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Asus to launch mATX Republic of Gamers Gene mobos

Published on 10th February 2009 by Richard Swinburne

Asus Rampage II Gene - mATX Core i7 with Extreme OC potential.

We have learned that Asus will launch the "Gene" series - the company's latest addition to its Republic of Gamer (RoG) family of motherboards - in a few weeks time.

Unlike all current Republic of Gamer motherboards, the Gene series will use the micro ATX form factor and fit below Formula and Extreme, which currently signify DDR2 and DDR3 respectively. We have also heard murmurs that these labels are likely to change in the future, though.

First to emerge is the Rampage II Gene (pictured below) which will be predominantly designed for LAN gamers and extreme overclockers living in particularly small apartments. This Core i7 motherboard will directly target the new breed of mini-boards that have generated considerable interest from the likes of other manufacturers, such as DFI's JR series.

It will feature both SLI and CrossFire support, as well as two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots, one x4 slot and one PCI 2.2 slot. It will still feature six DIMMs, software driven X-Fi sound from ADI and also includes current RoG features like TweakIT; this will now be configurable from the keyboard instead of just from directly on the motherboard - making it far easier to access OC settings on the fly.

The general RoG features in the current Rampage II Extreme are closely mirrored on the Gene series, although we have had hints that there are some changes in design.

Sadly, for those thinking smaller equals cheaper, you'll have to think again. The Asus Republic of Gamers series is a premium product and it will certainly be over $200 in the US when it hits retail. However, for a Core i7 extreme overclocking board, some might not think that's an issue.

Let us know your thoughts on this move in the forums.

Asus to launch mATX Republic of Gamers Gene mobos Asus to announce Republic of Gamers

39 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

DarkFear 10th February 2009, 15:47

SFF i7 SLI/CF love?!? I'll take 2 thanks...

ChaosDefinesOrder 10th February 2009, 16:08

do I spy S775 heatsink mounting holes? that's new to me, and a good idea! Well, good idea apart from the potential wekening of the silicon in that little "tab" between the two holes...

Htr-Labs 10th February 2009, 16:09

This is excellent news! Having already built a mATX server and the Audiobox, which uses the ASUS P5e-VM HDMI board, I will be looking forward to being able to finally built a decent gaming rig that's mATX and can handle Crysis. Finally! Thank you ASUS!

Mankz 10th February 2009, 16:25

Worried about DFi's Jr. boards at all Asus?

LCHolmes 10th February 2009, 16:30

I'm currently running this boards bigger brother the Rampage II Extreme and i love it if this is pretty much the same spec just smaller it should make for a fantastic board

Tulatin 10th February 2009, 16:36

It's good that Asus is finally joining the M-ATX OCing party - which means more brands should do it soon.

Now, as to weakening the silicon tab ,so long as you use a backplate, I'd say no worries.

pizan 10th February 2009, 16:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaosDefinesOrder
do I spy S775 heatsink mounting holes? that's new to me, and a good idea!

Foxconn BloodRage has had that.

Diosjenin 10th February 2009, 16:49

Excellent to see competition for DFI already. (Don't have anything against DFI, but competition is always good).

Although, I have to ask... why is there an IDE port?

Jack_Pepsi 10th February 2009, 16:54

I'm looking forward to a review or two.

;)

n3mo 10th February 2009, 16:59

Well, mATX with real OC potential is close to impossible to build. First thing that kills it - not enough room for PWMs. When I see AM2/3 mATX capable of serious OC I'm going to piss myself with excitement and buy a dozen :)

confusis 10th February 2009, 17:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diosjenin
Excellent to see competition for DFI already. (Don't have anything against DFI, but competition is always good).

Although, I have to ask... why is there an IDE port?

Some people like to re-use their old HDDs/opticals in new builds - cost effectiveness- and it beats having to add a pci raid card of sorts. it doesn't take up much room on the board and is probably a default function of the chipset

pistol_pete 10th February 2009, 17:12

Hmmm, could have more awesometastic heatsinks.

