ASUS Maximus Formula SE

[393]

Would any of you guys buy the Maximus Formula again if you fried one?

[CrackaBoi]

I would definately.

Can people who reach 3.8+ with their Q6600 please post their BIOS settings? I cannot make mine stable above 3.780Mhz, although my cooling, mem, etc should handle more. I do believe the CPU can too.

Thanks

[chocobo15]

I asked you'd before if you flashed to 0701 ??? BUMP
Still glad you got ya old temps back

yeah i did flash to 0701, but the temps were really scaring me so I flashed back to 0505

I also got rid of the crappy OCZ golds and swapped in a new set of Corsair Dominator PC8500, but with my current 9x400 clock speed, and ram set to dd2-1066 my divider is 3:4 was there a problem with that divider ratio or should i be ok?

stress testing as we speak

[CyberDruid]

i tried to clock mine to 3.6 and was idling at 47 as well, but now i'm back down to 2.4 and at 48 lol...ripping out my hairr!!! Ahhh!

Exact same thing here. Stock Idle 47C ???? And 47C load?! Weird.

No way...not with a PA160...

I dunno man either the figures are bogus or this board rons 20C hotter than anything I've put the G0 in.

What's weird is the first BIOS the temps were way too low...17C idle

[chocobo15]

CyberDruid, are you on the 0701 bios? someone mentioned that there's a temp bug in that bios, could be that?

[chocobo15]

stress testing with prime right now, core temp says my cores are 86-92* O.O!!! VID = 1.225v is that undervolted?

[TheSamurai]

0701 here and my temps seem a little higher (4-5c) but i also moved my puter and didnt' realize it's right next to the heater. i think that is why it's up in temps.

[chocobo15]

0701 here and my temps seem a little higher (4-5c) but i also moved my puter and didnt' realize it's right next to the heater. i think that is why it's up in temps.

me and a few other members are having a very different issue with 0701

[Warboy]

My CPU should be idling at about 24-28C, right now its at 40C, I've tested these bug with 0505-0701 and they all have the same bug i guess.

[Maglin]

I'm not to worried about the reported temps. As long as it stays below 75* full load. I've changed my auto voltages to what Probe was showing. Believe it or not my reported CPU temps under load went down about 3* and I haven't touched vCore. I only have cpuPLL on auto now. Those settings I posted I didn't test in Prime. Was just trying to successfully bench. It errored in P95 in seconds. . So I've done some more tweaking. Changing timings had almost zero effect. Changing clock twister to Moderate had some effect. Was 2 hr. prime stable. Last thing I've tried was DD2 Ref Voltages. I've not seen anyone mention changing those and I thought I was give it a try. I've changed all 3 to +10mv and I also noticed that under full load my VDIMM was fluxing by .02v. So I upped vDIMM by .02v and running another P95 blend test. I'll report back later with more info.

And if this board where to fry next week and I had to purchase it again I would say no. I would probably get the upcoming QuadGT X38/X48 board. I've always like Abit. This is my first Asus board in 10 years. Last Asus board was for Socket 7 233MMX.

[sdumper]

Would any of you guys buy the Maximus Formula again if you fried one?

Sure why wouldnt I? This board has been great just a little weak on the quad FSB.

[Warboy]

Sure why wouldnt I? This board has been great just a little weak on the quad FSB.

I think these bored would be great with CPUs with a high Multiplier

[cstkl1]

hmm the 0701 damn buggy

was running 500x8 with rams at 1:1 4-4-4-8
when i flashed it to 0701 it worked flawlessly

today was doing some benching overclocking.. suddenly got det ram error
it didnt even allow my board to boot past 450fsb

reverted it back to 0602.. working fine.. but i still prefer 0505 as the rams sandra bandwidth was better..

[chocobo15]

anyone running 3:4 divider?

[cstkl1]

Can't find anyone running an E6850 either...lol.. are you? I have only mine to go by and state here what it does, but I know it's a killer CPU for high FSB.

It's an ok board let down by a lack of GTL tuning, both CPU die's are tied to the same reference voltage control, which is far from ideal - the die's never completely match each other (there is always variance in fabrication). Then we have onboard components making their presence felt. We are hoping Asus will effect some changes in this department on future boards, we have certainly put some thoughts forwards. This includes a drop of Transaction Booster etc, to more conventional terms and fields of use. Our highest point for reasonable stability with our QX6800 was around 465FSB (giving around a max of 1 hour Prime95). The widely acceptable stable point for the Quad was 450FSB (where our setup managed an over 8 hour run), perfectly in line with users. Unfortunately there are no E6850 results to go by other than the ones that we ourselves have posted in the review. For the record though, I managed around the same on the DFI P35 LP board. The trouble with high FSB on the DDR2 X38's is the loose PF levels required, 11-12 in our case. The good DDR3 boards (P35 based Extreme's are managing really low access latency, low PF level and high FSB's all at the same time)...

regards
Raja

Hmmm ok ill bite wheres an example of a dual core exceeding 485 fsb on the Maxiumus maybe I missed it but I dont recall seeing an example anywhere?

Now the voltage termination noise may be causing some of the issues but It doesnt seem like its the only issue. Dont get me wrong this is a nice board and as I have said I prefer it over the others Its just the wrong board if your in search of the super high FSB's levels...

C2D X6800 B2 L628A937




E6850 G0 L720A948

[393]

Sure why wouldnt I? This board has been great just a little weak on the quad FSB.

