Rampage VI Extreme (LGA2066, Intel X299) - info, experience, BIOSes etc.

[DragonPurr]

I noticed that the User Manual for the ROG Rampage VI Apex was uploaded to the Asus site yesterday:

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards...lpDesk_Manual/

Some sections of the Apex product page are still blank, such as the "Memory/Device Support" section, but the Apex "Driver & Tools" also had new additions yesterday.

The Rampage VI Extreme product page is still very empty with no User Manual available:

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards...REME/overview/

I do not know if this means the Apex is closer to being released first, before the Extreme, or if the people who maintain Asus Web site are backlogged and slow to add updates to their Extreme product page.

I already have one i9-7900X workstation build completed, and I have a second i9-7900X chip waiting for another motherboard. I did a temporary POST test with the second i9 just to verify that it works, but I am now deciding which mobo to use for a second workstation build. I am excluding the Apex as a possible purchase simply because it only has 4 DIMM slots, and I already have an 8x8-GB DDR4 quad-channel memory set that I want to use in the second i9 workstation, with 32-GB of RAM for applications and 32-GB for RAM Disk setups. And with DDR4 RAM prices skyrocketing, I don't want to buy another 4x16-GB set just so I can add 64-GB to the Apex.

The one big drawback that I see for the X299 Apex and Extreme is that they both have only 6 SATA ports, while nearly all other X299 motherboards, including Asus' own cheaper X299-E, have 8 or 10 SATA ports. Six SATA ports are sufficient for a gaming-only rig. But for workstation builds, this is a small number. Both Asus Rampage V Edition 10 and the MSI X299 XPower Gaming AC have 10 SATA ports.

One obvious allure of the RVIE is its beautiful RGB lighting. However, if you look at the photos that Asus provides for the RVIE, it is very obvious that the RGB lighting on the I/O area, the PCH and PCIe area, and along the right edge, all have had their colors artificially boosted in saturation so that the RGB colors look deeper, brighter, stronger, and span across the surfaces more. Artificially boosting color saturation is very easy to do with any photo-editing software. But if you watch the YouTube videos of reporters who filmed the RVIE on display at Computex, its RGB lighting effects are far more subtle. The colors over the I/O area will still be quite visible. But once you add one thick GTX 1080 Ti or two SLI-ed GPUs, nearly all of the subtle trace lines glowing around the PCIe slots will be covered up. Asus should have positioned their logo lower on the PCH plate because a single thick GPU will also cover up most of the glowing Asus logo. And all X299 builds require at least one GPU. The RVIE's RGB glow on the PCH/PCIe area is really best showcased in an open frame like the Thermaltake Core P5 case using a PCIe riser cable.

Asus' recent RVIE teaser video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dY8LGeu0UE

also has its color saturation boosted so that the RGB trace lines appear over most of PCIe area, whereas if you watch all the reporters' video coverage at Computex, the RGB traces lines fade out by the time that they extend to about one-third of the PCIe plated area.

The RVIE does have better networking than nearly all other competing X299 mobos, with its 10G LAN and 802.11ad Wi-Fi, but that is assuming you have a 10G Internet connection and an 802.11ad router.

The LiveDash OLED display on the I/O area is useful, but really not an indispensable feature.

Some people will buy the RVIE mainly because they are smitten with its RGB glow. RGB addiction is expensive. I have seen several X99 gaming rig builds on pcpartpicker where someone bought 64 or 128 GB of G.Skill TridentZ RGB RAM, which is totally excessive for gaming-only use, just because they wanted to fill all eight DIMM slots with RGB bling.

Do a YouTube search on "Asus Rampage VI Extreme Computex" to see reporters' video coverage of the RVIE at Computex. You will see that the RGB glow on the PCIe plated area is far more subtle and limited in size compared to the photos that Asus use in their marketing.

For those of you contemplating buying the Rampage VI Extreme, I have two questions for you...

1) Assuming that you can afford the cost, if the RVIE ends up being priced at between $600 and $700, why do you think it is worth the cost when compared to many other very competitive options that are $200 to $300 cheaper?

2) Assuming that you can afford the cost, but you do not have access to a 10G Internet connection paired with a 801.11ad router, why would you still buy the RVIE if it was priced at $600 to $700? Would you think of it as "future-proofing" just in case you do later have 10G Ethernet access, even though other newer motherboards will likely also include a 10G LAN port later on? Or are you seduced by its RGB glow that will be partially covered up by components once you have finished your build?

