ASUS ROG Rampage III Extreme LGA1366 Motherboard Preview

Test Setup

Every bench session needs a setup, and this is the breakdown of the hardware we have used thus far with the Rampage III Extreme. This preview is all about overclocking which is made obvious from the cooling listed below. A lot of pre-testing has been done on a single stage phase change unit and we will also present some results of a session with LN2 for cooling. Here is how our hardware shakes out:

Test Platform:
Motherboard:	ASUS Rampage III Extreme
Processor:	Intel i7 980X ES
Processor Cooling:	Chilly1 SS Phae Change KingpinCooling.com F1EE w/LN2
Thermal Paste:	Arctic Silver Ceramique
IOH Cooling:	Noctua NC-U6
PWM Cooling:	Swiftech MC14's / Enzotech MOS C1's
SB Cooling:	Enzotech SLF-1
Memory:	Corsair Dominator GTX2 PC3-18000 CL8 (CMGTX2)
Video Card:	XFX XXX HD5870 (CCC 10.2)
Video Card Cooling:	Thermalright HR-03 Rev.A
Power Supply:	Antec TPQ1200 Silverstone Zeus ST56F / Ultra X-Pro 750W
Additional Fans:	Scythe Ultra Kaze 120MM 2000RPM 87.6CFM (DFS123812L-2000)
Hard Drive:	Seagate 7200.9 80GB SATAII 8MB cache

The item to note is the Power Supply Choice above as it looks a little strange. You can see in the photos with the phase change that we are using an Antec TPQ1200, but with LN2 we are using a combo of the Zeus and the X-Pro. Apparently the TPQ1200 didn't like a CPU on LN2 as literally two minutes after bringing temperatures down, the Antec power supply packed it in. Now, this shouldn't have an effect on the performance results but is certainly something to keep in mind. The Zeus power supply will be running the HD5870 with the X-Pro powering the motherboard and CPU. This of course means we will also have a single EPS connector powering the CPU. Again, it shouldn't be a factor but something we figured worth mentioning given the nature of benching under high loads with LN2.

Let's quit talking though, and get to some bench results!