Value -
Value is another very subjective topic. What is expensive to some might be a deal to others. You can look at this topic in multiple ways. One is raw price and the other is what you get for the money. Each is accurate and both are correct ways to look at price/value. We tend to look at features, performance and real-property when we discuss value. However, we also take into account the raw cash cost of the item. The Asus Rampage III Black Edition will set you back around $560. You can probably find it for a little less but you are still going to payout more than $500 for this board. Now there is no doubting that $500 is a lot for any motherboard, but let’s take a look at what you get for that $560. If you were to buy a KillerNIC 2100 (which is about the same as you find on the Thunderbolt) you are going to spend another $85-$100. To get the Xonar based audio you are looking at an additional $70-$90 (the audio is about the equivalent of the Xonar DX). So just for the Thunderbolt you are adding $155-$190 in value on the board. This really means that the actual board if between $370 and $405. $400 for an Asus Rampage series board is pretty good if you think about it and we have not even taken the built in wireless n card into account at this point. In all although $560 is a lot to spend you are really getting a very good deal when you stop and think about it.

Conclusion -
The Asus Rampage III Black is a nice board. It has some issues, but those can be corrected easily enough with a BIOS update or two. What really impresses us with this board is what you get with it. It is no secret that we like the Asus Xonar audio chips and the cards that Asus has put out. We have been asking Asus to put one of these on the board for a long time. Now they have and we find that even though this is an add-on card the results are excellent. We did have our concerns when we were told back at CES 2011 that the same card that held the Xonar was going to have the KillerNIC on it. We felt that the heavy PCIe bus utilization of the KillerNIC NPU would hurt the audio performance. We did not see this at all during our testing. Instead this combination card only adds to the value of the Rampage III Black. Other items that continue to add value (but are not as exciting) are the built-in wireless card with Bluetooth Radio. While these are nice touches, they probably won’t get used by the gamer or overclocker. The gamer will use the KillerNic and the overclocker will disable it for a higher clock speed. In all we feel that Asus has attempted and pulled off a very nice cross market board and given is a very competitive price considering what you get. They need to address the memory performance, but in all you would not go wrong picking one of these up for your next gaming rig.

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