Core i7: "Extended" motherboard back-plate highly recommended

[eternal_fantasy]

That would not work with the Rampage II Extreme with it's "Stack Cool" plate on the back. The center cutout needs to be recatangular or cutout much larger to clear the "Stack Cool LGA 1366 Backplate".

The "Stack Cool" backplate you're referring to are not something unique to the R2E, infact it is the plate Gabe's refering to in his OP. It is found on all Core i7 motherboards.

From Asus' website;
"Effective and zero-noise heat dissipation
Stack Cool 2 is a fan-less and zero-noise cooling solution offered exclusively by ASUS. It effectively transfers heat generated by the critical components to the other side of the specially designed PCB (printed circuit board) for effective heat dissipation."

Basically just extra copper or other material within the PCB for transfering heat. Nothing to do with the "Stack Cool plate".

This Noctua backplate, and a similer one offered by Thermalright's 1366 mounting kit, is designed to cover the entire stock PCB's backplate, effectively putting the pressure on the CPU and stock backplate, and not on the fragile PCB.



edit: here's a pic of the back plate on an Gigabyte board: