PCB Design and Functionality

Due to its small size, Asus Rampage Gene II looks very nice, I would even say pretty. Despite its small size, the layout is extremely well-balanced. Asus engineers did a very thorough and smart job on locating all mainboard components.

Processor voltage regulator circuitry uses an eight-phase design. The memory, chipset North Bridge and part of the North Bridge integrated into the CPU use individual two-phase voltage regulators. The mainboard was manufactured using only highest quality electronic components, including capacitors with polymer electrolyte. All power connectors are in very convenient spots. There is enough room around the processor socket to accommodate large CPU coolers.

Quite a common description for a high-quality mainboard, isn’t it? However, this quick look doesn’t reveal all the little details, which are of utmost importance when it comes to working with the board.

For example, graphics cards often make it hard to install and remove memory modules even on full-size boards. The memory DIMM slot locks often hit against the graphics card, which means you will have to remove the card before replacing the memory modules. In most cases, it is no big deal, but if you use a custom cooling solution or liquid-cooling system, you may also need to take it apart, too. Asus Rampage Gene II mainboard will never have this problem, even though the memory DIMM slots and the first PCI Express x16 graphics card slot are very close to one another. If you take a closer look, you can see that the locks are only on one side of the DIMM slots, opposite to the graphics card. Now that they have finally invented this solution, you start wondering how come that no one has ever come up with a simple and logical solution like that before?

By the way, simple replacement of the graphics card also could cause some problems. Since contemporary powerful graphics cards use very large cooling systems, it may be hard to reach for the slot lock that holds the card in the slot. Asus Rampage Gene II mainboard uses extremely wide PCI Express x16 locks, so if you are having hard time reaching the lock on one side, then you will most likely be able to open it from the other side.

Just like many other contemporary mainboards, Asus Rampage Gene II mainboard has Power On and Reset buttons. They are very large and are highlighted during work, unlike hard to notice button on other mainboards that are placed very close to one another. There is also a small “MemOK!” button close by. Sometime the mainboard may not be able to start because of the memory compatibility issues. In this case by pressing “MemOK!” button you will be able to load fault-tolerant memory settings that increase the chances of successful system booting.

Asus Rampage Gene II has a total of six fan connectors. All of them are four-pin ones, with PWM rotation speed control. Next to two of them there are contacts for connecting additional thermal pairs that allow setting their rotation speed in dependence on the corresponding temperatures. Three difference colors of LEDs – green, yellow and red - warn you against excessive increase in the processor Vcore, memory voltage, voltages of this chipset North or South Bridges. There is also a HDD status indicator and a MemOK! Indicator. The LEDs are not too bright, do not blink and do not annoy, but if you want you may turn off all the LEDs altogether.

Due to Intel ICH10R South Bridge, Asus Rampage Gene II mainboard has six Serial ATA ports with RAID support. PATA interface is implemented via JMicron JMB363 controller that provides one onboard SATA port and another in the form of eSATA on the connector panel (SATA On-the-Go). IEEE1394 support is implemented by VIA VT6315N controller, Gigabit network - by Realtek RTL8111C controller, and sound – by high-quality eight-channel ADI AD2000B HAD codec.

The mainboard back panel has almost all ports and connectors typical of a contemporary solution:

• PS/2 keyboard connector;
• ClearCMOS button for resetting BIOS parameters;
• One IEEE1394 port;
• One eSATA port;
• Optical S/PDIF and six audio-jacks;
• Network RJ45 connector;
• Six USB ports, the remaining six ports can be connected to onboard pin-connectors.

The components layout from the user manual will give you a better idea of the smart design of Asus Rampage Gene II mainboard and help notice a few minor details: