ASUS ROG Rampage V Extreme (Intel X99) Motherboard Review

Introduction and Package

Introduction of the ASUS ROG Rampage V Extreme

If there was ever a motherboard in the new X99 platform to get excited about, it would probably be the ASUS Republic of Gamers Rampage V Extreme that is in our hot little hands today. Before we started with the surge of X99 boards, I recently had the chance to check out the ASUS ROG Maximus VII Formula, and found myself extremely impressed with what ASUS offered. Although, it wasn't a huge surprise, as ROG motherboards from ASUS have impressed us time and time again.

For that reason, I find myself a bit wiggly and giggly to see what is happening with the company's latest ROG based board using the X99 chipset. We've been extremely impressed with the X99 chipset so far, and we can't deny the simple fact that if you're looking to build a true beast of a computer, it should be based around this chipset. Also, if the past has told us anything, it's that the ROG boards are some of the best money can buy.

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Considering this is our 6th X99 based motherboard since launch, there's really not a whole lot that we need to say about the chipset, or anything else that surrounds it. We've got a massive package and a bunch of features to cover today. So, without further delay, let's get a good look at the ASUS ROG Rampage V Extreme, and see exactly what this impressive looking board has to offer.

Package - What comes inside the box

Starting off with the front of the box, you can see the box design is pretty standard and simple. We've got the ROG logo across the top, along with the Rampage V Extreme name in the middle. Below the product name, we see mention that the OC panel is included in the bundle. Across the bottom there are a couple of logos, including the ASUS, Intel NVIDIA, and AMD logos.

You can see some of the main features highlighted on the left side. Starting from the top left, we have some gadgets, including the OC panel. The OC panel gives you real-time monitoring on a 2.6" display, helping you stay informed about your board while also giving you full control of your system via the included buttons.

Along with the OC panel, we also have the new OC socket, which is designed to improve performance. While we would normally put this down to a bit of marketing hype, the new OC socket does seem to be working well. So far, the ASUS X99 Deluxe with the OC socket has proven to be one of the strongest memory overclockers. ASUS has said that thanks to the OC socket, you don't need an internal memory controller that is as strong on the CPU to get the highest clock. From what we've seen so far, there seems to be some real truth to this.

Moving on, we've also got the power and cooling solutions to consider, which brings Extreme Engine Digi+ IV, and a DirectCU thermal design. The interface section brings KeyBot, which opens your keyboard right up, and gives you the ability to instantly upgrade your system on-the-fly by simply pushing keys on your keyboard. Finally, we finish off with the audio features, which brings SurpremeFX, along with Sonic Studio, SenseAmp, and SoundStage; all of the audio features are designed to make sure you get the most out of your onboard audio.

Moving onto the other side of the box, we get our first look at the motherboard, along with a look at the OC panel that we just mentioned. Turning over to the back of the box, you can see ASUS again mentions some of the main features. The OC panel and OC socket where both mentioned previously. This is the first mention of the M.2 and SATA Express ports, along with the 802.11ac Wi-Fi. The main specifications of the board are also found here, and you get look at the I/O ports that are being offered.

After opening the box and diving into the bundle, we're greeted with the normal array of extras that you'd expect to see. Starting from the top, first we've got the standard user guide, along with a few extra pieces of paperwork. We also have our cable labels, driver CD, and door lanyard. Across the bottom, you can see we round off here with ten SATA III cables.

Continuing into the bundle, you can see we've got our rear I/O backplate, three thermal monitoring cables, a pair of EZ Connectors, Wi-Fi antenna, and a CPU backplate. Along with those, we've also got a single longer CrossFire cable, and three SLI bridges, which include setups for two, three, or four video cards.

Finishing off the bundle, we have the ASUS OC panel, and a bracket so it can be installed in your case if you don't want to have it sitting on the outside. The 2.5" screen is able to offer you easy and quick access to some key information like temperature, fan speed, clock speed, and basic overclock information. With the buttons offered, you can start the system, adjust your fan speeds, and tend to basic overclocking function.

By sliding the bottom open, you can go use Extreme Mode, which brings a couple of extra connectors, and access to exclusive ROG features like Subzero Sense and VGA Hotwire. The OC panel is a cool feature; however, I can't deny that it seems like the kind of device that you're going to use a ton the first few days, and after that you will just forget about it. At least as a daily device. Your PC setup will determine if it's easy to see the readings on the device.

PRICING: You can find the ASUS ROG Rampage V Extreme X99 Motherboard for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing, but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.

United States: The ASUS ROG Rampage V Extreme retails for $540.40 at Amazon.

Motherboard Details

Close up with the ASUS ROG Rampage V Extreme

Looking at the motherboard, we immediately notice that typical ROG design, which sees the black and red color combination. We can also see the heat sink setup that ASUS is using, and more importantly, we can see all the buttons and connectors that are present on the board.

What really stands out is the Extreme labeling on the top left corner of the board, which looks really cool. Let's move in a bit closer, and see exactly what we're dealing with here today.

