Well, we are far enough past the original X299 launch that the refined and crazier motherboards are starting to come out. This isn’t anything new, Asus especially likes to take more time for their crazy boards, not just rushing everything out to make it to launch day. In this case, it also gives them the chance to tweak things, like work on the VRM cooling that was found to be an issue with a lot of the X299 boards after the launch. This works out timing wise as well given Intel finally launching their last few high-end Core-X CPUs. In fact, Asus sent this board over specifically to test with that launch. Well with that out of the way I can finally also take a closer look at the board itself. You know the Rampage VI Apex is something special when it stands out even when compared to the Prime X299 Deluxe. So let's check it out.

Product Name: Asus ROG Rampage VI Apex

Review sample Provided for testing by: Asus

Written by: Wes Compton

Pictures by: Wes Compton

Amazon Affiliate Link: HERE

 

Specifications

CPU

Intel® Socket 2066 Core™ X-Series Processors 
Supports Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (VROC)
* The Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 support depends on the CPU types
* Refer to www.asus.com for CPU support list

Chipset

Intel® X299

Memory

Intel® Core™ X-series Processors (6-core above)
4 x DIMM, Max. 64GB, DDR4 4133(O.C.)- 2133 MHz Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory 
Intel® Core™ X-series Processors (4-core)
2 x DIMM, Max. 32GB, DDR4 4500(O.C-2133 MHz Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory

Multi-GPU Support

Supports NVIDIA® Quad-GPU SLI™ Technology

Supports NVIDIA® 4-Way SLI™ Technology

Supports NVIDIA® 3-Way SLI™ Technology

Supports NVIDIA® 2-Way SLI™ Technology

Supports AMD Quad-GPU CrossFireX™ Technology

Supports AMD 4-Way CrossFireX Technology

Supports AMD 3-Way CrossFireX™ Technology

Supports AMD 2-Way CrossFireX Technology

Expansion Slots

Intel® Core™ X-Series Processors Family
4 x PCIe 3.0 x16 *
Intel® X299 Chipset
1 x PCIe 3.0 x4

Storage

Intel® Core™ X-Series Processors Family : 
1 x ROG DIMM.2 Module support(CPU_DIMM.2)*, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (PCIE 3.0 x 4 mode)
2 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (PCIE 3.0 x 4 mode)
Intel® X299 Chipset : 
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (PCIE 3.0 x 4 mode)
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x 4 mode)
1 x ROG DIMM.2 Module support(PCH_DIMM.2)
Supports Intel® Smart Response Technology
Intel® Optane™ Memory Ready

LAN

Intel® I219V

Anti-surge LANGuard

Dual interconnect between the integrated Media Access Controller (MAC) and physical layer (PHY)

Wireless Data Network

Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

Supports dual band frequency 2.4/5 GHz

Supports MU-MIMO

Bluetooth

Bluetooth V4.2

Audio

ROG SupremeFX 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC S1220A

- Impedance sense for front and rear headphone outputs

- Supports : Jack-detection

- SupremeFX Shielding Technology

- Supports up to 32-Bit/192kHz playback

USB Ports

Intel® X299 Chipset : 
6 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 port(s) (4 at mid-board)
Intel® X299 Chipset : 
5 x USB 2.0 port(s) (3 at mid-board)
ASMedia® USB 3.1 Gen 2 controller : 
1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 front panel connector port(s) 
ASMedia® USB 3.1 Gen 2 controller : 
2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 port(s) 
ASMedia® USB 3.1 Gen 1 controller : 
4 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 port(s)

ROG Exclusive Features

Clear CMOS button
ROG RAMCache II
ROG CPU-Z
ROG CloneDrive
MemOK! Button
Slow Mode
Overwolf
ReTry Button
Safe Boot Button
Start Button
Reset Button
LN2 Mode
ROG Aura
- Aura Lighting Control
- Aura RGB Strip Headers
Extreme Engine Digi+ :
- IR3555 PoweIRstage®
- MicroFine Alloy Chokes
- 10K Black Metallic Capacitors
Mem TweakIt
ROG Extreme OC kit :
- PCIe x16 Lane Switch
Double Power :
- Dual 8 -pin CPU
ProbeIt
UEFI BIOS features :
- O.C. Profile
- Tweakers' Paradise
- ROG SSD Secure Erase
Extreme Tweaker
USB BIOS Flashback

