ASUS Rampage II Gene mATX LGA1366 Motherboard Review

A Closer Look at the ASUS Rampage II Gene

With the smaller form factor, we have the same 9.6" wide board, but almost 2.5" are lopped off the bottom of this motherboard. Even with that loss of length, the Rampage II Gene still manages to pull off a dual spaced CrossFireX or SLI layout. Obviously expansion slots are going to be at a premium as the majority of the lost length comes from the bottom portion of the motherboard, after all, you can't squish the CPU socket anymore than it is on these X58 layouts. There are also a few neat little space savers that ASUS has implemented as we will point out going around the board. Let's start with the CPU socket as we always do.

We can see the multi phase PWM encroaching on the LGA1366 socket slightly with the double row of capacitors all but butting up against the CPU hold down, but there isn't a real tight feeling around the socket. This is primarily because of the height of the chipset heat sinks. Both the PWM and north bridge heat sinks sit fairly low and don't loom over the CPU socket giving it a rather open feel for such a cramped space. You will also notice a double set of heat sink mounting holes for the CPU. The Gene accommodates both LGA1366 and LGA775 heat sinks, so no adapter hunting for you if you are coming from an LGA775 motherboard. This should relate to very straight forward processor heat sink installation. Our 8-pin EPS connector as well as the CPU fan header are tucked up to the edge of the board in the upper right hand corner. Cable management is off to a great start with this motherboard.

Moving over to the six DDR3 DIMM slots, you may or may not have noticed, but there are only one set of locking tabs. It takes a couple seconds to get use to the look of those DIMM slots, but with only a single set of locking tabs at the top of the board, the top PCI-E 16X slot can be as tight to the DIMM slots as it wants. This is just one of the two space saving features ASUS has implemented in this first image. The other is the upright CMOS battery. Instead of laying flat and taking up precious real estate, the CMOS battery stands up taking only a fraction of the room. It is also in a rather easy to reach location should we have to access it. We also have another fan header up here behind the battery and our 24-pin ATX power connection stacked next to the single IDE connector.

Further down the back edge of the Rampage II Gene we come to south bridge corner. Like any other south bridge corner, we are complimented with our standard six SATA II ports at a 90 degree angle coming from the Intel ICH10R as well as a standalone black SATA II connector coming from presumably the JMicron 363 controller tucked in-between the PCI-E 16X slots. This controller is also responsible for the IDE connector we saw earlier.

In addition to yet another 4-pin fan header, we also have the front panel connectors and a host of USB onboard headers down in this corner. The south bridge heat sink is a standalone passive low profile design that should have no problem staying out of the way of the graphics cards yet still adequately cooling the south bridge without worries.

Moving along the south ridge, more connectors as well as our onboard buttons are present. All of the onboard audio connectors are found down on this edge of the motherboard alongside an onboard firewire connection and yet another 4-pin fan header. With all fan headers being 4-pin, full fan control should be possible from within the BIOS. This is something we will have to check for when going through the great blue ocean in a short while.

Turning the focus north up the board we can see that our expansion slot selection is rather limited. This is an obvious set back to the small form factor, but at some point concessions have to be made for this small footprint and up until now, this is seemingly the first one. The focus of this motherboard is to offer an m-ATX motherboard with full graphics power that an ATX motherboard is capable of. Providing this power are two 16X PCI-E slots capable of CrossFireX and SLI. The spacing will allow for double slot cooled graphics cards realizing the potential for dual GTX 295's or HD4870 X2's. That is about the most GPU power one can get these days and the Rampage II Gene can provide it. Of course, with a pair of dual slot cards, we would lose full functionality of the middle PCI-E 4X slot and lower PCI slot, relegating our sound card choice to onboard. Again, with a small form factor, concessions have to be made.

One final 4-pin fan header is present just behind the audio connections seen in the second photo above. This makes a total of five on the board. All placed ideally for a CPU fan, a top case fan, a front fan, a side panel fan, and a rear case fan. ASUS has absolutely nailed the fan header placement with this small Gene motherboard.

ASUS has also done quite well with the rear I/O panel in our opinion. There are a total of six USB 2.0 connectors, a 6-pin firewire, a single eSATA connector, as well as our single gigabit network connection. We also have the full audio tower for 2, 4, 6 or 8 channel audio as well as an optical S/PDIF out port. The last of the items back here are the LCD Poster connection to the far left, and the CMOS clear button. This button is only enabled with a jumper setting near the south bridge. So if you don't want to be accidentally clearing your CMOS, you can disable this button.

The rear of the motherboard is fairly basic but not without some action with a lot of the lowRDS MOSFETs for the CPU PWM being located back here. We also notice that the north bridge heat sink of the assembly is mounted with screws, but the rest of the heat sinks are held in place with simple push pins. We prefer to see an entire suite of screws holding the heat sinks on but at least ASUS has the important one secured properly.

We will now pass over the heat sinks to see how they shape up. Starting in the bottom left corner we see the stand alone passive heat sink sitting on the Intel ICH10R south bridge. We have already seen this heat sink and commented that it is more than adequate for its job. It is actually quite nice to see a standalone heat sink here instead of unnecessarily attaching it to the north bridge via a heat pipe.

Speaking of the north bridge, sitting on top of it is a relatively decent sized heat sink with all kinds of cooling fins and design touches. The prominent design feature is the inclusion of the ROG logo in distinct red atop the gun metal grey heat sink. The NB is also a passive design and connected to the PWM heat sink via a rather large heat pipe. I think our readers know how I feel about heat pipes at this point but ASUS feels the need to link the two together to assist in passive cooling. Our previous experiences with passive north bridge heat sinks on the X58 chipset is that they need cooling help from a fan so it will be interesting to see how this design fares.

Like previous Rampage motherboards, the Gene also exhibits a removable portion to the north bridge heat sink via a pair of screws. The Gene didn't come with any further attachments like the original Rampage Extreme but it indicates that the Swiftech MCW-MAX designed for the Rampage series will allow for easy mounting on the base of the Gene's heat sink. This is a one step water cooling solution developed by Swiftech and ASUS. It is nice to see the compatibility carried forward with the smaller Gene.

The PWM cooling solution is very simple and straight forward and more of a heat dissipater for the north bridge when it is being passively cooled. The single row of cooling fins mounted to the very slim plate going across the PWM MOSFETs should be more than adequate at keeping the PWM cool on the motherboard. The biggest design feature of the north bridge and PWM heat sinks is the fact that they are short, really short. This is what we will look at next during installation of the tall and wide, Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme.