ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition

tonyftw

tonyftw

[H]ard|Gawd
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Mar 21, 2013
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Looks like they removed the annoying chipset fan from the original rive. Must resist :(...

Asus link.

Their new x79 deluxe is available at newegg, for those who can't wait.
 
o dear god, and I need a new motherboard. Please be $450 or less
 
wow, RIVE refresh always looks great without all the red (or gold), guess i can live with only 4 fullsize pcie slots.. :)
 
xlcr said:
wow, RIVE refresh always looks great without all the red (or gold), guess i can live with only 4 fullsize pcie slots.. :)
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It certainly looks DAMN good, but the recent shitty CS service that has been coming outta Asus would worry me, especially if I was spending $400+ on a new MB..:(
 
So with this MB it's not possible to use a highend air CPU cooler like the Silver Arrow and a GPU on the top x16 slot?
It really sucks if that's the case, it's beyond me how a top of the line MB can be limited in such a way.
 
I think it is physically impossible to have all 7 slots occupied on a standard (E)ATX board and still use a 120mm cooler. Either it is only 3 PEG slots with proper spacing or a smaller cooler. I use a H80i on my Z77 WS for that exact reason.
 
omniscence said:
I think it is physically impossible to have all 7 slots occupied on a standard (E)ATX board and still use a 120mm cooler. Either it is only 3 PEG slots with proper spacing or a smaller cooler. I use a H80i on my Z77 WS for that exact reason.
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Ok but they could have prioritized the layout so that you could ATLEAST run 2 GPUs in SLI/CF @ x16 and use a highend air CPU cooler.
Or dunno, then remove one slot or something, because it's simply not acceptable for a top of the line motherboard. Other cheap motherboards can do it.
 
Blackbird said:
Ok but they could have prioritized the layout so that you could ATLEAST run 2 GPUs in SLI/CF @ x16 and use a highend air CPU cooler.
Or dunno, then remove one slot or something, because it's simply not acceptable for a top of the line motherboard. Other cheap motherboards can do it.
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They are probably assuming that if you are willing to purchase a top of the line mobo, you'll also invest in a good cooling solution. This board is designed for overclockers, and most of them use watercooling setups. Not all but most, if they're serious about it.

Besides, closed loop CPU coolers are relatively inexpensive in comparison to most of the high end HSF setups these days, I say the cooling performace makes up for the higher price if any. Why wouldn't you get one? Because if you don't plan to overclock, you shouldn't be buying this kind of motherboard. lol

Personally, I'd love to have one as I enjoy the hell out of my RIVE board already but I really don't see the point in dropping another $1000 for a new mobo/cpu when the Ivy Bridge-E CPU doesn't net me much of a performance gain. Only reason I would switch would be a less power hungry CPU, but I don't have issues with power anyway. I'd personally purchase this board for the built in headphone amp, more connectivity for periferals, and lack of a noisy chipset fan. Though I will wait to make any real decision until after I read the review that I know the guys here at [H] are going to do. I trust their opinion on hardware more than any one elses.
 
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Looks and sounds great. If I am forced to wait until November for it, I may just say screw and hold off for the Rampage 5 Extreme and Haswell-E.
 
Harmzuay said:
Besides, closed loop CPU coolers are relatively inexpensive in comparison to most of the high end HSF setups these days, I say the cooling performace makes up for the higher price if any. Why wouldn't you get one? Because if you don't plan to overclock, you shouldn't be buying this kind of motherboard. lol
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Closed loop coolers perform on par with high-end air, so that is a legitimate gripe for some.

From reading some info at the rog forums, this motherboard has the exact same audio as the Maximus VI formula, 20k rated black caps, nexfet mosfets, and other improved features.
 
This looks like a sweet board, my only concern is that the chipset is old. I mean I probably should have bought x79 years ago to get the maximum amount of life out of it. But this new board also has me thinking maybe I should get it since I waited so long.
 
Blackbird said:
So with this MB it's not possible to use a highend air CPU cooler like the Silver Arrow and a GPU on the top x16 slot?
It really sucks if that's the case, it's beyond me how a top of the line MB can be limited in such a way.
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The top end ROG or OC boards from vendors really aren't intended for air cooling. You're never going to be able to fully utilize them without LN2, phase, or other exotic cooling methods. If you aren't doing that, you're throwing money away for the sake of e-penis measuring on how much you spend on components, or you purchased it just for bling. It's not going to make an ounce of difference if you're sticking with air.

