Features

A major part of a motherboard's success these days is what it can offer in the way of additional features and perks that a standard motherboard with the same chipset may not offer. This is where the Rampage line of Asus motherboards really stands out. The list of user friendly or performance orientated features is literally endless but we have plucked a few of the more interesting ones and will discuss them here in basic detail. We start with the Republic of Gamers designation and what exactly that means.

At the Top of Game BoardSimply put, the Republic of Gamers motherboards offered by Asus are the best of the best that they put out. Every ROG board is chalk full of features, accessories, and innovation that makes it stand out from the crowd. Things like on-board power and reset buttons or the external LCD poster that we are going talk about later are only found on Asus ROG boards.	Pin-Fin Thermal ModuleWhat Asus has done here is gone with a pin style heatsink for the chipset and PWM cooling. Asus describes it as "the new generation pin-fin thermal design", but really, it is no different than many cooling solutions of past. It is however a very nice looking setup with plenty of surface area for cooling the chipset. We well have plenty of discussion and images of the entire motherboard cooling solution in the Closer Look section.
CPU Level UpNot all of us are great overclockers or even really know much about it, but Asus doesn't think that we should be limited to running at stock because of this. The CPU Level Up is a unique feature that provides users with a single one stop option for increasing the system speed. There is even an option to select the next higher processor to essentially give us a free upgrade.	Extreme TweakerOf course, Asus also understands that experienced overclockers are looking for a complete set of BIOS options to push their hardware to the limit. The Extreme Tweaker designation means that everything an overclocker could want is available in the BIOS. We'll definitely have to judge for ourselves in the BIOS and overclocking sections.
Loadline CalibrationFor some readers, this feature is going to be a mystery but to overclockers or enthusiasts in the know, Loadline Calibration is going to be nothing new. Perhaps the term vDROOP is a more familiar term. Intel processors are designed to accept a drop in voltage when going from an idle state to a load state. Motherboard manufacturers have implemented this feature but enthusiasts tend to not appreciate its existence. The reason being is that the voltage drops under load can cause instability to an overclock and forces the user to increase voltage to the CPU to make up for the drop. Loadline Calibration provides us with the ability to eliminate this voltage drop.	SupremeFX IIThe "onboard" soundcard is officially no longer on the board. Asus has been implementing the Supreme FX sound card for a while now and we are now seeing the second generation in the Supreme FX II soundcard that comes bundled with this ROG board. The Supreme FX II is designed to enhance the gaming experience with features tailor to improve on-line and off line gaming audio.
External LCD PosterAll the rage for motherboard manufacturers as of late is the inclusion of onboard LCD debuggers. Asus has taken it a step, or should we say, walk around the block further. The included External LCD poster doesn't display a random code that the user needs to look up, instead, it displays common lingo that we all should understand about what is causing the system not to boot. We will definitely be taking the LCD Poster for a test drive to see just how useful it is.	ASUS Q-ConnectorBuilding a system is fun, rewarding, enjoyable, and worth the effort...until you get to the part when hooking up the front panel connectors. It isn't really that bad, but Asus has ensured it to be a painless last step by coming up with their Q-Connector system. It is very simple and very straight forward, but quite a handy little feature that no other manufacturer has adopted yet.
C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)This feature has really caught our attention after our recent work with the EVGA 790i motherboard. Whenever an overclock failed, a simple reset would get us back into the BIOS with safe settings. We are curious to see if Asus has improved on their system recovery after a failed overclock and come up with as simple a method as NVIDIA has with their 790i motherboards.	EZ Flash 2Asus EZ Flash 2 is nothing new to Asus users and not a ROG only feature but it certainly is worth mentioning. EZ Flash 2 takes all of the guesswork and frustration out of flashing a BIOS. We simply download the BIOS file to a thumb drive and in the BIOS, a couple clicks has us up and running on the updated BIOS. We have been utilizing this utility on every Asus motherboard for a number of years now and it is good to see Asus continuing this preferred method of BIOS updating.

Truth be told, the features we have gone over are just skimming the surface of what Asus has packed into this motherboard package. We could take pages upon pages to explain each and every feature and function of the Asus Rampage Formula, but we know that there is only so much one reader can take so we will stop here and move on to a quick look at the package and accessories before we head into the fly over of the motherboard itself.