So what's a manufacturer to do with its current arsenal? ASUS sees the interim gap between chipsets as reason enough to update its offerings with the latest technologies. A case in point is the overhaul of its Rampage GENE II board for the X58 chipset, now released in the third incarnation.
We took a look at the microATX-sized Rampage GENE II just over a year ago and concluded that it was a good choice if you needed extreme power in a smaller-than-usual form factor, albeit with an unenviable street price of £200.
The Rampage GENE III now takes over the performance mATX segment of ASUS' catalogue. Still arriving with a retail price of £200, including VAT, what's changed?
The overall layout is fundamentally the same as the GENE II, and ASUS manages to include six DIMM slots - now able to handle DDR3-2,200MHz memory - and yet provides ample room around the CPU socket to mount big-ass coolers. In keeping with mATX tradition, the battery is mounted vertically.
Keeping a similar layout means that the board, whilst chock-full of features, doesn't feel overly cramped - an impressive feat for a mATX offering. ASUS also throws in Probelt points that enthusiasts can hook multimeters up to.
Be aware, however, that the GENE III gives up on providing an IDE connector, so it may not be a good fit if you need to use older devices.
Audio, too, get a boost, and the GENE III is home to SupremeFX X-Fi v2, providing EAX 5.0 and THX TrueStudio compatibility.
Slot layout is the same, that is, two x16 PCIe, a single PCIe x4, and a conventional PCI. The two longer slots support both two-card CrossFire and SLI at full bandwidth speeds.
The X58 IOH heatsink was large on the GENE II, but now it's positively huge on this model, and it should bode well for those that want to overclock their Core i7 CPUs.
USB 3.0 is very much the flavour of 2010 as far as premium boards are concerned, so ASUS grabs the ubiquitous NEC 7200 controller chip and plonks it to the left of the topmost x16 PCIe slot.
Maybe it's the child in us, but we like to see big buttons on motherboards, and these are carried over from the GENE II. The 'Start' button produces a satisfying click when pressed.
The blue-coloured USB 3.0 ports are new, obviously, and there's a specific USB port, positioned vertically, that makes use of the on-the-fly overclocking through the iROG chip. Users expecting to see eSATA on the I/O section, present on the GENE II, will be left disappointed as the board does without. Both the IDE and eSATA ports are powered by a JMicron controller on the GENE II, and it's simply not here on the newer design.
Not skimping on extras on a £200 board, eight SATA cables are included, of which two are specifically marked as 'SATA6'.
Summary
The ASUS Rampage GENE III updates the company's mATX X58 chipset-based offering by including a modern look, USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s connectivity, upgraded audio, but does without IDE or eSATA. Worth £200? We've got it on the testbench and will give you the verdict in a few days' time.
