Rampage iii black edition review: Asus Rampage III Black Edition Review

15 декабря, 2022

Asus Rampage III Black Edition Review

Written by

Clive Webster

May 19, 2011 | 07:52

Tags: #extreme-cooling #overclocking #rampage #rog #water-chiller #water-cooling

Companies: #asus

1 — Asus Rampage III Black Edition Review2 — Asus Rampage III Black Edition Overclocking3 — Testing Methods4 — Media Benchmarks 5 — SuperPi, WPrime 1.55, 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark 116 — Rampage II Black Edition Performance Analysis and Conclusion

Manufacturer: Asus
UK price (as reviewed): £359.98 (inc VAT)
US price (as reviewed): $589.99 (ex tax)

You could think of the think of the Rampage III Black Edition (R3B) as the Rampage Kitchen Sink Edition. That may sound a bit mean-spirited, but the R3B just has so much technology squeezed into its 305 x 269mm (W x D) PCB. The R3B is the pinnacle of Asus’ motherboard range; it sits above even the Rampage III Extreme in terms of gimmicks, gizmos, overclocking prowess and anything else the company’s fearsomely innovative design team can imagine.

Click to enlarge

Furthermore, the motherboard itself has 802.11n WiFi and Intel Gigabit LAN built in, plus an eight-channel Creative SupremeFX X-Fi 2 audio codec. This might support all the fancy EAX 5.0 game audio effects, but it does so in software and there’s no Crystallizer either.

Bluetooth 3.0 is provided, and there are four network controllers, two audio processors and more overclocking tools than you could possibly use – the lack of tea-making facilities seems almost stingy.

Plus there’s the new Thunderbolt add-in card, which incorporates a Killer NIC processor and an Asus Xonar two-channel sound chip. However, we’ve found Killer NICs don’t improve online game performance much in these days of reliable high-speed broadband. Whether or not the Thunderbolt card is useful brings us onto the thorny issue of what exactly the R3B is for – or rather, whom it is for.

The Thunderbolt card has gamer tech written all over it, and yet the board has a plethora of extreme overclocking, LN2-friendly features. There is an OC Zone towards the top of the front edge of the board, which not only has an LN2 mode jumper (to remedy the cold-boot bug at sub-zero temperatures), but also eight voltage readout points.

There’s also a bank of switches to enable and disable the four 16x PCI-E slots individually, so that you can troubleshoot faults without having to remove cards – next to each switch is an LED to show whether or not the slot is active. Nearby, you’ll find a Go button to load a memory overclock profile automatically, as well as conveniently placed power and reset buttons.

Click to enlarge

Elsewhere you’ll find two 8-pin EPS12V power connectors for the CPU, a button to switch to another saved BIOS profile (LEDs nearby tell you which one you’re using) and a jumper to enable QPI loadline calibration. Plus, if you’re really struggling with your LN2 to the point where the board won’t even POST, there’s a Q Reset button to kill the power for a bit and ‘help the CPU recover from a frozen condition.’

To round off the list of crazy overclocking features on the board before we even delve into the BIOS, there’s the RoG Connect port on the rear I/O that lets you overclock the board remotely from a laptop (or from a smartphone via the Bluetooth link). This really isn’t a motherboard for typical PC gamers – it’s an overclocking leviathan.

Specifications

  • Chipset Intel X58
  • CPU support LGA1366 Core i7, Core i7 Extreme Edition
  • Memory support 6 slots: max 24GB DDR3 (2,200MHz)
  • Expansion slots Four 16x PCI-E slots (Two 16x or one 16x and two 8x, or four 8x), two 1x PCI-E slots
  • Sound Creative SupremeFX X-Fi with 8-channel support. Asus Thunderbolt (Xonar) with 2-channel support
  • Networking Asus Thunderbolt (Killer NPU) Ethernet, Intel Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 802. 11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 + HS
  • Overclocking CPU clock 100-500MHz; max voltages: CPU 2.3V, RAM 2.504V, IOH 2.1995V, ICH 2.00075V, QPI DRAM 2.5V, 2.015V, CPU PLL 2.05375V, ICH PCIE, 2.05375, QPI/PIE Tuning, CPU Differential Amplitude 700-1000mV, CPU and IOH Clock skew, Extreme Engine Digi+m QPI, IOH, DRAM frequency: 1x or 33x
  • Ports 6x SATA 3Gbps, 2x SATA 6Gbps, 1x PS/2, 11x USB 2, 4x USB 3, 2x LAN, 6x surround audio outputs, 2x line in, 2x mic, 2x eSATA 6Gbps
  • Dimensions (mm) 305 x 269 (ATX)

1 — Asus Rampage III Black Edition Review2 — Asus Rampage III Black Edition Overclocking3 — Testing Methods4 — Media Benchmarks 5 — SuperPi, WPrime 1.55, 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark 116 — Rampage II Black Edition Performance Analysis and Conclusion

ASUS Rampage III Extreme Black Edition Review

Later this year Intel will introduce an all new platform for its enthusiast segment dubbed the Sandy-Bridge E; “E” for Extreme! With the new platform comes an all new socket: the 2011. Intel has a habit for launching a new socket for every processor line it launches. Though Intel promises that Ivy Bridge series of processor will work with the current p67 line of motherboards, it (Ivy Bridge) will have its own platform controller hub. Intel plans to include enough new features in it to entice existing users into upgrading. This will include native USB 3.0 support and more importantly native PCI-e 3.0 support (probably).