Special Features

OC Design - ASUS PRO Clock II Technology
5-Way Optimization by Dual Intelligent Processors 5
TPU
ASUS 5X Protection III :
Gamer's Guardian:
- DRAM Overcurrent Protection
- 10K Black Metallic Capacitors
- SafeSlot
ASUS EPU :
ASUS Protect Technology :
- Anti-Surge Protection
AURA :
- Aura Lighting Control
- Aura RGB Strip Headers
- Aura Lighting Effects Synchronization with compatible ASUS ROG devices
ASUS Exclusive Features :
- AI Suite 3
ASUS Quiet Thermal Solution :
- ASUS Fan Xpert 4
ASUS EZ DIY :
- ASUS MyLogo 
ASUS Q-Design :
- ASUS Q-Shield
- ASUS Q-Code
- ASUS Q-LED (CPU, DRAM, VGA, Boot Device LED, HDD LED)
- ASUS Q-Connector
Gaming Aesthetics :
- 3D printing friendly
- AURA-RGB Lighting

Operating System Support

Windows® 10 86x64

Internal I/O Ports

1 x VROC_HW_Key

Accessories

User's manual

Accessory Guide

I/O Shield

4 x SATA 6Gb/s cable(s)

4 x M.2 screws

1 x Supporting DVD

1 x ASUS 2T2R dual band Wi-Fi moving antennas (Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac compliant)

1 x R6A MOS Fan bracket pack

2 x ROG DIMM.2 Fan Stand Pack (s)

1 x 3-Way SLI bridge(s)

1 x 4-Way SLI bridge(s)

1 x SLI HB BRIDGE(2-WAY-L)

1 x ROG big sticker

1 x Q-Connector

1 x 10 in 1 ROG Cable Label(s)

1 x ROG coaster(s)

BIOS

2 x 128 Mb Flash ROM, UEFI AMI BIOS, PnP, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 3.0, ACPI 6.0, Multi-language BIOS,

ASUS EZ Flash 3, CrashFree BIOS 3, F11 EZ Tuning Wizard, F6 Qfan Control, F3 My Favorites, Last Modified log,

F12 PrintScreen, and ASUS DRAM SPD (Serial Presence Detect) memory information.

Operating System

Windows® 10 64-bit

Form Factor

Extended ATX Form Factor

12 inch x 10.7 inch ( 30.5 cm x 20.7 cm ) X-SHAPED PCB

 


Packaging and Accessories

Part of me is happy when I get a product in and they didn’t waste any time on the packaging, but the rest of my just loves when you get a premium product and they didn’t hold back with the unboxing experience and all of the accessories. You can tell Asus has a lot going on with the Apex just by picking up the box. I commented to my Asus rep immediately when the box came in because it has a lot of extra weight to it compared to other motherboards.

Anyhow the outside of the box is all ROG. It has the same red theme that all of their ROG products have. The main thing that is different is just the name. Then down on the bottom edge, they have a few of the supports logos for stuff like SLI and Crossfire and the Intel CPU and platform logos as well. On the back of the box, we actually get a picture of the board. In fact, there are a few. The main photo is two pictures overlayed that shows the top-down view as well as a side view of the rear I/O. It also has the RGB lighting on as well to show off that feature. Up along the top, there are a few smaller images with key features and then all around the main photo, they have the specifications listed out.

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When you open up the box, the board is up on top with a plastic cover. It doesn’t come wrapped in a static bag or anything like that. Asus wants you to open everything up and see the board right away.

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Then after you pull the top tray out there is another layer packed full of accessories. For documentation, they send a user guide along with a driver/software disc. There is a huge ROG sticker sheet as well as a smaller sticker sheet with SATA cable labels. They also toss in an ROG coaster.

image 4

Then diving into the accessories. You get three different solid PCB SLI bridges. One is for quad SLI, the middle one in the picture is for triple SLI, and the one on the left is for dual SLI. They made sure to space out the cards in the dual configuration. All three are blacked out, though the one on the left doesn’t look as black as the other two.

