Asus rog crosshair viii formula review in Spanish (full analysis)

After a very intense weekend, we started the week with the analysis of the Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula motherboard. This motherboard is positioned among the best X570 boards on the market and at the top of the ASUS range. Will your purchase be worth it?

Prepare your summer red wine and some olives that we begin with the analysis. Let's start!

But before we start, we thank Asus for giving us this product for our analysis.

Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula technical characteristics

Unboxing

How will Asus Crosshair VIII Formula, the most powerful Asus motherboard for the AM4 platform, come? Well, for that there is the word Unboxing, something that we like a lot on plates, due to the large number of accessories that these bring, although not always very useful. The beauty is also on the outside, and we see it reflected directly in a spectacular rigid cardboard box with a box-type opening with a weight of 3.47 Kg.

All sides are printed in a nice black colorway with red accents typical of Asus ROG presentations. We can see color photographs of this plate and also large silver letters marking his name and surname well. And in the back area as usual, complete information in the form of an outline of the main characteristics of this board.

We remove the thin protective plastic that wraps the box to open it, and find the main product completely wrapped in a bag of these very thick plastic anti static electricity. All of it is well coupled in a cardboard mold that protects and isolates it from knocks and other accessories, relegated to a second level. In total, the bundle consists of the following elements:

• Asus ROG Crosshair VIII FormulaDVD motherboard with drivers and software2x Wi-Fi extension antennas1x SATA 6 Gb / s 4 in 12x cable SATA 6 Gb / s 2 in 1 cables ROG mesh Q-Connector for board F-Pannel Screws for placing SSD M.2 Cables to connect RGB and A-RGB strips, one unit of each type Some other merchandising with cup holders, stickers and a coupon for Cablemod User instructions guide

Well, we see that the bundle is very complete as far as cables are concerned, although a board in this category should bring a dual SLI connector for graphics cards, it is something that does not cost too much and is a good detail for users who have multi configurations. GPU and want to make the jump to the AMD platform. Although this is overshadowed by the fact of bringing a coaster with the Asus logo to put the little coffee while we play.

Design and Specifications

We are pleased to get the hang of this spectacular Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula board, the most powerful one that Asus provides us for the AMD X570 platform, although closely followed by the Hero version, also in our possession. And is that if we do inventory, Asus did not yet have a "Formula" version for the AMD gaming platform, so it is very good news for and a strong bet for this new generation of AMD Ryzen processors with Zen2 under the hood and even 16 cores.

What can we say about this spectacular exterior design? It is no secret that it is a motherboard with a fairly high cost, so the division has done the rest in giving us a presentation at the height of the emblematic Formula series with a design clearly inspired by the Maximus version of Intel.

The general keynote is a completely matte black presentation in which we see practically no part of the PCB except the holes for the internal connectors and the socket. Gaming design has become indispensable, even for an integrated circuit board. Starting from the bottom, we find an aluminum heatsink that covers the chipset, the PCIe slot area and of course the two M.2 slots, which curiously are placed in line and facing each other to save space.

For this heatsink a fan has been installed to cool the powerful chipset with over 2000 MHz clock frequency and an Asus logo with RGB lighting. Like the area that looks like a mirror, although built in a thermoplastic ABS compound that also shows a nice RGB lighting underneath it.

We continue upwards, where we have the aluminum protector for the port panel that also has an ABS area similar to the previous one with lighting and its corresponding 1.3-inch Asus LiveDash OLED screen that indicates the status of the power, problems CPU, memory, graphics card, or diagnostic messages at startup and fan voltages and RPM parameters.

And what can we say about the VRM heatsink, a CrossChill EK III configuration with an internal water channel built in copper blocks that we can integrate into custom refrigeration systems with 1/2 ″, 3/8 ″ and 1/4 threaded tubes ″ For example, Corsair Hydro X would come in handy here. And it is that we have a VRM at about 30 ° C it seems of great interest to overclockers, since it is always a critical aspect in the capacity of the boards.

To give way to the back area, we have practically covered all the edges of this Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula with aluminum plates that give way to a practically integral rear backplate, also built in metal and that serves to give rigidity and more power to dissipation to the whole.

In short, an exquisite presentation that Asus makes for its Formula series always. So let us now see in more detail its technical characteristics.

