Core i7 is an astounding evolution in the way a processor functions.  It provides performance per clock unparalleled by any processor today, and shows architectural changes well worthy of what we’ve come to expect of Intel’s “Tock” phase from the Core 2 architecture.

Part of the architectural change from Core 2 to Core i7 is the move to an Integrated Memory Controller (IMC) located on the CPU die, from Core 2’s Memory Control Hub (MCH) located on the motherboard’s North Bridge chipset.  This obviously provides an enormous decrease in system memory latency and huge increases in memory bandwidth.  Coupled with triple channel memory, this provides what can honestly only be described as insane bandwidth; transfer rates and latencies of never before seen proportions.

But what does this have to do with the black red and blue beauty in my basement?

Well with Core i7’s IMC, the functionality of the North Bridge chipset (X58) has been reduced to PCI crosstalk, and all the stress that used to be put on the motherboard by the MCH is now completely CPU dependent.  This should mean there are a lot fewer ways for a manufacturing team to screw up a Core i7 board design, right?  In reality, this is only partially true.

While design of signal and power traces around the North Bridge chipset will be far simpler on any X58 based motherboard, RAM must still run off the motherboard.  Core i7 is a very complex CPU to talk to, and three channels of RAM means very complex signal design in the area of the DIMM slots and CPU socket.  Put in simplest terms; on the backside of any X58 motherboard, depending on how layering and lacquer were done, the area around and between the DIMM slot pins and the CPU socket will be very crowded, with lots of lines going from place to place.  If there is any place a design team will screw up it will be in the RAM to CPU interface, which means that, IMC or not, RAM performance will still be largely motherboard dependent.

Core i7’s performance also comes with a price in wattage.  Especially with Simultaneous Multi Threading enabled, these new CPUs draw huge amounts of power.  In one instance during our liquid nitrogen testing, we observed CPU power draws in excess of 400 Watts!  This means that ANY X58 board with a serious eye on overclocking will need a better PWM circuit than any board before it.

The ASUS Rampage II Extreme has some dinosaur-sized boot prints to fill.  Its predecessor Rampage Extreme was the crown jewel of Socket 775.  It possessed some mystical ASUS design voodoo that enabled it to clock RAM better than any other board to date, and its 16 phase PWM gave it the juice to produce killer benchmarking results that remain competitive as we careen into the Core i7 era.

What remains to be seen is whether ASUS can build on the Rampage Extreme legacy; is it reasonable to predict that the ASUS design team can do with X58 and Rampage II Extreme what it did with X48 and Rampage Extreme?