The Core i7's living up to its rep as one kick ass CPU, the only problem is, if you want to go all the way, you'll have to plunk in a chunky investment for the rest of your PC components. We've got one of those promising boards, and it's the ASUS Rampage III Extreme - an X58 board ready for 3-way SLI and Quad CrossFireX, and complete with the next generation SATA 6.0Gbps and USB 3.0 interfaces here to unbox. It's feature ladden both in hardware and software, great for pairing up with a PhP 50,000 Intel Core i7 980X CPU. Let's head on with our unboxing job.
Two smaller boxes greet us - one for the actual board, and the other for the entire set of accessories.
This is what the motherboard side looks like, complete with a see through plastic mold for the cut out flap on the box.
The accessories, divided in four sub sections. Impressed? You should be. It's very organized and it's not just dumped in.
First up on the roster of accessories is the 3-way SLI adapter. Remember, this is an X58 motherboard and NVIDIA's given a license to Intel to be able to run their cards on SLI technology.
Another view of the SLI adapter.
And here are the two ribbons for up to four ATI GPUs in a CrossFireX set up.
The rear backpanel plate's obviously ready for the packed interfaces of this board. It also doesn't come in as a metal plate, but rather, plastic.
Here's the rear of the backpanel plate. Notice the shiny material on top of the soft foamy material underneath. ASUS likes to call this their I/O Shield.
A set of Q connectors - one for the front panel controls and the other, for USB. Don't know what this is? It makes life for a PC assembler easier by letting them connect and disconnect individual pins as one group.
The rich user manual and the bundled driver CD.
Found this one at the bottom of the accessory box - it's a decal better known as an ROG theme label to stick on to your PC's casing. Nice touch.
Another nice touch, is the SATA cable label set of stickers. There are 12 all-in-all, 8 for hard drives, and 4 for optical drives. You'll need these to keep tabs on those naughty collections.
The optional fan-thermal module that you can attach to and cool the X58 chipset in case you need extra cooling while overclocking.
This is the Bluetooth RC module complete with the transmitter, antenna, and power button, that connects to a special set of pins around the rear interface area. This looks like it will work with a regular USB pin port.
The rear of the Bluetooth RC, in case you're interested with the details. The portion covered with a blue plastic mold is the antenna.
A total of 6 SATA 3.0Gbps cables are presented, half of these have flat ends, while the other have a 90 degree bent end.
A pair of SATA 6.0Gbps cables distinguished by the white highlights by ASUS. These look very similar to SATA 3.0Gbps ones.
Extreme overclockers need all the tools they can get. A lengthy thermal sensor cable is included in the kit.
A Type B USB cable? Silly as this might look, it's actually for the ROG Connect feature of the board. In case you're crazy enough (or simply just have the time and hardware) to go about getting the most out of your computer's performance, this feature lets you visually monitor and have a better understanding of the not-so-tangible stuff that goes on behind overclocking the board using another computer.
Cable ties for the obsessive compulsive.
This is the Probelt connector set. Again, if you're crazy enough for this sort of thing (we're sure you are, otherwise, what are you doing reading this unboxing and possibly considering this board?), this lets you easily connect your multi tester to check for voltage settings of various components of the board. This connects with nodes at the corner where the built-in power button sits.
a bracket for additional interfaces comprising of USB 2.0 and eSATA.
The board without the plastic covering.
A good look at the ASUS Rampage III Extreme. Quite packed in leaving almost no PCB left untouched.
Shown here is the 6 RAM slots capable of running up to 24GB of DDR3 memory.
A look at the CPU slot along with the rather stylish heatsinks covering the VRMs, just behind several power connectors and the rear interfaces.
No doubt about the capabilities of this board here. Four PCI-Express x16 slots supporting single x16, dual x16, x16 + dual x8, and quad x8 configurations are shown here. You can run 3-way SLI and up to quad CrossFireX set ups with this board.
Better shown here is the shallow heatsink covering the north and southbridges. There's a small fan built onto the heatsink besides the X58. There have been minor complaints about the optional bundled thermal fan that attaches on top of the X58 chipset when it comes to some rather large third-party cooling solutions, but nothing serious that will cause fitting issues.
And there it is. A set of built-in tools that makes tweaking this board a breeze. There's a Start or power-on button and a reset button; four PCI Express x16 switches for enabling and disabling the interfaces so there's no need to take out graphics cards when trying to find out which one is faulty; a small Go! button besides the reset switch, which activates MemOK! It also doubles as a one-touch overclocking function while the computer's still running under an operating system; and lastly, besides the Start button, there's an LN2 jumper, which should be enabled in case you have plans to use this board with a little Liquid Nitrogen overclocking.
