When ASUS created the Republic of Gamers (R.O.G.) series of motherboards, it was an avenue to enable ASUS to experiment with products outside of the norm. Besides creating a niche for hardcore gamers and enthusiasts, the R.O.G. boards showcase some of the innovative ideas behind the creative team there at ASUS. The first R.O.G. motherboards were based on NVIDIA nForce chipsets, which focused more on supplementing their already huge feature list with more. The ASUS Crosshair and Striker Extreme boards are examples. Then came Intel's P965 chipset and the ASUS Commando, which took overclocking potential to uncharted territories.
While some of the more extreme ideas like a motherboard with onboard memory have leaked beyond the R.O.G. series (ASUS P5K3 Premium Black Pearl Edition), ASUS has more tricks up their sleeves than you can shake a stick at. And their latest Republic of Gamers offerings are a testament to that. The ASUS Blitz Extreme and Blitz Formula Special Edition attempts to bring not one, but two very unique features to the table that one would usually only see from the hardcore modding community. These include hybrid cooling and a custom 'hacked' PCIe controller to force dual x8 PCIe operation from the Intel P35 chipset. In this review, we check out the Blitz Formula Special Edition motherboard.
Packaging and Specifications
The Blitz Formula comes with The most elaborate accessory bundle we've come across, even among ASUS boards. Besides the throng of cables and regular ASUS extras like the Q-connector kit and optional fan cooler, you get an accessory kit for the Fusion Block System, an external LCD Poster display, a sound card and the most unusual item in the package comes in the form of a set of self adhesive rubber tabs, which ASUS is passing off as DIY Pedestal stands. Basically, you can peel of each tab and arrange it so you can place the board on top to help with heat dissipation; that is of course, if you're used to setting up your system out in the open.
Here's the full list of accessories accompanying the board:
6 x SATA cables
2 x SATA power cables (dual plug)
UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable
Floppy disk drive cable
SupremeFX II Audio Card
Fusion Block System Accessories
2-port USB2.0 and IEEE 1394a bracket
LCD Poster
DIY Pedestal
ASUS Optional Fan
3 in 1 ASUS Q-Connector Kit
I/O Shield
Cable Ties
Driver DVD and user's manual
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl full game
ASUS Blitz Formula Special Edition Technical Specifications
CPU Support Supports all 90nm/65nm Intel LGA775 processors
45nm ready (Wolfdale & Yorkfield)
Quad-Core Optimized
Chipset Northbridge: Intel P35
533 / 800 / 1066 / 1333MHz front side bus
PCI Express x16 for graphics
Southbridge: Intel ICH9R
Intel High Definition Audio
Supports six PCI Express x1 lanes
Supports up to twelve USB 2.0 ports
Supports six SATA 3.0Gbps ports (with Matrix Storage Technology)
Integrated 10/100/1000Mbps MAC
Memory Supports four unbuffered DIMM of 1.8 Volt DDR2 SDRAM
Supports 1066/800/677/533 dual channel DDR2 memory architecture
2-phase DDR2 power supply
Storage Intel ICH9R Southbridge
6 x SATA 3.0Gbps interface
Intel Matrix Storage Technology
Supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, RAID 5, RAID 10
JMicron JMB368
1 x Ultra ATA 33/66/100/133 (data transfer rate up to 133MB/sec.)
Audio ASUS SupremeFX II PCI Express Audio Card
ADI AD1988B HD Audio chipset
Optical and coaxial S/PDIF
Networking Marvell 88E8056 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
Marvell 88E8001 PCI Gigabit Ethernet
IEEE 1394 (FireWire) VIA VT6308P FireWire-400 controller
2 x 1394a ports @ 400 Mbps speed
I/O Interface 1 x Floppy connector
1 x Ultra ATA IDE connectors
6 x SATA connectors
12 x USB 2.0 ports (6 x rear, 6 x header)
2 x IEEE 1394a ports (1 x rear, 1 x header)
2 x RJ45 LAN port
1 x Optical S/PDIF Output
1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Output
1 x COM port (header)
1 x mini-DIN-6 PS/2 keyboard port
Expansion Slots 2 x PCIe x16 slots, PCI Express Bus specification v1.1 compliant
3 x PCIe x1 slots, PCI Express Bus specification v1.1 compliant
2 x 32-bit PCI slots, PCI 2.3 compliant
Special Features ASUS Fusion Thermal System
ASUS Crosslinx Technology
2-Phase DDR2
Voltiminder LED
Loadline Calibration
External LCD Poster
PCB ATX Form Factor, 12"x 9.6"(30.5cm x 24.4cm)
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