***ASUS Rampage IV Extreme Owners Thread***

[mdzcpa]

How do you explain all the people complianing about bent pins at newegg?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=13


I am personally a little bugged about it and I have have been looking at other boards.

Read my quote again carefully....

"Although going though RMA again sucks, I'd stick to your guns about the bent pins as there are other reports, and secure a new board."

I'm pretty clearly saying that I'm also aware of other bent pin reports and that he should get another RMA.

That said, let's be honest here. One mobo "caught on fire," another with a broken PCIe clip, then another with the bent pins. That's one a heck of bad luck streak. But in any event, another RMA is best course of actions.

[Levesque]

Come on. Please don't blame my ''skills''. I'm building computers since 1984. Were you even born? Just kidding.

I probably had over 40 Asus motherboards at home over the last 10 years, and never had to RMA a single one. None. I transfered those mobo countless times in different PCs for people I know without money, to help them get a computer. I gave over 20 used computers to people in need, and to kids who can't afford them. Some of those mobo are still working fine after 7-8 years! Never broke a single one.

So let's recapitulate. 1st Rampage. Installed only bare system, everything at stock, BIOS at stock, 1 GPU, after 10 minutes at Win7 desktop, bad intense burning smell coming from under the fan chipset. How can it be me? Please explain. Bare system like I always do. CPU, 1 GPU, 1 HDD. Nothing else. Everything at stock.

2nd Rampage. I've used those PCI latch maybe over 100 times before, never broke one. Always really careful, just pressed on it, without even pulling the card, pouf, explosion. And I had to remove it because the 4th PCI slot stopped working for no reason, and the GPU in that slot started artifacting badly a couple of days before. The slot died before I tried to pull the card out. I'm in Quad-Fire 4X 7970, and the 3 other cards went out of their PCI slots without any latch explosion. But ok, blame it on my lack of skills, my arthritis, or my stupidity, or my cat. Fair enough.

Got my RMA for my artifacting 7970. They say it can't be repaired and are exchanging it. So what happened? Not my fault, and Asus agree, and are exchanging it on warranty. 7970 broke the PCI slot, or the PCI slot broke the GPU? Don't know. But let's blame it on me. No problem. But something happened, since the card was artifacting badly. But ok, blame that one on me, since I can't prove it's not my fault.

3rd Rampage, directly from Asus. ''Brand new, and verified'' by the guy sending it out to me. Take out old Rampage, remove 3930k, revome black plastic cap on CPU socket of new Rampage... Sigh. I see this:

6864563552_263ff459ba_c.jpg

Please explain how I could have done this? The Asus guys wants to blame me again for this. They blame me! Should I film myself opening any future RMA replacement with my lawyer and 3 witness, with my hand on the Bible while removing the plastic cover on the CPU socket? What can I do to prove to Asus that those bent pins were there on the board before I even touched it? It's simply impossible to prove it. So please, give me a solution. Since you are implying that you have better skills then me. What did I do? Played with my cat, sent a ball of paper on the socket, and the cat jumped on it, and bent the pins? Maybe I tried to remove the plastic cap with a hammer? No, there would be more bent pins with a hammer, you can trust me.

And what about those other reports of brand new Asus mobo with bent pins. People lying? Cats and hammers?

My ''old'' Rampage. Pins are perfect. Took both pics with both Rampage side by side.

7010679461_af0dedbf6c_c.jpg

[mdzcpa]

I'm not blaming your skills. Please read my post very carefully. All I am saying is that receiving 3 bad mobos in a row "looks bad" to anyone reading your post. You even must admit that the chances of receiving 3 bad motherboards is very slim, no? But, like I said in my post above, perhaps it is indeed just a very bad run of luck that you have had. It certainly is possible. My point was that there are not many other users experiencing similar situations here (repeated bad boards), on ROG, or anywhere. Yes, there are definitely posts about quality issues like any other motherboard, but I don't see a huge number of these compared to the positive stuff. That's all I'm saying. Now, having said that, I have seen a few more reports about bent pins. That may be an issue. I've seen enough reports of bent pins on new mobos to suggest that you fight for you RMA on this and get it replaced without cost to you.

So please don't take my post personally. I know you are frustrated. But if you have been building as long as you say you have, you should know that 3 bad mobos in a row is extremely rare regardless of the quality of the brand. So even though you likely have just had some terrible luck you need to deal with perception issues from the RMA dpeartment. But, I did side with you on the bent pin issue and say "stick to your guns" and fight for the RMA. I think you have a case there. The purpose of my post was to comment that most folks aren't experiencing the same kind of repeat issues as you and that the RIVE, overall, has been a good board for most people.

