![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Thursday , May 28, 2009
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS Rampage II Gene
The Rampage II Gene is the newest release from ASUS in its Intel Core i7 motherboard line. While it may seem small in stature, this Republic of Gamers branded board looks to be able to easily compete with the big boys, and do it with a much smaller footprint!
Subsystem Testing
NOTE: For all Subsystem Testing, an Intel LGA 1366 Core i7 920 CPU with the board base clock running at 133MHz and 3 x 2GB Corsair XM3-1600C8D memory modules running at 1600MHz were used in testing.
Audio – Subjective Listening
One of the easiest ways to determine the quality of the audio subsystem is via a subjective sound test. Ideally, a sound test requires audio covering the entire spectrum, from subtle to intense. For this test, I chose to listen to the self titled Avenged Sevenfold album.
Playback of the selected audio tracks was enjoyable, with no detected distortion of any kind throughout the session.
Audio – Microphone Port Testing
The MIC-IN input was tested using our standard Labtec Desk Mic 524 testing microphone. Spoken words were recorded and played back using Microsoft Sound Recorder, with the Microphone Boost option disabled and enabled. The Microphone Boost option is found within the Advanced menu under the Microphone section within the Volume Control menu.
While no distortion was detected with or without Microphone Boost enabled, overall recorded voice audibility was much better and clearer with Microphone Boost enabled.
Drive Performance
To adequately test the capabilities of the on board USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394 connections, we chose to use an ACOMDATA HD060U2FE-72-USB 2.0/FireWire HDD connected to both ports. SATA and IDE drive tests were performed using a Maxtor 40Gb ATA 133 model 6E040L0 hard drive on the IDE header and Samsung 40GB SATA II hard drives on the SATA headers. The SATA drives were used for testing in a RAID 0 16k block size configuration on the Intel ICH10R Southbridge controller and in standalone mode on both the Intel ICH10R Southbridge and JMicron controllers. Testing was also conducted using an IDE drive in a standalone configuration on the JMicron controller. All drive benchmarks were done using the open source Iometer program
While the Intel based ICH10R RAID 0 array took the performance lead, it barely outdid the performance measured on the standalone SATA drive on the ICH10R controller. The standalone SATA device on the JMicron controller performance fell in between that of the ICH10R standalone drive and the standalone IDE drive. The IDE drives performance was right where it should be. As for the external drive devices, both performed within expectation with neither really outperforming the other.
Network Utilization Tests
Hagel Technologies’ DU Meter software was used in conjunction with Windows Task Manager to measure the performance of the Realtek GigE NIC. DU meter was used to measure bandwidth, with Windows Task Manager to monitor the CPU utilization on the test system. For the test itself, a 750MB archive file containing various sized .WMA audio files for the large file transfer test and a 750MB worth of various sized .WMA audio files for the small files transfer test were used in conjunction with an integrated Gigabit NIC on the host system and a crossover cable to connect the host system to the test system. A crossover cable was used to rule out any possible bandwidth losses due to hub or switch passage.
Realtek GigE controller
Both large file transfer tests were impressive with the download test beating out the upload by a mere 6 MB/s, coming in at an impressive 37 MB/s. As expected with the i7 platform, the CPU utilization measured during both tests flat lined at 0%.
The small file transfer results were equally impressive, with the upload speed coming in at 14 MB/s faster than download at a respectable 30 MB/s. As seen with the large transfer results, the CPU utilization did not move much above the 0% line.
Test Systems
The following system configurations were used for the system benchmark graphs, as well as all graphs listed under the Application and Gaming Benchmarks sections:
Graphs are labeled as follows: Motherboard - CPU Clock - Memory Type
Sisoft Sandra 2009
Note that all results above were obtained running the installed memory in Triple Channel mode.
While not dominating the other boards, the Rampage II Gene easily keep up with the other systems demonstrating the quality of the board’s memory controller interface design.
Again, the Rampage II Gene shows the size means nothing, easily keeping up with the other Core i7 based systems. This is a good indication that ASUS’ design is sound and in no way inhibits overall CPU related performance.
Hiper Pi
The Rampage II Gene continues to shine, again matching performance with the other X58 based boards. This is exactly what we were hoping to see from this board, as any performance differences would indication performance inhibiting board design related issues.
wPrime
Yet again, the Rampage II Gene steps up and delivers, illustrating the solid design work that ASUS put in to this board.