Asus Republic of Gamers Rampage V Edition 10 Motherboard review - The MOTHER of All Motherboards!!!

[Marinatall_Ironside]

 

Is this worth USD $599.99?!

The Asus Rampage V Edition 10 is one hell of a motherboard. From the name of it, this is supposed to represent what would otherwise be a “Black Edition” motherboard like the previous Rampage IV Black Edition, but Asus decided to instead commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the ROG brand as a whole with this mother of a motherboard. I would have to admit I actually like the naming of it. This motherboard comes out of the box ready for Broadwell-E Core i7 K and X-series CPU’s for the X99 chipset, and comes with new features never seen yet. It omits 2 SATA ports and two SATA Express ports in favor of having 10 SATA ports and a U.2 port for those running the 2.5” version of the Intel 750 Series SSDs. The motherboard is also “dressed to kill”, as it now bears a whole new look compared to the Asus Rampage V Extreme, and a monochrome color scheme save for those LEDs.

 

Did I forget to mention that with all of this, this motherboard is also quite heavy? Yeah, let me tell you, it sure as hell is, especially that backplate though!

 

 

When you guys first saw that I bought this thing from Amazon, you guys were like “Whaaa? Did he just drop over $600 on a motherboard? Is he crazy?!”, yes I will admit it is a crazy-ass motherboard. The price tag is very high, putting it out of reach for most consumers of the X99 platform and is solely reserved for the most diehard of all enthusiasts like me. This motherboard has been powering my system ever since August 13 after a terrible rollercoaster that was started by none other than me for being a dumbass (lol) and forgetting to install the software to get the SupremeFX Hi-Fi software to get the aforementioned USB DAC to actually work. So, just a reminder, install the software along with the drivers to get your system up and running if you intend to actually buy this motherboard. Please I implore you to do so, especially now that all of the drivers and utilities now come on a USB drive.

 

The unboxing and contents

This motherboard comes with the following:

• User’s Manual (always read through this, even if you’ve been building systems for years. Don’t jinx it!)

• 2, 3, and 4-way SLI bridges (yes this board does support up to 4 GPU’s)

• Two CPU Installation Tools (One for Haswell-E and one for Broadwell-E CPU’s)

• SupremeFX Hi-Fi USB DAC w/ supplied cable

• 3T3R Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Magnetic Antenna (IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac compliant and supports Bluetooth 4.0)

• RGB cable (for hooking up your AURA-ready RGB LED strip to the RGB header on your motherboard)

• 3 Thermal Probes

• Fan Extension Card w/ 5-pin cable and screw pack

• 5 SATA Straight and 5 SATA 90º to Straight Data cables for 10 SATA Data cables

• M.2 drive screw pack

• 3 ROG Fan stickers

• 10 SATA Data cable labels

• USB drive with drivers and utilities

• Q-Connector for front panel stuff

• I/O frame

• 2 Coasters

 

The Features and Specs

This motherboard has an ass-load of features and specs to go over, so bear with me as I list all dem things from the product page under the specifications

 

ROG Features

• AURA Lighting

  • 1 RGB Header

  • AURA Software

• 4 Asus SafeSlot PCIe x16 slots for being able to withstand those gargantuan GPU’s or those with waterblocks strapped to them

  • Supports up to 4-way SLI and CrossFire*1

• Extreme Overclocking Arsenal

  • 4 PCIe Dual Inline Package switches

  • 4 DRAM Channel Dual Inline Package switches

  • LN2 Mode

  • ReTry Button

  • Slow Mode Button

  • MemOK Button

  • Safe Boot Button

  • Start and Reset Buttons

  • Voltage Checkpoints (AKA ProbeIt)

• KeyBot II (Turns your keyboard into an overclocking tool)

  • One-touch overclocking

  • EZ XMP switch

  • DirectKey button

  • Clear CMOS button

  • Power On button

• UEFI BIOS Features

  • O.C. Profile

  • GPU.DIMM Post

  • Tweaker’s Paradise

  • ROG SSD Secure Erase

  • Graphics Card Information Preview

• ROG RAMDisk

  • For more information on virtual RAM drives, watch this Techquickie Video here.

