![]() The rest of us will find plenty to be happy about, though. Fans of Nvidia SLI graphics won’t find much joy with Maximus II Gene. Both boards have dual graphics slots that can accommodate double slot graphics cards but the P45 chipset in Maximus II supports CrossFireX while Rampage II gives you the choice of SLI or CrossFireX. It’s worth pointing out another, less obvious, difference between the two Gene motherboards. On the other hand a Core 2 Duo E8500 is relatively cheap at £140 but of course it is a dual core rather than a quad core.ĪMD fan boys have every right to bounce up and down at this point extolling the virtues of Phenom II as an X3 Tri-core processor can be yours for £100. Things get more complicated with Core 2 as a Quad Q9650 costs a hefty £240 so you’d be better off with a Core i7. If you want maximum performance you select a Core i7 motherboard for £150-£250, plug in a £200 Core i7 920 and £100 of DDR3 memory and you’re done. The question of pricing is central to the business of building a new Intel PC. It’s a good gadget but it is relatively tame compared to the Extreme hardware. Probably the most exotic feature of the Maximus II Gene is the external LCD Poster that we have seen on a number of Asus motherboards. The Maximus II started life as a Formula model which meant there was very little that Asus could cut from the specification without damaging the integrity of the Republic of Gamers brand. The reason for this apparent disparity is that the ATX Rampage II is an Extreme model that comes with extras such as an X-Fi riser card that you don’t get with the Rampage II Gene. By contrast the full sized Maximus II Formula currently costs £142 while the Micro-ATX Maximus II Gene is only slightly cheaper at £124. When Asus cut the Core i7 Rampage II down to size with the Gene it also cleaved the price which dropped from £250 for the Rampage II Extreme to £175 for the Rampage II Gene. You have to think that it was a safer bet to use DDR2 as it meant that BIOS modifications were kept to a minimum. Maximus II Gene has the usual four memory slots as Core 2 operates with dual channel memory.Īsus has carried over support for DDR2 from the original Maximus II Formula which looks a bit oldy worldy in 2009 and we suspect that if Asus had started from a clean sheet of paper it would have opted for DDR3. Following on from that the Rampage II Gene has six DDR3 memory slots that support triple channel memory. The major difference between the two models is that Rampage II Gene supports Core i7 while Maximus II Gene is a Core 2 motherboard. (centre)”’ Asus Rampage II Gene”’ (/centre) Furthermore these two Gene models look incredibly similar starting with the dark brown PCB, moving on to the black and red colour scheme and going right down to the layout of most of the components. Both Gene motherboards are members of the Republic of Gamers range of high end Asus hardware and both are Micro-ATX boards that measure 244mm x 244mm. In essence Asus has taken the full-sized Maximus II Formula, eyed up the Micro-ATX Rampage II Gene and blended the two together to come up with the Maximus II Gene. There’s simply no way that we can get into this week’s review of the Asus Maximus II Gene without making reference to the Asus Rampage II Gene and the Maximus II Formula.
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