If you’ve been following us, you’ll know that we were lucky enough to get Asus’s one-off copy for France of the ROG Crosshair 2006 motherboard. For those who haven’t been following along, the Asus ROG Crosshair 2006 motherboard was designed to commemorate 20 years of Republic of Gamers. In fact, it combines nostalgia and modernity. Inspired by the aesthetics of the first Crosshair from 2006, it boasts copper-colored heatsinks (purists have already noticed that they’re not copper, Asus having opted for much lighter aluminum heatsinks), blue and white slots and visual references to the Project G-Cube logo.
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ROG Crosshair 2006: retro dress and modern heart
A museum piece? Not really, because this vintage appearance actually hides the brand’s latest-generation design. The card features an AM5 socket and targets recent AMD Ryzen processors, including the Ryzen 7000, 8000 and 9000. It uses the same architecture as the ROG Crosshair X870E Dark Hero, with a powerful 20 + 2 + 2-phase power stage, 8 + 8-pin ProCool II connectors, four DDR5 slots for up to 256 GB and announced support for up to DDR5-9600 MT/s+, depending on configuration.
We’re fortunate to have an extraordinary community at OCC, so thanks to Cortex and Eviledeath we’re able to show you the two versions separated by 20 years.
Obviously, this card is here to mark this ROG anniversary. Even though it’s fully functional, it’s not for everyone. It seeks to tell a story, reminding us of the days when high-end motherboards still had bold colors, copper heatsinks and a certain soul. But behind the exterior is the X870E platform, with support for modern Ryzen, fast DDR5, five M.2 slots, Wi-Fi 7, dual ultra-high-speed Ethernet, USB4 and SupremeFX audio. All in all, a very complete base for a high-end configuration.
So, do you like this card? Nostalgia isn’t everything, but we were unanimous in our opinion. Is it just a question of design, or do we subconsciously remember that high-end motherboards were still affordable (250€ at the time)…For the moment, we don’t know if Asus will stick to an ultra-limited card to celebrate the event. The brand has not announced a commercial launch, let alone a price for this board… So we’ll keep an eye out for it.
