ASUS Blitz Extreme & Formula Motherboards

[PAGETITLE=Introduction] When Intel first launched their P35 chipset, it took little time before the market became saturated with many offerings from motherboard manufacturers. ASUS themselves had seven right off the bat, two of which we've already taken a look at. Both boards impressed us. They offered superb performance compared to the competition and came feature-packed. Being of the Deluxe variety, they also included WiFi capabilities, which is nice to see on a consumer motherboard. One area where the board performed well was with overclocking. Though not incredible, both the P5K and P5K3 hit 475FSB with relative ease, though could go no further. Enthusiast overclockers have hit well over 500FSB on other boards, so 475FSB is considered modest by some, although it's far from it. Personally, I'm happy with anything in the ~450FSB area, especially for a 24/7 rig. All of that doesn't matter though, because ASUS has come along and released two new motherboards geared towards the enthusiast overclockers, Blitz Extreme and Blitz Formula, both of which we will be taking a look at today. Both boards look identical, the only difference is that the Extreme uses DDR3 while the Formula utilizes DDR2. Other than that, finding physical differences between the two boards is difficult. This is different from how ASUS handled their own P5K3 and P5K boards, which used slightly different passive heatsinks and DIMM colors. I am glad to see that they kept things similar here. The Blitz boards use Intel's P35 chipset and pack more features than you can shake a stick at. I am not remotely kidding. The boards should both be called Bling Extreme. But what exactly is here that makes me say such a thing? Well first, we have better Crossfire capabilities, thanks to the usage of a special chipset called CrossLinx, which effectively makes each PCI-E slot function as 8x, instead of the 16x 4x combination that we saw with the ASUS Commando. Sadly, I do not have any ATI cards on hand, so I will be unable to test out the feature. However, I don't have any reason to believe that the feature will not function as promised. I am unsure who creates the chipset to pull this off, but it's not ASUS. From what I understand, I believe they currently have exclusive rights to it for now. That aside, we also have a northbridge with heatsink ready for water, Voltiminder LEDs, Extreme Tweaking ability, external LCD Poster, Supreme FX II sound card, on-board power on/off and reset, in addition to a quick BIOS reset, Q-Connector, spare chipset fans, feet for an external install, temperature diodes, STALKER and 3D Mark 06. Bling Extreme, indeed. Before we jump into all of the available features, let's look at the motherboards themselves. Because the boards are both identical for the most part, we will be only taking a close look at the Extreme version. The Blitz boxes are similar in size to most motherboard offerings, although it's slightly higher because it includes a whack of accessories. For some reason, the Formula version of the board includes a sticker noting the water-block feature, but both include the same feature-sets. The front of the box has a flap which lifts up to show off all the features of the product. Once opened, you will find the motherboard itself inside a safe plastic shell, and then an accessory box which includes everything else. Along with the Blitz manual and software, the first things taken out were the two optional chipset fans and the LCD poster. This 'poster' connects to a port on the motherboard and can sit on your computer or desk. Whenever the BIOS makes a query, it will display on this poster. When nothing is going on, a digital clock is displayed instead. This is all done on a very bright blue backlit screen. Shown in the picture below are all the required peripheral connectors, I/O panel, water-block stuffs, Q-Connector, diodes and a PCI-slot panel that offers access to two USB ports and one firewire. The black feet shown here are for those who don't wish to install the board in a chassis. Stick them to a table and set the board on top for great airflow. With the initial look out of the way, let's move right into a look at the board itself. [PAGEBREAK] [PAGETITLE=Closer Look] At first glance, the layout is admirable. It's actually quite similar to other ASUS boards we've taken a look at lately. All of the available S-ATA ports are kept towards the bottom-right of the board, which point outward in order to aide in better airflow. I consider this to be a great feature, although it's more difficult to plug in the connectors unless you have a very large case. Another thing that stands out is the fact that the board is entirely passively cooled, as has been the norm with ASUS lately. One single piece of heatsink covers the CrossLinx chipset, south and northbridge and also the PWM. The PWM is the hottest point on the motherboard most often. Below is a comparison between both the Extreme (left) and Formula (right). Good