These are both questions that I am considering because if you remove the RGB lighting and upgraded networking, there are several high-end X299 boards that offer better features and a considerably cheaper price than the RVIE, including the cheaper Rampage VI Apex. So that is mainly what you are paying $200 to $300 more for on the RVIE.

[Menthol]

My opinion and mine alone, I would by the Apex, but the Extreme is a great looking board
I believe with 2 or 3 on board M.2 slots I don't need more than a couple SATA ports so 6 is plenty for me, if I needed more disk space I believe a NAS may be the better answer
I don't purchase a board because of RGB lights, if it has them and they look OK great, if not as long as they have an off switch or bios setting I'm good
ASUS Extreme boards and now Apex have the best components of any boards produced, dual bios, bios flashback, pcie lane switches, LN2 switch, retry, mem OK, safe boot switches, etc, etc.
ASUS ROG have the best bios of any I have used and always rated tops in reviews

I believe everyone is overestimating retail price on the boards, I have my guess but I'll keep it to myself, we'll see soon enough

[tistou77]

Me, I have always had Rampage Extreme (since the 1st) but here I expect to see the price, if much more expensive than the R5E10, I will change brand

[DragonPurr]

My opinion and mine alone, I would by the Apex, but the Extreme is a great looking board
I believe with 2 or 3 on board M.2 slots I don't need more than a couple SATA ports so 6 is plenty for me, if I needed more disk space I believe a NAS may be the better answer
I don't purchase a board because of RGB lights, if it has them and they look OK great, if not as long as they have an off switch or bios setting I'm good
ASUS Extreme boards and now Apex have the best components of any boards produced, dual bios, bios flashback, pcie lane switches, LN2 switch, retry, mem OK, safe boot switches, etc, etc.
ASUS ROG have the best bios of any I have used and always rated tops in reviews

I believe everyone is overestimating retail price on the boards, I have my guess but I'll keep it to myself, we'll see soon enough

My two i9 workstation builds are for the processing of thousands of digital photos, hundreds of 4K videos, and hundreds of live-recording audio files. My home office currently has almost 300 TB of disk space, most on 4-TB and 6-TB hard drives, with all files being JBOD-mirrored using what I call "manual RAID" where I have a collection of custom Python scripts that manually mirror, align, and compare files. My favorite workstation setup is 64-GB memory with 32-GB allocated as a RAM Disk drive, 2 7200-RPM hard drives, and 6 or 8 1-TB internal 2.5" SSDs. I load all video, photo, and graphics files from the SSDs onto the RAM Disk to work with them because the RAM Disk is a lot faster than the fastest NVMe SSD or U.2 drive, and it also extends the life of the SSDs to mainly work inside the RAM Disk. The final processed files are then mirrored onto external hard drives.

I like both Asus and MSI BIOS the best. All the MSI and Asus high-end boards have the same quality of components, dual BIOS and BIOS flashback, CPU and memory OC retry, etc, etc that you listed. Asus is not unique with the features that you listed. And both Asus and MSI clutter up the motherboard and BIOS with LN2-cooling options, which I really don't care about.

If a manufacturer could actually design a plug-and-play all-in-one LN2 cooler or LHe cooler that is fairly compact and has a relatively quiet compressor, they would instantly sell thousands of those. But until that happens, I don't care the least bit about how Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, and ASRock brag about their mobos setting new LN2 overclocking records because even the most avid modder does not actually use LN2 cooling on a daily basis. Asus recently added a YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9N7CsstQn8 about using the Apex to overclock a i7-7740X to 7.562GHz with the slogan "dare to be different". But a first-time PC builder can OC the i7-7740X to more than 5.0 GHz using an air cooler already, so there is nothing too "different" about extreme LN2 overclocking because dozens of people have already done that with all the major mobo brands. Show me a world-record i9-7900X overclock to 5.5 GHz on all 10 cores using a custom water loop and I will take notice. LN2 overclocking.... meh... that is about as useful to me as Elon Musk talking about colonizing Mars someday.

As for price, if the RVIE costs $500 to $550, I would instantly buy it. I would hesitantly consider it at $600. But it would really be overpriced at $700. Otherwise, I am also considering the $450 MSI X299 XPower Gaming AC because its E-ATX mobo is loaded with 10 SATA ports, 10 fan connectors, lots of thermal sensors all over the board, etc. I currently use the MSI Z270 XPower Gaming Titanium with two GTX 1080 Ti as my gaming build because, even at its $300+ price, it offered the best and most features for the price. My previous Asus build used the Asus Z270E mobo, which I think offers the best value of all Z270 mid-level boards and it still serves as my daily driver for software/Web development work.

