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  • Asus Rampage IV Extreme Motherboard Review
  • Asus Rampage IV Extreme Motherboard Review

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    Benchmark Configuration

    The system as it was tested
    Asus ROG Rampage IV Extreme - X79 Chipset
    Intel Core i7 3960x (3.3Ghz) Hex Core 6 x 256KB L2 Cache 15MB L3 Cache
    Cooler Master TPC 812
    Custom Single Stage Phase Cooler (OC)
    1x nVidia GTX 580
    4x GSKill RipjawsZ PC2133 16GB DDR3 (9-11-10-28)
    Western Digital VelociRaptor 150gb SerialATA 10000RPM
    LG 20x Super Multi GSA-H55L
    Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1050 Watt PSU
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
    Reference System
    Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 - X79 Chipset
    Intel Core i7 3960x (3.3Ghz) Hex Core 6 x 256KB L2 Cache 15MB L3 Cache
    Custom Watercooler
    1x nVidia GTX 580
    4x GSKill RipjawsZ PC2133 16GB DDR3 (9-11-10-28)
    Western Digital VelociRaptor 150gb SerialATA 10000RPM
    LG 20x Super Multi GSA-H55L
    Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1050 Watt PSU
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
    Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 - Z68 Chipset
    Intel Core i7 2600K (3.5Ghz) Quad Core 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache
    Cooler Master V6 GT Heatsink
    1x nVidia GTX 580
    2x GSKill RipjawsX PC2133 4GB DDR3 (9-10-9-28)
    Western Digital VelociRaptor 150gb SerialATA 10000RPM
    LG 20x Super Multi GSA-H55L
    Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1050 Watt PSU
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
    CPU-Z
    Our old motherboard testing suite was compiled to expose differences in chipset design.  In the beginning this worked very well for us however there was very little effort spent to test the other aspects of the motherboard.  Now with the advent of an IMC and PCI Express being moved to the processor we found ourselves needing to improve our testing procedure and find new ways to determine actual performance and quality of the boards we review.  Because of this we will be rolling in some new tests and saying good bye to some old friends.  

    Other than the new standard tests it will be business as usual with out of box testing first followed by overclocking results.  This is assuming the system allows overclocking.