Final thoughts and rating
The ASUS Rampage III GENE is a compelling solution if you need substantial performance from a small-form-factor motherboard. Able to run an Intel Core 980X chip, 24GB of RAM and two high-end GPUs, the board's intelligent layout and rich feature-set belies its diminutive size.Now brought up-to-date and stacked with USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, six DIMM slots, an excellent BIOS, and decent overclocking potential, only enthusiasts who need an additional PCIe x16 slot for three-way multi-GPU usage and eSATA/IDE connectivity will feel left out.
Much like the other tier-one motherboard manufacturers, ASUS throws in a robust software set to complement the hardware. Acronyms galore, TPU, EPU, AI suite, and Turbo-V provide easy Windows-based overclocking and energy-saving programs for the novice user.
Due to hit shelves soon armed with a £200 retail price, we reckon the Rampage III GENE ships with a £40 premium over equivalently-specified full-ATX motherboards. We appreciate that a £200 investment isn't to be taken lightly, especially for a motherboard, but if you want genuinely high-end power in a small chassis then ASUS' mATX-sized Rampage III GENE is hard to beat.
Look, Ma, I'm tiny
The Good
Excellent layout for a mATX-sized board
Looks the business
Comprehensive BIOS and auto-overclocking features
Performance on-par with full-ATX boards
The Not So Good
Can purchase the same level of performance and features for £40 less
eSATA and IDE not present, if that matters to you
HEXUS Rating
ASUS
Rampage III GENE
HEXUS Awards
ASUS
Rampage III GENE
HEXUS Where2Buy
TBC.HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
