Not that long ago, we hung out with the Maximus III Extreme motherboard, which represents one of the best P55 solutions. As foreseeable, ASUS also rejuvenated the X58 model with Rampage III Extreme. May we remind you that Rampage II Extreme was one of the first X58-based motherboards with extreme overclocking capabilities, and packed a fine amount of advanced options which made it superior for a while. Since competitors advanced in the meantime, it was expected that ASUS will throw in additional interesting stuff in its successor.

Since this is one of the motherboards from the reputed ROG (Republic of Gamers) series, the traditionally large and high-quality packaging isn’t a surprising feat. As far as the bundle is concerned, alongside the standard manual and driver disc, you’ll find two SATA 6 Gbps cables, six SATA II cables, CrossFireX, SLI and 3-Way SLI bridges, a pack of thermal sensors, the “Probelt” set, an RC Bluetooth card, the Q-Connector, I/O shield, USB/eSATA bracket and an additional cooling module.

If you haven’t read the review of the previously tested ROG motherboard (Maximus III Extreme) attentively, or perhaps managed to forget a few details here and there, here’s a quick refresher of some of the exclusive features of the series. RC Bluetooth is a module mountable on the motherboard itself, with two modes at disposal. The back panel of the motherboard contains a switch to regulate the operation of this device as a standard Bluetooth module or for remote system monitoring. If the switch is set to the latter, you can remotely control and tweak vital system parameters using a Bluetooth device such as a mobile phone. ROG Connect is very similar in nature, except that you need to connect another device (notebook, netbook etc.) via USB to the particular ROG Connect port (the ninth USB 2.0 port), and you’ll be able to control and tweak vital parameters using the RC TweakIt software.

These two technologies may come in useful if you have, for example, several computers doing rendering jobs, and wish to monitor them directly without meddling in their tasks.

There is also the USB BIOS Flashback, which enables BIOS flashing without an intermediary BIOS, DOS or Windows tool. All that needs to be done is insert the USB drive with the BIOS image into the ROG Connect USB port and hold the ROG Connect button for two seconds, and the automated routine will take care of the rest.

What follows is the BIOS FlashBack technology, which isn’t exactly a new feature, but still offers a few novelties. This motherboard actually handles two BIOS chips, which means that you can’t destroy your BIOS, i.e. you can, but you can also easily restore it to its original state by using the backup BIOS chip. The novelty is that you can choose between the two chips by a simple button, so that you can benefit from two independent BIOS configurations and use whichever one you see fit at the moment. Extreme.

The Probelt technology is there to enable vital voltage measurements with a multimeter on the key measuring spots. These are located at the right edge of the board, in a very accessible place, and you can also connect an extension cord so that you don’t have to meddle with the motherboard itself when measuring. As for the “Voltmeter LED” technology, most users are already familiar with it, since it’s been present ever since the first ROG motherboard, Blitz Formula. There are two LEDs positioned near each vital component. These can emit green, yellow and red light, signalising which zone each of the components’ voltage is in.