X48 Rampage Formula Preview.

[mikeyakame]

believe it or not, my southbridge runs hotter with as5 than it did the ASUS delivered thermal square mat thing that peeled off! I had to stick a 40mm fan on it!

[SiGfever]

believe it or not, my southbridge runs hotter with as5 than it did the ASUS delivered thermal square mat thing that peeled off! I had to stick a 40mm fan on it!

Have you tried MX-2 TIM?

[flylow]

believe it or not, my southbridge runs hotter with as5 than it did the ASUS delivered thermal square mat thing that peeled off! I had to stick a 40mm fan on it!

Improving the contact of the Northbridge seems to actually transmit additional heat through the heatpipe to the Southbridge. So I do not think that one can assume the as5 is not better than the OEM TIM.

[Senator]

I need some help is getting more out of my setup. These are my specs...

ASUS Rampage BIOS 0308
E6600 SL9ZL VID 1.35 (Lapped)
GSkill PC6400 2GBHZ
eVGA 8800GTS
Watercooled everything.

These are the settings i am using...

Extreme Tweaker
Ai Overclock Tuner : Manual
OC From CPU Level Up : AUTO
CPU Ratio Control : Manual
- Ratio CMOS Setting : 9
FSB Frequency : 395
FSB Strap to North Bridge : 333
PCI-E Frequency: 100
DRAM Frequency: DDR2- 791
DRAM Command Rate : 2N
DRAM CMD Skew on Channel A: AUTO
DRAM CMD Skew on Channel B: AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel A: AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel B: AUTO
DRAM Timing Control: Manual

Primary: 4-4-4-12
Secondary: Auto
Tertiary: Auto

DRAM Static Read Control: Disabled
Ai Clock Twister : Strong
Transaction Booster : Auto

CPU Voltage : 1.4875
CPU PLL Voltage : 1.58 new 1.50
North Bridge Voltage : 1.63 new 1.41
DRAM Voltage : 2.12
FSB Termination Voltage : 1.56 new 1.30
South Bridge Voltage : 1.25v new Auto
SB 1.5V Voltage : 1.6 new Auto
Loadline Calibration : Enabled
CPU GTL Reference : Auto
North Bridge GTL Reference : Auto
DDR2 Channel A REF Voltage : Auto
DDR2 Channel B REF Voltage : Auto
DDR2 Controller REF Voltage : Auto

NB LED Selection : NB Volt
SB LED Selection : SB Volt
CPU LED Selection : CPU VOlt
Voltiminder LED : Enabled

CPU Spread Spectrum : Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum : Disabled

With these settings I'm getting BSOD after a few minutes running prime95. Running Vista Ultimate 64

I was actually aiming for 3.6GHz 24/7 use.


Any ideas what am i missing? I have read all of this thread and tried most settings/permutations/combinations without any success.

[panheimer]

Not sure, but your voltages seems way too high to me. Did you jumped directly to 395x9 or did you upped step by step from 266x9?
I'm using this settings for 450x8:
CPU PLL 1.50 (with LLC activated you'll get something like 1.58 in bios reading)
vNB 1.41
FSB Term: 1.30
and both SB voltages on auto, as you're not ocing PCI-e freq.
try theese settings and give us some feedback!

[Senator]

thanks for the quick reply panheimer!

I upped the settings step by step untill 395x9

I've applied your settings! Post & Boot into Windows is fine & no more BSOD!!

Although I get an error message in Orthos after 2:30secs: CPU #0 no errrors: CPU #1 FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected 0.4
Any Ideas??

[panheimer]

You're using voltages i've poste above? But for 400x9 or 450x8?
No more BSOD? This is a good starting point. Now it's time to search what is still wrong with theese settings by trying and errors.
I think you're giving enough CPU PLL and FSB Term juice, so i would try to give just a notch more vNB and see what happens, if orthos last longer you're on the right way. If nothing changes i would try a notch more FSB Term and again see what happens. Remember: just change 1 setting a time, it's more time consuming but this way you can narrow down your issue.
For now i guess you still don't need to play with GTLs: at least for me they started to became important after 460 fsb.

P.S.: i see you are giving 1.4875, it may be enough for 3.6 ghz, but if you still get errors it may be worthing up a little voltage even on it - if temps are not a problem!

[Senator]

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction! That's really great help to me!

I am using the voltages you posted above using 395x9.

Now, I just tried increasing vNB from 1.41 to 1.45, leaving FSB Term at 1.30. Orthos ran for longer about 4mins, but I got a BSOD!

Then I tried increasind FSB Term to 1.34, leaving vNB at 1.41. Error! Orthos ran for 6secs! Again CPU #1 being the one.

Any more ideas?

I wasn't planning on touching those untill later anyway...

[panheimer]

Well, you may try to lower voltages! AS before, try lower nb a notch and then FSB term and see if it last longer or not.
i would also start thinking about upping CPU voltage a little bit, as usually (for me) when the same core fails is a simptom of low vCPU.
BTW for now you may also leave AI clock twister to auto and manually set performance level at 8 (you have to enable transaction booster for it)

[JameCa]

I was more just reminiscing about my dad, now passed away 10+ years ago. About my dad: http://www.rodatus.net/family/mydad.htm

your dad seems like a very good person, may he rest in peace.

im sorry for my spelling. (swedish)

[Senator]

I have followed your adivce, I lowerd the nb & FSB Term individually and combined which was a step in the right direction. Othros ran longer up to 12mins.
My question to you is once again, if there are any other options open for me, or if this is what I am going to have to settle for, or would you rather adivse to use a multi of 8?
Thank you for all your time & effort. You have been a great help until now!!

