Uncle Fester

I recently received the new Rampage III Extreme motherboard from ASUS Australia, I had been eagerly awaiting this new motherboard ever since the first glimpses showed up on the internet.

Overview



















I especially loved the active northbridge cooler such an improvement on past models, improves northbridge temps dramatically.


Specifications
CPU Intel® Socket 1366 Core™ i7 Processor Extreme Edition/Core™ i7 Processor
Support Intel® Turbo Boost Technology
Refer to www.asus.com for Intel CPU support list
Chipset Intel® X58 / ICH10R
System Bus Up to 6400 MT/s with QuickPath Interconnection
Memory 6 x DIMM, Max. 24 GB, DDR3 2200(O.C.)/2133(O.C.)/2000(O.C.)/1800(O.C.)/1600/1333/1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Triple channel memory architecture
Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
*Hyper DIMM support is subject to the physical characteristics of individual CPUs.
*Refer to www.asus.com or this user manual for the Memory QVL (Qualified Vendors Lidts).
Expansion Slots 4 x PCIe 2.0 x16 , support x16; x16/x16; x16/x8/x8 and x8/x8/x8/x8 configurations
1 x PCIe x4
1 x PCI 2.2
Multi-GPU Support Support NVIDIA 3-Way SLI™ / ATI CrossFireX™ Technology
4 PCIe x16 slots ready for 4 single PCB graphic cards
Storage Intel ICH10R controller
6 xSATA 3.0 Gb/s ports
Intel Matrix Storage Technology Support RAID 0,1,5,10
JMicron® JMB363 PATA and SATA controller
1 xExternal SATA 3.0 Gb/s port (SATA On-the-Go)
1 xSATA 3.0 Gb/s port
Marvell® PCIe SATA 6Gb/s controller
2 xSATA 6.0 Gb/s ports
LAN Gigabit Intel® LAN
Audio 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
- Blu-ray audio layer Content Protection
- Supports Jack-Detection, Multi-streaming, Front Panel Jack-Retasking
- Supports 1 Optical S/PDIF out port at back I/O
IEEE 1394 2 x 1394a port(s) (1 port at back I/O, 1 port onboard)
USB NEC® USB 3.0 controller
- 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (at back panel)
Intel® ICH10R Southbridge
- 9 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (2 ports at midboard; 6 ports at back panel, 1 reserved for ROG Connect)
Overclocking Features ROG Connect
RC Bluetooth
ROG Extreme Engine Digi+
- 8-phase CPU power
- 3-phase QPI/DRAM power
- 3-phase NB power
- 3-phase Memory power
- ML Caps on CPU, Memory and QPI respectively
ProbeIt
iROG
Extreme Tweaker
BIOS Flashback with onboard switch button
USB BIOS Flashback
Loadline Calibration
ROG Extreme OC kit
LN2 Mode
PCIe x16 Lane Switch
Q_Reset
Double Power Supply with dual 8-pin (CPU) and dual 4-pin (VGA) molex power connectors
Intelligent overclocking tools:
- ASUS AI Booster Utility
- O.C Profile
Overclocking Protection:
- COP EX (Component Overheat Protection - EX)
- Voltiminder LED
- ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)
Special Features CPU Level Up
MemOK!
Onboard Switches: Power / Reset / Clr CMOS (at rear)
ASUS MyLogo3
ASUS Fan Xpert
ASUS EZ Flash 2
ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
Q-Fan Plus
ROG BIOS Wallpaper
ASUS Q-Connector
ASUS Q-LED (CPU, DRAM, VGA, Boot Device LED)
ASUS Q-Slot
ASUS Q-DIMM
Back Panel I/O Ports 1 x PS/2 Keyboard port (purple)
1 x Clr CMOS switch
1 x Optical S/PDIF out port
1 x IEEE 1394a connector
1 x External SATA port
1 x LAN (RJ45) port
1 x ROG Connect On/Off switch
1 x RC Bluetooth switch
2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (Blue)
7 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (1 port also for ROG Connect)
8-channel Audio I/O
Internal I/O Connectors 1 x IEEE 1394a connector
1 x S/PDIF Out connector
8 x ProbeIt Measurement Points
3 x Thermal sensor connectors
1 x 24-pin ATX Power connector
2 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power connectors
1 x En/Dis-able Clr CMOS header
1 x LN2 Mode Header
1 x START (Power On) button
1 x RESET button
2 x EZ Plug connectors (4-pin Molex Power connectors)
1 x OC Station header
1 x RC Bluetooth header
1 x Go Button
1 x BIOS Switch button
1 x ROG light connector
1 x CD Audio in
1 x Audio front panel
1 x System panel connector
1 x FAN1 Connector for optional fan-thermal module
BIOS 16 Mb Flash ROM AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.5, ACPI2.0a Multi-Language BIOS
Manageability WOL by PME,WOR by PME,PXE
Accessories 1 x ROG Connect cable
1 x ProbeIt cable set
1 x 3-Way SLI Bridge
1 x SLI Cable
1 x CrossFire Cable
1 x 2 in 1 ASUS Q-Connector Kit
3 x 2-in-1 SATA signal cables
1 x 2-in-1 SATA 6G cables
1 x 2-port USB2.0 + ESATA module
1 x I/O Shield
1 x Thermal Sensor Cable Pack
1 x Cable Ties Pack
1 x ROG theme label
1 x 12-in-1 ROG Cable Label
1 x Optional Fan-Thermal Module
1 x RC Bluetooth card

