Custom PC – October 2019

A

sus’Formulaboardshavewonmany
topawardsatCustomPCover
theyears,butthisoneis a bit
different.Ratherthanretailingfora (stillwallet-
smarting)coupleofhundredpounds,theROG
CrosshairVIIIFormulawon’tleaveyouwith
muchchangefrom£600.Thistopstheprices
ofAsus’recentHEDTROGboardsforX299
andX399chipsets,sowe’reinterestedtosee
ifthisboardcanjustifyit.
Theobviousextrafeatureis a large
waterblockthatspansalltheVRMswitha
singleinletandoutlet.Boughtseparately,
thisblockwouldlikelyaddover£100tothe
price,althoughtheboardstillmanagedto
maintainVRMtemperaturesbelow50°C
underloadatstockspeed,evenwithout
watercooling.TheFormulais certainly
attractivetoo,especiallyonceitstasteful
RGBlightingfiresup,plusit hasa quartetof
RGBheaderstoexpandyourlightingwith
4-pinor3-pinaddressableRGBLEDstrips.

ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR

VIIIFORMULA/£589inc VAT

SUPPLIER overclockers.co.uk

Yougeta pairofPCI-E4 M.2portsand,

unlikesomeoftheboardsontest,they’re

bothhousedundera singlelongheatsink

atthebottomofthePCB.Asa result,you

don’tneedtoremoveyourgraphicscardto

accessthem,whichis particularlyhandyif

yoursystemis water-cooled.Asusincludes

thefullcomplementofoverclockingand

testingtoolsaswell,althoughtheASRock

X570Taichi’sfullyformed,largerbuttons

arebetter.Thankfully,thechipsetfan,while

constantlyspinning,wasinaudibletoourears.

TheResetbuttonherecanbeconfigured

toperformothertasks,whichextreme

overclockersmightfinduseful.Likewise,

there’salsoa Slowmodeswitch,aswell

asa Retrybutton,foroverclockers,andthe

ROGCrosshairVIIIFormulaoffersa massof

featuresforwater-cooledsystemsaswell.

There’sa single3A/36Wheaderthat

offersmorethanenoughpowerforwater-

coolingpumps,forexample,alongwith

ninefanheaders,pluswater-coolingflow

andtemperaturesensors.Asusincludesan

armadaofUSBportsontherearI/Opanel

too,withsevenType-AUSB3.1Gen2 ports

anda Type-Cportaswell.Youalsogeta 5

GigabitLANportandintegrated802.11ax

Wi-Fi,allcrammedintoanATXPCB.

VERDICT

Agreatfeaturesetanda quietchipsetfan,

buttheFormulagetsnowherenearto

justifyingitshugeprice.

FORMULA 1

+ Integratedwatercooling

+ Quietchipsetfan

+ Extensive RGB lighting

FORMULAIC

• Lacksstand-outfeatures


• Not as interesting as other
  ROGboards


• Extremely expensive

LABS TEST / X570 MOTHERBOARDS

PERFORMANCE

32 / 35

VALUE

13 / 30

FEATURES

33 / 35

OVERALLSCORE

78 %

SPEC

Chipset AMD X570

CPU socket AMD Socket AM4 (Zen+, Zen 2)

Memory support 4 slots: max 128GB

DDR4 (up to 4800MHz)

Expansion slots Two 16x PCI-E 4,

one 16x PCI-E 3, one 1x PCI-E 4

Sound 8-channel Realtek ALC1220

Networking Intel Gigabit Ethernet, Aquantia

5 Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ax Wi-Fi

Overclocking Base clock N/A, CPU multiplier

23-65x; max voltages: CPU 2V, RAM 2V

Ports 6 x SATA 6Gbps 4 x M.2 PCI-E 4,

7 x USB 3.1 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C,

4 x USB 3, 3 x surround audio out

Dimensions (mm) 305 x 244

Sadly, in terms of performance, the ROG

Crosshair VIII Formula seemed to lag a little

behind the best-performing boards on test, and

didn’t top any charts. We also failed to match

the 4.35GHz achieved when overclocking

the MSI Prestige X570 Creation, managing a

tamer 4.3GHz that saw our Handbrake video

encoding score rise from 795,276 to 859,909.

Conclusion

For this price, we expected more from ROG

Crosshair VIII Formula given the excellent

ROG boards we’ve seen over the past 12

months. However, it lacks unique or killer

features – the likes of the MSI Prestige X570

Creation offer cheaper, but still lustworthy

homes for your 3rd-gen Ryzen CPU.