ASUS ROG Rampage V Edition 10 Motherboard Review

Today we have an opportunity to review another new X99 board from the ASUS camp. This time it is their flagship board, the ROG Rampage V Edition 10 (henceforth RVE10). The “10” in Edition represents the companies 10th anniversary for the ROG lineup. It adds several new features over the Rampage V Extreme, which we will get into later. Frankly it is tough to believe there can be any more features added to this monster of a board, but ASUS has managed to improve upon its great pedigree with some added features! This board feels like it was forged from ‘unobtanium’ it’s so heavy and robust. Grab your favorite drink, take a seat, and let’s dig in to see what the RVE10 has to offer!

Specifications and Features

Please take a look below at the specifications list from the ASUS website for the RVE10. For the most part, we know the high-level goodies already. It supports both Broadwell-E and Haswell-E processors, has eight DIMM slots supporting up to 128 GB of DDR4 with OC speeds reaching (and going past in all likelihood depending on your IMC and memory used) 3333 MHz. There are a total of ten SATA 6 Gbps ports (all from the chipset), an M.2 slot, and U.2 connector for storage. The RVE10 supports up to 4-Way SLI or CrossFireX for multiple GPUs with a 40-lane CPU. There is not a PLX chip on the board so your breakdowns are as follows:

• 40 Lane CPU: x16, x16/x16, x16/x8/x8, x16/x8/x8/x8, or x8/x8/x8/x8
• 28 Lane CPU: x16, x16/x8, or x8/x8/x8

There are also a couple of PCIe 2.0 slots (one PCIe 2.0 x4, the other 2.0 x1) rounding out the connectivity.

On the LAN side of things ASUS uses two Intel Gigabit NICs, I218V and I211-A, which has the Anti-surge LANGuard for protection from ESD. On the wireless side a Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac adapter is included. It supports dual band frequency of 2.4 and 5 GHz and has the ASUS ROG GameFirst Technology to help prioritize network traffic. Last here is the Bluetooth 4.0 support with transfer speeds of up to 1300 Mbps.

As far as fan headers go, there are a total of seven 1 A PWM/voltage controlled headers on the board. Like its new little brother, the Strix X99 Gaming we reviewed, the RVE10 has a header with additional power coming in at 3 A located next to the 24-pin ATX power plug (the top fan connector of the two). There is even a fan extension header and temperature monitoring leads found on the board, too!

Audio is handled by ASUS SupremeFX which runs off the shielded Realtek ALC1150 Codec. For this board ASUS again uses the Nichicon caps and Texas Instruments R45801 amplifiers. Also included with this board is the SupremeFX Hi-Fi with its External (to the board) DAC. This unit is connected via a 6-pin PCIe for power while data is handled through a USB header. I didn’t take apart the DAC myself, in looking at a different review on the board (from Tweaktown), this unit is said to use pretty high-quality parts underneath the hood and is similar to the expensive Strix RAID DLX card. It uses a high SNR ESS 9018M2M Sabre DAC and two LM4562 Op-Amps (one for each channel) among some of the other high-end features on the unit. All audio control/tweaks are handled with the Sonic Studio II audio application.

There are plenty of USB ports on this board varying from six USB 2.0 (four at mid-board and two black at back panel), eight USB 3.0 (four at mid-board and four blue at back panel), and four USB 3.1 Type-A/C (two black Type-C and two red Type-A on the back panel). Plenty of them for most users. What is pretty unique on this board are the TWO USB 3.1 Type-A and Type-C connectors. You typically only see one of each on a motherboard.

For more detailed specifications, please see the table below!

Jumping into some of the major features of the board, ASUS has divided things up into six sections on their webpage (not including the board summary). The first is Best Gaming Lighting. This feature set includes the Aura Lighting control which offers you full control over the integrated RGB LEDs (I/O slot, PCIe, PCH, Audio, and under the board) including nine different lighting schemes. If what is on the board isn’t enough for you the ROG Rampage V Edition 10 includes a 4-pin RGB strip header. You can plug in standard 5050 RGB LED strips up to 2 A (12 V) and control those with the Aura software as well.

