ASUS Rampage V Edition 10 Motherboard Review

Overclocking and Conclusion

Overclocking

To give a feel for the overclocking performance potential of the Rampage V Edition 10 motherboard, we attempted to push it to known CPU-supported performance parameters with minimal tweaking. The board seemed very finicky when attempting to push the base clock speed to any speed above the default 100MHz, but we were able to get the board stable with a base clock speed of 100MHz speed, a 4.3GHz CPU speed, a 4.0GHz ring bus speed, and a 3200MHz memory speed. All overclocking sessions remained stable for over 4hrs. System stability was tested running the AIDA64 stability test in conjunction with EVGA's OC Scanner X graphical benchmark running at 1280×1024 resolution and 8x MSAA in stress test mode. Note that 16GB (4 x 4GB) of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200 memory modules were used for the overclocking tests.

100MHz Base Clock Stats with 3200MHz Memory

Note that this is is meant only as a quick preview of the board's performance potential. With more time to tweak the settings to a greater extent, pushing to a higher base clock and ring bus speed may have been achievable, in addition to an overnight stability run without issue.

Performance

The Rampage V Edition 10 performs well out of the box with no surprises seen with its stock performance in any of the benchmark runs. Its overclocking was a bit tricky to get dialed in, but seems to be par for the course with the boards supporting the Broadwell-E processors. In any case, the board's performance was nothing short of excellent.

Pricing

As of September 11, the ASUS Rampage V Edition 10 motherboard was available at Amazon.com for $679.99 with Prime shipping. The board was also available from Newegg.com for $669.99 and from B&H for $598.89.

Conclusion

If there's one thing that ASUS knows how to do well, its designing flagship products. ASUS set the bar for flagship boards with the Rampage V Edition 10. They took previous design of the Rampage V, modifying it to the next level. The Rampage V Edition 10 has dual GigE ports as well as 3×3 802.11ac WI-FI, USB 3.0 and 3.1 ports, onboard RGB LEDS, as well as support for syncing external RBG LED strips. As an add-on bonus, ASUS included their SupremeFX HI-FI sound module that integrates audio enthusiast-quality DACs for a superior sound experience. The board is a bit pricey, but the integrated and addon features more than make up for the price differential.

Their are a few minor oddities with the board, all that are addressable via BIOS or driver updates. The overclocking experience and dial-in was trying, but similar to that experienced with other Broadwell-supported ASUS boards. ASUS does have a very helpful guide here with pointers on Broadwell-based board overclocking. The other challenge with the board was with the SupremeFX HI-FI audio module. With the default drivers, the module did not seem to function well at all. However, using updated drivers fixed all issues with the module.

Strengths

• Stock performance
• Overclocking potential
• Board aesthetics, layout, and design
• Motherboard manual details and quality
• UEFI BIOS design and usability
• Dual GigE network controllers>/li>
• Intel GigE network controller performance
• 3×3 802.11ac WI-FI controller performance
• CMOS battery placement
• M.2 port placement
• SupremeFX HI-FI audio module sound quality
• RGB LED support and sync with external LED strips

Weaknesses

• Price
• Overclocking dail-in
• SupremeFX HI-FI driver support