The Asus Crosshair "Republic of Gamers" Socket AM2 Motherboard was tested by Tweaktown, and it seems this it is the right choice for the future, designed with hardcore gamers and overclockers in mind. The price, somewhere around 230$.

Based on the nForce 590Sli chipset from nVidia, the mobo has the next specifications:

CPU:
Supports AMD Athlon FX AM2 Series;
Supports AMD Athlon 64 X2 AM2 Series;
Supports AMD Athlon 64 AM2 Series;
Supports AMD Sempron AM2 Series;

Chipset:
nVidia nForce 590SLI;
nForce 590SLI SPP;
nForce 590SLI MCP;
Hyper Transport @ 2000MHz;

System Memory:
4 DDR2 SDRAM 240pin DIMM Sockets;
Supports DDR2-400/533/667/800MHz;
64/128Bit Dual Channel;
Supports up to 8GB Total Memory (4x 2GB);

System Memory:
4 DDR2 SDRAM 240pin DIMM Sockets;
Supports DDR2-400/533/667/800MHz;
64/128Bit Dual Channel;
Supports up to 8GB Total Memory (4x 2GB);

Bus Frequency:
200MHz Internal;
1600MHz/2000MHz External;
Hyper Transport Interconnect;

Expansion Slots:
2 PCI Express x16;
1 PCI Express x4;
3 PCI;

Connectivity:
1 Parallel ATA port supporting 2 IDE Drives;
6 Serial ATA ports;
2 e.SATA ports;
2 Gigabit Ethernet ports;

Expansion Ports:
1 PS2 Keyboard Port;
1 PS2 Mouse Port;
10 USB 2.0 Ports (4 rear accessible, 6 via expansion bracket);
6 Stereo Audio Ports;
2 RJ45 LAN Ports;
1 SPDIF RCA Port;
1 SPDIF Toslink Port;
2 e.SATA Ports;
2 Firewire Port (1 rear accessible, 1 via expansion bracket);

While there are many options available with this board layout, a problem arises, the lack of space. The 24-pin connector is located below the single IDE connector. These are on a vertical access to the expansion slots. Also, there can be problems with big video cards. Additionally, the 4/8 pin EPS12V connector is located between the I/O ports and the CPU socket, and that is "a nightmare if you have thick cables."

A unique feature is the LCD Poster found at the rear, which displays post codes on the board if it shuts down or refuses to power on. This is a good alternative to those annoying beeps, which sometimes are completely unintelligible, like: 2 short beeps, 1 long, 1 short, or 1 short big pause 1 long or... you know where I'm going with this.

This is also the first Asus board to add a couple of e.SATA ports provided by a Silicon Image 3132 controller chip.

The board is compared with the new DFI NF590, and it's faster. Also, it's more expensive. On the Pros, it's fast, has good overclocking capacitiy, has Dual X16 slots for SLI, has that nice LCD Panel, has onboard LEDs to help install components in the dark (if you are an adept of installing parts with the board powered on), has e.SATA ports and a silent heat-pipe design. On the Cons, it's expensive and has a bad power connectors design. In the end, it reached 9 points out of 10.