ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Formula review

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The motherboard follows a standard ATX form factor 12 inch x 9.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm ). The motherboard is located in the ROG high-end range of the Ryzen Gen3 desktop processor product stack. 

 

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Size ATX
Chipset AMD 570
Memory 4 x DDR4 up to 4800 (OC with Zen2) Original Ryzen up to 3200 MHz
Multi-GPU CrossFireX, SLI
Expansion

3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ Processors
2 x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8)
2nd Gen AMD Ryzen™ Processors
2 x PCIe 3.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8)
2nd and 1st Gen AMD Ryzen™ with Radeon™ Vega Graphics Processors
1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 (x8 mode)
AMD X570 chipset
1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x4 mode)
1 x PCIe 4.0 x1

Storage 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ Processors :
1 x M.2_1 socket 3, with M Key, Type 2242/2260/2280 (PCIE 4.0 x4 and SATA modes) storage devices support
2nd Gen AMD Ryzen™/2nd and 1st Gen AMD Ryzen™ with Radeon™ Vega Graphics Processors :
1 x M.2_1 socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x 4 mode)
AMD X570 chipset :
1 x M.2_2 socket 3, with M Key, Type 2242/2260/2280/22110(PCIE 4.0 x4 and SATA modes) storage devices support
8 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s),
Support Raid 0, 1, 10
Networking Intel I211-AT
Aquantia AQC111C 5G LAN
Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200
2 x 2 Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) with MU-MIMO supports dual-band 2.4/5GHz
Audio SupremeFX S1220
USB 3rd Gen AMD RyzenTM Processors :
4 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 port(s) (4 at back panel, red, Type-A)
2nd Gen AMD RyzenTM/2nd and 1st Gen AMD Ryzen™ with Radeon™ Vega Graphics Processors :
4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 port(s) (4 at back panel, red, Type-A)
AMD X570 chipset :
1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 front panel connector port(s)
AMD X570 chipset :
4 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 port(s) (3 at back panel, red, Type-A, 1 x Type-C)
AMD X570 chipset :
8 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 port(s) (4 at back panel, blue, 4 at mid-board)
AMD X570 chipset :
4 x USB 2.0 port(s)

With the 570X board ASUS outs a high-end class product, it has plentiful enough features to keep you busy for a while. Ryzen has 24 of them yet 4 are being used to interface with the chipset. Then depending on the chipset used it adds gen 4.0 PCIe lanes through the chipset. But yes, the Ryzen processor has 16 PCIe Gen 4.0  lanes available just for for your graphics solution. The HERO has been fitted with AURA LED RGB activity available, all were kept subtle and can be configured on/off/animated and RGB colored. The two primary graphics slots have metal shielding.

 

  

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The motherboard includes all of the standardized X570 chipset options with two full-speed PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 SSD slots, it is SLI and Crossfire compatible as well, one x16 slot (configured as Gen 4 x16 on the first slot, if a second slot is used you'll split the lanes in Gen 4 x8).  The board follows the standard ATX Form Factor.

 

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The I/O back panel reveals USB 3.2 ports; 1 front, 1 Type-C, 8 Type-A. The audio unit has special noise-reducing capacitors and shielding on top of that Realtek chip (rebadged as ROG SupremeFX 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC S1220). You will spot one 10/100/1000 Mbit Ethernet jack, one Aquantia 10/100/1000/2500/5000 Mbit Ethernet jack. Lacking is the PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port. Included are optical S/PDIF out port and five gold-plated audio jacks. Two WIFI antennas can be spotted for AX wifi and Bluetooth. BTW I am loving the integrated backplate IO cover. BTW2, WIFI antennas are included.

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The board comes with one 8-pin and one 4-pin power connectors, don't worry you can use just a single 8-pin. There's also all kinds of LED enablement on (and under) the board as well as RGB LED strip connectors you can configure with ASUS software. The board has 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots which can be arranged in these slot configurations with graphics cards:

  • 1-way mode - x16 / x0 / x1
  • 2-way mode - x8 / x8 / x1
  • 3-way mode - x8 / x8 / x1

As you can see, these are PCI Express Gen 4.0 configurations, that's plenty for regular graphics card setups up-to 2-way SLI/Crossfire. The motherboard comes with an 8-pin and extra 6-pin power connector. You'll get four DIMM slots that can be used for up-to 128GB of dual-channel memory on Ryzen 3000. With regular Ryzen procs, up-to 3200 MHz is supported in OC mode, with the new Ryzen 3000 models 4800 MHz, however something at 3200 to 3600 we recommend. Please do check compatible memory and thus the QVL (Qualified Vendors Lists).


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The board has been fitted with an EK liquid cooling block over the VRM area. Passively it already cools great. But you could hook it up into your own custom loop. BTW Fittings are supplied in the bundle. 

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