Thursday 5 February 2015
Asus' Crossblade warden motherboard reviewed
Consent to me ask you a connect of questions. Execute you bleed AMD red? Wonderful. Maintain you been following Geoff's reviews of Asus' Z97 and X99 motherboards, tantalized by with the aim of company's hottest and furthermost firmware innovations in favor of Intel platforms? How terrible. Now, I bring you a form of relief: The Crossblade warden, an AMD A88X-based Socket FM2+ board with the aim of blends Asus' fresh firmware innovations with all of the underpinnings crucial in favor of an enthusiast PC built around single of AMD's hottest APUs.
We might call such a point a "unicorn," but that's not the nearly everyone unique point more or less the Crossblade warden. This is the lone Socket FM2+ mobo from Asus' premium nation of Gamers (or ROG) sub-brand, which is alert on the unique needs of elite gamers and extreme overclockers. All but speaking, trade a ROG motherboard habitually gets you a distinctive design language, an upgraded onboard audio codec, add-on on-board controls in favor of the test bench, and an exclusive suite of gaming-centric software utilities.
Promotion in favor of $153, the Crossblade warden is the cheapest ROG motherboard around. It's in addition the nearly everyone expensive A88X-based mobo on the marketplace by a ample margin. It'll be present fascinating to see to it that whether the warden is worth the considerable premium. In favor of at present, let's take a look by the side of the Ranger's board explain.
To your house on the warden
The Crossblade warden impresses from the instant with the aim of you pick up it dazed of the box. This is a stocky part of a set of hardware, in the sphere of part for the reason that of the three solid slabs of metal with the aim of comprise the VRM and chipset heatsinks. While a weighty motherboard isn't a first-class indicator of performance, it certainly feels good. The chiseled heatsinks, the dull black PCB, and the muffled red-and-black color scheme are pleasantly aggressive with no crossing the line into tackiness. Asus refrained from printing countenance blurbs all in excess of the PCB, too, contributing to the clean presentation. This is the kind of motherboard with the aim of windowed suitcases were made to demonstrate.
Builders looking to install big air coolers strength of character locate loads of clearance on the Crossblade warden. At this point are a little precise clearance measurements:
The VRM heatsinks are succinct sufficient with the aim of nearly everyone CPU coolers ought to apparent them with no circulation. Depending on your unambiguous RAM and cooler combination, however, taller RAM cook spreaders may well approach into communication with the substructure of the heatsink tower. Keep with the aim of in the sphere of mind whilst pick parts, the same as at all times.
Asus has integrated a little test-bench-friendly skin texture on the Crossblade warden, the same as well, plus a immense, LED-backlit power button, a reset switch, and a little mode switches correlated to liquid nitrogen cooling in favor of extreme overclockers. I don't maintain a dewar of cryo-coolant close to test these modes, but it's probably safe to say with the aim of we plain mortals can safely ignore them. The less significant red button triggers Asus' MemOK! Countenance, a firmware routine with the aim of strength of character try to locate the proper settings in favor of your DIMMs if they don't bring about with the warden dazed of the box.
On the luggage compartment front, Asus has tapped each single of the eight SATA 6Gbps ports from the A88X chipset. Unfortunately, near aren't every M.2 slots on the Ranger's PCB, so buyers who poverty to take benefit of the next-gen luggage compartment standard strength of character maintain to get a drive with the aim of can plug into a PCIe slot, like Kingston's HyperX killer.
The same as single would expect from an ATX motherboard, the warden has loads of spreading out slots. The red PCIe slots share 16 lanes of Gen3 connectivity concerning them, which can be present devoted entirely to a single GPU or else split concerning a brace of pixel-pushers in favor of CrossFireX setups. Nvidia SLI support is absent, however. The grey PCIe x16 slot by the side of the substructure of the mobo provides four Gen2 lanes, which can be present used to add a third GPU in favor of triple CrossFireX configs. All of the PCIe x16 slots are controlled by the APU. Asus in addition taps the A88X chipset in favor of two other PCIe 2.0 x1 slots and a brace of plain old PCI slots.
