A Sneak Peek at the New Asus Rampage IV Extreme (X79)
Asus’ ROG (Republic of Gamers) is set to release Rampage IV Extreme, its flagship motherboard for the upcoming release of Intel's LGA2011 (Sandy Bridge E) processors.
The Rampage IV Extreme has the standard red/black color scheme and comes packed with OC features and goodies.
The motherboard supports both the LGA-2011 and LGA 1366 CPU coolers by switching out the standard LGA-2011 bracket with a custom Asus bracket, which provides support for LGA-1366 coolers. As you look at the CPU socket, you’ll quickly notice the four DDR3 DIMM slots (two per channel) on either side of the socket for a total of eight DDR3 DIMM slots (DDR3-2400 OC). The CPU and memory VRM areas are located along three sides of the socket, all cooled by heatsinks that are connected by heat pipes. These VRM heatsinks share heat with the one over the X79 PCH, which is actively cooled by a fan.
The Rampage IV Extreme have four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (red) that operate at x16,x16 in SLI / CrossFireX mode and x8,x8,x8,x8 when in 4-way SLI or CrossFireX. There is one PCI-Express 2.0 x4 and one PCI-Express x1 to round out the expansion slots.
The I/O panel offers 7.1 channel audio, Gigabit LAN, Bluetooth V2.1+EDR, 4 USB 3.0 ports, 2 eSATA ports, PS/2, 8 USB 2.0 ports, S/PDIF out (optical), and 2 buttons to activate ROG Connect and reset CMOS.
There are two SATA 6 Gb/s (red) and four SATA 3 Gb/s (black) powered by the Intel X79 chipset, and 2 more SATA 6Gbps ports (red) provided by an ASMedia controller. In addition, you can plug in the "Subzero Sense" (black block on the right) to get the readings from the motherboard's temperature diodes during extreme LN2 sessions.
As with all ROG motherboards, the Rampage IV Extreme is packed with goodies for overclockers. A “GO" Button to trigger MEMOK! before POST or O/C Profiles after POST, a DIP switch to enable/disable PCIe slots, Power/Reset Buttons, a PORT 80 display, LN2 "slow boot" switch and LEDs next to each voltage measurement point for easy troubleshooting of OC failures. An OC Key device (bundled with the motherboard) connects to your graphics card, which allows an adjustment to overclock settings in real-time without using additional software or hardware.
The motherboard’s power is drawn by the standard 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS but ROG adds an additional 4-pin ATX (CPU power) and a 6-pin PCIe to help with electrical stability during overclocking. The ROG connect feature lets you monitor and overclock your board from Bluetooth-enabled smartphones.
The Rampage IV Extreme is slated to come with a free copy of Battlefield 3 Special Edition, upon its release. Pricing hasn’t been released but users should expect the motherboard to be around the $300 range.
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That is one sexy Motherboard.
Never get the point of expensive mobo's, it's not your system is going to perform better, and you may only be able to overclock 100-200mhz more than on any other decent mobo.
will it be ivy bridge compatible?
IB-E. IB standard is 1155.
64 gb ram here I come
Now that is one sick motherboard! LGA2011 looks huge too, a lot bigger than 1366, 1156 or 775.
IB-E. IB standard is 1155.
E for Extreme?
Really, though, what enthusiast cares about this?
X79 is a lame duck platform:
-No chipset USB 3.0 support (there should be many more ports for 300)
-No Light Peak/Thunderbolt support (the reason they weren't adding USB 3.0 support to X79)
-No full SATA 6GB/s support (if AMD can obsolete SATA II so can Intel- especially for this pricetag)
-Only chips that enthusiasts would consider cost 500+ dollars
-Lowest-end chip gets beaten by i5-2500K when overclocked
-No native PCI-Express 3.0 (processor's fault)
So while it might look cool, the X79 is to the Z68 as AMD's Bulldozer is to the Phenom II. For their price they don't offer any improvements.
Too bad the Asrock Gen3 Extreme4 Z68 at half the price performs similarly.
Never get the point of expensive mobo's, it's not your system is going to perform better, and you may only be able to overclock 100-200mhz more than on any other decent mobo.
features, thats generally why, usually the higher end mobos have more slots, less caps, and higher overclock headroom.
they also usually have more ports that people take for granted, like sata or pci express.
I would have that motherboards babies.
