Calling the Asus Crosshair a motherboard is like calling a Lamborghini Murcielago a car. There's so much more to it that the simple name "motherboard" doesn't do it any justice at all. Like a Lambo, the Crosshair is all about the BLING BLING, not the plain utility of the item.

While the raw specifications indicate a decent Socket AM2 motherboard that your average enthusiast would be happy to tinker with, it's the extras that set the Crosshair apart. For starters, the entire board is covered with flashy LED lights. For those of us who tinker with settings and hardware, there are illuminated buttons and switches on the board itself. Even the connections are marked with electro-luminescent labels to help you connect the wires where they are meant to go. There is also a large LED display that will help you diagnose what's going on with the board during POST (power-on self test). And there are dozens of other enthusiast-oriented features, capped with the inclusion of a commercial copy of 3DMark 06 Advanced Edition.

The only complaint I have about the Crosshair that it's available only in the Socket AM2 flavour; a Socket 775 version for Intel's Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad would be great. For those of you on the fence between the Intel Core 2 and AMD Athlon X2, however, the Crossfire may be what tips you in favor of AMD.