The Crossblade warden includes Asus' SupremeFX 2014 audio hardware and software suite. The underlying codec computer chip is the same Realtek ALC1150 with the aim of can be present found on many of Asus' other high-end motherboards, but there's a little add-on EMI protecting and a little premium Elna capacitors in the sphere of the gesticulate lock up at this point, the same as well. The Ranger's implementation of the ALC1150 includes DTS fix and DTS Neo:PC support, which correspondingly allow the warden to jet 5.1-channel surround and simulated 7.1-channel audio from non-surround sources through the S/PDIF docks.
A connect of SupremeFX skin texture bring about exclusively with the front-panel audio connection. The at the outset is SenseAmp, which consequentially detects whether low- or else high-impedance headphones are plugged into the front panel and adjusts the ALC1150's built-in earphone amplifier accordingly. The succeeding is SoundStage, an OS-independent congeal of four gaming audio profiles with the aim of can be present switched using a dyed-in-the-wool button on the motherboard. The suspicion sounds neat, but I feel like near really ought to maintain been an outer mode button in favor of this countenance. Nearly everyone colonize probably won't poverty to initiate their suitcases recently to switch the audio profiles.
To my own ears, the SupremeFX audio sounds more or less the same the same as the Xonar DG in the sphere of my key logic. I didn't without delay notice a difference in the sphere of sound quality concerning the Realtek ALC1150 and the Xonar DG, the same as I did concerning the Xonar and the Realtek ALC892 on my Asus Z97-A. If short of, I would say with the aim of the ALC1150 is to some extent other mid-heavy than the Xonar, which might maintain a smoother overall sound by comparison. With no extensive double-blind trying, it's intense to call a winner at this point. In favor of the be more or less person, the SupremeFX audio ought to be present effortlessly fine.
Poignant around to the docks cluster, near are two USB 2.0 ports and two USB 3.0 ports attached to the A88X chipset. The USB 3.0 ports lower than the Ethernet jack are driven by an ASMedia controller. If the rear docks cluster doesn't provide sufficient USB links, the warden has interior headers in favor of one more two USB 3.0 ports and six other USB 2.0 ports, all from the A88X chipset.
HDMI, DVI, and VGA demonstrate outputs are to be had in favor of the Radeon IGPs in the sphere of AMD APUs. Even though nearly everyone warden buyers strength of character likely be present adding together a discrete GPU to their systems, the omission of DisplayPort connectivity at this point is novel. I'd gladly let somebody have up the VGA docks in the sphere of trade.
Audio I/O is handled by a sextet of gold-plated analog ports, plus an optical S/PDIF output in favor of folks not up to scratch to bypass the motherboard's onboard DAC. A single PS/2 docks rounds dazed the Ranger's peripheral connection options. Carry on but not smallest amount, the single Ethernet docks is managed by an Intel gigabit controller.
See to it that with the aim of petty BIOS button nestled concerning the DVI and USB 3.0 ports? While its iconography would put it to somebody with the aim of it's a BIOS reset switch, this button in point of fact triggers Asus' BIOS Flashback countenance, which can be present used to upgrade the motherboard's firmware with no a CPU or else RAM installed. This countenance may well be present close if AMD releases a fresh Socket FM2+ CPU with the aim of isn't compatible with the Ranger's existing firmware.
Asus packs a hardly any extras into the Crossblade Ranger's box: Four SATA cables, a padded I/O docks defense with a classy black nickel cessation, a sheet of cable labels, a connect of the company's famous Q-Connector docks blocks, and a driver disc. If you're 13 and excited by stupid things, there's a exit hanger to keep the parents dazed of your space while you're pwning noobs, plus a ROG mouse mat with a crazy PC mecha on it.
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