ASUS Rampage III Black Edition Motherboard Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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ASUS Rampage III Black Edition Motherboard Review - While P67 and Z68 is all the rage, if you are looking for the most powerful computing system money can buy, then X58 is still it. ASUS promises to deliver everything you expect out of X58 and then some with its latest Republic of Gamers branded board. If you are looking for the ultimate X58 motherboard, it's the Rampage III Black Edition.
 
Nice X58 board indeed, but steep price to pay for admission...

I've had two back to back ASUS boards so far and they've been terrific. This one is no different I'm sure.
 
My thought process while reading the conclusion: Hey this seems like an awesome board. I'm sure it's in the $300-ish range. I wonder if I can....FUCK! Edging towards $600!? Excuse me I need to pick my jaw up off the floor.

While reading the review I was wondering if I could get away with going to a 1366 build for the heck of it because that board seemed amazing. One minor problem: That board is quite literally almost half the cost of my upgrade budget. I think I'll stick with 1155, prices are much more sane there. I wonder how much of the cost is put into the Thunderbolt/LAN card.
 
I wonder if Asus would let me get my picture taken standing beside it?:p
 
My god they are asking a lot of money for that board. Hope that trend is stillborn.
 
Nice review.
Really nice board.
Right now I have a Rampage III Formula and it is about all I could ask for in a Motherboard.

This kind of reminds me of the release of the Classified board, but at least it was early in the life of the X58 chipset. $600 is pretty pricey, but back 2 years ago so was the Classified at $400.

If the X79 wasn't right around the corner I'd get in line for one of these, but that boat has sailed...........kind of too bad, this is a slick mainboard with about everything possible.:D
 
Nice looking board... the price leads me to think this will be a very limited run of these because of the small market. I won't get one at that price, but nice board nonetheless.
 
$600.. lol... $200 is the tops for me for a great board.. small market indeed.
 
Probably the highest praised mobo I've seen. Congrats to Asus.
 
I don't understand the Gold award Kyle. You've dinged other products in reviews due to price and withheld the Gold award on price alone. Why did this motherboard win a Gold when the price is outrageous?
 
I guess he gave it since its the best X58 board they have ever tested?????
 
J Macker said:
You've dinged other products in reviews due to price and withheld the Gold award on price alone. Why did this motherboard win a Gold when the price is outrageous?
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While I hate to use a car analogy, and certainly automobile analogies do not always apply to computer hardware, I think it is fitting here. Why does a Ferrari 458 win "Gold" awards when the price is outrageous? It is simply one of the best sports cars ever built.

ferrari_428_italia.jpg


As always, our awards only hold as much value as our readers think they do. We get called out on every single award we give.

That all aside, I think we stated it very succintly as to why we thought it was Gold [H] worthy.

The Bottom Line
The dirty little secret of the ASUS Rampage III Black Edition is its price. $559.00 at Newegg, and $574.99 at Amazon. Wow. The ASUS Rampage III Black Edition is ASUS' crown jewel when it comes to retail motherboards and it is likely the best X58 motherboard ever built. It is certainly not for most enthusiasts, but ASUS is aware of that. We are glad that ASUS still went the extra mile to build it.
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I hope this helps you understand our point of view on this product.
 
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Is the Xonar hardware that much more work to incorporate on the mobo than the RealTek? Can you imagine if Intel would have made the south bridge handle SATA III? Especially on a board like this!.....
Don’t get me wrong, am not complaining. Just dreaming
:)
 
I agree with the review. This is by far the most amazing motherboard I have ever seen and ASUS delivers it with all the trimmings. It's got everything an enthusiast needs to build an incredible beast of a PC. And when you're already hitting the $3k budget build mark, price is the last concern. This is definitely not for the average user and something of a gem for those who can afford it. This falls under the category of hardware you don't need but you want it just because you can.
 
wifi 54g norm on avg is 2.5MB/s (what i norm see), it's the expected speed (N stuff can go up to 10MB/s but getting the right network card to match the router is the issue like the netgear N150 i can get 8.5MB/s avg if i am less then 2 meters from it 1 wall drops to around 4-6MB/s)

the 2600K or 2500k is the better buy at the moment
 
greenfrogman said:
wifi 54g norm on avg is 2.5MB/s (what i norm see), it's the expected speed (N stuff can go up to 10MB/s but getting the right network card to match the router is the issue like the netgear N150 i can get 8.5MB/s avg if i am less then 2 meters from it 1 wall drops to around 4-6MB/s)

the 2600K or 2500k is the better buy at the moment
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Not for someone who's already running an X58 system. I don't want to have to repurchase RAM and CPU when I can just swap the mobo.
 
