The AMD 890FX is the new high-end chipset for AMD processors and the ASUS Crosshair IV Formula is one of the most high-end motherboards based on this new chipset, bringing all features high-end users could dream off: four PCI Express x16 slots, six SATA-600 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, gold-plated audio connectors, Japanese solid capacitors, extensive overclocking support and more. Check it out.

This new high-end chipset is a two-chip solution. The main feature of the north bridge chip is the presence of 42 PCI Express x1 lanes – almost double the amount present on AMD 890GX chipset (22 lanes) – which allows a very high-end configuration for the expansion slots as we will explain in the next page. The south bridge chip used is an SB850, the same one used on the AMD 890GX chipset. The main feature of this chip is the native support for six SATA-600 (a.k.a. “SATA 6G”) ports, so the motherboard doesn’t need an external chip to support this feature, and certainly the AMD 890FX and 890GX will help the new SATA standard to become mainstream.

In Figure 1 you can have an overall look from ASUS Crosshair IV Formula.

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Figure 1: ASUS Crosshair IV Formula motherboard.