ASUS Maximus Formula SE

[Majoram]

Just to test the temps with the air cooled heatsink, are there any particular tests/settings anyone would like me to use to raise the temp?

I think I will give it a try with and without reseating with AS5.

Also just an FYI, the non-SE comes with the new EMI shield.
I think it's called "Q-Shield" without the "fingers".

[chocobo15]

http://www.bandwidth.se/imgs/nouser/...es514946e7.jpg

Bought this Maximus some weeks ago and sold my Blitz Formula, so far very satisfied with 24/7 clocks and good temps. I have 0701 bois and temps are now correct of course like all said here. No problems for me with crashes so far.

wow, 0701 bios and 56* CPU temp on load? I have the exact same bios setup as you with the same memory timings and divider. My coretemp says the cores are in the low 60's.

Can you post your bios voltage settings please?

[Glennswe]

Sure, here they come.

vcore 1,325
Cpu PLL 1,58
NB 1,41
Dram 2,16
FSBT 1,40
SB 1,125

[-=j0nnyr0773n=-]

I'd personally recommend trying 0505 out, I've been trying them all out but have decided to settle with 0701 purely because it helped with tighter memory latencies.

0701 helped me with the x8 multiplier. I could not get 450x8 to work, before 0701, but after I flashed I can.

I had to raise my northbridge voltage farther than expected in order to get a stable system above 400 fsb.

[chocobo15]

oh crap, i failed to notice that you have a X6850

thanks anyway, i'm sure your post will help out other people who're using that processor

[binormalkilla]

It's terrible how they failed to acknowledge 'any' of the points you mention.
You only laid a handful of problems to them though... the randomly forced over voltage of the FSB Termination to 2.0v after a failed OC or BSOD is a particularly nasty one.

They should have said "RMA it to get the same model with the same problems,"

You should reply back to them and get them to realise that this is serious, unless by chance they managed to ship out an enormous batch of bad boards, which wouldn't bode well for them... but I don't see how that can be the case, it's definitely specifically related to poor BIOS coding imho.

The board itself is solid, they just didn't spend enough time perfecting the BIOS before release, which says a lot about their obviously flawed QA'ing department. Who the hell tests these boards before release? a bunch of lazy gits with no eyes.

Yea ASUS's customer support is crap man.....I can't believe they responded like that. They casually so 'oh, just RMA the board and be without a PC for 2 weeks, then get the same board back with the same (or worse) issues'

This board will be a beast when it gets a decent BIOS.....the sheer number of BIOS releases since the board came out shows the problems they've had with it...

[ChaosMinionX]

Hmm I am still not completely sure about 0701....

[BulldogPO]

Hmm, my board is not drooping, it is clearly under volting.
I have set 1.55V Vcore from bios and it is stable 1.46V at windows with full load on all four cores or not load at all.
Bios is 0702.

[nikhsub1]

Here are my load with 0701, in place FFT's... my vcore is set at 1.55v in bios, I don't get much droop...

[chocobo15]

Yea ASUS's customer support is crap man.....I can't believe they responded like that. They casually so 'oh, just RMA the board and be without a PC for 2 weeks, then get the same board back with the same (or worse) issues'

This board will be a beast when it gets a decent BIOS.....the sheer number of BIOS releases since the board came out shows the problems they've had with it...

...which brings us back to the fact that ASUS has been spitting out boards like baby rats, but why make all these products without the proper support? we should get a petition together and send it to them. Its obvious the motivation for them is no longer to make good products, but to get as much money as possible. Which explains why they've expanded to other fields in the computer world as well. Once a company builds up reputation, they always get y and begin to neglect their original mission statement. Greed is such an aweful thing

[jonny_ftm]

Oh these is Interesting, I sent in a Techical Inquiry to asus Detailing all the bugs
like so.

1) Abnormal High temps on the CPU, Northbridge
2) Failed Posting sometimes
...

and they told me to RMA it -_- some help they are.

Or maybe it means this board is really messy and maybe the X48 revision will be better. I doubt they will improve the X38 hardware support with new revisions as they are focusing already on the soon coming X48

Well i just received the board an hour now but I got other stuff to do atm.