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For other PCBs, you also get to ROG DIMM.2 adapters. These are an Asus exclusive. The board has two DIMM.2 slots that look just like memory slots. They are designed to run M.2 SSDs though. This design is unique and pulls the SSDs u off of your motherboard and away from the video cards were everyone else puts them. This allows them to be cooled better without having to go the full vertical design that Asus sometimes does. Each adapter has an M.2 slot on each side for a total of four. They also integrated the RGB lighting up onto these adapters and also have special mounts to mount included fan adapters right on them for additional cooling.

image 6

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The wireless adapter is similar to what I've seen on other recent Asus boards. You get a vertical mount base or the adapter itself has magnets in it to stick right on to your case.

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For cables, they include four SATA cables, all black and then two Aura lighting cables to hook your RGB lighting up.

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The rear I/O shield is all blacked out with small legends for each connection. They have highlighted the BIOS reset button and the BIOS update compatible USB port to make that simpler as well. The back has the foil covered padding over the old metal springs so you don’t have to worry about getting cut up or messing up and sticking something in your ethernet connection and shorting it out.

image 9

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Most of the rest of the stuff included in the box are screws for M.2 drives and stuff like the adapter for the front panel to make that installation easier. But they did also include a few extra covers for the backlit nameplate. This is really interesting because you can actually use a box cutter to cut the mylar on the plate, pull the extra off then install the plate with your custom design.

image 12

 


Board Layout and Pictures

As soon as you get the Apex out of the box it is clear that Asus was looking to do something different on this board. Just like the packaging, it is extremely heavy but it is the overall board shape that stands out the most. This is a standard eATX board in overall dimensions but on the left and right sides as well as down on the bottom they have notched the board, giving it sort of an X shape. I originally thought this might be some weird cost-saving measure but then I realized that it actually costs them more. I confirmed this when talking to Asus as well. With this design, they have to come back later to make the cuts after the PCB is made. The left and bottom cuts don’t do too much though the bottom one might be a nice place to run your bottom cables through. The one on the right is lined up with the SATA connections so if you are packing this board into a small case you have more room to hook SATA up without going past the edge.

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Beyond the shape, the Apex has the same colors as Asus’s Strix boards sticking with blacks and grays with the PCB being black, both black and gray in the plastics, and the grays in the cooling. They also have the angular styling in all of the cooling as well to also match that look. So being an ROG board they didn’t just toss a basic heatsink on the Apex and call it a day. There are three heatsinks in total. The low profile one next to the PCIe slots is the chipset heatsink. This is angled and placed in line with the angled SATA ports. It doesn’t have much for groves or anything to expand the surface area, but the chipset doesn’t need a lot of cooling. For X299 it’s the power circuitry that needs cooling and Asus stepped things up here over what I saw with the X299 Deluxe at launch. There is one heatsink just above the CPU that is about an inch tall with slits cut into it to expand the surface area. They used heatpipes from that one over to the left where they have made a heatsink that also doubles as the I/O shield. Given how many motherboards that use plastic on the I/O cover then try to make it look like it is integrated in with the cooling it is a nice change. I love this design. So not only does the I/O shield keep things looking better but it is now also functional.

image 15

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Down below the CPU right where you used to see more cooling Asus slipped in a small ROG logo on a plate. It is backlit with Aura lighting but what makes this special are the two screws that you can remove and swap the cover out. They include four replacements that you can hand cut out your own design into. I love the idea of this though I would rather use my plotter and cut the design digitally to make it look better.

image 18

Starting up in the top left corner, let's check out some of the smaller details on the Apex. The I/O and I/O cover/heatsink along with the CPU socket take up most of the room in this are but there are a few things going on. For starters, we have two of our four RAM DIMMs here on the left side of the CPU. Asus went with just a total of four DIMMs on this board. I’m told this is to better focus on overclocking limits as running a lower number of DIMMs does help with overclocking. It also opened up the space to have their DIMM.2 tech on board as well. These look just like ram slots only they are to be used with the included adapters. Each of the two DIMM.2 adapters lets you hook up two M.2 drives and run them in RAID. The left slot is set to run with VROC and the right from the PCH so they are on different controllers. Also up in this area, down next to the bottom of the DIMM.2 slot are two four pin PWM headers. Then up top just above the I/O there are two more as well as an RGB Aura lighting header.

