Final Words & Conclusion
Final Words & Conclusion
The all new 10th anniversay edition of the Rampage 5 (ROG X99 RAMPAGE V Edition 10) is super sexy! It is tweaked to the max already for you, in the BIOs you can just flick a few switches and registers change, and boom you are overclocked. Features wise you cannot complain whatsoever, well perhaps maybe a second M2 slot would have been nice, but now I am nitpicking. From A to Z everything has been through throug really well. Now obviously little is new about the X99 PCH chipset (Wellsburg) of course, what triggered the release of the updated series is a direct effect of Intel's choice to re-use that LGA Socket 2011 with Broadwell-E processors. The chipset itself offers all that is needed of course, but remains more of the same. This is why the motherboard manufacturers did their absolute best to make things a little different. An X99 based motherboard as such remains enthusiast class hardware that now can be paired with Broadwell-E processors, seriously fast clocked DDR4 memory, you'll have M.2 SSD capabilities at proper speeds (yeah I do call 2,500 Mb/sec a proper speed, lol!) and obviously some niche things like the U2 connector (not the band) all alongside that brilliant RGB lighting system. See re-using that X99 platform also means that the hardware is refined and tweaked. That shows in for example the memory results you have seen. It also makes tweaking (overclocking) far more easy as ASUS will do the difficult things for you already (albeit Broadwell-E processors are not extremely tweakable).
Aesthetics
Overall the ROG X99 RAMPAGE V Edition 10 is just an incredibly appealing looking motherboard and really has it all including some terrific looks with the black and dark design with that fully configurable AURA RGB LED lighting system. Looks obviously remain personal and I am a sucker for the all matte black combo with LED configuration. Very stylish also is that PCH chipset heatsink with the aura of LEDs under it, just lovely. Add to that the RAW horsepower a Haswell-E/Broadwell-E platform delivers. Yeah, its cool stuff alright. Yeah, it is just an intriguing product to look at really. Just sheer awesomeness in a dark PC case. The LEDs create an awesome HALO coming from under the shielding, it makes the motherboard pop out of your system, visually that is. Thinking about it, I would LOVE to see some sort of UEFI based AURA LED control from the BIOS. Perhaps an idea for future products ASUS ?
The Platform Experience
The motherboard manufacturers simply went berserk with their motherboard designs, and I believe that ever since 2014/2015 the best years for motherboards did arrive, look at what the motherboard manufacturers did and now are offering. The overall per core performance remains seriously nice but is at the level of pretty much any old Nehalem architecture based processor core, Turbo 3.0 kicks in nicely up-to 3.5 GHz per core for the Core i7 6950X. For the professional user who uses heavily threaded software like content creation, that's where Haswell-E/Broadwell-E will make nice difference. Added to that, quad-channel DDR4 memory will offer retarded bandwidth and plenty of PCIe lanes and you'll have a platform that will be hard to beat. The Intel X99 chipset is by all means a huge plus. With this release you receive huge amounts of SATA3 and USB 3.0 ports among others. The motherboard manufacturers have gone through great lengths and offer the most luxurious products. It is a feast to the eyes to see and experience really. The latest iteration of the MSI Click BIOS uEFI interface finally has become mature and I've actually started to really like it. Apply a nice liquid cooling kit on the processor and you will get over that 4,000 MHz range with a capable enough processor.
