A
sus’fantasticMaximusandRampageGene
micro-ATXboardsweresadlycanneda few
yearsago,meaningthecompanyhadno
presenceatallbelowtheATXformfactoronIntel’sHEDT
sockets,anditsfabulousMaximusImpactmini-ITXrange
endedontheZ170chipsettoo,meaningtherewereno
all-outAsusenthusiastsub-ATXofferings.TheStrix
rangefilledsomeofthegaps,butthese
boardswerefarmorerestrainedthanthe
originalImpactdesigns.NowtheImpactis
back,though,andthistimeit’sequipped
withSocketAM4.
TheCrosshairVIIIImpactis partofan
onslaughtofsuper-premiumandvery
expensiveX570boardsthathavelanded
sinceJuly’s3rd-genRyzenlaunch.
Intriguingly,theCrosshairVIIIImpactisn’t
a mini-ITXboardeither.Instead,Asushas
decidedtogoalloutwithfeaturesandadd
33mmofrealestatetotheendofthe
PCB,makingtheboardmini-DTXrather
thanmini-ITX.
Asusclaimstheboardwillstillfitin
mostmini-ITXcases,buttherearesome
chassiswheretheImpact’ssizewillbe
problematic,whetherit’sdowntopure
size,interferencewithPCI-Erisercables
orrestrictingcoolingoptions,withmany
casesusingthespacebelowthe
motherboardtohousefansandradiators.
Theotherissueis price,whichis an
issueformanyX570boards,but£375forASUSCROSSHAIR
VIIIIMPACT/£375incVAT
SUPPLIER scan.co.ukX570 MINIDTX MOTHERBOARD
a boardthats limitedbyitssizeis a toughask.However,the
factthatAMDis releasingitsRyzen9 3950Xsoonmeans
the Crosshair VIII Impact will appeal not just to mainstream
users, but also to high-end content creators looking to build
small but powerful PCs.
Thankfully, Asus has also gone to town on the power
circuitry and cooling to make sure it can handle the 16-core
CPU. The huge I/O shroud is one big heatsink that cools a
10-phase power delivery, as well as the X570 chipset that’s
located next to the VRMs, and is equipped with two tiny
30mm fans to aid cooling. These fans push air over small
finned heatsinks, which are attached to the larger shroud
and sit above the VRMs and chipset, with small exhaust
vents on either side.
There’s also a backplate that uses a heatpipe to cool
this area from the underside. It’s a jaw-dropping cooling
arrangement, and one that thankfully proved quiet and
very effective, keeping the VRMs below 50°C under load.
The board uses a vertical SODIMM.2 module – a mini
version of the DIMM.2 module used on larger ROG boards.
It offers two M.2 ports, each of which is cooled using a large
heatsink. They support SATA 6Gbps M.2 SSDs as well as
PCI-E 4 NVMe models, and the module also has two extra
4-pin fan headers and a 3-pin RGB header, with five fan
headers available in total, including with up to 36W of
power for water-cooling pumps.
The heatsink saw our M.2 SSD peak at just 45°C under
load, the lowest temperature we’ve seen so far. There are
also coolant flow and temperature sensors, plus a huge
range of overclocking and testing tools, with power and
reset buttons, a clear-CMOS button, USB BIOS Flashback
as well as extreme overclocking features.REVIEWS /MOTHERBOARD
SPEC
Chipset
AMD X570
CPU socket
AMD Socket AM4 (Zen+, Zen 2)
Memory support
2 slots: max 64GB DDR4 (up to
4800MHz)
Expansion slots
One 16x PCI-E 4
Sound
8-channel ROG SupremeFX S1220
Networking
1 x Intel Gigabit LAN, Intel 802.11ac
Wi-Fi
Overclocking
Base clock 96-118MHz, CPU
multiplier 22-64x; max voltages,
CPU 1.7V, RAM 2.47V
Ports
4 x SATA 6Gbps 2 x M.2 PCI-E 4.0, 3
x USB 3 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C,
4 x USB 3, 1 x LAN, 3 x surround
audio out
Dimensions (mm)
203 x 170geGene aboardthat’slimitedby its size is a toughaskHoweverthecc
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