Taking a look at the expansion slots, you can see there's not much here other than the slots themselves. Looking above, you can see we've got a single PCIe x1 slot, and four PCIe x16 slots, which offer support for up to four-way SLI or CrossFireX.

Instead of trying to explain how the PCIe lanes work depending on the CPU you're using, you can see exactly how everything works in the image above, which we've made with the help of the ASUS website. The top image shows the setup with a 40 lane processor, while the bottom shows the setup with a 28 lane processor.

Looking at the bottom of the board, you can see we've got a four-pin Molex connector that can be used to provide more power to the board for people who opt for larger video card setups. We have a Firewire, USB 2.0 and 3.0 header, along with our main front panel header. The other main highlights here are the Soundstage and BIOS Select button located in the middle, and on the far right.

Turning the corner, you can see we've got quite a few SATA ports offered. We have a total of ten SATA III ports, and a single SATA Express, which all run off the Intel X99 controller. Along with those, we have two additional SATA III ports and a second SATA Express port that run off the ASMedia SATA controller. Also, to the far left, you can see another button for the KeyBot function available on the board.

Heading to the top half of the board, you can see our main 24-pin ATX power connector. To the left of that we have our M.2 Socket, and just below that we have our second USB 3.0 header. As for the right hand side, we've got a couple of smaller buttons, which include the Safe Boot, Retry, and MemOK! options.

Next to those we have our Slow Mode toggle, larger reset and power button, along with our LED debug reader, and a set of toggle switches that let us enable and disable the PCIe x16 slots. Turning the corner, you can see our main CPU power connectors, which include the standard eight-pin, along with a second connector which is one of the older four-pins.

Looking at our CPU area, you can see it's very standard looking. The eight DIMM slots support up to 64GB of DDR4 at speeds ranging from 2133MHz DDR to 3300MHz DDR via overclocking. We also get a closer look at the heat sink design, and in typical ROG fashion, it's of extremely high quality.

To finish up our look at the motherboard, we head on over to the I/O. Starting from the left, we have our BIOS Reset button along with the ROG Connect button. Moving on, we've got a combo PS/2 port, along with two USB 2.0 ports. Next up, we've got a total of ten USB 3.0 ports that run off the ASMedia USB 3.0 controller.

Gigabit networking is provided by the Intel I218V chip, and next to that we see three points for our wireless antenna, which offers Intel 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac Wi-Fi along with Bluetooth 4.0. Finally, we finish with five auxiliary ports and an optical port, which runs off the ROG SupremeFX HD Audio Codec.

BIOS Images and Information

Heading into the BIOS, you're going to find yourself extremely familiar with what's going on if you've used a recent ROG based BIOS, or really any BIOS from ASUS over the last few chipsets. When it comes to overclocking, you're going to want to head to the Extreme Tweaker section of the BIOS, which is actually the screen that the BIOS opens to when going in.

We've got an absolute ton of options here. If you don't want to mess around too much yourself, you have the option to use the Ai Overclock Tuner, or possibly one of the offered presets. Of course, if you want to go all out, there are a ton of options. This is everything you'd expect and more when it comes to a ROG based motherboard.

Heading through the rest of the BIOS, you've got all the standard features. The only other section that you might head to is the Tool area, which offers the ability to flash the BIOS Save Profiles, along with options in features to the OC panel.

Test System Setup and Overclocking

We would like to thank the following companies for supplying and supporting us with our test system hardware and equipment: Intel, ASUS, MSI, Western Digital, MemoRight, and Corsair.

Sitting next to our ASUS ROG Rampage V Extreme, which will be running at both stock and overclocked, we've got a bunch of boards. Other X99 boards that you'll see in our graphs today include the MXI X99S GAMING 9 AC, EVGA X99 Classified, ASUS X99 Deluxe, and GIGABYTE X99 UD5 WIFI. All of which are using the extremely high-end Intel i7 5960X EE.

Along with those setups, we've also included the ASRock Z97X Killer and ASUS ROG MAXIMUX VII FORMULA, both of which are based on the Intel Z97 chipset, and both use the i7 47960K. Before we get into the performance to find out just what the ASUS ROG Rampage V Extreme is capable off, we've got to see what's going on with overclocking.

By messing around with our Multiplier and BCLK settings, we ended up with a 47x Multiplier with the standard 100 BCLK. We tried to get a little higher with the BCLK, but while we could boot into Windows with no problem, as soon as we started benchmarking, we found ourselves staring at a BSOD. In the end, you can see our final clock speed came in at 4699MHz, or 4.7GHz as shown in our graphs here today.

CPU & System Benchmarks

CPU Test - HyperPi 0.99

Version and / or Patch Used: 0.99

CPU Test - AIDA64

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.00.1035BETA

Right out of the gate, we can see the ASUS ROG Rampage V Extreme performs very strongly. In comparison to our other setups, you can see the only board that lines up with it is the other ASUS board, the X99 Deluxe. When it comes to overclocking, you can see a massive performance boost in all our tests here. The strong overclock helps shave around 30% off our HyperPi time.