An EATX power connector along with one of the many fan connectors available in this board.
The SATA ports comprising of 2 SATA 6.0Gbps ports powered by a Marvell controller, 6 SATA 3.0Gbps ports powered by the ICH10R southbridge, and one more powered by the JMicron JMB363 SATA controller.
Another view of the SATA 3.0Gbps and 6.0Gbps interfaces.
At this corner, we have the system panel connectors along with the BIOS switch (this board comes with 2 BIOSes and lets you switch between one and the other), along with another chasis fan connector. The two chips seen above the chasis connector are the two BIOSes and besides these are LED lights indicating which one's in use. A SATA port powered by the JMicron controller's also seen here.
From right to left: A USB 2.0 pin interface, an ASUS OC Station connector, two chassis fan connectors, and one of the thermal sensor connector interfaces.
At this end, we see a Firewire PIN interface, and sets of audio connectors - one for SPDIF output, another for the optical drive, and one for the front panel audio controller. There's also one of the two EZ Plug 4-pin molex power interfaces shown here.
Here's two of the 4/8-pin EATX power connectors. This board is prepared to suck the life of your power supply. Behind is the Q reset button, used if the LN2 jumper doesn't work and is said to "temporarily stop the poewr supply to the CPU and help the CPU recover from a frozen condition."
And we have the rich rear interface ports. Some of the odd ball buttons and connectors we can see here (from left to right), are the clear CMOS button, an eSATA port (below the Firewire port), a special ROG USB port besides the ROG Connect switch, and 2 USB 3.0Gbps ports. There's also the standard 7.1 channel audio jacks, gigabit LAN, and 6 USB 2.0 ports.
As you can see just behind the ROG Connect button, the Bluetooth RC module sits on the pin set here. Behind this is another optional fan connector along with another set of thermal sensor pins.
One of the two noticeably different FPCAP capacitors (Functional Polymer Aluminum Solid Electrolytic Capacitor) in use in this board.
Going back to the onboard switches, here's yet another one of the fan connectors available in this board.
And another one just besides the CPU...
And yet another one by the VRMs and 8-pin EATX power connectors.
Another one of the FPCAP capacitors beside the LGA 1366 CPU socket.
A NEC chipset powering the high speed USB 3.0 interfaces.
The ICS clock generator chip.
The Marvell 88E8056 Gigabit Ethernet controller.
And here's the VIA VT6308P Firewire controller.
A Winbond Super I/O Controller W83667HG, capable of providing several functions ranging from the infrared remote controller down to system hardware monitoring.
The JMicron JMB363 SATA controller.
One of the 3 iROG chip, which supposedly is responsible for bringing in BIOS switching capabilities and on-the-fly hardware-based system control and management of the board.
The other iROG chips on the board.
The backpanel of the board. The VRM heatsink extends to the rear.
In case you've missed anything (software-wise, there's a lot we've missed), below is the complete specifications of the board:
| CPU | Intel Socket 1366 Core i7 Processor Extreme Edition/Core i7 Processor Support Intel Turbo Boost Technology Refer to www.asus.com for Intel CPU support list |
| Chipset | Intel X58 / ICH10R |
| System Bus | Up to 6400 MT/s with QuickPath Interconnection |
| Memory | 6 x DIMM, Max. 24 GB, DDR3 2200(O.C.)/2133(O.C.)/2000(O.C.)/1800(O.C.)/1600/1333/1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory Triple channel memory architecture Supports Intel Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) *Hyper DIMM support is subject to the physical characteristics of individual CPUs. *Refer to www.asus.com or this user manual for the Memory QVL (Qualified Vendors Lidts). |
| Expansion Slots | 4 x PCIe 2.0 x16 , support x16; x16/x16; x16/x8/x8 and x8/x8/x8/x8 configurations 1 x PCIe x4 1 x PCI 2.2 |
| Multi-GPU Support | Support NVIDIA 3-Way SLI / ATI CrossFireX Technology 4 PCIe x16 slots ready for 4 single PCB graphic cards |
