Customer Reviews

Asus Rampage III Extreme Socket 1366/ Intel X58/ 3-Way SLI & CrossFireX/ SATA3&USB3.0/ WiFi/ A&GbE Motherboard

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Manual is lacking as of this post:
No mention of the BIOS Marvell raid setup keys Ctrl-M (SATA 3.0).
No mention of installing the optional thermal module
Setup for system panel connectors section precedes Q-connector section (backwards)
Excessive usage of acronyms without first indicating what they stand for.
Missing explanations for many of the board features.
Memory QVL is way out of date and most triple channel memories don't even exist.


Optional Northbridge thermal module not compatible with my Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler.
The Northbridge runs extremely hot (140F) with passive cooling.
I took the thermal module to the grinder (to mod it) so I could use the supplied fan and my Noctua cooler.

If you setup a raid on the Sata 2.0 port using the Intel Storage Matrix, don't use the supplied ASUS
Intel drivers. These drivers will tell you that one of your drives is going bad when it really isn't.
I can't tell you the headache that this caused. Instead d/l Intel Rapid Storage drivers v9.6.0.1014.
The raid controller doesn't report the drives S.M.A.R.T. data (This is very bad!!).

Such an expensive board but it only has 1 USB and 1 eSATA header (which are intended for the optional USB/eSATA PCI adapter). If your case (i.e. Coolermaster Sniper) has four front USB connectors and an eSATA connector then, you will need to purchase additional parts (i.e. NZXT Internal USB HUB) to utilize all the USBs. I didn't find the NZXT hub compatible with several USB devices.

Overall the board was easy to overclock and is extremely stable.
I think this board is a bit over priced.

System:
Case: Coolermaster Sniper Black Edition SGC-6000-KXN1-GP
Cooling: Noctua NH-D14
Power Supply: Corsair HX1000W
CPU: i7-980x
Memory: Super Talent Chrome Series DDR3-1600 6GB
Video: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 480
Burner: Lite-On iHAS524 24X SATA
Keyboard: Logitech Gaming Keyboard G110
Drives: Raid-0 Samsung SpinPoint F3 HD502HJ

the motherboard is beautifully packaged a lot of useful accessories as described was easy to install everything :)
installed the optional active heatsink and everything was awesome, turned it on and everything was good until i checked the temps:
the IOH [aka north bridge] temps was high got to 100C in few minutes and then my computer turned off in order to prevent damage to my computer then i did few things:
moved the GPU from the first to the third slot [as far as i can from the IOH] and then got the active heatsink off and replaced his TIM with normal one [not pre applied TIM]... then the temps got better - 62C at Ideal - lets say not great but can't do any damage to anything but now because of it the Processor is overheating and everything is crapped out so yeah it gets 3 stars since it doesn't happens to everyone just a crappy luck of mine so here is the solution:
I searched the error: "IOH Oveheat!" and i saw that this motherboard has issues with the thermal compound that asus placed then basiclly what i need to do is take off the whole motherboard out of my case take the passive cooling off and replace the TIM which takes hours so yeah i will do that when i'll buy an aftermarket cooling for my GPU and CPU
anyways yeah it deserves 3 stars cause asus did a 400$ MOBO but they can't put normal thermal compound...

From the beginning, when you receive the box from the UPS man, (woman in my case :)) to unpacking it and firing her up, the fervid anticipation never lets up. I was still shaking when it posted upon the push of the power button. I have an Intel i7 965EE and 6GB of Corsair TR3X8G1600C8D memory, along with several video cards. I go by the handle of AKHandyman on the Internets and have done many a hardware review, most notably for PCStats Forums. I also run The Computer Cabin in Tok, AK. This motherboard is arguably the best when it comes to overclocking ... and you DON'T have to be a super guru to do it. The BIOS is easy to use and comes with a few pre-sets to get that i7 proc overclocked without having to adjust a multitude of settings. Ever get that badly translated manual and thought it wasn't worth the paper it was printed on? Well, this is definitely not the case. This user manual is very good and easy to read. Did I mention how awesome this board looks as well? No? Well, if I could, I would post some pics, so you could see it in all its glory!

I am also using a Noctua NH-D14 air cooler with very good results. I will update this review when I have more time. This board definitely rocks and I know there is more to it,... I just need the time to play around and report back. ASUS FTW all the way!!

Very happy with board. Running triple sli GTX 480, I7 980X, 256 gig SSD, Corsiar dominator ramOverclocked all the way around. This thing is a great OC tool. Took off one star because of defect. Several of the pins were bent right out of the box. (One pretty severely) Straightend them all, but if i had snapped one, wow, that would have been bad. Not enough to return, but still for this price board I would not have expected this.

Good things:

- Great for overclocking. Actually superb. You can overclock it heavily and easily. Hard to beat.
- PCIE lay-out. If you are running two thermal beast like I am (2X 470GTX), it's great to know that you can place them in the 1st and 3rd PCIE slots, instead of 1st and 2nd, like in most other board. That gives you some heat buffer.
- General treats (up to 7 fans, great packaging stickers etc.).

Bad things:

- Only one, yes, ONE, internal USB conector. Ridiculous.
- USB 3 controller on rear panel. As of today, Oct 27th, only Asrock was wise enough to understand that they should be available on the front panel of you case, for no one would use a USB3 conector to attach a keyboard or mouse.

Could be better:

- Location of 2 4PIN Molex conectors to power up multi-GPU system. One of them is located close to CPU, and is OK. The other one is on close to the last PCIE slot, and is paralel to the board, instead of facing up. Complicates cable management.

Is it worth the price? Yes, if you intend to overclock heavily your system, with multi-gpu.
If your ambitions are more modest, you will be better served with a less expensive board (P6X58, for instance).

