![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , November 11, 2008
- Author:
- Daniel Dobrowolski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS Rampage II Extreme
ASUS adds another Republic of Gamers branded motherboard. The Rampage II Extreme, hopefully a worthy successor to its predecessor, comes to us packed with innovative features supporting Intel's new Core i7 processors. ASUS promises that this board was designed for overclockers.
Subsystem Testing
NOTE: For all Subsystem Testing, an Intel® Core™i7 965 clocked at 3.2GHz with 3x 2048MB Corsair CM3X2048-1600C7DHXIN (DDR3 1600MHz) memory modules running at 1333MHz were used. The CPU was cooled with a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme. SLI functionality was verified using 3 EVGA GeForce 8800GTX's in 3-Way SLI.
Audio – Subjective Listening
For subjective listening you want to listen to something that covers a range of sound types. For this portion of the review I went with Disturbed, Indestructible.
The included audio card proved to be problem free, and it provided excellent CD audio playback. No hissing popping or distortion was heard.
Audio – Microphone Port Testing
The onboard audio MIC-IN port was tested using a Logitech Internet Chat Headset. Spoken words were recorded from the Windows Sound Recorder found under the Accessories\Entertainment folder in the start menu within Windows XP. The recording was made with the Microphone Boost option disabled, then enabled. The Microphone Boost option is found within the advanced menu under the microphone section within the Volume Control Menu.
Again the included audio card proved to be excellent overall. The recording sample was audible with the microphone boost option disabled and with the boost option enabled; the audio was much louder, yet still relatively free of distortion.
Drive Performance
To test the capabilities of the on board USB 2.0 connections, we used an ACOMDATA HD060U2FE-72-USB 2.0/FireWire HDD connected first to the USB port. SATA and IDE drive tests were performed using Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD hard drives on the primary SATA header and Samsung 40 GB SATA 3G with NCQ hard drives on additional SATA headers. The SATA drives were used for testing in RAID 0 16k block size configurations on all applicable controllers. Testing was also conducted using a standalone SATA drive on all applicable controllers, and an EIDE drives connected in a primary slave configuration on the appropriate controller All drive benchmarks were done using the open source Iometer program.
It comes as no surprise to me but the ICH10R RAID-0 configuration was the fastest tested here. The drive testing on the Rampage II Extreme worked flawlessly from start to finish. I had no compatibility problems or other issues performing the tests. It seems that lately more and more storage related issues keep popping up on me lately. The Rampage II Extreme was refreshing as it was a total joy to work with. The hot plug SATA feature worked properly on both the JMicron controller and the ICH10R. RAID arrays and stand alone drives were always picked up properly in Windows and as I said, my experience was problem free all the way.
Network Utilization Tests
Hagel Technologies’ DU Meter software was used with Windows Task Manager to determine the performance levels of the onboard network interface. DU Meter was used to measure bandwidth and transfer speeds, while Windows Task Manager monitored CPU utilization on the test system. For the testing, a 750MB Archive file consisting of several compressed WMA/MP3 files was used for the large file transfer, and 750MB worth of MP3/WMA files were used ranging in sizes from 3 to 30MB was used for the small files transfer test. The test was performed using a plenum rated category 5e crossover cable to bypass any traffic, routing or other transfer issues and possible packet loss or corruption that can be caused by a router/switch or hub. The cables were connected between two test machines, one using the onboard NIC(s) of the board being reviewed and the other is an Intel EXPI9400PT 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express Gigabit Ethernet adapter installed into a test machine using an Intel DX48BT2 motherboard.
ASUS chose the Marvell Yukon 88E8056 Gigabit adapter for both interfaces. They are PCI-Express solutions and are both capable of 10/100/1000 speeds.
LAN1
In the small files download test the maximum transfer speed attained was 62.83MB a second while the average was much lower at 35.77MB a second. CPU usage on the other hand was a very low 6%. CPU usage normally fluctuates a little but however it stayed very constant throughout the testing. The small files upload test showed very similar results. The peak transfer rate was 44.97Mb a second while the average was 26.95MB a second while the CPU usage was only minimal at 3%.
The large files download test paints a nearly identical picture mimicking the small files test. The peak transfer was 63.85MB a second with an average of 45.87MB per second. CPU usage again was very low at only 5%. The large files upload test continued the trend with a maximum transfer speed of 41.47MB per second with an average transfer rate of 21.34MB per second. CPU usage was again minimal at 3%.
LAN2
The second Marvell Yukon 88E8056 interface performed similarly to the first. The small files download test had a peak performance of 65.26MB a second with the average being 34.16MB per second. CPU usage was again on the low side at only 5%. The small files upload test gave a maximum transfer rate of 44.11MB per second, averaging 25.09MB per second. CPU usage was a very impressive 4%.
In the large files upload test things change slightly. I saw what seems to be a fairly normal maximum transfer rate of 66.80MB a second with an average that was higher than expected. The average transfer rate was 64.57MB a second. The CPU usage was again within what has become my expectation for this board at 5%. The large files upload test results on the other hand were a little worse than what I had seen so far on this board. The maximum transfer rate was only 29.04MB a second which was the lowest I had seen yet on this board. The average was a close 22.55MB a second. CPU usage was in line with expectations at 3%.
These results are certainly interesting. The performance itself is nothing amazing but what is amazing is the incredibly low CPU utilization in all the tests. The fluctuations in usage were more infrequent than I've ever seen before out onboard networking hardware and the overall CPU usage was much less. I think this is a testament to the Core i7 and its efficiency rather than a factor of the motherboards' design.
Test Systems
The following system configurations were used for the Sandra memory benchmark graph, as well as all graphs listed under the Application and Gaming Benchmarks sections:
Graphs are labeled as follows: Motherboard - CPU Clock - FSB Clock - Memory Clock
SiSoft Sandra XII -Memory Bandwidth Buffered
Note that all i7 results above were obtained running the installed memory in Triple Channel mode with the rest being dual channel.
The bandwidth provided by the Core i7's memory controller is simply staggering. Nothing else competes with it. Between the ASUS P6T and the Rampage II Extreme, the latter comes out on top by fairly hefty margin in terms of “olden days of Core 2” bandwidth.
SiSoft Sandra CPU Operation Benchmark
In this test we again see the Core i7 based ASUS P6T and Rampage II Extreme dominate. Here the P6T edges out the Rampage II Extreme just slightly.
Super Pi Mod v1.5 Benchmark
We have pulled Super Pi and WinRAR from our benchmark suite as our numbers were not correct due to an issue with our motherboard.
wPrime 1.5
Again the Core i7 dominates. Between the P6T and the Rampage II Extreme the former comes out on top although not by much.