Really, though, what enthusiast cares about this?X79 is a lame duck platform:-No chipset USB 3.0 support (there should be many more ports for 300)-No Light Peak/Thunderbolt support (the reason they weren't adding USB 3.0 support to X79)-No full SATA 6GB/s support (if AMD can obsolete SATA II so can Intel- especially for this pricetag)-Only chips that enthusiasts would consider cost 500+ dollars-Lowest-end chip gets beaten by i5-2500K when overclocked-No native PCI-Express 3.0 (processor's fault)So while it might look cool, the X79 is to the Z68 as AMD's Bulldozer is to the Phenom II. For their price they don't offer any improvements.
The ROG series is and always has been geared towards extreme overclockers. And LGA2011s point is not to replace LGA155, but to replace LGA1366 and when you compare SB-E to Nehalem, it looks like a nice performance jump.
And as with nehalem, SB-E is geared towards entry level workstations/servers and not gaming per say. Quad Channel DDR3 is pointless for the majority of users, as is tri channel, but in workstation/server enviroments it helps in two ways: It gives more memory bandwidth and higher memory capacities.
This motherboard can support up to 128GB of RAM physically, it depends ond the mobo maker if they allow it.
Its also not the chipset causing the high price, its the name brand, ROG, more than anything. The Crosshair V Formula is about $230 and does not have PCIe 3.0 (according to this article this mobo supports 32 lanes of PCIe 3.0).
They also usually come with lots of extras that are really useful, like SATA cables with tags. A SATA cable will normally set you back at least 5 bucks.
try closer to 20 if you dont have a pc part store near by and your only option is best buy, and you need the cable yesterday
biggest ripoff of my life, but worth every penny... yea i cant live without computers any more
They also usually come with lots of extras that are really useful, like SATA cables with tags. A SATA cable will normally set you back at least 5 bucks.
try closer to 20 if you dont have a pc part store near by and your only option is best buy, and you need the cable yesterday
biggest ripoff of my life, but worth every penny... yea i cant live without computers any more
I can see that this can compile, run and play Crysis very well. lol.
It definitely looks sexy - surely that is worth a certain amount.
That big red "start" button should say "launch" on it! Caus goddamn this thing's gonna blast off when I get my hands on it!!
Would like to get an ASUS mobo once Ivy Bridge comes out...
A beast!
Gimme "Black Edition" and I'm buying!!!!
Can't wait to see how this board will run with an overclocked 8C/16T SB-E in there and quad 600 cards from nVidia...
2012 will be a HUGE year for PC building, given all the new gear coming out very soon. SR-3 for the performance freaks!!!!
It looks right!
I don't understand why motherboards continue to be so expensive. All is getting integrated onto the CPU. Now there's no northbridge, it's in the CPU (memory controller, I/O buses, etc.). In no time the southbridge will also be integrated and motherboard manufacturers will still be charging the full price of motherboard with southbridge and northbridge.
That is one sexy Motherboard.
it is time...can't wait for my tax refund
It's a nice looking board, but it doesn't change the fact that the X79 is just a Z68 that works with Sandy Bridge-E. We've been cheated with this chipset. I'm sticking with my X58 setup until Intel (or AMD, if they have the balls) put out something worth spending money on.
Bit-coiners rejoice around the world, pre-orders for 6990s skyrocket!
That's a crap-ton of RAM possibilities. This thing begs for a water block...
Never get the point of expensive mobo's, it's not your system is going to perform better, and you may only be able to overclock 100-200mhz more than on any other decent mobo.
You do see performance increases from better chipsets. They have more bandwidth available. If you pop a cpu and ram into a $65 mobo, then put it in a $200 mobo, you'll see a huge performance increase. Then there's the features, ports, connectors etc.
E for Extreme?
E is for Enthusiast.
Seriously why a fan? These fans don't last long and in a few months time they gather lots of dust, creates rattling noise, then break down.
Should be passive cool and if I need to cool it off, my case has plenty of fans that can do the job.
You do see performance increases from better chipsets. They have more bandwidth available. If you pop a cpu and ram into a $65 mobo, then put it in a $200 mobo, you'll see a huge performance increase. Then there's the features, ports, connectors etc.
I have to agree here. I have the Z68 ROG and its feature-packed with all types of options to tweak any and all voltages, better voltage regulation, more stable delivery of power... on and on and on....
That's a ridiculous number of RAM slots there...perfect for me!
I want! I want! I want!