14 DAY TRIAL // The enthusiast and overclocking market segment is, definitely, one of the most important factors behind the rapid evolution of consumer-oriented technology, because of two main factors: these users always possess the latest cutting-edge components and, secondly, are never truly satisfied and crave for more power. Still, even though by definition such enthusiasts never get enough (which is obvious from the amazing to insane overclocking feats they achieve), this doesn't seem to stop companies from trying to meet their demands, or at least be the closest to this ideal.
ASUS is known for having dabbled extensively in the art of superpowered motherboard construction, the most representative of which are those carrying the Republic of Gamers Logo. This collection of increasingly outstanding boards, which includes names such as Striker, Formula and Crosshair, has now gained a couple of new members, which may garner such denominations, among the overclocking communities, as motherloads, overclocking monsters, beasts and any synonym one might find for these terms. The two newcomers, which have been known to be in the making for a while now, are the Rampage III Extreme and Maximus III Extreme.
The Maximus II Extreme boasts an 11-phase digital PWM, is based on the P55 chipset and has four DDR3-2200 memory slots, five PCI Express x16 slots, seven SATA 3.0Gbps ports, two SATA 6.0Gbps ports, 7.1 channel audio, Gigabit Ethernet, a pair of USB 3.0 ports and FireWire. The Rampage II Extreme shares its sibling's connectivity and storage specs, but boasts an NVIDIA NF200 bridge chip, six DDR3-2200 memory slots, four PCI Express x16 slots and uses the X58 chipset.
These capabilities, while high, are not exactly what makes them stand out, however. What makes the two more unusual is that they boast a new LN2 mode (in case enthusiasts are feeling particularly driven towards the edge) and a Q-Reset option that reduces cold boot problems. They also feature dual 4-pin molex plugs (for extra power to the CPU and graphics), the ROG connect software (for overclocking via Bluetooth), the option to disable each PCI Express X 16 slot and a USB-based BIOS flashing system.
The Maximus III Extreme and Rampage II Extreme have reached North America and carry price tags of $349 and $399.
