Reviews - Pro-Clockers! PC Reviews One MegaHertz At A Time

The Rampage III Black Edition offers more than what would normally come with a motherboard. First, there is the ThunderBolt add-in card that gives the user the Killer E2100 chipset as well as outstanding Xonar audio with headphone amp. Is that alone enough to charge the heavy price tag the motherboard caries? OK, what if we told you the motherboard supports four GPUs, out-of-this-world overclocking capability; as well as BlueTooth, Wi-Fi, and ways to enable or disable PCIe slots in real-time to do things like graphics hot-swapping? Well then, if that still didn't manage to impress you then read on and find out what else this motherboard has to offer.

[Update: Heaven benchmark images fixed, conclusion is on Page 11]
What we get to look at today is our first motherboard that supports AMD's new A- and E2-Series of "Llano"-based APUs, all thanks to our friends over at ASRock. They have sent over the A55 Pro3 board, which as the name implies is based on AMD's A55 FCH chip (or Fusion Controller Hub if you remember it first being mentioned back in the E350M1 review), and is the little brother to the A75 FCH. Both of these are what make up AMD's Lynx desktop platform and it is aptly named we think. The base specs on the A55 offer goodies like six SATA-II ports, fourteen USB2.0 connections, Gigabit Ethernet controller, among others. ASRock have also thrown in their own mix into this recipe for "awesome", which for a teaser includes support of DDR3-2400, so read on to find out just how this stacks up!

Today, we will be taking a look at Gigabyte's mid-range Z68 board entitled the Z68X-UD3H. Granted, the Z68 is not much more than hyped up hybrid version of the P67+H67 chipsets, but unlike most things you think of that are hybrid it is not some scaled back product. No sir, it pulls no punches and takes full advantage of what people have come to know the the P67 and H68 chipsets for, but also offering some new goodies like Intel's Smart Response Technology and the new Lucid Virtu software. Read on as we explore one of Gigabyte's entrants to the Z68, while see if it stacks up to all we hope and expect from it.

Yet, with the way Intel operates, we knew that a new chipset was right around the corner. Around said corner we have come and so has that chipset, which is dubbed Z68, and shares the Cougar Point codename. Intel graced the Z68 with a few more features, added performance tweaks and improved power efficiency to your rig. ASRock was quick to send us over a couple of their motherboards featuring the Z68 where we decided to find out what is no doubt on many of your minds: Is upgrading to Z68 worth? Read on as we run through the board and find out just that.

Today's contender for the mini-ITX crown is the ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe. Being based on the H67 the chances of extreme overclocking are nil, but for use in a HTPC build it offers all (and I mean ALL) the features one would want in such a motherboard. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and a multitude of video connections are just a few of what this new motherboard has to offer.