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Written by Dusan Srbljak
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Monday, 24 December 2007 |
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Page 1 of 3 ASUS... It is simply incredible how much this IT giant from Taiwan knows the ways of marketing and promotion. However, quality marketing has to be supported by quality products in order to be effective. In this era which we have to call “Core era”, ASUS has shown both. However, whenever we claimed that a certain ASUS motherboard was the ultimate Intel Core2Duo solution, that very same ASUS made us change opinions with the first upcoming model (month after month, so to speak).
| ASUS Blitz Formula SE |
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| Chipset |
Intel P35 Express + ICH9R Chipsets |
| Memory |
4 x DDR2 (Max 8 GB) |
| Audio |
ADI 1988B 7.1 High Definition Audio Codec |
| SATA |
6x SATA2 + 2xeSATA + 1PATA |
| LAN |
2 x Realtek RTL8111B Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s |
| RAID |
Serial ATA RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 |
| Connectors |
2 PCI Express x16, 2 PCI Express x1, 2 PCI, 12 USB 2.0, 2xIEEE1394 |
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In a word, fascinating! Our policy was always to award products (or not) at the end of the article, but we have to make a precedent this time and give this model the “Editor's Choice” award immediately! A precedent... That's exactly what this motherboard is. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the honor of presenting you with – ASUS Blitz Formula Special Edition (or simply “Formula”).
First of all, Formula is based on the Intel P35 chipset, which we already commended a number of times, so we will keep our focus upon the unknown. Formula belongs to ASUS's “Republic of Gamers” motherboard series, which automatically means that the bundle will be rich. Alongside all necessary cables and those less so, there is a SupremeFX II audio card with the PCI-E 1x interface and blue LEDs. Of course, the quality of this solution is incomparable to the sound offered by X-Fi or Xonar cards, but is nevertheless definitely better than any integrated solution.
The other interesting thing is the LCD display, which is attached to the board with a long cable and serves the purpose of constantly notifying you in which stadium the board currently is and whether there are any problems, which can be of interest to overclockers. We also fancied the rubber buffers that arrive with the board and can be installed directly on it. These will, along with power and reset buttons, greatly improve the board's handling when it isn't located inside a case (like when we were testing it).
What's also worth mentioning is that the board comes with two turbine-type fans. The heatpipe system does a good job, but ASUS went on even further by creating the “Fusion Block System”. On the Northbridge, there is a water block which you can mount a water-cooling system on. All fittings and diameters are included in the bundle, so that you don't have to change your previous cooling system, if you have one. This way, you will be cooling not only the Northbridge itself, but also the Southbridge, voltage unit and the Crosslink chip, all thanks to the heatpipe system.
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