OC3D Review: Asus Rampage 3 Extreme

[HeliEye]

Many thanks for a great review. On the strength of the review I purchased this mobo, and yes, it is a work of art in many ways, not just looks.

I had for years a core 2 Duo (3.0GHz) and felt the need or speed

So the list of goodies for my Christmas present to self :-

i7 980X Extreme

Asus Rampage III Extreme ROG

12GB Corsair i7 Extreme mem

Radeon VapourX HD7850

Crucial 128GB SSD SATA 6

ADATA 100GB SSD SATA 3

WD 500GB eSATA external backup drive (not permanently connected)

USB 1TB Maxtor (too slow.. now not used)

iCute 600W modular PSU

CoolerMaster HAF 912 case (Big 200mm Fan) Blissfully silent.

Mods: Just added another Coolermaster 200mm fan to top of case.

Have run it to 4GHz with no probs, but currently back to stock, as it's so damn fast, plus I'm not overly confident on the miriad of settings to get a good overclock.

I would need to upgrade the psu to look seriously at Over clocking, not sure it's worth the trouble?

I play Dirt2 online @1920x1080, the benchmark reported over a 100fps, which on the core2 duo was only 60fps.

Boot times? from when 'Starting Windows' appears to desktop 13.7 seconds, this was worse, before I removed 2 'mechanical' HD's, I didn't want to use one of the SSD's for paging file, as I heard this hammers them a bit and may reduce it's life? unless I was miss-informed?

Or... with 12GB mem, can I afford to kill the paging file option completely? then I could remove the last HD and be all SSD. I would be interested in your expert opinions on this.

Steve

 

[adicool96]

Many thanks for a great review. On the strength of the review I purchased this mobo, and yes, it is a work of art in many ways, not just looks.

I had for years a core 2 Duo (3.0GHz) and felt the need or speed

So the list of goodies for my Christmas present to self :-

i7 980X Extreme

Asus Rampage III Extreme ROG

12GB Corsair i7 Extreme mem

Crucial 128GB SSD SATA 6

ADATA 100GB SSD SATA 3

WD 150GB 10K RPM Raptor (not new)Just for paging file & win7 system auto backup

WD 500GB eSATA external backup drive.

USB 1TB Maxtor (too slow.. now not used)

iCute 600W modular PSU

CoolerMaster HAF 912 case (Big 200mm Fan) Blissfully silent.

Mods: Just added another Coolermaster 200mm fan to top of case.

Have run it to 4GHz with no probs, but currently back to stock, as it's so damn fast, plus I'm not overly confident on the miriad of settings to get a good overclock.

I would need to upgrade the psu to look seriously at Over clocking, not sure it's worth the trouble?

I play Dirt2 online @1920x1080, the benchmark reported over a 100fps, which on the core2 duo was only 60fps.

Boot times? from when 'Starting Windows' appears to desktop 13.7 seconds, this was worse, before I removed 2 'mechanical' HD's, I didn't want to use one of the SSD's for paging file, as I heard this hammers them a bit and may reduce it's life? unless I was miss-informed?

Or... with 12GB mem, can I afford to kill the paging file option completely? then I could remove the last HD and be all SSD. I would be interested in your expert opinions on this.

Steve

Ummm either im blind or i cant see the videocard and you seriously need to get a more powerful psu more like 850 to 1200 watts.

 

[AMDFTW]

go for the 970 instead of the 980x fella,look at mushkin RAM aswell

deffo get a better PSU fella,not sure why you need to many HDD and SSD's lol

and i cant see no vid card ither

 

[adicool96]

Yay that means im not blind woohoo, amd i think he already has the rig.

 

[HeliEye]

Ummm either im blind or i cant see the videocard and you seriously need to get a more powerful psu more like 850 to 1200 watts.

Oops a small brain-fart on my side.. corrected now (VapourX HD5870)

I take on-board the comments re: PSU, although it seems to be running fine and cool.

So a 1K psu should do it then, only downside, under-used big psu's are less efficient & waste power.

Any specific make recommendations for a good psu?

Too many HD's? there's only 2 SSD's and currently 1x Raptor, the other drives are only plugged in (external eSATA) when needed.

I still need to workout if I can drop the Raptor & the win paging file as I have 12GB Mem, then I'll be all SSD and a bit faster?

Steve

 

[adicool96]

Take a look at corsair psu's and modern psu's have efficiency even when unused according to ratings so no worries there.

 

[AMDFTW]

i just seen that and though thats alot of space lol

Crucial 128GB SSD SATA 6

ADATA 100GB SSD SATA 3

WD 150GB 10K RPM Raptor (not new)Just for paging file & win7 system auto backup

WD 500GB eSATA external backup drive.

USB 1TB Maxtor (too slow.. now not used)

 

[HeliEye]

i just seen that and though thats alot of space lol

Crucial 128GB SSD SATA 6

ADATA 100GB SSD SATA 3

WD 150GB 10K RPM Raptor (not new)Just for paging file & win7 system auto backup

WD 500GB eSATA external backup drive.

USB 1TB Maxtor (too slow.. now not used)

Hehe it was worse before, I had 500, 400 & 150GB drives in there, plus the ADATA 100GB as system boot disk.

the WD500GB eSATA is not permanently connected, only for data in/out

I'm testing NO paging file now, 2 days so far no probs yet, I might get away with it with 12GB mem?

If it works? I'll remove the only mechanical drive left (Raptor) permanently.

The reason for 2 SSD's? I already had the ADATA one, I saw the Crucial one was SATA 6, so bought that just for the boot drive.

My work involves lots of Video processing & converting, often Big files, at least now this processing is Very fast, I load them to the fast SSD and work on them from there.

Cheers

Steve

 

[HeliEye]

The last mechanical HD Raptor 150GB now removed, all solid state now.

And, still working fine (3 days) with No paging file, so far so good

Steve

 

[adicool96]

What bout the psu have you got a better wattage one and also if you wanna overclocm you should get a decent cpu cooler like the noctua nh-d14

 

[HeliEye]

What bout the psu have you got a better wattage one and also if you wanna overclocm you should get a decent cpu cooler like the noctua nh-d14

Hi adicool96, Yes I just checked out my system on asus's power supply checker, oops say's I need 700W min

Ok I bow to all you guys with the experience on psu's, I'll checkout Corsair's offerings, maybe a D14 as well.. oh dear, more expense..

Cheers

Steve

#Edit: Just ordered this:-

850W Corsair Pro Gold AX850, Modular, 80 PLUS Gold, 90% Eff', SLI/CrossFire, EPS 12V, 120mm Fan

Noctua NH-D14 Dual Radiator and Fan Quiet CPU Cooler

..Sorted

 

[adicool96]

Nice, congrats on your upgrade post many pics.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Can we move this to a relevent thread in the forums now please guys