NickJames said:
And when you're already hitting the $3k budget build mark, price is the last concern.
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I disagree in this case, on a $3K build, there are better places to drop the $300-$400 price difference than into this particular board, from a performance perspective. Just my $0.02.
 
NickJames said:
Not for someone who's already running an X58 system. I don't want to have to repurchase RAM and CPU when I can just swap the mobo.
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Agreed. The X58 systems are still the kings of feature and are very fast boards, overclocking like the devil.

If I had the inclination, I could easily slide all my stuff over for just the investment in the mainboard......but honestly I will never need all that hardware.

Especially with the first of the year bringing the X79, which I am planning to migrate to.:D
At this point in the life of the X58 chipset, this board is not worth the investment, unless you were planning a scratch X58 build and could pick up a Hexcore CPU on the cheap.
 
save your green and get a rampage extreme III for 225-275 and invest the rest in a nice 980x or 990x
 
gigatexal said:
Probably the highest praised mobo I've seen. Congrats to Asus.
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ASUS always delivers in the ROG line with one exception. (The Striker Extreme) Aside from that all their boards made near the end of a chipset's life cycle are virtually unmatched by any other. The Rampage III Black Edition simply continues this tradition.

J Macker said:
I don't understand the Gold award Kyle. You've dinged other products in reviews due to price and withheld the Gold award on price alone. Why did this motherboard win a Gold when the price is outrageous?
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Well the cost certainly will keep this from being a mainstream part, but then again 980X's aren't mainstream either. They aren't supposed to be. Their price point doesn't change how awesome the product is.

AthlonXP said:
I guess he gave it since its the best X58 board they have ever tested?????
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Absolutely. Rarely does a motherboard really cause me to geek out and really want to show it off to my friends when they come over. The Rampage III Black Edition is one of those rare gems. I really can't praise it enough.

marzzez said:
Is the Xonar hardware that much more work to incorporate on the mobo than the RealTek? Can you imagine if Intel would have made the south bridge handle SATA III? Especially on a board like this!.....
Don’t get me wrong, am not complaining. Just dreaming
:)
Click to expand...

Well take a look at the PCB for the Rampage III Black Edition and understand that very little of the hardware on their besides the ALC889 chip is part of the audio solution. Now take a look at the Xonar's hardware and keep in mind that most of that is the audio solution and not the Killer NIC. There isn't room on the PCB for something like that. The ThunderBolt combo has replacable OP Amps which isn't something you've really got room for on a motherboard.

NickJames said:
I agree with the review. This is by far the most amazing motherboard I have ever seen and ASUS delivers it with all the trimmings. It's got everything an enthusiast needs to build an incredible beast of a PC. And when you're already hitting the $3k budget build mark, price is the last concern. This is definitely not for the average user and something of a gem for those who can afford it. This falls under the category of hardware you don't need but you want it just because you can.
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For those people who want to throw down with multiple high end graphics cards, 6 core Extreme Editions, and all the trimmings, $600 for a motherboard really isn't that much of a stretch. I've seen more expensive motherboards from Gigabyte like their X58A-UD9 which weren't as solid and still cost more.

greenfrogman said:
wifi 54g norm on avg is 2.5MB/s (what i norm see), it's the expected speed (N stuff can go up to 10MB/s but getting the right network card to match the router is the issue like the netgear N150 i can get 8.5MB/s avg if i am less then 2 meters from it 1 wall drops to around 4-6MB/s)

the 2600K or 2500k is the better buy at the moment
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The WiFi is hard to test. My setup at home is a bit dated as well. As for the 2500k or the 2600k being the better buy, I'd agree with you. Very rarely is the investment in a 6 core Extreme Edition going to pay off. It does for me, but I'm not everyone. The Rampage III Black Edition is actually built exactly for the type of audience I personally represent.