If you've got the cash where you can blow it on a board like this even though you have no intention of properly using it, you've got the cash for liquid cooling. A product like this assumes you're going to go top of the line on everything, and air cooling isn't top of the line.
 
I could have sworn I saw this board (Black Edition) 9 months ago from an announcement.. a bit late if its only getting released Q4 2012... Considering the RIVE is a big pos...
 
greeneye said:
I could have sworn I saw this board (Black Edition) 9 months ago from an announcement.. a bit late if its only getting released Q4 2012... Considering the RIVE is a big pos...
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They had a limited edition of the R IV extreme done in all black they gave away to a few select people.
 
FRZ said:
o dear god, and I need a new motherboard. Please be $450 or less
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They will have to price it competitively with the EVGA X79 Dark that was just released. There is also some talk it may be bundled with Assassin Creed Black Flag. Either way, I would recommend ASUS over EVGA in the mobo department, any day.

This looks like a sexy board. They combined everything that was good from both the IV Formula and Extreme into one board and looks like they got rid of the bad.
 
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BatJoe said:
They will have to price it competitively with the EVGA X79 Dark that was just released. There is also some talk it may be bundled with Assassin Creed Black Flag. Either way, I would recommend ASUS over EVGA in the mobo department, any day.

This looks like a sexy board. They combined everything that was good from both the IV Formula and Extreme into one board and looks like they got rid of the bad.
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actually just bit on an evga dark :p couldnt bother waiting til November

the evga is overkill as it is for me anyways. The Asus is damn sexy though
 
tonyftw said:
Closed loop coolers perform on par with high-end air, so that is a legitimate gripe for some.

From reading some info at the rog forums, this motherboard has the exact same audio as the Maximus VI formula, 20k rated black caps, nexfet mosfets, and other improved features.
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Problem being with high end air, you also have to deal with the weight of that giant heatsink constantly putting strain on your board. I'm no stranger to high end air coolers, ran them for years and swore by them. Though if I'm dropping $500 on a motherboard there is no way that I would want to take a giant heatsink and strap it to my board unless I had a case like the CM HAF XB so that the weight of the cooler was a non-issue at that point. Cooler weight for high end air was my deciding factor in going with a closed loop system instead for my current setup. Not saying it will crack the board, though I have seen cases of that happening, but it will flex the underlying circuits which just isn't good to do in my opinion.

I look at it like this. If you're gonna buy a Rampage IV board, it's obviously not a budget system so why skimp on cooling and take the risk with that expensive motherboard by mounting a heatsink on it that weighs a ton?

Since I've already got a RIVE, I will probably wait until they release a Rampage V to do my upgrading. At this point, I can't really justify dropping another $1000 on board and cpu for marginal performance gains.
 
Harmzuay said:
Problem being with high end air, you also have to deal with the weight of that giant heatsink constantly putting strain on your board. I'm no stranger to high end air coolers, ran them for years and swore by them. Though if I'm dropping $500 on a motherboard there is no way that I would want to take a giant heatsink and strap it to my board unless I had a case like the CM HAF XB so that the weight of the cooler was a non-issue at that point. Cooler weight for high end air was my deciding factor in going with a closed loop system instead for my current setup. Not saying it will crack the board, though I have seen cases of that happening, but it will flex the underlying circuits which just isn't good to do in my opinion.

I look at it like this. If you're gonna buy a Rampage IV board, it's obviously not a budget system so why skimp on cooling and take the risk with that expensive motherboard by mounting a heatsink on it that weighs a ton?

Since I've already got a RIVE, I will probably wait until they release a Rampage V to do my upgrading. At this point, I can't really justify dropping another $1000 on board and cpu for marginal performance gains.
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I agree, bulky air coolers should be a thing of the past.

I have a IV Formula, and I will probably get this board simply because I want it. But I believe many people are underestimating the advantage of multi-core/multi-threaded CPUs in the next generation of gaming. We already see the benefits in certain applications with it.
 
I use air and my system does air perfectly fine i7-930 @ 4.4 ghz. I disagree with the statements that air is in the past. majority of PC Users use AIR.

