# Kenkickr's Crosshair III Formula Review



## kenkickr (Jun 30, 2009)

Received my Asus Crosshair III Formula AM3 yesterday so thought I'd start this review with some packaging and board pictures.

*Box and accessories:*

Here she is in all her majesty direct from Newegg(off the UPS truck)










2 boxes in a box, now that's cool!





Here are the accessories in box #2: I/O Shield, USB + 1394 bracket, 5 SATA cables, IDE cable, LCD Poster, USB and Switch Adapter, Supreme FX X-fi card, Driver/App disc, and Manual(Bible).  The Driver/App disc is very well loaded.  Of course you get all your drivers but two nice items are Kaspersky and 3dmark06.  Something that disappointed me is there are no crossfire adapters since this board isn't cheap but most ATI brand cards come with atleast one.  





*The MOTHERboard*

Here she is but first here is a link to the specs:http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=181&l3=896&l4=0&model=3063&modelmenu=2





















And the SupremeFX X-fi card.  This is not a real Creative card but uses an ADI HD codec with the Creative Console on top of it.  





*Installed*
The lighted items are the SupremeFX X-fi card and the Northbridge.  The Northbridge actually goes on and off.





Here is the LCD Poster.  Here I have the backlight on but through the bios you can turn the backlight future off.





Those little green LEDs you see, those are to show what kinda voltage you are giving the CPU, Memory, NB, and SB.  Green is Normal, Orange is High, and Red is Crazy.  Kinda neat if you ask me. 














*BIOS*

Now onto the bios.  First here is the startup screen.  One of the coolest I've ever seen!





I'm not gonna show all the Bios screen except what I think are crucial.  
Extreme Tweaker menu:









Advanced Menu:









The LCD Poster and LED Control menu I feel is really neat.  In here you can control the Backlight(On/Off) either at bootup or just intial power on.  Also you can change what it displays(Time or Temp/Volt/Fan speed...but not all which is kind of a bummer).









Power Option menu:





Tools:
I still think EZ Flash is one of the greatest inventions.  It makes BIOS flashing...FUN!





*Benchmarks: Stock CPU*

AMD Phenom II X2 550 @ stock(3.1Ghz, HTT2Ghz)
Asus Crosshair III Formula
Crucial 4gb kit DDR3-1333 @ 1600 8-8-8-20-40
2x Asus 4830 RBE modded 700core/1000mem
WD Black 1TB

*Synthetic*
CPU-Z





Hyper Pi





Sandra CPU Architecture Test:





Sandra Multi-Core Efficiency Test:





Sandra Memory Bandwidth Test:





Sandra Memory Latency Test:





Hard Drive Test:
HDTach 8mb Test





HDTach 32mb Test





HDTune





Kribibench Office Test(3d modeling test)





Cinebench v10 x64





3dMark06





3dMark Vantage





Devil May Cry 4 Benchmark(1680x1050, MSAA 4x, DirectX 10)





Tom Clancy's HawX(1680x1050, AA x4, AF x16)





Far Cry 2(1680x1050, AA x4, High Detail Ranch Medium Demo, DirectX 10)





F.E.A.R.(1680x1050, AA x4, AF x8 Everything High, No Soft Shawdows)





Half Life Lost Coast(1680x1050 AA x4, AF x16, Everything as high as it can go)





CoD: World at War Super Fi(1680x1050 AAx4)





*Overclocking*
Stable OC using Multiplier:
CPU-Z shoot





3dMark06





3dMark Vantage





Far Cry 2 Medium Ranch(1680x1050, DirectX 10, 4x AA, Everything on High)





Working on Max FSB and Max OC.


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## Deleted member 67555 (Jun 30, 2009)

Nice!


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## ShadowFold (Jun 30, 2009)

I'm going to hate on you until I get mine  My dad has one, you will not be disappointed!


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## kenkickr (Jun 30, 2009)

I debated for a couple days between this and the other Asus 790FX but finally decided on this one since I've never had a reason to have more than two cards in my system.  Also the crosshair looks to have a LOAD of fan headers on it.