• Extreme Tweaker

 

Special Features

• 5-Way Optimization by Dual Intelligent Processors 5

  • 5-Way Optimization tuning key perfectly consolidates TPU, EPU, DIGI+ VRM, Fan Xpert 4, and Turbo Core App

• Asus Wi-Fi GO!

  • Wi-Fi GO! Function: Cloud GO!, Remote Desktop, Remote Keyboard & Mouse, File Transfer

• Asus Exclusive Features

  • MemOK!

  • AI Suite 3

  • Ai Charger+

  • Anti-Surge

  • USB 3.1 Boost

• Remote Entertainment

  • Media Streamer

  • HyStream

• Asus Quiet Thermal Solution

  • Asus Fan Xpert 4

• Asus EZ DIY :

  • Asus CrashFree BIOS

  • Asus EZ Flash 3

  • Asus USB BIOS Flashback

  • Asus UEFI BIOS EZ Mode

  • Multi-language BIOS

  • Push Notice

• Asus Q-Design

  • Asus Q-Code

  • Asus Q-LED (CPU, DRAM, VGA, Boot Device LED)

  • Asus Q-DIMM

  • Asus Q-Connector

• Overclocking Protection

  • Asus C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)

• Turbo App

 

Specs

CPU

• Socket LGA2011-3 with support for Haswell-E and Broadwell-E CPU’s

• Intel X99 chipset

• 8-phase CPU Power Architecture

 

Memory

• Quad Channel memory, with 8 DIMMs total, and support for up to 64GB of RAM (Haswell-E) or up to 128GB of RAM (Broadwell-E). Supports only unbuffered DIMMs, even if you have a Xeon CPU installed.

• Supports Intel XMP

 

Storage

• 10 SATA Ports (Off of the X99 chipset)

• 1 U.2 Port (Off of the CPU)

• 1 M.2 Port (supports 2260, 2280, and 2210 M.2 devices. This port also comes off of the CPU)*4

• Supports RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10

• Supports Intel Smart Response Technology*5

 

Expansion

• 4 PCIe x16 slots*2

• 1 PCIe x4 slot*3

• 1 PCIe x1 slot

 

Audio

• ROG SupremeFX 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC

  • Supports: Jack-detection, Multi-streaming, Front Panel Jack-retasking

• Audio Feature

  • SupremeFX Shielding™ Technology

  • DTS Connect

  • Optical S/PDIF out port(s) at back panel

  • Audio amplifier: Provides the highest-quality sound for headphone and speakers

  • Premium Japanese-made audio capacitors: Provide warm, natural and immersive sound with exceptional clarity and fidelity

  • Sonic Studio II

  • Sonic Radar II

 

USB

• [X99 Chipset] 4 USB 3.0 Ports (4 on motherboard via 19-pin headers)

• [X99 Chipset] 6 USB 2.0 Ports (2 at the I/O Port and 4 on motherboard*6)

• [ASMedia USB 3.1 Controller] 4 USB 3.1 Ports (2 USB Type A and 2 USB Type C)

• [ASMedia USB 3.0 Controller] 4 USB 3.0 (via 4 USB ports at the I/O Port)

 

Networking

• Ethernet Connectivity

  • Intel I218-V 1x Gigabit Ethernet Controller

  • Intel I218-AT 1x Gigabit Ethernet Controller

  • 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports

  • Anti-surge protection (LANGuard)

  • ROG GameFirst technology support

• Wi-Fi

  • Dual-band 2.4 to 5.0 GHz frequencies

  • Supports IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

  • Supports Asus Wi-Fi Go! Utility

  • Transfer rates up to 1.3 Gbps

 

Operating System Support

• Windows 10 64-bit

• Windows 8.1 32/64 bit

• Windows 7 32/64 bit

 