Good luck and I do hope they cover your board without cost to you.

BTW, I was long out of high school in 1984 and unfortunately I'm probably older than you

[Levesque]

Ok, sorry. But put yourself in my shoes for 2 minutes. I'm fighting to get a new Rampage for 2 weeks now. It will be my 4th one. Getting tired of arguing, sending e-mails and making phone calls to Asus. And in the end, they send me a replacement with bent pins, and then talk like they don't believe me, or that I did it... It's really annoying and frustrating. Like I wasn't extra careful with that replacement board. What can I do to prove I didn't do it? Nothing! Like I would lie about that. Look at the pics. Those are bent pins. Did they take any pic fo the board before sending it to me? No. And then they tell me it's impossible. I did it. Sigh...

Call me unlucky. My wife can't beleive all this. I'm sooo careful with my computers. She always laugh at me. We have 4 high-end computers at home, all with Eyefinity set-ups, multiple GPUs, to play LAN games. All watercooled. I'm always extra careful when doing a build. Never had to RMA a board before. Run of bad luck all right!

Thank you for the support. It's good to know I'm not the only old geezer around here.

[RCG_Bex]

Wierd and wonderful issues here... My new RAM basically won't boot pat 2400 (in fact most of the time getting 2400 to work is a nightmare).

Rolled back to 1005 and it boots with the RAM at 2560 but once I'm in Windows everything reports something different... 667, 800, N/K...

Going to try 1202 and see if it makes a difference... pretty peeved off at this RAM so far

[l0ud_sil3nc3]

Wierd and wonderful issues here... My new RAM basically won't boot pat 2400 (in fact most of the time getting 2400 to work is a nightmare).

Rolled back to 1005 and it boots with the RAM at 2560 but once I'm in Windows everything reports something different... 667, 800, N/K...

Going to try 1202 and see if it makes a difference... pretty peeved off at this RAM so far

what ram?

[silvrhand]

Is anyone having hard locks with the X79 + 7970 Crossfire? I've been pulling my hair out the build is rock solid for BF3, but most other games randomly hard lock my machine.

[safan80]

Read my quote again carefully....

"Although going though RMA again sucks, I'd stick to your guns about the bent pins as there are other reports, and secure a new board."

I'm pretty clearly saying that I'm also aware of other bent pin reports and that he should get another RMA.

That said, let's be honest here. One mobo "caught on fire," another with a broken PCIe clip, then another with the bent pins. That's one a heck of bad luck streak. But in any event, another RMA is best course of actions.

Some people have also reported the board catching fire. Granted the people were probably using crappy psus. Motherboard manufactures should list the kind of amps needed for motherboards not just have a dumb QVL list. They barely test anything and the QVL list is a joke.

Is anyone having hard locks with the X79 + 7970 Crossfire? I've been pulling my hair out the build is rock solid for BF3, but most other games randomly hard lock my machine.

Have you tried the 8.96 drivers?

http://downloads.guru3d.com/AMD-Cata...load-2867.html

The 8.95 have opengl isssues for me.

[RCG_Bex]

what ram?

Team xtreem 4x4Gb 2600 CAS10
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...d=8&subcat=817

[Dumo]

Team xtreem 4x4Gb 2600 CAS10

Did you try run XMP 2600?

[RCG_Bex]

If I put it on XMP 2600 it doesn't run at 2600. You have to set the BCLK up to reach 2600 and then it doesn't post... XMP 2400 works but very hit and miss depending on CPU clock speed..

[Dumo]

If I put it on XMP 2600 it doesn't run at 2600. You have to set the BCLK up to reach 2600 and then it doesn't post... XMP 2400 works but very hit and miss depending on CPU clock speed..

I tried a 3930K C1 that will do 2400 easy but no 2600, but my 3820 will easily went 2600+ with the same ram. It seems that IMC is the determining factor.

[RCG_Bex]

Hmm... As I say I've managed 2560 but no higher... Same with some gskill stff earlier in the year (I don't think as high as that though)

I think I'll keep playing around a while longer, see what I can achieve...

[l0ud_sil3nc3]

definitely IMC related Bex, do you have another chip to test with?

[RCG_Bex]

Unfortunately not... Oh well...

[BigRigDriver]

Is it possible to RAID under the Asmedia controller on this board??

[Guz]

Ok, sorry. But put yourself in my shoes for 2 minutes. I'm fighting to get a new Rampage for 2 weeks now. It will be my 4th one.