Best Audio Extra refers to the included Supreme FX Hi-Fi DAC using the ESS ES9018K2M digital-to-analog converter (DAC), dual Texas Instruments LM4562 op-amps, and TPA6120A2 headphone amp to bring you the best quality sound. SupremeFX Hi-Fi also has an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) made by Cirrus Logic for superior recording quality as well. This unit, at least by its technical specifications, is a higher end solution than the onboard sound. I use GSkill’s Ripjaws SR910 headphones and there was a noticeable improvement in clarity.

ASUS’ ROG line has always been great at overclocking and the RVE10 will be no exception. ASUS dubs these features as the Best Overclocking Armory, alluding to a stockpile of items helping to get the best out of whatever CPU you drop in the socket. From its second generation ASUS T-Topology on the DDR4 memory, the “OC Zone” on the motherboard housing DIMM and PCIe lane DIP switches, Safeboot/MemOK!/Retry buttons, one click overclocking and cooling, as well as the board having multiple temperature sensors and fan headers to keep you up to date on the environmental status of your board. There is also a dual BIOS so you can feel free to flash to your heart’s content and revert to a backup if needed. You are also able to flash without a CPU/memory in it!

Best Gaming Connectivity refers to all the modern storage and peripheral connection technologies. This includes USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A and -C, ten SATA ports, and U.2/M.2 32 Gbps ports. The X99 chipset has been out for a while so it is great to see these (mostly) new additions on the board. The Best Gaming Graphics is in reference to the 4-Way SLI capability. This does not affect the M.2 or U.2 slots either! Included in the Gaming connectivity is the Best Gaming Protection. This feature set encompasses a REALLY cool pre-mounted I/O Shield. Instead of including one of the typically flimsy I/O shields, it slots right into the metal I/O shield to cover that normally ugly part of the board. This metal shield is connected to the VRM heatsink via pipe and doubles as an additional heatsink. I have to admit it does look better than any other I/O shield I have seen!

Last up, “ROG Gives You More”. This neat little ditty speaks to the Overwolf software (allows you to email, browse, IM, stream, or record), Keybot II software allowing one greater control over the keyboard via an onboard controller to create macros and profiles and special functions among other included software and features. ASUS includes a great software suite from AISuite3, ROG themed CPU-Z, MemTweakIt memory tweaking software, RAMDisk, and Sonic Radar II. Loads of hardware and software features that will please any enthusiast. I did not cover everything here, so please check out the link above for all the details!

