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

[thobel]

My RIII E will be here Wednesday along with a 980 E, two GTX 580's and I am trying to decide if I should repalce my Dominator 1600 with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145329 Obviously, I could work with my current memory, but I love to upgrade.

I replaced my corsair 1600 with

http://hardtofindglobal.com/productc...ory=15#details It has done wonders for me

[theseeker]

I replaced my corsair 1600 with

http://hardtofindglobal.com/productc...ory=15#details It has done wonders for me

Thanks for the tip and the link!

[donmarkoni]

Nice avatar seeker.

[zoson]

I replaced my corsair 1600 with

http://hardtofindglobal.com/productc...ory=15#details It has done wonders for me

The Mushkin kit I got works great too! 3x4gb at 2ghz!

[Andreezy]

hey all, i have being waiting for a long time to bite the bullet
to buy/install a water cooling kit, i just finished today and the first
thing i had to do after bleeding the system of air was install the
supplied NB HS/FAN combo, my NB temps were like 57/59C with
stock one (no airflow).

now things are better with the NB HS/Fan on it..normal 46C/50C load.
my kit its a apogee xt, D5 Liang pump, DD radiator with Delta fans to cool a i7 970
new chip., so far i love it. moving around 68/70GFlops in Linx @ 4.2GHZ.
im currently doing 4.2Ghz (200x21) Ram is clocked to 2005Mhz @ 200blck, Voltage is CPU 1.34v, QPI 1.32v.
i am spent tonight already, all day putting stuff together.

i will try and stabilize the system tomorrow



i want a reservoir, the T on the feed works wonders though.

[skuldarin]

hey guys, i've been seeing some good comments about BIOS 1203
was wondering if anyone has a link for download. i've been looking back a good number of pages and i think my crap eyes keep passing over it and missing it.

as of current, i'm running 0901 still @ 4.35ghz (117-bclk, 1.38125v vcore, 1.3125v qpi) & 12gb 1880mhz (1.7225v dram, 7-9-7-24-72-1T, 2:16)
i'd like to try out 1203< for some updates and such.

[kurumi_Japan]

hey guys, i've been seeing some good comments about BIOS 1203
was wondering if anyone has a link for download. i've been looking back a good number of pages and i think my crap eyes keep passing over it and missing it.

as of current, i'm running 0901 still @ 4.35ghz (117-bclk, 1.38125v vcore, 1.3125v qpi) & 12gb 1880mhz (1.7225v dram, 7-9-7-24-72-1T, 2:16)
i'd like to try out 1203< for some updates and such.

http://aod999.ca/R3E/BIOS/

[tistou77]

for those who tested the 1203, it is really better than 1102?

sorry, I have not much time to test it now

[TradeWind]

Hey guys,

Looking for some guidance on the potential for two dual-GPU Fermi cards on the R3E. Based on Guru3D's earlier attempts at quad SLI with this board, I am concerned it may not be possible.

I understand 4 discrete cards will not work with quad SLI, as outlined in the linked Guru3D article; however, I'm hoping two dual-GPUs may be a different story.

Also...I understand quad SLI can be overkill, but this is XS. Need I say more?

Thoughts?

[theseeker]

Nice avatar seeker.

Thanks!

[Benton]

Hey guys,

Looking for some guidance on the potential for two dual-GPU Fermi cards on the R3E. Based on Guru3D's earlier attempts at quad SLI with this board, I am concerned it may not be possible.

I understand 4 discrete cards will not work with quad SLI, as outlined in the linked Guru3D article; however, I'm hoping two dual-GPUs may be a different story.

Also...I understand quad SLI can be overkill, but this is XS. Need I say more?

Thoughts?

Quad SLI (4 separate cards) on this motherboard is impossible because it doesn't have enough PCIe lanes. 4 cards will only run at x8 on the R3E. Quad SLI is disabled in the NVIDIA drivers unless there are 4 PCI slots running at actual x16. So for this (with X58 chipset) you need an NVIDIA nf200 chip, which you can find on boards that do support Quad SLI such as the Gigabyte UD9 and EVGA X58 Classified 4 way SLI.
You can run Quad CrossfireX with seperate cards on the R3E though because ATI haven't disabled it in the drivers when the PCIe slots are less than x16.
But to answer your question. Two NVIDIA dual GPU cards can run without restriction on the R3E. Preferably run them in slots 1 & 3 which will give both your cards full x16 bandwidth, although it has been proven that the difference between x8 and x16 is very little because its not yet a bottleneck. I ran two dual GPU ATI 5970's on this board for a while and the performance was just incredible. I was getting 3DMark Vantage close to P48,000. Now Im running Tri SLI GTX 480s and get a similar score. I did it for 3D surround but I wish I had stuck with my 5970s now. No more graphics cards for me until next gen NVIDIA, if they bring out something decent.

