Asus Outs ROG Rampage IV Black Edition X79 Motherboard
Asus has officially released its ROG Rampage IV Black Edition X79 motherboard for use with Intel's Ivy Bridge-E CPUs.
After a long wait, Asus has finally launched its ROG Rampage IV Black Edition X79 motherboard. This motherboard is intended to be used with Intel's HEDT CPUs, in this case the Ivy Bridge-E CPUs that go wild in the LGA2011 socket.
The motherboard features four PCIe x16 3.0 slots, two PCIe x1 slots, and a total of eight memory slots for a grand total of 64 GB of RAM.
The special features of the board include VRM circuitry, SupremeFX Black audio technology, as well as the speedy Intel Gigabit Ethernet.
The VRM circuitry is built using NexFET MOSFETs, 60 Amp chokes, as well as 10k black Japanese-made capacitors. All of this is cooled by a hefty black heatsink.
SupremeFX Black is effectively a Hi-Fi audio card onboard. It features ELNA audio capacitors and high-quality DACs and op-amps, making for a stunning 120 dB signal-to-noise ratio. It also supports Asus' ROG Sonic Radar, which is an on screen overlay for games, that will visually show you where the sounds in the game originate.
Of course, the motherboard also has support for CrossFireX as well as up to 4-way SLI. Users can also use Asus' ROG OC Panel. Almost all of the standard kit featured in the X79 chipset is also present.
While Asus gave no official MSRP, the motherboard is available for pre-order on NewEgg for $499.99, and will ship beginning November 19.
Asus Z9PE D8-WS
looks like it has 10, how many more do you want?
looks like it has 10, how many more do you want?
More the better.
X79 Deluxe has 12 internal SATA ports
An all black based motherboard. I hated the gold schemes, get back to the basics ASUS.
An all black based motherboard. I hated the gold schemes, get back to the basics ASUS.
It's not entirely black because that power button is still red.
For the gold scheme, Asus did that before with their P5Q, those heatsinks that look like the Sydney Opera House. Well it's more of a yellow/copper than gold, but the color scheme looks similar to one another.
As a guy with 6 internal hard drives, I wholeheartedly agree.
The combined through put of all internal SATA ports is always at around 1.3GB
The combined through put of all internal SATA ports is always at around 1.3GB
what does the bandwidth have anything to do with the number of internal sata ports?
10 is not enough. that sb heatsink is a waste of space. need to remove that and fill that whole space with sata ports. Moar Sata ports!
lp231 writes;
> Hmm... $500 for a single socket board or spend $30 more and go with
> a dual socket? Asus Z9PE D8-WS
That's amusing, I just finished speccing out a build for someone based
on that very board.
three K20s, etc.
Have to say, nothing about the announcement really conveys what it
adds over existing boards that's worth the extra cost. People yabber
on so much about audio, but in reality I seriously doubt it makes that
much difference. Is it better than the P9X79E-WS? I think not; the WS
has better slot allocation/flexibility.
Ian.
It wouldn't be so bad, but so few of them are Intel-driven. Marvell
ports are awful. Not sure about Asmedia.
Btw, don't you have a backup device for your C-drive? I split
my gaming PC setup: 120GB SSD for C-drive, 2nd SSD for
game data, 1TB SATA for general data & backup images.
Ian.
lp231 writes;
> Hmm... $500 for a single socket board or spend $30 more and go with
> a dual socket? Asus Z9PE D8-WS
That's amusing, I just finished speccing out a build for someone based
on that very board.
three K20s, etc.
Have to say, nothing about the announcement really conveys what it
adds over existing boards that's worth the extra cost. People yabber
on so much about audio, but in reality I seriously doubt it makes that
much difference. Is it better than the P9X79E-WS? I think not; the WS
has better slot allocation/flexibility.
Ian.
That Z9PA-D8 WS is very similar to Z9PA-D8, but with SLI, CrossFire support along with features found on the consumer side of things like SSD caching, USB Biosflash back, and a onboard diag codes.
Comparing both of them, each CPU only gets 1 set of quad channel setup (only 4 ram slots vs 8 slots on other boards), both have USB 3 and audio, the Z9PA-D8 uses a MIO audio card, that card looks similar to the ones supplied by Asus on their old ROG boards, just without the shield. This may look like a PCIe x1 audio card, but it won't work unless the PCIe slot is MIO compatible. Both have a total of 14 internal SATA connectors, where the Z9PE-D8 WS uses only SATA, the Z9PA-D8 only has 6 SATA and the rest are SATA/SAS, but they don't work unless a Asus PIKE controller card is installed into that special PIKE slot.
The Z9PA-D8 cost a lot less, but you do loose the ability to run SLI or CrossFire.
Z9PE-D8 WS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131817
Z9PA-D8
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131886
Asus MIO audio card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816110091
There is also a Z9PE-D16/2L, each CPU gets 2 sets of quad channel setup (8 ram slots per CPU), All physical PCIe x16 slots, There is no new features like USB 3 and the I/O is bare.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131861
Sucks you had a mobo issue with a ROG but I can tell you from working in a repair shop, I got less ROG or Asus laptops than I did anything else. They have much better quality.
And of course the GPU is not soldered on the motherboard. It's a MxM GPU. No gaming laptop has a soldered GPU.
lp231 writes:
> That Z9PA-D8 WS is very similar to Z9PA-D8, ...
Yup, it was the WS version I was looking at.
> The Z9PA-D8 cost a lot less, but you do loose the ability to
> run SLI or CrossFire.
Thankfully in my case the application was After Effects, so this
doesn't matter.
> There is also a Z9PE-D16/2L, each CPU gets 2 sets of quad
The extra RAM capacity is good, but alas the PCIe config is not
appropriate for AE.
Ian.
It will basicly have the same performance as a 120 dollar motherboard (perhaps a 10% increse at most), and it costs really a lot.
The Supreme FX board is not bad, however, it is onboard audio, meaning that any decent amp will pick off the ground loop and any motherboard related noise, and it for sure is not a "Hi-Fi" soundcard.
I wouldnt even call it Mid-Fi to be frank. Normally those are just soundcards with a colored signature to make it ound more alive (mostly more bass).
Now if you want 4 way SLI or corssifre, i can see the appeal of this mobo, but in any other case, its just throwing money away...
But hey, thats just how i see it.