UnOfficial Asus Rampage II Extreme Thread

[DerekT]

I never even noticed it. I have seen 21 and 21.5 so possibly this new version of Everest doesn't read .5 multipliers right. Not quite sure.

Edit:

Looked over the software again. Everest CPUID shows the proper multiplier (21). CPU-z shows a fluctuation betwen 20.5, 21, 21.5. Everest Cache and Memory Benchmark shows a multi of 22. Since this is a new integer version of Everest, it is very likely a bug. Note that the Cache Benchmark is also reading the CPU speed differently.

Derek, how did you get a multiplier of 22x on the 920 as reports by Everest?

[sanhacker]

Is it easy to remove the stock cooling even after it has run for a while or is it best done from new ?
I am thinking the heatsink compound will get baked

No worries. I went a couple of weeks before changing to the EK blocks. Didn't like laying the heatsink on the QPI/DRAM chipset so now I'm using the Koolance MB-ASR2E block on the NB/SB. (Awaiting the QPI/DRAM add on)

Here's a picture of the heat pipes/blocks removed. As you can see, it is predominately thermal tape as opposed to TIM.

Click to enlarge...

[andyr(uk)]

No worries. I went a couple of weeks before changing to the EK blocks. Didn't like laying the heatsink on the QPI/DRAM chipset so now I'm using the Koolance MB-ASR2E block on the NB/SB. (Awaiting the QPI/DRAM add on)

Here's a picture of the heat pipes/blocks removed. As you can see, it is predominately thermal tape as opposed to TIM.

Click to enlarge...

OK thanks for the info i like the look of the koolance stuff, i take it the QPI/DRAM add on replaces the need for the fan. What are you using for the Mosfets?

[sanhacker]

I'm still using EK for the MOSFETs. Although, the more I look at them, I do like the idea of the back plate on the Koolance MOSFET blocks. If I was doing it all over again, I'm sure I would just go with Koolance for the MB blocks.

As far as the QPI/DRAM add on, yes it replaces the ROG light and heat sink. If there is a fan in there, I've never heard it. At least there is no audible difference with it plugged in or not. LOL. Maybe my fan doesn't work which would explain some of my problems...

[BustaH]

I'm still using EK for the MOSFETs. Although, the more I look at them, I do like the idea of the back plate on the Koolance MOSFET blocks. If I was doing it all over again, I'm sure I would just go with Koolance for the MB blocks.

As far as the QPI/DRAM add on, yes it replaces the ROG light and heat sink. If there is a fan in there, I've never heard it. At least there is no audible difference with it plugged in or not. LOL. Maybe my fan doesn't work which would explain some of my problems...

Those Koolance blocks look good especially with the qpi/dram chip add on, cant get them here in the uk though and shipping from the u.s. is criminal! then we get stung import duty tax.

[sanhacker]

That works both ways. What we pay over here for Thermochill Rad's is also criminal !

[scaramonga]

Your wasting your time and money on a NB/SB waterblock on this board

[posershadow]

No I have 9GB Of RAM (3 x 2GB and 3 x 1GB)

I'd scrap those 3x1gb sticks. It'll be much easier to oc with just 3 sticks total of ram. I couldn't imagine you would need more than 6gb of ram anyways. If I learned anything from the 775 days it was that it was much easier to oc with only 2 of the 4 slots filled.

[glenn37216]

I was having big problems when I was running 12 gb ram and trying for 4.2 on this board..took out 6gigs..and all my bsod's went away....solid as a rock.

[BustaH]

Your wasting your time and money on a NB/SB waterblock on this board

Yeah, nb/sb on my board seem to be fine, but I need to some how deal with the qpi/dram card, im sure that is overheating under load.

[chayos00]

Hey guys, I've recently had problems with my OC on my new I7 computer that I got in December. It was stable @ 4GHz now it's not even at the default I7 920 speed of 2.6GHz. I have everything currently in its default settings.

I'm not within my 30 day return window from newegg.com so I'm assuming I'd have to get a hold of the manufacture. So my question for you guys is what's the most likely problem the CPU or the MB?

Usually my "instability" occurs while I run my Seti@Home 24/7, then at some time I'll come back to the computer and thinking the monitor has shut off from "power savings" it really has just "froze". (Only monitor is setup for "sleep" everything else runs 24/7) I can tell from my little LCD poster as to the temp of the CPU, if its in the 30's *C range or more like 45-55*C.