[mikeyakame]

Improving the contact of the Northbridge seems to actually transmit additional heat through the heatpipe to the Southbridge. So I do not think that one can assume the as5 is not better than the OEM TIM.

well yes this was my conclusion also ;> Probably compounded with the fact i run 1.53V on my NB and 1.125V on my SB. Yeah, but the extra transfer to the SB heatpipe assy is phenomenal. It's amazing how poor the OE TIM on the NB really is. The heatpipe assy overall is decent to say the least, and works effectively when a good TIM is applied properly. WIth 40mm fans on the NB and SB my temps run around 32-35c on both NB/SB. I couldn't be happier with those results. The SB fan had to be fixed with double sided tape to the tops of the heat pins, offset to miss my GPU!

[panheimer]

Thanks! i'm not a guru in ocing and still have a lot to learn about this mobo, so i'm very pleased to have suggested you something right!
about using a lower multi, it depends on you and on your specific hardware. in real world a lower multi bring you very little performance boost, while benchmarking benefits a lot more, but if you're on the way to pull out every single little performance boost out of your hardware, usually the lower multi is the best choiche. but be prepared to work very hard: a high fsb implies higher voltages and higher temps but most of all the patience to find the right combinations of each settings: it's very time comsuming!
first, i would find the stability at max oc with 9x, wich is usually easier as you put a lower stress on your mobo, so you can also find the right vcore your cpu needs for that clock, then i would start messing around with performance level (the lower, the best) and different FSB strap, memory clock and timings. run some of your favorites bench
after that, if you still have time to wast, relax PL and RAM and start looking for the same oc clock with the lower multi, run some bench and compare them with your previous settings.

[silent_kebab]

Hey guys,

I'm having a real hard time choosing between the Rampage Formula and the Maximus II Formula... The difference in price is not an issue.
I'm going for a Q9650, but don't intend to OC. Also thinking about going for 8Gb, 4x2Gb, Corsair TWIN2X8500C5D. I did read that some people have been having issues with these? I'll likely be running CF too.
What I'm really looking for here, is stability. I'll be wanting 100% stabiliy 24/7 for about 18-24 months. Which one would you consider the best choice? I've read just about every review there is on these boards, most notably [H]ardOCP, but none of those used 4x2Gb RAM. Also none of the reviews brings me any closer to choosing one of the two.

Many thanks for any answers!

[pmp]

Pick X48 based MB.

[Helli]

@Senator

You may have a look at my settings. Maybe you can find any solutions for you.

Actually running at 3,824 GHz Prime95 stable.

I use a similar Rig, Q6600 G0 VID 1.3275, 4x2 GB Crucial Ballistix Red DDR2-800, watercooled.

The same Memory values worked for me with 4x2 GB Mushkin SP2 DDR2-800 (996558+)

[


Helli

[mikeyakame]

pmp any chance of a future bios having mch and cpu clock phase (skew) adjustment, along with finer gtl ref adjustment controls? or are they all beyond the design of the board. seeing as the p5e3 bios at least has the mch/cpu clock skew adjustment, perhaps implementing it is possible on the formula too.

just a suggestion anyway!

[HeadShotWI]

Does anyone have the link for the most recent intel X48 chipset drivers? I can't seem to get intel's website to work. I select my OS then select chipset and it puts me in a never ending cycle. HELP!

Also does anyone know if PCIE RAID cards such as the 3ware 9650SE 4 lane card work in the 2nd PCIE slot of this motherboard?

[DEFLORATOR]

Does anyone have the link for the most recent intel X48 chipset drivers? I can't seem to get intel's website to work. I select my OS then select chipset and it puts me in a never ending cycle. HELP!

Try this link:
http://station-drivers.com/page/intel%20chipset.htm

Pease tell me one thing, did you try 0410 bios? Does your 3ware 9650SE controller work with 0410 bios on Rampage Formula? Thanks.

[dansus]

Anybody got a working link to Bios 410?

Thanks

[Zucker2k]

Anybody got a working link to Bios 410?

Thanks

Enjoy ... http://kielbaski.com/pmp/MB/ASUS_X48...rmula-0410.zip

[HeadShotWI]

Try this link:
http://station-drivers.com/page/intel%20chipset.htm

Pease tell me one thing, did you try 0410 bios? Does your 3ware 9650SE controller work with 0410 bios on Rampage Formula? Thanks.

I don't have the board yet. I read way earlier in this thread that others might have been having problems with pcie raid controllers on the 2nd pcie slot. I wanted to confirm that at least someome has one working before i opened the box. this is a replacement board for a gigabyte x38 board that failed, as well as 2 failed replacement boards... tired of gigabyte.. but now worried my raid card won't work with this board.

[Brama]

I don't have the board yet. I read way earlier in this thread that others might have been having problems with pcie raid controllers on the 2nd pcie slot. I wanted to confirm that at least someome has one working before i opened the box. this is a replacement board for a gigabyte x38 board that failed, as well as 2 failed replacement boards... tired of gigabyte.. but now worried my raid card won't work with this board.

With BIOS 403 it will work at 99%.

[GAR]

Best bios still is 0308 IMO, memory performance is best. They must have loosened timings to make the board more flexible with certain memory modules. If you want best performance stick with 0308

[HeadShotWI]

With BIOS 403 it will work at 99%.

it does not appear that bios supports the E8400 Stuck again.....