SE Extreme Tweak Installer 1.8.rar ~REPACK~

Summary: The Asus Crosshair IV Extreme is designed for overclockers who love to tweak their boards. Unfortunately, its premium pricing can be a little bit hard to swallow.Share Facebook Twitter {"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"Article","dateCreated":"2010-11-01T05:00:00-07:00","datePublished":"2010-11-01T05:00:00-07:00","dateModified":"2012-06-15T22:07:42-07:00","headline":"ASUS ROG Crosshair IV Extreme","name":"ASUS ROG Crosshair IV Extreme","keywords":"am3,asus,crossfire,crosshair iv extreme,SLI","url":"https:\/\/bjorn3d.com\/2010\/11\/asus-rog-crosshair-iv-extreme\/","description":"Asus Crosshair IV Extreme is the top of the line board for AMD with its excellent overclocking features. Asus also adds the Lucid chip to the board so AMD users can enjoy SLI as well as CrossFire. [re","copyrightYear":"2010","publisher":{"@id":"#Publisher","@type":"Organization","name":"Bjorn3D.com","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/logo2013_265.png"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Bjorn3D","https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjorn3d","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/Bjorn3dcom","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bjorn3dcom\/"]},"sourceOrganization":{"@id":"#Publisher"},"copyrightHolder":{"@id":"#Publisher"},"mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/bjorn3d.com\/2010\/11\/asus-rog-crosshair-iv-extreme\/","breadcrumb":{"@id":"#crumbs"}},"author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Victor Wu","url":"https:\/\/bjorn3d.com\/author\/victor\/"},"articleSection":"Hardware,Motherboards,Reviews & Articles","articleBody":"\r\n\r\nAsus Crosshair IV Extreme is the top of the line board for AMD with its excellent overclocking features. Asus also adds the Lucid chip to the board so AMD users can enjoy SLI as well as CrossFire.\r\n\r\n[review_ad]\r\n\r\n \r\nINTRODUCTION\r\nThe ASUS\u00a0Crosshair has a long legacy of being one of the best high-end motherboards for AMD systems. One of the trademarks of the Crosshair series is support for multi-GPU. While the first and second generations Crosshair motherboards support Nvidia SLI, the third generation only supports AMD CrossFire due to chipset limitation. Since there is currently no\u00a0Nvidia\u00a0chipset that will work with latest AMD processor, ASUS relied on a third party solution, Lucid\u2019s Hydra chip, in order to bring SLI to the AMD platform.\r\n\r\nIncluding the Lucid Hydra chip on the AMD motherboard also adds extra PCI-E lanes to the board. Currently, only Intel\u2019s latest X58 and P55 based board will support both CrossFire and SLI. While AMD\u2019s own board will support CrossFire, it only supports pairs whose cards are based on the same architecture. For example, users can pair the HD5870 with HD5970, HD5870, or HD5850 but not with the HD5770 because it is based on a different architecture.\r\n\r\nThe Lucid chip also lets users mix and match cards from different generations. Astonishingly, users can also mix and match cards from AMD and\u00a0Nvidia in the same system. Here is a total listing of all the features this chip provides:\r\n\r\n\trun Crossfire of more than 2 cards\r\n\trun Crossfire with older generation cards and current generation cards.\r\n\trun SLI\r\n\trun Crossfire and SLI with cards that is not officially supported, hd 5870 with 5770 or GTX 460 with GTX 260\r\n\tmix AMD and NVIDIA cards together for multi-GPU support.\r\n\r\nThe ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme is the latest motherboard family that comes with the Lucid Hydra chip on the board. The latest Crosshair IV board is targeted towards the AMD enthusiasts who want the best and most feature-rich board they can afford.