Asus Maximus Formula Special Edition

The Maximus Formula has a very similar box to the Extreme with plenty of information on the flip open lid and back of the packaging. As this is the special edition version there is an additional logo advertising this.

Many of the main components included with the Extreme also make it into the Formula bundle. The cooling fan, LCD poster and SupremeFX II are all here. Also included is S.T.A.L.K.E.R, 3DMark and Kaspersky Anti-Virus.

Like the more expensive Extreme model the Formula uses Intel’s X38/ICH9R chipset combination and CPU support covers 800-1600MHZ FSB models. We also have six internal SATA ports, six external USB and six additional internal headers, optical and coaxial audio out, dual GB LAN and an external CMOS reset button. From there on things begin to differ a little. Firstly this board is slightly smaller with a width of 24.5cm and the cooling solution is also more compact, although it does still support water cooling. The Formula uses DDR2, up to eight gigabytes of 667-1333MHz and we lose the third PCIe 16x slot on this model. The configuration this time is three PCIe 1x, two PCI 2.2 and two full speed 16x PCIe 2.0 slots which of course means the Maximus Formula supports CrossFire.