Hardware Asus Rampage IV Extreme Review

Asus works its ROG magic on the latest Rampage motherboard

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2011/12/09/asus-rampage-iv-extreme-review/1

 

It's not everyday you get to read the term "Willy Waving!" but it makes me chuckle when it always seems to be on this site.

 

These boards largely seem very similar once overclocked, particularly in gaming but then these are generally seen more as workstations, where the video/image editing showed more of a difference.

I think this board does have e-sata though, looking at the I/O ports on the 2nd page, it has two e-sata/usb combo ports.

 

Since you recommended a complete watercooling solution for use with this motherboard, are we going to see an updated review of it water cooled and just how far you can push it?

 

+1 for a water cooled and massively overclocked review!

 

here here! This is a good (incomplete) review.

Extraordinary?
So far it doesn't look to stick out from the crowd, which seems to be getting more and more difficult as the quality of boards is now very good. That's a real shame from my perspective because I've been a long time supported of the ROG series (well, since the Rampage Formula) and it's only since Sandy Bridge came out that regular boards (P8P67 and Z68P67 std editions) actually do me for "high end" water cooling.

Marketing:
This really is starting to look like an exercise in Marketing as opposed to an exercise in Excellent Engineering. I await developments over at eVGA, because they seem to be the only team truly innovating. I tarnish Gigabyte with the same brush. EXCELLENT products, just overpriced, and un-innovative.

And finally, Folding....?
How about some folding benchmarks (SMP as that's the only constant at the moment) in there guys, or is there little-no difference due to the memory controller now being on die? Surely the configuration difference between the two overclocks would have SOME difference? Does the motherboards PCI-E slots "work evenly" for folding - i.e. can you choose any one or so? Also, with all the slots populated, how does it perform?

 

I have one but no CPU yet! Thats coming next month, cant wait, great review Lizard.

 

still waiting for Rampage Gene... .the small form factor little brother.

that'll fit nicely to a Silverstone FT-03.

 

As this kind of board is not going to be used for every day computing and/or gaming, why do they bother putting so many extras and features such as excessive USB's etc, that just won't be used?

 

Just out of interest, in what way is Fan Xpert on the RIVE less flexible than the Thermal Radar on the Sabertooth X79? I've read a few articles that mention this, some saying the RIVE only let's you edit a CPU Fan and a Chassis Fan profile, but I can't understand why the Fan Xpert on the RIVE wouldn't let you control profiles for each of the eight (?) fan headers. Is that really the case?

Sorry if that's a stupid question but I'm thinking about getting the RIVE or Sabertooth and I need seperate control of all my fans when it's in my case.

 

after the sabertooth review, here is what i did to see what's up with this board...
1:looked at the price (and laughed)
2:looked at the scores (noted that, as usual, they are all so close @stock or oc that it doesn't really matter)
3:ignored the rating because the value score for asus boards is a joke these days

another asus board that caters to a very narrow piece of the market that has more money than sense and, as you were honest enough to put in the review, is willing to blow large chunks of dough to increase their e-peen.

any chance you guys are going to review a non-asus board? or is it kinda pointless since they all perform the same and it would become way to hard to justify the value ratings you give these asus boards?

 

What cooler did you use?

 

Would you please expound on "water-chillers"? All I can think of are those things that are used to cool down huge aquarium's. If that's the case, I thought that those were proven to be unusable for computers since they can't keep up with the heat generation of a highly OC'd computer system.
I also couldn't help but notice there was no mention of the cpu cooler you used. Just a "test cooler", which could mean any cooler whatsoever.
You also failed to mention that, as far as gaming is concerned, X79 is a fail, as is this article. You constantly harped on how it needs exotic cooling while completely failing to prove that over the top cooling even works with this board. I.E., zero testing to see if the features built into this component to help with exotic cooling actually work or not.
You should either completely test boards like this or just leave them to sites that are qualified to do so. All I see is hearsay. Not factual reporting.
I still thank you for your review of the i7-39xx series of cpu's. You saved me upwards of $2,000 USD when I refused delivery of all the components I ordered to build one of these workstation computers, while being under the impression that they would be the best there is for gaming. I only lost the cost of shipping. Any good lesson comes at a price. Luckily, it cost me far less than it could have done.

 

"Common Components:
Intel Core i7-3960X (32nm, 12MB Level 3 Cache, 33x100MHz; 3.3GHz)"


You keep doing this. It's 15MB of L3 cache.


I was going to buy this board. I'm so glad I didn't now. It clearly offers zero advantage over the one I got (or any other 2011 motherboard.).. and paid £100 less for!

[edit]

BTW.. what cooler were you using?


Also... what is your rationale for the 120MHz base clock?

 

How on earth this got such a high mark is beyond me, it is no better than boards that cost £100 less ??

 

lol...said that on the sabertooth review...becoming a theme...

 

Gene will be out by early next month. Samples are being sent out next week and shipping of the first batch was on Friday.



Andre using all the hardware on the R4E.

 

I love me some Asus, but I've got to agree with half the commenters - the Value score on this should have been about 12 or so. Or at least qualify it that it's a 19 only if you are in possession of a LN2 pot. There are some sites I could see it giving this score, but not bit. This isn't the typical extreme-overclocking crowd.

I get the idea behind ROG, but it seems like the brand has strayed - especially considering this is an X79 board, what sort of real gamer would want this? I suppose you would have a mastodonic peen when you whipped it out (that's right) at a LAN event, but this is just silly. Especially the "durp, I spent $500 on a motherboard that is not at all suited to my intended use!" factor.

 

I want one

 

You can use any type of water chiller. The one I have just set up (see Project Black Ice) was previously used to cool an aquarium, and with my 2700K at 4.8 GHz it's approx 28 degrees cooler than on air (with the water chilled to 12C for now). The chiller isn't on constantly, so is obviously not struggling, and will be good down to 3C (it's minimum) when I insulate everything It's rated as being capable of removing 700W of heat from the water.