Over the past several months since Intel launched their Core i7 chip, we have been seeing different flavors of X58 motherboards. As manufacturers put stress on the full capabilities of the Core i7 as well as the X58 chipset, it is easy to understand the reason they came up with motherboards that are based on the full ATX form factor.

True, many are yearning to upgrade their rigs and switch to the new processor, however, not all are willing to dish out extra money for a full ATX motherboard, considering that other essential components for such a PC upgrade, like triple channel DDR3 RAMs and a Core i7 chip, are still at their premium price points. In addition, others are likely to stick with their micro-ATX casings and not coerce themselves in buying a larger casing just to house a full ATX motherboard. Comprehending those power users who want to experience the immensity of the Core i7 and the X58 chipset at a lower cost, ASUS expanded its elite ROG (Republic Of Gamers) motherboard family and added the new GENE lineup whose first offspring is the Rampage II GENE.

In our opinion, ASUS has aptly selected the designation “GENE” for this micro-ATX motherboard as it "genetically" inherits the red and black color scheme that the Rampage II Extreme and the original Rampage Extreme sport.

While we recognize ASUS ROG motherboards for their intimidating and loud heatsink design, the Rampage II GENE takes on a modest heatsink.

We can see here the impact of the motherboard’s smaller size, which results in cramped spaces particularly around the CPU region. This motherboard comes with multi-phase power and solid Japanese-made conductive polymer capacitors.

Six memory slots all prepared to take in triple channel DDR3 memory modules.

 The ASUS Rampage II GENE offers no room for a 3-way SLI setup. Nevertheless, as more dual-GPU graphics cards grab the spotlight, there is no reason not to go extreme with this motherboard.

 ASUS has kept the PS/2 keyboard port but there are no other legacy ports here. Six USB 2.0 ports, a Clear CMOS button, FireWire, eSATA, S/PDIF, Gigabit LAN, and 8-channel audio I/O complete the set. Also, take note of the two red ports just above the FireWire interface: they are USB 2.0 ports.

Noteworthy, ASUS integrated the SupremeFX X-Fi on to the board.

There are seven SATA 3.0Gbps ports onboard. Six are from the default Intel ICH10R and the remaining port from the JMicron JMB363 controller that also provides the eSATA and IDE functionality.

 Shown in the photo are the BIOS chip, onboard start and reset buttons, and MemOK! switch. The latter works as a memory rescue tool that patches RAM issues and gets your system up and running in no time by determining failsafe settings automatically.

 These iROG IC chips further prove that the Rampage II GENE is a certified ROG motherboard. These IC chips enable the various ROG functions found on this board, including the monitoring and tweaking aspects.

 Like other recent ASUS motherboards, the Rampage II GENE comes with Stack Cool 2, a passive cooling solution where CPU heat is dissipated through the metal plate at the bottom. However, we have noticed that other X58 incarnations do come with such a cooling solution as well.