Back I/O Ports

• 1 PS/2 Combo Port

• 2 USB 2.0 ports (one designated as USB BIOS Flashback and the other designated as KeyBot II)

• 4 USB 3.0 ports

• Three Wi-Fi antenna ports

• 4 USB 3.1 ports (2 Type A and two Type C ports)

• 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports

• 1 Clear CMOS button

• 1 USB BIOS Flashback button

• 5 Audio jacks

• 1 Optical Audio out

 

Internal I/O Ports

• 1 x Aura RGB Strip Header

• 2 x USB 3.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 4 USB 3.0 port(s)

• 2 x USB 2.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 4 USB 2.0 port(s)

• 1 x M.2 Socket 3 for M Key, type 2260/2280/22110 storage devices support ( Support PCIE SSD only)

• 1 x TPM header

• 10 x SATA 6Gb/s connector(s)

• 1 x CPU Fan connector(s)

• 1 x CPU OPT Fan connector(s)

• 3 x Chassis Fan connector(s)

• 1 x Power Fan connector(s)

• 1 x Thunderbolt header(s)

• 1 x 24-pin EATX Power connector(s)

• 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power connector(s)

• 1 x 4-pin ATX 12V Power connector(s)

• 1 x SLI/CFX switch (2/3-WAY adjustments)

• 1 x Front panel audio connector(s) (AAFP)

• 1 x MemOK! button(s)

• 1 x Slow Mode switch(es)

• 9 x ProbeIt Measurement Points

• 1 x Thermal sensor connector(s)

• 1 x EZ Plug connector(s) (4-pin Molex power connector)

• 1 x Power-on button(s)

• 1 x Reset button(s)

• 1 x BIOS Switch button(s)

• 1 x 5-pin EXT_FAN(Extension Fan) connector

• 1 x Water Pump header (4-pin)

• 1 x LN2 Mode jumper(s)

• 1 x ROG extension (ROG_EXT) header(s)

• 1 x Safe Boot button

• 1 x ReTry button

• 1 x U.2 connector

• 1 x System panel connector

• 1 x DRAM channel switch

• 1 x PCIe x16 lane switch

 

BIOS

• 128 Mb Flash ROM, UEFI AMI BIOS, PnP, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 3.0, ACPI 5.0, Multi-language BIOS, ASUS EZ Flash 3, CrashFree BIOS 3, F11 EZ Tuning Wizard, F6 Qfan Control, F3 My Favorites, Quick Note, Last Modified log, F12 PrintScreen, and ASUS DRAM SPD (Serial Presence Detect) memory information.

• Dual BIOS Chips

 

Form Factor

• Extended ATX (12 in. x 10.7 in. or 30.5 cm. x 27.2 cm.)

 

Notes

*1 28-LANE CPUs can only support up to 3-Way SLI™/ 3-Way CrossFireX™

*2 The PCIEx8_4 slot shares bandwidth with M.2 and U.2.

*3 The PCIEx4_1 slot shares bandwidth with front USB3_34 ports and back USB3.1_EC1_EA2 ports. If a X2 device is connected to the PCIEx4_1 slot, the front USB3_34 ports will be disabled. If a X4 or higher device is connected to the PCIEx4_1 slot, both front USB3_34 and back USB3.1_EC1_EA2 ports will be disabled.

*4 These ports share bandwidth with PCIEx8_4 slot.

*5 These functions will work depending on the CPU installed.

*6 2 x USB2.0 port at mid-board shares with ROG extension (ROG_EXT) port.

 

Shit, now that’s out of the way, let’s move on to what the user experience is like!!!