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## LittleLizard (Jun 30, 2009)

kenkickr said:


> I debated for a couple days between this and the other Asus 790FX but finally decided on this one since I've never had a reason to have more than two cards in my system.  Also the crosshair looks to have a LOAD of fan headers on it.



also if u noted, all fan headers are PWM 

is a pretty nice motherboard, you should get some nice oc from it.


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## kenkickr (Jun 30, 2009)

Now we'll have to see if I keep my PII X2 550 or PII X3 720!


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## CDdude55 (Jun 30, 2009)

Awesome, very lucky.

Still workin with my 680i board.


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## kenkickr (Jun 30, 2009)

The only reason I got it is because a friend is in bad need of a system but with limited funds, his HD died on a 7yr old system, so I sold him some of what I have and I'm updating.  Girlfriend isn't happy...Oh Well

When I get it I'll be updating the OP with benchmark info and I should be using a X2 550.


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## afw (Jun 30, 2009)

Awesome MOBO  

and yeah ... love to see the MINI review


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## InnocentCriminal (Jun 30, 2009)

kenkickr said:


> The only reason I got it is because a friend is in bad need of a system but with limited funds, his HD died on a 7yr old system, so I sold him some of what I have and I'm updating. * Girlfriend isn't happy...Oh Well*



Are they ever unless you're buying them something? 

My GF got pissed (off) I bought her a 3870 and I bought myself a 4870. 

Looking forward to your findings/experiences.


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## kenkickr (Jul 3, 2009)

Started review of this sexy board


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## CDdude55 (Jul 3, 2009)

Very nice looking board.


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## LifeOnMars (Jul 3, 2009)

Nice one Ken, board looks very sweet Looking forward to the benches with the X2 installed....this could be the board I go for.


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## kenkickr (Jul 3, 2009)

I ran out of time to really play around with it cause I wanted to get Win7 installed so I could checkup on the Cubs/Brewers game last night but I couldn't find my Wifi driver.  

Oh yeah LifeonMars, I grabbed Far Cry 2 for ya so you can see some multithreading benchies with the 550.


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## BrooksyX (Jul 3, 2009)

good review! Thanks!


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## LifeOnMars (Jul 3, 2009)

kenkickr said:


> I ran out of time to really play around with it cause I wanted to get Win7 installed so I could checkup on the Cubs/Brewers game last night but I couldn't find my Wifi driver.
> 
> Oh yeah LifeonMars, I grabbed Far Cry 2 for ya so you can see some multithreading benchies with the 550.



You sir are a gentleman and a scholar


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## h3llb3nd4 (Jul 3, 2009)

damn she's a beauty!
I want one...


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## kenkickr (Jul 3, 2009)

There's still more to come, should have bios images up tonight.


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## eidairaman1 (Jul 3, 2009)

cool, I want to see some perf numbers.

CDAwall provided some stuff for more common OC boards (Not sure what CH3 is tho as the other 2 are MSI and Gigabyte)


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## kenkickr (Jul 4, 2009)

Sorry guys but I didn't get a chance to tonight.  Just visiting with friends this evening but will get some Bios pics and OCing results up in the morning.  Also wanted to update to the 0503 bios before starting since it has some goodies in it.


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## fullinfusion (Jul 4, 2009)

I ordered the Crosshair III today.... i cant wait to see the marks


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## Chicken Patty (Jul 4, 2009)

thanks for the review dude 


and brad you ordered yet another board?


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## erocker (Jul 4, 2009)

I will happily buy that X3 back from you.


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## DreamSeller (Jul 4, 2009)

how does it clock your PII X2 550 ?


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## LifeOnMars (Jul 4, 2009)

kenkickr said:


> Sorry guys but I didn't get a chance to tonight.  Just visiting with friends this evening but will get some Bios pics and OCing results up in the morning.  Also wanted to update to the 0503 bios before starting since it has some goodies in it.



