ASUS RAMPAGE V EDITION 10 Review
There are lot of motherboard manufacturer in the market, creating verity of models / variants of motherboards targeting every segment and class in the market. The most anticipating class in the motherboard segment are enthusiasts, gamers and overclockers. And every manufacturer tries to create the best product for this segment.
But today we at PC TeK Reviews are very excited to review, one of the best Motherboard ever made in the industry, the ASUS RAMPAGE V Edition 10 motherboard. ASUS has specially made this board to celebrate ROG's (Republic of Gamers) 10th anniversary. ASUS engineered all the top notch features and all the latest technology in one great piece of product, creating an Ultimate ROG product dedicated to the gamers, enthusiasts and overclockers.
Supporting the new Intel family of Broadwell-E X-series processors on the LGA-2011v3 socket the ASUS RAMPAGE V Edition 10 motherboard features the memory capacities up to 128GB along with the new Aura RGB lighting on PCIe slots, High end audio on-board as well as an additional SupremeFX Hi-FI DAC / Headphone amp, first ever on any motherboard the I/O shield is now pre-mounted for easier motherboard installation and great aesthetics and more.
Now let's see what ASUS RAMPAGE V EDITION 10 board have for us.
Features
- Intel® Core™ i7 processors on LGA 2011-v3 socket
- Quad-channel DDR4 3333 (OC) support
- Best gaming lighting: Aura RGB illumination and Aura 4-pin RGB-strip header
- Best gaming extra – SupremeFX Hi-Fi
- Best gaming performance – 5-Way Optimization with Auto-Tuning, second-generation T-Topology and Extreme Engine Digi+
- Best gaming audio – Reinvented SupremeFX with intuitive Sonic Studio II
- Best gaming networking – Best-in-class Intel® Gigabit Ethernet ,LANGuard and GameFirst technology
- Best gaming connectivity — 3x3 802.11ac Wi-Fi , NVMe U.2, M.2, SATA Express and USB 3.1 Type-A and Type-C for extreme-speed transfers and total compatibility
- Best gaming protection – SafeSlot, pre-mounted I/O shield, and carefully-selected premium components for maximum durability.
- ROG gives you more – More gaming-focused utilities, all free!
AURA LIGHTING CONTROL - Build with Rampage V Edition 10 and you'll build… BRIGHT! With a built-in Aura RGB-strip header and easy lighting controls, it's never been easier to light up your rig — and your LAN parties! Rampage V Edition 10 includes the amazing Aura lighting-control utility to cast stunning multi-color glows across your gaming rig, via the motherboard's powerful built-in RGB LEDs or attached RGB strips, or both — and in perfect synchronization!
AURA 4-PIN RGB-STRIP - Forget the faff of external RGB controllers! With Aura RGB Strip header, it's quick and easy to cast brilliant colors across your rig and room: Just slide standard 12V RGB strips onto the 4-pin Aura RGB-strip headers, then weave your lighting any way you like.
*The Aura RGB-strip header supports standard 5050 RGB LED strips with a maximum power rating of 2A (12V). For maximum brightness, strip length should not exceed 2m.
*One extension cable is included. RGB LED strip need to be purchased separately.
Gaming UPSCALED AUDIO - SupremeFX Hi-Fi's ESS® ES9018K2M digital-to-analog converter (DAC), dual Texas Instruments LM4562 op-amps and TPA6120A2 headphone amp work in harmony to faithfully reproduce every detail without distortion or jitter, so you enjoy audiophile-grade 32-bit/386kHz, and output of over 6VRMS to your favorite 600-ohm headphones. SupremeFX Hi-Fi has a Cirrus Logic analog-to-digital convertor (ADC) for exceptional recording quality and, when you crave excitement over accuracy, fire up ROG's Sonic Studio suite to apply endless audio enhancements!