VRM and power phases

In this field, not only Asus, but practically all the top-tier manufacturers have implemented a new power phase system on their AM4 motherboards to ensure better quality in the Vcore signal of the new 7nm Ryzen than TDPs ranging from the 105W of the powerful Ryzen 9 or the 45W of some Ryzen 5 or 3.

This Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula features a system consisting of no less than 16 feeding stages. And the reason is not so much a higher CPU consumption, because it is not, but rather a reason for voltage and signal quality. In just 7 nm of transistor we need a completely clean signal of voltage ripples after the passage of AC to DC current, and an exquisite control of the voltage and intensity so that nothing is corrupted.

The system supports loads from 75A to 200A for overclockings at high frequencies, thanks to the high quality in its three stages of voltage transformation. In the first of them we have the main thing, 16 PowlRstage IR3555 DC-DC converters manufactured by Infineon and managed by a synchronous buck gate IC controller. Each of these converters is accompanied by an alloy choke to withstand 45A. It supports input voltage between 4.5V and 15V and output from 0.25V to 3.3V at max 60A with 1MHz switching frequency.

In the second and third stage we have the corresponding high quality Japanese 10K CHOKES and MOSFETS, built to withstand thousands of hours of activity according to the manufacturer. And you already know that its heatsinks support a customized liquid cooling system, what more can we ask for?

The VRM is the same as that of the Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero board, and it took two EPS connectors to power the system, one 8-pin and the other only 4-pin. For general power, we have the traditional 24-pin ATX connector located in the upper right area of ​​the PCB.

Socket and RAM

AMD has already reported that it will maintain this PGA AM4 socket until at least 2020, where the 7nm architecture is expected to take a further leap in quality to upgrade to Zen2 +. As of today, we think this is the most accurate, since something very good from the processor manufacturer is that it allows backwards compatibility with 2nd and up to 1st generation APU Ryzen processors. So on these new boards it is possible to install 2nd generation AMD Ryzen processors and 1st and 2nd generation APUs with Radeon Vega graphics. Nothing is said about 1st Gen Ryzen processors without integrated graphics, so until the official compatibility list appears, we won't know the specific models that will be supported.

Having this multi-generation CPU compatibility may be somewhat messy for users when it comes to the rest of the basic hardware that needs to be installed. And starting with the RAM, and the four DIMM OptiMem III slots without steel reinforcements, we have to attend to the following limitations:

• If we install 3rd generation Ryzen processors, we will have a maximum of 128 GB DDR4 up to 4600 MHz (OC). If we install 2nd generation Ryzen without integrated graphics, it will support a total of 64 GB at a maximum speed of 3600 MHz (OC), the most that a Ryzen 2 can handle. Finally, if we install 1st and 2nd generation Ryzen APUs, it will support a maximum of 64 GB at 3200 MHz (OC)

In all cases it will offer support for Dual Channel configurations with Non-ECC memories and certain ECC memories depending on the CPU.

AMD X570 chipset

And of course, one of the most important elements of this new generation of motherboards such as the Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula is a little lower, and protected by a heatsink this time, yes, with active cooling, and a little noisy we must say.

This is due to the considerable increase in performance, since its frequency and TDP has increased, now from 11W, being necessary to offer no less than 20 lanes compatible with the PCIe 4.0 bus, capable of offering speeds of up to 2000 MB / s in rise and fall, double that of version 3.0.

This chipset has:

• 8 fixed and exclusive lanes for PCIe 4.08 lanes for SATA 6Gbps or USB 3.1 Gen24 lanes Free use Pick One lanes according to manufacturer's choice

In addition, 4 lanes will provide direct communication with the CPU to send all the information from devices and peripherals. In the next section we will see in more detail how Asus has assigned these chipset communication lanes. Throughout the analysis we will see the distribution of lanes that Asus has made in CPU and chipset.

Storage and PCI slots

Precisely in storage and PCI connectivity is where this X570 chipset has a lot to say as it carries a considerable workload.

Let's get started by explaining everything about the PCIe slots that we have available in Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula. We have a total of 3 PCIe 4.0 x16 slots and one PCIe 4.0 x1 slot. Two of them are reinforced by side steel plates, which will be useful to identify them in their differences from the others.

