1 00:00:00,399 --> 00:00:07,160 So today we're going to be having a look at the Rampage 3 formula motherboard 2 00:00:04,600 --> 00:00:13,120 this is from ausa's Republic of Gamers line but you can tell from the suffix 3 00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:17,880 formula that it's actually a value member of the Republic of Gamers line 4 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:23,199 which may seem like a it's a little bit counterintuitive but it is so the 5 00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:27,560 Rampage 3 Extreme is the fully featured board and the Rampage 3 formula is kind 6 00:00:25,599 --> 00:00:33,600 of like a little brother so this is a core i7 motherboard that means it has 7 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:35,440 supp for all the latest LGA 1366 CPUs 8 00:00:33,600 --> 00:00:39,239 that means you got support for six cores quad cores and that's pretty much all 9 00:00:36,920 --> 00:00:44,719 you have on 1366 because it is an Enthusiast platform core i7 extreme core 10 00:00:41,879 --> 00:00:49,160 i7 you've got support for SLI as well as hi Crossfire X so let's have a look at 11 00:00:47,239 --> 00:00:53,520 the Box itself you can see a handy little window where you've got three PCI 12 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:56,440 Express 16x slots but we'll talk more about the board in a minute let's talk 13 00:00:55,039 --> 00:01:01,840 about a couple of the key features so you've got Rog connect which is a USB 14 00:00:59,239 --> 00:01:06,119 interface for plugging in an a different computer to actually uh control BIOS 15 00:01:04,320 --> 00:01:11,360 options on this particular board You've Got Game first technology which is a lan 16 00:01:09,159 --> 00:01:17,000 feature that it has in order to give you the the speed you need to pone awesome I 17 00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:20,920 love it as well as to uh give your games priority access to any land functions 18 00:01:19,240 --> 00:01:24,560 you've got BIOS flashback so you have two BIOS ROMs which you can actually 19 00:01:22,640 --> 00:01:29,680 choose which one you want to boot from as well as Supreme FX x52 builtin so 20 00:01:26,960 --> 00:01:34,240 that's a creative uh solution for your on onboard sound Extreme Engine Digi 21 00:01:32,520 --> 00:01:38,360 plus is a powerful combination of analog and digital design elements as well as 22 00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:44,320 an included copy of casers skki antivirus on the back in typical Rog 23 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:49,240 fashion it has exactly the same stuff except for uh oh it also mentions 24 00:01:46,280 --> 00:01:53,040 three-way SLI and Crossfire X so that's uh that's a good thing I suppose it has 25 00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:55,840 one additional feature listed on the back that is not already listed on the 26 00:01:54,680 --> 00:02:00,119 front so let's have a look at the accessory package which as you might 27 00:01:58,439 --> 00:02:05,200 expect with an Rog board is quite complete you got a three-way SLI Bridge 28 00:02:02,520 --> 00:02:10,440 you have an IO shield with their uh spongy backing on it you also have some 29 00:02:08,319 --> 00:02:15,519 zip ties for cable management you have a crossfire Bridge a nice long flexible 30 00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:19,760 SLI Bridge you've got your Q connectors for easy plugging in of the front USB as 31 00:02:17,599 --> 00:02:25,000 well as the front panel connectors a users guide 32 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:27,319 including a republic of gamer sticker as 33 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:31,400 well as a support DVD which you should throw away and download the latest from 34 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:35,360 the ASUS website you have an optional fan as well as an installation guide for 35 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:40,239 it so that's only if you're using water cooling or a passive or very low air 36 00:02:37,519 --> 00:02:45,440 flow cooler you've got an EA bracket as well as USB 2.0 there's your cable for 37 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:52,959 Rog connect which is a standard USB a TOA male to male cable then you've 38 00:02:48,599 --> 00:02:54,760 got six SATA 2 cables two SATA 3 cables 39 00:02:52,959 --> 00:02:58,959 please note that those are