ASUS Rampage II Extreme X58 Motherboard Review

Test Setup & Methodologies

Test Platform:

Testing will occur on a Highspeed PC Standard Top Deck Tech Station, and not in a traditional case. This allows easier access to the motherboard for the constant poking and prodding that is required during the reviewing process. The setup remained as pictured during the duration of the benchmarking and stability overclocking process.

Overclocking Methodology

Since this is a hardcore overclocking-oriented model, we expect to achieve some impressive overclocking results with this new X58 motherboard and we are definitely going to find out what it is truly capable of. The overclocking section is definitely the part of our reviews that we take the most pride in, and we spend an excruciating numbers of hours testing, tweaking, failing, and succeeding in order to give you the best possible insight into each motherboard’s overclocking capabilities. After all, if you are anything like us, the overclocking section is the first (and often last!) part that you read when checking out a motherboard review.

For the purposes of this review, our overclocking efforts will primarily focus on three main areas: highest stable BLCK overclock, highest stable memory overclock, and overall stable system overclock.

In these three overclocking tests we put an emphasis on stability. While the question “What is stable?” could be debated endlessly, we have devised a methodology that combines a wide range of programs that test the stability of the entire system.

Here is the suite of applications that will be run in order to validate each of the overclocks:

• Eight 32MB runs of SuperPi Mod 1.5 (ran at the same time)
• 3+ hours of dual Prime 95 v25.6 using the Stress Testing Blend
• 2 hours of OCCT Custom 2H Mix OCCT v2.0.0a - Except for Memory Overclocking
• 3+ hours of quad HCI MemTest in Windows using all available memory
• Multiple loops of 3DMark 06 (30 minutes of looping the full tests each)
• 1 hour of game play in Team Fortress 2 & Crysis @ 1680x1050

Altogether, the above suite should provide enough stress testing to ensure a completely stable overclock, however we are always up for new suggestions. As always, no two systems are ever alike, so your results may vary. Also, overclock at your own risk! The Core i7 platform is brand new, and although we are fairly conservative with our voltage estimates, there is always the possibility that you could damage any and all of your components. If you aren’t fully confident in what you are doing, feel free to stop by our forums and our helpful community will be glad to offer some assistance.

Benchmark Methodology

For this review, our benchmarking section will focus solely on the ASUS Rampage II Extreme, in stock and overclocked configuration. The reasoning behind this approach is that there is a miniscule clock-for-clock performance difference between two motherboards that share an identical chipset and declaring one product a winner based on a 1% performance advantages seems futile to us.


We have outlined the two setups in the sample graph to the right. The blue results will indicate the performance at the BIOS defaults. The only changes that will be made are to the memory in order to get it running at its rated frequency and timings. Every other setting will be at the default that the BIOS sets. The red results are going to display the overall best overclock we found for this particular setup.

These overclock results are again, the best overall overclock we could manage with this motherboard and the hardware used in the review. As was mentioned in the overclocking section, we used Everest bandwidth benchmarks and a few other performance tests to determine which settings were ultimately faster, not just higher. For all of the benchmarks, appropriate lengths are taken to ensure an equal comparison through methodical setup, installation, and testing. The following outlines our testing methodology:

A) Windows is installed using a full format.

B) Intel Chipset drivers and accessory hardware drivers (audio, network, GPU) are installed followed by a defragment and a reboot.

C) Programs and games are then installed followed by another defragment.

D) Windows updates are then completed installing all available updates followed by a defragment.

E) Benchmarks are each ran three times after a clean reboot for every iteration of the benchmark unless otherwise stated, the results are then averaged.

We have listed the benchmark versions on each graph as results can vary between updates. That should about cover everything so let's see what kind of numbers this motherboard puts up in the suite of benchmarks we have chosen.