	Best Gaming Lighting – Build with Rampage V Edition 10 and you’ll build… BRIGHT! With a built-in Aura RGB-strip header and easy lighting controls, it’s never been easier to light up your rig — and your LAN parties! Rampage V Edition 10 includes the amazing Aura lighting-control utility to cast stunning multi-color glows across your gaming rig, via the motherboard’s powerful built-in RGB LEDs or attached RGB strips, or both — and in perfect synchronization! Aura Lighting Control – Fire up Aura and then enjoy the creative freedom of nine different lighting schemes. You’re even able to sync your lighting style with the ever-growing portfolio of Aura-capable gear. 4-PIN Aura RGB-Strip Header – Forget the faff of external RGB controllers! With ROG’s Aura RGB-strip header, it’s quick and easy to cast brilliant colors across your rig and room: just slide standard 12 V RGB strips onto the 4-pin Aura RGB-strip header, then weave your lighting any way you like. And, ROG has teamed up with well-known strip-makers and case manufacturers for great synchronized effects and best compatibility — so you’ll light up as easy as RGB wherever you see the Aura Ready logo! *The Aura RGB-strip header supports standard 5050 RGB LED strips with a maximum power rating of 2 A (12 V). For maximum brightness, strip length should not exceed 2m. *One extension cable is included. RGB LED strips need to be purchased separately.
	Gaming/Upscale Audio – 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, so you enjoy audiophile-grade 32-bit/386 kHz, and output of over 6VRMS to your favorite 600-ohm headphones. SupremeFX Hi-Fi has a Cirrus Logic analog-to-digital convertor (ADC) for exceptional recording quality and, when you crave excitement over accuracy, fire up ROG’s Sonic Studio suite to apply endless audio enhancements!
	Unleash the True Performance of Intel Core I7 Processors for LGA 2011-V3 — Today and into the Future! Let loose up to 10 cores with new Intel® Core™ i7 processors for socket LGA 2011-v3, in both 28— and 40-lane options — and awaken the true multi-threaded performance! Rampage V Edition 10 is engineered from the group up to squeeze every last drop of power from Intel’s latest architecture, so you’ll always be one step ahead! DDR4 Overclocking, Strength in Numbers -Second-generation ASUS T-Topology pushes DDR4 memory overclocking to over 3333 MHz with all memory slots populated — and that means the best-ever gaming performance from your Rampage V Edition 10 rig! Featuring a customized trace layout for reduced crosstalk and coupling noise, second-generation T-Topology ensures time-aligned signal transfer for improved memory stability and compatibility. OC ZONE, Save More Time, Break More Records ROG understands overclockers better than any other manufacturer — so Rampage V Edition 10 includes loads of hardware-level controls to aid your overclocking adventures, including DIMM and PCIe switches, Safe Boot and ReTry buttons. They’re quick, easy and real time-savers! DIMM Switch, PCIE x16 lane switch, Safe Boot Button, Retry button and MemOK!
	Best Gaming Audio – You’d never win with your eyes closed, so open your ears up to the best audio for the battlefield! ROG’s awesome audio expertise is the result of extensive R&D, and SupremeFX is the crystal-clear result — onboard sound as superior as your gaming rep! Champion-Level Audio from Supreme FX – Rampage V Edition 10’s onboard audio isn’t just good — it’s as good as you can get! You benefit from the best gaming-audio inputs and outputs, with special shielded designs, and a collection of carefully selected professional-grade audio components, including Nichicon capacitors, dedicated dual RC4580 op-amps, and Sonic SenseAmp that automatically detects and optimizes any headset (32-300 ohms) for purest sound quality. SupremeFX also features intuitive Sonic Studio II, so you’ll apply and enjoy different audio effects for perfect entertainment — plus Perfect Voice noise-cancellation technology for team conversations with total clarity!
	Best Gaming Connectivity – Rampage V edition 10 accelerates every connection, with the latest reversible USB 3.1 Type-C and the newest U.2 socket for lighting-speed NVM Express devices — kicking every game into top gear. Best Gaming Graphics – You’ll game as hard, fast and smooth as you demand with Rampage V Edition 10’s support for both 4-Way SLI and CrossFire for multi-GPU graphics grunt, plus Aura-guided illuminated installation! 4-WAY SLI™ /CROSSFIREX™ Support – Perfect spacing and PCI Express 3.0 speed for incredible graphics! Unleash the full power of multiple graphics cards for visuals that never stutter, with just the right amount of space between each card.
	ROG Gives You More – Stay in the Game, Overwolf The clever unobtrusive overlay that keeps you in the game, so you can browse, email, IM, stream or record while you play, and all dressed up in color-matched ROG skins to show you’re part of an elite pack — quickly to be available downloaded from Overwolf’s app store! KEYBOT II – Free keyboard upgrade from an exclusive microprocessor and intuitive user interface. Record macros directly from the keyboard, switch profiles in moments, enable special functions with hotkey from F1-F10, start and even boost your PC from shutdown (S5 mode)! And More! AISuite 3, ROG themed CPU-Z, Mem TweakIt, RAMDisk, and Sonic Radar II

Retail Packaging and Accessories

The retail packaging comes in a uniquely designed box. It has your typical flagship style dimensions, being a bit larger of a box, to include the slew of accessories as well as room for the E-ATX sized board inside. The front of the box is black along with the 10th Anniversary ROG symbol prominently placed in the middle. The back of the box shows some pictures of the board front and back, the SupremeFX DAC, and lists a bunch of specifications and features. When you open up the box, you are greeted by a red ASUS ROG symbol on the fancy (for a motherboard box) top opening mechanism and the motherboard under plastic protection resting snug in form fitting foam. Below that rests the more than ample accessory stack including the SupremeFX DAC and even a USB driver ‘disk’. You can find a list of all the accessories in the specifications table.