\r\n\r\nAsus also lists the detail specification outside of the box.\r\nThe Crosshair IV\u00a0Extreme is a packaged in an attractive red box.\r\n\r\nFlipping over the Crosshair IV\u00a0Extreme's box cover shows detailed information about the features of the board.\r\n\r\nInstead of relying on a picture, ASUS lets the buyer peek through the retail box to view the actual board on the inside.\r\n\r\nAsus Crosshair IV Extreme\r\n\r\nThe board is very well protected with a hard plastic mold.\r\n\r\n\r\nWith its black PCB and red LED lights, the ASUS Crosshair shouts\u00a0\u201cI Mean Business.\u201d The first thing that draws our attention is the rather low height of the heatpipe that runs through the power PWM, Northbridge and the Chipsets. The heatsinks are extremely low in height, so users should have no problem fitting aftermarket CPU heatsinks. There is a rather tiny notebook-like cooling fan on the chipset it to keep it cool. Unfortunately, the fan is a bit loud noisy under load.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBecause the Crosshair IV Extreme is an EATX motherboard with dimensions of 12\" x 10.6\" (slightly larger than a standard ATX board),\u00a0users should check their cases to see whether it will fit. The CPU socket has been moved closer to the front of the board than its usual place at the back. This can potentially hurt CPU cooling, as some heatsinks depend on the rear fan to exhaust hot air out of the case. Additionally, for users whose cases have motherboard trays with spaces for CPU cooler backplates, the motherboard may not align properly.\u00a0The memory DIMM placement is rather close to the CPU so a horizontal aftermarket heatsink, such as our Thermaltake SI-128, will block the DIMM slots.\r\n\r\nRight next to the DIMM slots are the reset, power-on, and Core unlocker buttons. The unlocker is for CPUs that are capable of unlocking their \u201chidden\u201d cores. Next to these buttons are a series of useful PCI-Express switches, which allow the user to control power output to each individual PCI-E slot. In front of the switches are contact points for monitoring the voltages. ASUS provides an easy and convenient way to check the HT, SB, VDD, DRAM and NB, CPU, and CPU_Pull voltage. These contact points are ideal for overclockers. Hidden between the main ATX power connector and the contact points is a \u201cGo\u201d button, allowing users to load preset profiles to temporarily overclock a system while in the OS. Pressing this button before POST will enable the MemOK! feature of the board, which determines failsafe settings for the memory.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe expansion slots support dual x16, triple x16 and quad x16, x16, x8, x8 configuration. The manual provides a detailed guide on how to set up a system for those who plan to run multiple PCI-E cards (more on this a later). The board has a total of five PCI-Express x16 and one PCI for expansion. Slots one and three are controlled by the 890FX chipset, while the rest of the slots are controlled by the Lucid Hydra chip. The first PCI Express slot is spaced farther than the rest of the expansion slots to give additional space for big cards like the GTX 480 and HD5970, but it comes quite close to the North Bridge\u00a0heatsink.\r\n\r\nTwo 4-pin molex connectors, one next to the primary PCIE and the other on the bottom of the board, provide additional power when using multiple graphic cards.