ASUS Rampage II Extreme X58 Motherboard Review

A Closer Look at the ASUS Rampage II Extreme

At first glance you may not be able to tell, but the Rampage II Extreme is larger than a regular ATX motherboard. The RIIE is 10.5" X 12" whereas most ATX motherboards are 9.5" x 12". This extra inch of width was undoubtedly a result of adding the Tweak-It and Probe-It features on the right edge of the motherboard. That being said, the size should not cause any compatibility issues with the majority of PC cases, but it may not be suitable for smaller cases...not that you would want to install this type of motherboard in an inaccessible enclosure anyways.

Size issues aside, the overall layout of this board is excellent. The ATX power connector, the 8-pin CPU power connector, the floppy connector, the IDE connector and six SATA ports are all placed at the edge of the motherboard, which is where they always should be. The Tweak-It and Probe-It feature is located on the middle-right section, which is ideal for those who use their systems on a tech station. Even for those who use a standard case, this new location is distinctly better than the very bottom of the motherboard like on the Rampage Extreme.

Now that we have done a very quick overview, let’s take a closer look at the individual sections:


As you can see, the general CPU socket area looks like a bit cramped compared to what we have grown accustomed to on Core 2 motherboards. However, the general mounting area is free from obstructions and the motherboard's heatsinks are all low profile, so CPU cooler installation is trouble-free. Those utilizing more extreme sub-zero forms of cooling, LN2 for example, will find it somewhat difficult to properly insulate this model due to the numerous solid capacitors that surround the socket area. Having said that, this is an issue that seems prevalent on all current X58 motherboards and it is a necessary evil related to the Core i7's high power requirements.

When it comes to power delivery, ASUS went all-out with an impressive sixteen-phase power design, which is cooled by attractive heatpipe-equipped heatsinks. To the left of the CPU socket, you may spot a shiny rectangular component, this is a high quality and high capacity Fujitsu 3V-1000uF capacitor, one of two that are outfitted on this particular model.


Here we see the top-right corner of the motherboard, which is literally the only area of the PCB that is not overflowing with components and traces. To the left we have one of the fan headers and to the right the CPU fan header. Next we have the perfectly-situated 24-pin ATX power connector and the exciting Probe-It and Tweak-It area, which will be examined more closely in a later section.

The six blue and white memory slots are spaced closely together, but they should accommodate six of all but the most extravagantly-adorned memory modules.


The bottom-right corner is one of the more densely-occupied areas of the motherboard. Starting from the top-left, we have the two blue onboard USB headers. Under them are the two BIOS chips, and the blue BIOS selection and BIOS clearing jumpers. The black upright SATA port is managed by the JMicron JMB363 controller, which also supplies the ubiquitous IDE port. Next we have the six blue angled SATA ports, which are supplied by the ICH10R southbridge and support RAID 0/1/5/10. You may notice the two iROG-labelled chips, one allows for the monitoring and controlling of hardware settings on-the-fly, while the other provides the ability to switch between the two BIOSes. Lastly, we have the impressive passive southbridge cooler, which sports an integrated heatpipe design. The effectiveness of this huge cooler will be tested in a later section. As a novelty feature, ASUS have included an area on the southbridge cooler for users to personalize their motherboard with their signature...or perhaps the signature of their favourite overclocker.

The overall expansion slot layout and assortment is very good. There are three full-sized PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots, two PCI-E x1 slots, and one legacy PCI slot. There is an acceptable amount of room between each slot, but if you install dual-slot graphics cards in any of the PCI-E x16 slots, you automatically lose access to the slot directly under it, be it a PCI-E x1 slot, legacy PCI slot or even the floppy connector. Having said that, dual-slot graphics cards inevitably cause accessibility issues on every motherboard, so this is not truly a design flaw. It should be noted that only the two blue PCI-E x16 slots support a full 16 electrical PCI-E lanes each, while the white PCI-E x16 slot is limited to x8.

As you all know by now, the Rampage II Extreme is one of the first motherboards to support both 3-Way SLI and CrossFireX, which obviously makes it highly desirable among those chasing benchmarking records or just seeking maximum framerates. When utilizing multiple graphics cards, the PCI-E x16 slots can operate in a x16/x8/x8 or x16/x16/x1 configuration. If ASUS outfitted the RIIE with one additional PCI-E x16 slot, then four-way CrossFireX would have been an option via the X58's x8/x8/x8/x8 configuration capabilities.


Starting from left to right, we have the two Marvell 88E8056-NNC1 Gigabit LAN controllers, the VIA VT6308P IEEE1394/FireWire controller, the Winbond W83667HG-A Super I/O controller, and lastly the tiny ASUS EPU (Energy Processing Unit) chip.


The passive "northbridge" cooler may look somewhat plain, but it is connected to the central heatpipe and it does have a very thick base. Due to its reduced complexity, the 45nm low-voltage IO Hub (IOH) really doesn't get as hot as conventional northbridges, so even this heatsink is overkill.


The weird contraption attached to the left of the IOH cooler is the VTT CPU Power Card, which is simply an additional PCB that contains the VTT regulation components. The reason that ASUS have added this daughterboard is simply because they ran out of PCB room on the motherboard itself. By the way, the Republic of Gamers logo has an LED under it, and it glows a soft white while the system is operating.


The rear I/O panel is surprisingly empty for a motherboard of this caliber, but nothing is missing. There are two Gigabit LAN ports, six USB ports, a FireWire port, an eSATA port, and a PS/2 keyboard port. That's right...the ancient PS/2 mouse port is no more! So if you are buying this Top-of-the-Line motherboard you will need to get rid of your crusty beige ball mouse from the 1990's. We feel your pain, honestly. ASUS have also included a handy Clear CMOS switch, no more opening your case and playing with jumpers.

The reason the rear I/O panel looks so barren is because the six audio jacks, optical and coaxial S/PDIF connectors are on the SupremeFX audio card. Also, there are two additional USB ports and one FireWire port on the PCI expansion bracket.


As you can see, there are no plastic push-pins on this motherboard, every heatsink is fastened via metal bolts. You will also notice the large metal backplate behind the CPU socket area. This is a new design feature specified by Intel to ensure that heavy cooling solutions would not bend and potentially damage the PCB or even the CPU socket itself. This was obviously a wise choice since the Core i7's high Thermal Design Power (TDP) requires hefty heatsinks to keep temperatures in check, particularly when overclocking.