Ahead of release, ASUS Rampage II Gene motherboard just got unboxed. For starters the Rampage II Gene is a micro-ATX motherboard, not what you'd expect from the R.O.G. series, but that's going to be a perfect solution if you want to build a high-end HTPC or a mega powerful small gaming system for LAN events. The Core i7 supporting motherboard is powered by Intel's X58 + ICH10R chip combo, has six DDR3-2000 memory slots, two PCI-Express x16 slots for NVIDIA SLI or ATI CorssFireX multi-GPU setups, one eSATA and seven SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, Gigabit Ethernet and a 7.1 channel Creative X-Fi audio. The board also sports some of the neat features found on R.O.G. motherboards, such as on-board Power and Reset buttons and an external LCD POST debug display. Expect availability some time next month.

The premium motherboard market's newfound love for the micro-ATX form-factor has been dutifully addressed by companies such as DFI, by releasing the LANParty Jr series, featuring high-end chipsets and almost complete feature-sets that rival full-sized ATX motherboards. ASUS has now decided to put its Republic of Gamers (ROG) series on the prowl with its first high-end mATX motherboard: Rampage II Gene.

As the name suggests, the motherboard supports Intel Core i7 series processors, and is based on the Intel X58 chipset. ASUS keeps the segment of buyers in mind that builds light-weight, yet full-featured LAN party machines. The Rampage II Gene features an 8-phase CPU power circuit. It features six DDR3 DIMM slots for to support up to 24GB of triple-channel DDR3 memory. It holds two full-length PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots plus a PCI-Express x4 open-ended slot. Both ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA Quad-SLI are supported. The ICH10R southbridge provides six SATA II channels with RAID support. Also provided is an onboard SupremeFX X-Fi sound system that provides support for most of Creative's X-Fi sound technologies. Two gigabit Ethernet interfaces and support for the iROG - TweakIT features, that simplify overclocking, make for the rest of the package. The Rampage II Gene is expected to be priced above $200 in the US.