Specifically, these two reinforced slots are connected to the PCI rails of the processor, so they can work in 4.0 x16 or x8 / x8 mode with the 16 Lanes available in the 3rd Ryzen and in 3.0 mode for 2nd generation Ryzen. In the case of APUs, only the first one will work at a maximum of x8 also in 3.0 mode as is normal. The other two unreinforced PCIe slots are connected to the Lanes of the chipset, in fact the PCIe x16 will actually work at x4 in 4.0 mode and PCI x1 in the same way in 4.0 mode.

Asus has secured multiGPU support for AMD CrossFireX 3-way and Nvidia SLI or NVLink 2-way 2nd and 3rd generation Ryzen. It will only be AMD CrossFireX 2-way for 1st and 2nd generation APUs. Although we will see that on this board it makes no sense to place processors with integrated IGP, since it does not have video connectors.

The storage configuration is also almost all integrated into the lanes of the chipset. A total of 8 6 Gbps SATA III ports have been installed which will be directly connected to the chipset.

Like the larger M.2 slot on the board, which works on both SATA and PCIe 4.0 x4 for 3rd Gen Ryzen. and in PCIe 3.0 x4 for Ryzen 2nd gen. It supports 2242, 2260, 2280 and 22110 drives. The second M.2 slot is directly connected to the CPU, and works on PCIe 4.0 x4 or SATA 6 Gbps, and supports 2242, 2260, 2280 sizes.

In general, we note that the chipset gains a lot of prominence when it comes to high-speed connections with storage and PCIe connected directly to it. Of course we have support for AMD Store MI and ability to do RAID 0, 1 and 10. And something also of great importance is that these two M.2 slots have an integrated aluminum heatsink with their respective thermal pads to stick them to high-speed SSD drives. This is becoming increasingly important, because the new PCIe 4.0 SSDs are going to generate significantly more heat than the previous ones.

It is striking that unlike Intel boards, here we do not have a triple M.2 slot, in exchange for more USB ports, more SATA ports and a PCIe that can get us out of some trouble.

Network connectivity and sound card

Last but not least, we have the hardware that takes care of network connectivity and sound reproduction on our board. In this Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula, high-quality components and important bandwidths for communications have been chosen, but not the range stops.

Let's start with the sound card, which is made up of the best performance codec from Realtek, we are talking about the S1220 model with Asus ROG SupremeFX technology . Supports high definition audio through 8 channels (7.1) at 32 bits and 192 kHz. The output sensitivity is 120 dB SNR and 113 dB SNR at the input for recording. But it is not all, because the DAC that has been used is a high definition SABER ESS9023P to provide the best sound in speakers or an analog system. Obviously if we connect a USB headset, this sound card will make no sense. Asus offers us the Sonic Radar III and Sonic Studio III + Sonic Studio Virtual Mixer applications to give us a great experience in sound editing.

We continue with network connectivity, both in wired and wireless mode we have news. We start with its two RJ-45 ports, one of them provides us with a bandwidth of 5000 MB / s thanks to the Aquantia AQC-111C controller, and the second will be the traditional 1000 MB / s Intel I211-AT.

And it was time to implement the Wi-Fi 6 or IEEE 802.11ax standard in the new generation of boards, after almost a year since we tested the first Asus Router with Wi-Fi. It is thanks to an M.2 CNVi Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 card, in fact, this model is going to be quite written in the coming days. It gives us a 2 × 2 MU-MIMO connection that increases the bandwidth in 5 GHz up to 2404 Mb / s and in 2.4 GHz up to 574 Mb / s (AX3000), and of course Bluetooth 5.0. In this way, Wi-Fi networks evolve both in speed and in an improvement in latency for gaming so much as to almost forget about wired networks. Of course, this bandwidth can only be used if we have a Wi-Fi 6 router, otherwise we will be working under the 802.11ac protocol.

I / O ports and internal connections

Before looking at the connections in detail, it should be noted that in the upper right area we have interaction buttons for this Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula. For on and off, reset, boot in safe mode and retry mode for your something fails. It is worth referring to the Asus Node connector, a two-way interface to communicate the bale with other system components, and especially dedicated to developers.

Now yes, on the rear panel we have the following ports:

• 7x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports (red) 1x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C ports 4x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports (blue) 2x RJ-45 for LAN connection S / PDIF audio output 5x 3.5mm jack for audio Clear button CMOS BIOS Flashback button 2x connectors for Wi-Fi antenna 2 × 2

We will see that this panel is exactly the same as the one that brings the Crosshair Hero Wi-Fi version. In any case, it is an extremely complete connectivity, and revealing the enormous USB capacity of the CPU - chipset, although we have already announced that we do not have any video connector for the case when we install APUs on the board.

