Jan 08, 2014 Written by:ROG Article

Unboxing: Rampage V Extreme

Articles: Hands On Motherboards Unboxing

Article Tags: Unboxing Articles Pics OC Panel SupremeFX 2014 X99 OC Socket Rampage V Extreme Extreme Engine DIGI+ IV R5E X-Socket II DirectCU VRM Product

Jan 08, 2014 Written by:ROG Article

If you have read all the info you could find on the mighty Rampage V Extreme, here are some unboxing pics of the bad boy in bad-ass ROG colours.

ASUS lets you peek inside the box for a better look before you buy. But before the guy at the store (who knows your name) handed you the box, you already knew exactly why you went to the store, and locked your sights on the box before you even entered; like a tiger moving in on its prey. Now you are trying to hold the box without panting too hard and your hands have the jitters because you went cold-turkey on that upgrade for too long. You start to grin deviously and think "yes, it was worth it" as you read the box even though you had already done your meticulous research and comparisons... you already knew there is no better board, and you won't settle for anything but the best. The R5E was made with no compromises.

Time to take it out and smell that new motherboard smell.... mmmm..... smell that overclocking goodness. The board is certainly heavier than its looks, and since there aren't any compartments to place rocks, the weight is obviously due to quality components and the generous assortment of heat-sinks with the ROG theme. Not only are there heat-sinks on top, but also underneath the board for increased pressure and extra cooling. Nothing has been skimped.

The new Haswell-E series chips from Intel are here, so is a new socket and new chipset- the Intel X99. The Rampage V Extreme utilizes the newest and best technologies, in the X99, and doesn't just use the new LGA2011-V3 socket; a new OC Socket was created specifically for overclockers by ASUS and ROG. Here you are looking at the only socket that utilizes extra pins to connect a proprietary circuit to contacts found on the Haswell-E CPU.

Extreme Engine DIGI+ IV is Rampage V Extreme’s exclusive voltage-regulator module (VRM) design, so extreme control over the purest power is in your hands. Like Vin Diesel would put it, "It don't matter if you win by an inch or a mile, winning's winning", the only difference here is - without control and stability, you can't win by an inch, you probably can't even finish the race as your PC crashes. Meanwhile, the DirectCU heatsink cools the VRM zone by up to 7℃ cooler.

To make a cool mobo even cooler, there is the three-piece X-Socket II which makes easy work of mounting existing, LGA2011 coolers, liquid nitrogen or dry-ice evaporator pots to the socket.

There are eight 4/3-pin fan connectors, four intelligent onboard sensors, three additional 2-pin headers, and three thermal cables. You can then use Fan Xpert 3 to control and monitor the temperatures of up to seven motherboard areas and key components in real time.

You will find a plethora of practical buttons, switches and jumpers, enough to please the most die-hard overclocker. Like ReTry, Safe Boot, MemOK, ProbeIt, Slow Mode, LN2 Mode, PCI-Express switches, Q-Code, KeyBot, BIOS switch, Power & Reset buttons. WARNING: No matter how tempting it is, it's not a good idea to start pressing the buttons and flicking the switches at random while the system is on. Please read the manual!

Rampage V Extreme supports no less than 8 DIMM quad-channel DDR4 memory. Ditch the USB hub, there are 10 USB 3.0, and 2 USB 2.0 ports on the back, plus 2 USB 3.0 connectors (4 ports) and 2 USB 2.0 connectors (4 ports) on the motherboard.

With so much power it's not funny, of course you want to play some games at full resolution, eye-candy turned up to super-sweet, and sound turned up to OMG! So why not drop in either your 4-Way SLI or CrossFireX graphics card setup, and plug in your headphones or speakers. ROG has put to shame onboard sound of yesteryear, with SupremeFX 2014, it is truly as awesome as dedicated sound cards. Sonic SenseAmp is a built-in amp that detects your headphone impedance and adjusts accordingly to produce pitch-perfect sound. Audiophiles, try it out. No, really!

Connectivity has reached new hights in the Rampage V Extreme. There are the two of the new SATA Express ports (backward-compatible with up to four SATA devices) with speeds of up to 10Gbit/s (1.7 times faster than SATA 3). You can use up to 12 SATA 3.0 ports, or alternatively you can make use of the two 10Gbit/s SATA Express ports and up to 8 SATA 3.0 ports. Bring on some RAID 0 insanity. Why? Because you can!

An M.2 slot sits behind the SATA ports in the picture supports 60, 80 and 110mm device sizes, with 32Gb/s it's up to 5 times faster than SATA 3.

Here is the stainless steel rear IO with AC1300 8021ac 3T3R Wireless is 1.5 times faster than 2T2R 802.11ac. LANGuard for surge protection, BIOS Flashback & ROG Connect. Intel Gigabit Ethernet and GameFirst III combine forces for no-lag networking. KeyBot grants gamers an instant keyboard upgrade.

The new motherboard also includes OC Panel, ROG’s exclusive real-time system monitoring and tweaking accessory that’s a must for all hardcore overclockers. Alternatively you could hold it up to your face and say "Beam me up Scotty". OK, that's just me...

You can install the OC Panel with its rack into a 5.25-inch drive bay to integrate it into your case, and for safe-keeping. There is a clear 2.6-inch display that provides live monitoring of multiple vital parameters, as well as tweaking on the fly. This is overclocking nirvana at your fingertips.