ASUS joins the microATX SLI/Crossfire party: Rampage II Gene introduced

[jedihobbit]

Almost makes me want to go to the dark side!

Would also like to see another SLI / Crossfire mATX board besides DFI that would do AMD AM2+..........as it would be neat to run dual GPUs in my water cooled SG1.

[WiCKeD]

Bottom line - this board is amazing! Dead tired, but wanted to give EOCF a preview before the rest of the internet.

There are some genuine innovations as well as admirable features they put on this board:
-Control over VDROOP, power phase and 8 different profiles to save OC settings
-Manual is over 150 pages long... and it is all in English!
-Plain english, extensive BIOS descriptions for nearly everything
-Aluminum backing for I/O shield to prevent electrostatic shock from killing the ports (has happened to me before)
-DIMM slots with only one lever along motherboard edge to allow clearance of video cards
-Reset CMOS jumper on the back of the board
-Standard, but awesome ASUS Windows overclocking/monitoring tools (Pictured below)
-eSATA ports
-Zip ties?!
-Uber geeky videos!

There are also the features I mentioned earlier like the built-in start/reset buttons and onboard X-Fi (software).

Edit: As for stability, I am OCCT stable at 4.2GHz with the memory at 1600MHz!

One advantage of this board over the DFI T3H6 is that it allows you to make use of the extra Turbo multiplier. I was having trouble achieving stability with anything over about 205fsb, but the extra multi allowed me to lower my QPI Frequency/RAM clock and push the chip to 4.2GHz!

Some form of active cooling is mandatory for the northbridge. I tried going back to the stock passive cooler and temps skyrocked to 76° just idling! With a silent 40mm fan, temps dropped to 63° at load, about the same as watercooling.

Best going price: http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-RAM2-GE

[jedihobbit]

-Plain english, extensive BIOS descriptions for nearly everything

Wish everyone would do that! While I've been play with computer parts for years I'm still very software challenged and when I go to something new I end up asking a lot of dumb questions.

Definately temping me to go to the dark side!

[EspoNation]

omg omg omg omg! A manual in english! this is simply amazing! i cant wait to see how it all works out! really really really want a water cooled cube now!

[linuxfan2000]

Originally Posted by WiCKeD

Bottom line - this board is amazing! Dead tired, but wanted to give EOCF a preview before the rest of the internet.

There are some genuine innovations as well as admirable features they put on this board:
-Control over VDROOP, power phase and 8 different profiles to save OC settings
-Manual is over 150 pages long... and it is all in English!
-Plain english, extensive BIOS descriptions for nearly everything
-Aluminum backing for I/O shield to prevent electrostatic shock from killing the ports (has happened to me before)
-DIMM slots with only one lever along motherboard edge to allow clearance of video cards
-Reset CMOS jumper on the back of the board
-Standard, but awesome ASUS Windows overclocking/monitoring tools
-eSATA ports
-Zip ties?!
-Uber geeky videos!

There are also the features I mentioned earlier like the built-in start/reset buttons and onboard X-Fi (software).

As for stability, I am still working on my final overclock, but it will be at least 4GHz. Almost stable at 4.1GHz with the northbridge/PWM area watercooled, but still erroring out after 20 minutes and running a bit too hot.

Best going price: http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-RAM2-GE

Good little review! Sounds amazing!