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Home arrow MotherBoards arrow ASUS Rampage Formula
ASUS Rampage Formula PDF Print
Written by Marko Vezmar   
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
ImageASUS Rampage Formula came in very robust package divided in two sections. Motherboard itself is in the first part of package, while the second part is reserved for accompanying equipment. It’s important to say that you will also find in bundle: external LCD display (for monitoring all vital functions of motherboard), PC game S.T.A.L.K.E.R and Futuremark’s 3DMark06 Advanced Edition benchmark software.

 

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 Rampage OC possibilities
FSB can be raised in steps up to incredible 800MHz. FSB strap latencies can be set to four frequencies: 200, 266, 333 and 400MHz. Best memory bandwidth was reached at smallest clock value, in this case that would be 200MHz. Memory clock can be set even at 3200MHz using this exact frequency value (200MHz). Unfortunately there is no DDR2 memory that can carry out frequency that high.
The most interesting part of BIOS is certainly voltage sector that is praiseworthy. CPU voltage can be set in small steps and maximum value that can be set is 2.4V. CPU “PLL Voltage” option is in charge of additional stretching of CPU power and FSB and it can reach more than 2.0V. Maximum FSB voltage can be set at 2.0V and when you add on that 1.8V for northbridge it is clear that you should handle voltage values with maximum attention if you want to keep ASUS Rampage Formula in life. Part of BIOS that is responsible for memory power settings are certainly part that you should be careful the most. And that is because maximum memory voltage can reach abnormal amounts of 3.4V. The other voltage adjustments are associated with fine adjustments as for memory as for CPU parameters. Active and also the most important voltages for certain components together with temperatures are displayed in section of BIOS called “Hardware Monitoring”. Maximum FSB on our Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 model stopped at 488MHz and this is one more fact that serves as confirmation of our belief that ASUS Rampage Formula motherboard is probably the best choice for Quad Core CPUs.

Quality and components disposition for this model doesn’t differ much from Maximus Formula motherboard (model based on Intel X38 chipset). Never the less, power unit has surprised us entirely. Thanks to this unit, our overclocked Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 under full load was supplied with voltage that didn’t oscillate from value that we set for more than 0.02V. Also, 2-phase memory power unit didn’t allowed oscillations in voltage for more than than 0.03V (with reduced power drop, overclock margin increases). Heat pipe system that connects coolers on MOSFETs, northbridge and southbridge did a job very well. But we should also say that voltage unit is actively cooled by an extra fan. In case of higher overclock, you should definitely improvise with at least another big fan. 



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We don’t have any objections on performances of audio system. ADI 1988B audio chip is located on separate PCI Express x1 card and can satisfy needs of any gamer. Main improvement of ASUS Rampage Formula is definitely disposition of PCI lines. The existence of two full-blooded x16 PCI Express 2.0 provides usage of ATI CrossFire technology in all its glory, meaning, without a bottleneck in communication between graphics cards and chipset. Rampage Formula has additional on/off and reset buttons in lower right corner of motherboard. Button for clearing BIOS settings is located on back panel which can be handy. BIOS is signed by AMI.

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