The existing King of Intel processors is the Core i7-990X. A 6 core 12 thread part that fits into a socket 1366.. Launched more than 2 years ago the S1366 has seen off five major mainstream chipsets (P55, H55, P67, H67 & Z68) and still comes out on top (as far as Intel’s marketing is concerned). The chipset that powers these boards is the X58.

For its one final hurrah major manufacturers have launched what can be described as the pinnacle of X58 boards. Asus Rampage III Extreme Black Edition (R3E-BE for short) is one such board. Do we really need another X58 board considering there is not much life left in the platform? Are these boards borne out of a desire to not let the competitors get a one up on them? Or are these genuine parts with genuine features and they deserve to be called the last great Kings of X58? Read on to find out.

The new member of Republic of Gamers clan

Republic of Gamers (ROG) was born (at Asus) about 5 years ago as a platform for enthusiast products. Motherboards that fall under the ‘ROG’ banner include the ‘Maximus’ & ‘Rampage’ brands and are further categorized as ‘Formula’, ‘Gene’ or ‘Extreme’. The Maximus range caters to more mainstream enthusiast products (e.g. those based on the P55 PCH), while the ‘Rampage’ caters to the top of the line products (right now those based on the X58). The Extreme classification is reserved for the ultimate in product features. The Rampage III Extreme represents the 3rd generation of Rampage motherboards. The ‘Black Edition’ is a first for this generation. This time around Asus has aimed for the absolute highest tier in performance for a single socket based board. This is what Asus has to say about the ROG series:

“The Republic of Gamers consists only the best of the best. We offer the best hardware engineering, the fastest performance, the most innovating ideas, and we welcome the best gamers to join in. ”

Mother Board At A Glance

This is a E-ATX board folks! You will definitely need a full tower chassis to fit this! Though it is still smaller than the EVGA SR-2 (which requires a extra special over sized case).

Other than that you get all the ROG goodies. What sets this ‘Black edition’ apart from the usual run of the mill Extreme is the inclusion of the special NPU (Network Processing Unit) coupled with audio circuitry dubbed the “Thunderbolt”, wifi, extra power to the processor and some specific features for Liquid Nitrogen over-clocking.

We’ll look at the board and packaging before we delve into what makes the Black Edition stand out from the crowd of other ROG boards.

Packaging – Designed to protect & attract!

The packaging for this product can be described as ‘monstrous’. I have never seen such a massive box for any of the motherboard I have used. The front of the box has a large product logo in the center, with the ROG label at the top. The company’s name is rather diminutively printed at the bottom of the box together with the socket, processor and GPU support logos next to it.

Opening the front lid of the gate fold designed box reveals the motherboard through a transparent protective covering. Salient features of the board are described in some detail on the inside of the lid. It covers all the basic amenities offered by the board; dedicated NPU (with its audio components), ROG specific features, bundled software and over clocking features.

The back of the box pictorially displays the NPU (Thunder bolt), ROG Connect, Blue tooth +HS and the Extreme Engine Digi+. The rest of the back lists the motherboard specifications. At the very bottom the usual company’s email & address, warranty information and safety regulation logos are shown.

The box is so big that it needs a carrying handle. This is something that has been seen before on the P6T Deluxe and several other Asus boards.

Opening the box reveals a cardboard shroud that holds the motherboard covered by a plastic lid. The lid itself has a little niche for the Thunderbolt add in card.

The box certainly tells a lot about the board: It is HUGE! We got the box via courier and despite the damage to the external carton that the box was in, the product itself remained undamaged. The box thus serves its purpose, both to protect and attract!

Accessories

The board comes chock full of extra goodies. Apart from the usual disks, manuals, cables and the customary ROG sticker the board is bundled with some nifty extras. We will talk about the specific accessories after covering the basics

SATA Cables
The board comes with 3 pairs of SATA 3Gbps cables and a pair of SATA 6Gbps cables. If you happen to have a 6Gbps device you will have to use this cable to take advantage of the extra bandwidth offered by the SATA 6Gbps ports.

Multi GPU Cables
You get the X-Fire cable, an extra long SLI cable and a 3 way SLI bridge with the board.

IO plate/ module/ Q-Connectors
The board is bundled with Asus “Q” accessories. These help “Q”uicken the installation time. The board also comes with a E-SATA and USB 2.0 module to allow for enhanced connectivity beyond what is provided at the rear of the board. There is a cut-out sticker sheet to label SATA ports and cables.

Thermal Sensor Cables
There are 3 thermal sensor cables that can be placed on either heat sinks or basically anywhere you would want them to be placed. These help monitor temperature. Personally I’d put them behind the in-take and in front of the exhaust fans to see how much heat is being generated and extracted from the system.

North Bridge Fan
A 40mm fan comes with the board for (extra) Northbridge cooling.

ROG specific accessories: Wi-Fi Antennae
The board supports wifi-n standard and comes with a pair of antennae.

ROG Specific Accessories: ROG connect cable
This cable allows another computer to control over clocking features of the board.

ROG Specific Accessories: Thunderbolt

Thunderbolt is Asus’s fusion of a high quality NIC, the Killer 2100 from Bigfoot and a sound card based on C-media chip. It offers amplified output for headphones with an optical SP/DIF connectivity option.
Thunderbolt comes in the form of a PCI-e x1 plug-in card. The PCB itself is covered in black plastic and carries the Thunderbolt and Xonar logos. The latter is Asus’ brand for audio products.

Manauls/ Disks/ Misc.
There is the usual manual and the DVD disk with drivers and other software. There is a ROG sticker as well as a Audio precision report which highlight the functionality of the thunderbolt network and audio card.

