Apr 27, 2011 06:20 GMT  ·  By
Asus Rampage III Black Edition LGA 1366 motherboard with Thunderbolt add-on card
3 photos
   Asus Rampage III Black Edition LGA 1366 motherboard with Thunderbolt add-on card

After making its appearance at CES and CeBIT, Asus has finally announced the Rampage III Black Edition motherboard. The board is specially designed for gamers and enthusiast users and sports a Bigfoot Killer network card, Asus SupremeFX audio, a headset amplifier and support for Intel LGA 1366 processors.

This means that the motherboard is compatible with all of Intel's 900-series Core i7 processors, including the company's current Core i7-990X and the upcoming Core i7-995X.

In addition to the Intel processors, the motherboard can house up to four graphics cards, thanks to the quad PCI Express x16 slots available, six DDR3 DIMM modules, as well as up to eight SATA storage devices.

When all the four PCI Express x16 slots are populated, they will work at x8 speeds and additional power may be provided to the GPUs via a MOLEX plug located on the edge of the board.

The expandability options of the Rampage III Black Edition are completed by two PCI Express x1 slots, one of which can be used for installing the Asus ThunderBolt add-on card.

This card was specially designed in order to offer extra functionality to its users and it bundles together a 2-channel high-quality DAC/ADCM, that has a 116dB signal-to-noise ratio, with a TI 6120A2 headset amplifier and a Bigfoot Killer network card (the E2100 Killer NIC).

Required power is provided via a 4-pin MOLEX plug that is placed at the back of the card.

Users who don't want to use the Thuderblot add-on card can rely on the Intel Gigabit Ethernet LAN and the SupremeFX X-Fi 2 7.1-channel high-definition audio codec that are built-in in the Rampage III Extreme Black Edition.

To make its board more overclocking friendly, Asus has also added an on-board debug LCD, on-board power, reset and clear CMOS buttons, voltage read points as well as four dip-switches that allows uses to enable each PCI Express x16 slot.

The rear I/O panel features a wide assortment of connectors, including USB 3.0 and eSATA, Bluetooth 3.0 and an 802.11 b/g/n WiFi add-on card. An additional USB 3.0 header is also available on the board itself.

The Rampage III Black Edition is already available for purchase from various online retailers and Newegg has it listed for $589.99.

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Asus Rampage III Black Edition LGA 1366 motherboard with Thunderbolt add-on card
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