SOOOoo...... what do you guys think? CPU or MB? or need more details?


Oh yeah..... my 1000W PSU will be here today. I'll reformat and reinstall Vista 64 after that.

Thanks
Jason

[cstkl1]

disable sleep mode

[crazyea]

is anyone else experiencing very poor raid performance on this board?

For ex. I had two wd6401aals drives in raid-0 and the performance was good, about 130mb/s average.
Single drive on this board was around 95mb/s average.

Now i went out and added 2 more of the same drives (all model, and firmwares match) to run 4xraid0 + 4x raid5 in a matrix setup. 320gb os raid0 stripe + remainder data raid 5 stripe.

I am getting the exact same performance using 4 drives as i was with 2 in raid 0, and the raid 5 performance is abysmal drooping down to 5mbs throughout the drive.

Extracting rar files with this setup is painfully slow. at least 2x to 3x as long as the raid-0 stripe.
Now, I know raid 5 is not supposed to be as fast, but with 4 drives it shouldn't be this brutal.......

Measured with hd-tune.....

In case anyone is interested, the "intel c-state tech" option in the bios cause a huge drop in performance for my raid-o setup. i also verified this with a friend and the same thing occurs. so at least i got that sorted.

however the drives these days are so fast, i dont think the ichr10 can scale any better with more than two drives in raid. also verified with my friends 3 drive raid setup using the same drives as me.

so in the end i will keep c-state disable and run two raid-0 arrays for optimal performance.

[chayos00]

disable sleep mode

Only the monitor is setup for power savings everything else is set for 24/7 running.

[theonlybabyface]

Only the monitor is setup for power savings everything else is set for 24/7 running.

I'd disable sleep for the monitor and the next time it freezes, see if you can see anything to determine that cause as it is hard to determine what is causing the freeze when the monitor is blacked out.

[Nvidia Ireland]

I have overclocked my 920 to 4Ghz as per Jasonelmore settings in Post #3. I am getting high temperatures on the Southbridge and Northbridge. What are the acceptable temperatures for the CPU, Southbridge and Northbridge etc? Thanks.

Intel i7 920 @ 4.0GHz
Asus Rampage Extreme 2 Motherboard (Bios 1104)
9GB Corsair Dominator 1600Mhz DDR3 Memory
Quad SLI EVGA GTX 295 Graphics Cards
Lian Li PC-80 Case
CoolIt Domino ALC CPU Cooler
300GB Western Digtal VelociRaptor Hard Drive
250GB Western Digital Hard Drive
250GB Western Digital Hard Drive
Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W
LG Blue-Ray Drive
Samsung DVD Re-Writer

[posershadow]

I have overclocked my 920 to 4Ghz as per Jasonelmore settings in Post #3. I am getting high temperatures on the Southbridge and Northbridge. What are the acceptable temperatures for the CPU, Southbridge and Northbridge etc? Thanks.

Intel i7 920 @ 4.0GHz
Asus Rampage Extreme 2 Motherboard (Bios 1104)
9GB Corsair Dominator 1600Mhz DDR3 Memory
Quad SLI EVGA GTX 295 Graphics Cards
Lian Li PC-80 Case
CoolIt Domino ALC CPU Cooler
300GB Western Digtal VelociRaptor Hard Drive
250GB Western Digital Hard Drive
250GB Western Digital Hard Drive
Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W
LG Blue-Ray Drive
Samsung DVD Re-Writer

I never have crossed 50C on the nb and like 43C on the sb. And that is at around 4.3ghz loaded in linx.

[scaramonga]

Is there any way to have USB power remain ON when system is shut down on this board?

I have various devices I'd like to charge overnight when system is off, and it seems no power unless on ATM?

[Fire4Wire]

i would like to say thx for this great thread
very helpfull and informative

[DR3]

I've searched for the blocks, i did find the one from koolance and it's nice! But the one from bits power i didn't find. Checked there site but i did not find any watercooling parts on there Do you have a link please?