This is an impressively built mobo, works great also, only two issues:
*I put 6gb(3 simm modules) of Corsair TR3X6G1600C8D Dominator 6 GB 3 x 2 GB PC3-12800 1600MHz 240-Pin DDR3 Core i7 Memory Kit in my new built (Intel i7-980x extreme,Asus ROG Rampageiii), works great.
Problem:
After installed 1st 6gb on Asus ROG Rapageiii,I purchase another 6g, installed all 6 sticks and expect to see 12GB,
but only sees 8GB,
called Asus, they said this is normal according to their test result, this high end motherboard do not see all 12GB for this Corsair model, Asus customer service people is helpful, although the reason they gave on this issue does not make sense to me.

There is compatibility problem, I'll say mostly from the motherboard,rather than from Corsair.
So I have to unplug 6gb, to use on other build. (6G works very reliable)
If anyone could tell me how to resolve this issue, it would be great.

*There is only ONE usb connector on the mobo(for front panel, not rear USB connector), There are 3 usb connectors on lower end Asus mobo. So I need to buy a NZXT USB expansion module, to solve this problem.

Other than these, this is a respectable mobo, works solid like a rock, I still give it 5 star rating.

PS:Amazon.com is a great company, any problem I had in the past, they took care of it in the most efficient manner right away, 100% trustworthy.

Good motherboard but bad quality issues. I've been having problems with the on-board sound that works fine for several hours and all of a sudden first it sounds static and then goes out completely. It takes hours to get to customer support and they're suggesting RMA. I also had a problem with overheating south bridge chip (IOH). Motherboard comes with a heatsink over it by default but it can't cool down the chip. After searching all the forums, a lot of people having the same problem and they say that it's the thermal compound under the chip. I decided to use the optional fan that comes with the motherboard as opposed to using the heatsink. That helped but the fan was very noisy so I went and bought same size fan that is quiet and attached it. In summary to many problems for a pricey product.

Very tolerant with my experimental over-clocking techniques!!! recovers automatically from a crash. Also extremely stable at very high over clocking.. One of the best that I have seen till date.

I've just finished putting my new computer system together, every single thing so far regarding the motherboard has been nothing but smooth sailing. Plenty of features and overclocking options. Overclocking has never been easier and with plenty of choices to do it. My i7-980x, windows 7-64 and Rampage III extreme seem like a match made in heaven. I just hope RC bluetooth wireless system control support can soon be made available for Blackberrys, I see very little use for this feature once you install your OS, but right before it seems like it could really be helpful. My only issue so far with this motherboard is the lack of USB headers on the motherboard. Sure, there are plenty of USB connections at the back I/O panel, but I don't like having to route my cables to the outside of the chassis so my 3.5" bay devices can work. The software for monitoring your computer voltages, temperatures and fans works great and I haven't found any issues with it so far, just be sure to get 4 pin fans in order to be able to control them through the motherboard bios or OS software, otherwise you'll just get reports on their RPMS (oh no, what a waste).

By the way, this is a beautiful motherboard and the led lights on it will make you feel like is always christmas, of course you can always disable them in the bios if you'd like and even choose which ones to disable. Most provide useful information and some like the ROG logo are just for show -- I actually like it :p

I'm still tinkering with this MB and will report any problems if encountered, but I haven't regreted it's purchase and I believe you won't either. Good luck!

Most of the reviews here have addressed the qualities of this motherboard. Rather than rehash what has already been said, I'm going to explain my experience with this board and some very disappointing flaws. Bought this board in April when, after years of deliberating, I finally decided to build the PC of my dreams. Admittedly I overbought as this board has way more OC features than I'm interested in. For the most part it works fine, except their are two flaws that if I'd known about beforehand, I would not have purchased this board. The two flaws are:

- This board does NOT support SATA3. ASUS advertises this board here on Amazon, on the box, and in the manual as supporting SATA3. There are SATA3 inputs on the board to plug in your SATA3 hard disk or SSD. However, if you do any diagnostics (particularly with ATTO which many manufacturers in the industry use for speed ratings) you will find that you don't actually get SATA3 performance. I found this out the hard way after purchasing an OCZ Vertex3 240gb SSD and testing it with ATTO. It never gets above SATA2 specs (~250MB/s). After doing extensive research online, I found out it has to do with the Marvell controller and chip used on this particular motherboard. Unfortunately there does not seem to be a solution for this as the ultimate bottleneck is with the chip itself, not the controller software. ASUS is non-responsive about this issue which only leads me to the worst conclusions. Additionally for you SSD users, there is no indication that the included Marvell controller supports TRIM commands for SSD drives. Without TRIM commands, SSD drives will degrade faster. Windows 7 supports it, but there is no indication that the Marvell controller properly passes the TRIM commands to the SSD.

- An issue I continue to struggle with is how this board juggles my drives. I've installed this board in a Corsair 800D case which has room for 4 hotswap drives, 2 standard hd slots and 5 front 5 1/4" slots. I've got 5 HDD installed, 1 SSD, 1 BluRay drive and 1 USB drive, with the SSD as the boot drive. Every once and a while, the mobo will drop the SSD and attempt to use my USB as a boot drive. This is an intermittant problem but it happens enough to be annoying. When this occurs, I have to unplug the USB drive, reboot, load the BIOS, reestablish the SSD as the boot drive, reboot, then plug the USB drive back in. My feeling is, if you are going to supply me with the inputs, then you should be able to support that many drives.

These two issues are unfortunate because they greatly diminish an otherwise great motherboard. Maybe 2 stars is harsh, but I feel I must factor in my ongoing user experience and the fact that if I'd known these issues upfront, I would not have purchased the board. In my opinion, the Marvell controller issue is a fatal flaw.