ASUS Crosshair IV Formula AM3 890FX Motherboard Sneak Peak

If it seems to you that we have been concentrating a lot upon ASUS’ products in the last few days, that’s because we are. They have been kind enough to give us access to a mind-boggling amount of information about their upcoming products and while we can’t discuss all of it, we’re going to do our best to get you the inside track on a number of items.

In the last sneak peak we brought you a closer look at the upcoming HD 5870 Matrix 2GB and their new HD 5870 “V2” which are both set to take the market by storm. For this article, we’re going to stay with the Republic of Gamers theme but focus on an upcoming AMD-based motherboard: the Crosshair IV Formula. Yes, there have been three previous Crosshair boards which were based on NVIDIA’s 590 and 780i chipsets along with AMD’s own 790FX and ASUS’ fourth iteration continues down the AMD track. This time the Crosshair uses the upcoming 890FX chipset that is a slight step up from the 890GX version we looked at last week. Along with its 32 PCI-E lanes, the 890FX and the 850-series southbridge bring to the table native SATA 6Gbp/s support which is sure to appeal to the enthusiasts RoG boards are targeted towards.

As with all of ASUS’ Republic of Gamers series, the Crosshair IV Formula will likely retail for more than many of us are willing to pay but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. According to pricing information we have seen from other motherboard manufacturers, even their higher-end 890FX offerings won’t be priced above the $200 mark. As such, we don’t expect this board to retail for anywhere near the price of boards like the Rampage II Extreme and Maximus III Extreme. All in all, if we had to venture a guess we would probably peg the Crosshair as a $200 to $220 USD board.

Nearly a year has passed since ASUS introduced their last flagship motherboard that targeted AMD users so we are sure the new Crosshair couldn’t come soon enough for some people. Considering it is going to be available right around the time we start seeing Phenom X6 processors hitting the market, ASUS could help usher in a new renaissance for AMD products and their loyal followers.

This article may be a bit on the short side but we are aiming to give you a quick look at what little we know about the Crosshair IV and add in a slew of new pictures to even things out.