 

The User Experience (and how I use the Rampage V Edition 10)

The user experience so far is nice (even in the face of stories of people with bad motherboards on this particular platform as a whole). Navigating the BIOS is rather easy to say the least, and there is an immense amount of tweaking options available to the user which could end up confusing the user. I’ve never personally touched these options (especially Tweaker’s Paradise and just about every other DRAM option except DRAM voltage and frequency as I don’t understand what those options do)

 

Getting this motherboard off of Amazon was something of a huge nightmare. When it was first released, it was sold out everywhere you would look. Amazon at one point reported anywhere from 1 to 3 months before a Rampage V Edition 10 shipped. So me personally getting my hands on one was painstaking, and I eventually bought it off of a third-party seller which turned out to be a complete joke in terms of customer service. So when it was returned and I got the full refund, I bought it again, this time from Amazon directly. Oh and when I installed the drivers, I forgot to install one crucial driver: The SupremeFX Hi-Fi driver to get the SupremeFX Hi-Fi USB DAC to work and playback any sound.

 

 

A new feature I have yet to use is the DRAM Channel switches, as I have not yet ran into a dead stick of RAM and I’d betcha the LEDs will indicate which stick went bad anyways. But I’d imagine it seriously helps those who are watercooling their RAM. But the feature I really enjoy having is the PCIe Lane switches, as I could maybe end up with a dead GPU with two of them in SLI and I don’t want to go in and pull out whatever GPU ended up kicking the bucket. It’s like “flip this switch and done”. It’s just that convenient.

 

The other feature I really believe should be on all motherboards except the barebones of the barebones is the dual BIOS chips. You just don’t know when your main BIOS will get corrupted and/or you flash the latest BIOS and you find out that it’s buggy as hell. With this particular feature, it’s one press of a button and you’re ready to boot using that BIOS and you can get back up and running, grab the latest BIOS, and attempt to flash that BIOS onto the corrupted/bugged BIOS chip and get that one back up and running. As of writing this review, I have the two BIOS chips running 1003 (BIOS 1) and 0901 (BIOS 2). I always run my second BIOS one version behind the primary BIOS so that way if the latest BIOS is buggy, I can switch to the secondary BIOS and flash that version onto the primary BIOS chip to roll it back one version, as I will know that the previous BIOS actually worked in the first place.

 

The SupremeFX Hi-Fi is really one of the highlights of this motherboard. I use this USB DAC all the time and it’s been my primary source of audio for my headphones (I’m running the Sennheiser HD 598 SE). The SupremeFX Hi-Fi can drive headphones anywhere from 32 Ohms to 600 Ohms, a huge range! The I/O comprises of a 6.3mm and 3.5mm audio out jacks and a 3.5mm microphone/audio input jack. The software that’s needed to make this even work has the Headphone audio bit-depth of up to 32-bit, sample rate up to 384 kHz (don’t use anything above 192 kHz, or you’ll run into application issues outside of the SupremeFX Hi-Fi software). You can also choose between 3.5mm or 6.3mm headphone jacks depending on the jack you are using. If you are using any headphones with a different impedance rating, use the “Impedance Sense” function to get the DAC to work right otherwise you will have a bad listening time. The Microphone settings comprises of bit-depths of 16, 24, and 32-bit depths, and a sample rate of up to 96 kHz. You can select the audio source of either the Microphone or Line-in. On the subject of ASIO, the state is unload and it says the device is unavailable. I’ve read stories of people not being able to get this thing to work, but mine is working. Could be that the Sonic Studio II is missing since it’s been removed after the Windows 10 Anniversary Update? (comment below if you think there’s a different cause to this).

 

One thing I don’t like about it is it sometimes crashes, requiring a sample rate adjustment to get it working again. No need to reboot your system if you’re wondering. Another thing I mentioned earlier before is if you’re using any sample rate higher than 192 kHz, games and applications will not play back any sound at all, as they just don’t support those higher sample rates. 32-bit depth works fine though.

 

To fit the SupremeFX Hi-Fi USB DAC into your case, you will need an available 5.25” Optical Drive bay to install it. Powering it requires a 6-pin PCIe power connector, and you will need to use the included cable and connect it up to a USB 2.0 header on your motherboard.

