ASUS Rampage Formula (Intel X48)
Performance tests
When determining the starting FSB speed, it turned out that the board overstated it by 1 MHz.
In our test setup, we used the following hardware:
Test setup |
| CPU |
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 LGA775 (2.33 GHz; Conroe) |
| Cooler |
Gigabyte 3D Cooler GP Edition |
| Video card |
ASUS 8800 GT (GeForce 8800 GT; PCI Express x16)
Driver version: 169.25 |
| Sound card |
- |
| HDD |
Samsung HD160JJ |
| Memory |
2x 1024 MB GoodRAM DDR2 GP1066D264L5/2GDC |
| Housing |
FSP 550W |
| OS |
MS Vista |
Let's first take a look at the results of synthetic benchmarks.
Now on to the gaming benchmarks.
Tests of application software.
Video encoding (DivX, Xvid) was measured in seconds, i.e. the less the better.
Data compression (WinRAR) was measured in K/sec, i.e. the more, the better.
Final Words
From the technical viewpoint, we found nothing to complain about ASUS Rampage Formula. This product is made at a very high level and fully reveals the capabilities of the Intel X48 chipset. As regards the price, it is within the reasonable limits (~$230, on the moment of running the tests), so we can safely recommend this board to computer enthusiasts. Anyway, we would recommend that you wait until a review of Rampage Extreme operating with DDR3 memory is released. As our experience suggests, ASUS motherboards that support memory of this type overclock a bit better. At the same time, the functionality and package bundles of Extreme motherboards is more abundant than for the Formula series, and quite possibly the Extreme version will be better at the "price/performance" factor.
Conclusion
Pros:
- high stability and performance;
- 8-phase scheme of the CPU's power supply;
- two-phase scheme of the power supply for the memory;
- two PCI Express x16 v2.0 slots;
- support for SerialATA II/RAID ( 6 lines; ICH9R);
- support for one P-ATA link (JMB368);
- two LAN controllers (Gigabit Ethernet);
- support for USB2.0 (12 ports) and IEEE-1394 (Firewire; 2 ports);
- wide selection of ASUS' proprietary technologies (PC Probe II, EZ Flash 2, CrashFree BIOS 3, MyLogo 3, Q-Fan 2, etc.);
- additional set of AI Proactive technologies (AI Overclock, OC Profile, AI Net 2, etc.);
- passive/active system for cooling the chipset and the power supply module;
- Power and Reset buttons;
- reasonable price.
Cons:
- the package bundle does not match the high-end status of the product.
The board's specific features:
- 8-channel audio subsystem is on a separate SupremeFX II board;
- on the rear panel, there are six USB 2.0 ports and a button to clear the CMOS; no LPT and COM ports, no PS/2 for the mouse;
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