ASUS Blitz Extreme & Formula Motherboards

[Rob Williams]

There are numerous P35 boards available, so what does a company have to do to have an edge? Well, as far as ASUS is concerned, they should produce feature-packed boards that also come with many extras, including a game and 3D Mark 06. Oh... not to mention a water-cooled northbridge!

You can read the full review here and discuss it here.

[madstork91]

Originally Posted by Rob Williams

Good luck in finding differences.

OKAY!

1. There are stickers on the one to the right... 0.o Prob no real diff.
2. Those chips are of obviously different sizes.
3. Those things have different colored stickers... Ref: 1, I'm sure there is little to no difference.

4. Whares the freggin SATA on that thing? o.0 Maybe the colored blindness is getting to me again but i dont see it. Didnt some company recently say they were not going to make anything but SATA hdd? (http://forums.techgage.com/showthread.php?t=2050)

So if everyone else follows... this board might already have hit a snag. :-/ bummer.

Edit: found them... Had to look at a specific pic. :-/ Damn my eyes. I didnt see them at first and was like WTF?
Edit 2: Plugging those in inside my box would prove to be a pain in the Elfin ace!
Edit 3: Elfin sounded funnier than effin, had to do it.

Oh... another comment whilst I'm here... I highly recommend an X-fi... ;-p

Last thing... Ive got more USB 2.0's than this thing! NAAA NAAA NA NA NAAAA (Animefingerdowntoungeouteyehere)

[NicePants42]

I for one am extremely happy that ASUS has decided to attach a water block to all of those heat pipes we're used to seeing. A setup like this, allowing a single water block to effectively cool multiple on-board devices, will do several things for water cooling enthusiasts. First and foremost, we won't have to spend another $100 or more on separate blocks for the northbridge, southbridge and Vregs, (although the motherboard price may be slightly higher) and secondly, our flow rates won't suffer from the added restriction of additional blocks/tubing (resulting in better cooling performance), and our tubing route will be that much cleaner.

Some (including myself) might wonder if the cooling efficiency of this setup might be increased if the water block were mounted on the Vregs, at the top-most part of the heatpipe chain. However, considering that some users will have a BTX case (where the motherboard is inverted), I think ASUS' design is best, especially since many enthusiasts argue that water cooling the northbridge doesn't offer any real performance benefit (Supported by the test results in this review) - so why bother with the southbridge or Vregs?

I was hoping to see some measurable gain, however small, with the northbridge under water. Oh well - at least now we can have those extra 10C without a 40mm screamer (a-la-680i).

any idea as to when the board will be available? I am trying to decide on a board for a G0 q6600 which I should have early next week, and the watercooling setup on this is appealing (to go with my fuzion and pa120.3). Though I am still unsure if I want go go 680i or p35.

[Greg King]

I am not aware of the release date of these boards but I am sure that Rob can help you out with that.

However, two chipsets that you mentioned are both great for enthusiasts. My question to you is are you wanting to eventually go multi GPUs? If your a SLI guy, then obviously the 680i is the way to go. The same can be said for CrossFire and the P35.

DarkSynergy, right now i have a 7800gtx (bought when it was top of the line), I will be going dx 10 soon but I am waiting for g92 (and maybe r700) before I decide which one. I might go sli or crossfire (or possibly pick up two cards for gpgpu programming) but I am not sure. I know the 680i is a great chipset but I also know that at least with earlier bios's there were some issues overclocking quad cores, and I don't want to be limited by the board. If my chip can do 3.8 or 4.0 under the water setup I have (which is as high end as possible without a peltier or evaporator) then I want to hit that, I don't want to be stock a 380fsb or even 400 if the chip could have done more on a p35. I know that there is no guarantee that the chip will be able to do even 400fsb on any board but I would rather have a board that can go as high as possible then be board limited. That being said whether a board can do 450 with a quad or 500 probably wont make a difference but 350 vs 450 or even 400 vs 450 will.

[Merlin]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

DarkSynergy,. I might go sli or crossfire (or possibly pick up two cards for gpgpu programming) but I am not sure. .

You might save your money on SLI, unless you are using larger than a 30" monitor.
Otherwise, you won't see any difference and wonder why you spent the extra on the other card

Merlin

[NicePants42]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If my chip can do 3.8 or 4.0 under the water setup I have (which is as high end as possible without a peltier or evaporator) then I want to hit that, I don't want to be stock a 380fsb or even 400 if the chip could have done more on a p35.

My, aren't you the optimist. If you want the best chance of high clocks on a quad, you may want to consider this, although I will hasten to add that G0 Xeons may not be as widely available as G0 Q6600s.

NicePants42 I know that there are no guarantees and that even with water I might be stuck around 3.2 to 3.4 but some people are doing well with the g0's http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...152722&page=13 ,a nd all I was saying is that if the chip is good I dont want to end up being limited by the board. I know that even with phase 4 wouldnt be gauranteed and as long as I can keep it around what I have with my e6600 now (same radiator but on a storm) (3.4ghz) I will still feel it was a justified upgrade.

[Rob Williams]

Originally Posted by madstork91

OKAY!

You missed the most obvious one... the fact that there are two capacitors in between the DIMM slots on the left motherboard, as opposed to the outside.

Originally Posted by NicePants42

I think ASUS' design is best, especially since many enthusiasts argue that water cooling the northbridge doesn't offer any real performance benefit (Supported by the test results in this review) - so why bother with the southbridge or Vregs?

I agree. Though, if I used this board for my primary setup (which I tend to not do since I used these for reviews), I would not hesitate to run water into the NB. The temperature differences were enough to please me. I am still looking forward to upcoming reviews to see if others hit the FSB wall that I did.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

any idea as to when the board will be available?

No clue at all, but it REALLY shouldn't be that far off. Sorry, I wish I had more info.

[madstork91]

Dammit! I always forget something.

You win -this- time Rob...

[JacKz5o]

Nice review

Any word on when these will be available and the pricing?

i'm about 99% sure that it's cpu that stops you from reaching 500 fsb and more since you reach about the same on every board (475fsb) u reach it on the commando , p5k , and now 480 on the blitz and i can promise that the blitz push it over the limit. it's not the board stopping you it's the cpu. i have seen all these boards over 500 fsb and as you see both blitz stops on the same fsb doesn't ring any bells?

[NicePants42]

Originally Posted by palme

i'm about 99% sure that it's cpu that stops you from reaching 500 fsb and more since you reach about the same on every board (475fsb) u reach it on the commando , p5k , and now 480 on the blitz and i can promise that the blitz push it over the limit. it's not the board stopping you it's the cpu. i have seen all these boards over 500 fsb and as you see both blitz stops on the same fsb doesn't ring any bells?

I would tend to agree with this, Rob, considering your recent discussion with Faiakes.

Nice review. Im looking to get the formula version for a new build. It's out in the UK £175 ish for the Extreme so $350ish and the formula comes in around £160 so $310 but thats through the current rate and it never comes out fair so it'll most likley be less.