Impressions

As you can see Asus has included everything that every other board manufacturer would and added enough goodies to make the R3E BE stand out from the crowd. If the wifi connectivity does not interest you, the Thunderbolt network & audio solution will. With the inclusion of the BEST Nic around together with specialized audio hardware for headphone use, Asus has included a very useful accessory with the board.

R3E Black Edition Motherboard –LOADED!

The motherboard is all black with bits of red on the X58 heatsink. As has been mentioned before, this is an E-ATX board and this somewhat larger than the usual ATX boards. We’ll talk about the motherboard and move onto specific features that make this board ‘special’

Back Panel

The IO section of the motherboard features all the usual USB 2.0 (7 ports, with one ‘extra’ port for ROG connect). There are the audio jacks, E-SATA ports and a combo PS/2 mouse/ keyboard port.

Also on the back panel is a ROG connect on/off button, USB 3.0 ports and connectors for the wifi antennae.
Despite the board featuring a Killer 2100 Nic, the board also utilizes an Intel Nic on the back panel as well. It is possible to use both the interfaces together.
A clear CMOS switch completes the back panel.

With a mix of usual and un-usual the back panel section adds extra connectivity options (wifi) that is specific to the black edition.

Socket Area

The board comes with a Lottes manufactured LGA 1366 socket. If you go back a couple of years, to the launch of the socket, you might recall the ‘issues’ with the socket manufactured by Foxconn. Those days are long gone, but the memory still lingers. The socket is surrounded by X58 heat sink (left) and power regulation circuitry heatsink (rear). In front of the socket are the 6 DDR3 memory slots.

The heat sinks should not interfere with exotic air cooling setups. The first memory slot might not be able to incorporate an extra-tall heat sink equipped module if a large air cooler is used.

The power regulation circuitry uses the military grade components ensuring operation at high ambient temperature and long life. They also have the ROG logo on it.

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X58 NORTHBRIDGE/ ICH 10R SOUTHBRIDGE

The Northbridge (though not in the strictest sense of the word) is covered by a black heat sink with red highlights. It has a red ROG logo which lights up when powered. The heatsink can be augmented with a 40mm fan bundled with the board.

The board relies on the X58 for all of its PCI-e 2.0 lanes. There is no NF200. This restricts the bandwidth available when all 4 x16 slots are occupied (to x8 speeds). The real world impact might not be that much, but when you are offering such a complete package at a premium price, one would expect it to be complete. The addition of NF200 would have been welcome.

The ICH 10R is covered with a extra large flat heat sink. The heat sink does not interfere with the use of extra long video cards.

Memory Slots

Like almost all X58 boards (barring the original DX58SO from Intel for example), the black edition comes with 6 DDR3 memory slots. The board can take up to 48 GB of RAM and supports over-clock speeds of 2200 MHz. This is higher as compared to the 1066 MHz that the processors that fit into these sockets officially support.

As the Core series of processor that are compatible with the board have a triple channel memory controller, you will need three stick to get the maximum benefit. The memory slots come in two shades of ‘black’ to indicate which slots work in unison to provide triple channel connectivity.

Power Connectors

The board is chock full of power connectors. There is the usual 24 pin main power connector, 2 8pin CPU power connectors (EATX 12V compliant). There is also a 4 pin molex connector next to the PCI-e slots to provide them with extra power.

Expansion Slots

The board has 2 PCI-e x1 connectors. If you connect the Thunderbolt card that leaves one x1 slot free. Using the Thunderbolt also implies that it won’t be possible to use three double slot cooler cards in 3 consecutive x16 slots.

There are 4 PCI-e x16 slots which can work in various bandwidth modes depending on the number of slots occupied

For three cards it is possible to do x16; x16/x16. But if you use all four slots the bandwidth is reduced to x8/x8/x8/x8. This is because that the board relies on the X58 for its lanes rather than including an additional NF200 chip.

The board is capable of doing 3 way SLI or 4 way XF.

Storage

There are 8 SATA ports, 6 of which are SATA 3.0 Gbps (controlled by the ICH 10R) and offer Raid 0,1,5 and 10 support. Next to these are 2 SATA 6.0Gbps ports (grey), handled by the Marvell 9182 PCIe controller.

There are usual USB 2.0 connectors (2 connectors for 4 ports) on the board as well as a USB 3.0 connector along the front edge (for 2 USB 3.0 ports). The USB 3.0 connectivity is provided by a NEC controller.

Specialized ROG Features

Extreme Digi+
Though not unique to the Extreme series (it is found on the P67 boards by Asus), the components used in the DIGI+ voltage regulation modules for this board do make this stand out from the rest of the Asus crowd. This board has an 8 phase power regulation to the processor , 3 phase regulation to the memory, X58 power and QPI. Some might be surprised to learn that the power regulation on the plain vanilla X58 boards from Asus have a 16+2 design. What gives? The answer is quiet simple! The components used on this board can regulate more power than the run of the mill components found on other boards. Thus the 8+3+3+3 design either meets or exceeds the performance of the 16+2 design used on other boards. The digital architecture reduces signal noise and energy consumption.

Overclocking Zone & Other overclocking friendly features

The right front edge of the board (next to the 24pin power connector) has several special features that make up the “over-clocking zone”.

The area starts off with a “GO” button that initiates the Mem OK! algorithms. This helps in the use of un-supported memory.

