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- Date:
- Tuesday , November 23, 2010
- Author:
- Daniel Dobrowolski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Share:
ASUS Rampage III Formula Motherboard Review
We have yet another successor to the "Rampage" name, the Rampage III Formula. The X58 market is saturated with excellent boards already. We find out if the new Rampage offers compelling features that make it stand out in the landscape of stellar X58 boards.
Introduction
ASUS is one of the largest motherboard manufacturers on the planet and over the years it has made some damned good motherboards. Its Republic of Gamers’ branded boards are the elite of its elite.
Typically boards in that line have a lot to offer the enthusiast, albeit at a premium price tag. However despite the price premium, other boards like EVGA’s Classified lineup or Gigabyte’s ridiculously priced X58A-UD9, cost even more making the ROG boards seem like a bargain for the money.
The ASUS Rampage III Formula comes from a long line of "Rampage" boards. This one is based on Intel’s X58 chipset and ICH10R south bridge. The Rampage III Formula is full of features. It doesn’t have as many RAID controllers or as many PCI-Express x16 slots as some boards do. The Rampage III Formula doesn’t have all a bunch of expansion slots which couldn’t be used when blocked. It’s pretty much all business. Make no mistake, it does have a ton of features. ROG Connect for remote monitoring and tuning, Probe IT for monitoring voltages in hardware via a multi-meter, SATA 6G and USB 3.0 support are all standout features. Additionally the board uses a hybrid digital / analog PWM configuration. In other words analog hardware with digital control. There are 8-phases which doesn’t sound like a lot but when it comes to the phase game, quality beats quantity every time. The board features dual BIOS ROMs which you can easily toggle between.
Main Specifications Overview:
Detailed Specifications Overview:
Packaging
The packaging is fairly extravagant. That’s standard fare for ROG boards. The maroon color scheme is also standard for these. The board is well protected by this packaging. Included in the package: User’s Guide, driver disc, ROG sticker, Q-Connectors, I/O shield, MOSFET cooling fan, cable ties, SATA cables, ROG Connect cable, expansion slot USB / IEEE1394a bracket, 3-Way SLI bridge, and Crossfire bridges.
Board Layout
The layout of the Rampage III Formula is superb. ASUS has slipped a bit with some designs recently when it comes to motherboard layouts. This board has a good expansion slot layout, memory slot placement, CPU area, etc. I really have no serious complaints about the configuration of the board.
The CPU socket area is clean. Fitting large heat sinks and water blocks is a breeze. My test fit with the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme went flawlessly. MOSFETS in this area are cooled via heat pipes and cooling fins.
The Rampage III Formula has six color coded DIMM slots which indicate the proper order for triple channel memory operation. It uses ASUS’ one sided locking tabs. This makes installation and removal of modules with video cards much easier.
The north bridge is cooled via a heat pipe cooler. The solution seems relatively modest in size. It lacks the grandeur of some of ASUS’ "higher end" solutions. Still it seemed relatively effective during stock and overclocked operation.
The south bridge is cooled by the same heat pipe cooling system that the north bridge uses. This part of it is flat to allow the installation of larger expansion cards. Directly in front of the south bridge is the boards 8 SATA ports. There are 6 SATA 3G ports and 2 SATA 6G ports.
The expansion slot area is a thing of beauty. While it doesn’t have as many expansion slots as I’ve seen on some boards. The slots that are there make good use of the space and ASUS chose to keep things simple here. They didn’t put a bunch of slots on the PCB that you wouldn’t be able to use if you actually installed some expansion cards. This board will do 3-Way SLI or 3 card CrossFireX without clearance issues. There are three PCI-Express 2.0 X16 slots. They operate in a 16x16x4 or 16x8x8 configuration. There are two PCi-Express x1 slots one of which can be used no matter how many video cards you have installed. One would be blocked by a card in the center PCI-Express x16 slot. There is one legacy PCI slot at the very bottom of the board, just like it should be.
The I/O panel area is chalk full of ports and buttons. There is a single legacy PS/2 keyboard port, clear CMOS button, optical output, 5 USB ports (1 dedicated to ROG connect), 2 eSATA ports, 2 USB 3.0 ports. ROG Connect button, RJ-45 port, and six mini-stereo output jacks.