ASUS Maximus Formula SE

[devilhood]

wow, after reading through 89 pages...
not so sure about this board...
still waiting on my cooler b4 i can fire up this board...
from what i have read...seems to be a mixed bag of opinions on what bios is best... 401. 505, 0r 701 ???
...or is it whatever works best for you kinda thing?

Don't be too put-off because of the BIOS', even though it's a mixed bag, the next release will surely make things a hell of a lot better

[Renegade5399]

Speaking of next release, where is it? Is there an ETA?

[jonny_ftm]

CPU & RAM with priority normal... never changed it. should i?

CPU is using the stuff listed in my sig. NB is just air cooled for the moment. i'll be water cooling it when i get my new vid cards and add them to the loop. most likely will reseat the NB block also with mx-2.

EDIT, just realized that the CPU tab wasn't up in that picture... i think everything is covered, if not just let me know and i'll get what ever you need.

Ahh, didn't look well in the signature, thought it only an image. No need for CPU tab, OCCT displays everything needed, and PC Probe the vcore. Nice WC, very close to mine except an Apogee GT and a PA120.3 instead of the Fusion and MCR-320. I'll also invest in a MCW30 for my new MB.

Give OCCT last beta a try (Link), and put the slider in RAM 1024Mb mode. Hope you keep stable it really stresses the NB-RAM at maximum. If it fails, your F@H also could fail, and suerely from time to time a game or other stuff...
Please let me know once done, you have just the best yet stable OC on this board

[devilhood]

Speaking of next release, where is it? Is there an ETA?

No, but we can start placing bets

[icon57]

Don't be too put-off because of the BIOS', even though it's a mixed bag, the next release will surely make things a hell of a lot better

hoping so....it will still be a few more days til i fire it up for the first time.

my goal is to run 400 x 9 on a q6600, with 8 gigs of ram (g.skill)

[devilhood]

hoping so....it will still be a few more days til i fire it up for the first time.

my goal is to run 400 x 9 on a q6600, with 8 gigs of ram (g.skill)

You should definitely be able to achieve 400x9 no problems.

[lazy]

alright guys.. im having some problem with my computer booting.

E6850 / Maximus / Tracers 8500 / Zeus 750

Cooled by W/C in my sig

after i power on, it doesnt say anything.. on the lcd it just says cpu init

[giorgos th.]

are you with default settings?

[kup]

New OCCT hard locks and then reboots my system...

[TheSamurai]

Ahh, didn't look well in the signature, thought it only an image. No need for CPU tab, OCCT displays everything needed, and PC Probe the vcore. Nice WC, very close to mine except an Apogee GT and a PA120.3 instead of the Fusion and MCR-320. I'll also invest in a MCW30 for my new MB.

Give OCCT last beta a try (Link), and put the slider in RAM 1024Mb mode. Hope you keep stable it really stresses the NB-RAM at maximum. If it fails, your F@H also could fail, and suerely from time to time a game or other stuff...
Please let me know once done, you have just the best yet stable OC on this board

i tried for 18 minutes and it was stable... couldn't get OCCT to stop the test though lol. i had to use task manager. anyway, i'll try running it longer later on. i don't think i'll have a problem though as i'm using a 1:1 divider and the ram isn't overclocked much.

[lazy]

i havent even got my computer into the bios.

Just hooked up everything last night and havent even gotten it to post yet..
help please!

[TheSamurai]

try one stick of ram and let me know how that goes... try the 800 stick you have.

[jonny_ftm]

New OCCT hard locks and then reboots my system...

That's it. I'm trying to convince that Prime95 Blend is far from being a good stability test for the NB-RAM subsystem... You just saw it, sorry for you

Look at my signature. OCCT RAM will reboot me at 391MHz, I'm stable at 390MHz FSB. If my I set my vDDR to 2.0v, same thing. Of course, Prime95 small/large/blend is always happy on all settings

Hope more people will use OCCT RAM so we can have real stability measures instead of promising stable systems while they bug in games and randomly

[thelawns]

What all have you tried? Post your settings and maybe I or someone else here...uhm...cough...leeghoofd...cough...could help you out.

Here you go, top 3 are the Extreme Tweaker page, bottom 2 just to see if they are set ok?







Thanks...

[jonny_ftm]

i tried for 18 minutes and it was stable... couldn't get OCCT to stop the test though lol. i had to use task manager. anyway, i'll try running it longer later on. i don't think i'll have a problem though as i'm using a 1:1 divider and the ram isn't overclocked much.

Great, good news, you are stable for 18mn which is already very good. If OCCT in RAM mode is stable for 1-2h, then it is probably stable for real.

For the priority issue, you have to set priority in "configuration panel" to lowest, it is a bug in the beta. Once on lowest, you could use your computer normally

[Budious]

I am trying this OCCT utility but the slider won't move because it's drawn at the top of the utility and when I click it to change RAM test size, it moves the application around screen instead. Anyone else have this problem or how to fix it, I looked in the OCCT.ini but did not see an option to define memory test size.

[devilhood]

Here you go, top 3 are the Extreme Tweaker page, bottom 2 just to see if they are set ok?







Thanks...

You can drop South Bridge back to stock voltages.. increasing it makes absolutely no differences.
Enable Loadline Calibration as this helps with vDroop.
Set DDR2 REF Voltage to nominal (the middle setting).
Disable both Spread Spectrums because they cause instability at high frequencies.
You're not overclocking your CPU? the voltage is set unnecassarily high.

