ASUS Rampage Extreme @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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ASUS Rampage Extreme - ASUS’ newest ROG (Republic of Gamers) branded board, the Rampage Extreme, sports both style and power. With its water cooled capable chipset cooling system, this just might be the board to beat the heat, and a few benchmarks.

The ASUS Rampage Extreme is a hell of a motherboard and the likes of it is being used to break some pretty big overclocking records. We think that these X48 chipsets are being handpicked for these “Extreme” motherboards, and you of course know whether or not 500MHz+ FSB speeds will benefit you or not. If you have access to sub-zero temperature chambers, maybe you will see 645MHz too!
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Sorry but I can't even consider another ASUS board until the company takes supporting their products a little more seriously. For the premium prices they are asking for their products it is an insult for there not to be a forum that the ASUS techs are involved in.
 
This is prolly the last really high end Asus mobos we are going to see for Core2. Prolly one of the last really high end Core2 mobo's from anyone. It looks like they made it a good one. I would maybe buy it, but I already have a Rampage Formula, and my next rig will prolly be an i7 a year from now or more. Unless somehow AMD steps up in that time frame.
 
Another Excellent Review, and while I would like to have PCIE 2.0 that's about the only thing I'm Lacking from my P5K-E. All in All, Asus has done a Comendable Job with this Board, and would consider this one on my Short List for DDR3 Mobo's.
 
Price is a little stiff, but I plan on building my next rig with this board. It will also be my first foray into water cooling.:D:D:D
 
"If you want to put 4GB in any of these newer boards and overclock the memory bus, I highly suggest 2GB sticks, and then you need to place them in the pair of white DIMM slots, not the blue."

why is that
 
I don't know...
I'm as eager as the next person for new tech and the chance to extend my ePenis, but if you compare this review with the review of the Rampage Formula back in March, I have a hard time finding a compelling reason to get this board, or any of the DDR3-based X48 boards.

The benchmark scores between the two boards are almost identical, with the exception of the Sisoft memory bench.

Add to that the Holy-Mother-Of-God :eek: price of the DDR3 memory and you have more than $500 difference in price for nearly carbon copy performance.

If you want to do watercooling, it seems like you'd be better off buying the Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 that was also a Gold Award winner and getting your own waterblocks.

I think I'll wait for the x58 boards and make use of my two 8800GTX's. :D
 
alcky said:
"If you want to put 4GB in any of these newer boards and overclock the memory bus, I highly suggest 2GB sticks, and then you need to place them in the pair of white DIMM slots, not the blue."

why is that
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much more stable in those slots when overclocking.
 
nice review, how come Dan didnt do it ?? isnt he the motherboard editor or something like that.
 
Axiomatic said:
Sorry but I can't even consider another ASUS board until the company takes supporting their products a little more seriously. For the premium prices they are asking for their products it is an insult for there not to be a forum that the ASUS techs are involved in.
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+1.

$400???? Seriously. WTF!
...and I thought the $250 mark had gone a tad overboard.
 
Wow! I really like this board. Too bad I can't replace my piss poor overclocking, BIOS unstable Gigabyte X38T with this board without Vista 64 having a stroke about it.
 
gathagan said:
I don't know...
I'm as eager as the next person for new tech and the chance to extend my ePenis, but if you compare this review with the review of the Rampage Formula back in March, I have a hard time finding a compelling reason to get this board, or any of the DDR3-based X48 boards.

The benchmark scores between the two boards are almost identical, with the exception of the Sisoft memory bench.

Add to that the Holy-Mother-Of-God :eek: price of the DDR3 memory and you have more than $500 difference in price for nearly carbon copy performance.

If you want to do watercooling, it seems like you'd be better off buying the Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 that was also a Gold Award winner and getting your own waterblocks.

I think I'll wait for the x58 boards and make use of my two 8800GTX's. :D
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Same here, I really wanted this board just because it looks like a Transformer! No really, I was holding out for this unit to come out vs. waiting on a Nehalem setup but I decided I don't want to be in the first revisions of that and then when I saw the Rampage Formula go on sale for $269, I jumped on it and some extra cash left over to to toss at a 4870x2. I couldn't be happier....but I still do want an extreme LOL.
 
