Asus Rampage III Black Edition X58 Motherboard Review

For our review today we have built a high performance gaming system around the Asus Rampage III Black Edition motherboard. We are using the new Antec Kühler H20 620 Liquid Cooler and 12GB of high performance Kingston T1 memory. As always thanks to all our partners for supplying the hardware today.

Asus Rampage III Black Edition Test system:
Processor: Intel Core i7 990x
Cooler: Antec Kuhler H20 620
Motherboard: Asus Rampage III Black Edition
Memory: Kingston HyperX T1 memory @ 1600mhz 9-9-9: 12GB
Graphics : AMD HD6990x2 (880mhz), Sapphire HD6970 x 3, Inno3D GTX 580 x 2 (gaming tests) / Sapphire HD5870 Flex Edition CFx/MSI GTX 560 ti (productivity tests)
Drives: Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB & Kingston HyperX Max 3.0
Power Supply: Corsair AX1200
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay SBC-06d1S-U
Chassis: Antec Twelve Hundred
Monitors: 2 Prolite B2712HDS & Dell U2410 and Dell U3011 Ultrasharp.

Intel Core i5-2500k System:
Processor: Core i5-2500k
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600mhz
Power Supply: Antec High Current Pro 850W
Motherboard: ASRock P67 Extreme4
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Thermal Paste: Noctua NT H1
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10
Graphics: Gigabyte GTX460 OC
Drive: Intel X25-M SSD (160GB)
Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit

Intel Core i7-2600k System:
Processor: Core i7-2600k
Memory: GSkill Ripjaws 4GB 2133mhz
Power Supply: Antec High Current Pro 850W
Motherboard: ASRock P67 Fatal1ty Pro
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Thermal Paste: Noctua NT H1
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10
Graphics: Inno3D GTX570
Drive: Intel X25-M SSD (160GB)
Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit

Intel Core i5-655k System:
Processor: Intel Core i5 655k
Memory: Kingston 4GB DDR3 1600mhz
Motherboard: AsRock P55 Deluxe 3
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD6850
Power Supply: Thermaltake ToughPower Grand 750W
Chassis: Antec Dark Fleet DF-85
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Drive: Kingston 128GB SSD

Intel Core i5-760 System:
Processor: Intel Core i5 760
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB 1600mhz
Motherboard: AsRock P55 Extreme4
Graphics Card: AMD HD6870
Power Supply: Thermaltake ToughPower Grand 750W
Chassis: Antec Dark Fleet DF-85
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Drive: Kingston 128GB SSD

Intel Core i7 950 System
Processor: Intel Core i7 950
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tracer 6GB 1600mhz
Motherboard: AsRock X58 Extreme6
Graphics Card: AMD HD6850
Power Supply: Thermaltake ToughPower Grand 750W
Chassis: Antec Dark Fleet DF-85
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Drive: Kingston 128GB SSD

Software:
Windows 7 64 Bit Enterprise Edition
Catalyst 11.4
Forceware 266.66
Fraps Professional
SiSoft Sandra
CPUz
GPUz
CPUID Hardware Monitor Professional
Cinebench R11.5 64 bit
CyberLink PowerDvd 10 Ultra
Cyberlink Media Espresso
CrystalMark
HDTach
HQV Benchmark V 2.0
3DMark 11
Unigine Heaven Benchmark

Games:
Alien V Predator
Lost Planet 2
Far Cry 2
Resident Evil 5
Mafia 2
Tom Clancy HAWX 2
Dead Space 2
F1 2010
Colin McRae Dirt 2
Crysis Warhead
Metro 2033
Left4Dead 2
Battleforge
Media Of Honor SP
Devil May Cry 4

All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests across five closely matched runs and average out the results to get an accurate median figure.

Overclocking:

Overclocking the system was relatively easy and we were limited only by the Antec Kühler H20 620 Liquid Cooler. Taking the CPU to 1.48 volts is a safe long term figure and we managed to get the system stable at 4.8ghz, with load figures in the mid 70s.

The system was stable at 5ghz, but it requires 1.5volts and the temperatures are a little high for long term use (80c+ over extended use once the room gets warmer). Obviously people with hard core water cooling will find the Asus Rampage III Black Edition will push all their hardware to the limit. 5ghz+ is easy on this board.

The image above highlights the settings we needed for 5ghz. We changed load line calibration to 100% calibration and phase control to extreme. Digi+ VRM Duty Control was also switched to extreme settings. Stability was added by setting CPU PLL Voltage to 1.85v and QPI/DRAM Core Voltage to 1.35v. Dram voltage was set to 1.66v. It really didn't require much work at all and is the first indication of a really high quality motherboard and perfectly stable power delivery.

System validation is available over here.

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