No worries...all in good time Ken. OC, Bios and of course a few gaming benches with the x2 550


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## fullinfusion (Jul 4, 2009)

Chicken Patty said:


> thanks for the review dude
> 
> 
> and brad you ordered yet another board?


you can never have to many boards.


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## Easo (Jul 4, 2009)

Looks too good to be true!


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## kenkickr (Jul 4, 2009)

Added Bios menu pics and some more Installed pics.  Didn't get to Benchmarking cause I OC'd a little and having OCCT running for stability and my girlfriend wanted to play with her new Creative Zen MP3 player.  Will hopefully get benchmarks posted tonight, depending on weather since it's raining here, and when I get home.


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## kenkickr (Jul 5, 2009)

Having some issues with the system guys so trying to determine what piece of hardware is the problem.  OCCT and Prime95 keep reporting an error on either core 0 or 1 even at stock settings.  Memory passed 3 passes of Memtest86 @ default settings and @ 1600 8-8-8-20-40 setting so I'm thinking it's a proc issue.


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## LifeOnMars (Jul 5, 2009)

kenkickr said:


> Having some issues with the system guys so trying to determine what piece of hardware is the problem.  OCCT and Prime95 keep reporting an error on either core 0 or 1 even at stock settings.  Memory passed 3 passes of Memtest86 @ default settings and @ 1600 8-8-8-20-40 setting so I'm thinking it's a proc issue.



Sorry to hear that mate, hope you get it sorted


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## kenkickr (Jul 5, 2009)

Me too


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## johnnyfiive (Jul 5, 2009)

Nice info and pics ken! Very nice motherboard.


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## MKmods (Jul 5, 2009)

I had the Crosshair II for a while and it was pretty nice. I hope the prob is something simple.
(tubing/wiring looks really nice)


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## kenkickr (Jul 6, 2009)

Figured it out!!  I had to enable both Extreme OV and CPU Load-Line Calibration.  
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn22/kenkickr/IMG_0748.jpg

Both aid in stabilizing the CPU V-core.  Once I did that I was able to run OCCT CPU Test and Linpack for each one hour test without issues.  GAME ON!!


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## LifeOnMars (Jul 6, 2009)

kenkickr said:


> Figured it out!!  I had to enable both Extreme OV and CPU Load-Line Calibration.
> http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn22/kenkickr/IMG_0748.jpg
> 
> Both aid in stabilizing the CPU V-core.  Once I did that I was able to run OCCT CPU Test and Linpack for each one hour test without issues.  GAME ON!!



Excellent news  Game on indeed, let's see what this puppy can do


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## kenkickr (Jul 6, 2009)

The girlfriend wants to watch some House first then I get to finally play some MLB2k9.  After that I'll be craping benchmarks out!


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## CDdude55 (Jul 6, 2009)

kenkickr said:


> The girlfriend wants to watch some House first then I get to finally play some MLB2k9.  After that I'll be craping benchmarks out!



You play MLB2k9 on your PC? or Console?

Can't wait for the benchies.


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## WarEagleAU (Jul 6, 2009)

Ken, does that board come with the Q Shield? I hope so cuz I will be getting one hopefully in the next two months.


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## CDdude55 (Jul 6, 2009)

WarEagleAU said:


> Ken, does that board come with the Q Shield? I hope so cuz I will be getting one hopefully in the next two months.



At that price it better.


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## Kitkat (Jul 6, 2009)

welcome to crosshair club 



WarEagleAU said:


> Ken, does that board come with the Q Shield? I hope so cuz I will be getting one hopefully in the next two months.



yes 

http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=181&l3=896&l4=0&model=3063&modelmenu=1

and the boards price is lower because its amd + amd (incentive) no other reason and its low compared to other rogs. Its VERY fast/stable + 200 over MA for me anyway. comes with all the rog stuff. The page should answer most those qs above

happy OCing ken!!!!


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## kenkickr (Jul 6, 2009)

WarEagleAU said:


> Ken, does that board come with the Q Shield? I hope so cuz I will be getting one hopefully in the next two months.