[skuldarin]

http://aod999.ca/R3E/BIOS/

link doesn't work, refuses to connect

EDIT: found the BIOS collection download a few pages back, thanks anyway!

[AKHandyman]

Heys guys ... any word or advice on how to hook up my Crucial C300 64GB Satat6gb SSD to the Marvell 9128 controller? I keep on trying to load Win7 to it, but during the install process, it is not detected when connected to the SATA6 plugin. I can get it to be seen when I connect it to SATA II connectors, but I want to use the SATA6G with the Marvell controller. Any advice?

This is driving me nuts!!

[Toritechie]

Hey guys,

Looking for some guidance on the potential for two dual-GPU Fermi cards on the R3E. Based on Guru3D's earlier attempts at quad SLI with this board, I am concerned it may not be possible.

I understand 4 discrete cards will not work with quad SLI, as outlined in the linked Guru3D article; however, I'm hoping two dual-GPUs may be a different story.

Also...I understand quad SLI can be overkill, but this is XS. Need I say more?

Thoughts?

Just chuck in 3 x GTX580's; I'm gaming at 100FPS in BFBC2 maxed settings at 8100 x 1440 (3 x Dell u2711's). All games I play have fantastic frame rates with these cards, at that resolution. I'd stay away from Quad SLI, based on my previous experience with two GTX 295's - just doesn't scale much more than the 3-way, plus I had bugs with various games.

With a moderately overclocked CPU and 580's you can expect a 14000+ 3d mark 11 score: http://3dmark.com/3dm11/392667

Only grab two or three of these cards if you're gaming in surround, otherwise it would be complete overkill.

[TradeWind]

Quad SLI (4 separate cards) on this motherboard is impossible because it doesn't have enough PCIe lanes. 4 cards will only run at x8 on the R3E. Quad SLI is disabled in the NVIDIA drivers unless there are 4 PCI slots running at actual x16. So for this (with X58 chipset) you need an NVIDIA nf200 chip, which you can find on boards that do support Quad SLI such as the Gigabyte UD9 and EVGA X58 Classified 4 way SLI.
You can run Quad CrossfireX with seperate cards on the R3E though because ATI haven't disabled it in the drivers when the PCIe slots are less than x16.
But to answer your question. Two NVIDIA dual GPU cards can run without restriction on the R3E. Preferably run them in slots 1 & 3 which will give both your cards full x16 bandwidth, although it has been proven that the difference between x8 and x16 is very little because its not yet a bottleneck. I ran two dual GPU ATI 5970's on this board for a while and the performance was just incredible. I was getting 3DMark Vantage close to P48,000. Now Im running Tri SLI GTX 480s and get a similar score. I did it for 3D surround but I wish I had stuck with my 5970s now. No more graphics cards for me until next gen NVIDIA, if they bring out something decent.

Just chuck in 3 x GTX580's; I'm gaming at 100FPS in BFBC2 maxed settings at 8100 x 1440 (3 x Dell u2711's). All games I play have fantastic frame rates with these cards, at that resolution. I'd stay away from Quad SLI, based on my previous experience with two GTX 295's - just doesn't scale much more than the 3-way, plus I had bugs with various games.

With a moderately overclocked CPU and 580's you can expect a 14000+ 3d mark 11 score: http://3dmark.com/3dm11/392667

Only grab two or three of these cards if you're gaming in surround, otherwise it would be complete overkill.

Although I would like to do three 580s, I'm concerned my current board configuration would not make that possible. I have two 480s inserted into slots one and three (for full 16x lanes), and a PCI-E sound card in slot two. Due to cabling and tubing constraints (WC), it would be far easier for me to utilize a pair of dual-GPU Fermis. Perhaps I'll consider a tri-SLI setup after I replace the board.

Ironically enough, I also have a Dell U2711; however, I only have one.

Thanks again for the quick responses and help!

[hodgy1971]

Just chuck in 3 x GTX580's; I'm gaming at 100FPS in BFBC2 maxed settings at 8100 x 1440 (3 x Dell u2711's). All games I play have fantastic frame rates with these cards, at that resolution. I'd stay away from Quad SLI, based on my previous experience with two GTX 295's - just doesn't scale much more than the 3-way, plus I had bugs with various games.

With a moderately overclocked CPU and 580's you can expect a 14000+ 3d mark 11 score: http://3dmark.com/3dm11/392667

Only grab two or three of these cards if you're gaming in surround, otherwise it would be complete overkill.

I'm using tri sli 480's to do the same, but I’m at 6100 x 1200 res! how much ram are you using at that res on the 580's? Would love to go for u27's but I think it would be getting close to my 1500 mb ram capacity in some games. I find Batman AA with all eye candy is already very close at about 1400mb.