luck in finding differences. First stop is the CrossLinx chipset, found directly in between each PCI-E 16x slot. In Crossfire mode, each slot will function as 8x, which will effectively remove all bottlenecks found in other motherboards, including the ASUS Commando. The Blitz is a part of ASUS' own Republic of Gamers branding, meaning it's designed specifically with gamers in mind. That fact is helped when you find a copy of ASUS-sponsored STALKER in the box, alongside 3D Mark 06. Alongside the two PCI-E slots are two regular PCI slots and also three PCI-E 4x. Miscellaneous chipsets line the left-hand side of the board, which take care of the network devices, S-ATA and I/O. One great feature of the Blitz is that it's perfectly suited to be used outside of a case, proof that ASUS really does have overclockers in mind with the design. Thanks to this, power on/off and reset buttons are available at the bottom. Further down you will find the ATX connectors and the six S-ATA ports. I love where these ports are located, but without having a massive case to work with, I found it a little tedious plugging in all three S-ATA connectors that I needed. The good thing for most people is that this will need to be done only once, not a few times in the same day as I did with writing this review. At the top-right of the board are the DIMM slots, 24-Pin power connector and a floppy drive connector. Towards the bottom of the image is the IDE connector. No special DIMM slot colors were used to differentiate the Extreme from the Formula, as was the case with the P5K and P5K3. Here is the waterblock that sits atop the northbridge, called "Fusion". It accepts 3/8" tubing, although adapters are included for 1/2". The rubber guards used here can stay on the chipset if you don't plan to watercool... they will not melt. Chances are good that the board will not be able to hit temperatures at which point that could happen. The usual copper heatsink can be found around the CPU socket. One single heatsink covers all the major chipsets on the board, in addition to the PWM. If you use water and keep fans to a minimum, this board is great for a quiet overclocking machine. Finally, the side panel offers you a keyboard PS/2 port, six USB, the clear CMOS button, two e-SATA ports, two NIC ports, S/PDIF and finally, a firewire. Where the heck is the audio, you might be asking? Right here, of course. Instead of having the card pre-installed and welded onto the motherboard, ASUS offers a separate card with a SoundMax AD1988B chipset, offering 7.1 surround sound support. I am no audiophile, so I cannot comment on the card itself, but for those curious, you can read more about it here. Before we jump into the performance reports, a look at the comprehensive BIOS is next. [PAGEBREAK] [PAGETITLE=The BIOS] The Blitz boards are designed with enthusiasts in mind, so we should only expect the best with the BIOS. Luckily, it proved just as overclocking-friendly as we had hoped and even exceeded some expectations. First up though, the first few screens that will be familiar to most everyone. The overclocking section is so large on the Blitz boards, that it deserves it's own menu. What you expect is here... FSB/Memory/Ratios and voltages. All of the important memory timings are here as well, except for tRC which seems to be more of limit on the P35 chipset and not the board itself. No P35 board I've used yet has had that option. Once you take a look at the voltage options, you will understand why the this section is called "Extreme Tweaker". Extreme is appropriate, and maybe "overkill" should be thrown in there as well. The options most will pay attention to will be the CPU and Memory voltage, but PLL, FSB termination, Northbridge and Southbridge is here as well. There's also DDR Channel REF voltage, but it's usefulness is not known to me. CPU Voltage: 1.10000V - 1.90000V. DRAM Voltage: 1.80V - 3.40V (DDR2) and 1.50V - 3.04V (DDR3) Northbridge Voltage: 1.25V - 2.03V. Southbridge Voltage: 1.050V - 1.225V. PLL Voltage: 1.50V - 2.00V. You are reading this right... 1.90V on the CPU and 3.40V for DDR2 memory. "Insane" is one way to put it, "!!!!!!" is another. There is absolutely no reason to ever go that high even for suicide runs... you will reach a point of no return. Bear in mind that JEDEC standard for DDR2 is 1.8v and DDR3 is 1.5v, yet the options are here to literally double each. On one hand, I think it's great that ASUS offers such broad tweaking abilities, but on the other, I think they went a little overboard. The cool thing though, is that when you reach certain levels, the text will turn from Green to Yellow to Red, depending on the 'severity' of voltage. To compliment this, there are LEDs on the motherboard which represent the settings you chose. If you have a Yellow CPU voltage, the LED beside the CPU socket will be yellow. The manual states that Green = NORMAL, Yellow...

ASUS Blitz Extreme & Formula Motherboards

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Rob Williams