Kyle and Morry...nice review of the RE. I've had this board for more about week now and gotta say I like it a lot. Had my E8600 up to 4.7GHz very easily (on air too). My only challenge thus far is with the memory. I want to build a system around 2x2GB of ram and pulled my G.Skill's (F3-12800CL7D-4GBHZ) out of my 790i board where they performed like Rockstars! Allowing the board to run on Auto (only setting the FSB) the G.Skills run at DDR3 1600, 4GHz, 7-7-7-18 with 1.9v flawlessly. If I dial up the same overclock (10x400) manually I get errors w/ my 2x2GB config. No problems with the same settings using 2x1GB sticks.

I'm sure I am a tweak a two away from stability with the 4GB G.Skill setup. If I can't figure it out soon it is good to know that you had success with the Corsair kit.
 
I am on the verge of ordering the components for my second-ever build. I am blessed by a wife who DOES NOT set a limit on my budget and can therefore select the best motherboard of my choice.

I truly wanted to purchase the nVidia board to continue my loyality to their products. However, the overwhelmingly negative reviews of those who purchased their newest board have steered me to the ASUS Extreme.

It was the clarity of your review that answered all of my question.

Thank you so much.
 
I looked through and didn't notice whether vista 64 was the OS used for the test system..?
 
I just got this board yesterday. Im deciding that water cooling system to employ for the Northbridge. SInce Im running an over clocked 4870x2 Id like to include that into the water cooling system.
 
Duo Joe said:
I just got this board yesterday. Im deciding that water cooling system to employ for the Northbridge. SInce Im running an over clocked 4870x2 Id like to include that into the water cooling system.
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Duo Joe,

I am using the swiftech cooler kit and it has tons of power (see sig block for the model.) I have not included my crossfired cards in the loop yet, but I am more than confident this system would handle it no problem. BTW make sure you get the apogee cpu block it is awsome!:D
 
I got this board and overall Im pretty happy with it. The thermal paste on the northbridge was a joke, I was hitting temps of 70 C (air cooled) at stock voltages. I went and cleaned their stuff off and applied some arctic silver 5, now Im running at 55-60 C under full load with a mild overclock.

01mr2.jpg
02lm5.jpg



After reading other forums (including the ASUS forums), it seems that this is a common issue for the board. If it were some budget board, ok, but come on this is a $400 flagship product.
 
Anyone remove the heat pipe assembly on the ramp? I did and I'm glad I did.
The compound job was awful for a board of this caliber. I'm re-doing it but have
a question. What is the grey clay like stuff on the three (1RO 819 DO6) things just
left of the N/B? Its not thermal compound and its not one of those sticky pads
either. It fells like clay. Guess I'll just put some thermal compound on it and go
with it.
 
Update. I just read over at the Asus forum that a member actually took the little washers off.
Apparently the gray matter is just tried tim. Dunno.
 
keithallenlaw said:
Anyone remove the heat pipe assembly on the ramp? I did and I'm glad I did.
The compound job was awful for a board of this caliber. I'm re-doing it but have
a question. What is the grey clay like stuff on the three (1RO 819 DO6) things just
left of the N/B? Its not thermal compound and its not one of those sticky pads
either. It fells like clay. Guess I'll just put some thermal compound on it and go
with it.
Click to expand...


Yeah, you should replace that. :) Our tests were done with stock though. But I did replace it for recent testing.
 
I dunno, call it bad luck but on this board I can't get my 4 gigs of XMS DDR3 1600 to load vista 64 at its native speed no matter how [edit: lax] the timings and high the voltage... Highest stable OC w/ my QX 9650 is 3.5gigs so far... The ram is in the white slots, I even have the corsair fan on them.. W/e it's still putting out amazingly fast performance, just, not near the oc potential I expected for the ridiculous amount of money spent.

case: Antec 1200
psu: Antec Truepower Quattro 1000w
mobo: ASUS Rampage Extreme
proc: Intel QX9650 @3.5GHz
mem: 4gb Corsair XMS DDR3 1600 (runs at 1333)
gpu: 2x VisionTek 4870s in xFire
hd, audio & network cards: WD 500gb, SoundBlaster X-Fi, Killer NIC
os: Vista Home Premium
 
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