CHAMPION-LEVEL AUDIO FROM SUPREMEFX - Rampage V Edition 10's onboard audio isn't just good — it's as good as you can get! You benefit from the best gaming-audio inputs and outputs, with special shielded designs, and a collection of carefully selected professional-grade audio components, including Nichicon capacitors, dedicated dual RC4580 op-amps, and Sonic SenseAmp that automatically detects and optimizes any headset (32-300 ohms) for purest sound quality. SupremeFX also features intuitive Sonic Studio II, so you'll apply and enjoy different audio effects for perfect entertainment — plus Perfect Voice noise-cancellation technology for team conversations with total clarity!
BEST OVERCLOCKING ARMORY - Greater performance means smoother gameplay — and that means more chances to win. With the best overclocking (OC) design, UEFI BIOS and intuitive OC gadget and utility, you’ll enjoy unmatched performance — coupled with an exclusive cooling design ensures your system never breaks a sweat.
OC ZONE - SAVE MORE TIME, BREAK MORE RECORDS - ROG understands overclockers better than any other manufacturer — so Rampage V Edition 10 includes loads of hardware-level controls to aid your overclocking adventures, including DIMM and PCIe switches, Safe Boot and ReTry buttons. They're quick, easy and real time-savers!
THE FINEST POWER, DIGITALLY CONTROLLED - Extreme Engine Digi+ ROG's revered digital-power controller now delivers even-finer power, with a custom-designed PWM controller, PowIRstage® IR3555 MOSFETs from Infineon, MicroFine alloy chokes, and 10K black-metallic capacitors — ensuring Extreme Engine Digi+ always delivers the precise and smoothest core voltages!
BEST GAMING NETWORKING - Lag means lost frags, so Rampage V Edition 10 delivers the sucker punch of superior hardware and software — letting you focus on the game, while your ROG rig lands lag a knock-out blow!
BEST GAMING CONNECTIVITY - Rampage V edition 10 accelerates every connection, with the latest reversible USB 3.1 Type-C and the newest U.2 socket for lighting-speed NVM Express devices — kicking every game into top gear.
BEST GAMING GRAPHICS - You'll game as hard, fast and smooth as you demand with Rampage V Edition 10's support for both 4-Way SLI and CrossFire for multi-GPU graphics grunt, plus Aura-guided illuminated installation!
BEST GAMING PROTECTION - As a gamer you demand stability and durability, so ROG integrates long-lasting, premium components, plus exclusive smart DIY designs across the board — ensuring the best gaming experiences.
STAY IN THE GAME - OVERWOLF - The clever unobtrusive overlay that keeps you in the game, so you can browse, email, IM, stream or record while you play, and all dressed up in color-matched ROG skins to show you're part of an elite pack — quickly to be available downloaded fromon Overwolf's app store!
KEYBOT II - Free keyboard upgrade from an exclusive microprocessor and intuitive user interface. Record macros directly from the keyboard, switch profiles in moments, enable special functions with hotkey from F1-F10, start and even boost your PC from shutdown (S5 mode)!
AND .. MORE
Specifications
Package
ASUS have given even the box of the product a premium feel. Board comes in a nice hinged type black/orange cardboard box with front side featuring the 10th anniversary edition status of the product. Back of box highlights image of the board and details about supporting technology and features.
Inside the box
ASUS RAMPAGE V EDITION 10 comes with very nice set of accessories.
Package also includes a SupremeFX Hi-FI DAC / Headphone amplifier, which can easily be mounted inside a case with empty 5.25" bay. The headphone amplifier is connected with motherboard via a USB 2.0 header with bundled cable and is powered by 6-pin PCIe Power connector
Looks
Board made with a black PCB of EATX form factor (30.5 X 27.2 cm) featuring great aesthetics with RGB lighting on I/O cover, PCIe slots, heatsinks , audio section and as well as on the back of motherboard. Half back plate not only adds structural rigidity to the boards , but also enhances the back lighting system of the motherboard
The ASUS CPU Installation tool makes CPU installation easy and safe.
Layout
Detailed layout of board.
