Subsystem and Software
Asus include a variety of programs that make up their suite of tools to help you do everything from overclock to putting your PC to sleep. The AI Suite is more of a front end for other utilities which you then choose to run as needed.
The top option starts the AI Nap utility which, as it's name suggests, puts your PC to sleep. One annoying feature here is that you're asked both when you click to sleep and when you come out of sleep if that's what you really want to do; just the once going to sleep is enough in my opinion.
The mid-left option is AI Gear, which lets you select performance options for your system. AI NOS is the Asus automatic overclocking which adjusts your CPU speed according to system load. For non-overclockers this is a nice feature, but as you can imagine it will be rather conservative with its clocking.
AI Booster is used for manual overclocking from the comfort of Windows. Tabs within the application let you set and save various features of the system from voltages, to FSB frequency and even save profiles. One strange issue with this was that every time I set a new FSB and opted to apply the new setting, I was told the system needed to be restarted to complete the change. I can do that myself through the BIOS.
The last item is Asus Q-Fan which lets you control fan speeds according to presets.
That covers the AI Suite, but that isn't the end of the included software. Asus PC Probe II lets you monitor and display your temperatures, fan speeds and voltages on your desktop as well as exploring DMI/WMI information about your system.
Asus Update gives you a few different ways to update your BIOS from within Windows. You can flash direct from a file, or the software can go looking on the net for a new BIOS file for your motherboard. We could only ever get the software to update from a file as any connection made to 3 different Asus servers resulted in the software never finding a new BIOS file despite our first BIOS being very out of date, or the servers in question were simply too busy all the time. Just for reference, we flashed from within Vista without issue.
Audio
The Asus Blitz Formula sports an ADI® AD1988B 8-channel High Definition Audio CODEC controlled by the above software; The SoundMAX Blackwing. From a subjective listening point, things sound good although the mid range seems to be a little more predominate than most, though only just. No big deal really as if it isn't to your liking, it can easily be adjusted with the software. Asus make a point of stating that Noise Filtering is present with the SupremeFX II module but to be perfectly honest I couldn't hear any difference between it and the sound on the P5K. Not that I'm bothered overly much as the sound is pretty good for onboard, and the software provides for plenty of other features and options.
Overclocking
There is no doubt that Overclocking has become easier regardless of the board; manufacturers are catering to enthusiasts more than ever. Asus include their own AI suite for use in both manual and automatic overclocking.
Like the P5K, manual overclocking with the Blitz is very easy. In the BIOS, you can leave everything on automatic and still achieve a high overclock. That said, the BIOS (as we said earlier) is stocked full of options for overclocking and to get the most out of overclocking with the Blitz you will want delve in to all of the settings. Still, in out testing, the results from leaving things automatic and manually setting options were quite close.
With most settings on Automatic and the CPU ratio dropped to 6 from it's default 8, we quickly and easily got to 475MHz. Using this as a base to tweak from, we then began to raise voltages, adjust various other options such as Transaction Booster and Static Memory functions, and generally play with all the settings we had previously left at automatic. When I was playing with the Asus P5K I was disappointed not be able to reach the magic 500MHz, something I had seen plenty of others do. As with the P5K, I've seen plenty of folks reach 500MHz with the Asus Blitz Formula. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them as 485MHz was the highest stable I could get. I could post at 490MHz, but after that we had random lock-ups after a few minutes/hours of use. Incase it's not obvious from the pictures, I've added the Asus Blitz Formula to my watercooling loop and used both the of the optional fans on the Mosfet sinks.
Final Words
Starting with the basics, the packaging is great with a carry handle, lots and lots of pertinent information, plenty of extras, side mounting SATA cables, a separate sound card module that provides good sound and eye candy, a free game of value (S.T.A.L.K.E.R), the Fusion Block System and a little LCD poster.
The board layout is overall exceptional and I especially like the side facing IDE and SATA ports; it just makes cable management so much easier. The set pretty much negates any problems you may have in getting fiddly little pin headers connected for HDD LED's and Power Switches. Speaking of those, the has a SATA Activity LED on the board, and that's just one of many LED's dotted around the board. There are indicators of Voltages for various components such as Ram, FSB, Southbridge, Northbridge, CPU, and LED indicators of the currently running FSB. There are backlit push switches for Power and Reset, so while you are testing your build, you don't even have to have the front panel of your case connected up. And when everything is up and running and you start overclocking, you won't even have to open the case to Clear CMOS as there is a button for that on the back panel. One thing about that button on the back panel; despite the obvious advantages of having such a button, other than testing it worked I never had to use it more than that once as the is quite capable of resetting itself if an overclock fails or goes too far.
I had problems with the JMicron controller (or it's drivers) with the P5K and I had similar problems with it on the . From reading around the net it seems that more than a few folks have had issues with optical drives and burning disks, and that's if they can get their drives recognized in the first place. I tried 6 different drives in addition to my usual 2 and had issues with all of them. In the end, setting the JMicron controller to AHCI mode cured my recognition problems for 4 of the drives and burning issues on the 2 burners. But it seems to be hit and miss more than most controllers we've dealt with before. That said, most of the drives I've tested with are older units. I've since started to use a SATA 20x LiteOn DVD Rewriter which functions fine and considering the price of optical drives these days, I would suggest that if you are in doubt about an older drive working with this board that you add a new SATA burner to your basket when you purchase this board just to be sure.
have done a great job with the BIOS and it is one of the easiest we have ever used. Even the most inexperienced overclocker should be able to leave pretty much everything on automatic and achieve a very high overclock. Those who know what they are doing will have plenty to play with as the options are extensive to say the least. The BIOS offers options for storing a couple of settings profiles, plus more with a USB Flash drive or other Fat formatted storage device if you so desire, although it's a shame none of this seems to tie in with the Asus software (at least it didn't with Vista).
The software included comes on a DVD, with drivers for both XP and Vista. The software is a bit of a mix in that some of it is good, some of it not so good, but none of it is essential in any case.
also include a bag of fittings and tubing and connectors and clips to use with the Fusion Block System and your existing watercooling loop. I use an asetek Waterchill Extreme setup (with a few extras) and I have to admit that for the most part it's just become easier to not bother with a Northbridge block. No problem with the Blitz, as the FBS allows you to cool the Northbridge (and other components via the heatpipe) as part of your watercooling loop. If you don't use watercooling, not a problem either as the FBS is quite happy to function without water, although in our testing the temperature dropped by nearly 10C using water. One thing I do feel Asus should have done is at least provided some rudimentary instructions for the watercooling. I guess it's not really that big a deal as if you do watercool your system you'll know what you are doing anyway.
The also has superior support for Crossfire than most Intel boards as rather than sticking with a 16x-4x setup, the Crosslinx chip allows for an arguably better 8x-8x setup.
The only true negative is the aforementioned JMicron controller and that isn't something that will effect everyone. The can be had for a shade under US at time of writing, so not a cheap board by any stretch of the imagination, but you do have to consider what you are getting. It's quite a large package you get, with very little useless junk, and there is no doubt that the board itself is of a very high quality.
I could talk all day about this board as there is just so much to it, but this is supposed to be the final words so let's wrap this up. I'm very happy and very impressed with the motherboard and I'm still smiling about it. I thought the P5K Deluxe was going to remain in my test system for a long time, but as far as I am concerned the will be the benchmark I test all other boards against. It just has everything going for it, and if you are willing to pay that little bit more for the best, you'll be happy with what you get. Don't be put off by the DDR2 flavour either; if the has anything to say about it (and it does) then there is plenty of life left in DDR2 as yet.
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