[Raja@ASUS]

My two i9 workstation builds are for the processing of thousands of digital photos, hundreds of 4K videos, and hundreds of live-recording audio files. My home office currently has almost 300 TB of disk space, most on 4-TB and 6-TB hard drives, with all files being JBOD-mirrored using what I call "manual RAID" where I have a collection of custom Python scripts that manually mirror, align, and compare files. My favorite workstation setup is 64-GB memory with 32-GB allocated as a RAM Disk drive, 2 7200-RPM hard drives, and 6 or 8 1-TB internal 2.5" SSDs. I load all video, photo, and graphics files from the SSDs onto the RAM Disk to work with them because the RAM Disk is a lot faster than the fastest NVMe SSD or U.2 drive, and it also extends the life of the SSDs to mainly work inside the RAM Disk. The final processed files are then mirrored onto external hard drives.

I like both Asus and MSI BIOS the best. All the MSI and Asus high-end boards have the same quality of components, dual BIOS and BIOS flashback, CPU and memory OC retry, etc, etc that you listed. Asus is not unique with the features that you listed. And both Asus and MSI clutter up the motherboard and BIOS with LN2-cooling options, which I really don't care about.

If a manufacturer could actually design a plug-and-play all-in-one LN2 cooler or LHe cooler that is fairly compact and has a relatively quiet compressor, they would instantly sell thousands of those. But until that happens, I don't care the least bit about how Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, and ASRock brag about their mobos setting new LN2 overclocking records because even the most avid modder does not actually use LN2 cooling on a daily basis. Asus recently added a YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9N7CsstQn8 about using the Apex to overclock a i7-7740X to 7.562GHz with the slogan "dare to be different". But a first-time PC builder can OC the i7-7740X to more than 5.0 GHz using an air cooler already, so there is nothing too "different" about extreme LN2 overclocking because dozens of people have already done that with all the major mobo brands. Show me a world-record i9-7900X overclock to 5.5 GHz on all 10 cores using a custom water loop and I will take notice. LN2 overclocking.... meh... that is about as useful to me as Elon Musk talking about colonizing Mars someday.

As for price, if the RVIE costs $500 to $550, I would instantly buy it. I would hesitantly consider it at $600. But it would really be overpriced at $700. Otherwise, I am also considering the $450 MSI X299 XPower Gaming AC because its E-ATX mobo is loaded with 10 SATA ports, 10 fan connectors, lots of thermal sensors all over the board, etc. I currently use the MSI Z270 XPower Gaming Titanium with two GTX 1080 Ti as my gaming build because, even at its $300+ price, it offered the best and most features for the price. My previous Asus build used the Asus Z270E mobo, which I think offers the best value of all Z270 mid-level boards and it still serves as my daily driver for software/Web development work.

Someone with your mindset may be better off with an X299-A or something equivalent from another vendor. That's the beauty of this, nobody is forced to buy a given motherboard, as there is always a model/option that covers one's basic requirements - and the open source nature of PCIe and USB ports means you can always add features you need.

[Vlada011]

700$ is 800-850 euro in Europe if we talk about hardware.
That's abnormal price, I mean abnormal is improper word, that's sick price.
GTX1080Ti cost 699$ in Europe is 820 euro.


Long period of waiting tell me ASUS want to prepare every detail and spare customers negative surprises.
When I think on my RVE I would say easy Rampage VI Extreme, but Apex will give to overclockers and gamers same performance.

But this year we have little Anniversary, first time Intel will offer 6 core CPU with less than 100W powerconsumption and 4.3GHz for six core, 4.7GHz for single core with i7-8700K... ASUS will prepare little celebrate probably because MAXIMUS 10 EXTREME!!! Maximus 10 Apex and Maximus 10 Gene, Z370 chipset. But my heart will stay with Rampage series.

[kaufen]

Awesome pics!

[davemon50]

DragonPurr, you made so many points in your posts that I had to respond within your quotations to save confusion. I apologize if it's harder to read, but saves confusion. See below, I didn't respond to all of it, but some things are great conversational pieces.

By the way, with only a couple posts by you here on this forum, and with the beautiful way you wrote your posts, you actually sound like a technical reviewer who is here to collect additional information for your next blog. That's not a bad thing, just observational...

