When you talk about gaming, overclocking and performance there are always a couple of names that pop up. One name that is sure to pop up in the conversation is the name of Asus. Asus has been making great products (along with the not so great) for many years. However, with the launch of Intel’s Nehalem and AMD’s Phenom II Asus has really took off. Their flagship Republic of Gamers (ROG) line has simply been stellar. It is one of these that we are taking a look at today. In the lab we have the Asus ROG Rampage III Extreme (RIIIE). This $380 board packs a ton of features and performance into an attractive red and black ATX package. Let’s see just what $380 gets you for performance.
From Asus you get quite a few nice features and a few that are like when a car company lists floor mats in your list of features. We will break these down into those categories.
Excellent 4 PCIe 2.0 X16 with CrossFireX and 3-Way SLI Technology supportMemOK!Onboard Switches: Power / Clr CMOSUSB BIOS FlashbackROG ConnectRC BluetoothROG Extreme OC KitASUS Fan XpertROG Extreme Engine Digi+iROG ProbeItCPU LeveUpExtreme Tweaker
As you can see these are real features with some real value to the user. Items like the ROG Extreme Engine Digi+ provides a great blending of digital and analog power management. On the other side the ROG connect and RC connect are great for the overclocking testing from a bench. The simple items like the CPU LevelUP, Extreme Tweaker, MemOK! And others also provide value for the enthusiast and overclocker as they provide great flexibility for tweaking the system.
In the middle (sort of good)Loadline Calibration Voltiminder LEDCOP EXASUS C.P.R.
These are nice extras but are not items that are going to push things over the edge for a buying decision.
Floor MatsASUS MyLogo3ASUS EZ Flash 2ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3Q-Fan PlusROG BIOS WallpaperASUS Q-ConnectorASUS Q-LEDASUS Q-SlotASUS Q-DIMM
These are the types of things that are filler; again they are nice, but they do not make the board what it is as they are pretty much on all Asus boards with the exception of the ROG BIOS Wallpaper.
We will cover some of these features more in their proper places but for now you can see the listing of what we see as real and what is filler or brand wide.