Next to this are 4 on/ off rocker switches that control PCI-e x16 slots. This makes diagnosing a dead video card easier. It is possible to turn individual slots off to figure out which of the cards is not working. This is a very welcome feature and one that Asus should include on all ROG boards. There is a reset as well a power switch. Below these is the probelt area. This has individual points to measure voltage to various board components. Those who like to get their hands ‘dirty’ can use these points to accurately calculate voltages supplied. A 2 digit LED debug display is also included. This is in contrast to the LCD solution bundled with the Rampage II Gene. Just above the reset switch is a LN2 jumper. This allows the user to bypass the cold boot bug when using exotic cooling solutions like LN2.

A series of LEDS, located below the 24 pin power connector, the “Q-LEDS” show component activity. It can help diagnose a ‘dead’ link in the system.

There are LEDs for the Northbridge, CPU, memory and other components which can denote the state of voltage, temperature of these parts (Voltminder LEDS).

There is also a ‘Q reset’ button next to 8 pin power connectors. This temporarily breaks the power feed to the CPU and helps it recover from a frozen condition when using LN2 for cooling.

The ROG connect and iDirect allow either wired or wireless control of over-clocking respectively. It is possible to use mobile devices like iPod to control and tweak over-clocks.

Bluetooth V3.0 +HS
By employing the 802.11 layer of the new blue tooth standard, the board supports high speed data transfer over Bluetooth protocol. This is used for iDirect connectivity.

Audio

Apart from the Audio connectivity provided by the Thunderbolt, the board features a RealTek audio solution. Asus uses its license from Creative to provide X-fi audio features including EAX 5.0. However unlike the X-fi hardware based processing all the EAX calculations are done in software.

Fan Connectors
There are a total of 8 fan connectors featuring PWM control. There are 2 CPU fan connectors, 3 chassis fan connectors and 3 optional fan connectors. They feature Q-fan control for noise/ performance balance.

Network
Apart from the Bigfoot Nic, the board also features an Intel based Nic on the board itself.
BIOS

The board comes with two BIOSes. It is also possible to flash the BIOS with only a flash drive and nothing more! The BIOS flash back switch on the motherboard is there for this purpose.

Unlike the recent P67 series of boards, this board does not use EFI, but the good old bios. No mouse driven GUI here. Apart from that there is no shortage of over-clocking options in the Extreme tweaker menu. There are enough parameters to satisfy the most curious of the tinkerers!

Design Impressions
Had Asus included a Coffee machine the package would have been complete! Seriously folks this is one very complete motherboard. Had Asus included a NF200 chip to add extra PCI-e lanes and maybe another PCI-e x16 slot it would have been the board. But even as things stand this is a very attractive bundle.

The essential CPU-Z shot

Bundled Software

The board includes the usual array of Asus software & drivers. Their all in one AI Suite combines several functions including over-clocking, monitoring and system information:

Anyone buying this board will probably only use the over-clocking utility to fine tune rather than setup over clocks. This is not to say that the tool does not work, it does; it is really not for purists but for beginners. And beginners are probably not going to buy this board!

Test Setup

Processors

Core i7-2600K

Core i7-920

Boards

Asus Sabertooth P67 (Core i7-2600K series)

Asus Rampage III Extreme BE(Core i7-920)

Asus P6T Deluxe V2 (Core i7-920)

Memory

Corsair DDR3-1333MHz 2×4 GB. Total 8 GB

Corsair DDR3-1333MHz 3×2 GB. Total 6 GB (920)

Video

ATi 6950-2GB

Hard Disk

Seagate ST31000528AS

Power Supply

Corsair HX620

Cooler

Thermal Right HR-02 (No fans)

OS

Windows 7 x64

Test Suite

Synthetic

Sandra 2011, X264 Benchmark (HD V3)

Cinebench, 3Dmark11 –Physics Test

Real World

7-Zip

IO Performance

SATA –HD Tune, USB –Crystal Mark 3

Gaming

Far Cry II, Crysis Warhead

Legend

X58BE

Core i7-920 + X58 (Rampage III Extreme BE)

X58

Core i7-920 + X58 (Asus P6T Deluxe V2)

S67

Core i7-2600K + P67 (Sabertooth P67)

Testing Methodology

Testing motherboards is not an easy task, and testing one designed specifically with tons of over-clocking features is even tougher. Not all processors over-clock equally and thus unless a processor’s limit is known it would be unfair to put the blame on the motherboard. Fortunately we have our hands on a Core i7-920 whose limit we know well (around 4.0 GHz, not earth shattering, but measurable!). We will test the board’s over-clocking potential using this particular chip. We will also compare the board to one other LGA 1366 platform (the Asus P6T Deluxe V2) and one Sandy Bridge platform (Asus Sabertooth P67 paired to a Intel Core i7-2600K).

We will use a mix of synthetic and real world benchmarks to judge performance.

*All results rounded off to the nearest round figure. % Scores shown

Sandra 2011
Sandra is a multi-purpose utility that offers benchmarking of multiple parameters.

The two X58 boards are neck and neck; the P67 is in a different league altogether

X264 Benchmark HD V3
This benchmark measures the encoding performance of the system.

The tests are pretty much a carbon copy of the previous tests.

Cinebench R11.5 TEST
Cinebench is based on Maxon’s Cinema 4D. It is used to compare graphics as well as processor performance.

Much closer, but same old, same old.

3D Mark ’11

As an ATi card was in use, physics test reflects motherboard-CPU performance more than the total score. Here again the two X58 boards perform around the same.

Real World
Some might argue against using 7-zip’s compression and decompression benchmark as a ‘real world’ test. But if you try and think about it for a minute, the benchmark does show how fast the program will either compress or decompress, while negating the impact of disk transfers.