Features
Specs and features wise there is also very little to complain about. This motherboard can be the infrastructure for your SLI or Crossfire setup up-to 4-way. We just LOVE the tr-antenna AC WIFI, it is Wireless Ethernet perfection in terms of performance and stability. Seriously, I am impressed. You do get everything else though, no less then ten SATA 3 ports and that sweet M.2 interface on a 32 Gbps link. Then a serious amount of USB 3.0 ports are included as well as 3.1 USB jacks, of course we need to mention the enhanced audio solution as well. We didn't talk about it a lot in the review, but included as well is SupremeFX Hi-Fi's ESS ES9018K2M digital-to-analog converter (DAC), dual Texas Instruments LM4562 op-amps and TPA6120A2 headphone amp work in harmony to faithfully reproduce every detail without distortion or jitter. E.g. you get to play around with audiophile-grade 32-bit / 386 kHz audio output of over 6VRMS to your favorite 600-ohm headphones. SupremeFX Hi-Fi was fitted with a Cirrus Logic analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for proper near studio quality recording. So yes, I really do have to complement the audio features here, as over the standard codecs used like two years ago, we now see huge improvement on both hard and software side that is way more appealing to the audiophile end-user. Combined with ten SATA 6Gbps ports we can hardly complain about anything. Interesting I find to be the developments on the M.2 interface, pop in a M.2 compatible PCI-E SSD and you'll see your SSD quickly perform in the 2,500 MB/sec range. Overall your SATA and M.2 connectivity is plentiful and top notch when it comes to performance.
Tweaking
If you have two left hands in terms of overclocking then just load up the BIOS and select a preset for overclocking, hit safe, reboot and boom your system now runs at 4.4 GHz. A word of advice though, you'll need SERIOUS cooling with Broadwell-E processors. The tweaking performance of this motherboard was on similar to all other X99 motherboards we tested, we can reach that 4.3 /4.4 GHz clock frequency on the 10 cores as that is the limit of the processor. The motherboard could go way beyond that of course, but you'd need to house your motherboard in a fridge really. It is just not realistic. Overall we'd recommend you to stick at 4.0 GHz at 1.2 Volts (but that is just a little tip). Also make sure you use liquid cooling if you plan to tweak of course. Overclocking wise, you will have plenty of headroom to fool around with. It really is a fun processor to tweak with and the motherboard certainly isn't preventing a bad overclock, contrary the this board was designed to offer all features needed and quickly get you up-to snuff tweaking wise. Memory wise, really you are not going to notice any benefit of extremely fast clocked memory. More 2,133 MHz DDR4 DIMMs setup in quad-channel will benefit you great then faster. Still if you are a performance monger, just have a peek at the memory benchmarks in this article, the 3,200 MHz activated XMP DIMMs from G.Skill offer a truckload of bandwidth at quad-channel.
Final Words
Yeah, it's conclusion time ! First, let me congratulate ASUS with the 10th anniversary of the Republic of Gamers, well done guys. ROG has become a brand within a brand that people love and respect. Now let me do it in a sweet & sour fashion. Sour first, this motherboard is 599 USD/Euro. There I said it, 99.99% of you guys just flipped a particular finger at me (well the monitor) right? I know, it is a crazy amount of money for a motherboard, especially when you consider that all these motherboards tweak at the very same levels if you cool on air or water. The price is mostly due to the audio box and advanced Aura LED system. However make no mistake, the ROG RAMPAGE V EDITION 10 is incredibly appealing. It has some of the best features your money can get you with the looks to kill. Combined with a relatively energy friendly and feature rich X99 chipset these platforms will perform just excellent. Features wise this kit offers it all, the ten SATA 6 Gbps ports, the Intel Ethernet jacks and the lovely audio solution. The motherboard is multi-GPU ready up-to 4-way and then add to all this features like on-board buttons, pre-overclock modes and diagnostic LEDs, fantastic design and configurable RGB LED lit heatsinks, enthusiast class Broadwell-E / Haswell-E processor platform, USB 3.1, SATA3, PCI-E Gen 3.0, ease of tweaking and sure, the design and component selection. For that steep amount of money you do recive a product with excells in build quality. Combine that with features and a fantastic design to the eyes. the ROG RAMPAGE V EDITION 10 motherboard is easily on my top three of best looking motherboards (albeit taste is personal). Obviously the ROG RAMPAGE V EDITION 10 offers everything and anything an overclocker wishes. Audiophiles will love that heaphone box with proper studio quality audio, and topping things off is the black design with incredible AURA LED lighting system. Pricing aside, it offers truly the best hardware, and as such will receive exactly that award.
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