1. ASUS custom LGA 2011-V3 socket (OC Socket)
2. ASUS RAMPAGE V Edition 10 is equipped with eight DIMM DDR4 memory slots supporting max. 128GB at 2133MHz in normal and up to 3333MHz when OC.
3. ATX Power connector (24-pin EATXPWR)
4. ATX CPU Power Connector 8-pin and 4-pin ATX12V_2x4.
5. Back I/O Ports 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port(s). 2 x LAN (RJ45) port(s). 2 x USB 3.1 (black)Type-C. 2 x USB 3.1 (red)Type-A. 4 x USB 3.0 (blue) . 2 x USB 2.0 (one port can be switched to USB BIOS Flashback) . 1 x Optical S/PDIF out. 5 x Audio jack(s). 1 x Clear CMOS button(s). 3 x Wi-Fi antenna port(s). 1 x USB BIOS Flashback Button(s)
6. 7. 10.1 x CPU Fan connector(s) (1 x 4 -pin), 1 x CPU OPT Fan connector(s) (1 x 4 -pin), 3 x Chassis Fan connector(s) (4 x 4 -pin), 1 x Power Fan connector(s), 1 x Water Pump header (4-pin)
8.MemOK! button, Slow Mode switch, Power-on button, Reset button, Safe Boot button, ReTry button, DRAM channel switch and ASUS Q-Code.
9. M.2 Socket 3, with M Key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (Support PCIE SSD only)
11. U.2 port, support PCIe 3.0 x4 NVM Express storage and 10 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s)
12. 13.2 x USB 3.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 4 USB 3.0 port(s) (19-pin)
14. System Front panel(s) (Q-Connector) with BIOS Switch
15. USB 2.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 4 USB 2.0 port(s), ROG extension (ROG_EXT) header
16. 14-1 pin TPM connector
17. Aura RGB Strip Header
18. Front panel Audio connector
19. Expansion Slots - 4 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16, x16/x16, x16/x8/x8, x16/x8/x8/x8 or x8/x8/x8/x8 mode with 40-LANE CPU; x16, x16/x8 or x8/x8/x8 mode with 28-LANE CPU), 1 x PCIe 2.0 x4, 1 x PCIe 2.0 x1
20. Thunderbolt header, SLI/CFX switch (2/3-WAY adjustments), 5-pin EXT_FAN(Extension Fan) connector
Removing Heat-sinks
Heatsinks are made up of dense aluminum with thermal pad installed, giving great passive cooling to VRM MOSFETs and x99 chipset. Along with back I/O shield and back plate also include a LED PCB mounted under.
Component Layout
Let's now see what all components ASUS have planned for this board.
1. 2. Digital 8-phase CPU Power VRM Section controlled with ASP1257 controller with International Rectifiers IR3555M Integrated PowIRstage is a synchronous buck gate driver IC with co-packed control and synchronous MOSFETs and Schottky diode with up to 60A of output current capability each, 60A Ferrite Chokes, and 10K Black Metallic Capacitors.
3. 4. Two separate DRAM Power section using pair of 97374 Ti MOSFETs and PWM controller is DIGI + VRM ASP1250 chip
5. 21 USB 3.1 Gen 2 support with ASMedia ASM1142 chip
6. Custom ROG Micro controller for RGB lighting and temperature sensor monitoring
7. Intel WGI218V G-LAN Controller.
8. Intel WGI211AT G-LAN Controller.
9. Asmedia ASM1074, the four downstream ports USB3.0 HUB Controller
10. > THA 1601 controller used to switch buses for M.2 slot.
11. Asmedia ASM1480 PCIe bus switch chips
12. AsMedia ASM1187e chip which is a PCI express packet switch chip.
13. ASUS RAMPAGE V Edition 10 audio subsystem is based on Realtek ALC1150 that supports 2/4/5.1/7.1 sound systems with 115dB Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR) playback (DAC) quality and 104dB SNR recording (ADC) quality.