If I do it after turning on, I may not be able to get the assembly off. Unless someone has a suggestion?

Well if it's anything like the SE assembly, the NB should pop out too

I usually find it helpful to subject the top of hard to remove heatsinks with a bagged icecube to cool the metal, then gently twist to loosen the initial bond between the surfaces.

All methods implying some skills, efforts, twisting, pulling... explain why people get their NB IHS pop-up

Just use a hair dryer, no need to plug your board and get it warm, then go in the hassle of unplugging it and do all as quickely as possible (risking to ruin some thing on your hurry up) before it gets cold again.

With a hair dryer (20 sec are enough, apply it some more if any resistance remains), well applied, the heatsink will come with the touch of the finger. Never met one which resisted. On the other hand, the NB WB and the heatsink are soldered with epoxy, so they could need some work, but once the heatsink unmounted, no worry to put some stress on the WB

[Aldy402]

ok with 0701 I was getting random BSODS even with 4hr prime stability. It would BSOD during OCCT & 3dmark06. Was able to boot with mem at 600 (2.4v) 5-5-5-15, superPI 32mb stable but not OCCT 30min ram test. Also was able to boot with 500 (2.4v) 4-4-4-8 with same results. superpi ok but not OCCT.

reverted back to 0501 where I feel most comfortable, 6 hrs prime stable at 3.6ghz no problem, no more BSODS anywhere with any benchmark. Super stability but ram at SPD stock settings. Won't boot with 600 cas5 or 500 cas 5 with 2.4v. NB/CPU is also 10C less then 0701 /w probe

my ram? or the board?

[lazy]

after playing with the board for about 15mins trying to get the fusion off the NB, i gave up..

how did others take it off?

[eSp!s0]

Hi welcome to the forum

I have the identical ram and I could get it up to 1066 but it wouldn't go any further.

Make sure you a on a low CPU multi try 7X then set the strap to either 333 or 400.

Set the RAM voltage to 2.1v as the board over volts, set the timings to

5-5-5-18 and leave the rest on Auto. That should see you on the right track.

Thx 4 reply

1066Mhz is not much, perhaps I will try the Transcend 1200Mhz. Have one guy in our forum with this Kit and it runs 1122Mhz in his configuration, a little more air 4 OC, I hope.

[kup]

OCCT is crashing even at stock for me... But I've lost my faith in in because when I try to run the auto test it says it needs 256MB but only has 2048 or something (I have 4GB) to use... Are there newer versions that play nicely with this chipset?

[Maglin]

I think some of these issues could be related to the EPU. I always fail OCCT ram test when I hit 26:07 remaining. It isn't BSODing just crashing according to OCCT. When I tired the D9's I was watching my VDIMM and had it set at 2.24v actual in probe. It would start to drop and when it hit 1.9v it would BSOD and reboot. This could be a hardware issue on the board with these new digital PWM voltage regulators, and now that we have an EPU that controls it from windows. Yuck.

Has anyone installed Linux and seen how it runs doing benches in Linux. I'm debating just using Ubuntu 7.05 Live CD and see if I can't do some benching with it. I just ran ECI"s MemTest x2 each testing 1GB of ram. They both went 200% coverage with Zero errors. But this memtest isn't going 100% CPU load like OCCT does. Also I usually fail any test after I start seeing voltages jump around in Asus Probe. So yeah... I would love to just turn off the EPU and screw power savings. Why save power with a enthusiast board anyways? Seems like it could be been a bad decision to start with. I'm sure it will end up in OEM computers and it would work great their as we are beta testing this hardware now. And paying a hefty price for it.

[devilhood]

Ok I managed to find the fastest base-line setting that isn't too hot for daily usage on air cooling.