\r\nAsus Crosshair IV\u00a0Extreme, cont\r\n\r\nHidden underneath the lightning look heatsink is the HYDRALOGIX Controller\r\nThe Crosshair comes with 8 SATA ports. Six of the ports support SATA 6 GB\/s from the AMD SB850 chipset and the two extra ports are controlled by the JMicron 363, which also controls the two eSATA ports. Despite the fact that they are placed on the edge of the board, they can\u00a0be difficult to access to when large graphics cards are installed in PCI-E slots 2-4.\r\n\r\nWe can also see the CMOS battery in the picture above. It's placement is not the most ideal for those using a large card but luckily the chance of ever needing to remove the battery is slim because of the included clear CMOS button on the back of the board.\r\n\r\nA very common feature that we found with high-end motherboards is the Dual BIOS. Having two BIOS chips on a motherboard provides a safe-guard in the event of bad overclocking, where the system can use the backup BIOS to recover, or have two different profiles saved in different BIOS. Users have the option to boot from either of the two BIOSes, which is something that other manufacturers do not offer. The Crosshair IV Extreme goes beyond the usual by providing a way to flash the BIOS with another computer though the ROG Connect feature.\r\n\r\nROG Connect also lets users monitor and control the system remotely. In addition, the RC Bluetooth function is a very neat tool that allows users to remotely control the system through mobile smartphones with Bluetooth capability. Users install the software to their mobile phones, and can use the phone to monitor and control their system. Currently, the software supports Windows Mobile 6.0\/6.1\/6.5, Symbian, and Android 2.0 or higher. Noticeably missing is from the pack is the iPhone, but ASUS said that it is in the works. While we were able to install the software on the AT&T Tilt 2 (running Windows Mobile 6.5), we were not able to connect to the motherboard.\r\n\r\nThe usual front panel, three USB 2.0 headers, and a FireWire headers line up on the button edge of the motherboard. Among them, an 8-pin OC Station header lets users hook up to ASUS's OC Station (not provided) for easy overclocking.\r\n\r\nThe Crosshair IV Extreme uses Intel 82583V ethernet controller and Realtek ALC889 audio chip.\r\n\r\nOver the back I\/Os, we get the PS\/2 keyboard, six USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, Clear CMOS switch, Optical S\/PDIF out port, LAN port, two ESATA ports, 8-channel audio ports, and Asus\u2019s ROG Connect switch and ROG connect port. ASUS installed slightly cheaper audio on the board, rather than the SupremeFX X-Fi that is often found on the ROG boards. The Realtek ALC889 chip\u00a0on the board lacks on-the-fly Dolby Digital Live or DTS encoding, which in our opinion is a bit of downer. An Intel 82583V Gigabit Ethernet Controller is used for the network that connects to the PCI Express 1.0 x1. As usual, the board uses NEC chip for the USB 3.0. There are reports on ASUS forums indicating that the onboard network can cause BSODs during high data transfer, but the latest driver found on ASUS's site seems to have fixed the issue.\r\n\r\nThe board comes with a total of eight fan headers. The CPU and the chassis fans can be adjusted with the included software. Asus also provides three thermal sensor connectors (two on the bottom and one of the top of the board) and temperature sensors that can be used to monitor and control the temperature of the Fan 1 to 3. The board uses ITE IT8721F sensor where other third-party system temperature monitoring software should not have trouble reading the information.\u00a0ASUS\u00a0is one of the few manufacturers whose motherboards really excel in allowing users to monitor and adjust the temperature for the balanced noise and cooling performance.