Recently, we reviewed a case called the Silverstone SG05 that housed an impressive ITX form factor motherboard. It offered all the upgradable features found in regular desktop systems including benefits such as mobility, regular desktop level performance, a PCI Express x16 slot, support for DDR2 800 MHz memory, LGA 775 processor support, SATA, and integrated audio support. All of this was housed in an enclosure no bigger than a 10″ x 10″ x 12″ box. While mini-ITX is great for all of these reasons, there are some enthusiasts who want more expansion.
Micro-ATX or mATX boards are essentially a slimmed down version of the standard ATX motherboard. They offer similar expansion features as their full sized brethren including support for the same CPUs and memory. Most of the mATX platforms that offer great performance have been rare with the bulk of the blame aimed at the available chipsets. With that said, the latest generation Intel X58 Chipset has proven to be anything but lack luster and ASUS has married it with the mATX form factor to produce something truly special.
The ASUS Rampage II Gene is the first mATX motherboard to combine the full performance capabilities of a top end chipset while maintaining a svelte form factor. Is it really the dream board we’re hoping for? Let’s find out!
Features and Specifications
Despite the fact that the Rampage II Gene is a mATX motherboard, the platform still offers some very big features found on its older brother sibling, the Rampage II. The Gene also finds itself emblazoned with the prestigious Republic of Gamers monicker: a sign that it is tuned for the most extreme of gamers.
A quick look at the specifications reveals the following nuggets of goodness:
- Intel I7 Processor – LGA 1366
- Intel X58/ICH10R Chipset
- 6 DDDR3 DIMM Slots w/ MemOK! Support
- Supports DDR3 up to 2000 MHz
- PCI Express 2.0
- Supports ATI CrossfireX and nVidia SLI Graphics
- 24-bit X-FI SupremeFX HD Audio
- EAX 4.0 Support
- Tuned for Overclocking
- Onboard Power, Reset, and CMOS Clear Buttons
The rest of the juicy features include an External LCD Poster so you know what’s going on with the system, ASUS Quick Connector to simplify your case’s front panel wiring, and the iROG multiple hardware control. No, this is not some lame Apple product.
The overclocking features are just as aggressive as the full sized Rampage II or P6T Motherboards. The Gene offers Extreme Tweaker for easy access, Voltminder LED for monitoring your extreme settings, COP EX which helps protect your system against overheating, and Loadline Calibration which prevents your basic voltage droop that many regular platforms suffer.
What’s in the box?
ASUS packages the Rampage II Gene in a nice blood red retail box with the Republic of Gamers moniker. Inside, the Gene actually sits inside a smaller box with a plastic cover so that you’re immediately greeted by the motherboard in all its splendor.
The bundle includes four red SATA cables, mini LCD display, I/O shield, Q-Connectors, black flat Floppy, and IDE ATA cables. Sure, they’re only flat and not round, but a greater majority of users picking up this motherboard will be using SATA. And if they’re not, it would be a huge shame to cripple this board’s performance by using antiquated IDE drives.
Also included is an individual copy of 3DMark 06 Advanced Edition so you can benchmark your system once you have it built. It’s the latest revision and will obviously score higher if you’re using a good video card. The other CD is a copy of Kaspersky to help protect against viruses. You can’t very well pwn your opponent when you have nasty little “bugs” on your PC. It makes for a pretty lame excuse if you lose.
Hot Looks. Cool Heatpipes.
The Rampage II Gene is the first micro-ATX motherboard to fully support both ATI CrossfireX and nVidia SLI graphics. It may not be evident by looking at the board at first glance, but it is what separates the board from the rest. Since most users opt for using only two graphics cards, this is right on par with what the bulk of enthusiasts need.
As you can see, the Gene is a sweet looking little motherboard. It offers a black, heat pipe design with a bold red ROG moniker on the main heat sink. A black PCB has been used to compliment the black theme which helps neutralize the deep blue and white expansion slots. Even the USB, eSATA, ATA, and power supply sockets follow suit. Thanks to the solid state capacitors and top of the line Ferite Chokes, there are very few noticeable components that come close to exceeding the height of the X58 Chipset cooler.
You’ll find 6 blue horizontal SATA ports facing away from the graphics card slots. This ensures cabling will attach securely without interference. The rest of the USB, Audio, and Front Panel ports are all located at the lowest region of the motherboard also out of the way.
Looking at the DIMM slots, they appear to be far enough away from the CPU socket so that large aftermarket CPU tower coolers can fit. Given the nature of this motherboard, you can bet that most users are going to want something far more capable than a stock CPU cooler. Besides, it would be a shame to put stock coolers on this beauty.
