X48 Makes A Late Entry
ASUS’s Formula Rampage is an X48-based motherboard that supports Crossfire and sticks to DDR2 memory. The launch is timed at around the same time as nVidia’s 790i-based motherboards, which use DDR3. With DDR3 still not very affordable for the masses and not quite showing any major performance improvements, the X48 might stand a good chance to take the place of the X38.

The motherboard has been stacked with heat sinks with copper pipes forming a long continuous chain evenly distributing heat. It does a great job at that and there are no noticeable hotspots anywhere. Solid state capacitors are used all over the board. At the rear of the board, an LED display shows information and errors while posting. The BIOS has a section called the AI Tweaker, which has plenty to keep the overclocker busy with reasonably minute increments for speeds and voltages.

In terms of performance, it’s general. There are no real benefits that one can find on the X48 chipset. Most processors today still use the 1333 MHz FSB. The motherboard performs as well as well as the high-end P35 boards. In 3DMark 2005, it scores 27927, which matches the high-end P35 boards of last year, but shows a very miniature improvement in games like Splinter Cell and Doom 3 at high resolutions.

The board comes with SupremeFX II’s riser card for audio. Software bundled with the board is 3DMark 2006 and a DirectX 10 version of Stalker.

In the end, the X48 stands out as nothing but just a minor update for the X38. The performance gain is minimal, but the board is a little more future-ready, which should interest anyone who initially planned to get an X38. This is an enthusiast-level board that matches some of the best P35 and X38 boards so the price of Rs 17,400 is overpriced as compared to the best performing boards from a few months back.

Specifications:
Intel X48/ICH9R chipset supports 45-nm multi-core Core 2 Quad/Duo/Extreme CPUs, Dual Channel DDR2 1066MHz support.

Contact : ASUS Technology Pvt. Ltd
Phone :  18002090365
E-mail : media_india@asus.com
Web site : http://in.asus.com
Price : Rs 17,400