ASUS’ Rampage V Extreme X99 Motherboard Wants YOU! (If You’re an Extreme Overclocker)

When I received ASUS’ X99-DELUXE motherboard last week, I admit that I giggled a bit after I took it out of its box. I wish I were joking, but it’s true. I sometimes get like that when I’m dealing with a board that really takes things to the next level, and the DELUXE does. The same thing can be said about the company’s just-announced Rampage V Extreme – I mean, just look at it:

While the DELUXE is for general high-end enthusiasts, the Rampage V Extreme has hardcore gamers and serious overclockers in its sights. And this thing just bleeds functionality. Need SATA? How about twelve ports? That’s not even counting the two SATA Express ports.

Perhaps it’s USB 3.0 you need – no worries, this board has a load of those ports, as well.

Some key features include DirectCU direct-contact cooling, X-Socket II and Xpert 3 technologies, a 32Gbit/s M.2 slot, 802.11ac Wi-Fi with three antennas, SupremeFX 2014 audio, and Intel Gigabit Ethernet, bundled with ASUS’ GameFirst III network-optimization tool.

At its heart, though, this board is about overclocking, as should be evidenced by the shot above. The most interesting component to come with this board isn’t seen here, though; instead, it’s the OC Socket. I am going to have to let ASUS explain this one:

“This exclusive processor socket utilizes extra pins to connect a proprietary circuit to contacts found on Haswell-E’s land grid array (LGA). When combined with the ASUS- customized UEFI, OC Socket enables higher DDR4 memory frequencies, lower memory latencies and enhanced stability while overclocking – even under extreme liquid-nitrogen (LN2) overclocking.”

“Extreme” indeed. Another neat feature though is OC Panel, an included 5.25-inch bay accessory that allows users to tweak on-the-fly, as well as monitor temperatures. Sometimes, hardware solutions for this kind of thing is the way to go, so it’s great (and not surprising) to see it included here.

So, let’s face it: Any motherboard can be called an overclocking motherboard. For the Rampage V Extreme, though, ASUS put its ICs where its PCBs are – or something like that. Before its release, the RoG team broke 28 world records. These records included an i7-5960X overclocked to 6.226GHz, and DDR4 clocked to 4004MHz. Yup – that’s fast.

You can read more about the board here, and if you think you want one, be ready to shell out $500 for it.