Yes, the board does come with the Q-shield.  The only thing I wish they would have added in the packaging is some crossfire cables but since most ATI cards come with one it's not a big deal.  I am workiing on benchmarks and plain on getting ALL of them put up tomorrow night.  Benchmarks are being ran with my 24-7 settings.


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## kenkickr (Jul 6, 2009)

CDdude55 said:


> You play MLB2k9 on your PC? or Console?
> 
> Can't wait for the benchies.



Didn't see ya there CDdude but to answer your question I play MLB2k9 on PC...screw consoles  I just don't have the money for a console so my philosophy is to be against what I can't afford:shadedshu


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## LifeOnMars (Jul 6, 2009)

kenkickr said:


> Didn't see ya there CDdude but to answer your question I play MLB2k9 on PC...screw consoles *I just don't have the money for a console so my philosophy is to be against what I can't afford*:shadedshu



He says , with his shiney new Crosshair III sitting inside his case


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## kenkickr (Jul 6, 2009)

What can I say...I'm broke now  I tried to get some benchies(Sandra CPU and Mem, Kribi, Cinebench, and PCMark Vantage) but ran out of time since the neighbor upstairs can't drive his car yet and wanted me to run by the bank for him.  I'll post some tonight and have all of them up by tomorrow night.  Oh yeah, I beat the Cardinals 6-1 last night CDdude if interested.


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## WarEagleAU (Jul 6, 2009)

Sweet. That Q-Shield is the best thing ever included in a Mobo. Im not too hassled by the Crossfire Connector, shit I have like 3 or 4 of them here from my cards . Cannot wait until I get mine.


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## CDdude55 (Jul 6, 2009)

kenkickr said:


> What can I say...I'm broke now  I tried to get some benchies(Sandra CPU and Mem, Kribi, Cinebench, and PCMark Vantage) but ran out of time since the neighbor upstairs can't drive his car yet and wanted me to run by the bank for him.  I'll post some tonight and have all of them up by tomorrow night.  *Oh yeah, I beat the Cardinals 6-1 last night CDdude if interested.*



Nice.


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## kenkickr (Jul 6, 2009)

I seriously need to stop  I love and hate new system builds cause sometimes I just can't stop.  Decided to buy some Xigmatek Dragoon N422 ramsinks, http://www.xigmatek.com/product/air-dragoon-n422.php.  They just look so damn cool


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## CDdude55 (Jul 6, 2009)

kenkickr said:


> I seriously need to stop  I love and hate new system builds cause sometimes I just can't stop.  Decided to buy some Xigmatek Dragoon N422 ramsinks, http://www.xigmatek.com/product/air-dragoon-n422.php.  They just look so damn cool



, can't wait to see em in the build.


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## kenkickr (Jul 6, 2009)

I guess when i get them I'll throw out another review of them.


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## erocker (Jul 6, 2009)

Which processor are you using? Hit 4ghz yet?


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## kenkickr (Jul 6, 2009)

erocker said:


> Which processor are you using? Hit 4ghz yet?



I am using the Phenom II X2 550.  Haven't really tried but the last part of this review will be the raping of this little gem.


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## johnnyfiive (Jul 6, 2009)

kenkickr said:


> I am using the Phenom II X2 550.  Haven't really tried but the last part of this review will be the raping of this little gem.



Umm. i heart your avatars.


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## kenkickr (Jul 7, 2009)

Added some stock benchmarks.  More to come tomorrow.


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## WarEagleAU (Jul 7, 2009)

I know I love his hot chicks in cubs shirts. If you ever watch a game and they show the crowd, hot blessed in the chest women are rampant at that place. I do believe the wife and I are headed up maybe in August on the weekend for a game though.


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## kenkickr (Jul 7, 2009)

Ya gotta let me know when your going.  We could show our TPU/CUB support up at Wrigley

Update:  Working on game benchmarking.  F.E.A.R, Far Cry 2, HL2, HawX Demo, Devil May Cry Demo, and CoD: Advanced Warfighter.  Does the list sound good!?


