Want the power of Intel’s Core i7 CPUs in a small “shoebox-sized” PC chassis?

One new motherboard to consider may be Asus’ Rampage II GENE, a “small brother” of the no-holds-barred Rampage II Extreme motherboard, which I used in my own watercooled PC as well as Digital Life’s Dream PC 2008.

The Rampage II GENE is a micro ATX board with the same Intel X58 chipset, and tri-channel DDR3 support. More importantly, it will support both Nvidia SLI and ATI Crossfire dual-graphics modes. That lets you squeeze two graphics cards onto a small shoebox PC – cool!

I’m not sure how you’re gonna dissipate the heat of two giant graphics cards in a rather tight shoebox PC, but at least this board lets you try! …

Right after I wrote the annual Dream PC article for Digital Life in Dec 2008, I felt an itch to upgrade my existing PC, which was actually doing well as it was. For the DL article, I had played with an Intel Core i7-965 chip, some Corsair DDR3 RAM and a nice Lian Li case, and I couldn’t help the urge to upgrade my own rig!

Thus began the an almost two-month long sourcing plus building process for a new, souped up rig. …