\r\n\r\nA shot of the back of the board with a metal plate covering the CPU socket area. It is removable in case you wish to install an after-market heatsink.\r\n\r\nSoftware and Accessories\r\n\u00a0\r\nASUS AI Suite II contains a collection of software tools that allwyou monitor and record various settings and sensors of the motherboard. The software suite contains\u00a0ASUS\u00a0Mobilink,\u00a0ASUS\u00a0Update, Fan Xpert, MyLogo, and Probe II all bundled into one software package. We did an extensive overview of the ProbeII\u00a0on our Rampage Formula III review, for more detail on what the software can do, please check our the review that Peter wrote with the ASUS\u00a0Rampage III Formuala.\r\nThe AI Suite offers\u00a0a very neat graphical user interface\u00a0that is\u00a0easy to\u00a0use and very\u00a0intuitive\u00a0for overclocking. The AI Suite tool not only that it lets you overclock, it can also be used to adjust and monitor the fan speed through the Fan XPert setting. The Probe II\u00a0is a tool that monitors hardware components.\r\n\r\nAccessories\r\n\r\nThe accessories are shipped in a dedicated box so they won't damage the motherboard.\r\n\r\nThe motherboard comes with a hard copy manual, I\/O plate, driver disk, and eight SATA cables. ASUS\u00a0includes a color coded label for the SATA cables; not a perfect solution but it\u2019s better than nothing.\r\n\r\nIn addition, the board comes with a USB cable for the ROG Connect, three temperature sensor, Q-Connect, ROG Bluetooth, Crossfire X bridge, and adapter for the ProbeIT.\r\n\r\n\r\nFan sensors\r\n\r\nBIOS\r\nThe Crosshair IV Extreme uses AMI: American Megatrends BIOS. The Interface is pretty easy to navigate around. The BIOS is organized in seven sections:\r\n\r\n\tExtreme Tweaker: for changing overclock settings\r\n\tMain: for changing basic system configuration\r\n\tAdvanced: for changing the advanced settings\r\n\tPower: for the advanced power management settings\r\n\tBoot: for changing the system boot configuration\r\n\tTools: for special functions such as O.C. Profiles, Go Button File, and BIOS FlashBack\r\n\tExit\r\n\r\n\r\nWe like how\u00a0ASUS\u00a0puts the Extreme Tweaker overclocking menu, as the first option because it is probably where most overclockers will spend tons of hours. It's no surprise to find that the board comes with a plethora of overclocking options. Some of the menu options can be adjusted with the + or \u2013 keys on the keyboard while some of the values can be entered with a keypad.\r\n\r\nASUS\u00a0provides three AI Overclock settings:\r\n\r\n\tManual: where every settings are user adjustable\r\n\tAuto: optimal settings for the system\r\n\tD.O.C.P: where only selected settings can be adjusted, primarily the CPU and memory settings. When this setting is enabled, the DRAM profile will be turned on and users can choose between 1600MHz, 1800MHz,1866MHz, or 2000MHz.\r\n\r\nAdvanced overclockers would enjoy the vast number of adjustments provided.\u00a0ASUS\u00a0puts the common settings in the Extreme Tweaker main menu while the advanced settings are available by entering one of the submenus.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBIOS Parameter Adjustments\r\n\r\n\r\nCPU\u00a0Bus Frequency\r\n\u00a0Auto, 100 ~ 600 MHz in 1MHz increments\r\n\r\n\r\nPCIEX Frequency\r\n\u00a0Auto, 100 ~ 150 MHz in 1MHz increments\r\n\r\n\r\nCPU\/NB Frequency\r\n\u00a0Auto, 1400MHz, 1600MHz, 1800MHz, 2000MHz\r\n\r\n\r\nDRAM\u00a0Frequency\r\nAuto, 800MHz, 1067MHz, 1333MHz, 1600MHz\r\n\r\n\r\nHT\u00a0Link Speed\r\nAuto, 200~2000MHz in increments of 200MHz\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMemory Adjustments\r\nEvery single memory setting can be adjusted, tweaked to reach that magical number.