ASUS' Rampage IV Gene is small, but perfectly formed

Computing has taken an interesting turn in the last few of years. At one stage the common desktop PC had infiltrated many a home, providing a means of content production and consumption through traditional mouse and keyboard input. Today the focus is on smaller devices with a focus on purely consumption e.g. netbooks, iPhone/iPads and various Android devices. These devices are portable, consume minimal power, and offer a great deal of portability. The lack of raw processing power is offset by the uptake of cloud computing services such as Amazon's Silk browser and OnLive's streaming gaming service.

The drawback is that one cannot consume content if there's nobody there to create it. Take for instance video production, which takes its toll on both CPU and GPU. It may not even be the guts that matter, but the availability of IO to extend the workspace to several displays for added work efficiency. Or perhaps you're a diehard gamer who demands the best of the best, which no cloud service is going to provide for a while.

Fortunately this year is shaping up to be the start of a leap toward smaller energy efficient desktop computing. We've seen the amazing performance and energy consumption stats of the new 28nm 7xxx series GPUs from AMD, and the upcoming 22nm Intel Ivy Bridge processing parts can only further improve the gains made by Sandy Bridge. What's more is that with every passing generation the demands of software on new hardware have reduced significantly. It's not unheard of to play the latest gaming titles on midrange cards - a few years ago you'd have to make large quality compromises to achieve that.

With low power comes reduced heat output, which in turn means more power in a smaller package. This is where the Rampage IV Gene comes in. This micro ATX board packs many of the features of the larger LGA2011 based systems into a small package with minimal compromises. It's powered by the X79 chipset, and supports quad GPU SLI/Crossfire, although one should note that physical constraints mean that quad GPU setups will require two dual-GPU cards.

An isolated and shielded SupremeFX III audio chip makes its mark on one corner of the motherboard. By isolated we don't just mean away from other components  - the board has been etched around the chip leaving a transparent trace. For added effect, this trace is back illuminated by red LEDs. The result is an audio solution with 110dB SNR and a Tron-esque board design which saves the owner using up a PCI-e slot with an external solution.

Other notable features of this board include GameFirst which manages network traffic to allow simultaneous Internet activities without affecting online game latency, CPU Level Up functionality to automate the process of overclocking for those who aren't so technically minded, and ROG Connect - a feature we've covered previously, that basically lets you overclock and monitor the motherboard via a laptop or another PC. The board also has power and reset switches in addition to a debug display.

Performance wise the Rampage IV Gene fared well. We tested with an  i7 3820 whilst the i7 3960X was being serviced by Matt's beastly HD7970 Crossfire rig (and yes, we'll be covering this later in the week). This also meant that our only LGA2011 compatible cooler was unavailable, thus we had to settle with a cooling solution akin to the creations of Dr Frankenstein (i.e. a TRUE held down by a Jenga tower of HDDs and PSUs surrounded by Noctua fans). As mighty (read: comedic) as this solution appeared, it did limit our overclock to 4.3GHz, at which stage the CPU was hitting just under 100c load under Prime95. We used 1.30v vCore throughout testing with medium LLC.

Bundled with the Gene is the usual kit plus an SLI bridge, case sticker and a ROG Connect cable. The I/O panel provides a PS/2 combo port, 3Gb/s eSATA, a single LAN port, 2 x USB 3.0, 8 x USB 2.0, optical S/PDIF out, six audio jacks, clear CMOS and a ROG Connect switch.

ASUS's Rampage IV Gene proves that there's no longer a pressing reason to purchase massive E-ATX boards unless you've got some serious GPU related number crunching to attend to. Granted, smaller enthusiast systems do come at a premium, and you won't be able to attach oversized air coolers like the Noctua NH-D14. At $360 this isn't exactly a budget solution, but it competes well within the socket 2011 spectrum of motherboards. The ~$60 premium over a standard ASUS LGA2011 board is well worth it for the better onboard audio, enthusiast features and compact design.