***Asus Rampage III Extreme Owners Thread***

[sdgserv]

Congrats!! Had one for a while. when it ran it was great. Used a 965 X ..Did everything I wanted until it did nothing I wanted.. May I ask where you found one?

[MaddMuppet]

Congrats!! Had one for a while. when it ran it was great. Used a 965 X ..Did everything I wanted until it did nothing I wanted.. May I ask where you found one?

I got the Rampage a couple of years ago. It was returned to a shop I buy a lot of hardware off of. It wasn't going, but I played around with it trying all sorts of things and when a brand new CPU turned up after 3 years. Must have been lost stock or something. I just decided to take a punt and it worked. Really I couldn't be happier, as when this board was new, it was almost NZ$1,000

Just finished installing Windows on it. So now, should I set my Phase unit up on this puppy

[Mekar]

This awesome MB is still running strong

[Toritechie]

Good to see this thread resurface. I have recently rebuilt my R3E into an NZXT H440. I also got a replacement i7 980x from Intel, because my chip had a core die. The new 980x is amazing, I have a solid 4.5GHz overclock at a meagre 1.3 Vcore. I love this board, it has served me well for years and should do so for a few more.

[Mungri]

Mines still working with 4+ years of OC torture.

It appears to have contained an extra little magic spell called 'ward against upgrade-itis', which seems to have worked.

[zoson]

Ditto. I see no reason to upgrade at all. So happy with this whole rig that I sold my 3930k setup!

[SkOrPn]

Although I never did get a picture of it finished, I recently rebuilt my R3E build using old parts and new parts. This was done in summer 2013 changing colors from silver/chrome/red/blue, to black/red/green. Now all the coolant lines and cables are a bright UV green. The memory is now red and the video card all black with a little copper showing. I worked extra hard on the mobo tray but still forgot the cpu cutout. All cutouts, sanding, painting etc are mine. The only thing I did not do myself was the powder coating, which I took to a local shop for.

The only thing I am now longing for is SATA 3 speeds for all my Samsung 840 Pros. I feel like this board is cheating me from experiencing the raw power of my new SSD's, but I can not afford to do anything about it. I also wish I had a 6 core cpu so I have kept my eyes on one of them Intel Xeon X5660's (brand new is only $190 on ebay) and hope I can push it to 4ghz. The 980x and 990x are still ridiculously expensive so I will never own one. The 6-core xeon at 1/3rd the cost is the closest I can ever hope for... Below are a few pics of the recent work I done to my last build.

This is how it used to look several years ago.


Torn apart for the work to begin. I went much further than this down to each individual piece sanded and powder coated.


The black lines you see are where the edge of my R3E is going to be. System builder grommets used for sata and power cabling.


Before wire management cutouts


After cutouts.






More cutouts for wire management.




My own SSD tray design. I have room behind the mobo for up to 6 SSD's.
There are no more hard drives or SSD's visible from the front looking at the mobo. It is now extremely clean looking.




The project actually took me months to complete. It looks good now, nice and clean but I do not have pics of the finished project. Just to damn dusty where I live to get really good looking pics.

Back on the subject of this board, I am missing several things that I really wanted to try, USB 3.0, SATA III and UEFI bios. The implementations of USB 3 and SATA III on this board suck in every sense of the word. I would like to retire this board to the media server job and get the latest mobo with the best SATA III transfers. The new AMD stuff looks good at a fraction of the power requirements. Even though I have a 1 kW power supply I would like to reduce the power footprint to under 200 watts if possible. Right now I am sitting at just under 500 watts 24/7. lol

Anyway, I agree with the rest of you, we really do not need to upgrade, this beast is still a beast and still runs like new.

[zoson]

There's a thread on the hardforum keeping track of the best prices for the 6c12t xeons selling dirt cheap:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1783399
best deal so far was X5670's for $175 each.

Really an amazing upgrade path!

[Mehdi_FXX]

CPU: Xeon L5639
Bios: 1301

problem: F1 error after disabeling in bios will be fixed, I sett my OC profile, every thing is ok, turn off pc and turn on next time, every thing is still ok but if power turn off then turn on F1 error show again and must sett oc profile again!


Bios probelm? CPU is very new? and way for solve?

[SkOrPn]

There's a thread on the hardforum keeping track of the best prices for the 6c12t xeons selling dirt cheap:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1783399
best deal so far was X5670's for $175 each.

Really an amazing upgrade path!