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The one big drawback that I see for the X299 Apex and Extreme is that they both have only 6 SATA ports, while nearly all other X299 motherboards, including Asus' own cheaper X299-E, have 8 or 10 SATA ports. Six SATA ports are sufficient for a gaming-only rig. But for workstation builds, this is a small number. Both Asus Rampage V Edition 10 and the MSI X299 XPower Gaming AC have 10 SATA ports.

So I am right on the exact same page with you here, or at least I used to be. There are a lot of weighing factors in the purchase decision for a MoBo, but when it came down to it, one of the biggest factors in my purchase of the Rampage FIVE Edition 10 was the 10 SATA ports availability. That basically sold me that board. The reason is because of the number of drives I keep in the system, or in my case: the number of drives I was currently maintaining that I wanted to migrate to the new system with the least effort and impact on my build strategy. (Also see my response below to your personal storage comment, because we relate in that area.) I currently use 8 of my 10 SATA ports, while also occupying the M.2 slot for 1TB of Windows operation + data. I actually was using 9 at one time, but have since left #9 plugged in but open-ended for later use. However, after this being said, in 2017 and beyond this would not be the huge decision maker for me that it was with my current board. Honestly, I think Asus has captured the correct balance on the R6E with 6 ports. I am not currently in the market for an X299 board, but if I were, the reduction from 10 ports to 6 ports would not deter me from buying this board. I would make the necessary adjustments. I do not see 10 ports as necessary anymore in today's configurations and less expensive mass storage capacities.

Would I still LIKE 10 ports? Yes I would, no brainer for me. Plus, I just like to have a lot of stuff, lol. But if something had to go, I would be okay with a 4 port loss. If you were to add 1 more M.2 slot to my existing R5E, I currently could live with only 7 SATA ports with no other changes. So I'm not far from being down to 6 now, with only some minor adjustments.

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For those of you contemplating buying the Rampage VI Extreme, I have two questions for you...

1) Assuming that you can afford the cost, if the RVIE ends up being priced at between $600 and $700, why do you think it is worth the cost when compared to many other very competitive options that are $200 to $300 cheaper?

This is easy for me. I know this will sound cliché, but the fact remains for any consumer. Brand loyalty, and prior experience. For most consumers of high end equipment, they do their research first. I mean they spend inordinate amounts of time collecting all the data they can, reviews, price searches, forum input, on and on. Usually, they know their stuff. You will find many of those types here on this forum. Like you, people know the feature differences and what compromises they are going to have to make between one product and another. So yeah, they know they could sometimes buy "Board A" instead of "Board B" to get a set of additional features, but it boils down to THE GUT, no matter how you slice it. (slice the decision I mean, not the gut). For me personally, that is the bottom line reason I bought the RVE10 I am currently using. Because: I loved my R4E. That's it. It worked great, it had all the features that I "needed", and I love the brand. It was very successful in the past, gave me years of pleasure, and I fell in love with it. So why would that change for me in the future? Why would I risk going elsewhere? That's 3 different generations of loyalty because of a good product line that satisfied my gut.

By the way (in case anyone from ASUS is reading this), that whole process also works the other way around. If this product and its support sucked in the past, then why would you think otherwise for the future? Thus the reason after-purchase customer support is so vital to future success of your product line. HINT.

Having said all that, you are going to have to throw a FULL BOATLOAD of additional features and compelling new technologies at me in order to get me to buy anything other than an R6Ap or an R6E in my next build. There are and will be other great X299 solutions out there, yes. But my gut will not allow me to move away from this unless you give me that boatload. (Or unless my RVE10 fails and customer support sucks.) And that's the bottom line for me, and my guess is many others too.


2) Assuming that you can afford the cost, but you do not have access to a 10G Internet connection paired with a 801.11ad router, why would you still buy the RVIE if it was priced at $600 to $700? Would you think of it as "future-proofing" just in case you do later have 10G Ethernet access, even though other newer motherboards will likely also include a 10G LAN port later on? Or are you seduced by its RGB glow that will be partially covered up by components once you have finished your build?

Always future proof yourself in computer technology. However, that is also a fallacy, because you simply can't ! The whole field will change in as little as 3 to 6 months, and certainly well within 18 months. I would venture to say that most people only build high end computers every 3 to 5 years. So you really can't future proof for that can you? All you can do is read up best as you can and guess what will be the next wave or 2, or 3 if your crystal ball is working well. The only way to "sort of" future proof yourself is to work in concert with the manufacturers - and what I mean by that is, you do your own research, the mfgs are also doing theirs, and together they will build boards that grasp at some elements of the future that you in turn buy to take advantage of some of that when it is available. So yes, you buy some of this stuff in order to take advantage of that future 12 to 18 month landscape that will appear.

