ASUS A8R-MVP Xpress 200 CrossFire Edition Motherboard Review

Hello there � the ASUS A8R-MVP Xpress 200 CrossFire Edition motherboard has hit the markets! This is one of the first CrossFire motherboards to be released and it is predicted to be a hot seller. This will especially be so once the X1000 series of Master video cards are released. If you�re interested in the specifics of the ASUS A8R-MVP Xpress 200, then read on, because we will delve into all the specifics you need to know. Let's begin ...

The ASUS A8R-MVP Xpress 200 motherboard

 

Design and Construction

In terms of design and construction, the ASUS A8R-MVP Xpress has a typical motherboard look. It certainly does not look like the pretty MSI motherboards or Gigabyte motherboards. But it does its job.

What you get on the motherboard is a Socket 939 construct for slotting in AMD Athlon 64 CPUs. If you intend to run an AMD system, this is a great board for you.
 

Chipset and Memory

The ASUS A8R-MVP Xpress is based on the ATI Xpress 200 CrossFire Edition Northbridge chipset. This is one of the latest chipsets to hit the market and motherboards based on these are rapidly taking over the consumer mindset.

The ASUS A8R-MVP Xpress 200 CrossFire Edition motherboard supports up 4 GB, a huge amount of memory. The closest competitor to the CrossFire motherboard is the nForce 4 SLI chip-based motherboards. We�ve yet to see how the competition between the two types of boards pan out.
 

Overclocking Features

The ASUS A8R-MVP Xpress 200 CrossFire Edition motherboard is great for overclockers. If you look into the computer BIOS, you�ll see that it is full of features for overclocking. So it�s a good deal if you want to delve into that area.
 

Shortcomings

One bad thing about the ASUS A8R-MVP Xpress 200 CrossFire Edition motherboard is that is has a pretty weak 6-channel onboard audio. If great surround sound is your thing, you�ll want to look elsewhere.
 

Other Features

Other standard motherboard features are available in the ASUS A8R-MVP Xpress 200. You�ll find RAID, USB 2.0 and SATA options present in the motherboard for all your special connectivity needs.
 

Conclusion

On the whole, the ASUS A8R-MVP Xpress 200 CrossFire Edition motherboard is a great motherboard. Now, there are too few CrossFire video cards at the moment for you to take advantage of this low cost motherboard, but in time they will come. So invest in this motherboard now if you foresee yourself getting a CrossFire video card.

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