Yeah, I am thinking the only worthwhile upgrades to my system (without hitting the wallet to hard) would be a X5670 + PCIe SSD. If the Plextor M6e PCIe kit allows booting the OS like the reviews seem to suggest, THIS maybe an answer to a full system upgrade. I could probably sell my two 840 Pro's since there still at 100% performance levels and use that to get the X5670. Then I would have to drop some $ on the PCIe SSD, which would give me SATA III or slightly better storage performance. Without adding in better storage performance, any money spent on this old platform is worthless. That is money that could have gone into a real upgrade to 2014 hardware.

However, wouldn't purchasing a high grade PCIe raid card that can utilize my current SSD's also do the same thing as a PCIe SSD at less money spent and guaranteed booting?

[SkOrPn]

There's a thread on the hardforum keeping track of the best prices for the 6c12t xeons selling dirt cheap:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1783399
best deal so far was X5670's for $175 each.

Really an amazing upgrade path!

Well thanks to you zoson for pointing me to the Xeon's as I would have never expected them to come down so low in price on ebay or anywhere for that matter. Just purchased the X5650 from esisoinc today and can't wait to get it. Never thought I would be able to purchase a hexa core for under a hundred bucks, especially one still selling at Newegg for a grand. I am hoping the unit I get has been one that was used in a low ambient temp datacenter and I REALLY hope it can handle 200 bclk. I just read that some of the 32nm chips had troubles with bclk that high. My R3E + 930 has been sitting comfortable at 200 bclk for several years and has not shown any sign of troubles. It would be a bummer if I couldn't at least maintain 4ghz. Once I get 4ghz stable I will probably drop it down to 3.6 and be happy, but 3.6 is the absolute lowest I want to run this board at. lol

Anyone know any guides for xeon x5650 and the R3E, or tips advice to share? Also, I have a unopened package of Indigo Extreme for 1366 that I never used (got cold feet at the last minute with my 930 a few years back) and I am wondering if I should take this opportunity to use it? Or is it too dangerous and I just need to sell the darn stuff? lol

[kullymontana]

This is my system below
MB Name:Rampage III Extreme
BIOS Version : 0602
CPU Name :Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU X 980 @ 3.33GHz
Memory information:CMG6GX3M3A2000C8 - 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair Dominator GT, DDR3 PC3-16000(2000), CAS 8-8-8-24, DHX, XMP, DF, 1.65V
OS information :Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit version
1200 watt psu tough power
2 280gtx sli

question is can I put this memory Corsair 12GB (3X4GB) DDR3 2000Mhz DOMINATOR-GT +FAN Memory Kit CL9 1.65V in to the 3 black slots and keep my existing memory and take it up to 18 gig ? my other 3x2gb are in the 3 red slots.

[SkOrPn]

question is can I put this memory Corsair 12GB (3X4GB) DDR3 2000Mhz in to the 3 black slots and keep my existing memory and take it up to 18 gig? my other 3x2gb are in the 3 red slots.

I would think you would want to put the new memory sticks into the Red slots, and the old sticks into the black slots. All the memory will run at the slowest speed that the slowest stick supports, so if you have 1600 mhz memory and 2000 mhz memory, all of it should be able to run at 1600 mhz. With a little work though you might be able to get it higher but I doubt it.

Anyone know if I can run a Xeon X5650 at 2x uncore? Or is that dangerous like a lot of people are saying?

[minaelromany]

I've had the R3E since release and it was still working fine with a Core i7 920@4.2GHz 24/7 and just yesterday I decided to get a cheap Xeon W3680 for $160 and it seems much better than my 920 in overclocking but need some help getting the most out of it.

I have a Noctua NH-D14 so it is still an air cooling

What are the best settings for a good stable OC with the W3680, R3E and OCZ Blade DDR3 2000 CL9-9-9-24 ? I mean Ratio, BCLK, VTT and other settings

Thanks

[zoson]

This is my system below
MB Name:Rampage III Extreme
BIOS Version : 0602
CPU Name :Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU X 980 @ 3.33GHz
Memory information:CMG6GX3M3A2000C8 - 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair Dominator GT, DDR3 PC3-16000(2000), CAS 8-8-8-24, DHX, XMP, DF, 1.65V
OS information :Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit version
1200 watt psu tough power
2 280gtx sli

question is can I put this memory Corsair 12GB (3X4GB) DDR3 2000Mhz DOMINATOR-GT +FAN Memory Kit CL9 1.65V in to the 3 black slots and keep my existing memory and take it up to 18 gig ? my other 3x2gb are in the 3 red slots.

