ASUS Rampage III Extreme Motherboard

Memory Support

Intel socket LGA1366 CPUs have an embedded memory controller, meaning that it is the processor, and not the chipset, that defines the memory technologies and the maximum amount of memory you can have. The motherboard, however, may have a limitation as to how much memory can be installed.

At the moment, the integrated memory controller of socket LGA1366 processors supports only DDR3 memories up to 1,066 MHz under triple-channel architecture, however ASUS says Rampage III Extreme supports DDR3 memories up to 2,200 MHz through overclocking. This motherboard has six DDR3 sockets and since, at the moment, each DDR3 memory module can have up to 4 GB, you can have up to 24 GB with it.

Here you will find one of the biggest advantages of Rampage III Extreme compared to most socket LGA1366 motherboards: the presence of six memory sockets. Some socket LGA1366 motherboard have four memory sockets, turning memory upgrade an expensive procedure: in order to achieve the best performance with only four sockets, you have to remove the old three modules and install three new ones, with greater capacity. With six sockets you can keep the old modules and simply install three more modules on the empty sockets.

The first, the third and the fifth sockets are black, while the second, the fourth and the sixth are red. In order to achieve the maximum performance you should install three or six memory modules in order to enable triple-channel architecture. When only three modules are used, install them on sockets with the same color in order to enable this feature.

Near the memory modules you can see two big buttons, power and reset.

Figure 3: Memory modules. Install three or six modules for the best performance.