image 20

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The top right is also filled mostly with the CPU socket and memory but there is a little more space here. Next to the memory is the second DIMM.2 slot. Up above the CPU, there are two 8-pin CPU power headers. The new Intel CPUs pull a lot of power even at stock and have been known to pull 600 to 1000 watts when you push the limits overclocking. Both connections have also been upgraded with thicker gauge pins for the power to help with that power delivery. Up in the top right corner, there are another four PWM fan headers, we are already up to 7 and that doesn’t count the two more down behind the 24 pin motherboard power. There is a large power button and a reset button for benchtop use along with two more smaller buttons for overclocking. The LED status indicator is tucked in with boot status lights on the PCB above it. There are more overclocking specific switches for things like slow mode and a jumper for LN2 mode. Next, to those, there are small pads to keep an eye on voltages with a multimeter as well. The tiny jump switch box lets you turn off each PCI slot. For normal folks, there is also a new style USB 3.1 header down at the bottom as well.

image 21

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The bottom right corner is the first one with a cut out of it but before you get to that you have two USB 3.0 headers that have been turned at a right angle to keep from having those cables sticking up in your case. The six SATA ports are angled inside of the cutout portion and it allows you to hook up cables even if your board is right up against the edge of your case. Down below that we have even more fan headers! There are three more fan headers, one is labeled as a pump header because it can handle up to 3 amps of power then there is a three pin water cooling flow header that lets you hook your water cooling into Asus’s software and turn off your computer if something happens. Speaking of that, you can’t see them but one of the coolest features on this board are the moisture detection sensors all over the board on the back, under each PCI slot, etc. These will pick up if your water cooling leaks or if you get drips when doing extreme cooling and turn your PC off before damage is done. Anyhow still down on the bottom corner we have the front panel connection. Then the four jumpers next to that actually let you manually turn off each lighting section if you don’t want all of the flashy stuff. There is a USB 2.0 header that is a combo header for the ROG extension boards. There is also a red BIOS button to switch between the boards two BIOS. Then over on the right, there is a small MemOK button that will automatically get you up and running if you have memory compatibility issues.

image 22

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Now down in the bottom left corner, we have two more of the cutouts in the PCB. The one on the left doesn’t really offer anything for wire management but I can imagine myself slipping a few wires in the bottom cutout. That corner has the front panel audio hookup next to a Molex power connection for the PCIe slots. There is a TPM (trusted platform module) header and then another RGB lighting header for the Aura lighting. There are four full-length PCIe x16 slots and then there is a x4 length slot with an open end that can work with some longer devices. The x16 length slots are all gray and spaced out.  Each will get you at least x8 bandwidth with higher end Core-X CPUs with the top and third slots giving full x16 in those situations. For audio, the Apex has an ROG Supreme FX 8 channel onboard soundcard using the S1220A CODEC. It has impedance sense for the front and rear headphone jacks as well as dual headphone amps as well to help push higher end headphones as well.

image 23

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The rear I/O is packed and I love it. Over on the left, you have a CMOS reset button and a button for Asus’s audio BIOS update. Then you have the onboard Intel Wireless AC hookup for the included antenna then two PS2 ports for anyone who wants to run old peripherals. I get the keyboard one for Model M’s but who needs PS2 for their mice… For USB you get two USB 2.0 jacks and then six USB 3.0. In the middle the red USB port is a gen 2 USB 3.1 as is the Type-C, both are up under the Intel NIC that is red to show that it has surge protection. Then for the audio setup, you get the normal 5+optical on the far right.

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The back of the board shows off that jet black PCB and the “X” shape. The two main heatsinks have large backplates as well as the CPU socket backplate. Then from down here, we can better see the split PCB around the audio circuitry as well. I did notice that Asus is also slipping the required logos on this side now to keep the top cleaner looking. Not visible but also down here are all of the moisture pickup sensors that Asus included to protect your board and also they have decked the entire board out in Aura lighting including here on the bottom.

image 31

 


BIOS

For the UEFI or BIOS, rather than putting together a bunch of screenshots that would be hard to flip through and would still miss a lot of the features I have done a quick walkthrough video showing every menu. The first thing I noticed when getting into the BIOS is that Asus has taken us right into the advanced menu. They are normally good about starting you off in EZ Mode to prevent anyone who doesn’t know what they are doing getting into stuff they don’t know. In this case, the Apex is a little more of a high-end board and I think they expect the users to be overclocking so you land right on the extreme tweaker page. This has your target clock speeds up top and you have access to every detail and believe me if you can think of it the Apex has it.