A semi-transparent line on motherboard separates the whole audio section from the rest of the board in order to minimize interference. Audio section is having premium Nichicon Gold Capacitors for audio filtration. In addition ASUS used Two TI R4580I Op-amp for rear audio amplification.
SupremeFX Hi-FI DAC ASUS RAMPAGE V Edition 10 also includes a SupremeFX Hi-FI DAC with is having main DAC an ESS 9018M2M Sabre chip and the ADC is CIRRUS Logic CS5361 chip. The main Headphone amp is TPA6120A2 a High Fidelity Stereo Headphone Amplifier in connection with pre- amp stage made up of Texas Instruments LM4562 Op-amps (One of the top-notch audio grade op-amp) and Nichicon and WIMA audio capacitors, giving an ultra-low distortion, low-noise and high-fidelity audio experience.
RightMark Audio Analyzer (RMAA) suite is used for testing test ASUS RAMPAGE V Edition 10 audio against Asus Xonar DX Sound card. You can see clearly the difference between Noise level, dynamic rang and Total harmonic distortion percentage produced by on-board audio.
RMAA Asus Xonar DX
RMAA ASUS Audio
14. Multi I/O capabilities are based on NUVOTON NCT6791D chip which controls the operation of the system fans, as well as provides the monitors.
15. Texas Instruments DS80PCI800 Chip is a 2.5-Gbps / 5.0-Gbps / 8.0-Gbps 8-Channel PCI-Express Repeater With Equalization and De-Emphasis driver to enhance the reach of PCI-Express serial links in board-to-board or cable interconnects.
16. Intel X99 Express Chipset.
17. 20 ASUS RAMPAGE V Edition 10 uses two custom TPC chips
18. ASM1467 is a one lane (Dual-channel) high speed interface re-driver for NGFF interface.
Testing
| CPU | Intel Core i7 6950X |
| Board | RAMPAGE V Edition 10 |
| RAM | 4 X 4GB Corsair Dominator DDR4 3000Mhz |
| SSD | Kingston 120GB SSD |
| Cooler | Cooler Master Nepton 240M |
| GFX | ASUS RX 470 and ASUS RX 460 |
| PSU | Corsair RM 650x |
| Display | Acer S220HQL |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Case | Corsair 330R |
BIOS
Benchmarks
Overclocking
Power Consumption
Wattage reading as per displayed by APC Pro 1000VA (Model no. BR1000G-IN) UPS.
Pros
- Great performance
- Nice Aesthetics
- Excellent RBG lighting implementation
- Great Overclocking
Cons
- Slight high power consumption even at idle. This can be understandable due to lot of features and extra SupremeFX Hi-FI DAC also being powered from same PSU.
Conclusion
The Asus RAMPAGE V Edition 10 is a superb motherboard offering great feature with solid performance and extreme overclocking capabilities. Asus has gone a great job in designing this board with smart PCIe lanes layout that X99 platform offers, allowing the connectivity of 4-Way SLI and Crossfire alongside a high speed PCIe 3.0 x4 SSDs storage solution.
The audio solution on the Asus RAMPAGE V Edition 10 motherboard is very good, but we liked the SupremeFX Hi-FI DAC / headphone amplifier the most. The DAC is well designed with keeping audiophiles in mind and selecting the best audio components to provide superb audio experience over the headphone.
Finally, considering its looks, design, features, RGB lighting, Great Audio and extreme Overclocking capabilities, we found ASUS RAMPAGE V EDITION 10 motherboard a great motherboard for enthusiast and overclockers. With a price tag of Rs.46 - 48K(approx.) this board is way too expensive for the majority of gamers or system builders, but when looking at the price of Intel Core i7-6950X Extreme Edition Processor i.e. about Rs. 140K(approx.), we see the ASUS RAMPAGE V EDITION 10 price acceptable and worthy of our PC TeK Reviews EXCELLENCE Award.
Manufacturers Info
Site Link
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