ASUS ROG Crosshair IV Extreme Combines NVIDIA and AMD Graphics

Among the various enthusiast-grade hardware products, top-grade motherboards have an entire collection of features that one doesn't find anywhere else, and ASUS has just unleashed the ROG Crosshair IV Extreme which, among other things, can merge ATI and NVIDIA,

The ROG (Republic of Gamers) logo is the brand that ASUS straps onto some of its highest-end products, be they PCs or hardware components.

The ROG Crosshair IV Extreme, as its name implies, is meant to let end-users go over the top in terms of overclocking.

The product was made official as far back as May, but has since been perfected to the point where it has bypassed one of the oldest limitation on the video card front.

Simply put, the mainboard can combine NVIDIA and AMD/ATI graphics cards thanks to the technology developed by LucidLogix.

The so-called HYDRALOGIX chip, in conjunction with the CrossLinx 3 technology, allows up to four mixed cards to work together.

The other major asset is the possibility of overclocking the board remotely, via a Bluetooth-connected cellphone, or over USB form a notebook.

There is also an iPhone app called ROG iDirect which makes this entire procedure even easier.

For those interested in a reminder, the product has five PCI Express slots, four memory slots and support for AMD AM3 CPUs (Phenom II, Athlon II or Sempron 100 series).

Other specifications include Gigabit Ethernet, thirteen USB 2.0 ports, four USB 3.0 ports, a pair of FireWire connectors, six SATA 6 Gbps connectors, two SATA 3.0 Gbps ports plus another two SATA 3 Gbps port (external).

Finally, the platform comes with 8-channel High-Definition audio and utilizes the extended ATX form factor.

Unfortunately, there is, as of yet, no word on how much this beast is expected to cost, although one should not entertain any illusions that it will be even remotely accessible to the masses.