Layout

Already at a first glance the ASUS Rampage IV Extreme looks very good with its harmonic design. Once again the ROG-colors - red, grey and black - suite nicely and together with the black PCB it becomes a very beautiful product. The layout itself is well thought and there is for example plenty of space around the CPU socket to install even todays largest CPU coolers. The fact that there are SATA connectere which have been angled by 90 degrees allow an easy installation of oversized graphics cards.

Until today we don't know how many phases the power design of the upcoming Rampage IV Extreme features. What we know is that we count twelve of the new high quality "Black Metallic Chokes". These can withstand much higher current (50A instead of 30A). In other words this means that one phase can cope with far more load than the predecessor.

Totally you'll find eight DIMM-slots on the Rampage IV Extreme. The official clock speeds that are supported will be disclosed after the NDA ended. There is engough space between the DIMM-slots and the CPU socket which means that you wont encounter compatibility problems with big coolers even when you choose to install RAM with big heatspreaders.

Northbridge, Southbridge as well as the current converters are being held at adequate temperatures via a passive heatpipe cooling solution. The cooling blocks haven been positioned wisely, which means that they don't collide with memory or CPU cooler.