ASUS X570 Crosshair VIII Formula Review

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Forgive us if you’re a rabid fan of AMD for a moment, but we don’t think we’d be giving away any secrets to say that AMD boards for a long while have had a certain look about them. Partly because the AM3 platform was getting long in the tooth, and partly just because of the way that AMD have always designed their hardware. There is no doubt at all that the latest AM4 platform, especially here in X570 guise, is looking much more modern and – whisper it – Intel like. This is definitely a good thing.

  

At the top left hand corner we find the 4+8 CPU power inputs. We’ve spoken a lot about our distaste for the short 12V cables PSU manufacturers give us to fit into these connectors, but if you’ve ever worried that perhaps that shortness of cable was placing an undue strain upon the port and potentially causing issues down the line, then you’ll be pleased to note that the Crosshair VIII Formula has steel bracing around the CPU power input too.

  
  

At the top the dominating factor is unquestionably the EK waterblocks. Definitely the premiere water cooling option on the market to find the Crosshair VIII Formula equipped with them out of the box is automatically saving you the best part of a hundred quid and the fret that comes with disassembling the heatsinks on your freshly purchased motherboard. The abiding feeling you get looking at the top half of the Crosshair is how sorted it is. Everything in its place and a place for everything.

  

Just above the DIMM Slots we find the first of the many headers on the Crosshair VIII Formula that we highlighted on the previous page. If you want to run a triple fan AIO you wont have any issues finding places to put everything. Something that isn’t always the case. Next to those we have the RGB and Addressable headers now a fixture of ASUS ROG products, as well as the Rampage-esque start and reset buttons.

  

Below those is the 24 pin ATX connector, still vertically mounted, next to the USB 3.2 front panel connector so you can have all the convenience of front mounted USB ports without compromising your speed. We all love speed.

  

Lastly on this section the ROG logo has a small fan above it, something we’ve seen on a lot of these X570 motherboards. When you’re pushing so much bandwidth through the PCI Express 4.0 lanes you’re bound to generate a little heat, so having active cooling, particularly in the current weather, is vital.