identical other than the color there is no 40 00:02:56,959 --> 00:03:02,400 physical difference between a satat 2 cable and a SATA 3 cable in terms of 41 00:03:01,560 --> 00:03:07,319 data transmission I mean I guess if you had a 42 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:11,440 really terrible quality SATA 2 cable it might not work at sat 3 speeds but I 43 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:15,400 mean I really find that quite quite far-fetched indeed all right so let's 44 00:03:13,799 --> 00:03:20,599 get the motherboard out itself and have a look at it as always ASUS has just 45 00:03:18,480 --> 00:03:25,480 nailed the aesthetic on this particular board their Republic of Gamers boards 46 00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:31,840 have really been outstanding lately in that regard so we've got a black PCB 47 00:03:28,879 --> 00:03:36,640 with black uh nickel plated as well as red accents it looks just phenomenal so 48 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:40,920 let's have a look at the overall layout cameraman's very interested in the pwm 49 00:03:38,959 --> 00:03:45,040 cooling here so you can see that that is connected via a couple of different heat 50 00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:49,080 pipes so the top one over here is connected via heat pipe to the bottom 51 00:03:47,159 --> 00:03:53,159 one so you can see those two are sharing their load a little bit and then you 52 00:03:50,680 --> 00:03:58,079 have a heat pipe connecting the uh the left pwm cooler to the North Bridge 53 00:03:55,680 --> 00:04:01,079 cooler down to oh that's a separate heat pipe itself no no it's not that's the 54 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:04,959 same heat pipe it's flattened out and then it curves up and that connects the 55 00:04:02,840 --> 00:04:08,560 South Bridge as well so let's look at the overall board layout we'll start 56 00:04:06,319 --> 00:04:12,920 with the CPU socket so cameraman if you can come direct your attention over here 57 00:04:10,720 --> 00:04:17,000 that is an LGA 1366 socket I already mentioned the CPU support but I will say 58 00:04:15,040 --> 00:04:22,040 it again core i7 as well as core i7 extreme you've got your 8 Pin power 59 00:04:19,079 --> 00:04:25,800 connector with the optional four pin uh cover placed on it by default up here in 60 00:04:24,280 --> 00:04:31,720 the top left corner in its ideal location you've got your six RAM slots 61 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:37,160 supporting dual dual Channel you're supporting dual sets of triple Channel 62 00:04:34,080 --> 00:04:39,520 DDR3 memory with the quick install 63 00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:43,039 memory dim slot so you can see that there are only Clips on the one side the 64 00:04:41,199 --> 00:04:47,759 other side has no clips so you're meant to insert the module this way and then 65 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:51,199 clip it down on the one side your 24 pin connector is in its ideal location along 66 00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:56,840 the right hand edge of the board and you've also got start 67 00:04:53,199 --> 00:04:59,720 reset and all of your uh voltage 68 00:04:56,840 --> 00:05:04,759 measurement options along the top right right hand side of the board as well in 69 00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:07,680 very very conveniently located fashion 70 00:05:04,759 --> 00:05:13,039 so down here we have the Go Button we have oh q q reset up here I had actually 71 00:05:10,639 --> 00:05:17,039 missed that button and then moving down the board oh cameraman still looking at 72 00:05:14,919 --> 00:05:21,160 all the buttons oh he's waiting for it to focus I see what he's doing now okay 73 00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:25,440 so let's move down and have a look at the SATA options so we've got six SATA 74 00:05:23,280 --> 00:05:29,160 two ports remember Intel still does not have support natively for sative three 75 00:05:27,639 --> 00:05:33,720 on their chipset so it's actually a Marvel chipset right there that is 76 00:05:31,039 --> 00:05:38,840 running the SATA 3 6 GB per second Port so you do have two of those moving down 77 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:42,360 the board we have a BIOS reset switch right here although that's far less 78 00:05:40,720 --> 00:05:46,600 conveniently located than the one that I already saw