7-Zip Compression

7-ZIP Decompression

The compression tests are more indicative of processor power. More of the same déjà vu experience!

IO Tests

USB Tests
USB performance was compared between boards. As our Asus P6T Deluxe V2 X58 board only features USB 2.0 ports no USB 3.0 tests could be performed on it. Thus it serves as a comparison between USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 performance characteristics. Crystal Mark V3 was used in conjunction with a USB 3.0 compliant Kingston Data Traveler (Ultimate 16 GB)

The compression tests are more indicative of processor power. More of the same déjà vu experience!

Both the boards with USB 3.0 perform on par. They both use the same controller thus produce identical results.

SATA Performance
HD Tune was used to assess SATA performance.

The P67 platform proves to be the fastest. The Black Edition does better than the P6T Deluxe.

Gaming Benchmarks

Crysis –Warhead

Gaming tests show that X58 platforms perform the same, while the P67 platform comes on top.

Exploring Thunderbolt
We wanted to see if the Killer NIC was better than Intel NIC when it came to network performance. We used speed and ping tests on both to see if there was any advantage of using the Killer NIC over the Intel NIC

Despite the entire hubbub, both the products produce similar results. Though in an ideal situation the Killer NIC (NPU) with all of its processing power will provide better results, but in live testing this is just not so. The reason being the number of variables in an internet connection. Had we tested these two in a LAN gaming the results would probably have favored the NPU.

Testing –Impressions
All the tests, except those based on I/O show that the two X58 platforms perform on the same level. The I/O tests paint a different a picture as the black edition has USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps. These new technologies help the black edition produce significantly better results.

Overclocking
Using a Core i7-920, whose over-clocking limit has been established (4.0GHz) we set out to test whether the Black edition could reach the same.

Not only did the black edition reach the same limit, it did so while applying slightly less Core and QPI/DRAM Voltage.

Conclusion

If you jumped straight to the conclusion (without reading the rest of the article), I urge you to at least look at the benchmark charts. The black edition is a niche product. It is not for those who are looking for a decent stable over-clock. There are other motherboards that will offer this and cost much less.

The benchmarks show that this board performs on par with other X58 boards as long as features that are similar are being compared. It does better when using features that are specific to it (like USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps), which our other X58 board did not have. The only setup that does better than this is the P67.

And this brings us back to the point made initially: product placement. You will only benefit from the features on the black edition if you can utilize them: LN2 cooling specific features; multi GPU features and so on. Otherwise you can do everything on a ‘run of the mill X58 board’.

What about comparison to the new Sandy Bridge platform? Well as the benchmarks show that newer is better! But again that won’t deter the diehard purists from buying this board. Sandy Bridge is a mainstream platform. It does not offer true x16/x16 connectivity (for multi GPU use) or triple channel memory controller. Granted that the latter shows no benefit in gaming (relevance to ROG lost!) and the former only shows minor performance benefits in 90% of applications. But we are talking about improvements and they can be enough to deter those who want to remain in the top tier of hardware hierarchy. Right now if you want the best in multi GPU technology the X58 is the way to go, (irrespective of performance benefits) over the P67.

Comparisons will also be drawn to the Gigabyte Assassin G1. The latter board offers real Creative X-fi DSP, Killer NIC, Hybrid EFI bios, front panel USB/eSATA connector box. It does however require a larger case as it is an oversized ATX board (ATX-XL). They both use the same Marvel controller for SATA 6Gbps, and no NF200 chip. The front panel box is probably the greatest difference I see between the two. The performance can only be compared once we have the actual product. Until then both look pretty similar on paper.

If you have the capacity to utilize the extra features on the black edition, you will certainly get your money’s worth. If you have money to spend you will be the envy of your geek crowd. This is after all the Ferrari of the motherboard world and you must be in the right place to enjoy it to its full potential

PROS

  • Features Galore
  • Even More Features
  • Killer NIC
  • Dedicated Headphone output
  • Exotic Over-clocking solutions
  • Excellent Over-clocking options
  • Price! (A definite bragging point)

CONS

  • No NF200
  • Killer NIC (you will see performance difference only under certain situations)

Asus Rampage III Black Edition Schematic Circuit Diagram || Asus Rampage III Black Edition Review

Asus Rampage III Black Edition Review

The Asus Rampage 3 Black Edition motherboard, belongs to the perfect Gamers motherboard brand. This motherboard supports the Intel Core i7 Extreme processor, Nvidia SLI, and ATI Crossfire technology. It is a motherboard with an Expansion Slot (Ex58), which is an LGA 1366 CPU socket. They probably meant the AMD Crossfire processor. There is a ROG Thunderbolt that seems awful enough that it resembles a sound card. We’ll now go a little more into the object that appears to be powered externally. Therefore, that will have a headphone AMP on it. Version 3.0 of Bluetooth is available. We have strong engine DIGI+, their VRM solution, and ROG Connect, their overclocking function that enables you to plug in another computer and change overclocking settings.

There is the Thunderbolt, which is powered by Oxnard. We have an in-built headphone with a headphone AMP guarantee that will enhance sound. That’s a deadly E 2100, and we have a specialized PU. Commitment is not a flawed 2100. Thus, the PCIe 1x, Killer Dick, Extreme Engine DIGI+, and Digital Design Elements coupled for Power ROG Connect is available. The first and WiFi enjoyment new technology lifestyle excellent free antivirus is very cool since we’ve previously discussed Bluetooth 3.0. We offer a few SLI premium WiFi antennae. I believe they first began including these WiFi antennae on their motherboards about that time and then stopped for a bit. We have a USB 2.0 port and an eSATA PCI mount. The chipset fan probably makes a terrible noise, so we don’t advocate utilizing it.

