ASUS Crosshair V Formula/Thunderbolt AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Pros: Pretty. Sleek. Ran well while it lasted.

Cons: Well, it ended up dying, without provocation within the last week or so. Seems to be a defect with the board handling its USB ports and the power consumption of those ports. I tried going through ASUS for their warranty, but it's just completely impossible to get a hold of them. The standard Run-Around through self-help forums and whatnot. Not to mention the 50 dollar rebate I'm still waiting on from September. Still searching for how to get ahold of the Service NET information, but that's also rather difficult considering this is a discontinued board. I wish I had done a little more research into this board. Obviously it's discontinued, but Buyer beware if you happen to find this board elsewhere on the net. Definitely not worth the money paid, let alone the carboard box it was shipped in.

Other Thoughts: Wishing the RMA, Service net information was more readily available. I really just want my money back to buy a new board (likely through new egg, every other part is completely fine) just no more ASUS.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We're sorry to hear about your experience with this motherboard. If the system does not power on, please try another PSU and clear CMOS. To RMA the motherboard--this model is covered under a 3 year warranty, use the onlilne submittal form at: http://vip.asus.com/eservice/usa_rmaserv.aspx or call us at 1-812-282-2787. Regarding your rebate, please email me rebate details such as offer code, date of submission, and other relevant information to cl-benson@asus.com so that we can review your case. Thank you.

For support information, please visit http://support.asus.com. For service, visit http://service.asus.com. For motherboard warranty, visit http://www.service.asus.com/warranty.aspx#!Motherboard%20Warranty/c1c20; Refurbished products/accessories: http://www.service.asus.com/warranty.aspx#!refurbished-warranty/c16us. For RMA status, visit: http://am.eservice.asus.com/rmaweb/search/rmCustomerQueryAction.do?.

Regards,
Benson
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: This board is stable and very reliable. I did not have any issues with the hardware I chose to install or drivers.
I leave my system running 24/7 unless I need maintenance with the hardware. I've used ASUS MBs for years and I am very proud to say they make great MBs.

Cons: I've encountered ZERO issues with system up and running for well over 6 months.

Other Thoughts: I use the following for my base in this system.
Crosshair V Formula Thunderbolt
16GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 base 1600 no OC
2 NVIDIA GTX 580 FTW Hydro Copper 2 (Customized water cooler.)
OCZ SATA III 240GB SSD (Primary boot)
3 Segate SATA II 250GB HDD (RAID 0) (Off storage)
I use the added board for LAN and sound which work great.
AMD X6 BE processor /w H80 water cooled.
ASUS Element V NVIDIA Edition case
ASUS DVD/CD player recorder.
Windows 7 64bit Edition
As backup I have a wireless thumb drive Cisco Linksys AE1000

Pros: Tons of options.
Great easy UEFI bios.
Tons of connectors for fans, sata 6Gb/s, PCI, etc.
Great for overclocking.

Cons: Some connectors can end up hidden/unusable behind larger cards in PCI slots.

Pros: This motherboard responds great to ram regardless if your running 800mhz or 16 gigs of gskill of gskill sniper 14900CL9D F3 @ 1087.6 (11-12-10) 1.5volts. Great layout when mounted, though the first pci-e slot is kinda high up. My zotac 470 almost had clearance issues with the northbridge. You. .tube this - official Asus Rog usb bios Flashback

The system does not need to be turned on or pass POST (Power On Self Test)

1. Acquire a USB Thumb Drive
2. Format the USB drive with a FAT32 file system
3. Download the latest BIOS for your motherboard and place the extracted ROM file on the USB drive
4. Be sure to rename your file according to the motherboard model. If you have an Rampage III extreme, rename the file to R3E. If you have a Maximus IV Extreme rename the file to R4E.
5. Place the USB drive into the ROG Connect USB Port

Cons: No bluetooth connect for rog, which should standard on any rog motherboard. Only having 1 bios. Not getting the same features that Intel boards get (see any Rampage mobo) You target our Xtreme computer Systems give amd users more tools.

Other Thoughts: People see the word "gaming motherboard" and think .zomg I will own in world of warcraft now and have zero Idea of what they are buying. Those are the majority of problems that you read here and any search.

Pros: easy to asemble, booted up no problem, installed os no problem, oc'd no problem

Cons: I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get this blasted Thunderbolt card's sound drivers to install... it tells me to have the front pannel, usb, power all installed b4 continuing thru the process, i've done that , i do it again and again, checking the cables and making sure its all inorder, nothing, tech suppport tells me some vague and arrogant "you're doing it wrong" comment but dosn't specify what exactally is wrong. The network feature works fine on it, sound though Im having to run thru the onboard ac97

Other Thoughts: Hopefully I'll get this rebate and put it towards a real soundcard.

FX8150 @ 4.5
NOctua cpu cooler
Coolermaster HAF X
16gb ddr3 gskill @1866mhz
nvidia 580
Win7 64bit ultimate

Pros: 8th build, first AMD build. Board is really nice with a lot of options; but it is NOT built for beginners. It includes some newer tech, but it seems that all of the tech was not quite ready for prime time, unless you know what you are doing.