A good portion of the rest of the BIOS options can really be found under the advanced tab where you get taken to a page of links to other pages. This is where peripheral and chipset features unrelated to overclocking are all hidden. The rest of the menu tabs explain themselves really. Monitor gets you a long page with every sensor readout, the boot tab has boot options, and the exit menu is where you finish up and exit and potentially save changes. The tool page is the only other one with anything really important. Here you can update the BIOS with a download or by reading all connected devices including hard drives for the update file. In other words, if you download and forget to put it on a flash drive it is okay, you can find your download folder here and run the update. You also have access to the overclock profiles to save multiple configurations

Up top, you can get the EZ Tuning Wizard to let the motherboard do a basic overclock for you or you can get into the QFan Control and map out your fan profiles. Speaking of, in the advanced options I also found that you can also change every one of the Apex’s fan headers to depend on different temperatures. So a CPU header would be set to the CPU temp but a fan header for a front mounted fan might be better servers on VRMs or any other sensor if you have a specific hotzone to take care of. Now the EZ mode is there down on the bottom and in there you can turn on a few settings like XMP and drag and drop boot options if you are being lazy.

As always Asus’s BIOS are solid and the Apex is no different. Mouse controls feel a little off (sometimes the mouse tracks like I'm picking the mouse up when I'm not), something that Asus normally doesn’t have an issue with but their competitors do. It is still better than the rest but I’m hoping Asus picks up on the issue and gets it worked out. The number of features and total control that they give you though makes up for the issue and is still above anything else on the market other than past Asus boards.

video

 


Test Rig and Procedures

Intel X299 Test System

CPU

Intel Core i9-7900X

Live Pricing

Cooling

Noctua NH-U12S for cooling

Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Paste

Live Pricing

Live Pricing

Memory

Kingston HyperX FURY DDR4 16GB Kit 2666MHz

Live Pricing

Storage

Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD

Live Pricing

Video Card

Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti

Live Pricing

Power Supply

Thermaltake 850w

Live Pricing

Case

Microcool Banchetto 101 Test bench

Live Pricing

OS

Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

Live Pricing

Motherboard Testing

Passmark Performance Test 9.0

Overall PCMark score

PCMark 10

PCMark 10 standard test, not the quick or extended versions

3DMark

We run the 2013 Fire Strike test on the performance setting

In Game Tests

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

In game benchmark, ultra setting, 1080p

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands

1080p, built-in benchmark run at the high setting

Subsystem Testing

Passmark

Passmark Advanced network test

 


Performance

Okay so for the most part performance between motherboards isn’t a big focus. Your CPU, Memory, and Video Card all really set the pace. But I do still do a few tests on all of the boards we review to check to make sure there aren’t any issues or glaring issues. As some of you might have seen with the recent Intel launch people have recently figured out that some boards like to run higher voltage or automatically overclock CPUs so these tests check for that. That said most of the time small variances are just in the margin of error for the tests. In the case of the Apex, it came in right in line with all of the board tested in 3DMark. The same in PCMark. In Passmark all three of the Asus boards came in a touch lower than the Gigabyte and EVGA boards but still all were close together.

Really the network test is where I see the biggest variations because some boards use different controllers and for the wireless, they all use different antennas. In this case, the Intel I219V is the same NIC that all of the boards use and the numbers are all about the same. As for the Realtek 8822BE wireless card, performance wasn’t too bad, even beating other X299 boards tested but it was a touch slower than what I have seen on AM4 and Z270 boards in the past.

The last thing to check out was lighting swag… Oops I mean lighting performance. In addition to the X shaped PCB the Apex also is decked out in the same individually controllable surface mounted LEDs as on Strix boards so by default it is lit up like a Christmas tree. They can be turned off if you don’t want lighting or you can change them to match your builds lighting. You also have the lighting headers on the board that you also control from the same software.

