Features and Layout (cont’d)
Continuing around the motherboard we come across the most unique and interesting portion of the Rampage II Extreme: the “ProbeIt” section. And while that might sound like something most people would want to avoid, it is actually pretty spiffy.
In this section you are welcomed with an array of four buttons and a toggle switch in the center along with eight very specific pin outs. The buttons are the easiest part to explain – by using the included external LCD POST indicator device you can use the three buttons on the left to change BIOS settings, change which of the two available BIOS chips you want to boot off of and monitor your system settings. Obviously, since these buttons are on the motherboard directly and NOT on the external monitoring device, this limits the use of this feature for open-air testing and tweaking. Serious overclockers always test like this anyway. The benefit to the switches being on the motherboard as opposed to on the external display is that it does not require a driver or any specific operating system (or any for that matter) to be installed.
The two buttons on the right, the big red “START” and black “RESET” are used for powering on the system and reboot it. The red button lights up when power is activated to the motherboard letting you know that the system is ready to be switched on.
The two buttons on the right, the big red “START” and black “RESET” are used for powering on the system and reboot it. The red button lights up when power is activated to the motherboard letting you know that the system is ready to be switched on.
The eight leads provided below the buttons are even more impressive as they allow for an easy place for users to monitor system voltages using an external digital multimeter device. Serious overclockers know that monitoring voltages via the BIOS and any on-board monitoring logic doesn’t give them as much control as using a reliable multimeter so ASUS has put all the necessary leads doing this in on easy to access location. No longer would a user have to hunt down and find solder points on the back of the board or even on the top – it’s all easily addressed here. ASUS even offers both a standard solder point (the silver dots located above the words “DRAM”, “ICH_PCIE”, etc) and a pair of cables that allow you to attach the multimeter positive and negative pins for a more hands-free monitoring solution.
All of the voltages users would be interested in for external monitoring are included: CPU, DRAM, north and south bridge, QPI, etc. This feature really is a dynamic shift in how motherboard vendors can support and cater to the hardcore enthusiast user and I am eager to see how those extreme users take advantage of and use it.
All of the voltages users would be interested in for external monitoring are included: CPU, DRAM, north and south bridge, QPI, etc. This feature really is a dynamic shift in how motherboard vendors can support and cater to the hardcore enthusiast user and I am eager to see how those extreme users take advantage of and use it.
Just for show, ASUS has the Rampage II Extreme light up the system is ready for boot up.
Even if you don’t want to get out your trusty high school multimeter to overclock your motherboard, the ASUS Rampage II Extreme offers up a lot of other features as well. When looking at the external connections board here you can see that it actually looks rather bare compared to even the ASUS P6T Deluxe we reviewed earlier. There are six USB 2.0 ports, a Firewire and eSATA connection, a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports and a single PS2 connection. The audio connections are provided by a riser card we’ll show you on the next page. There is a single button on the back here as well that is used to reset the CMOS settings in case you push them too far and the PC won’t POST afterwards.
These two pictures actually show the three available temperature probes pin outs that the ASUS R2E provides that can then be monitored in the BIOS or via the external display we detailed above and will show on the next page. They are hard to see: look for the text “OPT_TEMP”.
The R2E motherboard provides an electroluminescent I/O back panel that will help you find the proper connections even in the dark corners behind your PC with the lights off. The glow is moderate and not overly bright – it won’t stand out like a bright blue LED to blind you while you sleep. The I/O panel includes an opening that is used as a pass through for the cable used to connect the external LCD POST display used with the switches we talked about above.
Both the EL I/O panel and the external display connect at the top corner of the board. This area is actually quite a pain to access and installing the tiny two-pin connection of the I/O panel was difficult even in an open air case. I highly recommend you get all of that done before screwing the motherboard down.
Here you can see the slight glow the EL I/O panel provides.
