Gadgets

ASUS Rampage V Extreme Launched

September 13, 2014

The old axiom that you can’t improve upon perfection is just not true anymore…at least when you give ASUS two years to work on it. Although the Rampage IV Extreme was by no means starting to show its age, you had to expect that ASUS would react to the launch of Intel’s LGA2011 processors with an optimized new flagship motherboard of their own. The result is the Rampage V Extreme.

ASUS Rampage V Extreme Features

Let’s start from the basics, the Rampage V Extreme, also can be referred to as the RVE, is based on the X99 chipset and takes full advantage of its capabilities. This model features a full complement of eight DDR4 memory slots, which allows for up to 64GB of RAM and overclocked memory speeds up to DDR4-4004MHz. It comes with multiple exclusive technologies to aid extreme over clockers, including the OC Panel, patent-pending OC Socket, Safe Boot and ReTry buttons, its ultimate overclocking design and features makes it the most unbeatable motherboard of all time. ROG team has broken 28 records with Rampage V Extreme. It currently holds two fastest CPU benchmarks (8 Core / 16C threads and 1 Core / 1 thread), 4004MHz DDR4 memory speed, 17 3DMark scores, along with two Catzilla, two CineBench, two Wprime, XTU, and HWBotPrime benchmarks.

It has four mechanical PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots with support for both 4-way SLI and 4-way CrossFireX. On the storage front, there are six SATA 10Gb/s ports, built a built-in 32Gbit/s PCI Express 3.0 x4 M.2 slot, 14 USB 3.0 ports, six USB 2.0 ports, as well as a number of USB headers allowing for further expansion. Rounding out the connectivity is the onboard dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi/Bluetooth 4.0 with an external antenna.

Now while these are all fairly standard specifications, this being a Republic of Gamers (ROG) series model – a class of products that are really designed to cater to gaming and benchmarking fanatics. There are some notable extras found with it. Onboard SupremeFX solution is noticed well. Whereas the onboard audio subsystem is largely an afterthought on most motherboards, ASUS have outfitted this model with a high-quality DAC, op-amps, and proper audio capacitors.

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As you will see, the components they selected are some of the same parts that DIY audiophiles rave about on Hi-Fi forums. One of the other unique aspects of the RVE is the included OC Panel, an external monitoring and tweaking peripheral which by itself retails for about Rs.6000. Now although this accessory has a ‘Normal Mode” whereby it can be installed in a case and used as a means of displaying real-time info like CPU temperature, basic system clocks, and fan speeds.

It also allows for some basic auto overclocking and CPU fan speed adjustments. More interesting however is the “Extreme Mode”, which reveals the OC Panel as an external overclocking console that houses a ton of overclocker-friendly functionality.

We will highlight these features a little later, but suffice it to say that with this accessory on your desk, you will have fewer reasons to interact with the physical motherboard itself or even enter the UEFI BIOS. All of this goodness obviously doesn’t come cheap, and with a Rs.36,850 retail price the Rampage V Extreme is definitely in the top one percent of the most expensive motherboards on the market right now. However, it’s not an outrageous price tag for a enthusiast motherboard, especially when you consider that there’s a number of Z87 and Z79-based motherboards for the ‘mainstream’ LGA1150 platform. Is it worth the money? That is what we are here to find out, so carry on and keep reading.