 

The biggest highlight of this motherboard I really, really love is the fact that Asus has gone ahead and put all of the drivers and utilities onto an USB drive. Thank goodness someone finally did it, and good riddance to the driver disc! Not only is USB going to be faster than the driver disc (unless you have a SATA 3 optical drive), it’s just that more convenient as you don’t need to grab yourself an optical drive of some sort.

 

There are two USB 2.0 headers, and one of them is part of the ROG_EXT header for the OC Panel and the ROG Front Base. So be mindful of your USB 2.0 devices or get something like the NZXT IU01 if you ever need more USB 2.0 ports.

 

AURA lighting is controlled via within the BIOS (I keep forgetting where to find it, but I’ll update it when I find it again) or the software itself in Windows. With the latest version, it does add support for ROG Strix GPUs with AURA lighting support, and for ROG peripherals such as the Claymore and the Spatha. The software comes with a variety of swanky lighting modes, such as Breathing, Color Cycle, Rainbow, and CPU Temperature. The colors are really good except White, which gives off a little bit of a Teal hue rather than a pure white. That particular color is really difficult to reproduce with RGB lighting. Otherwise you can get creative with the lighting. Upon first boot, the color mode defaults to the Color Cycle mode. You can always change the color and the lighting mode.

 

AI Suite is one of those pieces of software I use. However I really use Fan Xpert 4 and nothing else to run all of my case fans in my computer. I’ve seen videos (one notable one is from Paul’s Hardware on his USD $3,500 computer when he used it to overclock his CPU to over 6 GHz) where the overclocking function will overclock your CPU to obscene levels of madness, which unfortunately causes instability as CPU’s can’t realistically run at those frequencies on even custom watercooling. So I advise you avoid that function like the plague until Asus actually fixes how it tests the frequencies of the CPU’s.

 

Moving on to the CPU temperature reporting function, it seems they missed it on this one. When compared to HWMonitor and RealTemp, it is off by around 10º centigrade. I think Asus should actually fix this and get it to where it is accurate to within ± 1-3º centigrade. It doesn’t have to be spot-on but if it's within that range, I wouldn’t bother.

 

Back to the Fan Xpert 4 thing, the fan calibration is quite often good. Sometimes it could be a hit or miss deal if your fans actually hit the lowest RPM ratings. The Fan Extension card is there for expanding the number of fans available from 6 fans to 9 in total, plus it comes with three extra thermal probe headers. So for you monitoring fanatics, you have it all right there!

 

The Digi+ Power Control area is something I’ve never touched into, but if you want to know more about it; there’s the Optimized Phase and Active Frequency Mode indicators to indicate whether those are either on or off. Since I’m running my Intel Core i7-5930K at 4.6 GHz, those two options are turned off. Diving right into it, the CPU tab contains the CPU Power Phase Control to control number of active phases based on current CPU load. In my case, it’s set to the Extreme setting, which means all eight phases of my CPU power architecture are active. There is also the CPU VRM Switching Frequency, which adjusts the spread spectrum to help enhance system stability when under load. Mine is set to Auto. There is also CPU Load Line Calibration which German overclocker der8auer explains very well here.

 

Let me know if you guys want me to write up a guide on AI Suite 3. If you do, I’ll go and do my research and tell you all about the functions of AI Suite 3. Otherwise I’ll end it here as it will take way too long (I mean this review is already long, geeze)

 

Overall it has been a stable experience, save for the long initialization time before Windows starts loading. Could be my particular GPU model is not listed on the devices QVL list. Don’t know, but it works nevertheless. To show how much of an ROG fanboy I am, I have two of their coaster chilling on my desk which I use all the time. Sometimes I like to use the second one to cover my drinks from dust and other nasties from getting into them.

 

Overclocking

A high-end motherboard like this is guaranteed to be built with overclocking in mind. The CPU power area is boasting eight phases of VRMs to power the CPU. With more phases, the VRMs will run more efficiently and cooler. For an expensive motherboard, those VRMs and MOSFETs have got to be of high-quality otherwise it’s not worth the huge price premium this monster carries.