Front panel audio and USB have extension cables. Similar to the six SATA 2 cables, we also have several SATA 3 cables. Okay, the ROG is here to connect the USB cables for all of them. There is a crossfire bridge, a three-way SLI bridge, and a two-way SLI bridge. One USB 2.0 header and a nice connection for the front panel connectors make connecting a little bit simpler. We have some zip ties here. We have a user manual, some temperature probes, and an I/O shield. We have a support DVD from Intel, a throw-away DVD sticker from the republic of gamers, and an Intel chipset.

A PCIe 1x combo card is available. It consists of the land port and zone, the extremely high-end LAN’s audio features, and the built-in sound system for this board. You can see rampage 3 Black Edition and your serial number information directly on the back of the Thunderbolt powered by zone PCB, which is matte black. The amplified audio out port will be powered by a Molex power connector on the back of the card, which is also where the USB connection and the little USB extension cable were located.

Let’s look at the motherboard itself, and the first thing I notice about it is three guesses. First, matte black PCBs love it; anything with a matte black PCB could be in my system with no problem because matte plaque PCBs look awesome. The next thing I noticed about this board is its non-standard layout. It is slightly wider than an ATX spec. This one is a little wide, so you don’t need additional mounting holes. You don’t need an e ATX case, but you will need a bit more width on the edge of your motherboard or tray to install this board.

Let’s start at the CPU socket right in the middle because that’s a good place to start as I mentioned before that is an LGA 1366 socket that has full support for all the core i7 extremes core i7s on the LGA 1366 platform here. We’ve got the PWM which includes a very, very slick-looking cooler. There’s some NEC splash token. However, you pronounce that chip here, and eight phases of their DIGI+ PWM are eight-plus three-phase power. So that means we’ve got eight higher-quality phases instead of putting a ton of lower-quality phases on this particular motherboard. We’ve got a post LED indicator that’ll give you error codes. There we have start and reset switches on board and voltage checkpoints on the motherboard.

That’s more voltage checkpoints than I’ve seen. I think any other motherboard here is the PCIe 16x switches. You can use these to diagnose video cards. This feature is awesome easily. You’re trying to figure out when you install a couple of video cards there, and you know they have full cover liquid cooling blocks on them. I would have pretty much done anything for this feature.

We’ve got a pretty sweet-looking Southbridge heatsink with an Asus branding. It’s got a matte black finish. The entire board is almost as black other than a couple of little red accents, which look really good dual BIOS. We’ve got two dedicated BIOS chips, a couple of front USB ports and front panel switches, and a BIOS clear switch. There are four-pin PWM fan connectors, I’ll count them in a minute, but there seems to be a ton on this board. We’ve got a Molex easy plug. If you’re loading this with graphics cards, you might need to provide some exhilaration with our to prevent your 24-pin connector from burning out from providing all that juice through the board. We’ve got a front audio connector on the motherboard, using X by two maximum effects. If you don’t want to use the Thunderbolt card, you still have decent onboard audio, which is cool.

You also have pretty decent onboard Ethernet, so they’re using the Intel Ethernet instead of a third-party chip for the onboard Ethernet. If you don’t want to use the killer 2100 that comes on the Thunderbolt card, let’s look at what we’ve got. The 4-pin PWM fan connectors more. Another thing that I haven’t described yet is it has two PCIe 8-pin connectors. I mentioned a red accent there, so you can bolt that fan on there to get a little bit of additional cooling if you are using water cooling or some other kind of cooling that doesn’t provide any incidental airflow to the Northbridge hitting.

All right, so let’s look at the back I/O where we will find our Bluetooth 3.0 and wireless LAN 802 one. There’s another reset switch-up that’s a very peculiar place for it, and an additional one here is kidding me. Oh yeah, okay, there’s a clear CMOS switch there. Okay, we’ve got one of those PS2 mouse keyboard combo ports. We have six USB 2.0 ports here on the back I/O. We have two USB 3.0 ports and two eSATA ports, and we have our ROG connect button and the USB port for the Intel I mentioned before and the creative X-FI to supreme FX sound, I said. So, this is a checked-out motherboard. There is no doubt about it. We’ve also got some additional heatsink on the back for the PWM and the standard LGA 1366 backplate. All the heatsinks on the front are attached via screws which is nice because they can’t come out like push pins also means if you need to take them off and put them back on, you don’t risk damaging the push pins. Making it impossible. Thank you for checking out my review of the Rampage 3 Black Edition from Asus.

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Motherboard overview ASUS Rampage III Black Edition

  • Introduction
  • Specifications
  • Design and features
  • Power system
  • Cooling system
  • BIOS Capabilities
  • Test configuration (BCLK overclocking)
  • Base Clock Acceleration (BCLK)
  • Test configuration (overclocking LN2)
  • Overclocking with liquid nitrogen
  • Conclusion

ASUS ROG motherboard lineup has been expanded with a new product — Rampage III Black Edition. Everyone could be the first to see the new top product of the Taiwanese giant at the ASUS booth in Hannover, Germany at the CeBIT exhibition. Rampage III Black Edition was shown to Russian journalists on March 4th. The heads of research and development departments, Albert Chang, Sheron Pan and Chui Lin, came to Russia to represent the board.

