Layout and Features (continued)
Ah, there are the analog audio connections! This riser card that plugs into the single reverse-laid PCIe slot features 8-channel HD audio from the ADI 1988B chipset.
Here we are again at the north bridge heatsink and those curious black caps on them. The build of the copper heatsink itself is of high quality and when acting as a standard heatpipe heatsink does a very good job cooling the chipset.
Removing the caps shows the secret underneath — the Fusion block is both a heatpipe and water block. This is used to cool the heatpipes even faster than the standard air would do over the fins next to the CPU socket. Now the water ONLY goes inside north bridge and it does not travel throughout the entire chipset cooler. Asus claims that by attaching the water block to a water cooling system you can get a 47% thermal improvement.
Asus does more than just include the water block with the Blitz Formula; they have included a pretty nice set of fittings and adaptors.
You can see the clips and a sample tubing here just for show. While the water cooling configuration on the Asus Blitz Formula isn’t going to be used by everyone, if you already have a water cooling setup on your PC adding this into the system is quick, easy and will provide some free benefits.
Asus is known for including a good set of extras in the box with their motherboards and the Blitz Formula is no exception. You can see above that they have included six SATA cables, an IDE and floppy cable, SATA power adaptor, USB/Firewire dongle and even a full copy of the Stalker game.
Asus also includes two fans to place on heatpipe fin locations if you are using water cooling on your CPU, a package of zip ties, rubber stand offs for open installations, the water cooling fittings and an LCD POST display.
The external POST display is used to show codes outside of the case for easier troubleshooting.
