Asus Crosshair

For almost as long as there have been PC enthusiasts, it seems that Asus has been there catering to them with feature laden, high-performance products. Nowhere is it more apparent that Asus caters to enthusiasts than with their motherboards. Yes, some of their notebooks and graphics cards are cutting edge as well, but the company has released literally hundreds of enthusiast-class motherboards in their history.
Over the years we have evaluated a myriad of Asus-built mobos here at HotHardware, and with the exception of only a couple of designs, they have all been stand-out products in their respective classes. In this article, we'll be shining the spotlight on yet another stand-out product from Asus, the CrossHair. The Asus CrossHair is the first member of the company's flagship "Republic of Gamers" series of desktop motherboards. It's based on NVIDIA's nForce 590 SLI chipset for AMD socket AM2 processors and sports a number of features an innovations that make it truly unique. There is a lot to cover in this article, so what do you say we get down to business and see what the CrossHair is really made of?

CPUSupport AMD Socket AM2 Athlon 64 X2 / Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64/ SempronAMD Cool 'n' Quiet TechnologyAMD64 architecture enables simultaneous 32-bit and 64-bit computingAMD Live! Ready
ChipsetNVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCPNVIDIA LinkBoost TechnologyFront Side Bus 2000 / 1600 MT/s
MemoryDual channel memory architecture4 x DIMM, max. 8GB, DDR2-800/667/533, ECC and non-ECC, un-buffered memory
Expansion Slots2 x PCI Express x16 slot with NVIDIA(R)SLI technology support, at full x16, x16 speed1 x PCI Express x43 x PCI 2.2
SLISupport two identical NVIDIA SLI-Ready graphics cards (both at x16 mode)ASUS two-slot thermal designASUS PEG Link
StorageNVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP supports:* 1 x Ultra DMA 133 / 100 / 66 / 33* 6 x Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s* NVIDIA MediaShield RAID supports RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 and JBOD span cross Serial ATA drivesSilicon Image 3132 SATA controller supports* 2 x External Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s port on back I/O (SATA On-the-Go)* Support RAID 0, 1, and JBOD
LANDual Gigabit LAN controllers support NVIDIA DualNet technologyNVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP built-in dual Gigabit MAC with external Marvell PHY* Support Teaming and fail-over functions* Support TCP/IP Acceleration
AudioSupremeFX Audio Cardfeaturing ADI 1988B 8-channel High Definition Audio CODECSupport Jack-Sensing, Enumeration, Multi-streaming and Jack-Retasking8 channel audio portsCoaxial, Optical S/PDIF out on back I/O port* ASUS Array Mic* Noise Filter
IEEE 1394aTI 1394 controller supports 2 x 1394a ports
Overclocking Features* ASUS AI NOS (Non-delay Overclocking System)* AI Overclocking (intelligent CPU frequency tuner)* AI Clock Skew* ASUS PEG Link - automatically performance tuning for graphics cards* ASUS O.C. Profile: overclocking configuration-sharing tool* ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)* Extreme TweakerASUS AI Booster UtilityAdjustable FSB/DDR2 ratio.Fixed PCI/PCIe frequencies.

USBMax. 10 USB2.0/1.1 ports
Special FeaturesLCD PosterEL I/OOnboard LEDOnboard switches: Power / Reset / Clr CMOSQ-ConnectorQ-Fan PlusASUS CrashFree BIOS3ASUS EZ Flash2ASUS Music AlarmASUS MyLogo3
Back Panel I/O Ports1 x PS/2 Keyboard port1 x PS/2 Mouses1 x Optical + 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Output2 x External SATA2 x LAN (RJ45) port4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports1 x IEEE 1394a port1 x onboard LED switch1 x LCD Poster
Internal I/O Connectors3 x USB 2.0 connectors supports additional 6 USB 2.0 ports1 x Floppy disk drive connector1 x IDE connector for two devices6 x SATA connectors1 x CPU / 7 x option Fan3 x thermal sensor connector1 x IEEE1394a connector1 x S/PDIF output connectorChassis Intrusion connectorFront Panel Audio connector24-pin ATX Power connector8-pin ATX 12V Power connectorSystem panel connector1 x EL I/O Shield Connector
BIOS8Mb AWARD BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.3
ManageabilityWOL by PME, WOR by PME, Chasis Intrusion, PXE
Accessories1 x SLI bridge1 x ASUS Array Mic1 x ASUS Optional Fan1 x ASUS Q-Connector Kit (system panel; Retail version only)3 x thermal sensor cables1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable1 x Floppy disk drive cable6 x SATA cables7 x Cable Ties3 x SATA power cable for 6 devices1 x 2-port USB2.0 module1 x IEEE1394a module1 x EL I/O ShieldInterVideo Media Launcher (OEM version only)User's manual
Support DVDDriversASUS PC Probe IIASUS UpdateASUS AI BoosterFuturemark 3DMark06 Advanced EditionNVIDIA MediaShield RAIDKaspersky Anti-VirusForm Factor ATX Form Factor, 12"x 9.6" (30.5cm x 24.5cm)