Asus Maximus

[Cosworth]

Hello
Not particularly a fan of Asus but have noticed recently two motherboards that I quite like the look of:

Maximus Extreme

Maximus Formula (Special Edition)

The obvious difference between the two is that the extreme is DDR3 whilst the formula runs with cheap and cheerful DDR2. Both boards also support liquid cooling for the Northbridge which I believe is a good bonus extra as the X38 Northbridge is supposedly prone for running hot, more so than for example the P35.

This aside, I'm wondering as I am running three monitors whether or not due to the lack of multiple monitor support with crossfire as to whether on the extreme because it has 3 PCIe slots I could run two monitors from a third GPU and also run a crossfire configuration on one monitor.

Do you think it might work guys?

If not what's the general opinion on the formula? I was looking originally towards a Gigabyte.

[0iD]

Good in-depth review of the Maximus Formula here:
Asus Maximus Formula SE X38 - Living Review.

[this_is_gav]

This aside, I'm wondering as I am running three monitors whether or not due to the lack of multiple monitor support with crossfire as to whether on the extreme because it has 3 PCIe slots I could run two monitors from a third GPU and also run a crossfire configuration on one monitor.

Do you think it might work guys?.

It'll be a nice test of the drivers, but I can't see why it wouldn't work. Stick a little HD2400Pro or something in there, and the job's a good'un.

[Cosworth]

Good in-depth review of the Maximus Formula here:
Asus Maximus Formula SE X38 - Living Review.

Thanks 0iD it was an interesting read. Certainly shows once more the poorer quality of manufacture by Asus.
It did illustrate the point about the general heat problem the x38's Northbridge seems to suffer with. This though may prove the critical factor, despite its failings, in perhaps having to choose the Asus over the others. For at least it allows a decent cooling system to be added to it.
The overclocking issue is fairly common knowledge I think now, that the X38 is not as good at doing so as say compared to a P35. This I'm not particularly bothered about as I don't overclock and wouldn't wish to push it to the outer limits even if I did have a play some time later on.

The extreme seems like a nice idea because of the graphics set up but do I really want to stick with ATI when better Nvidia cards are available, meaning Crossfire and SLI are out of the equation. Then there is also the problem of the cost of buying DDR3 RAM.

So with me currently running an Asus and not liking it and being somewhat bias towards Gigabyte the big dilemma is taking into account what I have said do I go for Gigabyte or Asus?

[hermeticist]

I think the Maximus Formula SE was a ltd. Edition and probably now sold out?