First, set all timings to that of the 12GB kit in your motherboard. Then put the 12GB kit in the BLACK slots and the 6GB kit in the RED slots like this:


The kits in that picture are a 6GB 1600MHz cas 7-7-7-24 kit and a 12GB 2000MHz cas 10-10-10-27 kit. I had them running together at 1866MHz cas 8-9-8-27 100% stable 24/7.


Also a damn nice LinX GFlop score.

[SkOrPn]

I noticed something weird, so maybe I do not understand IBT and its LinX pack results. I am getting 65 Gflops at 200x20, but 82 Gflops at 182x22, 83 Gflops @185x22 and only 81 to 83 above 190 bclk x 22. Why does this chip perform the same at 4ghz then it does at 4.4ghz? Am I not understanding Gflops, or is that strictly a voltage thing? Because when I lower voltage at the same bclk+multi the Gflops also lowers, although the test passes. Did I just lose a wee bit of performance by dropping voltage?

[zoson]

I noticed something weird, so maybe I do not understand IBT and its LinX pack results. I am getting 65 Gflops at 200x20, but 82 Gflops at 182x22, 83 Gflops @185x22 and only 81 to 83 above 190 bclk x 22. Why does this chip perform the same at 4ghz then it does at 4.4ghz? Am I not understanding Gflops, or is that strictly a voltage thing? Because when I lower voltage at the same bclk+multi the Gflops also lowers, although the test passes. Did I just lose a wee bit of performance by dropping voltage?

UCLK speed is the most likely culprit. Performance of the 6c12t gulftowns is impacted heavily by UCLK.
4.5GHz CPU 2166MHz RAM with 3.2GHz UCLK = 86GFlops:


4.7GHz CPU 2200MHz RAM with 3.78GHz UCLK = 91GFlops:


4.8GHz CPU 2000MHz RAM with 3.8GHz UCLK = 93GFlops:


So, you can see, my 24/7 oc provides a really nice balance, where at 4.66GHz CPU 1866MHz RAM and 3.73GHz UCLK(2x RAM) provides about the same 91GFlops as the 4.7GHz UCLK with super fast memory and only marginally faster UCLK. It's all about doubling that memory speed.

[SkOrPn]

WOW, I am almost at your Gflop performance at only 4ghz (using Very High setting in IBT). Man, I wish I had some balls to go over intels max voltage specs, I bet this would be a great overclocking chip. lol, it BSOD at 1.35v 205x22, but passed at 1.35v and 200x22. 1.4v may have allowed 4.5ghz to function and maybe flirt with 90'ish Gflops. Right now I'm sitting at 185x22 using only 1.30v (both cpu and qpi) and its running great.

Going to run IBT again, lol... Just to make sure my eyes are not deceiving me.

[squid64]

UCLK speed is the most likely culprit. Performance of the 6c12t gulftowns is impacted heavily by UCLK.
4.5GHz CPU 2166MHz RAM with 3.2GHz UCLK = 86GFlops:

So, you can see, my 24/7 oc provides a really nice balance, where at 4.66GHz CPU 1866MHz RAM and 3.73GHz UCLK(2x RAM) provides about the same 91GFlops as the 4.7GHz UCLK with super fast memory and only marginally faster UCLK. It's all about doubling that memory speed.

hi zoson, why your CPU PLL Voltage is so damn low?

[WangChung]

Just bought a Xeon X5675 for my RIII Gene, running like a champ.

I'm slightly frustrated to see that Asus is still supporting the Extreme version yet I'm still stuck on a BIOS from 2012 that had to be modded/built off an OEM BIOS from 2011. One great last update would be nice, especially since Marvell has several SATA 6G updates since then that would be most beneficial.

[SkOrPn]

What makes you think the Extreme is still getting support? My extreme has not had an official bios release since November 2011 and no driver updates since before then.

[Loque]

anyone using this motherboard with GTX970 in SLI ?

want to grab those two cards but afraid it won't work.. seen someone with issues at post using them in sli on a x58 evga MB

[SkOrPn]

anyone using this motherboard with GTX970 in SLI ?

want to grab those two cards but afraid it won't work.. seen someone with issues at post using them in sli on a x58 evga MB

You have a link to the person having issues on their x58 mobo? We need to monitor this situation very closely.

[Loque]

You have a link to the person having issues on their x58 mobo? We need to monitor this situation very closely.

here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1835114

hope it's not a common issue for x58 mboards..

[SkOrPn]

here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1835114

hope it's not a common issue for x58 mboards..

Same here. I was thinking of getting the 980 and then maybe down the road another 980 for sli.