ASUS Rampage Extreme X48 Motherboard Review

It was like Darth Vader entering the room. An orchestra played a theater filling-anthem that drove home the bass like a Zeppelin concert, the whole world seemed to cease rotating and stare in awe of its presence. The skies opened up in a crack of thunder and a torrential downpour ensued, then...the FedEx guy said "Snap out of it, can you sign please, I am getting soaked out here!". The moment had arrived, the much anticipated and revered star of the summer silly season, the last great hope before Nehalem was here. Not since the DFI Ultra-D has a motherboard been so sought after by overclockers and enthusiasts alike.

The frenzied forum discussions, results threads, and outright hooliganism this motherboard has already achieved has not been seen in a long time. ASUS has not only designed a top drawer competitor in the ultra high-end segment of the mainboard market, they have also done a fantastic job creating excitement around this product. Putting this motherboard in the capable hands of some of the best overclockers in the world before release has created a legend before it was ever born. We are of course talking about the ASUS Rampage Extreme.

Just mentioning the name in a forum creates a buzz and from what we have seen so far, we understand why. Of course, hype isn't what we are about here at Hardware Canucks. We are enthusiasts and overclockers, but we are also everyday computer users willing to put our pre-conceptions aside and like Dragnet's Joe Friday are only interested in one thing, "Just the facts, Mam, just the facts.". Carbon dating myself aside, we are only interested in the reality that is the ASUS Rampage Extreme, not the myth.

ASUS has a long history of capable mid-range and entry level boards right up to top of the line "super boards" as we have dubbed them. The R.O.G. series of motherboards has made an appearance here before in the form of the Rampage Formula and you can consider the Rampage Extreme the bigger, meaner, and more robust older brother to the aforementioned DDR2 flagship. We were impressed with the Rampage Formula but wanted the same performance from the Intel X48 chipset with a DDR3 flavor, and, we got it.