[jonny_ftm]

I am trying this OCCT utility but the slider won't move because it's drawn at the top of the utility and when I click it to change RAM test size, it moves the application around screen instead. Anyone else have this problem or how to fix it, I looked in the OCCT.ini but did not see an option to define memory test size.

The slider is active for custom test selection in the drop menu. So select, custom test in drop menu, then select the slider

Final version should be more beautiful/agenced

Official OCCT forum, final version coming soon:
http://forum.hardware.fr/hfr/Overclo...t_227556_1.htm


edit:
Please note, I'm not implicated in OCCT developement (except I followed the beta testing when I discovered, like you, that OCCT in ram mode will put much more stress on the NB and RAM than Prime95). If OCCT RAM fails, even F@H will fail from time to time on >12h run while OCCT RAM will fail in 1 to 2h. The new chips with a quad core are difficult to overclock because of an FSB-NB-RAM issue. Only OCCT in RAM mode unveals it, and F@H (but needs longer runs). I'd like to buy an X38 board and get +3.8GHz, but it has to be OCCT stable too in addition to Prime95.

Anyway, the Samurai got a great stable overclock it seems, and OCCT RAM stable, so this board should do it with the good settings/memory

[thelawns]

You can drop South Bridge back to stock voltages.. increasing it makes absolutely no differences.
Enable Loadline Calibration as this helps with vDroop.
Set DDR2 REF Voltage to nominal (the middle setting).
Disable both Spread Spectrums because they cause instability at high frequencies.
You're not overclocking your CPU? the voltage is set unnecassarily high.

Sorry, should have pointed out I am trying to overclock my cpu higher, its an E6550 2.33ghz FSB1333 and it is currently at 400x7 = 2.8ghz.

The problem is, everytime I try to push the fsb higher the system won't boot and I think its down to the memory but i'm not sure where i'm going wrong.

I have seen on other forums at least 3.2ghz and a review made it up to 3.85ghz with the E6550 using different motherboards!

[Budious]

Thanks, that got it working. I should have tried that.

[devilhood]

Sorry, should have pointed out I am trying to overclock my cpu higher, its an E6550 2.33ghz FSB1333 and it is currently at 400x7 = 2.8ghz.

The problem is, everytime I try to push the fsb higher the system won't boot and I think its down to the memory but i'm not sure where i'm going wrong.

I have seen on other forums at least 3.2ghz and a review made it up to 3.85ghz with the E6550 using different motherboards!

You'll need to probably push your NB more, set it at 1.51v and see if you can POST, also increase FSB Termination to 1.36v.

[thelawns]

You can drop South Bridge back to stock voltages.. increasing it makes absolutely no differences.
Enable Loadline Calibration as this helps with vDroop.
Set DDR2 REF Voltage to nominal (the middle setting).
Disable both Spread Spectrums because they cause instability at high frequencies.
You're not overclocking your CPU? the voltage is set unnecassarily high.

So you don't think I need to touch any of the memory timings or voltages? bar those mentioned in your first post above?

Thanks for your input so far by the way...

[devilhood]

What's the max voltage your RAM can take according to spec? make sure you're not undervolting or overvolting your RAM.

Mem timings apart from the ones you set can be left on Auto.
if 4-4-4-12 doesn't post, try 5-5-5-15 and then Memtest, if that post's ok try 5-5-5-12.

You might be better off enabling Transaction Booster and setting it to 0, also set Ai ClockTwister to Strong.
If you find that this works, try putting Transaction Booster on 1 afterwards.
Some people say that Transaction Booster doesn't work properly, but it works fine for me and increased my mem read speeds a little.

If increasing the latency helps you to post, you can probably try to drop the North Bridge volts a little, but that's only worth doing if you are worried about temps! if your NB is staying below 58-60c then you should be fine.

Refer to my post earlier regarding my listed BIOS settings if you are puzzled with setting up voltages.

[thelawns]

What's the max voltage your RAM can take according to spec?

Mem timings apart from the ones you set can be left on Auto.
if 4-4-4-12 doesn't post, try 5-5-5-15 and then Memtest, if that post's ok try 5-5-5-12.

You might be better off enabling Transaction Booster and setting it to 0, also set Ai ClockTwister to Strong.
If you find that this works, try putting Transaction Booster on 1 afterwards.
Some people say that Transaction Booster doesn't work properly, but it works fine for me and increased my mem read speeds a little.

If increasing the latency helps you to post, you can probably try to drop the North Bridge volts a little, but that's only worth doing if you are worried about temps! if your NB is staying below 58-60c then you should be fine.

Refer to my post earlier regarding my listed BIOS settings if you are puzzled with setting up voltages.

2.0V is the max according to spec, so I set it to 1.9V to cover the overvolting...

4-4-4-12 is what my mem is supposed to be set at for 800mhz, its the Low Latency stuff...

I'll give all your help a try later and report back, for now you have been very helpful. Its much appreciated!!

[Warboy]

newest stable clock... lowered the NB and FSBV a bit. i'll be trying lower voltages and maybe tighter RAM timings... then, i want 4.0 stable. can't seem to figure that one out though. maybe warboy will get it first so i can steal his settings again!

I had 4.2Ghz awhile ago

But I could only get 1m SuperPI out of it, I couldn't get 32m PI or 3Dmarks out of it. Maybe when a new bios hits the market. I wonder what i can do with my Duo in these board...

So...I already got 4.2Ghz max, but not stable.