I feel your pain. I'll be receiving my third one from newegg... First one is the one I'm using has two "longer" pins than the rest, so they will inevitably bend. At first I thought I could be blamed, but after careful inspection and some "needle" work where the pins were straightened out, I found out they were indeed taller. Thank god the board is working fine, though at first I had problems with instability and blamed the board with its bent pins. Then to my surprise I received my second one with a dead ram slot. Thanks to Hivizman a moderator in the rog forums I followed his procedure and found out my gskill kit 32gb (4x8sticks) had one bad stick. Now talk about a round of bad luck... Additonaly my cpu has this black spot, probably caused by a mini-short, where the longer pins are located but it still manages to overclock to 4.7 with 24gb of the gskill ram 12 hour prime blend. So call me crazy but I might end up with two bad boards, one bad kit of ram, and a faulty cpu partially due to the first board's manufacturing defect.

[Defoler]

Is it possible to RAID under the Asmedia controller on this board??

No, only under intel chip.

[BigRigDriver]

No, only under intel chip.

Is it a good idea to mix SATA3 & SATA6 drives to RAID? I have two samsungs 830 on the SATA6 & have a couple of extra Corsairs that I'm thinking of raiding but will have to add them on the SATA3 slots. will I take a hit on performance?

[Skully]

You can do two things.
1: RAID-O the two Samsung 830's on SATA 6 and then RAID-O the two Corsair on SATA 3 for 2x RAID-0's.
2: You can put all four ssd's on SATA 3 in RAID-O this will run at SATA 3 speeds.
I've run 3 different ssd controllers, 2 Samsung 830, 3 OCZ VERTEX, and 1 Vertex 2,
total 6 drives in RAID-O on 2 SATA 6 and 4 SATA 3 ports all in one RAID-0.
The 6 mixed RAID-O ran fine @ SATA 3 speeds....
These drives were 5 128gig and 1 120gig drive.

[cky2k6]

I have a question about some interesting behavior on this board: my raid array works with the bios set to ahci. If I enable raid on the board, my old os install didn't boot due to the missing driver, and a fresh install wouldn't work for the same reason; I didn't bother loading the raid driver. I installed a fresh os in ahci mode, and after installing the intel rapid storage driver, my raid array came online. Its really for the best as I don't have to wait for that raid bios screen during the post, and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong performance wise. Its just a bit confusing.

[BigRigDriver]

Download latest raid drivers from Asu. I dont remember which one at tmoment as im away from my computer, theres a folder with the drivers in it, copy your flavor(32 or 64 bit) then put on a usb stick. Point windows to the drivers during installation & you should be good to go.

I have a question about some interesting behavior on this board: my raid array works with the bios set to ahci. If I enable raid on the board, my old os install didn't boot due to the missing driver, and a fresh install wouldn't work for the same reason; I didn't bother loading the raid driver. I installed a fresh os in ahci mode, and after installing the intel rapid storage driver, my raid array came online. Its really for the best as I don't have to wait for that raid bios screen during the post, and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong performance wise. Its just a bit confusing.

[Nicklas0912]

After some break with OC, I got a 5870 home yesterday to have fun with, but for some reason I cant get my CPU stabil at 5100Mhz as I normaly did with GTX 580,
is like 4 weeks ago had I it at 5.1Ghz 100% stabil.

[mdzcpa]

I have a question about some interesting behavior on this board: my raid array works with the bios set to ahci. If I enable raid on the board, my old os install didn't boot due to the missing driver, and a fresh install wouldn't work for the same reason; I didn't bother loading the raid driver. I installed a fresh os in ahci mode, and after installing the intel rapid storage driver, my raid array came online. Its really for the best as I don't have to wait for that raid bios screen during the post, and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong performance wise. Its just a bit confusing.

Your are not really running in RAID under ACHI. Your fresh install is only on one disk. When you installed the Intel Rapid Storage Driver it is reading the old boot sectors from both disks from the old RAID set up that was never deleted and reports it as RAID.

[cky2k6]

Your are not really running in RAID under ACHI. Your fresh install is only on one disk. When you installed the Intel Rapid Storage Driver it is reading the old boot sectors from both disks from the old RAID set up that was never deleted and reports it as RAID.

What? My raid array is not the os disk, and it most certainly is two disks seeing as it is a 600gb disk in disk management and is made up of two 300gb velociraptors... Like I said, it is working perfectly normal under windows and benchmarks show regular raid 0 speed.