@DR3
How did you mount the pelt + wc block, do you have a pic please. I have a 60W pelt laying around here somewhere

The 80W pelter from Danger Den fits perfectly on the northbridge cooling mount once the heat sink is removed.
The screws are very small.
I used some of the mounting hardware from a Maze 4-1 pelter block I had.
But, you could probably find the hardware at the local hardware store.
The screws size I believe is 4-40 so you will need:
2 - 4-40 threaded rod (all thread)
2 - 4-40 jam nuts with lock washers
2 - 4-40 thumb nuts
2 - springs (optional)

Then you need the retaining bar.
I made this from 2 wing srews a piece of all thread and 2 thread sleeves.
2 - Wing Screws 6-32
2 - theaded sleeves
1 - small piece of all thread

Take the wing screws and drill a hole in the center of the end to accept the 4-40 all thread posts.

Do not want to go on to long about how to put it all together, pretty simple.

Here is a very poor picture of the result.

[cstkl1]

isnt that the xtc ram cooler
so what rams ure runnning.. low heatspreaders??

so for the pelt did u plate a double copper plate one on the mobo heatsink and another on the waterblock or just one one the mobo heatsink

cause previous experience with pelt it will melt a bit and get kindda sticky,

[BustaH]

ive reapplied the tm and now blasting my 2hp aircond towards the bench rig in the room to lower the temp and see whether theres a difference after a few hours.

the qpi/dram card is under the rog logo.

advice ppl please use some finesse when u try to remove this card.

How did this go? im interested in what the qpi/dram card is doing. atm I have no way of knowing how that is affecting the system in regard to heat which obviously in turn affects overcklcking potential.

Not really sure how to test this aspect of the board to possibly rule it out or mod something to deal with it, im looking at the koolance block solution, but as my n/b and s/b seem to be fine im not sure if its worth it. on the other hand if it deals with the qpi/dram chips then it might be worth going for.

[cstkl1]

How did this go? im interested in what the qpi/dram card is doing. atm I have no way of knowing how that is affecting the system in regard to heat which obviously in turn affects overcklcking potential.

Not really sure how to test this aspect of the board to possibly rule it out or mod something to deal with it, im looking at the koolance block solution, but as my n/b and s/b seem to be fine im not sure if its worth it. on the other hand if it deals with the qpi/dram chips then it might be worth going for.

well it showed more consistency on memtest hci

now just modded the nb heat sink and replaced it with thermalright hr05 ifx/sli ( bent it ) holing some 25mm evercool aluminium 80mm fan with a 40nmm fan blowing from i/o panel into the rog lights ( take note this is not top of it)

testing on 2nd board
first board just did a 1:1 return for fun :P
luckily a lot of etailers still dont have the hardware to test x58's yet.
nb temp in rv01 now 43C on idle and load 52C.
mobo temp now idle 30C load 32C

got a few pelts coming in 40mm's 82watts 12v rated.. going to test that.
wondering whether the hr05 can coolt the hotside or not.. hmm

[OcAddict]

^^

Pics of the Bitspower block here:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=212241.

Performance-PCs.com has a few Rampage II Extreme Blocks. EK and Koolance i think.

Links to: Koolance Full NB/SB/IOH Block and the EK Full Cover NB/SB Block which comes in a Delrin top version and a Acrylic Version. Pick your flavor.

I like the one above the most just for it's looks.. I have no idea on performance numbers.

You almost have to get a full cover block to get any perfomance out of the NorthBridge section. Because even if you remove the Stock NB heatsink, There is still a plate of copper there. That's why I did'nt go ahead and get that fancy swiftech water block that was made for the original Rampage Extreme. The WaterBlock is not getting direct contact with the die.

Thx for the links guys, BitsPower and EK The Koolance block on the other hand i love

The 80W pelter from Danger Den fits perfectly on the northbridge cooling mount once the heat sink is removed.
The screws are very small.
I used some of the mounting hardware from a Maze 4-1 pelter block I had.
But, you could probably find the hardware at the local hardware store.
The screws size I believe is 4-40 so you will need:
2 - 4-40 threaded rod (all thread)
2 - 4-40 jam nuts with lock washers
2 - 4-40 thumb nuts
2 - springs (optional)

Then you need the retaining bar.
I made this from 2 wing srews a piece of all thread and 2 thread sleeves.
2 - Wing Screws 6-32
2 - theaded sleeves
1 - small piece of all thread

Take the wing screws and drill a hole in the center of the end to accept the 4-40 all thread posts.

Do not want to go on to long about how to put it all together, pretty simple.

Here is a very poor picture of the result.

Thx for the explenation but don't you have condensation problems with that pelt or is it running @ 7V or something? What are the temps now with that pelt?

[scaramonga]

So far so good on this new BIOS