The second part of that question is easy, and I feel the same as mentioned above by Menthol. I don't really care much about the RGB world just yet. It's nice, it's fun, it's cool, and I do use it. But at the same time, I'll use whatever is available on the board. But RGB is not a huge purchase decision in my playbook. It's frills. On the other hand, my 6-year old daughter loves it and makes me keep changing the effects to her satisfaction and joy.


...

My two i9 workstation builds are for the processing of thousands of digital photos, hundreds of 4K videos, and hundreds of live-recording audio files. My home office currently has almost 300 TB of disk space, most on 4-TB and 6-TB hard drives, with all files being JBOD-mirrored using what I call "manual RAID" where I have a collection of custom Python scripts that manually mirror, align, and compare files. My favorite workstation setup is 64-GB memory with 32-GB allocated as a RAM Disk drive, 2 7200-RPM hard drives, and 6 or 8 1-TB internal 2.5" SSDs. I load all video, photo, and graphics files from the SSDs onto the RAM Disk to work with them because the RAM Disk is a lot faster than the fastest NVMe SSD or U.2 drive, and it also extends the life of the SSDs to mainly work inside the RAM Disk. The final processed files are then mirrored onto external hard drives.

OK, so here is the reason you like 10 SATA ports. It's the same for me, but on a lesser scale than you. I use several drives for all this. Apparently like yourself, I have not yet adopted that tidal wave of solutions that include massive online backup at relatively inexpensive subscriptions, cloud storage upon cloud storage with that big safety net for your data, and large external devices for safe keeping. I use my internal drives, stacked nicely in a column in the correct order of connection and numbering to my SATA ports to satisfy my OCD needs. And I maintain my own layer of UPS solutions for safety there. I also have a small 1TB external drive I regularly use for backups of certain files. I keep many of the same types of files as you, and do photo and video editing as well. I suspect this is why 10 ports are attractive to you and me.

Having said that, it's mostly about workflows. Apparently the industry sees the next generation of workflows adopting those technologies above, the cloud storage and massive online backups. The next generation of cloud solutions will be less expensive and more powerful, and perhaps even arguably more secure (if there is such a thing). At the same time, mass storage is becoming more robust with larger capacities at great reliability and competitive costs. So I will find myself migrating towards that like everyone else, whether reluctantly or enthusiastically I can't tell you right now. For the time being I will love my 10 SATA ports and the comfort it provides. But next purchase will likely see me in the same boat with the online solutions eliminating that need.


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As for price, if the RVIE costs $500 to $550, I would instantly buy it. I would hesitantly consider it at $600. But it would really be overpriced at $700

My opinion is that your price outlook is mainstream here. The R6E should cost the same as it cost you in the past for the R5E. Not less, not more. There is no real technological justification for an MSRP of $700, only business justification which I mention next. Technology has moved on, and today's features are simply that: today's features. The only reason that the cost would temporarily be higher at up to $700 is because the bell curve of sales for the "previous generation" X99 boards has not reached its inevitable end, and the mfg wants to extract a tangible amount more profit out of this line before moving wholeheartedly to the next line of products in X299. So it's all driven IMHO by the sales projections and accomplishments of the past generation. This is a business justification, not technological, whether it is warranted in the consumer's eyes or not. It really has little to do with the actual value of the R6Ap or the R6E. So if you buy into that theory, then the MSRP of the X299 boards will drop after about another 9 months to a year (depending on how long the X99 boards keep their profit sizzle), down to those prices that you quoted above, and that I personally think are a correct assessment of where they should fall.


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[iBruceypoo]

The Rampage 6 Extreme will cost (guessing) $699 to $749.

I'm ready to buy it right now Good Sir Raja!


"Dat new VRM heatsink design is beautiful doe."

[MarkMeijer10]

No idea. Like I said, it's a regional thing. 10G Ethernet onboard, so it'll likely cost more than the previous gen. Even passively, the R6E heatsink outperforms the ZE's actively cooled sink. You do get a fan mount with it, though, and that takes heat handling capabilities well over 400W. Most people will have sufficient airflow in the chassis not to need it.

I think the Apex may hit the sweet spot for this gen. No more than most people need, and enough overclocking chops to get the best from the platform.

What is the reason it's taking so long? Is it the VRM cooling? Or something else?