ASUS Maximus Formula SE

[cadaveca]

yes, temp sensors are not accurate on this board. NB and SB report about 1-2 off HEATSINK temps, not chipset temps(measured with IR sensor, as you are, for heatsink temps, matched reported temps, obviosly chip is hotter than heatsink.). Reported cpu temps have changed drastically across bios revisions...so who knows what's real or not...Coretemp at least reports the same temps across many board for the same cpu, at least for me.

[jonny_ftm]

Hi,

Wanted to know if, by the time, anyone got this board stable on a Q6600 above 3.7 GHz with OCCT last beta in RAM mode. This would show if the memory ratios and the NB stability with quadcore on low straps is fixed

I got my P5B deluxe from the RMA. The new one looks like to be a new PCB revision, even if it is still a C1 NB on a 1.03G board.
My board is now stable with a Q6600 at 9x400MHz and HyperX DDR2 @1000MHz 5-4-4-15-4. This is only with 1.45v on the NB and 1.40v on the FSB. All this on the 266 strap.

It is strange that the P5B deluxe new stock, even with clamed same old revision, performs that good. As I followed this thread, this is better than the X38 for he same settings. Maybe ASUS is also making the same with the X38 boards. New "undocumented" revisions on the PCB on the new stocks, solving the performance issues.

So, if anyone can post some OCCT RAM benches of a Q6600 with above 3.7GHz clocks to see if the NB really do it now. (Prime95 small FFT and blend can easily pass where OCCT RAM will fail on an unstable NB-RAM. Prime95, being mainly usefull to tweak the vcore/vPLL)

[kup]

Hey Jonny,

Yeah, a lot of people have got the Maximus to run 3.7GHz fine on a Q6600, 9x411 works a treat for 3.7GHz and myself and a few others have run 9x425 and 9x435 as well, 24/7 OCCT CPU and RAM (separately) stable!

[youraa]

Hi
Does anyone know what is this mysterious black telephone icon?
It shows when I open skype or call of duty 4, it's not in the startup program and in running processes, when I roll my mouse over it it says that is a program for your headphones?!! Is this an asus soundmax soft? I've got headphones connected to the front panel.
p.s. I scanned my computer for viruses, nothing found

[ReZ_]

must i install the soundcard riser thing if i just want to use the spdif toslink audio output?

yes, you need to install the card to get spdif working... kinda stupid.

under xp, i could not get dolby surround going.... but i think in vista it's ready to go. Smooth move asus!

The card's writing lights up blue, which was cool cuz it matched the rest of my rig, hehe...

I finally took it out and reinstalled my turtle beach DDL and never looked back. Great card for the price.

[Grnfinger]

Anyone use Grabit?
I just installed the latest Matrix Storage Manager 7.8.0.1012
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filt...bmit=Go%21

Now I'm gettting a ton of CRC errors on my downloads. If I download the exact same file using my laptop there are NO errors. Just ran the memory through memtest and all is good.

[Cornel]

yes, you need to install the card to get spdif working... kinda stupid.

under xp, i could not get dolby surround going.... but i think in vista it's ready to go. Smooth move asus!

The card's writing lights up blue, which was cool cuz it matched the rest of my rig, hehe...

I finally took it out and reinstalled my turtle beach DDL and never looked back. Great card for the price.

crap... the pci-e slot where i the soundcard must be, is where i have my tubings for wathercooling... yuik!

[TheOriginalTB]

Am I the only one not baing able to get this board stable ?

It kept failing at 3.6 and ram 540Mhz 4-5-5-15 so I reverted everything back to std. And I'm still not able to complete a dual SuperPI 8M.. One of them _always fails_ in the beginning with "Not covergent in SQR".

Using BIOS 0907 hardware as follows
Maximus Formula 0907
E6600
OCZ FlexXLC6400 CAS3
Samsung T166
TerraTec Cinergy 400TV
XFi Extreme Music
Geforce 7300GS

Cooling:
Swiftech Apogee GT
Swiftech MCW30 on NB
Zalmann passive on SB
3x120 single rads
Coolplex 500mm reservoir
FeserOne Fluid

Temps are now (according to Asus Probe..): CPU: 10, NM: 30, SB: 38, MB: 38
voltages are: vCore: 1.3, NM 1.36, SB: 1.07, DRAM: 2.1, FSBT: 1.23, SB2: 1.54, DRAM ref: 1.04

Everything in BIOS set to auto at the moment..


EDIT: Coretemps says 23 og both cores.

[Hockster]

Anyone use Grabit?
I just installed the latest Matrix Storage Manager 7.8.0.1012
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filt...4&submit=Go%21

Now I'm gettting a ton of CRC errors on my downloads. If I download the exact same file using my laptop there are NO errors. Just ran the memory through memtest and all is good.

I use GrabIt on a daily basis. Rarely do I get any errors, and I do not use the Matrix Storage Manager. Not sure I want to try it now either.

