ASUS Rampage V Edition 10 Motherboard Review

CPU Cooler Fit and Included Accessories

CPU Cooler Fit

To test the amount of space surrounding the CPU socket, we mounted the Noctua NH-D15 cooler to the CPU socket. This behemoth CPU air cooler sports a dual fan construction and two huge vertical cooling towers.

When oriented in its default configuration, the Noctua cooler fits to the Rampage V Edition 10 motherboard with no space conflict. The cooler hsa more than enough room along all sides to accommodate the upper and lower memory modules as well as a PCIe card seated in the primary x16 slot.

The close-up views of the cooler mounting further illustrate the design of the CPU socket area. Even using a larger cooler like the D15, there are no contact points between it and the VRM cooler nor the LED block to either side of the CPU socket.

The Noctua hold down mechanism is large enough to quickly determine exactly how much space is available around the CPU socket. The Noctua mounts fits the socket area well, and does not come into contact with any of the board's integrated components or heat sinks.

Included Accessories

The Rampage V Edition 10 motherboard comes with all the necessary components to get the board up and running, as well as some nice to haves to further justify the board's price point and enhance its functionality.

The manual included with the Rampage V Edition 10 is as detailed as we've come to expect from an ASUS product, written in clear and detailed language. Also included are ROG case badges, ROG coasters, and ROG case labels. ASUS also opted to include a branded USB thumb drive, containing the board drivers and utilities. The case labels can be used to label SATA cables, hard drives and SSDs, as well as Keybot-related function keys.

The board's rear panel shield is integrated into the rear panel cover, so ASUS included a bracket for fitting the rear panel into the case slot.

ASUS included 10 black and white 6Gb/s rated SATA cables for use with the integrated port. The cables have integrated port locks and a mix of straight and 90 degree connectors.

For multi-GPU use, ASUS included two-way, three-way, and four-way NVIDIA SLI cables.

For use with the on-board front panel header, ASUS included one of their Q-Connector header plugs. You simply plug the front panel case leads into the Q-Connector, then plug the Q-Connector into the appropriate board header. It makes the installation of the front panel plugs much easier.

For use with the integrated WIFI adapter, ASUS includes a tri-plug antennae with gold-plated screw-in connectors. The antennae can be used in a flat or upright orientation with its flat surface optimized for broadcast and reception of 802.11ac type signals.

The included Fan Extension Card extends the fan control and monitoring capabilities of the board, adding three additional 4-pin fan and 2-pin temperature headers to the board. The external PCB connects to the board via the included proprietary cable. The board is powered by the on board MOLEX port. The 4-pin header marked FAN_IN is for attaching to a fan header on the motherboard for control signal purposes. That way, the fans attached to the extender card can be controlled via the Q-Fan settings in the BIOS.

ASUS includes three temperature diodes for temperature monitoring via the integrated board headers. Fans connected to the bound fan headers can be programmed via the UEFI to operate based on the connected temperature diodes as well.

For use with an external RBG LED strip, ASUS included an extension cable that plugs into the board's RBG LED header for powering and syncing the external strip with the board's illumination settings.

ASUS included a CPU installation tool with the motherboard to ensure easy and proper CPU installation into the board's socket. You simply snap the plastic guide over top of the CPU and place the CPU in the socket with the "This Side Up" arrow placed near the socket hinge. The plastic guide remains in place when you lock the CPU into the socket.

For enhanced audio, ASUS included thier SupremeFX Hi-Fi device in with the Rampage V Edition 10 board. The SupremeFX Hi-Fi device fits in a 5.25" case device bay. It connects to a USB 2.0 header on the the motherboard using the included cable for signal processing and is powered by a 6-pin PCIe power cable from the PSU. The device houses a volume knob, both 6.3mm and 3.5mm style header jacks (output) as well as a 3.5mm microphone jack (input). ASUS designed the SupremeFX Hi-Fi enclosure with the following audio components: an ESS 9018M2M Sabre DAC (digital-to-analogue converter), Nichicon and WIMA audio capacitors, dual LM4562 OP-AMPs, a TP6120 OP-AMP dedicated to headphone output, Sonic SenseAmp for automatic headphone impedance detection, and a de-pop relay to prevent popping when audio components are connected and/or disconnected from the board.