ASUS Crosshair V Formula ‘Bulldozer’ Motherboard Review

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

This particular article, we went a little bit of a different route. We compared the ASUS Crosshair V Formula with the latest AMD FX-8150 ‘Bulldozer’ processor, to itself with an AMD Phenom II X6 1100T. We wanted to see if there was much of a difference in performance between the two core architectures on the AMD 990FX chipset. The article inadvertently felt more like a shoot out between the two processors, when the focus was meant to be on the ASUS Crosshair V Formula. The performance between the two systems was entirely too similar for my tastes. The AMD FX-8150 didn’t run the circles around the Phenom II X6 1100T that I had hoped it would.

While the performance of the ASUS Crosshair V Formula versus itself didn’t turn out the way we had hoped. It proved to be a very solid board. Performance aside, what makes the ASUS Crosshair V Formula a top notch board is the features. There is very little that you wont find on the Crosshair V Formula. The features of the Crosshair V Formula range from the common, to the much less common. The common features of the ASUS Crosshair V Formula include; SATA III 6Gbps, SuperSpeed USB 3.0, and of course the AMD 990FX chipset. Beyond that, the similarities begin to end. Some of the unique features of the ASUS Crosshair V Formula include; Extreme Engine DIGI+, ProbeIt, Go Button, and CPU level up.

When I could get the AMD FX-8150 to cooperate, overclocking was remarkably easy on the ASUS Crosshair V Formula. Sadly, my particular piece of silicone turned out not to overclock as well as others chips have proven to. We had to disable half of the cores to get past 4.6GHz, once we did that we were able to bring increase processor frequency to 4.9GHz. I wouldn’t be surprised if we can break past 5GHz on the AMD FX-8150 with a little more time and practice. Being the first run out with this particular processor we’ll need to learn the quirks that will allow us to push it harder and faster!

Although a retail price of $229 may be low compared to many Intel motherboards these days, this price tag does put the ASUS Crosshair V Formula at the top end of the price spectrum for AMD 990FX motherboards. In the first paragraph we were hoping that the old analogy you get what you pay for holds true. Ultimately I would say that in this case that it certainly did. The Crosshair V Formula met our expectations with ease. ASUS has just about always put out a product that is designed to last. Unfortunately, there is always the chance that something can go wrong. If that happens to be the case, ASUS backs the Crosshair V Formula with a three year warranty based off of the serial number.

Legit Bottom Line: The ASUS Crosshair V Formula is the next evolution of the Republic of Gamers AMD motherboard line up. When it comes down to it, it is a rock solid board with all the trimmings!