Rampage III Black Edition is primarily for enthusiasts, gamers and overclockers. According to ASUS representatives, the new product turned out to be of better quality and more reliable, a number of new overclocking options appeared, in addition, a sound card was returned to the ROG line. The high-quality (thanks to SupremeFX) sound that many people love on ASUS Commando in the Rampage III Extreme or Formula lines was not represented by a separate sound card. But, apparently, when creating the Rampage III Black Edition, they decided not to deviate from good traditions.

ASUS engineers put great emphasis on the board’s overclocking potential. A number of errors and shortcomings in the operation of the board at negative processor temperatures have been fixed, functions have been added to help achieve a higher BCLK frequency, the board’s cooling system has been redesigned, and the design has seriously changed. At first glance, there are quite a lot of changes, but let’s dig deeper and check the board in action.

Specifications ASUS Rampage III Extreme Black Edition are presented in the table:

Supported processors Intel Core i7/Core i7 Extreme Edition in LGA1366 design
Full list of supported processors
on the manufacturer’s website
Chipset Intel X58 Chipset/ICh20R
Supported memory 6 240-pin DDR3 DIMM slots supporting Tri-Channel
Supported frequencies: 1066/1333/1600/1800 (OC)/2000 (OC)/ 2133 (OC)/ 2200 (OC)
Maximum capacity: 48 GB
Expansion slots
  • 4 PCI Express 2. 0 x16 slots
  • 2 PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots
Multi-GPU support NVIDIA SLI and ATI CrossFireX support (up to four graphics cards)
SATA/eSATA support
  • 6 SATA 3 Gb/s ports (slots 1 to 6) — Intel ICh20R
  • 2x SATA 6Gb/s (Slots E1 and E2) — Marvell 88SE9182
  • 2 rear eSATA 3 ports — Jmicron JMB363
IDE support missing
RAID support RAID 0/1/5/10 (slots 1 to 6) — Intel ICh20R
RAID 0/1 (slots E1 and E2) — Marvell 88SE9182
Network Gigabit Ethernet — Intel 82567V
Audio Realtek ALC889 7.1 channel HD audio codec
Bluetooth V.3.0 + HS
WiFi IEEE 802. 11b/g/n
USB 2.0 6 rear USB 2.0 ports — ICh20R
2 rear USB 2.0 ports combined with eSATA — ICh20R
2 internal USB 2.0 ports — ICh20R
1 USB 2.0 port for ROG Connect — ICh20R
USB 3.0 2 USB 3.0 ports on rear panel — NEC D720200F1
2 internal USB 3.0 ports — NEC D720200F1
IEEE1394 missing
Motherboard power supply ATX 24-pin, 2x-8-pin EATX12V, 1x 4-pin Molex
Rear panel connectors
  • 1 PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port
  • 6 USB 2.0 ports
  • 2 USB 3.0 ports
  • 2 eSATA ports
  • 1 USB 2.0 port shared with ROG Connect
  • 1 LAN connector
  • 6 in/out 3.5 mm mini-jack 7.1-channel HD audio codec
  • 1 CMOS reset button
  • 1 ROG Connect on/off button
Internal connectors
  • 1 connector for two USB 3. 0 bracket
  • 2 connectors for 2x USB 2.0 bracket
  • 2 x SATA 6Gb/s ports
  • 6 SATA 3 Gb/s ports
  • 8 fan headers (2 x CPU, 3 x Chassis, 3 x Optional)
  • 10 voltage measurement points
  • 4 PCI-Express x16 slot switches
  • 3 thermocouple connectors
  • 1 LN2 Mode switch
  • 1 button to switch the BIOS chip
  • 1 Power button and 1 Reset button
  • 1 POST indicator panel
  • 1 EZ-Plug Connector (4-pin Molex)
Proprietary technologies
  • CPU Level Up
  • MemOK!
  • ASUS MyLogo3
  • ASUS Fan Xpert
  • ASUS EZ Flash 2
  • ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
  • Q-Fan Plus
  • ROG BIOS Wallpaper
  • ASUS EPU Engine
  • ASUS Q-Connector
  • ASUS Q-LED (CPU, DRAM, VGA, Boot Device LED)
  • ASUS Q-Slot
  • ASUS Q-Dimm
Dimensions, mm 305 x 269
Form factor Extended ATX (EATX)

recommendations

ASUS Rampage III Black Edition was tested in the engineering version. From the delivery set there is only the board itself and the sound card — ASUS ThunderBolt. After comparing the engineering sample with photographs of the retail board, very slight differences were found.

In the end customer product, there will be two Wi-Fi antenna connectors on the rear panel between the CMOS reset button and the combo PS/2 connector. SATA 6 Gb / s connectors received gray color, and red was used in the engineering version. In place of the Realtek ALC889 audio chipX-Fi 2 SupremeFX hologram appeared. It is difficult to understand the sticker there or a completely different microcircuit from the photographs. But, judging by the availability of sound drivers for the external sound card and the built-in Realtek on the ASUS website, we can more confidently say that this is a regular sticker.

The familiar red and black tones of the ROG line have been replaced with all-black. Only small areas of the cooling system are painted burgundy. The board is made on a black textolite, and where the manufacturer highlights the differences between the elements, the black color is replaced by gray. Thus, for example, the differences between the sockets for RAM are shown.

The LGA1366 socket remains unchanged: the familiar black mounting frame from Lotes. Massive problems with contact burnout, similar to those on the LGA1156 platform, never arose.

The Black Edition has not received any differences from the Extreme and Formula versions in terms of support for new RAM frequencies. Only the red and black colors were changed to the already mentioned gray and black. By default, when using one set of RAM, the brackets should be installed in the black slots.

