![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , March 10, 2008
- Author:
- Daniel Dobrowolski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS Rampage Formula
ASUS has been on a roll with their Republic of Gamers lineup lately and now we take a look at their latest offering based on Intel’s X48 chipset based Rampage Formula motherboard supporting Intel's yet-to-be-released 1600MHz Quad Pumped Bus.
Introduction
ASUS is the world’s largest motherboard manufacturer and though they have a staggering array of products, they sill manage to keep putting out some of the best motherboards on the market. ASUS is generally known for innovation, stability and quality. In my experience this reputation is well deserved even though ASUS has had some questionable models from time to time just like any other manufacturer. Really the ASUS Rampage Formula is little more than a Maximus Formula (which we loved) with an X48 north bridge instead of the X38 chipset. So the hardware is virtually identical however ASUS has made some BIOS tweaks this time around. What does this do for you the end user? I'm afraid the X48 is nothing more than a speed binned X38 chipset. It officially supports FSB speeds up to 1600MHz for Intel’s Core 2 Extreme QX9770 processor, which Intel committed to releasing in Q1’08. 20 days and counting! However as we've already seen the X38 can easily reach the speeds officially supported by the X48 chipset. So really, aside from the X48 having Intel’s blessing at 1600MHz FSB, we aren't seeing much new here.
The ASUS Rampage Formula uses Intel’s latest X48 chipset as mentioned above. Hopefully one thing we will see with this “new” chipset is better overclocking. (We will certainly find out later.) In any case the Rampage Formula also uses DDR 2 memory instead of DDR 3. So rumors of X48 not supporting DDR 2 modules were greatly exaggerated. The Rampage Formula supports the latest Intel ® Core™2 Extreme Quad-Core / Core™2 Duo / Intel® Pentium® Extreme and Intel® Pentium® D processors. As with all motherboards these days, few components are required to complete a working system. All that is needed are an LGA775 processor, DDR2 memory modules, power supply, video card, and data drives. ASUS integrated the following components into the Rampage Formula; 1 floppy port, 1 ATA-133 port (provided by the JMicron JMB368 controller chip), 6 SATA ports, 12 USB ports (6 on the I/O panel, 6 via USB headers), 2 RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet ports, SPDIF/out, 1 optical out port, and one PS/2 keyboard port.
Main Specifications Overview:
Detailed Specifications Overview:
Packaging
The packaging is identical to all the other Republic of Gamers branded boards which is excellent. The board is contained in a plastic shell and all the accessories and manuals come in a separate smaller box inside the main box. It adequately protects the boards during transport and gets the job done. Inside you’ll find manuals, a driver DVD-Rom, a full version of STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl, SATA cables, ATAPI and floppy cables, IO shield, LCD poster, heat pipe cooling fan, zip ties, and Q-connector.
Board Layout
The layout of the Rampage Formula is very well done as is usual for ASUS. The only possible issue I can see is with the CPU area. It is on the crowded side and could cause some fitting concerns with some coolers and water blocks. The Apogee GT didn’t fit and I had to use the Innovatek G-Flow water block taken from the EVGA 680i SLI Black Pearl that died on me. As you can see there is a lot of addition cooling surrounding the CPU area, so this is surely something to take into consideration and not just in terms of footprint, but height as well. The fact is many components on the board near the CPU area need massive cooling to provide stable performance and operation at the rated bus speeds.
The board has four 240-pin DDR2 memory slots. Two are color coded in white and two are color coded in blue. Match the colors to ensure proper dual channel operation.
The north bridge is located in the usual place right next to the CPU area. The north bridge can be found under a massive network of copper heat pipes. The heat sinks always stayed only slightly warm to the touch on my test bench. Worth noting here as well is the fact that the onboard cooling system is not just for show. ASUS has done a great job in mounting and mating these components and they do work quite well.
The south bridge is located in front of the expansion slots. The south bridge is cooled by the same heat pipes that the north bridge is cooled by. The SATA ports are placed in front of the south bridge and thanks to the right angling of the ports video cards and other items won’t cause clearance issues with the SATA ports.
The Rampage Formula has two PCIe x16 slots, three PCIe x1 slots (one of which is compatible with the SupremeFX II Audio card included with the board) and two legacy PCI v2.2 slots. I really wish that ASUS had gone with three PCIe x16 slots for some CrossfireX action, but alas that was not the case. Still obviously you could use two HD 3870 X2 cards for 4-way GPU configuration though. The slots are laid out in a very nice pattern making clearance problems and slot blocking almost a non-issue. One of the PCI slots is located above the first PCIe x16 slot to allow you to use your favorite PCI devices even with two huge dual slot cooled video cards of your choice.
The Rampage Formula has 1 PS/2 port, 2 RJ-45 ports, 1 IEEE1394 port, 1 SPDIF out port, 6 USB ports, one optical port, and finally one clear CMOS button.