Dimensions of packaging are larger than anything we saw till now and there is good reason for that: dimensions of motherboard (30.5x26.9cm) are 2-3 centimeters wider than standard ATX motherboard. As it was the case with all other ROG motherboards accessories are packed in separate box: IDE and SATA cables, SLI bridges (2-Way and 3-Way SLI bridge), sound card based on Creative X-Fi chip, fan (blower type) that can be mounted on CPU power unit, LCD Poster, shield for backpanel, bracket with two USB2.0 and one FireWire port, thermal probes, manual and DVD with software and drivers.

Layout

Rampage II Extreme is name that suites this motherboard perfectly. Design of PCB and layout is perfect. Around CPU slot is placed 16-phase power unit that is proved solution from earlier models. In upper left corner, alongside power unit, is conveniently located 8-pin 12V EPS connector. QP, DRAM, NB and memory controller have their own 3-phase power unit. This will result in great power filtering under extreme overlock conditions. Alongside right edge of PCB are positioned 24-pin ATX and controls that are shortcut to overclocker’s heaven. Let us explain that. Below 24-pin ATX connector are placed Start, Reset, Plus (+) and Minus (-), Confirm and Toggle controls. Closer to the edge of the PCB are measuring points for voltages of vital components. On all other motherboards if overclocker wanted to control voltages and measure them he had to solder components on PCB, but on this motherboard this options are available “out of the box”. This way you can make changes to some settings without need for reset and changing options in BIOS.

We must admit: this is very smart move from ASUS. Because of this LCD poster is more important than earlier because you can chose what data will be displayed (voltage or temperature of CPU, RAM or NB). Below those controls are placed rotated IDE connector, 6 rotated and one normally positioned SATA connector and pins for I/O panel. Right from the CPU socket are located 6 DIMM slots that can be filled with maximum 12GB of DDR3 memory. It is important to mention that blue slots should be filled first because if that is not the case motherboard will not boot. Cooling system is based on heat pipes that connect all coolers. Coolers are placed on power units, north and south bridge. Southbridge is, as expected for X58 motherboard, ICH10R. Motherboard is equipped with 3 PCIe x16 slots (PEG slots), one PCIe x1 and one PCI slot. First PEG slot is always in x16 mode while other two can have two modes each. In case of graphics card present in first PEG slot, second (blue) PEG slot works in x16 mode and third one in x1, or both work in x8 mode. Third PEG slot cannot have more than 8 PICe lines.

On bottom edge of motherboard are located: USB 2.0 and FireWire connectors, FDD connector, jumpers for BIOS selection and two EEPROM chips for two separate BIOS components (we’ll discuss about last two components little bit latter). There is enough space around CPU socket for mounting large cooling solutions that are necessary for successful overclock of Intel Core i7 CPU. On back panel are located: 6 USB 2.0 ports, PS/2 connector for keyboard, 2GB LAN connectors, eSATA connector, FireWire connector and Clear CMOS switch. There are 6 additional fan power connectors beside CPU fan connector that can be controlled from BIOS.