I don't think most viewers of this thread are really going to be interested in a long discussion about the specifications here so this will remain brief. We all know what the X48 chipset is capable of at this point so there is no need to re-hash old information. After all, it has been around for some time now and this board is a bit of a late comer to the party. Here is a little excerpt from the ASUS web site and if you want to see more specifications, visit it
here. This thread will remain primarily a results thread so you'll have to wait for the full review for more details on the specifications and features.
As I said, this is a results thread so the specifications are limited to what is above. With that said, I could go on for days about the features, specifications and capabilities of this board. ASUS has absolutely thrown everything they have on this board and there is something unique for almost every user. There are a couple features that I do want to discuss here because they pertain directly to what we do, overclock.
BIOS FlashBack
First up is the
BIOS FlashBack feature which is essentially, a dual BIOS. What this dual BIOS offers, however, is complete control over both BIOS chips. We can switch between which the system boots off of in the BIOS, and we can run two different sets of settings on each. The BIOS ICs are also a DIP package again which means they are user replaceable. So even if you manage to bork both BIOS chips, you can still just order one and be back up and running...no RMA needed. Thank-you ASUS for this very nice old school implementation of a newer feature. Trust me lads, having a dual BIOS that you have full control over is very nice.
TweakIt
Second is the fanciest thing on a motherboard since...well, since ever.
TweakIt is a manual system adjuster that is purely hardware driven. This means that at any time, we can adjust various settings of the motherboard such as FSB and voltages. In reality, this is basically having not only variable resistors pre-soldered to the various voltage options, but also the ability to adjust the FSB on the fly. I have played with it briefly already and the interface is very intuative. The LCD Poster acts as your guide and your fingers do the walking...it is very cool. As has been discussed here already, Futuremark has a headache on their hands with this motherboard.
Let's now talk about probably the most important aspect of this motherboard right now...price, and availability. At this very moment, there is only one place I am aware of that the Rampage Extreme is available, and that is in the UK:
OcUK - £229.99 + VAT Scan - £209.69 + VAT
The scary thing is that OcUK, notorious for price gouging, might not even be too far off with this price. If anyone has any further places that the board is available, just post em up and I will add them to the list. It looks like we are going to have to pay through the nose for this guy but when I consider how much my 790i, Maximus Extreme, and various other boards along the way cost...this is almost respectable for what it is. Hey...I said
almost respectable. Time for some package and layout photos...as if you haven't seen enough already.