Otherwise, really pushes the options for a mATX build, super.

BlackDiamond 10th February 2009, 17:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaosDefinesOrder
...good idea apart from the potential wekening of the silicon in that little "tab" between the two holes...

Motherboards are not made out of silicon, they are made of epoxy resin and teh traces are copper. Silicon is in chips and fake boobies.

Burnout21 10th February 2009, 18:12

lol, maybe board makers understand that there isn't any good options out there for light weight LAN rigs.

eVGA did this with the nforce 4 chipset and 939, but really difficult to get hold of.

glad to see these boards becoming more main stream!

DarkFear 10th February 2009, 18:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlackDiamond
...Silicon is in chips and fake boobies.

Silicon = electronic chips
Silicone = fake boobies

Sorry, pet peeve...:p

tranc3 10th February 2009, 19:44

aw :( i just ordered my new asus board. ... i'll be upgrading in a few months

HourBeforeDawn 10th February 2009, 19:59

DFI has some competition now, this will be sweet....

dylAndroid 10th February 2009, 20:02

This looks like a really nice board. I just wish one of the PCIe slots was closer to the middle of the board, so that I could use a riser card without a graphics card then sticking off the bottom.

Diosjenin 10th February 2009, 21:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by confusis
Some people like to re-use their old HDDs/opticals in new builds - cost effectiveness- and it beats having to add a pci raid card of sorts. it doesn't take up much room on the board and is probably a default function of the chipset

I know what people use the ports for. :P What I don't understand is why anyone who would be buying this particular board - or any i7 board, really - would actually want to reuse their IDE drives. Especially in a uATX board where space is so limited, it just doesn't make much sense to include it.

- Diosjenin -

tominated 10th February 2009, 21:25

2 words:

DO WANT

icutebluezone 10th February 2009, 22:40

1 word. SWEEEEEEET.

Was waiting for sum one do do one. after seeing DFI mtx boards.

Lazarus Dark 11th February 2009, 02:24

Finally. I have a Maximus Formula board with a Q6600. I'll OC on occasion, but not all the time, I don't buy into the whole SLI/Crossfire thing, so I only have one GFX card. And I use one PCIE tuner card. The other 4 or 5 PCI/PCIE slots are a waste of space. I plan to get a raid card but that will still only be 3 slots filled. I've been looking at upgrading to I7, and I may have found my motherboard. Plus I can fit it into the Lian-Li PC-V350B, a mATX case that fits full size PSU's and plenty of room, not to mention it's gorgeous. (I just built my mom a pc using the S version of the case, it really is a fantastic case) Viva la mATX.

Still, why the freaking legacy? PCI, IDE, and I bet that's a ps2 port. Why won't legacy die already?

Scirocco 11th February 2009, 02:25

I'm excited another company is releasing an enthusiast/gamer m-atx motherboard. I was eyeing the DFI Core i7 m-atx board, but the UV slots, etc. just do not fit with what I like to do. This at least gives an alternative to choose from. With any luck other companies will take note and do the same.

[USRF]Obiwan 11th February 2009, 07:49

Does anybody know if there is a AM3 republic motherboard coming? And where are the BT reviews of the new AM3 motherboards and AM3 PhenomII processors? You guys are really late, while the rest of the competition (other hardware sites) have their benches out already.

naokaji 11th February 2009, 08:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by confusis
Some people like to re-use their old HDDs/opticals in new builds - cost effectiveness- and it beats having to add a pci raid card of sorts. it doesn't take up much room on the board and is probably a default function of the chipset

How many % of those who can afford I7 + x58 board + DDR3 still have ide drives though they actually use? I'm certain it's not even 5%.
They have so many different sku's allready it woudn't matter if only some of them had the old connectors like ide, pci, ps2...

Xir 11th February 2009, 09:06

While I usually don't overclock, having more choice for the mATX market is great.

