Asus' First FM2+ Based ROG Motherboard Is Coming Soon
Asus' ROG CrossBlade Ranger, the first ROG board with an FM2+ socket, is coming to shelves soon.
Asus is announcing the availability of its first FM2+ based Republic of Gamers (ROG) motherboard. This is the CrossBlade Ranger, which we first saw at Computex 2014.
We already knew that bit about the socket, along with most other details about the motherboard, but it is good to see that it has all become official and that you will be able to give your AMD APU some ROG love soon. The ATX-sized motherboard comes with the A88X chipset onboard with support for both AMD A-Series APUs and Athlon processors. Wired to the CPU socket are four DDR3 memory slots, which will allow you to install up to 64 GB of RAM. For PCI-Express expansion there are two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots--which will only run at 8x each when both slots are populated, just like the Intel counterparts.
Being an ROG motherboard, it will still come with a lot of ROG features. It will have better onboard audio in the form of Asus’ SupremeFX technology, Gigabit Ethernet, better VRM circuitry and bigger heat sinks, as well as advanced overclocking features and fan controls. The motherboard is also compatible with the ROG dual-bay front panel.
So, who is this motherboard for, you might wonder? Well, budget builders often choose to build systems with AMD's CPUs or APUs simply because it can be a lot cheaper than a comparable Intel build. Building such a system with an ROG motherboard will bring you those ROG features, and while it will cost a little more, you will get the ROG build quality and stability, as well. The market for this board might not be big, but it will make sense for some people. Remember, a lot of people jumped on the Haswell bandwagon, not because of the performance, but because of the platform that the motherboard vendors were providing.
Pricing for the motherboard is set at $159.99, with availability slated for this month.
Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Asus ROG has always been overpriced, one in ten people that get them do not ever use the "functions" it provides.
Lookin' good, but might need more cowbell to kick those Steamroller cores to 5 GHz or so with some high-speed RAMs. If the Carrizo APU does DDR3/DDR4 it could get interesting next Winter.
Thanks, Asus. Look forward to that mATX FM2+ little brother ... Mean GENE
The 9590 is a power-hungry monster. It has been known to destroy mobos with cheap components.
Now, if you were limiting it to FM series sockets, then yes, this might be overkill.
I'm not saying there isn't a good reason to get this board, just that I can't come up with one right now.
Editor? WTHAYTA, Willis?
Come to think of it, that board actually a useful feature compare to today's ROG board. It has led lights for SATA, Fan and internal fan headers as well as led I/O labels, so you can see where your plugging into.
Anyways, it should be fixed now!