The AMD X570 Motherboard Overview: Over 35+ Motherboards Analyzed
by Gavin Bonshor on July 9, 2019 8:00 AM ESTASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Formula
The ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Formula represents its flagship X570 entry onto the market with some very notable features, including a revamped design with a strong focus on performance, and ROG themed aesthetics. First of all, the ROG Crosshair VIII Formula uses EKWB heatsinks which can be connected to a custom water cooling loop for better power delivery temperatures, or as passive cooled. This has been seen on numerous iterations of its Maximus Formula boards created for Intel chipsets. This marks a shifting tide where ASUS seem to have confidence in AMD and the ability of its 7nm Ryzen 3000 processors, by opting for such a premium model for the X570 chipset.
One of the main focal points of the X570 chipset is its native PCIe 4.0 support. The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Formula has three-full length PCIe 4.0 slots operating at x16, x8/x8, and x8/x8/x4, with the final x4 coming from the chipset. This allows users to use two-way NVIDIA SLI and two-way AMD Crossfire multi-graphics card configurations. For add-on cards, a single PCIe 4.0 x1 slot is also present. There are also four DDR4 memory slots with a maximum supported capacity of up to 128 GB. Also included are a LiveDash OLED screen, a full metal backplate for a more rigid frame, and ROG armor across the majority of the PCB; not to forget about the swathe of RGB LED zones and the integrated fan within the chipset heatsink. On the rear of the board is a metal backplate which adds reinforcement to keep the board's structure intact.
On the componentry, the Crosshair VIII Formula uses a premium controller set with the most notable inclusions coming on the networking side. An Aquantia AQC111 5 GbE controller with a secondary Intel I211AT gigabit chip offers users dual LAN, but more impressively, ASUS has jumped onto the Wi-Fi 6 bandwagon by including the new Intel AX200 2x2 Wi-Fi adapter. The onboard audio is controlled by the Realtek SupremeFX S1220 HD audio codec. On the rear panel is a wide array of connections including seven USB 3.1 G2 Type-A, one USB 3.1 G2 Type-C, and four USB 3.1 G1 Type-A ports. Users can add to this with one USB 3.1 G2, two USB 3.1 G1 and two USB 2.0 front panel headers, with the USB 3.1 G2 offering one additional port, and the rest each offering an additional two ports per header.
The ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Formula is a mixture of premium controllers, quality features, and classic Formula aesthetics due to the implementation of an EKWB water block to keep the power delivery cool. This not only adds extra weight to the board but also cost and that is represented with an MSRP of $700.
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Gastec - Saturday, July 13, 2019 - link
Have I been living under a rock in the last 5 years, when did the prices of motherboards doubled?Kougar - Monday, July 15, 2019 - link
Sincerely appreciate the multi-G table on the last page. Was thinking multi-gig would be more commonplace with this generation but guess I was wrong.So much useless stuff on these boards, would trade almost all of it and the Wifi in favor of just a 5G NIC. Not sure mobo manufacturers have realized just how many consumers/businesses have moved all those SATA drives out of the computer and into a NAS.
kri55 - Wednesday, July 17, 2019 - link
Can you please post a picture from the back of this motherboard? I am thinking of buying this one and I want to watercool the chipset, so I need to know how the chipset radiator is fixed. If you could measure the distance between the mounting points it would be awesome.HideOut - Wednesday, July 17, 2019 - link
Your prices apparently mean nothing. When you click no them they show much different results when you get to either neweggs or amazons sites.jamawass - Wednesday, July 17, 2019 - link
Does the ASUS Prime X570-Pro have USB 3.1 type A or Type C headers to connect to a case's USB ports?icf80 - Tuesday, July 23, 2019 - link
X570 AORUS ELITE WIFI, on the gigabyte site is says it has Wifi 5 and BT 4.2, but in the review it says it has Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax wireless interface and BT 5.0. Check https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/X570-AORUS-EL...mike_bike_kite - Wednesday, July 24, 2019 - link
Can anybody summarise why you'd want an X570 board over one of the older boards ie X470? I know there's better overclocking support but, from all the reports I've read, these new Ryzens are near their max anyway. I know there's PCie4 support but does anyone own such a device? I know it has EEC memory support but why on earth do I need that? Why didn't this review tell us why we should want one of these new boards over the existing boards?I'm considering going all AMD with the 3700X 5700 though my current system (i5-3570K/1060 6GB/8GB RAM) is fairly snappy for what I do (mainly for 2D game development) but I'm just in the mood for a new PC. Smaller, quieter and more powerful would be nice and help justify the cost.
Bateluer - Wednesday, July 24, 2019 - link
The ASRock site lists the Steel Legend as having the ALC1220 chip, not the ALC1200 as noted in the AT table. https://www.asrock.com/MB/AMD/X570%20Steel%20Legen...enkov - Sunday, August 2, 2020 - link
To confirm from my X570 Steel legend - ALC1220 here. HWINFO64 says Audio Codec Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_1220&SUBSYS_18492223&REV_1001croc - Thursday, July 25, 2019 - link
I find it appalling that no x570 MB has more than 4 DIMM slots, and only dual channel at that. No support for more than 64 GB ram, even on the 'workstation' MB's. For around 700 US I expect better. It should also be considered 'standard equipment' by this time for the M.2's to offer raid support. Really, as a retired professional, I feel raped by these prices and lack of professional features.