However, can you get more out of water/Phase Change? Yes I would agree, however, Air is still a viable and worthwhile option. It does not take as much effort as water and I sense the silver arrow / Ultra 120 Extreme will fit fine in this Mobo
 
they used to be, until the Nvidia 680i fiasco, theyve been going down hill since.
 
dpoverlord said:
I use air and my system does air perfectly fine i7-930 @ 4.4 ghz. I disagree with the statements that air is in the past. majority of PC Users use AIR.

However, can you get more out of water/Phase Change? Yes I would agree, however, Air is still a viable and worthwhile option. It does not take as much effort as water and I sense the silver arrow / Ultra 120 Extreme will fit fine in this Mobo
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Yup. High-end air coolers are priced similarly to high-end closed loop coolers also. So I find the "if you can afford this mobo, don't skimp on cooling" statement hilarious.

If that's the case, you should be using custom loops when buying this mobo ;).
The Mac said:
they used to be, until the Nvidia 680i fiasco, theyve been going down hill since.
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Evga's x79 dark has some potential, but I wouldn't use their motherboards even if you paid me. They went downhill after lga1366.
 
BatJoe said:
They will have to price it competitively with the EVGA X79 Dark that was just released. There is also some talk it may be bundled with Assassin Creed Black Flag. Either way, I would recommend ASUS over EVGA in the mobo department, any day.

This looks like a sexy board. They combined everything that was good from both the IV Formula and Extreme into one board and looks like they got rid of the bad.
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Nah, part of the point of a halo product is pricing it out of most peoples range. It also helps drive up pricing over the long term. Remember when the Striker Extreme hit at 300+ bucks and people thought that was insane! Halo products are great, one of the great things about products like ROG and Titan are driving the prices up for the things people really want and helping create an elite market to give people with the cash something to show off. These companies have been very good at creating a truly high end market for those with the cash to play in it, the black part of ROG is helping create an even more elite market for the elite.
 
tonyftw said:
Yup. High-end air coolers are priced similarly to high-end closed loop coolers also. So I find the "if you can afford this mobo, don't skimp on cooling" statement hilarious.

If that's the case, you should be using custom loops when buying this mobo ;).

Evga's x79 dark has some potential, but I wouldn't use their motherboards even if you paid me. They went downhill after lga1366.
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Guess what I meant was, if air and closed loop cooling are similarly priced why would you go with air?

I would have setup a custom loop at the time but a full watercooled rig is a fair bit MORE expensive and way higher maintenance than just buying a closed loop unit for your CPU. I do have plans to eventually setup a complete watercooled rig but there's still a lot of research/testing I have left to do in that area to make sure I do it right and I haven't had the time or money to invest in it lately.

I build my systems to last and be easily maintained as well perform. Personally with the risk of leaks and the higher cost of a full watercooled system it's not really worth the risk. Big heavy heat sinks from air coolers pose a threat because they flex the board if you have a case in which all that weight just hangs off the motherboard in it's vertical position. Closed loop however you still have a risk of leaks, but it's not nearly as great as a custom watercooled setup and it's rather affordable and performs better than air in my opinion. You don't have weight concerns and you don't have to worry about your memory slots being to close to to your CPU socket as you do with many other coolers.

It took me a while to convince myself that closed loop was the way to go, but it all makes sense to me. It's affordable as in, costs around the same as high end bulky HSF setup and most of its weight is supported by a steel case not a circuit board. Risk of leaks is relatively low considering they're sealed units and quality control tested at the factories. And you can push more out of a cpu overclock without having to worry about your heatsink being to large to fit certain memomory configurations, though that more specifically applies to the X79 boards because they support 64GB of quad-channel memory. Which is also something a looked at when shopping for cpu coolers for my RIVE. There are few HSF setups that don't interfere with the memory slots, at least when I built my current system.

This also might be a personal opinion as well but I found the closed loop system a much easier install process than a bulky high end air cooler. I didn't have to deal with going around to the back of my motherboard or removing it from the case. Everything bolted into what was already there and without the big heatsink in my way all the time made things much easier to add or remove from the system when working in that area.

Not trying to make a debate about it, but if it were me buying this board a closed loop or custom watercooling setup would be the only options for me. I wouldn't consider air just because the heat sinks are to damn heavy these days. This is all personal opinion though and the factors that made me choose a closed loop over air cooled. Figured I would share that since it really did take me some time to choose which cooler I wanted to go with.
 
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