Asus X58 Rampage III Extreme Motherboard Preview

Conclusion

I’m rather glad Asus stuck with the Rampage Extreme branding as it lets me say stuff like EEEEXXXXTRRREEEEMMMMMEEE in daily conversation. I know in just writing this article I’ve mumbled that to myself a half-dozen times with a grin on my face. I have a feeling the Rampage III Extreme will be another board that goes down in the history books for high performance. This board though won’t be limited in appreciation to just those people who benchmark with liquid nitrogen and dry ice. A lot of thought was put into the layout and the fact that it has an ATX form factor height means it’ll enable 4-way CrossFire in a normal ATX case unlike the EVGA X58 Classified 4-Way SLI which fits in only a handful of cases.

Since this isn’t a retail board and we haven’t got much information regarding availability and such I can only estimate that it’ll be available for the upcoming Intel Gulftown launch in March. Pricing is sort of an educated guess around $400 to $450 considering the price of the P6T7 Supercomputer and the EVGA Classified. Like all Asus motherboards the Asus Rampage III Extreme will carry their 3 year warranty which is an acceptable time period given the pace at which computer components are rendered obsolete.

Since we currently have not got the retail heatsink for this board it is impossible to take that into consideration. However, since the McGyver style heatsinks that I put in place were very effective I cannot imagine their thermal solution being a limiting factor. Considering how excessively built the PWM is on this board, anything outside of a Gulftown at excessive speeds will stress it and generate lots of heat. That being said I look forward to seeing what the retail heatsink solution will look like, it could make or break the aesthetic appearance of this board.

The Asus Rampage III Extreme is definitely a board for the gadget fiend. It has so many little features implemented in it that it should keep anyone busy for a while. I rather like the inclusion of a BlueTooth module which is a nice step in the right direction for connectivity. The Rampage III Extreme is as tricked out as they come and should be near the top if not at the top of your short list of flagship boards. Without trying to sound like an obsessive fanboy, I’d say it is fair to say the Rampage Extreme magic is back.

Legit Bottom Line: The Asus Rampage III Extreme is chock full of features and brings back that overclocking magic that has appeared to have been lost.