[AKHandyman]

Heys guys ... any word or advice on how to hook up my Crucial C300 64GB Satat6gb SSD to the Marvell 9128 controller? I keep on trying to load Win7 to it, but during the install process, it is not detected when connected to the SATA6 plugin. I can get it to be seen when I connect it to SATA II connectors, but I want to use the SATA6G with the Marvell controller. Any advice?

This is driving me nuts!!

Again, I was hoping someone could comment on this problem. After reading some more, it seems that some people are having a difficult time with this controller on this motherboard. Could clearing the BIOS and then flashing to the latest version (1102), using the default settings make the controller *see* the C300 64GB drive? In the beginning when I hooked up the SATA III cable to the SSD, the BIOS recognized the hard drive in the list of hard drives. I made my DVD/CD-writer the first boot device, the C300 my second and then disabled the third device. But after booting into my Win7 DVD, Windows couldn't find a hard drive!! What the heck happened? Now it seems no matter what combination of settings I use with the Marvell SATA 6G controller, I can NOT get Windows 7 64-bit operating system to load onto my SSD using the 6G port. What am I missing here?

Totally confused in Tok
AKHandyman

[Toritechie]

I'm using tri sli 480's to do the same, but I’m at 6100 x 1200 res! how much ram are you using at that res on the 580's? Would love to go for u27's but I think it would be getting close to my 1500 mb ram capacity in some games. I find Batman AA with all eye candy is already very close at about 1400mb.

I don't max the AA; I can - it doesn't affect framrates hardly at all - but it gives me some input lag in BFBC2. You'll find the extremely small pixel size on the u2711 means you'd need a magnifying glass to tell when AA is on or off. For me it's just a competitive edge to have low input lag and no AA. Same with Vsync, that annoys me as well.

Anyway, at 8100x1440 at maxed settings (except AA) it's using about 1050MB of video ram; I can try higher settings and check the Vram usage later on if you like.

[TreyWingbat]

AKHandyman - welcome to the "Marvell Sata 6G Issues Club". You are member #183792.

Seriously though, I looked online in other forums too and have found others having issues with the Sata 6G controller. My issue is when I connect two hard drives to each port they both disappear in Windows 7. But they are both shown in the BIOS at start up. When only one hard drive is connected, it is fine and it works. But I guess you're having trouble with just one drive connected to a Sata 6G port?

[zoson]

I think you guys having problems with the 6g controller have driver issues.
Do you have any friends with MSDN so you can get the latest version of windows 7 from microsoft? The drivers are included with that version(I used it for my install with my own win7 key and it worked great).

[AKHandyman]

AKHandyman - welcome to the "Marvell Sata 6G Issues Club". You are member #183792.

LOL!! That's funny ... I was wondering if there should be a dedicated thread for this ...

Seriously though, I looked online in other forums too and have found others having issues with the Sata 6G controller. My issue is when I connect two hard drives to each port they both disappear in Windows 7. But they are both shown in the BIOS at start up. When only one hard drive is connected, it is fine and it works. But I guess you're having trouble with just one drive connected to a Sata 6G port?

Yeah ... And when I change the Xpert Drive to Normal mode, the drive disappears completely from the BIOS. It only appears when it is in the Super Speed mode. But Windows doesn't see it in Disk Management. That's what's driving me bonkers.

Another interesting tidbit is that under the Boot section, if I unplug my 4 hard drives off the ICH10R controller, then NO hard drives are detected, (which makes sense) but it STILL DOES NOT see the SSD plugged into the SATA 6G port (0). At one time, when I first fired up the computer, the drive was detected, but since that time, it has vanished!!

I will try clearing the CMOS and see if I can get that controller to recognize the drive again ... after that, I am not sure what to do ...

[AKHandyman]

I think you guys having problems with the 6g controller have driver issues.
Do you have any friends with MSDN so you can get the latest version of windows 7 from microsoft? The drivers are included with that version(I used it for my install with my own win7 key and it worked great).

How's about a linky?

[zoson]

How's about a linky?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subs...aspx?pv=36:350

You have to have an msdn account to get access to the downloads.

[mahaudi]

The new Bios runs very well.

1203 Bios could drive finally 4610 MHz with that.

With the 1005er and the 1102er that did not function.

4610 Mhz @ 1,440v.

Watertemp ~ 23°c / 73.4 °F



Now I am tested Prime @ 1,432v.

[TreyWingbat]

I am running driver 1.0.0.1036 for the SATA 6G controller from 03/17/2010. That is that latest one that was found in the device driver update. That is also the latest one as stated by ASUS support.

I was using AHCI mode for the drives. I switched to IDE mode, the drives reappeared in Windows 7 for a bit. I played a short video off one of the drives, and it worked for a bit, but then it started freezing, and eventually both drives disappeared.