Ai Overclock Tuner Manual
OC From CPU Level Up Auto
CPU Ratio Control Manual
Ratio CMOS Setting 9
FSB Frequency 380
FSB Strap to North Bridge 400MHz
PCIE Frequency 100

DRAM Frequency DDR2-1013MHz
DRAM Command Rate 2T
DRAM Timing Control Manual
Primary Info : 4-4-4-9-3-25-5-3
Secondary Info: 7-3-5-4-5-4-5
DRAM Static Read Control Enabled
Ai Clock Twister Strong
Transaction Booster Enabled
Boost Level 0

CPU Voltage 1.37500V
CPU PLL Voltage 1.50V
North Bridge Voltage 1.43V
DRAM Voltage 2.16V
FSB Termination Voltage 1.34V
South Bridge Voltage 1.050V
Loadline Calibration Enabled
CPU GTL Reference 0.63x
North Bridge GTL Reference 0.67x
DDR2 Channel A REF Voltage Auto
DDR2 Channel B REF Voltage Auto
DDR2 Controller REF Voltage DDR2_REF
SB 1.5V Voltage 1.50V

This is with a Q6600 G0 and Crucial Ballistix DDR2-1066 2 GB RAM.
I'm still tweaking but I'm basically trying to keep voltages as low as possible due to 0701 being temp borked.

On Everest, Memory Read was at 9007 MB/s, Memory Write 6934 MB/s, Memory Copy 7681 MB/s and Memory Latency 54.4 ns.

[TinyRK]

I noticed something weird: my Logitech DiNovo Edge Bluetooth Keyboard crashes the Explorer of my Vista x64 when the AI Suite has been installed.
Well...

[loften]

maybe the borked temp readings through bios are causing the epu to throttle down voltages to conserve energy causing even more problems..

[devilhood]

Just as I suspected, it was the CPU voltages that prevented it from hitting 380 FSB.

I increase it to 1.37V and now it is Prime stable.

[thelawns]

Ok, I have been fiddling with settings but my noobness to overclocking is getting the better of me.

What sort of max overclock realistically should I be expecting from my C2D E6550 2.33ghz FSB1333 and my Kingston 800mhz mem? I have set my Mem to 1.9v as the max is 2.0v to cover the overvolting. See sig for full rig details...

I have it currently running stable at 2.8ghz (400 fsb) and 800mhz mem. Anything higher than about 405 fsb and XP gives a BSOD on bootup?? How do I get the FSB higher but keeping my memory at 800mhz, or am I missing something??

I have pushed my 8800gts up to 600/1035 and have broke the 10k barrier on 3DMark06 but everyone else seems to be getting alot higher??

[kup]

Just as I suspected, it was the CPU voltages that prevented it from hitting 380 FSB.

I increase it to 1.37V and now it is Prime stable.

I have to say I've never experienced a board where each and every voltage affects another sooooo drastically!!!

I'm loving the board, and it's FAST! But it's so unstable, maybe because it has so many options to tweak and maybe just due to sloppy programming, but the sooner a new DECENT bios is out, the better!

[Maglin]

Checking on the IX38 Quad GT makes me frown. It's doing very well in comparison to the Maximus Formula.

AI Suite is horrible. With it installed any pressing of any key on my keyboard would lock up the app I was trying to type in. I'm using a very very old MS internet Pro USB keyboard.

I'm actually thinking about getting a quad GT now. But I think I'll just hold out for 45mn cpu's and me to get some DDR3. So I'm sticking with this board. Would be nice to be able to adjust BIOS setting in windows like Uguru.

[devilhood]

I have to say I've never experienced a board where each and every voltage affects another sooooo drastically!!!

I'm loving the board, and it's FAST! But it's so unstable, maybe because it has so many options to tweak and maybe just due to sloppy programming, but the sooner a new DECENT bios is out, the better!

Same here man, this board is a good experience in learning its quirkyness, because once you know how to gauge the system, you can pretty much make it fly.
I'll take back a lot of my moaning earlier because now that I've finally got it Prime stable, I can breathe a sigh of relief.
Memory performance is the best thing with this board, I can't believe I'm able to push 4-4-4-9 with such ease!

[ZilverPhish]

I noticed something weird: my Logitech DiNovo Edge Bluetooth Keyboard crashes the Explorer of my Vista x64 when the AI Suite has been installed.
Well...

Check Bios updates they fixed that. Drove me crazy until I flushed out AI suite and flashed the bios update.