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A Closer Look

Our first look at the board shows us there is a lot going on here. You will notice right off the bat the neutral color scheme with black on grey dominating the board. ASUS has chosen, smartly in my opinion, to let the included RGB LEDs do the talking for it. There are LEDs all over the place. In the I/O shield, the PCIe locks, PCH, the ROG heatsink in the middle of the board, and even on the back side shielding! On the back of the board we get a better look at that shielding. From the top it covers part of the DIMM slots and gets wider towards the bottom reaching about half way at its peak. It has a nice 10th Anniversary symbol emblazoned on it as well. The LED strip is found under the long edge of the shield (SATA port side) running the length of the board.

Another item of note is the PCIe electrical layout with the first and third full length slots getting x16 electrical while the second and fourth slots are limited to x8 electrical. One thing which may not have jumped out at you initially is the location of the M.2 slot. It is not found between the PCIe slots. It is found on the far right side of the motherboard between the DIMM slots and 24-pin ATX to the PCH and SATA ports. Can’t say I have seen that before! I also cannot say this is a good place, particularly with these hot running M.2 cards perched right under the GPU, typically the biggest heat source in the case. A lot of GPUs will have some warm air blowing down there. That said, I didn’t catch any throttling of the OCZ RD 400 I used, so perhaps my worry was much ado about nothing!

Zooming in just a bit to the bottom half of the board we see the plastic cover over most of the SupremeFX audio section, including the EMI shielded Realtek IC. Poking out at the bottom you can see the Nichicon caps as well. The PCIe area is has a total of four x16 slots with all four protected by their Safeslot technology with additional solder points and integrating the aluminum into the slot. Below the PCIe slots at the bottom is an additional Molex for more power to the PCIe slots when using multiple GPUs. Slightly to the right are the dual Winbond BIOS chips. Just to the right of those, the white 4-pin header is the RGB LED header. You will also find two fan headers, front panel USB, ports for other ROG devices, and the BIOS swap button.

On the top part of the board we see the eight total DIMM slots on each side of the CPU. Between them on the top is the heatsink covering the 8-phase VRM. Just above this we find the required 8-pin CPU power and 4-pin optional power input. The socket area is fairly clean with some caps at the 9, 12, and 3 o’clock positions while the ROG heatsink is on the bottom. In the upper right hand corner are a couple more fan headers (CPU and CPU optional). This is also the “OC Area” which contains a lot of overclocking and board troubleshooting functions. This includes the debug LED, both the DIMM and PCIe DIP switches for easily enabling/disabling them, Start/Reset buttons, MemOK! button, and slow mode switch. Below those are the safe boot button in red and the retry button in white. Next to the 24-pin ATX power are the voltage read points and handy Boot LEDs covering CPU, DRAM, VGA, and Boot device.

The back I/O is pictured here and, really, it looks pretty darn cool in black I have to say. As I mentioned earlier, the I/O shield is actually slots right in with metal I/O cover on top of it making it fit well together. The inputs/outputs there are as follows (from the specifications):

• 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port(s)
• 2 x LAN (RJ45) port(s)
• 2 x USB 3.1 (black) Type-C
• 2 x USB 3.1 (red) Type-A
• 4 x USB 3.0 (blue)
• 2 x USB 2.0 (one port can be switched to USB BIOS Flashback)
• 1 x Optical S/PDIF out
• 5 x Audio jack(s)
• 1 x Clear CMOS button(s)
• 3 x Wi-Fi antenna port(s)
• 1 x USB BIOS Flashback Button(s)

There are total of ten SATA ports and one U.2 port here. Notice anything missing? The SATA Express ports (usually combined with SATA ports) are not here. It didn’t seem like something terribly popular, but for a board of this caliber I expected to see a set, if only just to have it on there.

Pictured below is the 8-phase VRM area with its high end International Rectifier parts. This includes a custom designed PWM controller, PowIRstage IR3555 MOSFETs, MicroFine alloy chokes, and 10K black-metallic capacitors. ASUS says this ensures the Extreme Engine Digi+ always delivers the most precise and smooth core voltages. We know it has, arguably, the best parts to get the most out of your CPU on any cooling!

UEFI BIOS

Below are screenshots of the UEFI BIOS. The first picture shows EZMode which is essentially an information dashboard with the ability to adjust and control some of the basics. After pressing F7 to get into Advanced mode, you are now in the more familiar part of the BIOS. I have shown screenshots of each main header across the top… My Favorites, Main, Extreme Tweaker, Advanced, Monitor, Boot, Tool, and Exit. There is everything a basic user needs, all the way up to the most hardcore enthusiast.

