[section_title title=”Conclusion”]Conclusion
Here we are again, time to recap on another review after a few days of testing. So let’s get it started then and see how well the ASUS ROG Crossblade Ranger held up!
Touching on the design first and what can one say, this board is absolutely aesthetically pleasing, even to those of us who don’t like red at all. There is no denying that ASUS have a certain knack when it comes to designing their ROG boards and how they are laid out. Aside from the looks, the rest of the board is also designed very well. All the ports and connectors seems to be in just the right spot to make setting up, using and enjoying the Crossblade Ranger as easy as possible. Even simple things like the RAM slots only having one clip, down to the SupremeFX isolation LED trail, everything just helps the board be complete and all come together nicely.
Taking a look at the performance and overall it was kind of a mixed bag when looking at our benchmarks results. The Crossblade Ranger was atop the leaderboard a good few times but on the same hand, it was outted by the likes of the ASRock FM2A88X+ Killer a few times as well. I for one was happy with the overall performance and feel in the long run the Crossblade Ranger does offer a few extra features that allow it to perform a bit better. It is also worth noting that performance is not soley rated on that of benchmark results but also just personal feel of my time I was using the motherboard. I will say this, you definitely won’t be disappointed with the performance the Crossblade Ranger offers.
If overclocking is your thing, and you want to have a play on the A88X chipset than this is the board for you. It offers some great overclocking features and the full potential of the board in terms of overclocking was far out of my reach. The Crossblade Ranger was designed to be a top class ROG board and they have not let us down in terms of overclocking. The BIOS is jam packed with settings to help users get the most out of the board and the components that make the actual board up are of the best quality around.
The price of the Crossblade Ranger is going to be what sets most people off from it. Kaveri is meant to be a good mid-range budget gaming option while ROG is meant to be top of the line. While the two compliment each other great, some people will not see the point in such an expensive motherboard based on the A88X chipset. However, if you can forget the intended purpose of Kaveri and remember what the Crossblade Ranger has to offer you will see it is very good value for the money. It offers ROG features to AMD users which is something a lot of us would like to see more of.
To wrap it all together the ASUS ROG Crossblade Ranger is a very well designed board that has great features and offers exceptional performance. If you want the best of the best you pay for it, and while the Crossblade Ranger may be a bit more expensive than other A88X based motherboards it is worth every penny!
I would like to thank ASUS for sending the ROG Crossblade Ranger in for review and look forward to seeing more from them in the future.
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Performance
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Design
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Value
Summary
Pros:
– ROG based AMD motherboard
– Aesthetically pleasing
– Great features and performance
– Comes with a host of utilities to help users get the most out of it
– Easy to overclock while still offering all of the top end overclocking options
Cons:
– Some may find it expensive for an A88X based motherboard
Any idea why the performance results are so much lower for the MSI A88XI board? Same CPU and same chipset, you’d expect the numbers to be similar… but that performance delta is HUGE!
It could be down to a number of things, advancements in drivers between the launch between them; with the APU focusing heavily on AMD software/drivers, it does make sense. But I appreciate what you are saying etc!