Of these USB ports, the X570 chipset will manage 4 USB 3.1 Gen1 ports, 4 USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A and the only Type-C we have. While another 4 USB 3.1 Gen2 will be connected to the CPU.

Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula internal connection ports are as follows:

• 4x Aura RGB Headers (two 4-pin RGB and two three-pin ARGB) 2x connectors for 4 external USB 2.0 1x USB 3.1 Gen 2 connector 2x USB 3.1 Gen 1 for 4 ports 1x connector for external audio panel 1x TPM connector Asus NODE connector 9x connectors for fans and cooling pumps 1 x 2-pin W_IN header 1 x 2-pin W_OUT header 1 x 3-pin W_FLOW header

We see that the connectivity of USB ports greatly increases the rear ports of the board. In fact, all these ports are also connected to the chipset, now the problem will be connecting a chassis with so many ports, and if not, we can buy a HUB to expand the capacity by occupying a rear slot.

For fans of modding and gaming, with the Fan Expert 4 and Asus AURA Sync programs, we can manage the fan headers and RGB without any problem. If we have a complex cooling system in our chassis directly connected on board, this program will be very worth installing.

testing bench

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	AMD Ryzen 9 3900x
Base plate:	Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula
Memory:	16GB G.Skill Trident Z RGB Royal DDR4 3600MHz
Heatsink	Stock
HDD	Corsair MP500 + NVME PCI Express 4.0
Graphic card	Nvidia RTX 2060 Founders Edition
Power supply	Corsair AX860i.

This time we will also use our second test bench, although of course with AMD Ryzen 9 3900X CPU, 3600 MHz memories and a dual NVME SSD. Being one of them PCI Express 4.0.

BIOS

We got to the BIOS section and that is one of the strongest points of ASUS. We recommend that you update it to the latest version on all X570 motherboards, since you can find a bug in these first reviews. We with version 7509 have offered us great stability.

As we can always monitor, adjust any value to get the most out of overclocking and have maximum control of our entire system. We want to clarify that at least in this release we cannot overclock the Ryzen 3000, we are very heavy but it is something you have to know. With the first and second generation we will have no problem.

Overclocking and temperatures

At no time have we been able to upload the processor at a faster speed than what it offers in stock, it is something that we have already discussed in the review of the processors. Although we want to give proof, nevertheless we have decided to do a 12 hour test with Prime95 to test the feeding phases.

For this we have used our Flir One PRO thermal camera to measure the VRM, we have also collected multiple measurements of average temperature with the stock CPU both with and without stress. We leave you the table:

Temperature	Relaxed Stock	Full Stock
Asus ROG Crosshair VIII	35 ºC	44 ºC

Final words and conclusion about Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula

Like the HERO model, the Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula meets all the expectations we had for it. It has a total of 16 power phases, a hybrid cooling system: liquid cooling and passive heatsink and top-notch components. Following the criticism received in its VRMs, ASUS has launched a much cleaner and better-performing system (which was already 10).

There is not much difference with its younger sister, we could say that the cooling system and the rear armor are the differentiating points between both models. Good performance, low temperatures and with a super stable BIOS.

We recommend reading the best motherboards on the market

Like all the boards in this series and thanks to the X570 chipset it incorporates 802.11 AX connectivity and compatibility with the latest generation NVME SSD. We liked the SupremeFX sound card and the incorporation of a 5G connection signed by Aquantia.

We see it as a good companion for the AMD Ryzen 9 and a system with GEN4 NVME storage. If your budget allows it, it is a great choice, although if you are going something fair, we recommend the HERO that will render you very similar. What do you think about the Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula ?

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ BRUTAL DESIGN	- THE PRICE WILL BE HIGH
+ ARMOR THAT STRENGTHENS THE PCB AND THE PCI EXPRESS CONNECTIONS
+ EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE
+ TEMPERATURES
+ CONNECTIVITY AND NVME GEN4 SSD

The Professional Review team awards him the platinum medal:

Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula

COMPONENTS - 95%

REFRIGERATION - 100%

BIOS - 95%

EXTRAS - 95%

PRICE - 90%

95%