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ASUS Rampage II Extreme

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ASUS Rampage II Extreme
10
By Enspire
Jun 26, 2009
Pros:
Extreme Overclocking Headroom
Extra's and Features
Quality
Padded Backplate
Cons:
Price
Asus's extreme X58 Chipset motherboard, set to rise OC standards

The Asus Rampage II Extreme is now taking the PC gaming and overclocking worl by storm. The Rampage II is the first ROG (Republic of Gamers) motherboard that uses the X58 chipset. (Core i7 Chipset). At over $600 AUD, this is not for everyone. But for those who can afford it, it is dripping with features. The TweakIt and ProbeIt functions, use the supplied temperature probes. These can be placed anywhere around the case to measure exact temperatures.

The Rampage II also comes with signature, joystick bios OC system. This is located on the right hand side of the board, opposite to the I/O panel. These easily accessible buttons allow users to change their bios settings on the fly.

The Rampage II Extreme, features a new and revolutionary Chocolate brown (or close to black in colour) 6 layer PCB. You won’t have to worry about apply too much force and snapping your motherboard. Something that will stand out to both ATI and nVidia lovers is the support for both SLI and Crossfire. Simply Wonderful. Six DDR3 slots can support up to (physical)12GB; using 2G sticks. The Rampage can support RAM frequencies of up to 2000Mhz. This is 100Mhz lower than the Gigabyte X58-EXTREME, but I would love to see someone going that high.

One wonderful extra that the Rampage II Extreme comes with is the Creative SupremeFX X-Fi soundcard. This provides very high quality 7/5/2.1 sound.

As you have probably realised so far, this motherboard is not for the everyday user, or even gamer, and the high price is likely to keep these kind of people away.

Also, have a multimeter? Then you will find the next feature very impressive. Each section of the motherboard that you can read the voltages from in CPU-Z has a header on the side of the board near the TweakIt joystick. Each of these headers is able to attach itself to your multimeter and give you the exact voltage for that component. The BIOS might say 1.5, CPU-Z might say 1.6, but if the multimeter (hooked up to the headers) says 1.6, you can be sure it is.

The CPU is also not the only one to get 16 phase power. Asus spreads the love to the DRAM. Northbridge, Southbridge and PCI-E units. This increases the overclocking headroom and helps keep your voltages down. The E-ATX form factor spreads out the components out to avoid cramping.

Love glowing and shiny things? The Asus Rampage II Extreme comes with a padded, painted and backlight I/O plate. This solves the USB plugging in the dark problem. Each of the little symbols to label the ports is illuminated.

As always with Asus products, quality is very high and the likelihood of meltdowns and the like is next to zero.

The only downside to this wonderful motherboard is the price. But if you really need the extra’s and that extra overclocking headroom the price is more than worth it.

99/100


Thank You,
Enspire






 
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Issue: 106 | November, 2009

Atomic is a magazine aimed squarely at computer enthusiasts, gamers, and serious PC upgraders.

Every month we bring you the latest reviews of new technology and PC components, in depth features on everything from overclocking to console hacking, and gaming previews and interviews.
 
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