Asus launches the Rampage III Extreme

Is this a reaction to the Gulftown release? Asus has just announced its new Rampage III Extreme, its high end motherboard for socket 1366.

The card has no less than 6 memory slots, 7 SATA 3Gb/s ports, 1 eSATA 3 Gb/s, 2 SATA 6Gb/s, 2 FireWire 400, 9 USB 2.0 ports and 2 USB 3.0 ports. Add to that native bluetooth support and you get an extremely complete card. In terms of graphics cards, the Rampage III Extreme has 4 PCI Express ports that can be used in 16x/16x, 16x/8x/8x or 8x/8x/8x/8x The card is therefore compatible with CrossfireX and 3-Way SLI.

Designed for overclockers, Asus has used optimised Mosfets and electronics so as to be able to run it at extreme overclocking and temperatures. Watch out however, the Rampage III Extreme is in Extended ATX format, and won’t fit in most boxes.

No availability or pricing has been given yet but it will doubtless be pretty high…