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3DMark

Motherboard

Overall Score

Graphics Score

Physics Score

Asus Prime X299 Deluxe

19867

23755

24113

Gigabyte X299 Aorus Gaming 3

20474

23567

26871

MSI X299 SLI Plus

19153

23712

25345

EVGA X299 Micro

19437

23604

23848

Asus ROG Rampage VI Apex

19418

23821

22881

PCMark 10 Score

Overall Score

Essentials

Productivity

Content Creation

Asus Prime X299 Deluxe

6475

9145

8486

9496

Gigabyte X299 Aorus Gaming 3

6402

9193

7932

9764

MSI X299 SLI Plus

6304

9355

7834

9277

EVGA X299 Micro

6527

9493

8775

9060

Asus ROG Rampage VI Apex

6354

9330

8106

9206

Passmark PerformanceTest 9.0 Overall Score

Asus Prime X299 Deluxe

5924.0

Gigabyte X299 Aorus Gaming 3

6042.2

MSI X299 SLI Plus

5816.2

EVGA X299 Micro

5948.9

Asus ROG Rampage VI Apex

5830.3

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands Average FPS

Asus Prime X299 Deluxe

113.64

Gigabyte X299 Aorus Gaming 3

115.88

MSI X299 SLI Plus

113.58

EVGA X299 Micro

112.29

Asus ROG Rampage VI Apex

113.32

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Average FPS

Asus Prime X299 Deluxe

94.3

Gigabyte X299 Aorus Gaming 3

96.9

MSI X299 SLI Plus

98.7

EVGA X299 Micro

94.8

Asus ROG Rampage VI Apex

96.5

Average Network Speed

Asus Prime X299 Deluxe - Intel I219V NIC

918.2

Asus Prime X299 Deluxe - Intel I211-AT

942.0

Asus Prime X299 Deluxe - Wireless AC

211.8

Gigabyte X299 Aorus Gaming 3

936.6

MSI X299 SLI Plus

927.1

EVGA X299 Micro – Intel I219v3

923.8

EVGA X299 Micro – Intel Wireless AC 8260

176.7

Asus ROG Rampage VI Apex - Intel® I219V

915.4

Asus ROG Rampage VI Apex – Realtek 8822BE

207.5

 


Overall and Final Verdict

2017 has been a crazy year for the computer component industry, especially when it comes to CPUs and motherboards. We have seen Intel launch and already replace their mainstream chipset and CPUs, AMD releases completely new CPUs for the first time in what 5 years? AMD even also surprised everyone including Intel with a reentry into the high-end desktop market as well. With that Intel launched X299 and with the later release of their high core count Core-X CPUs it prompted 2nd generation X299 boards, something that we don’t normally see for a year or two on the high-end boards. That’s where the ROG Rampage VI Apex comes in, this is a board that you can tell Asus has been putting time into for a while and it includes changes to help with the cooling issue from the X299 launch as well.

Immediately when you check out the Apex the oddly shaped PCB is really going to stand out and for good reason, this isn’t something that is normally done. Asus is changing the market and I wouldn’t be surprised if you see competitors messing around with the same idea in the future. This styling was also found in the cooling, especially with the I/O shield being used as a full heatsink as well. This combined with the customization available with the 3d printable parts and the backlit customizable covers in the middle of the board that you can put your PCs name on allows you to make the Apex your own. But for me I’m especially liking the expandability, you get at least twice the internal headers in a lot of the situations, especially when it comes to fan headers. Asus also went all out for accessories with all of the SLI bridge variations,  the DIMM.2 boards that allow up to four M.2 SSDs, and a few different fan brackets for you to add active cooling.

The issues I ran into were small compared to the positives. This is an E-ATX board so it is a little wider than normal but most cases should fit it. Just not my Crush build that I would have loved to use it in lol. You do lose four memory slots in trade for the two DIMM.2 slots, but you do get four M.2 slots in exchange, this won't be an issue for most but it is a possibility. The board is also extremely heavy. Also not a big deal, but keep it in mind if you are using this in a portable build.

At $429.99 I was initially going to also call the Rampage VI Apex expensive, but after reflecting on everything that Asus has put into the board I think it is priced about right in the market. That’s not to say that I could afford it, but they have managed to put together a board that blends the high-end consumer-focused features and connection options of their Deluxe boards but has the overclocking features and performance of the Rampage boards. With moisture sensors all over the board and pump fan headers the Apex also looks to be perfect for water cooled builds as well. In other words, chalk another great high-end X299 board from Asus, the only downside here is now you have to decide which one fits you best!

fv5tophonors

Live Pricing: HERE

Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

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