NickJames said:
Not for someone who's already running an X58 system. I don't want to have to repurchase RAM and CPU when I can just swap the mobo.
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Exactly. Again I don't recommend this for anyone but the six core crowd and I really only recommend it when the feature set is desirable.

And as Kyle pointed out, I'm now running the Rampage III Black Edition in my own system. I liked it that much. I like a lot of boards I review but very few of those make the cut to be in my main rig. If that doesn't tell you how awesome I think it is, then nothing will. :cool:
 
gotendbz1 said:
save your green and get a rampage extreme III for 225-275 and invest the rest in a nice 980x or 990x
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I'd say that if you were really concerned about the price of the board, then the 980X or 990X probably isn't for you. That's not a budget oriented solution in the least. And really, $250 or so more for the total system build is nothing when you are throwing 3k+ down on a new machine.
 
This is a really niche board; it's trying to fit the bill for computational power and overclocking at the same time, but it only sports a single 1366 socket and is as expensive as the dual socket 1366 boards. Additionally, you're not going to be overclocking it if you're part of a company that has an IS&T dept & QA dept.

If you want computational power, you're going to buy a dual socket 1366 system and add some six-core Xeon chips. The motherboards with dual 1366 sockets are $500. Which begs the question, why buy one cpu when you can have two for twice the price? I've been helping spec out four new workstations and each will have dual Xeon X5690 chips. It just doesn't make sense to me for a single socket board to command the same price level.

The Killer NIC and Asus Xonar are neat, but certainly not worth the extra $200 above other 1366 boards for a single socket. So, it seems like the clientele will be quite small even though the board seems excellent.
 
ir0nw0lf said:
I disagree in this case, on a $3K build, there are better places to drop the $300-$400 price difference than into this particular board, from a performance perspective. Just my $0.02.
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I didn't have to put down an extra $400 on watercooling for my build but I did anyway because it was fun to build and everyone thought it looked cool. I keep my OC's moderate and temperatures rarely ever got past 78c on load with the stock fan. I paid $425 for my first revision EVGA X58 Classified 3-Way SLI board and was not dissapointed, it served me well for nearly 3 years before something I did caused the SATA ports to die "which EVGA gracefully RMA'd with only shipping costs <3".

If you are building such a high end machine, why not splurge a little and get the best of everything? One thing I learned in my early days of PC building is never cheap out on the mobo and PSU, because it's the hardware that will outlast nearly every other component in your PC and usually the first to go wrong when you get cheap parts. Plus, it just looks so damn cool!
 
J Macker said:
This is a really niche board; it's trying to fit the bill for computational power and overclocking at the same time, but it only sports a single 1366 socket and is as expensive as the dual socket 1366 boards. Additionally, you're not going to be overclocking it if you're part of a company that has an IS&T dept & QA dept.

If you want computational power, you're going to buy a dual socket 1366 system and add some six-core Xeon chips. The motherboards with dual 1366 sockets are $500. Which begs the question, why buy one cpu when you can have two for twice the price? I've been helping spec out four new workstations and each will have dual Xeon X5690 chips. It just doesn't make sense to me for a single socket board to command the same price level.

The Killer NIC and Asus Xonar are neat, but certainly not worth the extra $200 above other 1366 boards for a single socket. So, it seems like the clientele will be quite small even though the board seems excellent.
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It's a niche product for sure. I could have a dual Xeon if I wanted to but the fact is that it won't do me much good in games. It would help with video encoding but I can't justify spending $1,500 per CPU for that and buying a dual LGA1366 board, and enough RAM for all that. Plus, I need / want the overclocking. That benefits me a lot so the board is about perfect for my needs. Also, few dual LGA1366 boards are worth a crap for SLI or CrossfireX. That's something else you've got to consider. For workstations I don't think people should be looking at the R3BE but for other uses, maybe.
 
greenfrogman said:
wifi 54g norm on avg is 2.5MB/s (what i norm see), it's the expected speed (N stuff can go up to 10MB/s but getting the right network card to match the router is the issue like the netgear N150 i can get 8.5MB/s avg if i am less then 2 meters from it 1 wall drops to around 4-6MB/s)

the 2600K or 2500k is the better buy at the moment
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WE know the 2066k/2500k argument already... but if you wanted a 6 core cpu this is a fantastic board..
 
