ASUS Crosshair III Formula - The Perfect Motherboard (unboxing)

This AM3, 790FX motherboard, to me, is the perfect motherboard. I like neutrality and can't stand products that do more than they're supposed to. The CH3F fits my requirements: no extra features (Xpress Recovery, Express Gate...), no bling-bling hardware (OC button, backup SATA ports, glued-on SATA6, tacked-on USB3, low-quality redundant integrated audio chipset...), no color scheme imposed (plain dark brown PCB, discrete blue 16x PCI-E slots).

It's aging, with the 890FX having taken over as implemented in boards like the two Crosshair IV, but that plays to its advantage: it's now decently priced (160.5€ at the time of writing), all the while being up-to-date performance- and connectivity-wise, being on par with the 890FX on both levels (except for SATA6 brought by the SB850) as it's compatible with the same processors, has the same amount of PCI-E lanes, supports the same RAID modes, has all 8 PWM fan headers and neat voltage and activity LEDs.

Also, just like for the CH4F, there exists a very nice EK full-cover waterblock for it (for about 95€), and it gets rid of the glowing ROG logo near the northbridge.

I know ASUS is cramming more and more features into their MBs to get / keep ahead of the competition, but in my eyes that has just the opposite effect. Sometimes, less is more. They should just stick to implementing the hardware around the features provided by AMD's chipsets, keeping the noise out. They achieved that with the CH3F, went a little bit off tracks with the CH4s (useless buttons, funky heatsinks, slow NEC USB3, integrated audio) but hopefully they will have come back to reason by the time Bulldozer is released.

In a nutshell, the CH3F is a bloat-free CH4F, left with just the juicy parts. It's the motherboard of choice for people like me looking for a quality, sleek, watercooled AM3 motherboard.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• asus
• crosshair iii
• formula
• crosshair iv
• am3
• 790fx
• 890fx
• usb3
• sata6
• waterblock
• watercooling
• perfect