ASUS Rampage II Extreme X58 Motherboard Review

[geokilla]

ASUS Rampage II Extreme X58 Motherboard Review

In my opinion, if I was to get a Core i7, I might as well shell out a couple extra dollars and get this over the P6T. Such a great motherboard. It's only $100 more than the P6T...

[FZ1]

Yeah, I'm kinda wishing I bought that one instead of the P6T deluxe. I haven't opened the box for it yet but I bought it at Microcenter and they will only exchange motherboards for defectives.

[InspectahACE]

I've been lookin at this monster for a small while now..and tho i havent read the review yet..your reactions tell me i made the right choice lookin at this...cant wait for February now

[waitingtohear]

What happens in February???

Is that when the prices come down?

[InspectahACE]

nah..my apologies..i was referring to when my w-4 should get in for tax time ...cash that in and go ape on new parts its the only one that will fit everything i want...depending on what i go for of course

[KILLER_K]

Waiting for mine to arrive. Hopefully friday it will be here.

Good Day

[Skippman]

I just have a couple problems with this board. Once again, ASUS shoves the 8 pin power connector all the way at the top of the board, while that makes it easy to hide the cables it still means you have to have a LONG 8 pin cable in some of these taller boxes. Is there a reason they put it there? Does it have to be super close to the proc?

Also, I like the external LCD display but couldn't they have, I dunno, made a drive bay bracket or something for it? Having an option to mount it as part of the case would be handy for those of us who don't want to have it sitting out on our desks.

[InspectahACE]

I just have a couple problems with this board. Once again, ASUS shoves the 8 pin power connector all the way at the top of the board, while that makes it easy to hide the cables it still means you have to have a LONG 8 pin cable in some of these taller boxes. Is there a reason they put it there? Does it have to be super close to the proc?

Also, I like the external LCD display but couldn't they have, I dunno, made a drive bay bracket or something for it? Having an option to mount it as part of the case would be handy for those of us who don't want to have it sitting out on our desks.

I wouldn't mind the LCD poster mounted somewhere other than the desk.The cable for it gets in the way sometimes. I never thought the placement of the 8-pin plug to be an issue though. Mount the PSU on top(if it's possible) and that issue is fixed I know I didn't have any issues with the cable length on any of the Corsair PSU's I've had. Not sure how the other brands would be

[Cannyone]

ASUS Rampage II Extreme X58 Motherboard Review

In my opinion, if I was to get a Core i7, I might as well shell out a couple extra dollars and get this over the P6T. Such a great motherboard. It's only $100 more than the P6T...

I don't know... this board has that "Supreme FX sound card". The Chip for that is made by ADI and they have left the market. So this solution means that Asus is using "left over" stock in their "Premium System boards". It also means that driver support might dry up in the future...

This is one of the factors that led me to decide to save that $100 in cost, by buying the P6T. And spend it on a solution to replace the lackluster onboard sound. I'm thinking about this > Auzentech X-Fi Forte. But even if I don't chose that there are a number of sound cards that will be far better than that "Supreme FX" thing. I have experience with them and they aren't that great!

[InspectahACE]

No, they aren't great but it's not as bad as I thought when I used it. Definitely not the reason it's more expensive though.

[Skippman]

No, they aren't great but it's not as bad as I thought when I used it. Definitely not the reason it's more expensive though.

Would you put it on the same level as the Creative X-Fi, or lower?

[InspectahACE]

It's up there honestly. Granted if you want to change your settings through the Windows Sound Properties you might be SOL. But if you only want the settings affecting games and movies you're fine with the X-Fi software Creative licensed it to use. So it won't be bad if you don't want to go out an buy another card. X-fis are up to EAX5.0..and unless Asus updated it, its at 4.0.not sure of the difference but to some it might matter..had trouble finding any info on Creative's website until Google saved the day. As said..it's not badfor an on-boarder, actually pretty darn good considering most on-board sound sucks. Just don't expect an X-Fi


http://www.creative.com/oem/products/so ... x-fimb.asp <----this on the motherboard cd

[KILLER_K]

Not to mention it is a software driven card and not hardware driven. The card is fair to be a extra included item but for the price it should have been hardware and no crappy creative registration should have to be done when the board came from asus. I can't stand to have to mess with another company when buying from a specific company.

The price over the P6T isn't really worth it honestly. You only still get a 3 year warranty with it and the extra's you really wont use. Also i just can't get over the same red el-cheapo sata cables they give with their flag ship boards. I got the same cables that came with the bottom line P5K vanilla board. Can't they actually afford to give some decent locking sata cables...................

And they could have gave a option to control the led lights via in windows. Not have to reboot the pc to turn them on and off. But these are just some things i thought was wrong with a flagship board. I mean the mid-range boards come with locking sata cables. And the 3 year warranty is a joke for a $400 dollar board. You can spend $50 -$75 and get a life time warranty with EVGA. Too me it is worth it really worth it in the long run.

And yes the cpu power cable needs to be close to the cpu, same as it has always been. You can buy a after market extension if you need it but my power supply bottom mounts and i still have 6 inches left over from the bottom snaking it.

Good Day

[InspectahACE]

Well let's call it what it is, there are no audio inputs at all on the mobo itself. So you could either live with a cheap sound card that is included and licensed to use X-fi features, or you don't get sound at all lol. MSI did the same exact thing. I'm sure the 3 year warranty is enough to those who can spend the money on this board since they'll likely be spending more upgrading to a better board in 3 years time. Lifetime warranty is great, but what use is it if you're upgrading in 3-4 years anyway? Could use that $50-$75(like a new sound card) to get something else you could use. All I'm saying is, you get what you are paying for. I didn't have a pci-e sound card when I bought this. so I was at least glad I had the "crapper" card. And I do wish I didn't spend the $100 on another sound card since there almost is no difference.(and it has a nice blue light). Also, if you're rich enough to have 3 GTX200 series gpu's(or any dual slotter) this board can handle it. The P6T cannot. Not unless the gpu's were water cooled and single slotted. So the money is worth it IMO

[KILLER_K]

Yes but you don't get the full 16x with all three slots though. Then you think about flag ship once again.

So 1 card you get 16x
2 cards you get 16x - 16x
3 cards you get 16x - 8x - 8x

So basically you aren't getting full 16x all the way across on a flag ship board. But i suppose the thrid would be okay for a straight physx card though.

Good Day

[InspectahACE]

well sonofa---I thought it was 16x,16x,8x with 3 cards...that doesn't thrill me now. didn't know that part

[KILLER_K]

Only one i know of as for now that does 16x -16x - 16x is the new EVGA Classified E759 limited edition with the NF200 chipset on it. But they may be a few more as i haven't looked for it in a while.

Good Day

[InspectahACE]

I know the Asus WS Revolution does too, but once all the slots are used, there isn't a spot for a sound card. Can't stop laughin at how I read the specs wrong when I bought this lol.

[Skippman]

Guess I'll just wait and go i5 rather than i7. Come on ASUS! I need a new board!

[KILLER_K]

Just buy the EVGA Classified and be done with it. As i highly doubt anything new will drop out from asus quickly. Plus if you get EVGA and they happen to drop a new board out in a month you can choose to upgrade also and the lifetime warranty is great.

Good Day