The Rampage box is what we have come to know of the ROG based boards being all red and to the point with some key feature icons but mostly clean up front as most of the feature details are hidden behind the flip panel and rear of the box. Once you flip the front you get a window view of the board with the OC Panel. ASUs is able to cram a ton of info on the opposing flap and any ancillary details are on the rear of the box.
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Here we see the complete accessories included.
SATA Cables (10)
WiFi AC/BT 4.0 3T3R Antennae
Qconnect front panel connectors
IO Shield
Crossfire Bridge
2 Way SLI Bridge
3 Way SLI Bridge
4 Way SLI Bridge
Auxillary thermal probes
X-Socket II Backplate
OC Panel Cable
Installation disc
Owners Manual
Quick start guide for onboard switches
This accessory list has pretty much anything I can think of to get a board going and then some.
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The Rampage boards have always had a special place with me as they always just look mean, they are imposing and emit a sense of attitude just sitting there. all in all I know black and red have been done but ASUS still manages it very well and the overall appearance of the board being black with some red sprinkled around tends to keep the style in check without overdoing it.
The connectors at board edge are a staple of the ROG family motherboards and here is no different as they keep everything close to boards edge so that no stray cables can ruin your experience.
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Looking at the IO it as well as the board is stuffed quite well with features.
WiFi AC 1300Mbps/BT4.0 Card
Intel Gigabit (10/100/1000) LAN Port
USB BIOS Flashback Button
ROG Connect Button
10x USB 3.0 ports
2x USB 2.0 Ports
PS2 KB/Mouse port
Optical S/PDIF Port
8 channel SupremeFX high definition audio
The connectivity for the Rampage V Extreme is vast with a variety of high speed ports and even extreme high speed WiFi AC with up to 1300Mbps speeds supported.
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Here we have the memory slots which support up to 64GB and more in the future but the JEDEC for DDR4 is 2133 and the slots are spec’d to run up to 3300MHz + depending on DIMM strength and configuration.
The slot Layout can run up to 4 Way SLI/Crossfire. Of course depending on GPU config you can also place a HBA in there should the onboard M.2 and 12 SATA ports not be enough for you.
The onboard SATA solution thanks to the wealth of bandwidth afforded by the new X99 chipset which can support up to 12x SATA 6G capable ports for a massive storage array or drive solution. There are 8 total ports alone and 4 more via SATA Express connectors, but due to the lack of SATA Express components at this time it is likely that the storage would just be used as 12 standalone SATA 6G ports, two of which are on the SATA Express side from a extra 3rd party controller (ASM106SE) which can be used as standalone SATA ports as well.
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Moving to the OC corner you can see all of the standard fare is here along with some new comers as we mentioned before the Retry and Safe Boot buttons are in place to ensure no matter how bad you mess up a setting it should be easy to get back into setup and get rolling again. Add to this the GPU slot disable, SLow mode, LN2 Jumper and LCD poster and you can see that pretty much everything you need for a full featured bench session is right at your fingertips on the extreme.
Here you can see the differences in slot allocation which I think was very good thinking on ASUS part to ensure correct slot and lane population. This is especially important with the lower model chip having only 28 lanes you have to pay better attention as to where you are allocating those lanes but for 40 Lane chips I think its more just a matter of where you are allocating lanes to ensure you have plenty of bandwidth to all of your critical components.
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Here you can see the SupremeFX audio solution which has its island style PCB along with high end components to easily push some blasting audio for your gaming needs and should this be installed on a gaming system and you need to push audio fidelity even further there are plenty of slots to install an aftermarket audio card as well.
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The VRM on the Rampage V Extreme is a solid Extreme Engine DIGI+ IV design at 8 phases it should be able to stand up to some super heavy loading and it will need to as I have seen these new chips pull a huge load of amps when overclocked under load.
Software Overview
AISuite
ASUS has completely redesigned the AISuite Software and it now more closely mirrors the new BIOS clean cut design. Anybody used to the old menu bar design might be a little put off until you go thru the navigation for a few minutes and familiarize yourself.
Overall the AISuite software comes with so many usable tools and one of the coolest I have to say is the DIP5 and 5 way optimization which automatically performance tunes your system for optimum performance and from my testing so far has been almost exactly spot on with my manual overclock results although the auto clock was just slightly higher on CPU volts.
BIOS Overview
The BIOS of the X99 Deluxe followed in lockstep with what we saw from the Z97 model boards with a very clean cut and smooth interface. The ASUS UEFI for a long time now has been my benchmark for what other companies should do and this latest iteration further refines the look and feel of the UEFI interface.
Review Overview
Performance - 9
Value - 8.5
Quality - 10
Features - 10
Innovation - 10
9.5
The ASUS Rampage V Extreme is a near perfect board. Its a amazing mix of awesome for those daring to pay the price and take the reins!
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