Still using IDE DVD drive...why not? No change necessary.
Additional backwards compatibility won't harm you :)

Nikumba 11th February 2009, 09:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diosjenin
I know what people use the ports for. :P What I don't understand is why anyone who would be buying this particular board - or any i7 board, really - would actually want to reuse their IDE drives. Especially in a uATX board where space is so limited, it just doesn't make much sense to include it.

- Diosjenin -

Space is limited, so people could be using a laptop CD drive in a small case, which would require an IDE port.

I also have a top end Pinoeer DVD wrtier on IDE, and since the burner cant saturate the IDE channel, there is no point in spending the money on a SATA one

Kimbie

Vimesey 11th February 2009, 16:03

You can get laptop size drives that use SATA, and SATA drives are just as cheap these days.

I agree on such high end hardware, legacy does not need to be supported.

xrobau 12th February 2009, 03:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diosjenin
I know what people use the ports for. :P What I don't understand is why anyone who would be buying this particular board - or any i7 board, really - would actually want to reuse their IDE drives. Especially in a uATX board where space is so limited, it just doesn't make much sense to include it.

The thing you HAVEN'T done is count the SATA interfaces. Go on. When you get stuck after '1', then you'll realise why 8)

--Rob

zoom314 12th February 2009, 20:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaosDefinesOrder
do I spy S775 heatsink mounting holes? that's new to me, and a good idea! Well, good idea apart from the potential weakening of the silicon in that little "tab" between the two holes...

Yes You did, I put the photo into Paint Shop Pro 4.12 and brightened the picture up some and sure enough, there are two sets of holes around the cpu socket. As to the so called weakening, the backplate will eliminate that, So It's a non issue. ;)

tombmx 13th February 2009, 20:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by xrobau
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diosjenin
I know what people use the ports for. :P What I don't understand is why anyone who would be buying this particular board - or any i7 board, really - would actually want to reuse their IDE drives. Especially in a uATX board where space is so limited, it just doesn't make much sense to include it.

The thing you HAVEN'T done is count the SATA interfaces. Go on. When you get stuck after '1', then you'll realise why 8)

--Rob

I counted 7 lol. were you go to school..?

ps2 is the only one i see that ill need as sometime during overclcoks a bad bios = no usb so no keyboard :(

icutebluezone 23rd February 2009, 02:08

Time for sum pants creaming. This is sexy.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-TW&u=http://www.xfastest.com/redirect.php%3Ftid%3D19208%26goto%3Dnewpost&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dasus%2Bgene%2Bmatx%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26as_qdr%3Dd

Love the look of the sticker you get with the board. :)
http://pic.xfastest.com/MB/ASUS/ASUS%20RAMPAGE%20II%20GENE/RIIGENE-13.jpg

http://pic.xfastest.com/MB/ASUS/ASUS%20RAMPAGE%20II%20GENE/RIIGENE-32.jpg

[USRF]Obiwan 23rd February 2009, 06:56

JFC! That thing is huge, and I will bet that it ain't keeping it cooler then a TRUE120. Does it even fit in a case?

icutebluezone 23rd February 2009, 07:15

Wouldnt fit my case. :) Dont really like the look of that cooler anyways. The mobo on the other hand would fit my case. :D

What I want to see is the board with 2 gpus installed and a nice cooler on it.

tominated 23rd February 2009, 08:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by icutebluezone
Time for sum pants creaming. This is sexy.
Love the look of the sticker you get with the board. :)
http://pic.xfastest.com/MB/ASUS/ASUS%20RAMPAGE%20II%20GENE/RIIGENE-13.jpg

i would sooooo be sticking that on my case. It's fricken epic man!

icutebluezone 23rd March 2009, 05:11

Any more news on this board?

tominated 23rd March 2009, 06:20

it's on sale in oz.

icutebluezone 23rd March 2009, 06:42

arrrrrr dam you oz. lol. give it another 3 or more weeks and maybe it be in NZ only if http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/ import it like thay did with the DFI LANPARTY JR X58-T3H6 LGA1366

Asulc 10th April 2009, 21:59

Will Bit-Tech be doing a review on this board?