Asus Crosshair III Formula motherboard review

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Roughly a year ago we reviewed the Asus Crosshair II Formula, based on the Nvidia nForce 780a SLI chipset. This board provided those who were brave enough to pick up a Phenom processor with a stable platform that sported a number of impressive features such as Triple-SLI. At the time we said the Crosshair II Formula was a well designed motherboard that was let down by a power hungry chipset and sub-par processors.

But AMD managed to turn things around when they released the Phenom II X4 with models clocked at 2.8GHz and 3.0GHz. And now with the Phenom II X4 955 in their arsenal, AMD is finally starting to look like they mean business.

Now after much anticipation AMD has a processor that really deserves a quality high-end motherboard. The new Crosshair III Formula dumps the Nvidia chipset for the popular AMD 790FX and as a result drops SLI support for CrossFireX. This latest Asus motherboard comes stocked with just about everything in traditional ROG (Republic Of Gamers) fashion.

View: Asus Crosshair III Formula motherboard review

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#1 Ender2070 on 29 Jun 2009 - 13:18

it has bits of logo's in it, so you know it's good!

(4 replies) #2 Airlink on 29 Jun 2009 - 14:18

I don't know why any self-respecting gamer would go AM3 over Core i7 except maybe it's a bit cheaper. I mean, let's look at what this board DOESN'T have, shall we?

No SLI support.
No triple-channel DDR3.
No Dual-gigabit LAN on-board.
No third PCIe x16 slot.
Only five SATA ports, not the six you'll find on Core i7 boards.

Need I say more?

#2.1 Conjor on 29 Jun 2009 - 14:37

unless you want to spend redonckulus amounts on a high-end core i7 board you wont fiond those features anyways.

Its funny you say 'no SLI support'. It has Crossfire so its really a matter of opinion which is better. And your freaking crazy if you want 3 PCIe 16 ports. Its stupid to put 3 cards in a mid ranged machine. I find it stupid to do it in a high end machine. Just not worth spending 500 dollars per card X 3.

Not to mention AMD has allways been a 'lower-end' product for mid ranged systems. A mid ranged system doesnt need dual-lan ports. Ive had dual lan ports for years on my PC and I have never used both of them.

Need I refute more?

#2.2 M_Lyons10 on 29 Jun 2009 - 15:24

Yeah, it sounds to me like this board makes sense for anyone but the most high end user...

#2.3 M_Lyons10 on 29 Jun 2009 - 15:26

Oh, and I love the word "redonckulus"... LOL

#2.4 nuuance on 29 Jun 2009 - 17:20

MSI's 790FX-GD70 has four PCI-Ex16 slots, Dual Gigabit LAN and 8 Sata ports.

As for Crosfire only (until the Nvida chipset AM3 boards are out), I can see how this may be percieved as restrictive, but only now with the i7 do we have the choice of multiple ATI/Nvidia graphics cards on the same motherboard. We've always had people who swear by ATI or Nvidia, but did this cause any problems in choosing the right motherboard?

But lest not forget, we know how good the i7 is, but AMD are not unreasonably far behind in real-world applications.

Last edited by nuuance on 29 Jun 2009 - 17:35

(1 reply) #3 eangulus on 29 Jun 2009 - 16:01

I wouldn't call a Core i7 pricing ridiculous.

I built a Core i7 920, Gigabyte Mobo, 6Gb Triple Channel Corsair, 500Gb 7200 RPM and 2x 1TB Samsungs in Raid, Antec Case, Dual Sony DVD-RW and an ATI HD4650 1GB, MS 7000 Keyboard and MS Webcam, 24" Screen for AU$3200.

Yes allot of money for some but all in all, not allot of money for such a fast system. a stupid amount would be building a 12Gb DDR3 Core i7 Extreme Dual BD-RW etc etc.... but hey we can all dream right...

#3.1 iamwhoiam on 29 Jun 2009 - 19:09

Excluding the high prices of 4GB DDR3 sticks, a pimped i7 system isn't that expensive. Before those purchase of 24GB of RAM, I got my system for less then $2600USD.

#4 Kelxin on 30 Jun 2009 - 03:34

You can build a very nice EVGA X58 system for about $1200 bucks, with every part bought from newegg. I really don't see a reason to buy AMD any longer, while for a time they were much cheaper with similar results to Intel, the days of them being the underdog are gone, and Intel reigns king once again. Compare these:

EVGA X58 (lowest model) from newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813188049

Asus Crosshair Formula III from newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...Crosshair%20III

The EVGA board is only 40 bucks more to start with, and has a $20 mail in rebate currently. Personally after having odd things happen with my ASUS boards and waiting 3-5 WEEKS for my board to come back vs calling EVGA on a Thursday at 7 pm, and having a new board at 9 am the next morning, I will never go back. As a computer professional that has now installed over 20 X58 motherboards, and countless 630, 680, 780, and 790i boards from EVGA I won't even think of recommending a client to glance towards ASUS's products again.

Of course, my personal recommendation to my clients is the X58 A1 motherboard, its only $60 more than the one above, has a ton of extra features, and a lifetime warranty upon registration.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813188039

Last edited by Kelxin on 30 Jun 2009 - 03:39

#5 abysal on 30 Jun 2009 - 12:58

Yep eVGA rock with their product stability and customer service. I had my GTX 295 RMA'ed and the new card was in my hands in a few days.

#6 EVANK on 30 Jun 2009 - 15:55

I've had anough of ASUX so on my next build I'm moving over to another motherboard manufacturer, not sure who at the moment, but will not be bothering with another ASUX motherboard. Been using them for years but recently I have bought two boards and they have both experienced the same problem.

I might move back to GIGABYTE they seem to be making really good boards these days and have just released an compatible motherboard for Windows 7.

(2 replies) #7 Max Packer on 30 Jun 2009 - 22:23

If you don't care about having the most gigadicks of processing power to brag about on the internet, AMD chips are plenty fast for anyone except idiots that actually care about pointless benchmark scores.

#7.1 m.keeley on 01 Jul 2009 - 23:09

Some people actually need i7 power and more. For example, I wouldn't want to do video editting on any AMD system if I had the choice.

Neither do I see the point in building a new system that only matches Intel's last gen CPU's if I wanted it to last.

#7.2 Max Packer on 04 Jul 2009 - 19:11

Thats great if you need that. Most people don't.

And it's not like you can't do video editing on AMD systems, mine does video editing just fine, as fast as an i7? of course not, but it's no slouch either.
Besides most professional video editors are using macs, not custom built PC's.

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