Conclusion

Allgemein		+	-
ASUS' Crosshair V Formula-Z is an overall very interesting board and at a first glance also a very good board. The ROG color scheme belongs to the nicest the industry offers and therefore there are not many other motherboards that play in a similar league. Furthermore the positioning of the different parts has been well done too. We also like that ASUS equipped this board with a SupremeFX Audio-Chip. In this case you get nice an clear sound from the back panel audio plugs.		- Design - Supreme FX Audio-Chip
Layout		+	-
Generally the ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Zs layout is well thought. Once more very practical are the angled SATA connectors of which you'll find no less then eight 6 Gbps ones. There also are practical power/reset buttons onboard as well as a debug display. The last expansion slots is a PCI-Express x4 slot which which comes in full length. If you should choose to install a dual slot graphics card at this place you're going to cover the connectors at the bottom edge of the board. Nevertheless it would be perfect to place a PCI Express SSD.		- Angled SATA connectors - Onboard Power/Reset Button
Performance		+	-
A closer look at the performance values shows that on average the Crosshair V Formula-Z ranges in the top span. Most of the time the board ends up in the top-3 without being the fastest. It's a bit disappointing out of the most high-end/expensive AMD motherboard.		- Performance
BIOS / Overclocking		+	-
Overclocking the Crosshair V Formula-Z is piece of cake but we didn't expect anything different from an ASUS ROG board. Meanwhile all the ROG boards have a very good reputation for overclocking. Therefore it is no surprise that we reached 4'368 MHz with our test CPU which is highest value in our comparison charts. Furthermore the ASUS UEFI-BIOS is very well structured and very pleasant to look at. You'll quickly find the settings needed and even the tool tips provide useful, additional information.		- Well structured BIOS - UEFI-BIOS - Overclocking - Unlimited BIOS options
Recommendation		+	-
If you should be looking for a good and solid gaming PC or an overclocking rig, then the Crosshair V Formula definitely is worth considering. You can get this motherboard for about CHF 240.- (est. EUR 200.-).		- Gaming PC - Overclocking	- Office PC
Rating
We give the Crosshair V Formula good four out of five stars.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 8 - Futuremark
Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery	Page 9 - SiSoft Sandra 1
Page 3 - Features	Page 10 - SiSoft Sandra 2
Page 4 - Layout	Page 11 - Super Pi / wPrime
Page 5 - Connectors and I/O	Page 12 - Games
Page 6 - BIOS	Page 13 - Overclocking
Page 7 - Test setup	Page 14 - Conclusion

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Author: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch : l.rocchi@ocaholic.ch