Bluetooth Module Accessory Card
Bluetooth V2.0/V2.1+EDR
RC Bluetooth On/Off Switch
Support Disc Drivers
ASUS PC Probe II
ASUS AI Suite
ASUS Update
Kaspersky® Anti-Virus
Futuremark® 3DMark® Vantage Advanced Edition
ASUS TurboV EVO Utility
Form Factor ATX Form Factor
12 inch x 10.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 26.9 cm )


Key Features


RC BLUETOOTH:
This new feature allows you to connect to your motherboard via a bluetooth connection, for overclocking and de-bugging your system.

USB BIOS FLASHBACK:
Extremely simple to use interface to flash your bios back should anything go wrong, simply place the R3E bio on your USB drive then place it into the ROG port and press the rog connect button for 3 seconds and it will automatically reload your bios for you.

ROG CONNECT:
Well by now we all know about ROG connect, the easiest way to overclock your system and do any de-bugging via your laptop, makes bios flashing and overclocking simple and safe.

EXTREME ENGINE DIGI+:
Asus extreme engine digi+ combines and take advantage of digital and analog VRM design ensuring the cleanest and most efficient power.
Featuring duel 8 pin E-ATX 12v, aswell as 2 additional 4 pin molex connectors for extra gpu power.

ROG EXTREME OC KIT:
ASUS has really put some forward thought into extreme overclocking, allowing new items such as LN2 mode to try and eliminate cold bugging of the processor under extreme sub-0 temperatures.

Test setup

INTEL I7 980X EXTREME PROCESSOR
RAMPAGE III EXTREME MAINBOARD
CORSAIR DOMINATOR 2000 C7 3X2GB STICKS
CORSAIR HX 1000 PSU
ATI HD 5870 GPU
OCZ VERTEX 64 GB SSD



























Conclusions

While i was not able to achieve a higher stable overclock on the factory heatsink provided with my i7 980x i found this to more than acceptable, these processors run really hot, during the wprime 1024 calculation my temps were only 2 degrees off of 100C. The board however ran seamlessly and i could not find anything wrong with it until i tested for max bclocks, i was surprised to find that max stable bclock was 220 anything over and things were unstable. This could be due to the fact i am using a very virgin bios and there are still some bugs to work out. I was very impressed when i was running super pi 1mg calculations and i just kept pushing the bclocks i managed to get the ram running at 2126mhz c7-8-7-20 with a northbridge frequency of 4787mhz.

Pro's
Looks awesome
overclocks brilliantly
bluetooth connect
bios flashback
ROG connect
Active NB cooling

Cons
low bclocks
super pi efficiency is low

STAY TUNED FOR SOME LN2 RESULTS

BIG THANKS TO MATT & TEAM AT ASUS AUSTRALIA

UNCLE FESTER.

eva2000

Awesome start there mate, is this a keeper or loaner board - with more time, would love to see more results especially on the bclk front on air/water and subzero if you have more time to investigate. I think everyone is holding out to see the bclk head room in comparison to EVGA X58 Classified

ROG Connect looks like it will be fun

Uncle Fester

I'll have this board for awhile, so lots of testing coming and i have a newer bios now with reports of 250 bclock capable
also should be getting an ASUS OC station aswell

eva2000

Would also be good to see how it handles the bloomfield cpus - gem 3845-3849 batches heh

Uncle Fester

Send me one and ill tell you hahaha, no gem blooms left here

CryptiK

Looks good so far, thanks for the review. Also looking forward to some LN2 testing and max BCLK results.