ASUS RAMPAGE II GENE (Retail) : ROG. X58 m-ATX preview

[Lu(ky]

Lu(ky, look at this, it may help you decide if to buy Kingston HyperX DDR3 2000 CL8 modules or not:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820104084

Judging from the failure rate, it looks like a good idea to stay away from them for the time being.

Yeah I saw that but I bought 2 packs around the first batch. I have 1-pair working fine now the other ones are still in the box, so I am not sure if they work. I guess I will find out this week. Also newegg had a combo deal with this board and Mushkin Redline 6GB cas (6) memory sticks with -$45.00 off of the combo. But it was just too much $$$ with the tax now with the sales tax almost at 10% here in Long Beach, CA. I paid $229.99 for the board with free shipping.

[aln688]

Yeah I saw that but I bought 2 packs around the first batch. I have 1-pair working fine now the other ones are still in the box, so I am not sure if they work. I guess I will find out this week. Also newegg had a combo deal with this board and Mushkin Redline 6GB cas (6) memory sticks with -$45.00 off of the combo. But it was just too much $$$ with the tax now with the sales tax almost at 10% here in Long Beach, CA. I paid $229.99 for the board with free shipping.

The tax in Orange County is outrageous, almost 10%, correct. That's why I usually buy from Amazon.com where I can, they don't charge tax and their shipping is very reasonable, free in most cases. Amazon usually ships from Arizona or Nevada (or closest state) to avoid tax for CA customers. FYI, the Mushkin Redline RAM is supposed to be good, I haven't heard of any failures with that.

[Nanometer]

yea, the tax does suck.. especially on a 500 dollar cpu.. 50 dollars in just taxes!! grr you buy a car thats worth 30,000 and you have to spend 3000 in taxes! That's freaking nuts!

[spajdr]

not sure if its related to bad DIMMS that alot of people got here, but sometimes at bios post i only get detected 2048 or 4096MB RAM, if i power off computer then power on it again, its again back at 6GB, memtest or prime dont detect any errors. Should i RMA then? could be complicated though because it does very random.

[aln688]

not sure if its related to bad DIMMS that alot of people got here, but sometimes at bios post i only get detected 2048 or 4096MB RAM, if i power off computer then power on it again, its again back at 6GB, memtest or prime dont detect any errors. Should i RMA then? could be complicated though because it does very random.

That sounds like the board to me. I would try to obtain another set of RAM modules and install those, if you still experience this problem then I would say the board is at fault. Of course I notice there is a newer BIOS for this board, you could try updating to that:

ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/LG...-GENE-0904.zip

[aln688]

I ended up lapping my CPU, which seemed to make sense based on the fact it was convex and the base of my Noctua U12P is perfectly flat. I checked the contact of CPU to heatsink base and it's perfect, edge to edge contact, just as I wanted.

I have the board flat on boxes and without all my RAM plugged in, I see "LOCKED" on the LCD poster. This is with three modules plugged into the white slots, I think if I moved it to the blue slots it would boot, but as I'm expecting another set of RAM, I'll wait.

I'm now investigating better cooling, even without the board booting or HDDs attached, the NB gets so hot I can't even touch it! In fact it heats up the CPU heatsink and small video card to be very hot as well. I'm testing different fans out, see which one works best.

[aln688]

I'm at 4.0 GHz on this board, but I'm unsure of CPU Voltage and QPI/DRAM Voltage to start with. Right now I'm at CPU Voltage of 1.28 and QPI/DRAM of 1.35, and IOH Voltage of 1.20. My maximum temperature full load 100 passes of LinX is, well, a joke - Real Temp reports 84 C, CPUID Hardware Monitor reports 80 C and the LCD Poster reports 62 C! Comments?

[Leeghoofd]

Well believe RealTemp, dunno about the CPUID hardware monitor (never used it), but the LCD Poster reports the CPU temp not the coretemps... time to add that second fan to ya Noctua (or swap it with a more high performance one), you sure the lap job did good ? For ya rams you must always use the Blue slots with only 3dimms : grab ya manual (or on any other board the dimm slots colour furthes away of the CPU socket)

[aln688]

Well believe RealTemp, dunno about the CPUID hardware monitor (never used it), but the LCD Poster reports the CPU temp not the coretemps... time to add that second fan to ya Noctua (or swap it with a more high performance one), you sure the lap job did good ? For ya rams you must always use the Blue slots with only 3dimms : grab ya manual (or on any other board the dimm slots colour furthes away of the CPU socket)

Actually I was hoping you'd reply, as you have experience tinkering with this board since you wrote an entire review of it.

So what's the difference between the CPU temperature and the Core temperatures? I understand the Core temperatures are the actually mini-CPUs inside the physical processor, but in that case what is the CPU temperature? The temperature of the outside of the package?

I'm going to add a high static pressure Sanyo Denki, but it's bare ends so I haven't soldered a 3-pin plug on it yet, for now it's the Scythe SFF21G 75 CFM fan. Yes, I lapped the CPU fine, it's straight according to the Stanley knife blade.

For RAM, I'm using Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600 MHz, 6 x 2GB. I'll post a picture of the temporary setup soon.

[Leeghoofd]

Well this is not board related, coretemps are always higher then CPU temps. The latter is read out by a sensor on the mobo ( and can sometimes be miles off the real value) The coretemps are readout via the CPU sensors itself (which Realtemp analyses and corrects according the correct Tjcasemax and other stuf ) Sadly Intel has had issues with correct readouts since the Core 2 Duo CPU's. If ya want to be 100% sure grab Uncleweb here on XS, he's the developer of Realtemp. Or grab the latest Coretemp version and cross check values. But I'm pretty sure you got a hothead running there or ya fan doesn't cut it and/or due to the lapjob the pressure of the cooler isn't 100% anymore

[aln688]

Welcome to the testing station...





