Once the Cooling assembly is removed we can clearly see three Key overclocking advantages. The 16 phase Power for the CPU to the left of the 1366 socket. Below the socket is the X58 Northbridge chip, to the left of this is the 3 phase Power for the IOH "X58 chipset". ASUS also opted to enhance the triple channel DDR3 overclocking experience with the adition of 3 phase power for the QPI/DRAM seen just below the six memory slots. The Black Edition Power design consists of Japaneses Solid capacitors, super alloy R68 Chokes that act as electronic filters, Drivers and Digital VRM's "Voltage Regulator Module". Make note of the ultra-quality NEC TOKIN proadlizers (prompt, broadband and stabilizer) These are used to reduce high-frequency noise in power supplied to the CPU, X58 Chip, and Memory.

Along the bottom of the board we find a plethora of connectors and components. Starting on the left is the AAFP "Advanced Audio Front Panel" connector for the Microphone and Headphone ports located on the front of most computer cases. Slightly above the AAFP is the S/PDIF "Sony Philips Digital Interface" Most commonly used to connect older generation graphics cards for DVI to HDMI audio support. The next two 4 pin connectors along the bottom of the board are used for 4 pin PWM and 3 pin non PWM fans. an additional 4-pin PWM fan header is located near the right corner of the board. There are two USB version 2.0 internal headers these 2 headers enable support for an additional 4 USB 2.0 ports on the front and or rear of the chassis. The two identical 8 pin chips at the base of the board are the #1 and #2 BIOS, in the event of BIOS corruption or a failed BIOS flashing attempt, functionality can easily be restored. The red BIOS switch button in the lower right corner can be used to switch to the secondary backup BIOS. I find the dual BIOS feature very useful when overclocking or testing a BIOS update. Next to the BIOS Switch is the Front Panel header for connecting the lights and buttons from the front of the case to the motherboard. Here is where you will find the ASUS Front Panel Quick Connector handy.

Turn the motherboard over and we find a nickel plated LGA 1366 CPU socket back plate for rugged mounting of a CPU cooler. Above the back plate is a black rectangular support bracket designed to ensure proper contact of the CPU Voltage regulators and their respective coolers on the front of the board.

The large black chip beneath the four PCI express slots is the south bridge also known as ICH.
The Black Edition uses Intel's ICH10R controller. The above picture shows us eight internal SATA ports, the six black ports are 3Gb/s, the remaining two red ports are full 6Gb/s bandwidth. These ports allow users to tap the power of new SSD drive technology. The red connector near the middle edge is a USB 3.0 header for two ports on the front and or rear of the chassis.

The Overclocking area of the motherboard has many features some of them we have seen before like the handy Start and reset buttons. Other features found include the Probe it solder pads for measuring direct voltage of the DRAM, VCC SA I/O, NF200, PCH PLL, PCH, IGPU, CPU PLL, and CPU voltage via a multimeter. The smaller red "GO" button below the Probe it connectors allows the user to boot with a predefined "GO" BIOS profile at the push of a button. Extreme users will love the LN2 mode switch above the rese button as it allows the CPU to be operated at below freezing temperatures for use with Phase change, Dry Ice, Liquid Nitrogen, and elves at the north pole. The four PCIe On/Off switches are used to disable PCI express graphics lanes when troubleshooting a problem with multiple graphics cards or to disable unused slots. Located on the lower right is the Debug LCD, the LCD is very useful for viewing POST codes when the system is failing to boot and helping to diagnose the issue. For those who don't wish to memorize POST codes or the manual simply view the LED debug lights below the 24 pin main power connector. the debug light indicate what device CPU, DRAM, Graphics, Boot Device is at fault during the power on self test. The small jumper located left of the debug LEDs is used to enable QPI load line calibration, Load line calibration decreases voltage fluctuation during load for the QPI link.

The I/O panel of the Rampage III Black Edition is incredibly feature rich. The motherboard boosts dual Wireless N networking antenna for on board Wi-Fi. As on the Rampage Extreme ASUS used a Intel Gigabit Network controller for strong networking capacity. Located on the far right is the on board 7.1 surround sound audio. The upper left includes a rather out dated PS2 port but very useful for system trouble shooting and Overclockers as it provides reliable keyboard and mouse connectivity in even the worst of conditions. To the right of the Wi-Fi is the ROG BIOS reset button to be used when overclocking instability prevents the motherboard from passing the Power On Self Test at boot. the sideways USB port is for ROG connect and to the left is its on & off switch, the ROG connect port is used in remote overclocking from an external device as well as the ability to update the BIOS even when the motherboard will not pass POST. The two red ports are for External SATA capable optical and hard drives. Above the eSATA ports are two blue USB 3.0 Super Speed ports for the latest external devices. There are four remaining black USB version 2.0 ports for a total of 14 USB ports.