You can use 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8 GB RAM sticks. The maximum amount of RAM when all slots are full will be 48 GB. All base frequencies of the RAM are supported, and it is also possible to operate at frequencies up to 2200 MHz, but this is already with overclocking the BCLK bus. The maximum working memory divider on ASUS Rampage III Black Edition, like on most top motherboards based on Intel X58, is 2:12. By default, the BCLK bus of Intel Core i7 processors is 133 MHz, that is, when using the maximum divider, the memory frequency will be 1600 MHz. Higher memory frequencies can be achieved by overclocking the processor by increasing the base BCLK frequency.

All PCI Express version 2.0 expansion slots — 4 x PCI Express x16, 2 x PCI x1. The second and fourth PCI Express x16 slots actually received only eight lines, since half of the pins to these slots are not connected. The presence of an external sound card installed in the PCI-E x1 slot will cause some difficulties for owners of multi-GPU configurations.

To get the best performance from your graphics card and sound card, we recommend installing it as follows:

  • 1 video card: PCIE_X16/X8_1, sound card: PCIE_X1_1/PCIE_X1_2;
  • 2 video cards: PCIE_X16/X8_1 and PCI_X16/X8_3, sound card: PCIE_X1_1;
  • 3 graphics cards: PCIE_X16/X8_1, PCIE_X16/X8_3 and PCIE_X8_4, sound card: PCIE_X1_1;
  • 4 graphics cards: PCIE_X16/X8_1, PCIE_X8_2, PCIE_X16/X8_3 and PCIE_X8_4.

When using four video cards with two-slot cooling systems, you will have to abandon the use of an external sound card. And the maximum performance of the graphics subsystem can be achieved only when using a special board ASUS ROG Xpander. The latter is an adapter board with four full-fledged PCI-Express x16 slots supported by two nForce200 chips.

So the most hardcore gamers with four NVIDIA GTX 580s will have to play modern games with built-in sound. It would be more logical to place the PCIE_X1_1 slot as close as possible to the chipset, where the PCIE_X16/X8_1 slot is currently located. And place the rest of the connectors one slot below the current location. But then you would have to sacrifice the second PCI-E x1.

Rear panel includes:

  • one PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port;
  • six USB 2.0 ports;
  • two USB 3.0 ports;
  • two eSATA ports;
  • one USB 2.0 port shared with ROG Connect;
  • one LAN connector;
  • six in/out 3. 5mm mini-jack 7.1-channel HD audio codec;
  • one CMOS reset button;
  • one ROG Connect on/off button;
  • two connectors for connecting Wi-Fi antennas.

The engineering version does not have a Wi-Fi module.

With a set of SATA ports, everything is quite standard. Six SATA 3 Gb / s connectors implemented by the Intel ICh20R chipset logic set, two SATA 6 Gb / s provided by the Marvell 88SE9182 chip, two SATA 6 Gb / s. I note that the retail version differs in the color of the SATA III connectors. Engineering red replaced with grey.

Naturally, a separate place on the board is reserved for overclocking and system control. OC Zone — this is how Taiwanese engineers called a small area of ​​the board next to the RAM connectors.

The main innovation was the appearance of the POST code indicator. On Rampage III Extreme and Formula, overclockers especially lacked a built-in indicator, since, for example, 4 x GPU arrays had to be blindly benched. Also in the OC Zone are the Power, Reset and GO LED buttons, four PCI-E x16 mode switches that allow you to disable unused expansion slots. There are ten voltage measurement points on the board: the voltage can be measured on eight different elements, and two points on both edges are ground.

We should also talk about the LN2 Mode jumper. Non-extreme overclockers will never need this mode and should be left off. But for lovers of liquid nitrogen, the function is very useful. Its main purpose is to reduce the temperatures of ColdBug and ColdBoot. The best copies of the top Intel Core i7 990 Extreme Edition or Core i7 980X processors on the Extreme and Formula versions of the boards did not have either ColdBoot or ColdBug only when the RAM was running in single-channel mode.

The dependence of operating temperatures on the number of memory channels is explained by the fact that in new generations of Intel processors, the memory controller is included under the cover of the CPU heat spreader. Reducing the load on the memory controller while reducing the number of channels allows the processor to operate at the boiling point of liquid nitrogen — minus 196 degrees Celsius.

At the presentation of the board, Taiwanese engineers claimed that this problem was solved on the Black Edition version. I will return to it a little later in the part devoted to extreme overclocking.


ICS 9LPR918JKLF is responsible for BCLK overclocking. The SetFSB utility “understands” it, so there should be no problems with overclocking the bus from under Windows. But ASUS itself has taken good care of overclockers. Using ROG Connect technology and RC TweakIt software, you can overclock the processor from under Windows from another computer or laptop. Also in the engineering version, there is a special board ASUS ROG OC Panel, which allows you to change the voltage and frequency of the processor directly on the fly. But ASUS ROG OC Station, which received the status of a retail product, is unfortunately not supported, there is no connector for its connection.

It’s common to have a pair of BIOS chips. You can switch from one chip to another using the BIOS SWITCH button. The presence of two chips is a useful option for overclockers. More than once on Formula (and now on the Black Edition) it happened to get into a situation where, after applying the settings, the board could not start, and resetting the BIOS did not help. Just in such a situation, you can use the second BIOS. Moreover, Extreme / Formula has the ability to flash the BIOS from one chip to another. There is no such option in the engineering version of the BIOS on the Black Edition, but I really hope that it will appear in the release version.