Asus X58 Rampage III Extreme Motherboard Preview

The X58 Rampage

Finally! Years ago, well 17 months ago, I reviewed the Asus X48 Rampage Extreme and promptly fell in love with the board. I then proceeded to solely use that board for the next 9 months, it was that good. Roughly a year ago Brian Wallace reviewed the Asus X58 Rampage II Extreme. In my opinion the Rampage II Extreme felt like it had lost the magic contained within the affectionately nicknamed REX. But don’t worry, with this third REX the magic is back and stronger than ever.

Like those awesome custom heatsinks? You want a matching pair and board? Well tough, they are a combination of old RAM and chipset heatsinks as the retail heatsink for the Rampage III Extreme isn’t available. In fact the board we have today is considered a pre-production sample with a work-in-progress BIOS. That however doesn’t mean that this is a half-working board. If anything you could consider it a sleeper board and in the short time I’ve had it on my bench I’ve constantly raised an eyebrow in shock.

So, I mentioned that I felt the Rampage II Extreme had lost the magic. This was most likely due to the guys at EVGA absolutely knocking one out of the park with their X58 E759 Classified and taking the enthusiast overclocking scene by storm. Without the Classified I suspect the Rampage II Extreme may have been THE board to have. That hopefully will all change this March when the Rampage III Extreme hits retail. Let’s now take a visual tour of the new REX.