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## LifeOnMars (Jul 7, 2009)

kenkickr said:


> Ya gotta let me know when your going.  We could show our TPU/CUB support up at Wrigley
> 
> Update:  Working on game benchmarking.  F.E.A.R, Far Cry 2, HL2, HawX Demo, Devil May Cry Demo, and CoD: Advanced Warfighter.  Does the list sound good!?



Just the ticket Ken, look forward to seeing the results


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## Ketxxx (Jul 8, 2009)

Holy shit how sexy is that mobo? Gah.. I want one!


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## kenkickr (Jul 8, 2009)

Added some gaming benchmarks.  More to come once I figure out why none of the Orange Box games will run.  Must be a Win 7/Steam issue.


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## WarEagleAU (Jul 8, 2009)

Will do Kenny, Will do.


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## kenkickr (Jul 8, 2009)

Added some more gaming benchmarks.  Now working on Overclocking.


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## WarEagleAU (Jul 9, 2009)

Cool beans, back to page 1.


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## kenkickr (Jul 10, 2009)

Added some OC fun.  Still working on Max FSB and MAX OC but have made it to 4Ghz!!


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## LifeOnMars (Jul 10, 2009)

Very nice Ken, nice to have a 4ghz chip and for the price, this little chip is a star


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## kenkickr (Jul 10, 2009)

I've been able to hit 4.25Ghz but I just can't open CPUZ fast enough to snip it.  So far I can't get past 350 FSB, either the led's on the video cards are solid lit or just flash.  Still trying though.


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## LifeOnMars (Jul 10, 2009)

What are the temps like on that water setup ? And no chance of unlocking


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## kenkickr (Jul 10, 2009)

Right now I'm running @ 3.6Ghz, 2.6Ghz HTT, 200FSB @1.4v.  Idle is 29-30 Celcius but once I get back to messing with FSB I plain on showing some temp shots, idle and load.  I've tried unlocking the other 2 cores but no go.  Honestly I LOVE this chip compared to the X3 720 I had.  To OC that 720 I had to give it 1.42-1.435 volts to hit 3.6Ghz but that could have been due to the 3rd core.

Really debating about lapping this 550 cause temps just do not seem right.  Probably will since I'm quitting smoking and I gotta keep myself BUSY!


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## LifeOnMars (Jul 11, 2009)

Don't suppose you have gta iv that you could try with the overclocked chip do you?


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## kenkickr (Jul 11, 2009)

I'll see what I can do, might be able to get it in a week or two cause money is really tight.


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## LifeOnMars (Jul 11, 2009)

You're a star mate....Woulld be v.interested to see results, I'm a big GTA fan


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## kenkickr (Jul 11, 2009)

So far brought the 3.9Ghz OC volts down to 1.45v.  My girlfriend said she would get me GTA IV, only if I play it.  The last GTA I played was San Andreas and it was OK, just not my cup of tea.  You better start pumping it up LifeonMars if you want me to get it


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## LifeOnMars (Jul 11, 2009)

Adopts movie trailer man voice " One man on a mission of deception, love, hate, peace and war (with added clothes customisation). Jarring visuals, intense gameplay oh and there's ten pin bowling too ha ha. Only thing is its optimised for multicores, will this bring the X2 550 to it's knees......find out.......sooon"

 It's your call Ken but don't let your girl waste her money if it's not your sort of game mate


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## kenkickr (Jul 11, 2009)

That was pretty funny.  I decided what the hell, I'm getting kinda bored with MLB2k9 since my Cubs are 87-0 but the real Cubs, let's not even go there  I'll probably pick it up tomorrow...friend


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## LifeOnMars (Jul 11, 2009)

I look forward to it mate....if you don't like it, you can always ship it my way. What are your thoughts on the crosshair III so far then....I'm thinking it's pretty positive?


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## WarEagleAU (Jul 12, 2009)

Real Cubs will pick it up. They did today.


