Conclusive Thoughts

I've been using this board for over a month now in the Shrimps Lab. Daily testing it with several AMD CPU's, some weekend LN2 bench sessions and the board still appears as fresh as when it arrived. If Asus called this board the Crosshair IV “Extreme” instead of “Formula” no one here would have disagreed. This is really cutting edge hardware, retailing at 200 euro.

Sadly most users still associate AMD with cheap(er) hardware and similar performance. Well guys this is one durable high performance board. The 890FX chipset is a nice evolution of the older 790FX flagship. To get the most out of it, you will need to bundle this board with a set of high speed rams and a CPU that can handle it. Clock for clock there's not much difference compared to the aging 790FX. Bundle it with a Thuban CPU and get a very cheap 6 core solution that will eat your multithreaded apps for breakfast.

If not for the performance maybe the extra features might make it worth considering for a motherboard upgrade : USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps, ROG connect, plus an amazing OC software bundle.

But I kept the best argument for last. The Asus Turbo Unlocker function is really brilliant. Enhancing AMD's Turbo core technology, maybe being a little inspired by the turbo Boost from AMD's main rival Intel. And best part is that it's not only for the latest AMD Thuban Hexacore CPU's, but it also gives a small boost for the previous line-up too. This gives this board that little extra *bling* compared to any of its nearest rivals.

Don't be scared by the issues we discovered during our time when exploring the board’s maximum limits (how many of you out there pour LN2 over your motherboard, overvolt your CPU and other components?). Asus managed again to make this board reach the market first. So it already found its way to a lot of end users. For those reasons debugging is going at an incredible pace.

I can heartily recommend this board to the user that wants to have that little extra in his gaming rig, or to the enthusiast that wants to bench to the max. It's very well build, looks cool (of course that’s a matter of opinion) and has got the necessary features onboard to satisfy the most die hard end user. With Asus own little added extra's, the competition might have a tough time to rival this board on performance and price level.

Asus Crosshair IV Formula Recommended for




Latest update with 0905 Bios :

I got a mail concerning the new 0905 CH IV bios from Asus :

1.Vcore graph via ROG Connect:

In case a fluctuation of CPU Vcore is observed plz check the following :
- Intel EIST / C1E / C-State / Intel® TurboMode Tech is enabled in BIOS.
- AMD C’n’Q / C1E / TurboCore is enabled in BIOS.
- Load-Line Calibration has not been enabled in BIOS

If any of these is enabled you will encounter Vcore fluctuation...

DDRIII-2000+ support under AMD platform:

Up to 4x DDRIII-2000+ modules can be supported under the AMD models with the 0905 BIOS :
- The use of Thuban processors. (well you still need a good IMC Thuban CPU to achieve this)
- The use of the latest BIOS dating from at least the 22/06/2010 (this counts for M4A89 series and Crosshair IV Formula)
- Ensure you start to load DIMM modules from the black slots if you are not intending to load all four DIMM slots with DRAM.



Pros
+ another excellent addition to the ROG line-up.
+ 890FX chipset with SATA 6Gbps onboard.
+ Very intuitive bios to use, abundance of easy to use OC software tools.
+ Asus Turbo Unlocker is amazing.

Contras
- efficiency at high ram speeds needs tweaking
- no dual bios feature.



I wish to thank Milan Rado and Rogier from Asus for allowing us to extensively test their products. Gary Key from the Tech department to assist us swiftly with debugging the floating NB issue. Steeve Bourdon from AMD for the Thuban 1090T sample. Bavarianblessed for allowing me to use his pictures. And finally Tones for the daily support for Madshrimps