Asus has unveiled their latest top end AM2 motherboard dubbed the Crosshair, which is part of their new 'Republic of Gamers' lineup. The new board is aimed at gamers and tweakers and is based off of NVIDIA's nForce 590 SLI chipset. Though it uses an identical chipset and a similar heatpipe setup, the new R.O.G. board utitlises a completely different layout than that of the M2N32-SLI, though we'd still bet on it being a solid overclocker. Asus have aimed this board directly at tweakers and have included a diagnostic LCD on the back panel which gives direct readouts of problems on boot-up. The back panel also features illuminated ports for simpler searching in the dark. Asus are included the full version of 3DMark 06 with this board as well, reinforcing that this is aimed at gamers specifically.


A seperate HD audio card is included along with their now-standard soundMAX mic. The LED ridden board also features 8 SATA ports along with the usual gamut of ports. Asus have replaced standard capacitors with chip-style polymer aluminum electrolyte capacitors on this new board as well, looking to boost the overall durability of the system.

There's no word on availability or a specific model name aside beyond the Crosshair, but there don't seem to be any aspects of this board that would suggest a long wait for a retail showing. The full press release can be found here.