Thanks. I'm going to try to get my hands on one to replace the dud P5K Premium

Does anyone think there is going to be an issue running the SE model without water on the northbridge (can't find a retailer here in Aust selling the non SE model)?

[Budwise]

im coming from a P5K premium and i definitely dont regret it. The P5K Premium was a pain in the butt...

[safan80]

here's my Small FFTs running on prime95 64bit version 25.5 so far. I'm not having any trouble other than a high NB temp. my volts aren't fluxing at all.

[dennismagic]

Here are my current settings. I'm still going to work on getting some of the voltages down and getting some of the auto voltages set to what is stable so I don't have to worry about them changing and causing instability between boots.

I have noticed one thing not mentioned in this thread yet. Transaction Booster is just a stupid name for memory performance Level. If Disabled it starts at PL 7 and it goes up from the relax level which can be 0-7. And if Trans Booster is enabled it starts at I think 6 and goes down from what you put into Boost Level (name changes according to if TB is enabled or not).

BIOS 0701
Extreme Tweaker
Ai Overclock Tuner : Manual
OC From CPU Level Up : AUTO
CPU Ratio Control : Manual
- Ratio CMOS Setting : 8
FSB Frequency : 450
FSB Strap to North Bridge : 333
PCI-E Frequency: 100

DRAM Frequency: DDR2-1081
DRAM Command Rate : 2T
DRAM Timing Control: Manual
CAS# Latency : 5
RAS# to CAS# Delay : 5
RAS# Precharge : 5
RAS# ActivateTime : 12
RAS# to RAS# Delay : 3
Row Refresh Cycle Time : Auto
Write Recovery Time : 6
Read to Precharge Time : 3

Read to Write Delay (S/D) : 8
Write to Read Delay (S) : 3
Write to Read Delay (D) : 5
Read to Read Delay (S) : 4
Read to Read Delay (D) : 6
Write to Write Delay (S) : 4
Write to Write Delay (D) : 6
DRAM Static Read Control: Enabled (Doesn't seem to effect bench's?)
Ai Clock Twister : STRONG
Transaction Booster : Disabled 
Relax Level : 1

CPU Voltage : 1.43125v
CPU PLL Voltage : Auto
North Bridge Voltage : 1.61v
DRAM Voltage : 2.00v
FSB Termination Voltage : 1.54v
South Bridge Voltage : AUTO
Loadline Calibration : ENABLED
CPU GTL Reference : .63x
North Bridge GTL Reference : .67x
DDR2 Channel A REF Voltage : AUTO
DDR2 Channel B REF Voltage : AUTO
DDR2 Controller REF Voltage : DDR2_REF
SB 1.5V Voltage : AUTO

NB LED Selection : NB Volt
SB LED Selection : SB Volt
CPU LED Selection : CPU VOlt
Voltiminder LED : ENABLED

CPU Spread Spectrum : Enabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum : Enabled

i think CPU/pcie Spread Spectrum should be disable to add stable ！

[safan80]

This bloody board still isn't stable. I've just had a random reboot (had to be hardware related as nothing was running) after several days and OCCT/Prime runs showed it to be stable.

I'm just fed up of this board now. Unless some miracle bios comes out soon, I'm going to sell up and got for a QuadGT instead. Save myself £50 and get a decent board.

what power supply are you using?

i think CPU/pcie Spread Spectrum should be disable to add stable ！

yes it does! it also controls the pci locking to 33Mhz etc.

[devilhood]

Please give me a few pointers, I'm completely stumped. What settings are you running for those speeds? ( I know I can't do those CPU clocks, but I can to get a good FSB)

I like the board, and it's VERY fast, but right now, I'm able to get higher FSB and CPU clocks out of my aging Striker Extreme...and after blowing £200 on this new board, that upsets me!

EDIT: I've been on 0701 since it came out, just not updated sig...

I've finally built up my machine now, and I'm surprised (initially) at the vast stability improvements over the i975X, I haven't tweaked things much but just installed XP to test a few options with Prime.

Kup: is your modded 0701 SLIC BIOS meant to report a bad boot block error on EZ FLASH 2? I avoided flashing with it. The SLIC modded 0903 BIOS for my P5W64-WS didn't report any bad boot block errors during its flash, so that's why I'm asking.

P.

[kimandsally]

here's my Small FFTs running on prime95 64bit version 25.5 so far. I'm not having any trouble other than a high NB temp. my volts aren't fluxing at all.

Hi notice in your sig;

How do I flash the BIOS without a floppy, answer USB.

Please would you give details how I can do that with this Mobo as I can't seem to find a boot from USB option, also I want to use the USB to put my Raid drivers on XP using F6 again I haven't a clue been trying for 2 full days now.

Thanks..

[devilhood]

Hi notice in your sig;

How do I flash the BIOS without a floppy, answer USB.

Please would you give details how I can do that with this Mobo as I can't seem to find a boot from USB option, also I want to use the USB to put my Raid drivers on XP using F6 again I haven't a clue been trying for 2 full days now.

Thanks..

or just use a CD and EZ FLASH 2

[kimandsally]

or just use a CD and EZ FLASH 2

I could do that for the BIOS but the F6 option installing XP needs either floppy or USB I would love to find out the USB way, it's the future and I want to learn now.

[devilhood]

I could do that for the BIOS but the F6 option installing XP needs either floppy or USB I would love to find out the USB way, it's the future and I want to learn now.

oh no no, I was talking about the BIOS, not RAID drivers lol
I've never used USB for F6, I just compile my own custom XP or Vista install disc with whatever drivers I need.
See nLite for XP and vLite for Vista