System Test - PCMark 8

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.04

System Test - MediaEspresso

Version and / or Patch Used: 6.5

Looking at PCMark 8, you can see the ASUS ROG Rampage V Extreme performs in line with the ASUS X99 Deluxe, which is slightly ahead of our other setups here. However, moving into MediaEspresso 6.5, you can see our ROG based board actually manages to come out ahead of all our other setups here as it sneaks into the 13 minute mark.

The same strong performance is shown under MediaEspresso 7, as the ROG based board comes out ahead of the completion. Thanks to that massive performance boost from overclocking, the gains are extremely strong in all our areas.

USB 2.0, USB 3.0, & SSD Benchmarks

USB Test - AIDA64

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.70.1400

USB 2.0 and 3.0 performances are pretty standard. You don't see much difference between all our setups here, as they sit quite close to each other with nothing more than a bit of fluctuation shown.

SSD Test - AIDA64

Version and / or Patch Used: v4.30.2900

SSD Test - PCMark 8

Version and / or Patch Used: 2.0.191

SSD Test - HD Tune Pro

Version and / or Patch Used: 5.50

SSD performance is pretty standard across all our benchmarks, and sits in the middle of the pack. These results are pretty consistent in all three benchmarks, including HD Tune Pro, which tends to be the one benchmark that likes to throw a bit of a curve ball. You can see the results are pretty consistent across the board though.

Memory & Gaming Benchmarks

Memory Test - AIDA64

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.00.1035BETA

Memory performance is pretty standard across the board. While there's not too much difference between the X99 setups, you can see the ASUS offering does sit at the top end of the scale. As for overclocking, we really don't see any change when it comes to performance, as usual.

Gaming Test - 3DMark FireStrike

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Gaming Test - Sleeping Dogs

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

When it comes to gaming performance, you can see that while our setups are very close, the ASUS offering does come out at the top end of the spectrum. When it comes to overclocking, we get a bit of a boost in the less intensive situation, while the higher resolution extreme preset and 2560 x 1600 results show no change.

Temperature & Power Testing

Power Consumption Test

Looking at power draw, you can see the idle numbers sit slightly ahead of the other offerings. As for the load numbers, you can see they're in the middle of the pack. Overclocking brings a big jump in both areas. The idle number jumps up to a good chunk over that 100 watt mark, while the load number is now at 465 watts. For a setup like this, we'd recommend a quality 650+ watt power supply.

Core Temperature Test

Looking at temperature, we can see the numbers are pretty solid out of the box, sitting at the lower-end of the spectrum here. Overclocking brings a bit of an increasing the idle temp, while the load number jumps more significantly. Overall, 71 C isn't too bad, especially when considering the overclock.

Pricing, Availability, and Final Thoughts

The best way to describe the Rampage V Extreme? Expensive and out of stock. You'd think that the most expensive X99 motherboard on the market would be easy to purchase, but it's not. Stock comes in, and stock goes out for one reason, and one reason only: If you want the best X99 motherboard on the market, this is what you buy. While the price isn't going to change, the good news is that stock is coming in. If stock is out one day, it will show up again a few days later.

Where do you start with this motherboard? Out of the box performance. It's awesome. It's either out in front, or lining up at the top with the ASUS X99 Deluxe, which is also one of the fastest motherboards out of the box. Overclocking is also awesome and easy. 47x multiplier, increased voltages, and we're running at 4.7GHz without an issue. A speed 1200MHz higher than the 3.5GHz turbo speed offered at stock.

Features, where do you start? You've got a ton of ASUS extras on the board, and while they are aimed at the most extreme overclockers, a lot of them just make for a higher quality board, which is something everyone can enjoy. The OC panel is also super cool. We're not sure if it's something that you're going to consistently use, but the addition is extremely cool nonetheless. The ability to mount it into your case via the bracket is something that will come in handy if your PC is in a position where you can see it.

The improved audio via the SupremeFX chip, along with extra interface options like KeyBot, helps put the board ahead. Outside of all that, the OC socket, something we initially thought was just marketing mumbo jumbo, is quickly proving itself when it comes to memory overclocking.

Performance, features, and a great bundle are all wrapped up in an awesome black and red package, which is what the ROG series of boards have always been about. However, like we mentioned above, the Rampage V Extreme is out of stock in many places because although it's the most expensive X99 motherboard on the market, it also looks to be the best. If you're buying the new i7 5960X EE, the most expensive and most powerful Haswell-E processor, then chances are you will want to pair it with the best motherboard. Well, this is most likely the board you'll want to pair it with.

While the Rampage V Extreme feels like a board intended only for the highest end-user, the Ai Tuner, overclocking presets, and some great software all mean that you can enjoy the quality components this ROG based motherboard offers, without being some overclocking genius. While you can choose to not be happy with the price, the bottom line is that it can be justified. You've just got so much here.

PRICING: You can find the ASUS ROG Rampage V Extreme X99 Motherboard for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing, but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.

United States: The ASUS ROG Rampage V Extreme retails for $540.40 at Amazon.