ASUS Republic of Gamers and X79 ROG Review – Rampage IV Gene, Formula and Extreme
by Ian Cutress on August 3, 2012 1:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Asus
- X79
- ROG
Rampage IV Formula In The Box
As the primary focus of the Formula is gamers rather than overclockers, and it being a notch ahead of the Gene, we would expect more in the box than the Gene and perhaps something for the gaming crowd. What we get is:
Rear IO Shield
User Guide
Driver CD
ROG Connect Guide
Eight SATA cables
ROG Connect Cable
X-Socket
Short SLI Connector
Long SLI Connector
Three-Way SLI Connector
ASUS have lashed it on with a full compliment of SATA cables, and putting almost every SLI connector in the box except the 4-way SLI (that is part of the Extreme).
Board Features
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | |
| Price | Link to Newegg |
| Size | ATX |
| CPU Interface | LGA2011 |
| Chipset | Intel X79 |
| Power Delivery | Intel Second Generation Core i7 Sandy Bridge-E |
| Memory Slots |
Four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 32 GB Up to Quad Channel DDR3, 1066-2400 MHz |
| Onboard LAN | Intel |
| Onboard Audio | SupremeFX III |
| Expansion Slots |
2 x PCIe 3.0 x16/x8 2 x PCIe 3.0 x8 2 x PCIe 2.0 x1 |
| Onboard SATA/RAID |
2 Intel SATA 6 Gbps, supporting RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 4 Intel SATA 3 Gbps, supporting RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 2 ASMedia SATA 6 Gbps |
| USB |
6 ASMedia USB 3.0 (4 back panel, 2 onboard) 12 Intel USB 2.0 (6 back panel, 6 onboard) |
| Onboard |
1 x USB 3.0 Header 3 x USB 2.0 Headers 4 x SATA 6 Gbps 4 x SATA 3 Gbps 8 x Fan Headers 1 x SPDIF Output Header 1 x SlowMode switch 8 x Measurement Points Power/Reset Buttons LN2 Mode Switch Go Button |
| Power Connectors |
24-Pin ATX Power Connector 8-Pin CPU 12V Power Connector 4-Pin Molex PCIe Power Connector |
| Fan Headers |
2 x CPU Fan Headers 3 x Chassis Fan Headers 3 x Optional Fan Headers |
| IO Panel |
1 x PS/2 Combination Port 2 x eSATA 6 Gbps 1 x Gigabit Ethernet 4 x USB 3.0 6 x USB 2.0 1 x Optical SPDIF Output 6 x Audio Jacks 1 x Clear CMOS Button 1 x ROG Connect Button |
| Warranty Period | 3 Years with ASUS Premium Service |
| Product Page | Link |
Similar to the Gene, the Formula does push the gaming features such as Audio and Network. The step towards overclockers is obvious, with voltage read points provided. The main downside most users will see is a high end X79 board, full size ATX, only having four DIMM slots rather than a full compliment of eight. Again, reasons behind this are squarely at gamers rarely requiring more than 4x4GB of memory in a typical setup (the Formula does support 4x8GB if required). If you need more than that, then chances are that gaming is not the top priority of your system.
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DaViper - Sunday, August 5, 2012 - link
Very Good Article Ian Cutress, BUT wheres the rest of the ROG Brand like the Crosshair Boards. there really is nothing in the Article about anything AMD/ATI side of ROG. We that do have the AMD side do like to see reviews about them as well but most of the time we get left out and considering here shortly there will be a New Addition to that line although it's named for Gamers but instead it's aimed Squarely at OverClockers and has all the Gamers Perks Removed.GL1zdA - Monday, August 6, 2012 - link
I have the Rampage IV Formula board and since the version of Daemon Tools bundled with the mainboard is outdated (and you can't upgrade it to a newer version) I e-mailed the Daemon Tools team to ask about an upgrade. They offered me upgrading to Daemon Tools Advanced with lifetimes upgrades for 10 Euro - a nice deal considered the full version would cost me 35 Euro.I also mailed the cfos team to ask about upgrading the outdated GameFirst software to regular cfosSpeed (I was using cfosSpeed for years on my other PC), but they never mailed back.
pandemonium - Monday, August 6, 2012 - link
That was a very inclusive article. Thank you!I am curious to see if newer drivers would improve 3x/4x scaling, though, for the games tested I don't remember any noted improvements from AMD's Catalyst changelogs...
dj christian - Wednesday, August 8, 2012 - link
Is this article bought by ASUS? I see no reason for the reviewer to do the same for other motherboard companies even including Intel.