ASUS has updated its third evolution of its Rampage series motherboards that use an Intel LGA1366 CPU socket and premium X58 chipset, by chopping it in half!
The latest Rampage III Gene is a micro-ATX monster! It still manages to pack most of the kit you’ll find in the full size Extreme, but into much less space.
ASUS has kept the beautiful two tone design and razor sharp looks from the Extreme, although there have been some slight adjustments in the heatsink to accommodate the change.
ASUS Rampage III Gene
In the hardware stakes, the Rampage III Gene has no less than six DDR3 memory slots and eight SATA ports – including two of which are the latest, super speedy SATA 6Gbps standard. The board also houses a pair of USB 3 ports and ASUS’ Supreme FX audio that includes Creative’s X-Fi technology for gamers.
Gamers should be even further satisfied by the fact that despite having only four expansion slots, you can still use either Nvidia SLI or ATI CrossFire multi-GPU to increase your performance in games! Long cards are specifically supported as well – notice the SATA ports face outwards and the memory slots feature quick-release catches so they don’t impede when using very long graphics cards.
The Gene still has the groovy onboard buttons and voltage check points by the ATX socket (the little squares) that you can just about see in the photo above. The volt-check squares are only really used by enthusiasts who grab their multi-meters to double-check the voltages under extreme overclocking conditions. For the rest of us, the ASUS Windows software or BIOS is sufficient enough and the motherboard features eight high-quality power phases for pushing the most out of your LGA1366 Core-i7 CPU! As you’d expect from a Republic of Gamer board, there’s been considerable effort put into the BIOS for overclocking and stability by ASUS engineers as well.
If you’re into gaming and overclocking, but you’re trying to pack a high-end system into a small case for fun or maybe because you want a more mobile system for gaming events, then the Gene is an absolutely ideal backbone. Hopefully your case also has a window to show its handsome looks off to the world too!