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMemory\u00a0Adjustments\r\n\r\n\r\nCAS\r\nAuto, 4~10, and 12\r\n\r\n\r\nRAS to CAS\r\nAuto, 5~12\r\n\r\n\r\nRAS Pre Time\r\nAuto, 5~12\r\n\r\n\r\nRAS ACT Time\r\nAuto, 15, 16~29, and 30\r\n\r\n\r\nRead to Pre Time\r\nAuto, 4~7\r\n\r\n\r\nRow Cycle Time\r\nAuto, 11~41\r\n\r\n\r\nWrite Recovery Time\r\nAuto, 5~8, 10, 12\r\n\r\n\r\nRAS to RAS Delay\r\nAuto, 4~7\r\n\r\n\r\nRead to Write Delay\r\nAuto, 3~17\r\n\r\n\r\nWrite to Read Delay (DD)\r\nAuto, 2~10\r\n\r\n\r\nWrite to Read Delay (SD)\r\nAuto, 4~7\r\n\r\n\r\nWrite to Write Timing\r\nAuto, 4~10\r\n\r\n\r\nRead to Read Timing\r\nAuto, 3~10\r\n\r\n\r\nREF Cycle Time\r\nAuto, 90ns, 110ns, 160ns, 300ns, 350ns\r\n\r\n\r\nRefresh Rate\r\nAuto, 7.8ms, 3.9ms\r\n\r\n\r\nCommand Rate\r\nAuto, 1T, 2T\r\n\r\n\r\nDRAM Driving Configuration\r\n1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 2x\r\n\r\n\r\nCS\/ODT drive strength\r\n1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 2x\r\n\r\n\r\nADDR\/CMD drive strength\r\n1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 2x\r\n\r\n\r\nMEMCLK drive strength\r\n0.75x, 1x, 1.25x, 1.5x\r\n\r\n\r\nData drive strength\u00a0\r\n0.75x, 1x, 1.25x, 1.5x\r\n\r\n\r\nDQS drive strength\r\n0.75x, 1x, 1.25x, 1.5x\r\n\r\n\r\nProcessor ODT\r\n240ohms +\/- 20%, 120ohms +\/- 20%, 60ohms +\/- 20%\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nVoltage Adjustments\r\nLike the memory adjustment, the Crosshair IV\u00a0Extreme has ample options for voltage adjustments.\r\n\r\nThe board also provides Load-Line Calibration for the most demanding overclockers.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBIOS Parameter Adjustments\r\n\r\n\r\nCPU Offset Voltage\r\n0.006250v-0.700000v\r\n\r\n\r\nCPU VDDA Voltage\r\n1.20000V-2.90000V\r\n\r\n\r\nDRAM Voltage\r\n1.20000v-2.90000v\r\n\r\n\r\nHT Voltage\r\n0.80000v-2.0000v\r\n\r\n\r\nNB Voltage\r\n0.80000v-2.0000v\r\n\r\n\r\nNB 1.8V Voltage\r\n1.802000v-3.007750v\r\n\r\n\r\nSB Voltage\r\n1.113000V-1.802000V\r\n\r\n\r\nVDDR Voltage\r\n1.205750v-1.802000v\r\n\r\n\r\nVDDPCIE Voltage\r\n1.113000v-2.000750v\r\n\r\n\r\nDRAM CTRL REF Voltage\r\n0.395x-0.630x\r\n\r\n\r\nDRAM DATA REF Voltage\r\n0.395x-0.630x\r\n\r\n\r\nWrite to Write Timing\r\nAuto, 4~10\r\n\r\n\r\nRead to Read Timing\r\nAuto, 3~10\r\n\r\n\r\nREF Cycle Time\r\nAuto, 90ns, 110ns, 160ns, 300ns, 350ns\r\n\r\n\r\nRefresh Rate\r\nAuto, 7.8ms, 3.9ms\r\n\r\n\r\nCommand Rate\r\nAuto, 1T, 2T\r\n\r\n\r\nDRAM Driving Configuration\r\n1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 2x\r\n\r\n\r\nCS\/ODT drive strength\r\n1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 2x\r\n\r\n\r\nADDR\/CMD drive strength\r\n1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 2x\r\n\r\n\r\nMEMCLK drive strength\r\n0.75x, 1x, 1.25x, 1.5x\r\n\r\n\r\nData drive strength\u00a0\r\n0.75x, 1x, 1.25x, 1.5x\r\n\r\n\r\nDQS drive strength\r\n0.75x, 1x, 1.25x, 1.5x\r\n\r\n\r\nProcessor ODT\r\n240ohms +\/- 20%, 120ohms +\/- 20%, 60ohms +\/- 20%\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nRest of the BIOS\u00a0screenshots.\r\n\u00a0\r\nThe Main menu is where users can change the onboard SATA from 3 Gb\/s to 6 Gb\/s.\r\n\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\r\n\r\nAdvanced menu is where users get to turn on and different components on the motherboard. Asus even provides the ability to turn off the LED on the motherboard for those who hate the blinking lights. This is also where users can enable or disable ROG Connect.\r\n\u00a0\r\n\r\nThe Power, Boot and Tools menus are pretty self-explanatory.\r\n\r\nTESTING & METHODOLOGY\r\nWe did a fresh load of Windows 7 Ultimate, applied all the updates we could f