ASUS Developing ROG Series mATX Motherboard

[btarunr]

The premium motherboard market's newfound love for the micro-ATX form-factor has been dutifully addressed by companies such as DFI, by releasing the LANParty Jr series, featuring high-end chipsets and almost complete feature-sets that rival full-sized ATX motherboards. ASUS has now decided to put its Republic of Gamers (ROG) series on the prowl with its first high-end mATX motherboard: Rampage II Gene.

As the name suggests, the motherboard supports Intel Core i7 series processors, and is based on the Intel X58 chipset. ASUS keeps the segment of buyers in mind that builds light-weight, yet full-featured LAN party machines. The Rampage II Gene features an 8-phase CPU power circuit. It features six DDR3 DIMM slots for to support up to 24GB of triple-channel DDR3 memory. It holds two full-length PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots plus a PCI-Express x4 open-ended slot. Both ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA Quad-SLI are supported. The ICH10R southbridge provides six SATA II channels with RAID support. Also provided is an onboard SupremeFX X-Fi sound system that provides support for most of Creative's X-Fi sound technologies. Two gigabit Ethernet interfaces and support for the iROG - TweakIT features, that simplify overclocking, make for the rest of the package. The Rampage II Gene is expected to be priced above $200 in the US.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[DOM]

looks like this well be the fastest mATX

 

[wolf]

i think theres also a DFI lanparty i7 board too.

cant wait to go i7 + ddr3 on a matx board.

my GTX295 has been living in a matx case, but my Q6600 is holding it back stuck at ~3.0ghz

 

[eidairaman1]

copy what DFI did first, go figure.

 

[DanishDevil]

Why are the release mechanisms on the two PCI-E x16 slots different?

I personally would go for the DFI first. I've had better luck with them compared to ASUS boards, and the Rampage II was a finicky piece. That and they've got the UV colors

 

[human_error]

Why are the release mechanisms on the two PCI-E x16 slots different?

They aren't, it's just the one on the right is in the locked position and the one on the left is in the open position.

Looks like a nice baord, but i'm a sucker for the rampage boards asus have released so far, they all look very nice.

 

[LittleLizard]

looks like a moron killer motherboard

 

[xkche]

Look great! i love it!.. but, is too expensive... but i like it!

 

[TheScavenger]

This is going to be amazing!

The price is very reasonable for an X58 chipset. Keep in mind the DFI Jr. is $230 as well.

 

[Castiel]

I hope there will be a mATX case that would be good enough to cool that thing with a Core i7 and GTX 295's.

 

[Icewind31]

I hope there will be a mATX case that would be good enough to cool that thing with a Core i7 and GTX 295's.

Mini P180 is nice I have the DFI JR 790GX board in it. And the case can fit dual GPU

 

[Parad0x]

Nice one. Finally DFI will have some competition in tha gaming 1366 matx segment. The 775 cooler mounting capability is a nice feature for those who already have silent/efficient SFF coolers.

offtopic: Besides the Bloodrage & the P6T there are any other 775 compatible mobos out there?

 

[Assimilator]

And the moment you overclock it it melts through the bottom of your case. XD

Jokes aside, it's pretty sad that this board only has 1 less slot than the full-size Rampage II Extreme board. Makes you wonder if it's really necessary to cover half the board with massive heatsinks... do they serve any purpose, other than to look "blingy" and/or get in the way?

 

[DanishDevil]

Well it's extremely hard to cram everything in a high-end motherboard onto a mATX PCB. As you can see in these pictures, and if you look at my board, the DFI LP JR P45-T2RS, the battery can no longer sit against the motherboard. It has to be placed in a vertical battery slot to give room to the other components

 

[Sc1mitar]

hmmmmm, sexy.

but its priced out the ass, so meh. How are the onboard sound on these boards? do they got 5.1 n stuff? like xfi qual shit? i might be picking up a new board an proc and another 4870 for my LAN box, so im tryin 2 figure this out

Oh and BTW, the centurion 540 (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/CoolerMaster/Centurion540) has really decent cooling, my 4870 and q6600 run like idle 30 apeice and load out at like 38deg on the proc and 45 on the card, so yeah i think you can keep shit cool in a matx rig, with enuf airflow.

 

[jinu]

omfg must have. and wtf i almost bought the dfi lp jr 10 seconds ago....

 

[Assimilator]

Well it's extremely hard to cram everything in a high-end motherboard onto a mATX PCB. As you can see in these pictures, and if you look at my board, the DFI LP JR P45-T2RS, the battery can no longer sit against the motherboard. It has to be placed in a vertical battery slot to give room to the other components

Heh, I didn't even notice that! Although I'm guessing that having the battery in that position makes it much easier to remove when you need to clear the CMOS.

How are the onboard sound on these boards? do they got 5.1 n stuff? like xfi qual shit?

Also provided is an onboard SupremeFX X-Fi sound system that provides support for most of Creative's X-Fi sound technologies.

 

[DanishDevil]

I'm not sure. Looks complicated to me. But both this board and all DFI LANPARTY boards have CMOS Clear buttons or back panel jumpers.

 

[TheScavenger]

Mini P180 is nice I have the DFI JR 790GX board in it. And the case can fit dual GPU

Ditto! The mini P180 is awesome.

Why are people complaining about the price?!? It is perfectly in line with the other X58 boards. You can't honestly expect it cost as much as a P45! The X58 chipset is a high-end chipset.

 

[LittleLizard]

hey guys, you are not going to believe this. download the picture and zoom where are the audio jacks, it says "FOXCONN" Wtf :WTF:

 

[btarunr]

hey guys, you are not going to believe this. download the picture and zoom where are the audio jacks, it says "FOXCONN" Wtf :WTF:

Foxconn makes connectors for ASUS, in fact even does part of its manufacturing.

 

[jinu]

anyone have an idea when this baby comes out?

 

[eidairaman1]

when the cows come in from the pasture

 

[Shad0WeN]

And the moment you overclock it it melts through the bottom of your case. XD

Jokes aside, it's pretty sad that this board only has 1 less slot than the full-size Rampage II Extreme board. Makes you wonder if it's really necessary to cover half the board with massive heatsinks... do they serve any purpose, other than to look "blingy" and/or get in the way?

Actually if you look carefully the Rampage II Extreme has 6 expansion slots - it's just that it may be hard to see the top PCI-E x1 slot since it is colored black:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131352

Given that the Rampage II Extreme is priced at like $400, I wouldn't be surprised if this board cost at least $250, if not more, and higher than DFI's similar offering at $230 with the Lanparty Jr. X58-T3H6:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136066

As far as features differences between the two motherboards go:

- the specs for this board state 8 phase power whereas DFI's has 6 phase. does anyone know if this really makes a difference?
- possibly better onboard sound with the X-Fi?? it is being reported that it is software driven/emulated though
- DFI has both Coax and Optical SPDIF out, this has Optical only
- additional mounting holes for a Socket 775 heatsink?? (DFI does not have this)
- 2 x 1394a Firewire ports (one on rear I/O, one via onboard header) - DFI has none
- Seven SATA ports, as opposed to 6 on the DFI
- one rear eSATA port (DFI has none)
- 5 fan headers, as opposed to 6 on the DFI
- concerning the fan headers, all of them appear to be 4-pin PWM as opposed to only the CPU fan header on the DFI
- no floppy connector port (DFI has one)
- single PS/2 port for keyboard only (DFI has both keyboard and mouse)

 

[DanishDevil]

More CPU power phases mean more stable power, which translates to better overclocking.