Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I bought this motherboard to overclock my new Intel Core i7-950 processor. It does exactly that. Without any problems I can overclock it from 3.07GHz to 4.4GHz on air. I run it at 4GHz on a daily basis to keep the temps in an acceptable range, also have Intel Speedstep enabled to reduce power consumption and component stress during idle times. I got a Noctua CPU cooler installed.
The mobo has so many options to play around with and the Windows monitoring software is really great. You can tweak all settings to perfection.
I tested the mobo in triple SLI setup with 3 x GTX 470. It runs great and scales very well. However due to thermal considerations I am using it permanently in dual SLI setup with 2 x MSI GTX 470 Twin Frozr II. This keeps the temps in an acceptable range and the Twin Frozr cooling fans are keeping quiet. Together with the CPU the graphics cards have no problem running MoH and CoD Black Ops at 120 FPS with all graphic settings maxed out (32AF for example). There is still overhead for more FPS as both CPU and Graphics card don't hit 100%.
Reason to get 120 FPS in games is nVidia 3D vision. I have bought an Alienware 3d Vision ready display and the 3D Vision set from nVidia with the shutter glasses. Stereoscopic 3D is awesome. I can play games, watch movies and photos in 3D now. CoD Black Ops looks great in 3D and my systems achieves 60 FPS left/right shutter (= 120FPS total) on the 120Hz 23" LCD display.
I also tested 3D Vision Surround on three monitors in none stereoscopic 3D. That runs well in a couple of games.
Apps run blazing fast. Office 2010 apps start in less than one second.
I am using 2 x SSD drives for Windows and applications on the two Marvel SATA III ports which support AHCI. After reading through newsgroups I decided to not install the Marvel drivers in Windows but use the Microsoft drivers. My system is really quite and ultra fast with 0.1 milliseconds access time and read speeds up to 250MB/sec. When running a benchmark test one SSD achieved an access time of 0.0934 milliseconds. Wow! Compare that to a regular HDD.
The integrated JMicron eSata controller works very well and guaranties high speed access. Much better than USB 2. I have two external eSata disks which I use as backup disks. The transfer rates are excellent.
This is the best and fastest system I ever had and I would recommend this to anyone as first choice.
Only thing I have to complain about is that I did not manage to get some manufacturer recommended memory to run at stock 2000MHz using XMP or manual settings, even none overclocked at CPU stock speed. Maximum speed achieved was 1600MHz. So I returned the 2000MHz RAM and got DDR3-1600 memory with the fastest timing available (6-8-6-20) instead which runs fine even while fully over-clocked.
I read somewhere that the next Intel generation CPU will run on socket 1366 (this mobo). So, upgrades will be probably affordable without replacing the entire system.
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ASUS LGA 1366 Intel X58 Republic of Gamers ATX Motherboard Rampage III FormulaASUS Rampage III Formula is an R.O.G. motherboard that delivers maximum performance for hardcore gamers and PC enthusiasts. Featuring the Intel X58 chipset and supporting DDR3 triple-channel memory architecture, the Rampage III Formula offers tremendous memory bandwidth at speeds up to 2200MHz. For maximum tuning capability, ASUS' ROG Connect allows users to overclock on-the-fly at a purely hardware level. GameFirst prioritizes gaming network traffic to help you dominate your opponents. Be immersed in the game with true-to-life THX TruStudio Pro and EAX 5.0 in-game surround sound effects provided by an onboard SupremeFX X-Fi 2. Improve CPU utilization with the premium Intel Ethernet Gigabit LAN for high performance gigabit network connectivity with unbeatable network data transfer performance and stability during gaming. Extreme Engine Digi+ combines powerful analog and digital design elements to create the optimum power solution. Dual BIOS chips provide flexibility and easy backup. Furthermore, switching between the two BIOS can be done via BIOS or the onboard switch.
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