Asus Rampage II GENE review
This Core i7 board has plenty of features including a Creative X-Fi sound processor, but it's expensive.
Specifications
LGA1366, microATX, Intel X58 chipset, supports: Core i7, Core i7 Extreme Edition
Asus’s Rampage II GENE is a stunning looking microATX Core i7 motherboard, and its black and red Republic of Gamers logo makes it quite clear who this board is aimed at. It even comes with an external LCD to help diagnose faults.
The board’s twin PCI-E x16 graphics card slots support both CrossFireX and SLI, so you can link a pair of Nvidia or ATI graphics cards. Alongside these is a PCI-E x4 slot and a PCI slot for other expansion cards. Six memory slots are present and will accept up to 24GB of RAM. Six SATA ports and an IDE connector allow you to connect plenty of storage.
Most motherboards have integrated audio processors that don’t really make the most of your sound. We were pleased to see that on-board audio is provided by a Creative X-Fi processor, with full hardware EAX support and decoding for a range of gaming and home theatre audio standards. On the back panel, you’ll find six USB ports, eSATA and FireWire ports and analogue and optical S/PDIF audio outputs. There’s also a PS/2 keyboard connector in case you want to free up USB port.
This isn’t the best performing Core i7 motherboard we’ve reviewed – MSI’s £124 X58M outperforms it a little at standard settings. However, the difference is negligible, and it’s the difference in price that’s considerably more significant. The Rampage II GENE does a lot, but it’s an expensive way to build a Core i7 system.
Basic Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Rating | **** |
| Processor socket | LGA1366 |
| Form factor | microATX |
| Size | 244x224mm |
| Processor support | Core i7, Core i7 Extreme Edition |
| Processor external bus | 400MHz (1,600MHz quad-pumped FSB) |
| Chipset north bridge | Intel X58 |
| Chipset south bridge | Intel ICH10R |
| Passively-cooled north bridge | yes |
| Integrated graphics | No |
| Supported memory type | DDR3 1066/1333 |
| Memory slots | 6 |
| Maximum memory | 24GB |
| Dual-channel support | yes |
Buying Information | |
| Price | £165 |
| Supplier | http://www.ilgs.co.uk |
| Details | www.asus.com |
Internal Ports | |
| Power connectors | 1x 24-pin ATX, 1x 8-pin ATX |
| PCI-E x16 slots | 2 |
| Dual graphics architecture | SLI, CrossFireX |
| PCI-E x4 slots | 1 |
| PCI-E x1 slots | 0 |
| PCI slots | 1 |
| Fan headers | 5 |
| Floppy ports | 0 |
| IDE ports | 1 |
| Serial ATA ports | 6 |
| RAID chipset (max disks) | Intel ICH10R (6x SATAII, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10) |
Features | |
| Wired network ports | 1x 10/100/1000 |
| Sound (ports) | Creative X-Fi (6x analogue out, optical S/PDIF out) |
| USB2 ports / headers | 6/3 |
| Firewire ports / headers | 1/1 |
| Legacy ports | 1x PS/2 |
| Other ports | eSATA |
| Cables included | 2x SATA, 1x IDE, SLI connector |
| Brackets included | none |
| Software included | none |
Setup and Overclocking | |
| Voltage adjustment | CPU/RAM/Chipset |
| CPU clock max adjustment | 500MHz |