ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Gaming Motherboard with 3-Way SLI/CrossFireX Support and UEFI BIOS

Pros: Everything's well labeled, the instruction manual is clear and concise, it's not cramped and there's plenty of room for expansion. I've been through two of these boards now. The first one fried, I later found out the outlet my PC was plugged into was not grounded. (Should have tested it first). After pulling it, I saw that it had actually sustained quite a bit of damage before it finally died. Which was impressive.

The software that came with it was also really nice. It was all really simple to use.

As some others have said, ASUS boards do cost more than other brands, but they last forever if you take care of them!

Cons: This is a complaint I have with every motherboard and have had since the dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Why must the primary PCIe always be in the middle? If you're going to cool your vid card with a water block, it's no deal, but for those of us who just use the stock air fan and go on, this can quickly become a problem if you have alot more stuff to pack in the PCI slots.

Also, as said in some of the other reviews, the audio driver on the instal disk doesn't quite cut the mustard. But you can just download what you need from ASUS' website and you'll be just fine.

Other Thoughts: This board is pretty good sized, physically. So make sure you've got a full tower case that can fit it. Also, alot of stuff plugs in the bottom, so if you're planning to put fans on the bottom of your case to suck in air from beneath, be sure to plan for that in advance.

Pros: Looks nice.

Cons: only detects half of my memory, and yes they are installed correctly according to the user manual.
If I try to load extreme overclocking profile even at stock it wont boot up, it tells me to install windows.....

It has been a great amount of issues from day 1. I paid 240$ for this motherboard to avoid issues...and instead it's been nothing but issues.

I got RMA number ready will be shipping it back to newegg first thing in the morning..

I will update this review when I receive another board...Hopefully good one this time.

Pros: Although silly, you can turn on or off your computer, reset it by buttons on the motherboard itself, the start button on the motherboard also is always lit to let you know there is power to the motherboard.

There is also a lot of software that comes with the motherboard to allow you to tweak your systems performance at pretty any time you seem fit to do so.

The Support for up to 32GB of ram up to 2400 is also very nice for any gamer looking to increase their computers memory capacity.

It supports AM3+ processors, so yes, you can get the 8 core 4GH AMD processor from New Egg for about $200 with this motherboard (recommended)

Supports 3-Way SLI and crossfire, the graphic card release is very easy to press as well if you need to remove your old one for any reason, but this doesn't mean its flimsy by any means.

Best of all, its red and black, and matches my red Phantom NZXT case perfectly.

For less than $250 you can't go wrong with this selection (Unless of course you use Intel due to this being an AMD motherboard)

Cons: During the installation and set up with this motherboard I did experience slight issues with my audio, after the final restart and install was complete for the motherboard I had to restart my computer once again manually to actually finalize the issue with my audio, not that big of a con, and probably just my old hard drives fault (over 2 years old thats the next thing to be upgraded)

Other Thoughts: This is a personal thought here, not professional opinion (if you can call me a professional) Asus motherboards tend to have a higher durability than most other motherboards, and with the higher end specs here this motherboard can last you probably several years, so $250 is actually pretty cheap of the quality of this motherboard

Pros: Great motherboard. Great features. there are just to many pros to list here.

Cons: none that I have found.

Pros: don't know any came dead but looks cool

Cons: never worked out box would not read ram i 6 different kind to try asus said take out of tower to see if booted still no go so i sent back for new one still waiting for it hope it does better will build in my towel until i try out of it..lol..

Other Thoughts: always had good luck with asus never got a bad one makes you mad when takes 4 months to buy everything for it and its dud man that sucks

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that the board you received was DOA.

Have you tried updating the bios to see if that will resolve your issue. Here is the link below and just make sure you select which O/S you have installed.

http://www.asus.com/ROG_ROG/CROSSHAIR_V_FORMULAZ/#support_Download

Please check to see all connectors are connected. Have you tried using a different PSU. Please try clearing CMOS as well.

Regarding your memory, here is a link to make sure it falls under our QVL memory sheet.

http://www.asus.com/ROG_ROG/CROSSHAIR_V_FORMULAZ/#support_QVL

If you have any questions or comments you can email me at cl-jeffrey@asus.com which I reside in the U.S

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Overclocking options to the extreme

Clean and simple layout, no overlap of ports or connectors

Excellent performance (WHEN YOU GET ONE THAT WORKS)

Easy setup and effortless overclocking

Cons: I had 2 DOA boards before I got one that worked

Red LEDs on only one section of the board, if you are going to make the thing gawdy, light it up.

Confusing BIOS layout, had to look up a guide to understand the esoteric wording they used for my RAM timings.

Other Thoughts: Truely and amazing board just a shame so many are DOA.

But hey once you get one that works it is just indredible!

Pros: One of the best mobos I've ever used, glad I bought it.
Fast
Vast Overclocking abilities
Great software that came with it
3 way SLi or Crossfire
Cool little led lights lol

Cons: Not too much, but the USB is kind of a hit or miss, gotten a few BSODs ddue to them, which is pretty irritating.
other than that, it's a good board.

Other Thoughts: It's a good looking enthuasist board, I wish Asus would spend some more time on the budget AMD side though. They're a great company a build great stuff, but for us guys who love AMD and are on a bit of a budget, we're pretty limited on options.
*Cough* Build a MicroATX AMD board!*Cough*

Pros: Great Motherboard, comes with a ton of bells and whistles to fine tune anything. Great for overclocking, was able to get my athlon 645 from 3.1 to 3.8 without raising the temps that much on a stock cooler. I also love that you do not need to plug in the pesky case controls to post if you just want to make sure everything works.

Cons: None, a great board!

Other Thoughts: Great board, you pay for the quality.

Pros: Don't know, it never work

Cons: DOA. Called ASUS and was told it should work out of the box with a FX 8350. The start and reset light would come on but nothing else happen. was told to move the MB outside the case and placed it on a cardboard but nothing happen. RMA is on the way.

Other Thoughts: ASUS told me to just call New Egg and get a new one 5 min into the call with 0 trouble shooting on my first call. The second try the person was more professional but still could not tell me what was wrong other than to try to start the MB outside the case.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that you received a DOA. Did you try updating the bios to see if that will resolve your issue. Updating the bios improves the compatiblity with different versions of CPUs.

Here is the link for the update drivers and bios. Make sure you select which O/S you have installed.

http://www.asus.com/ROG_ROG/CROSSHAIR_V_FORMULAZ/#support_Download

Did you also try using another PSU. Please verify that all power connectors are properly connected. Also please try reseting CMOS.

If you have any questions or comments you can email me at cl-jeffrey@asus.com which I reside in the U.S

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Used in a gaming system build and I have zero complaints. Easy to setup and the BIOS is very user friendly.

Cons: None