Crosshair V review

[lifeskills]

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.

Thanks for reading!

Edit: had to wait for my video to upload.

[chrsplmr]

LifeSkills, Thank You.

Could you explain this? "I also would have liked an LED temp/debug readout"
How would this work?
Does ROG Connect do this? Have you tried out the ROG Connect?

Would they be the only two points that would earn a 10 from you? (LED Temp/Debug readout & Price)
If this board were $50 more, knowing what you know now, would you still buy it?
If this board were $50 less, do you think we would be able to find one?
Good Job.c.

[Area_66]

Nice review Lifeskill

chrsplmr wrote:
Could you explain this? "I also would have liked an LED temp/debug readout"

Simple Chris, On my Maximus IV Extreme Z, I have 2 LEDs that give me error code and other indication when the board post. On certain board like my MSI , the Debug LED also serve to indicate the temps of the CPU, We have to keep in mind it's only a Formula not an Extreme, price feature are extremely good on this board

[chrsplmr]

Thank You Sir,
I see. So the led (4) on boot only indicates pass/fail
and the other 4 Led's (green,yellow,red) only indicate voltage?

What I am still not seeing though is...how would this debug?
You know the temp is up, volts are up or fans arent working...
Im not arguing..Im not seeing the advantage over what is available..
Im just asking..Learning..c.

[EVIL_CONSERVATI]

I have an L.E.D. 2 number readout ont my NVIDEA SLI Intel board. It is very helfull in diagnosing problems however it does occasionally post numbers that arent listed in the error list.
I think this may be what hes talking about ? It would be nice on the CHV compared to the regular colored L.E.D.'s that can be easily confused.

[lifeskills]

Hey guys sorry I wasn't clear on that.. I was talking about a 2 digit readout that will display temps, but while booting will display various post codes. My msi 890fx has this and its very helpful.

And I agree, the feature set on this board is great for the price, and some of the features that I said I would have liked will most definitely make it to the extreme version.

And I posted a video, had to wait on the upload.

[speed]

this board is cheap compaired to the intel boards

[Cyrekk]

Holy shit that was a nice video! Looks like a pretty spiffy camera to get panning shots like that too! Great job, and I am jealous!

[lifeskills]

Cyrekk wrote:
Holy shit that was a nice video! Looks like a pretty spiffy camera to get panning shots like that too! Great job, and I am jealous!

Thanks Cyrekk! I actually used a DSLR with a motion controlled timelapse dolly. What it does is take a still and then move a little bit before the next shot. This was my first time using it with a macro lens and such a small subject though, so I learned a lot while shooting this. Check it out

[Cyrekk]

lifeskills wrote:
Thanks Cyrekk! I actually used a DSLR with a motion controlled timelapse dolly. What it does is take a still and then move a little bit before the next shot. This was my first time using it with a macro lens and such a small subject though, so I learned a lot while shooting this. Check it out

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!