10-02-201112:47 PM - last edited on 03-05-202407:56 PM by ROGBot
Hi, this is my "average joe" review of the Crosshair V Formula, which I was able to test a few weeks ago. The board was used in gaming, folding, photo and video editing, and some light overclocking, since these are the things I use my pc for. The test system consisted of these components:
AMD Phenom II 1090T Corsair H50 ASUS Crosshair V Formula 4GB Kingston 1600Mhz Hyperx Corsair HX1050 2x ASUS GTX570, 2x XFX HD5850 3x Acer 120hz 1920x1080 display
Starting with the bios, having a UEFI interface is really nice, and although I think its easier just to use the keyboard, having the option to use the mouse is cool. The main advantage I saw was the option to take a screenshot of the settings. Overclocking felt simple with the CHV, although I only took it up to 3.8 Ghz. First I tried the auto OC Tuner, which took the chip to about 3.7Ghz. After that I went back into the EUFI and manually set the base clock to 200 and the multiplier to 19, giving me a 3.8. The system folded for an hour or so and became unstable, so I manually set the voltage to 1.4. After setting the voltage, the system was stable for the rest of the test period. I was able to achieve 40K PPD folding with two GTX570s and the 1090T CPU. With just the CPU I was hitting about 15K. The board never got hotter than 53C, while the CPU made it up to 54C. Temps were monitored with AMD Overdrive.
When details of the AM3+ socket were emerging, one of the things that I got really excited about was SLI capability. As a gamer who folds, Nvidia is the choice for me when it comes to buying video cards. The problem before was that this put me into a category where if I wanted to enjoy sli and Nvidia Surround, I was forced to buy Intel hardware, so it felt pretty good to slap my two 570's in the CHV and let em rip, no hacks involved. The SLI performance seemed to be on par,maybe a little slower than what I have experienced on my other rig, which runs an i7 950. I was able to get great frame rates, from the 60-70 range in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, as well as Need For Speed: Shift 2. The Crossfire performance was great too, as it was in my 890fx board. I didn't try out eyefinity, because I don't have displayport adapter.
One of the main tasks of my PC is to edit photography and videos, specifically timelapses. Sometimes this entails batch-rendering thousands of HDR photos from sets of bracketed exposures. There are many times when I will set the program up and leave it all night. live rendering from RAW photos while editing in After Effects can also take a lot of time. One feature of the Crosshair V Formula that I really like was the LED indicators on the board which are all green, except when something is going wrong. Then, one of the indicators turns red next to the componant that is malfunctioning. This has actually helped me a lot, because I was able to pinpoint a defective stick of RAM in my Kingston 8gb kit, which had left my regular system unstable. For the remainder of the test period I ran the system with 4gb. With the bad stick of ram out of the system, The pc ran great, with no problems.
The CHV looks sleek, and the red and black styling look great. I liked the UEFI bios, and all the USB3 and SATA 6GBs connections, and especially the helpful LEDs. I also liked that there were 4 PCI-E slots, but would have liked to see them evenly spaced, in case I suddenly need to load it up with dual slto gpu's, lets say for a folding contest or something. The X-Fi sounded great, and its nice to see upgraded audio on-board. I didn't check the board with a multimeter, but I thought the Probelt feature would be useful for more advanced users. I also didn't program the OC button or the GO button, but being able to crank the system up only when needed is a nice feature, especially for video editing.
I would have liked to see bluetooth on this board, as I would have liked to use RC connect. I also would have liked an LED temp/debug readout, something that my 890fx board features.
Overall I give this board a 9, would be great for my uses, although a little pricey, but worth every penny.
Cyrekk wrote: Daaaaaamn man, I got a zi8 almost a year ago and I cannot get that kind of quality. I shake my hands at the camera industry for making anything decent with the features I look for obscenely expensive!
I know what you mean. Between computers and cameras, Im surprised I can still eat!
Nice job, yeah the CH5F rocks and will only get better over time. You're ony getting 60-70 FPS with 570's in SLI playing BFBC2? Something isn't right, I get average 115-125 FPS and will hit 150+ at times. This is with all graphic settings maxed out and Ambient Occlusion set to Quality.
Intel i9 10850K@ 5.3GHz ASUS ROG Strix Z490-E Corsair H115i Pro XT G.Skill TridentZ@ 3600MHz CL14 2x16GB EVGA RTX 3090 Ti FWT3 Ultra OS: WD Black SN850 1TB NVMe M.2 Storage: WD Blue SN550 2TB NVMe M.2 EVGA SuperNova 1200 P2 ASUS ROG Strix Helios GX601
NemesisChild wrote: Nice job, yeah the CH5F rocks and will only get better over time. You're ony getting 60-70 FPS with 570's in SLI playing BFBC2? Something isn't right, I get average 115-125 FPS and will hit 150+ at times. This is with all graphic settings maxed out and Ambient Occlusion set to Quality.
Hey thanks Nemesis, I hope it wasn't too short. Those FPS was taken in surround mode at 5760*1080, But your frame rates seem about right for single monitor, although my cards are stock
NemesisChild wrote: Nice job, yeah the CH5F rocks and will only get better over time. You're ony getting 60-70 FPS with 570's in SLI playing BFBC2? Something isn't right, I get average 115-125 FPS and will hit 150+ at times. This is with all graphic settings maxed out and Ambient Occlusion set to Quality.