 

Overclocking on the Rampage V Edition 10 has been awesome. I managed a 4.6 GHz overclock at 1.29 volts on my CPU. I did overclock my RAM at some point, and I even attempted a 2800 MHz overclock, but at that frequency, the motherboard would be boot-looping, so I had to use the Safe Boot button to get it back up and running and at that point, I backed off the DRAM frequency. So one of the overclocking functions I don’t use very often saved my ass!

 

Other than that, I would need to research the other functions before even thinking about trying them out for myself. Once I get to custom watercooling, I may even be able to squeeze out the magical 4.7 GHz I’ve been wanting to achieve, but unfortunately my AIO liquid cooler can’t even handle it at all.

 

The Aesthetics

The overall looks of the motherboard is something of a hallmark. The black and gray color scheme is really good, and the RGB LEDs adds that extra bit of flair for customization to your heart’s content. I have mine set to purple when at the desktop, but when booting up, it’s red, and all RGB LEDs are turned completely off when it’s powered off.

 

The SafeSlot guards also look good too. I do hope Asus is right about the overall added strength to withstand massive or watercooled GPUs, as those can put a lot of stress on the PCIe x16 slots.

 

The Conclusion

Overall, I have landed with a stable, extremely expensive board that has ended up becoming my all-time favorites. Asus has been good with their products I have used thus far. I’ve heard horror stories of terrible customer service, and I’ll admit when I was on the phone with them, I felt they were very incompetent with the motherboard’s functions which were eventually resolved with me finally figuring out that I was missing the software needed to make the SupremeFX Hi-Fi DAC work for once. If they knew about it, they would have told me otherwise, but I’ll save my customer service gripes in a separate review, as this focuses on the product, not the company.

 

Onto other aspects that people seem to have problems with, I looked at the memory QVL list to make sure that the RAM kit I planned on getting is going to work. Asus (or any other company really), cannot vouch for the compatibility of other RAM that falls outside of the memory QVL list, even if it’s from the same brand. If you are going to install RAM outside of the list, you are doing so at your own risk, and they’re not responsible.

 

 

Pros

• Incredible ease of use

• Ass-load of features that makes this thing a monster

• Incredible expandability with 4 PCIe x16 slots and 10 SATA ports

• USB Drive in favor of the Drivers Disc

• Plethora of items for the motherboard (except the coasters. Those two belong on the desk)

 

Cons

• Massive price tag of USD $599.99

• SupremeFX Hi-Fi’s sample rates above 192 kHz causes games and applications to not play back any sound

• SupremeFX Hi-Fi sometimes crashes, requiring a disable/re-enable.

 

Mediocre

• AI Suite 3 overclocking function is not very good

• Fan Xpert 4 may not be able to hit those low RPM’s for absolute silence fanatics

• CPU temperature not so accurate, off by ~10º centigrade most of the time

 

If I have to rate it on a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a 8/10. Certain aspects could be improved, especially the software side of things. Otherwise it is one hell of a motherboard I really love, even with its set of quirks, as long as it doesn’t affect the overall stability

[Praesi]

600$ for a MB? Nope...

[Wolther]

Very informative, thank you for this. 

[Bsmith]

that seriously is a lot of motherboard for a lot of money, if I had the money and/or chance I would probably grab it asap.

[ApocalypseTugboat]

Good review, nice having the specs in there as well. Do you think you'll opt for the front base?

 

While you were talking with support, did you mention the CPU temp issue? I wonder if that can be fixed with a BIOS update in the future.

[Marinatall_Ironside]

5 hours ago, ApocalypseTugboat said:

Good review, nice having the specs in there as well. Do you think you'll opt for the front base?

 

While you were talking with support, did you mention the CPU temp issue? I wonder if that can be fixed with a BIOS update in the future.

I was thinking of it, but I would prefer the OC Panel instead (that is if I can get my hands on one)

 

The CPU Temp issues are related to AI Suite 3. I compared its accuracy to HWMonitor, which picks up all of that info from what the motherboard is reporting.