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Written by Marko Vezmar
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Wednesday, 18 June 2008 |
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Page 1 of 2  ASUS 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 |
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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.
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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.
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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