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## kenkickr (Jul 12, 2009)

You mean Lilly!?  The only one of two All-Stars on the team(Wells should have gone too!!)

Well 1.45v wasn't really stable so back to the posted stock volts.  I should have GTAIV tomorrow or Monday.  Once I have it and benchmarked to my liking I'll post results.


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## cdawall (Jul 12, 2009)

these are pulled off XS from mine








1st boot up into windows






max on air so far






super pi on air


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## kenkickr (Jul 12, 2009)

Very nice OC's CD.  I think mine just sucks at OC'ing but gonna lap it and see what she does.


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## LifeOnMars (Jul 14, 2009)

Hey Ken did you manage to get GTA IV at all and how is the rig going so far?


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## kenkickr (Jul 14, 2009)

I will be able to get it tomorrow and have just been working on a fan mount so I can get some air over the northbridge, southbridge, and mosfets cause that whole heatpipe area gets smokin hot when I'm running @ 3.9ghz and I think that is what is killing my 4ghz+ OC's.


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## LifeOnMars (Jul 14, 2009)

Ok, cool mate. Look forward to seeing the results and whether or not you can stabilise an overclock of 4ghz or over


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## kenkickr (Jul 15, 2009)

I'll be picking it up after work today so that gives me time to install these sick ass Xigmatek Dragoon N422 memory heatsinks on my Crucial D9's.  One thing I can say so far about them is they are heavy.


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## kenkickr (Jul 16, 2009)

Here ya go Mars, some GTAIV, maintenance patch 1.04,  benchmark #'s @ 3.9Ghz, til I get my dual fan bracket done to cool the damn north-southbridge + mosfet area down.  I swear the air in my apartment doesn't move cause it's 76 right now but feels sticky as hell in here.  Anyways, here you go.  If I set Distance and one of the details to high I get a message about it exceeding something which I assume my graphics ram and then I get a message from windows saying it needs to restart due to a Power Service stopped responding.  

Settings I used:





Results:


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## LifeOnMars (Jul 22, 2009)

Hey Ken, anything else to report on the board? How did GTA IV play? I see the benchmark results but was real life performance up to scratch? Getting close to having a rig up and running again......about time, it's been too long and i miss my pc gaming


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## Reefer86 (Jul 22, 2009)

wow just ordered the DFI LANPARTY DK 790GX-M2RS got that coming tomorrow and seeing how the 550 overclocked im thinking that might be a better choice over the 720 i was going to get!!


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## 1Kurgan1 (Jul 22, 2009)

I would go with the 720, the OC difference isn't going to be huge, seems even the difference between the quads isn't much. I have no issues running my 720 at 3.8ghz with 1.472v. And since the 720 is only $119 now, you really can't go wrong.


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## Reefer86 (Jul 22, 2009)

ah thanks alot mate


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## kenkickr (Jul 22, 2009)

LifeOnMars said:


> Hey Ken, anything else to report on the board? How did GTA IV play? I see the benchmark results but was real life performance up to scratch? Getting close to having a rig up and running again......about time, it's been too long and i miss my pc gaming



Seemed to work alright for me but didn't get to play much since I just sold my WD 1Tb Black and waiting on 2x 250Gb for Raid 0.  Also I'm about to put a X3 705e in the system to toy around with.  Probably going to sell my X2 550 if I can get this X3 high enough, which shouldn't be a problem since this is a EE(energy efficient) proc.


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## kenkickr (Jul 22, 2009)

1Kurgan1 said:


> I would go with the 720, the OC difference isn't going to be huge, seems even the difference between the quads isn't much. I have no issues running my 720 at 3.8ghz with 1.472v. And since the 720 is only $119 now, you really can't go wrong.



Agreed, and another thing to think about is your paying $20 bucks for another core instead of just a speed bump(the X2 550 stock is 3.1 and the X3 720 stock is 2.8Ghz but both are multi unlocked).  Before my X2 550 I had a 720 and in all honesty that 720 could handle alot more action at one time than this 550.


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