Asus Crosshair IV Extreme AMD 890FX Motherboard

Performance Summary: The Crosshair IV Extreme offers some of the best performance, overclocking, and general features of any 890FX-based motherboard available to date. It's overclocking and lower power consumption are features that may only appeal to certain audiences, but they're still packed in. The onboard audio is very good, the various BIOS protections make it all but impossible to hose the motherboard without using an axe, and it's currently one of just two motherboards that supports Nvidia multi-GPU configurations, even if the state of said support is rather shaky. Even with this caveat, it's the nicest AMD board we've seen in-house in quite some time.

If existing AM3 products were Bulldozer-compatible and LucidLogix's game support was more mature, this motherboard would be a must-have for any AMD enthusiast. Unfortunately, this is not the case; a fact that leaves the Crosshair IV Extreme on uneasy ground.

The Crosshair IV Extreme makes the most sense for an AMD fan who simultaneously wants to experiment with overclocking / core unlocking and doesn't see an upgrade in the near future. Anyone moving from a dual-core/quad-core AM2 system will notice the performance difference and Thuban, while not as powerful as some of Intel's Core i5/i7 products, still offers a good price/performance ratio of its own.

As we've noted on other occasions, there's no reason to think that a $300 board will magically offer better reliability or compatibility than a $150 board, simply by being more expensive. That said, the Crosshair IV Extreme impresses on virtually every front. Buyers who are aware of the Lucid Logix and Bulldozer-related caveats will find that it's easily the nicest, most overclocking-friendly, and feature-packed AMD motherboard currently available.