Having the CMOS reset button on the rear of the board near all the USB, 6-Port audio, PS/2, and what not, makes tweaking the board that much easier. You don’t have to open your case anymore just to reset your system’s BIOS when you’re attempting a super-insane-omg-NOS overclock. You will probably need a USB Hub due to the limited number of ports though. That’s to be expected when you lose about two inches of prime PCB real estate.
Even the placement of the Power, Reset, and CMOS clear buttons are in a near perfect spot. Since the board will be sitting higher up in most computer cases, getting to the Power and Reset should be super easy.
Test System Setup
In order to build up a kick ass gaming rig for testing, the following components were picked for the mission. They include:
- Intel Core i7 965 Processor
- ASUS Rampage II Gene Motherboard (as tested)
- GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R Ultra Durable 3 Motherboard (used for comparison)
- Kingston 6GB HyperX 2000 MHz DDR3 Memory
- Zotac Geforce GTX 295 Graphics Card
- 2 x 500GB Western Digital Hard Drive
- Kingwin Mach I 1000 Watt Power Supply
- Thermaltake V1 CPU Cooler with LGA1366 Bracket
Our operating system of choice was Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit. The BIOS used was version 0705, our nVidia Video Driver was taken to 182.50 and the chipset driver was version 9-1-0-1007. Video card settings were left at default Settings with VSync disabled.
Hardware and Software Installation Notes
Working with the Gene brought back great Blitz Extreme and Blitz Formula P35 motherboard memories. Installation yielded no surprises right down to using the Quick Connectors. These will prove very, very helpful and easy to use when connecting your case’s front panel wiring. It doesn’t even require opening the motherboard manual. Just make sure you change your case’s motherboard standoffs on the tray lest you short out your board. It was probably set for a full sized ATX board so double check.
After the system was up and given a good 2 hour burn in test, the BIOS was given the eye of scrutiny. Having examined other ASUS X58 motherboards, it wasn’t entirely an all new set up. Most settings needed to overclock the system can be found immediately on page one of the BIOS rather than some where within another page. Avid overclockers will appreciate the ample settings intended to improve overclocking stability.
The Gene’s driver and software installation disc has numerous useful programs. The software needed to get the system running are on the driver tab. They aren’t all the latest, but they are relatively new and worked as expected. Of course, you have the choice of an express install or you can pick just the drivers you need. If you really want to save some time, simply install the Ethernet (network) driver to gain internet access. Then you can go hunting for the latest video and audio drivers as well as the latest BIOS.
If you want the software related to monitoring and overclocking the Gene, you’ll find it on the Utilities tab. ASUS includes its AI Suite, Direct Link, Adobe (got to have Adobe Reader), Anti-Virus, and Probe II. There’s also the ASUS Update utility which can be used to quickly flash the Gene’s BIOS to bring it up to date. If you want them all, just click on “Install All” or just select the ones you need.
Performance Benchmarks
The testing suite starts off with what the Gene is intended for: GAMING! Included are 3DMark Vantage, Sisoft SANDRA: CPU Benchmarks, Crysis, Farcry2, World at War, and Left 4 Dead. All the games were tested using High Settings at 1920 x 1200 resolutions while Vantage was left to default. This way you can compare your system using the demo version. SANDRA’s CPU and Memory Benchmarks closed off the test suite.
These are very useful benchmarks if you want to see just how your particular system build compares to other similar systems in the data base. If your’s comes up quite short of the data base, then you probably have some work to do.
3DMark Vantage
Straight out of the gate, the Gene was quite pleasing when it came to running 3DMark Vantage. The platform offered a very slight gain versus the GIGABYTE EX58-UD3R. That’s right on queue given they use the same X58/IC10R Chipset. It’s obvious that 3DMark’s full system requirements aren’t enough to knock the Gene off its feet. This is a great score when it comes down to it.
Crysis
Crysis continues to be a system killer and really reveals a weak sauce system. That’s why the sauce is pretty strong here. The system makes quick play out of Crysis despite the lofty Anistropic and Anti-Aliasing driver settings and matches favourably a larger full sized X58 board, the GIGABYTE EX58-UD3R.
Farcry 2
This game’s expansive mapping rendered perfectly as well as smoothly. If the Gene were unstable, it would’ve acted up a long time ago. Instead it puts down high numbers and playable framerates.
World at War
Since the first two games lack out right chaotic fight scenes that push 3D rendering to the extreme, a little WaW had to be tried out. Nothing to see here but super high frame rates. RTS fans will be very pleased.
Left4Dead
It’s the final game title among the 3D tests. It’s an older game engine, but it still serves a good purpose in showing that you can expect to play anything Steam based and expect high frame rates. Not to mention, Left4Dead is a whole lot of fun.