I have never had any issues with ASUS BIOS. It was always smooth to move around, with things in logical locations. No worries here per usual.

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Below are a whole slew of screenshots from inside Extreme Tweaker. The amount of overclocking and tweaking options just in this section is absolutely mind shattering!

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Aura Lighting Software

Below is a picture of the Aura Lighting Software to control the onboard and the board attached RGB LED strip. You can change the I/O cover, center, PCIe, and PCH, and back LEDs in nine different effects along with changing the direction and speed of the effect. I have included a few shots of the board with just a couple of the colors available.

Test Setup and Results

Motherboard Comparison

Below are our results when comparing the motherboards head to head. As we have seen in the past, there is nary a difference between the boards I have reviewed. Everything was right in line here. If you would like to see the actual results, the thumbnails are below each graph.

There is nothing out of the ordinary to report in the AIDA64 Memory Benchmark either. All results were pretty close to each other outside of those copy results on the FTW K and Gaming Pro Carbon being notably higher than both ASUS boards for some reason or another.

Pushing the Limits

For the overclocking side of things, in order to really test this board, I should have a dewar of LN2 and a couple of GPUs. Sadly, that isn’t going to happen. I would have loved to have shown what boards made for the job can do with this monster CPU. Dreams aside for the LN2 crowd, I pushed the CPU up to 4.5 GHz again on this board and it of course did not flinch. According to the screenshots, the more astute may notice I used slightly more voltage, 1.383 V as opposed to the 1.374 V used at 4.5 GHz in previous reviews, but the reality in this case is a reporting difference in CPUz and measured from the voltage read points. This board actually used 1.375 V so it was right on the other boards. Memory I pushed up to slightly over 3400 MHz before I started to lose stability with its current settings.

Conclusion

Gosh, where to start with this one…I’ll cut to the chase. ASUS has really brought to market a great update on its Rampage V Extreme in the Rampage V Edition 10. They strapped on both a U.2 and M.2 slot, improved the onboard audio with the included SupremeFX DAC, sports TWO USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A and Type-C ports, and the ability to run 3/4-way SLI/CrossFireX without losing the ability to use the U.2 or M.2 slot. As far as looks go, ASUS nailed it here with the theme-agnostic black on black/grey, letting the onboard RGB LEDs (don’t forget about the header to add more!) and the Aura Lighting Control set things up as you please. Overclocking was, as it is on Intel, a breeze and this board will handle anything you throw at it on both ambient and sub-ambient cooling. Did I mention it can play games and do productivity type work as well?

If I had to register a complaint about the board, I would start with the curious M.2 location. While unique, I do have concerns with some of the warm air of non-blower type cards being exhausted right onto an M.2 based drive. We have seen throttling issues (extended writes) in the Samsung models while being uncovered so, with a GPU on top blowing down it, this concerns me a little bit. That said, we did NOT see throttling here on the OCZ RD400 used in an open air/little air flow test bench. It is also worth noting, in many cases, you are not beating on your M.2 drive while the GPU is under stress either. Perhaps even having two M.2 slots would be beneficial at the flagship level as well. The second item is the cost of the board, $598 at Newegg.com. That is going to be pretty cost prohibitive for a lot of users… consider that it almost costs as much as a high-end NVIDIA GPU!

As I said above, the cost is nearly $600 at Newegg.com. Believe it or not, there is some competition up there… all of them costing MORE than this board! Truth be told though, only the MSI offering would come close to competing with the RVE10 feature-wise as the others are not updated and do not have USB 3.1 Gen2 or a U.2 connector (or it’s an M.2 to U.2 adapter). Those boards do not include a high(er) end DAC either. With the Rampage V Edition 10, ASUS has updated arguably one of the best, most feature inclusive boards to make it even more desirable for those wanting to get into the HEDT platform with Broadwell-E (or Haswell-E). The board will please nearly everyone with its feature set from gamers, to extreme overclockers, to productivity users. ASUS really has outclassed itself with the Rampage V Edition 10. If you are in the market for a flagship-class motherboard, look no further!

– Joe Shields (Earthdog)