:50,800 here. And then there's thicker fins up here. Okay? So, you can see the heat 78 00:05:47,840 --> 00:05:57,120 pipe is running all the way through here, down this way, under here, over 79 00:05:54,880 --> 00:06:01,840 here, and then down to the south bridge. And that is actually where the 80 00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:04,479 hydrolologics chip resides if I recall 81 00:06:01,840 --> 00:06:10,479 correctly. Let me have a look. I believe it is. Oh, it could also be here. 82 00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:14,000 Hm. This could be trouble. Well, not sure exactly where it is. My guess would 83 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:18,240 be here though. Okay. And you can actually see there is a cooling fan 84 00:06:15,680 --> 00:06:23,199 inside here as well and it is plugged in right there. So that is probably one of 85 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:26,800 the most complicated cooling solutions I've seen on an ASUS board in a very 86 00:06:24,800 --> 00:06:31,199 long time. Uh because it is an AM3 socket board. You've got support for for 87 00:06:28,479 --> 00:06:35,680 dual channel DDR3 memory up to 16 gigs. You've got onboard hey look at that core 88 00:06:33,759 --> 00:06:39,440 unlocker button. That makes it easy, doesn't it? Then you've got start, 89 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:43,120 reset, as well as switches for all the PCI 90 00:06:41,600 --> 00:06:48,000 Express slots. You know what? This can be a lifesaver if you have water cooling. If you're using full cover 91 00:06:45,759 --> 00:06:52,400 blocks, it's almost impossible to remove one card and not another one. So, if 92 00:06:49,759 --> 00:06:56,000 you're trying to um to troubleshoot like a dead card or anything like that, this 93 00:06:54,160 --> 00:07:00,160 can like seriously it's worth its weight in gold. You've got probit, which is 94 00:06:58,479 --> 00:07:03,680 where you can find out the voltages from a bunch of different aspects of the 95 00:07:02,319 --> 00:07:09,520 board. So, you've got a ground here. We've got CPU, PLL, CPU, RAM, 96 00:07:06,639 --> 00:07:12,720 Northbridge. Uh, yeah, a bunch of other stuff, too. 97 00:07:10,720 --> 00:07:17,440 That's great. Uh, you got a go button. I believe that's actually the memo K 98 00:07:14,639 --> 00:07:21,280 button. Okay. And then we've got our 24 pin power along the right hand edge of 99 00:07:18,960 --> 00:07:24,880 the board, exactly where it belongs. Then we have SATA, and they're 100 00:07:23,199 --> 00:07:31,759 specifically labeling these as optical drive. I guess that's because they're SATA 2, cuz the other six ports are 101 00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:32,960 actually SATA 3 6 GB per second ports. 102 00:07:31,759 --> 00:07:38,319 All right, let's keep going down. You can see we've got dual BIOS chips here 103 00:07:35,039 --> 00:07:39,840 as well as a SIMOS clear button. Then we 104 00:07:38,319 --> 00:07:44,080 have our front panel connectors, a couple 105 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:49,919 H couple of USB headers presumably. Okay, 106 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:51,440 so 9 10 7 8. 107 00:07:49,919 --> 00:07:55,680 Okay. And then I'm not sure what the others are. Okay, that's fine. All four 108 00:07:54,080 --> 00:08:00,800 pin fan connectors on this particular board and there are quite a few of them. 109 00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:05,039 And then we've got a couple of auxiliary Molex connectors. So there's one here, 110 00:08:03,280 --> 00:08:12,160 one up here over by that chipset. So that means if you're loading this up with five GPUs. I mean remember this 111 00:08:09,759 --> 00:08:16,479 this plug here was not designed to provide that much power through the 112 00:08:14,639 --> 00:08:20,720 slots on the motherboard. So ASUS has gone ahead and augmented it with a 113 00:08:18,479 --> 00:08:24,160 couple of additional Molex plugs. Now if you're only running one or two cards, 114 00:08:22,319 --> 00:08:27,599 it's probably fine not to plug these in. But if you are loading it up with five 115 00:08:25,520 --> 00:08:31,120 high power cards, definitely plug those in to your power supply. Let's go around 116 00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:36,399 and have a look at the back of the board on the IO panel. So, we have a PS2 port, 117 00:08:34,320 --> 00:08:39,519 which I personally still like to see just because sometimes USB keyboards can 118 00:08:38,479 --> 00:08:45,680 be a little bit finicky when you're running an unstable overclock. We've got 119 00:08:41,680 --> 00:08:48,480 1 2 3 4 5 six USB 2.0 ports, a SIMOS 120 00:08:45,680 --> 00:08:53,519 clear, optical audio out that looks like a powered ESATA port as well as a 121 00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:56,800 regular ESATA port. We have two USB 3.0 122 00:08:53,519 --> 00:09:00,959 ports, gigabit Ethernet, ROG connect, 123 00:08:56,800 --> 00:09:02,640 and 7.1 analog audio out. Thank you. Oh, 124 00:09:00,959 --> 00:09:07,440 no, no, not thank you. Thank you. I mean, thank you. But also, check this 125 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:12,160 out. So, we got our one, two, three. These are our normal ATX mounting holes. 126 00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:17,200 But wait, there's more. This is not an EATX board, but because an EATX board 127 00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:23,040 would probably be about here, and it would have one more screw hole, but it is actually wider than an ATX board. So 128 00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:26,880 bear that in mind. If your case is not a little bit wider, it's not going to fit 129 00:09:25,519 --> 00:09:31,200 this motherboard. Thank you for checking out this unboxing and first look. And 130 00:09:28,880 --> 00:09:36,720 don't forget to subscribe to Linus Tech Tips for more cool stuff like this. The 131 00:09:34,320 --> 00:09:41,200 Lucid chip is here. Cameraman and I work together. This is the south bridge. This 132 00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:45,120 is the Lucid Hydraologics chip. And this is the north bridge. Thank you for 133 00:09:42,640 --> 00:09:45,120 watching.