Asus Blitz Formula Special Edition

[Spector]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=635524

anyone know anything about this motherboard? how does it compare to the p5k? im looking for alternatives to it since scan are out of them :/

[crazy]

supposedly the best overclocking p35 board from what i've heard

[Tetras]

It is one of Asus "ultimate" P5K P35 series motherboards and like the other top end P5K boards will probably be discontinued shortly to make way for X38. Among the features is a modular waterblock system (useless without watercooling ), Crosslinx crossfire chip (converts the 16X/4X P35 Crossfire slot config into 8X, 8X, though Xbit had an article that indicated this board may have compatibility issues with PCI-E 2.0 video cards) and enhanced voltage regulation for the CPU and memory.

In my opinion it is a waste of money for the average user because:
They won't use watercooling (and even if they did might well prefer to do it themselves with a cheaper board, since the base design is not that different to boards costing half the price and long term use / warranty cover is probably not an issue).
They won't use Crossfire so the 8X/8X chip is moot, since a single card high end card is fast enough and expensive enough that most gamers are perfectly happy with the performance (and when it comes to the point they won't be, faster, single cards will be available anyway which also bypasses the heat, noise, space and power issues that come with running Crossfire).

If you went for the P5K-E for example, you'd still get one of the "high end" Asus PCB designs with decent (more than your likely to need) overclocking ability at £70 odd off the price. If your looking for performance gains then the extra money would be best off put into a faster processor or video card.

[Supershanks]

like the other top end P5K boards will probably be discontinued shortly to make way for X38

Is hardly likely p35 & X38 will be the same as 965 & 975 chipsets, which lived happily side by side for long enough. See Asus R.O.G. Blitz Formula (DDR2) / Blitz Extreme (DDR3)
- 2 phase DDR2/DDR3 Preview

[Tetras]

Is hardly likely p35 & X38 will be the same as 965 & 975 chipsets

Aye when I said "top end" I literally mean "top end", stuff like the Blitz that might compete with X38 at the same price level, of course P35 won't dissapear.

975X was out before P965 so there was no need to have high end boards based on the latest and greatest chipset that was actually midrange and the matching prices with some boards are partly down to 975X being old and less in demand. With X38 that isn't the case and the chipset is better suited to high end boards than P35 which is being jacked up to offer something resembling an enthusiast board (like X8/X8 crossfire support).

Admittedly the existance of boards like the Commando is at odds with all that but it is still junior to the prices 680 was at on release

[CooperXS]

For that money IMO it is better to wait for X38 chipsets with 16x+16x pci-e slots and pci-e 2.0 support.

[s_kinton]

For that money IMO it is better to wait for X38 chipsets with 16x+16x pci-e slots and pci-e 2.0 support.

Seconded.

£163

[OriginalDon]

How much longer do we have to wait guys? I mean I was due to build in may but delayed due to Quad Core cuts and then G0

If we had to wait for every new technology no one would ever build. So I guess you would also say to wait for the Nvidia 9000 series

[godsdog]

How much longer do we have to wait guys? I mean I was due to build in may but delayed due to Quad Core cuts and then G0

If we had to wait for every new technology no one would ever build. So I guess you would also say to wait for the Nvidia 9000 series

OD, that's why I ended up getting the Asus P5K Deluxe from Komplett (£129) 2 days ago in this thread. I'm done waiting around, time to build. There were 10 in stock then, there are none now.

Even if the stated delays to X38 turn out to be false and X38 gets out on time, you still have the initial price hike from retailers to swallow and the tweaking of the boards for the following couple of months. I'll stomach buying just behind the curve, the real world performance difference to me with the stuff I've already bought is going to be negligible if any.
.

[shaithis]

Its a nice board, I recently put one in my main rig.

Not a single issue with it yet (other then no eSATA port, something which I overlooked ).....insanely high FSB (have been up to 450 without even upping the NB voltage, orthos stable).

Its basically the best board I've ever had in terms of stability and overclocking........as for the PCI-E channels........I am running 2 PCI-E cards (GFX and RAID), both at 8x and I cannot say that my framerate is suffering for it......3DMark06 scores well over 12k and running most games in 2560x1600 (lost planet @ 1920x1200) and not dropping frames.

[crazy]

If we had to wait for every new technology no one would ever build. So I guess you would also say to wait for the Nvidia 9000 series

very true, really can't wait any longer for the x38, might just go for this board, just need that little push

[Supershanks]

Biggest difference is akin to the 965 v 975 viz 2x16 pci-e slots.
Certainly if i was buyingh now or shortly i'd go for the X38. rather than a "top End" P35, if going p35 i'd probably go for the p5k premium, as it supposedly oces better than the p5k dlxe having a slightly modified wiring.
If looking for a cheap but relatively feature rich (cmos cllear button) then this may be an outside bet FOXCONN unleashes the power with MARS It was Foxconn that 1st developed digital PWM for nbetter voltage control, they seem to be now release enthusiast boards, maybe the new DFI

[godsdog]

if going p35 i'd probably go for the p5k premium

The active threads on the Asus support forums, regarding the P5K Prem, describing the serious problems with the board with SATA II drives and quad cores is enough to put anyone off, it did me anyway.

[Supershanks]

To be quite honest you see sata issues with most boards, most i think tend to be user/driver [f6] (poor floppy image etc.,) related. But i have seen a good few q6600 running exeeding well on the premium boards over @ Xtreme.

But as always it's your choice

[shaithis]

Just had a look and the forum is crammed with SATA II issues, so many that there must be a serious issue........and they don't seem to be RAID related either.