...right now I'm trying to get the lowest voltages for 4.0 GHz, then determine the best cooling for the NB, then I'll install it in the case. Yes, I'm aware once its in the case the temperatures may increase due to it being in a tight enclosure but I'll have powerful fans to cope with that, Sanyo Denki 9G1212H101's (120x38mm), front and rear.

For my settings I'm using 20 x 200, CPU Voltage is 1.28 with HT on. I did try 21 x 190 as you suggested in an earlier post and didn't really see a reduction in temperatures, although my RAM dropped in speed by doing that, not much though. I did set the B2B setting to 6 as you advised in your review, I don't know if that helped but it certainly didn't hurt.

The observant among you will note I'm using Prolimatech fan clips on the Noctua, they work great for ribbed (closed corner) fans such as the Sanyo Denki.

[Leeghoofd]

I would try a reseat of the cooler maybe there's too much TIM, dunno. Take a piccie when just after you removed the Noctua of the CPU and the blocks bottom...

[aln688]

Well this is not board related, coretemps are always higher then CPU temps. The latter is read out by a sensor on the mobo ( and can sometimes be miles off the real value) The coretemps are readout via the CPU sensors itself (which Realtemp analyses and corrects according the correct Tjcasemax and other stuf ) Sadly Intel has had issues with correct readouts since the Core 2 Duo CPU's. If ya want to be 100% sure grab Uncleweb here on XS, he's the developer of Realtemp. Or grab the latest Coretemp version and cross check values. But I'm pretty sure you got a hothead running there or ya fan doesn't cut it and/or due to the lapjob the pressure of the cooler isn't 100% anymore

I see. I think I've got Core Temp 0.99 somewhere on this system, I'll try that. The fan shouldn't be too bad, a Scythe SFF21G 75 CFM, but as I said a high pressure Sanyo will be installed on the final installation. I also followed Noctua's recommendation of 4 to 5mm blob of compound, in this case more like 4mm - I mounted it three times to test the amount I should be using.

It could be higher temperatures as the voltage is higher than it needs to be. For the lapping of the CPU, yes, pressure could be a problem, while I can't check the pressure, I did mount the heatsink first, removed it to check for good contact, which it did as it left tiny ridges in the copper on top of the CPU.

[Leeghoofd]

I forgot to mention, when running 19 multi with eg 210 Bclock or 21 x 190 you can lower voltage values then when using the even multiplier... hope you can get it fixed; Take some picture d of the TIm as mentioned before, they tell more than a 1000 words

[aln688]

I forgot to mention, when running 19 multi with eg 210 Bclock or 21 x 190 you can lower voltage values then when using the even multiplier... hope you can get it fixed; Take some picture d of the TIm as mentioned before, they tell more than a 1000 words

It's funny you mention that, I'm finding that out right now! With 20 x 200 I could never get to 1.26 CPU Voltage, but with 21 x 190 I can, incredible but true. Tomorrow I may remove the CPU heatsink to re-seat it, although I don't know as I'm at 86 C maximum right now, according to Real Temp. FYI, at 21 x 190 my RAM is slightly underclocked at 1520 MHz.

[aln688]

Leeghoofd, is there a way to instruct the LCD Poster to show only certain temperatures, instead of them all? I only want the CPU, NB and SB temperatures to show.

[aln688]

I forgot to mention, when running 19 multi with eg 210 Bclock or 21 x 190 you can lower voltage values then when using the even multiplier... hope you can get it fixed; Take some picture d of the TIm as mentioned before, they tell more than a 1000 words

I removed the heatsink, needless to say the compound was squashed into a small circle! ...despite the fact I put a 4mm blob on. So I put more on, 5mm, seated the heatsink, then removed it again without switching it on - much better. So I simply repeated the excercise and now my maximum temperature is 81 C.

[spajdr]

That sounds like the board to me. I would try to obtain another set of RAM modules and install those, if you still experience this problem then I would say the board is at fault. Of course I notice there is a newer BIOS for this board, you could try updating to that:

ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/LG...-GENE-0904.zip

Thanks for telling me about new bios, looks like new one improve mem. compatibility at least release notes mention it.

[Leeghoofd]

I removed the heatsink, needless to say the compound was squashed into a small circle! ...despite the fact I put a 4mm blob on. So I put more on, 5mm, seated the heatsink, then removed it again without switching it on - much better. So I simply repeated the excercise and now my maximum temperature is 81 C.

NO BLOBS THIN LINE is what you need !



No idea about the LED poster man, working on the RE II for the I7 waterblock roundup, Gene II is back in the box...

[Warranty_Void]

I ripped apart my system and tryed my Gene with my SS, I havent got enought insulation to do the board fully at the moment so I cannot bench much as I dont want to kill my board

I can get it into windows pretty stable at 229 Blk but 230 Blk will not post into windows

[Leeghoofd]

Nice work there, I will try some SLI action next week normally on the Gene II under Phase... which bios are oyu on mate, My board topped at 226 bclock under the Corsair H50 unit...

[RejZoR]

Is it possible to set LCD poster to display only CPU temp all the time? It's switching between different temps that i'm never interested into and thats annoying.

[Warranty_Void]

Was using 0809 just trying 0904 now and it just will not work over 229 Blk

[ReignsOfPower]

Anyone got a changelog for the 904 BIOS? It's got Improve Memory Compatability on the website - Elpida's Fixed fnially?

Also, I noticed my usual comp store has the TRUE 120 rev C available (has a triangle cut out in the middle) - anyone seen a review comparing it to a TRUE black?

[spajdr]

Even with new bios i still randomly need to press reset button so computer will boot (when its overclocked).