More Details:

Both motherboards are designed the same with the same number of slots, ports, connections, and headers. The boards are built upon a black PCB which is complimented by a decent color scheme rather than sporadic use of whatever components were "on sale" at the the time of assembly. Design and layout also flow without any potential serious issues to the end user. Now, I can see the owners of larger graphics cards rolling their eyes. The potential placement issue of the graphics cards covering the SATA ports doesn't carry over like from the P5K3 Deluxe motherboard. The Formula and Extreme both have horizontal SATA ports feeding off the side of the motherboard. Even the USB ports have been moved to the lowest most area of the motherboard to avoid as many issues as possible. To further eliminate problems, the solid state low profile capacitors continue to prove to be a very, very smart move.

The Twins

Extreme

Formula

The Layout

Plenty of Devices

The Supporting ICs

If you are worried about thermal issues with either board, you'll be further happy to know that there really aren't any issues under stock operations. This can be summed up with ASUS' new Stack Cool 2 design which is noticeable by all the heat sinks and pipes. Copper heat pipes continue to be the the best efficient way to channel heat away and cool the components that depend on cooler operations such as the chipsets. The Crossfire, PWM, P35, and ICH9R chipsets are covered with top notch copper and are all connected by heat pipes. One would think that such a design wouldn't be sufficient, but it has proven to be quite effective as with the P5K motherboards. Even the PWM, power management, get individual copper sinks since these have been known to heat up when you start pushing more voltage in to the motherboard to maintain stability when overclocked.

Cool Stack 2

Southbridge

Northbridge Fusion

The most noticeable change to the copper cooling is the design and implementation of the Fusion copper water block on the main chipset. This is the one chipset that can become unstable as the heat increases when you start trying to achieve and maintain a substantial overclock. Naturally, you simply add the Fusion water block in the loop of your current water cooling system. It is NOT necessary to use water cooling for this motherboard to operate. It's mainly an optional cooling method to increase your chances of achieving an overclocked system that others wish they could. Typically, water cooling allows the chipset to perform beyond specs you typically achieve on air, so you can bet this will be tested further.

Which is Which?

Back I/O

Close Up

At the bottom of the motherboard near the Front Panel and USB, you'll find the new "Onboard Switch". This is an easier to reset your system's BIOS if a particular setting proves to be unstable. Rather than having to fight to switch and replace jumpers, a simple press of the button brings the system back to life. We've all dropped that blasted, tiny jumper trying to reset the BIOS all the while wishing there were a simpler way. It's taken a little time to get here, but we now have that better way.

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