Had just a couple of small setup issues that were resolved without much trouble... My fault mainly as with most guys, we only read the instructions when something DOESN'T work, not actually before as we should.

Board is really nice and I recommend it highly, just make sure to do your homework with the rest of the build.

Cons: Could use a little refinement and definitely better instructions.

AISuite installation can be buggy. After you are up and running - install ONLY the chipset drivers from the supplied disk and then the AISuite, otherwise the AI suite fails to install for some people (me included). By all accounts it is nice software but totally unecessary in the long run - I've just opted to run without it.

Other Thoughts: Price is decent. Took the money I saved building and AMD system (vs. Intel) and bought a new case, processor, video card, 32 gigs of mem, and a couple of SSD drives.

I love how fast the new system is; very impressed.

Pros: This thing is a monster. If you need to tweak a hardware setting, this thing *can* do it. The sheet amount of options is difficult really take in without doing some serious studying on the hardware capabilities of each of your parts.

Cons: All cons with this are based on the hardware you bought to stick in this thing... It does what you want it to do given enough power and room. Only downside is that the thunderbolt audio sometimes bugs out and for whatever reason isn't fully compatible with THX TruStudio that it ships with.

Other Thoughts: Build
ASUS Crosshair V Formula/ Thunderbolt
4x8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3
2x ASUS HD 7870 GHz
Corsair 1200ax power supply
AMD 3.6 Ghz 8 Core Zambezi Processor
Corsair H100 Cooling System
Coolermaster HAF X Computer Case
Lite-ON Blueray + Dvd reader/writer
OCZ Vertex 4 256GB SSD
Seagate Barracuda 3TB

Razor Ultimate Blackwidow
Razor Naga

Pros: Been a system builder since 1989. Have used many makes of boards. When it comes to AMD compatible boards you can't beat ASUS. I've used this board personally for about six months and am well pleased with it. The new UEFI BIOS is a joy to use. Not a fan of over clocking, but have tested the limits of the 32GB's of memory installed with no problems. This board was built with a gaming over-clockers heart. Make sure the memory you use is listed with Asus for this board and you will save yourself a world off aggravation. Board is very stable even when running several app's at the same time (Photoshop, Video editing, etc). One of the most common motherboard repairs is due to cheap capacitors, ASUS only uses high end solid state capacitors. Although I am not a gamer (what the board was design for), I would highly recommend this board to anyone needing a high end board!

Cons: LAN socket clip is a little to close to the side of I/O shield (small problem for us fat finger folks).

Pros: Simply astounding mainboard. Detailed manual, covers all of this boards MANY MANY options/features. The ability to "level-up" your cpu is just too cool. Also, the UEFI BIOS is extremely intuitive...definitely makes BIOS a lot less intimidating for newer DIY owners.

Cons: The only thing that I can say that I'm disappointed about is the PCIe layout. I know that the board is set up to allow for 3 vga's but it's still cramped. For a gaming MB, it seems like ASUS didn't take into account the fact that we'd be using larger graphic cards in the top PCIex16 slot, because there simply is not enough room for a larger card to fit along with the thunderbolt card unless you throw the thunderbolt on one of the other slots, which removes the possibility of sli/xfire.

Other Thoughts: The board is great, operationally, I have no qualms. The only thing I'd suggest for perspective buyers, is just to save a few bucks on purchase, and get the crosshair v formula MB without the thunderbolt. Chances are that you're looking at this board for gaming applications, and you're probably using a headset anyways, so ask yourself if you REALLY need that thunderbolt card.

Pros: Haven't even had a chance to find out system will not post

Cons: Just recieved new MB and CPU yesterday, I bought them as combined item. After putting the new board in and adding the processor in the system. System has the Red CPU Led meaning that something is wrong around the cpu according to asus. I tried clearing bios and still no good. Newegg quickly gave me RMA for the CPU but after reading reviews I'm wondering if it's not the MB, I'm hoping ASUS is dectecting this error correctly because if it is the motherboard than that will add another few weeks on top of the CPU return without a computer to play my games on or development work.

Other Thoughts: It would of been helpful if newegg had tested the boards and cpu before sending them out or something when they are bought as a combined item. Maybe option to pay for the replacement and get it refunded when the bad CPU arrives to speed up the process.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issue you had with the motherboard.

A red CPU_LED light means that there's a problem with the CPU. You can try reseating the CPU, check the pins for damage, make sure the cooler does not excessive force on the CPU/socket, or that the BIOS needs an update to support your CPU.

Please look here for the BIOS version needed to support your CPU: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3Plus/Crosshair_V_Formula/#CPUS. You can find the BIOS version on a long bar code sticker on the side of the motherboard. Look at the last four digits of that bar code. If it's less than what is required on the CPU support list, you will need an BIOS update.

Regards,
Benson
Asus Customer Loyalty
cl-benson@asus.com