ASUS Rampage II Gene LGA1366 mATX Motherboard Review Comment Thread

[3oh6]

At over 2.5 inches shorter than the other big kids on the playground, the Rampage II Gene looks to be under powered at first glance. What is not evident by the looks is what this little motherboard is capable of. Our review is up and the verdict is that the runt of the X58 litter is far from being the weakest of the group. In fact, it is running right up there with the best of them.

ASUS Rampage II Gene mATX LGA1366 Motherboard Review

Feel free to ask any questions, post any comments, or voice any concerns here in this thread. I will do my best to answer everything I can.

[bojangles]

Nice review! This must've been the one you were typing up when I was over. Too bad it wasn't completely set up for LN2, I wish I could have helped speed up that process. The R2G is quite the capable little board. The only problem is that even though it's mATX, it gets pretty hot under low airflow, which means it's not very suitable for LAN boxes. Too bad, because this board would be perfect for it.

How were the D0 results? Did you fry your chip during the process?

EDIT: NVM...I found them. The colour of the logo tripped me out. Should have clicked the picture for all the results. Thanks!

[sheepdogexpress]

Nice review.

But I wish you switched to using d0 as the overclocking chip of choice. Not very many of us have i965.

But man jody, you must have a crazy motherboard collection going on. I couldn't have so many motherboards, without each having a processors. Knowing your a ram freak, you probably have enough ram to fill all them up too.

I know it would take alot of time, but you should do a revisit to some of your older i7 boards and do a MB round up, alot of MB have had alot of bios updates so I think earlier boards like the p6t, the original evga x58, rampage extreme II and the UD5 might be a little closer to these boards. If you it before a bit competition, atleast the overclocking part, you would get alot of practice for the overclocking competition(not saying you need it). I think you could actually throw out the general performance part and just focus the roundup on overclocking.

[3oh6]

i love the feedback guys...thank-you very much. we can only make things better by listening to what our readers want.

my intentions were to run the D0 for the entire review. after starting with the BCLK testing and getting where i did, i thought i were golden. then i ran into the issues with the memory, which can be 100% a CPU issue with the memory controller on die now. the decision to switch to the 965 was made. i know that chip inside and out, what it is capable of and what it is not. the 920 i have literally only had on LN2. it has spent 20X as much time under LN2 as it has air...and i am low balling that number even. because of that, i couldn't trust the memory controller because i had no idea what it was capable of due to lack of testing and with the issues i was having i had to eliminate as many possible variables as i could. i hope that makes sense as to why i stuck with the 965. as it turns out, today i found out that my 920 really does have a weak memory controller, and my 965 will have to be used for all upcoming memory reviews.

i am starting quite a motherboard collection, going back to my 790i boards, the RE, my stack of P5B Dlx's, and others...my MB box pile is much taller than me these days. i would love nothing more than to revisit some boards and do a round up, unfortunately time is just not a friend of mine. as mentioned, memory is already lining up out the door like airplanes above LAX during a snow storm. i hope that is a good enough excuse

oh and Eric...head over to the Classified thread, small update on 06. no 10K but i got the GTX295 working with those high clocks now so i cracked out a pretty good score tonight.

EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified LGA 1366 Motherboard Review Comment Thread

[zoob]

Does this motherboard squeal at all? My R2E makes noise when there's heavy network traffic, and my M2F hisses when I put my CPU on full load :|
I'm thinking about moving my other rig from a P5E-VM HDMI to an R2G for a small silent rig.

[3oh6]

Originally Posted by zoob

Does this motherboard squeal at all? My R2E makes noise when there's heavy network traffic, and my M2F hisses when I put my CPU on full load :|
I'm thinking about moving my other rig from a P5E-VM HDMI to an R2G for a small silent rig.

hmmm, i did notice squealing during 3DMark benchmarking but assumed it was my GTX 295 or the HX1000...both of which squeal. i can't say for sure one way or another without doing some testing. i should have the board setup again tomorrow - err, later today (man i need to get to bed) - so i'll see what i can come up with for you. keep in mind, something like that is going to be on a board to board basis. even if mine doesn't, the next one out of a box could.

[Lpfan4ever]

Another great review from the guys at HWC. I was curious about how well a mATX board could handle an i7, but Asus seems to know what they're doing
(And hey 3oh6, wanna pick out a couple boxes from the tower of motherboards and send them here? )

[3oh6]

Originally Posted by lpfan4ever

(And hey 3oh6, wanna pick out a couple boxes from the tower of motherboards and send them here? )

thanks...and sure. i'll find my nastiest dirtiest, deadest P5B-Dlx and fire one your way

[Alwaysrun]

Another fine review 3oh6. One thing I really like about your motherboard reviews is that you show hardware installation. I find your pictures illustrate many things that users may have questions about regarding hardware orientation, height limitations and such. About the only question I have about the layout of this board is the tight fit between the two video cards, I know real estate is limited but dosn't that primary video card sort of get choked for air having the secondary card blocking it's airflow? See I'm looking for a SLi board atm so I'm wondering if considerations like that are worth worrying about. My current board has a nice 1 inch gap where my case side panel fan can blow air between the two cards and seems to help cooling. Once again 3oh6 nice review and sorry for straying a lil OT.

[bojangles]

A lot of boards have that problem Alwaysrun, as some of the X58 have either weird slot layouts or they are designed for 3-Way Crossfire or SLI. You're right, it can restrict airflow a lot especially how most GPUs are blower type. As long as you have good airflow though you should be okay. The P6T Deluxe would be the best board for you if you really want to get rid of the problem.