Is the conclusion of this article telling me I should sell my i7 920 cause it's not worth having one? Then it tells me maybe not because new stuff is just around the corner?

I feel like upgrading to the newest chipsets but the only thing I would gain is SATA III. Can't really justify the upgrade cost just for that feature.
 
Dan_D said:
Also, few dual LGA1366 boards are worth a crap for SLI or CrossfireX. That's something else you've got to consider.
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Have had problems in the past with duel cards and was wondering if you could elaborate, as in what made it better on this board?
 
marzzez said:
Have had problems in the past with duel cards and was wondering if you could elaborate, as in what made it better on this board?
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What I mean is, most dual socket LGA1366 boards for Xeons are not designed for dual (or more) high end video cards to run in SLI. There are some that are with Quadro's being thought of in the design phase, but many of them have poor slot placement, or insufficient slots / slot real-estate to make it work well. Boards made for the enthusiast however have SLI / CrossfireX as a consideration / design goal from the onset of their creation.

Also, while I didn't cover it in the article, the Rampage III Black Edition has switches onboard for allocating PCIe lanes to the 4 PCIe x16 slots. This way you can setup a 16x16 or 8x8x8x8 setup if you wish. You can enable or disable slots in hardware via these switches as well.
 
Oooh ok, thanks Dan. Was inpatient and made the mistake in buying an Alienware rig instead of putting one together myself, not to say it’s a bad product but am afraid to do anything heavy on it.
Believe you about this mobo, I do.
Say, can that WIFI card be unplugged?
 
Man that board has me drooling... :D

I have the Rampage III Formula and absolutely love it. Hands down the best board I've ever owned. I *wish* I had the scratch to buy this board and a hexacore processor!
 
So if I understand you correctly, you used an SATAII hard drive on all tests? Not to give you a hard time but why wouldn’t you use an SATA III HDD to get a better comparison/perspective?
 
Dan_D said:
What I mean is, most dual socket LGA1366 boards for Xeons are not designed for dual (or more) high end video cards to run in SLI. There are some that are with Quadro's being thought of in the design phase, but many of them have poor slot placement, or insufficient slots / slot real-estate to make it work well. Boards made for the enthusiast however have SLI / CrossfireX as a consideration / design goal from the onset of their creation.

Also, while I didn't cover it in the article, the Rampage III Black Edition has switches onboard for allocating PCIe lanes to the 4 PCIe x16 slots. This way you can setup a 16x16 or 8x8x8x8 setup if you wish. You can enable or disable slots in hardware via these switches as well.
Click to expand...

Wow! That's something I didn't know! More motherboards need that kind of feature, it kills when you have to setup your GPU and PCI slot arrangements to work 16x16 but they arrange it in some ridiculous pattern like 16x8x8x16x8. So you end up having something like a TV tuner sandwiched between 2 GPU's.
 
marzzez said:
So if I understand you correctly, you used an SATAII hard drive on all tests? Not to give you a hard time but why wouldn’t you use an SATA III HDD to get a better comparison/perspective?
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the marvel 9182 based on some tests I ran with an Intel 510 HD are on par with the built in intel sandy bridge sata III.
 
NickJames said:
Wow! That's something I didn't know! More motherboards need that kind of feature, it kills when you have to setup your GPU and PCI slot arrangements to work 16x16 but they arrange it in some ridiculous pattern like 16x8x8x16x8. So you end up having something like a TV tuner sandwiched between 2 GPU's.
Click to expand...

Well you still have to place them in a certain way to get certain speeds. For example Slots 1 and 3 give you 16x16. Slots 1, 2, 3 give you 8x8x16, and slots 1,2,3&4 give you 8x8x8x8.
Placement of cards into the PCIe x1 slots also do not count against you. Though some cards are problematic in those slots because they may or may not share resources with onboard devices. So any device used in them must support IRQ sharing.
 
I don't see why Asus keeps tagging along the garbage killer NIC. Dan's experiences with it are pretty much mirrored everywhere else, it's overall worse then an intel NIC, requires obtrusive junkware to be installed and costs more.

As for the board, if they lost the thunderbolt card you could drop an easy $100-130 off the price tag and people would be much happier. Doesn't really make sense for any but the most hardcore hex core users (well, or L2N benchers).
 
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