ASUS Crosshair mainboard review

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Extra features

The features mentioned on the previous already make the Crosshair motherboard one of the most complete motherboards based on the nForce 590 chipset we have ever seen, but ASUS managed to put even more on. Where other motherboards have a diagnostics system on the board that shows if something is wrong during startup, they introduce the "LCD Poster". In stead of indicating the problem in a code a little LCD screen tells you in normal language what is the problem with your system during the boot sequence.

The picture above shows the I/O connections and the two external SATA connections we mentioned on the previous page. Between the digital audio and the firewire connector there is a small switch that turns on lighting around the connections, so you can find the right ports even in dark environments, like LAN parties. ASUS even takes it a step further and has also placed leds around all internal connection ports, when these are switched on there are a lot, and we do mean a lot, of small blue LED's on the PCB of the board.

ASUS is one of the first manufacturers that are aware that users do not necessarily place the board in side a case. To accomodate these users they have placed a power, reset and clear bios button on the actual board. Of course these buttons are illuminated as well.

We could not believe it, but there is more.The Crosshair mainboard has several temperature sensors and in the box you can find the Q-connector. The Q-connector is a plug that allows you to connect all the cables for the connections and buttons on your case, and then plug this connector straight into the motherboard; no more fussing around with small cables. A special Srray microphone is bundled with the board as well, this can be used for VOIP and chats during gameplay.