| Storage | Intel ICH10R controller 6 xSATA 3.0 Gb/s ports Intel Matrix Storage Technology Support RAID 0,1,5,10 JMicron JMB363 PATA and SATA controller 1 xExternal SATA 3.0 Gb/s port (SATA On-the-Go) 1 xSATA 3.0 Gb/s port Marvell 9128 PCIe SATA 6Gb/s controller 2 xSATA 6.0 Gb/s ports |
| LAN | Gigabit Intel LAN |
| Audio | 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC - Blu-ray audio layer Content Protection - Supports Jack-Detection, Multi-streaming, Front Panel Jack-Retasking - Supports 1 Optical S/PDIF out port at back I/O |
| IEEE 1394 | 2 x 1394a port(s) (1 port at back I/O, 1 port onboard) |
| USB | NEC USB 3.0 controller - 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (at back panel) Intel ICH10R Southbridge - 9 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (2 ports at midboard; 6 ports at back panel, 1 reserved for ROG Connect) |
| Overclocking Features | ROG Connect RC Bluetooth ROG Extreme Engine Digi+ - 8-phase CPU power - 3-phase QPI/DRAM power - 3-phase NB power - 3-phase Memory power - ML Caps on CPU, Memory and QPI respectively ProbeIt iROG Extreme Tweaker BIOS Flashback with onboard switch button USB BIOS Flashback Loadline Calibration ROG Extreme OC kit LN2 Mode PCIe x16 Lane Switch Q_Reset Double Power Supply with dual 8-pin (CPU) and dual 4-pin (VGA) molex power connectors Intelligent overclocking tools: - ASUS AI Booster Utility - O.C Profile Overclocking Protection: - COP EX (Component Overheat Protection - EX) - Voltiminder LED - ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall) |
| Special Features | CPU Level Up MemOK! Onboard Switches: Power / Reset / Clr CMOS (at rear) ASUS MyLogo3 ASUS Fan Xpert ASUS EZ Flash 2 ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 Q-Fan Plus ROG BIOS Wallpaper ASUS Q-Connector ASUS Q-LED (CPU, DRAM, VGA, Boot Device LED) ASUS Q-Slot ASUS Q-DIMM |
| Back Panel I/O Ports | 1 x PS/2 Keyboard port (purple) 1 x Clr CMOS switch 1 x Optical S/PDIF out port 1 x IEEE 1394a connector 1 x External SATA port 1 x LAN (RJ45) port 1 x ROG Connect On/Off switch 1 x RC Bluetooth switch 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (Blue) 7 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (1 port also for ROG Connect) 8-channel Audio I/O |
| Internal I/O Connectors | 1 x USB 2.0 connector supports additional 2 USB 2.0 ports 9 x SATA connectors: 2 x SATA 6G connectors (Red); 7 x standard SATA connectors (6 in Grey, 1 in Black) 1 x QPI Loadline calibration switch jumper (QPI_LL_SW) 8 x Fan connectors: 1 x CPU / 1 x PWR / 3 x Chassis / 3 x Optional 1 x Connector for optional fan-thermal module 8 x ProbeIt Measurement Points 3 x Thermal sensor connectors 1 x IEEE1394a connector 1 x SPDIF_Out Connector 1 x 24-pin ATX Power connector 2 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power connectors 1 x En/Dis-able Clr CMOS header 1 x LN2 Mode Header 1 x START (Power On) button 1 x RESET button 2 x EZ Plug connectors (4-pin Molex Power connectors) 1 x OC Station header 1 x RC Bluetooth header 1 x Go Button 1 x BIOS Switch button 1 x ROG light connector 1 x CD Audio in 1 x Audio front panel 1 x System panel connector |
| BIOS | 16 Mb Flash ROM AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.5, ACPI2.0a Multi-Language BIOS |
| Manageability | WOL by PME,WOR by PME,PXE |
| Accessories | 1 x ROG Connect cable 1 x ProbeIt cable set 1 x 3-Way SLI Bridge 1 x SLI Cable 1 x CrossFire Cable 1 x 2 in 1 ASUS Q-Connector Kit 3 x 2-in-1 SATA signal cables 1 x 2-in-1 SATA 6G cables 1 x 2-port USB2.0 + ESATA module 1 x I/O Shield 1 x Thermal Sensor Cable Pack 1 x Cable Ties Pack 1 x ROG theme label 1 x 12-in-1 ROG Cable Label 1 x Optional Fan-Thermal Module 1 x RC Bluetooth card Bluetooth Module Accessory Card Bluetooth V2.0/V2.1+EDR RC Bluetooth On/Off Switch |
| Support Disc | Drivers ASUS PC Probe II ASUS AI Suite ASUS Update Kaspersky Anti-Virus Futuremark 3DMark Vantage Advanced Edition ASUS TurboV EVO Utility |
| Form Factor | ATX Form Factor 12 inch x 10.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 26.9 cm ) |