ASUS ROG Rampage Extreme - hardware overclocking is back

[Andreas G]

ASUS ROG Rampage Extreme is the motherboard that was never meant to be made. Simply because ASUS couldn't picture itself making money from it. It most likely won't, but it still decided to continue working on the board, which we're of course very glad it did. It is because this board is only meant for the truly extreme users, which means that the number of boards that will leave the stores are going to be anything but impressive. On the other hand it is no secret that having a status product will give you an overall boost and ROG Rampage Extreme is certainly a product that could do that.

The motherboard is based on Intel's X48 chipset and supports all of the latest Intel processors, up to 1600MHz FSB. It also supports 8GB DDR3-2000 memory, dual PCIe x16 graphics cards (CrossFireX support), 8 SATA ports, dual Gigabit Ethernet, SupremeFX X-Fi sound card and more.

What really makes it stand out is the overclocking features. ROG Extreme Engine is the next generation power supply system from ASUS that will simply give you the most stable voltages. This is possible through a 16-phase power supply for the CPU, 3 phases for the northbridge and 2 phases for the memory. The high efficiency (96%) of Extreme Engine will result in an overall lower power consumption and heat dissipation.

The card will get warm anyway though, but that shouldn't be a problem since ASUS has fitted it with the Fusion Block System, a hybrid cooling system were you can mix air and water cooling any way you want.

Although, the real trump is the new feature TweakIt. TweakIt makes it possible to do overclocking directly on the motherboard, no need to go into Windows or even the BIOS to tune. The overclocking is done manually with your own fingers and various settings are shown on the LCD display. This makes it possible to do overclocking on the fly and even if this is hardly a feature for the normal users, where motherboard will be hiding inside a case, there are users would could certainly find this function useful.

The board will replace Maximus Extreme and even if the price is still unknown, it should be in the +$250 region. We should know more about ASUS ROG Rampage Extreme at the end of the month.

[Mean Machine]

This board weighs an awful lot. Had some touchy-feely action with it today.
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[Delph1]

I remember the days when you overclocked by moving jumpers around. Fun but a limiting.

Pushed a 486 from 33 to 90MHz

//Andreas
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"I'm sort of a postmodern vegetarian, I eat meat ironically"
"You are our Swedish superhero "

Forget everything, knowledge is your enemy, it's only going to make you second-guess yourself."

[super dank]

It does look heavy, looks really nice too I must say

I went from having a 20mhz 386 for years and years to a p90. I then had a 133 that had the jumpers. It wasn't until I had my next machine that I learned how configure my pentium 133 at 166mhz in a high school tech program

[magicman]

P3 500 at 650. Made a nice CSS server while ziptied into a milkcrate. And I mean EVERYTHING was ziptied into that milkcrate.
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E6600 @ 3800Mhz | EVGA 680i | 2GB DDR2 PC8500 @ 550Mhz | 7800GT |Silverstone Zeus 750W| DD TDX 120mm waterloop