Introduction

Not all that long ago ASUS was looking for a name to put on their top-of-the-line products. They sent out an e-mail to journalists, enthusiasts and customers (some of which fell into all three groups) asking what we thought this name should be. The overwhelming choice was Republic of Gamers. To be honest with you, it was the only real choice (the other one was bad enough that I do not even remember it). From that day forward, if a product had the ROG logo on it you knew you were getting a top notch piece of hardware.

But as with most things, you have to have balance. As such, at least in the motherboard world, ASUS decided to break up the ROG line into three levels. The Extreme holds the very top end, while the Formula hangs out in the middle and the Gene is the lower end. The Formula differs very little from its Extreme cousin; you get a slightly smaller heatsink and cooling system. You drop off some of the beefier VRM and power supplied to the board, and you also lose the Bluetooth module.

Of course, you are still left with a pretty versatile and powerful board and for a reduced price of only $299.99 from NewEgg.com. Now we will dive into the middle of the ROG pool and see if the water really is fine.