Asus Rampage Formula X48 Motherboard Review

Long Term Impressions

We are going to use this section as a precursor to the conclusion, touching on a few key points and sharing more experiences we had with the ASUS Rampage Formula. In addition, we will also cover a few topics yet to be discussed, like hardware installation and the External LCD Poster. Let's start off with a small but very substantial networking issue.

Network Copying Issue

This issue popped up very early in the review once the overclocking started and screenshots were being collected. With the shipping BIOS (0219), we found that we were unable to transfer files from the Rampage Formula over either network connectors to other computers or NAS devices on the network. We could see the other computers and could pull files from any other device on the network, but were unable to send files. This was a characteristic of the ASUS Maximus Extreme but switching to the other ethernet connector would temporarily solve the issue but this wasn't the case with the Rampage Formula. When contacted, ASUS confirmed it was a known issue and was to be resolved in a future BIOS release.

External LCD Poster

The reason our discussion of the LCD Poster is here is for one simple fact: it doesn't really belong anywhere else. Here is the LCD poster in the light, and in the dark lit up.

The ability to control whether the light stays on or off after getting into Windows is a priceless feature that could have been easily overlooked and if it had, the LCD would have been more annoying than useful. With that said, the LCD is not at all annoying and quite useful. It is no different than an onboard LCD POST code reader but instead of providing cryptic codes, it says exactly what is attempting to past POST. During POST it cycles through the various stages, DET DRAM, CHECK CPU, VGA BIOS, then goes to Final USB, Count Mem, and Init ROM before going onto load the OS. There may be a couple more in there but they go by too fast to see. Essentially, if any step fails, the LCD will stay stuck on the last item it was working on when it failed and we will know what the problem is.

For the most part, this tool is just going to be a toy piece of eye candy, but when trouble shooting a failed overclock or new system that won't POST, it might be invaluable saving headaches and hassles.

Ease of Use

To say this motherboard is a willing participant in everything we did is an understatement. From overclocking, to hardware installation, to Windows & driver installation; everything went incredibly smoothly for us throughout the review period. As we mentioned in the overclocking section, the Rampage Formula is at home to being completely manipulated by an experienced user and pushed to the limits or guided by an amateur willing to reach lofty highs almost on its own. The one thing we would like to see changed is the recovery from a bad overclock that refused to POST. Having worked with the EVGA 790i a lot in the last few weeks as well, we were spoiled by the ability to simply hit reset and to get back in the BIOS.

With the Rampage Formula, we had to turn off the power supply for a split second in order to get safe defaults that would allow us back into the BIOS. In the features it lists C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall) as being able to do this with a simple 'reset' but it actually needs a hard power off. Again, this is getting pretty petty because we couldn't find much else to complain about...but it does say 'reset' in the features.

Speaking of hardware installation, we really didn't touch much on it as it was decided that this review was getting too large as it was, but here is the proof. The heatsink / heatpipe theme park on this board has no problem accepting the insanely popular Thermalright Ultra-120 and therefore the Ultra-120 Extreme as well. We have already been out in the forums informing potential customers of this ability as it is already a commonly asked question.

Smooth Sailing Throughout

To put it mildly, this motherboard was beaten rather profusely. As seen by the FSB testing, we did everything we could to get the absolute best out of this board including voltages that may or may not have been authorized by ASUS. The stock cooling really held up well, and to top it off, the thermal paste was not even changed for any of the results seen in this review. Sure, there are going to be some boards that come from the factory with less than stellar heatsink contact but this sample seems to be faring quite well.

On top of all the testing, this setup has been running pretty much non-stop the last couple of weeks testing a couple kits of memory in a variety of programs and it has always been predictable. There haven't been any of those weird moments when you’re overclocking and you think the board should POST but it just doesn't only to work a few minutes later at the exact same settings. The motherboard really seemed steady on its feet through the entire testing period, and that is with the release BIOS which was a nice surprise.

We have worked with a number of ASUS motherboards as has been mentioned throughout this review and they always seem to be great to work with. The ASUS Rampage Formula is no exception to that loose rule. We wish there was more to complain about but there really isn't much anything else to say...aside from ASUS, please, please, please, make your web site as consistent as your high end motherboards. Pulling teeth is the term that comes to mind when contemplating going to the web site to look for new drivers, or a BIOS, or even to download the manual.