on the back panel here's 79 00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:50,680 your front panel connectors as well as you another fan connector you've got 80 00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:55,520 your dual BIOS chips right there so it's actually got two physical chips this is 81 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:59,360 not some cheap hack two physical BIOS chips that you can switch in between 82 00:05:57,400 --> 00:06:02,680 you've got your front USB ports here as well as some more of them over here I'm 83 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:06,319 not sure which of these are USB and which are not to be perfectly honest all 84 00:06:04,479 --> 00:06:09,599 right we've got two more fan connectors I'm going to do a quick count of the fan 85 00:06:07,639 --> 00:06:14,360 connectors before we're done here fire wire port and then let's look at the PCI 86 00:06:12,160 --> 00:06:18,440 Express layout so uh yeah there's the x52 Supreme effect cameraman's making 87 00:06:16,479 --> 00:06:25,039 his way to the PCI Express slots we start with a PCIe 1x slot up at the top 88 00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:27,080 here and then we have a PCIe 16x slot 89 00:06:25,039 --> 00:06:30,599 now please note there is an absence of a slot here the assumption is that if 90 00:06:28,639 --> 00:06:33,919 you're buying a republic of Gamers board and this is a good assumption that 91 00:06:32,639 --> 00:06:37,680 you're probably using a dual slot graphics card which you should be so you 92 00:06:35,880 --> 00:06:43,120 don't need a slot here basically all right then we've got another PCI Express 93 00:06:39,319 --> 00:06:45,319 16x slot a PCI e1x 16x and a PCI slot so 94 00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:47,960 if you're running dual card SLI or Crossfire you're going to use these two 95 00:06:46,840 --> 00:06:54,160 which means you're going to cover this one your blank you're going to cover this one in a PCI slot that will leave 96 00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:58,759 you with two PCIe 1X slots that will remain usable we've got an auxiliary 97 00:06:56,520 --> 00:07:01,879 Molex power connector here so if you are running up to three cards and then 98 00:07:00,479 --> 00:07:05,759 you'll cover almost all of your slots except this guy then you should plug 99 00:07:03,759 --> 00:07:10,120 that in because otherwise you're drawing just too much power out of the 24 pin 100 00:07:08,280 --> 00:07:14,720 connector now let's have a look at the back of the board on the io Shield we've 101 00:07:12,919 --> 00:07:21,080 got a purple PS2 Port so that's going to be keyboard only then we've got 1 2 3 4 102 00:07:18,039 --> 00:07:24,720 5 six oh is that one of those combo 103 00:07:21,080 --> 00:07:27,520 ports no it's not so we have six USB 2.0 104 00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:33,240 ports we have a powered Esa Port as well as a regular eatle port and then we have 105 00:07:30,360 --> 00:07:38,120 a clear seimo switch optical audio out the Rog connect button USB 3.0 support 106 00:07:36,599 --> 00:07:43,080 gigabit land and those look like goldplated 7.1 audio connectors and 107 00:07:41,120 --> 00:07:48,400 before we're done I did promise a count of the four pin fan connector so we have 108 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:51,400 one two up here by the CPU socket we have another one over here on the top 109 00:07:49,919 --> 00:07:55,599 right of the board we have another one down here by the North Bridge so that is 110 00:07:53,720 --> 00:08:00,199 I don't know four and then down at the bottom of the board we find another five 111 00:07:57,280 --> 00:08:09,560 six seven totals so that means that you can actually control all of those fans 112 00:08:02,440 --> 00:08:11,159 via the BIOS and uh hold on 1 2 3 4 5 6 113 00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:15,759 7 eight eight there's one more over here by the 24 pin connector so you can 114 00:08:12,639 --> 00:08:18,280 actually control eight fans via the bio 115 00:08:15,759 --> 00:08:21,759 software and you can optimize them for performance or for silence that's a 116 00:08:19,879 --> 00:08:24,840 pretty cool feature and they all support pwm there's the back of the board in 117 00:08:23,520 --> 00:08:28,400 case you care thank you for checking out my unboxing of the Rampage 3 formula 118 00:08:26,720 --> 00:08:31,400 don't forget to subscribe to Linus Tech tips