CPU Performance
Yes, we have to include these so you can reference just where the system ranges in performance. As you can see, it leads the comparable performance enhanced ATX motherboard by just a bit. These two systems are just flying!
Memory Bandwidth
Finally, you can see that there’s plenty of bandwidth to go around. This is important for overall available data when your system really needs. This would be tasks like compiling, encoding, and 3D renderings. Obviously, nearly 28 GB/s of data bandwidth is phenomenal.
Input/Output testing
Overall, the numbers are a bit more tuned bringing in higher averages than experienced in the last year. It could simply be due to some better tuned drivers, physical benefits of the hardware, or a combination of both. Either way, it’s a welcomed benefit and there is definitely no throughput issues with this board.
Overclocking Performance
The platform was obviously designed for the extreme gamer and enthusiast. so, of course we’re going to want to see what this little gem is hiding underneath the hood. Is it a Pinto, or is there a Shelby GT 500 engine underneath?
To see where the CPU Bus tops out, the Multiplier was dropped to 20X so that the CPU’s frequency doesn’t hit its max too quickly. It’s only a C0 Stepping 965 after all. Ultimately, the maximum overclock squeezed from the board was a 210 MHz CPU Bus due to thermal issues. My lowly Thermaltake V1 CPU Cooler wasn’t able to keep up with the climbing temps when under load. However, this surpasses the mid-range enthusiast motherboards which have all seemed to hit 190 to 200 MHz CPU Bus limits.
It was also at this point I realized that the stock Gene system consumed about 178 Watts at idle and 425 Watts at load. When overclocked, it consumed 227 Watts idle and 596 Watts at load. So, like all elite enthusiast systems, it gets hungry especially when overclocked. But, man is it fast!
The Gene’s CREATIVE X-Fi Audio
Normally, we see Realtek as the Codec of choice. But, much of the Gene’s magic comes from a very capable Creative X-Fi audio solution that offers much better input and output audio quality than any integrated solution I’ve heard to date. Music and movies were very crisp and clear running in every format my ROM player could support. (Yeah, we like to throw down some “slur” too!) It’s here that aftermarket audio cards separate themselves from integrated audio. This also excuse the fact that when the system is fully loaded with two cards, there is nowhere left to plug in an outboard audio solution.
The Creative X-Fi did a great job of improving my gaming experience. Whether the game supported EAX or not, the audio produced was as flawless as I’ve ever heard which makes gaming much more realistic. However, make sure you have some great quality head phones so you can really experience your video games. You might find yourself Googling for a new pair of head phones from Tritton Technologies or settling for some high end cans like the Ultrasone HFI-680s.
Final Thoughts and Conclusions
After a bit of searching, the current price of the Gene is around $245 USD. I can see that some of you are cringing at the thought of paying this much for what is the most expensive Micro-ATX of all time. But, this is not your typical mATX board nor does is it fall short on features or performance.
Comparable X58 motherboards have all been pushing the $300 to $350 limit and even higher in some cases. Considering the Gene offers dual graphics support, the latest X58 Chipset, supports the latest INTEL Core i7 Quad Core processors, and overclocks fiercely, that $245 price tag makes it an extremely compelling and tantilizing choice. Besides, you fan finally downsize your dual graphics system and not suffer a performance decrease. In fact, the opposite may happen.
The ASUS Rampage II Gene may be considered a small form factor. But, it performs just like a top end big boy. The Gene shows its true colors as it was put through many hours of burning in and 3D benchmarking. Frame rates were right on par with the more seemingly more aggressive full ATX scores experienced over the last several months.
Sorry, Futuremark, but we think gamers would much rather seen a copy of a good game title in the box rather than 3DMark 06 Advanced. After all, it is a Republic of Gamers motherboard and you can definitely expect it to serve some extreme gamers across the world for just that purpose more than benchmarking. Might we suggest a really good action packed title game that’s worthy of Quad core, CrossfireX, or SLI?
Ultimately, the ASUS ROG Rampage II Gene fulfills all three fundamentals for a performance board: Design, performance, and overclocking. When it appeared there was nothing left, it further surprised us with its overclocking magic. The Gene is indeed a powerful motherboard, easily securing itself as the fastest overclocking mATX board to date.
Pros
- Micro-ATX form factor
- Onboard Power, Reset, and Memory buttons
- Back CMOS Reset button
- CrossfireX/SLI graphics support
- Full count memory slots
- Aggressive well designed BIOS
- Creative X-Fi Audio quality
- Powerful overclocking
- Great price/performance ratio
Cons
- Price may be high for some
- Time to drop ATA support
Overall Rating: 9.5 / 10.0
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ASUS ROG Rampage II Gene X58 mATX Motherboard Photo Gallery