[masterkaj]

Any reason I can pass OCCT Ram test, OCCT CPU Test, Prime Blend Test, Prime Small FFT Test, but not pass OCCT Mixed test (Fails after 2.0 hours)?

4x1 Muskin ddr-1199 5-5-5-12 (2.28v)
Q6600 450x7

DRAM Static Ctrl-Disabled
Trans Boost-Enabled (0)

CPUv-1.375v (1.35v everest)
CPUPLL-1.58v (It was on auto, setting to 1.58v allowed me to pass all other tests stable.
NBv-1.59v (1.58v everest, When I move it down to 1.57 I get code "4" error, when I move it up it fails the test around 15-45min, 1.59 seems most stable)
FSBvt-1.3v (1.31v everest)
SBv-1.05v (1.06v everest)
x63
x67
SB-1.5v

[eSp!s0]

Anyone else getting prolonged boot times when using this board ? When I made the swap from the p5k deluxe to this I spend more time at the windows loading screen, before the windows loading bar would do about 3 revolutions with the p5k, now it does about 18 . Is there anyway to improve this ?

I got long loading screen in the beginning. After using TuneUp, PageDefrag and OODefrag and making system "fresh", loading screen does only 3 revolutions.
I also disabled unused windows services and use XP-Antispy ect.

[jonny_ftm]

Any reason I can pass OCCT Ram test, OCCT CPU Test, Prime Blend Test, Prime Small FFT Test, but not pass OCCT Mixed test (Fails after 2.0 hours)?

4x1 Muskin ddr-1199 5-5-5-12 (2.28v)
Q6600 450x7

DRAM Static Ctrl-Disabled
Trans Boost-Enabled (0)

CPUv-1.375v (1.35v everest)
CPUPLL-1.58v (It was on auto, setting to 1.58v allowed me to pass all other tests stable.
NBv-1.59v (1.58v everest, When I move it down to 1.57 I get code "4" error, when I move it up it fails the test around 15-45min, 1.59 seems most stable)
FSBvt-1.3v (1.31v everest)
SBv-1.05v (1.06v everest)
x63
x67
SB-1.5v

Strange. How long did you run the CPu and RAM tests separately?

[Eastcoasthandle]

I would do it but they want a cc to register and I'm not overly cool with handing out my cc number just to post on a forum

I can understand that. New egg is a online retailer that has the option to leave feedback for it's products. However, I never had to provide my credit card information to leave feedback in the past. However, I have ordered from them before I left feedback. If there are others who have and would like to leave some feedback on this motherboard could you take 3 minutes to write a review?

[AliG]

dawg, there's 210 pages of discussion of the board, just spend 3 minutes yourself and you'll probably find 10 reviews or at least links to them within here

[masterkaj]

Any reason I can pass OCCT Ram test, OCCT CPU Test, Prime Blend Test, Prime Small FFT Test, but not pass OCCT Mixed test (Fails after 2.0 hours)?

4x1 Muskin ddr-1199 5-5-5-12 (2.28v)
Q6600 450x7

DRAM Static Ctrl-Disabled
Trans Boost-Enabled (0)

CPUv-1.375v (1.35v everest)
CPUPLL-1.58v (It was on auto, setting to 1.58v allowed me to pass all other tests stable.
NBv-1.59v (1.58v everest, When I move it down to 1.57 I get code "4" error, when I move it up it fails the test around 15-45min, 1.59 seems most stable)
FSBvt-1.3v (1.31v everest)
SBv-1.05v (1.06v everest)
x63
x67
SB-1.5v

Strange. How long did you run the CPu and RAM tests separately?

I ran prime small fft for 8+hours, blend for 6+hours, OCCT CPU for 4+hours, Ram for 6+hours... OCCT Mixed fails around 2hours for some reason. I tried upping my CPUPLL to 1.6v but it failed after 15min.. when I go back home monday I'll try to lower it a bit and see how it does.

Don't know what setting to touch though.. why would it fail on the mix but pass the other two? I don't think heat is an issue considering it (NB/CPU) does not get any hotter than when I run each test separately.

I was just wondering why do the tests fail when try to up my NB or FSBvt? Temps are not out of the norm so why is it so sensitive. I figured I could up my FSB to 1.5, NB to 1.65 and bring it down from there... but that fails pretty quick too. This setup I have currently have 1.3fsbvt(why does anandtech say minimum of 1.5?? for 440+fsb) and 1.59nb is the most stable this OC has been so far, but fails that damn mixed test after 2 hours.

[Gripp]

i have a very serious problem with this board - i'm not even stable on stock anymore... OCCT gives a code 1 after just a few minutes!
please help!
full details about what i did to get to this point are here:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=173081

i know it isn't forum etiquette to double post (in a round about way here at least...) but i think a lot more maximus formula guru's might notice my post here more than my thread that's likely to get lost on page 3 in a few hours here... - so, sorry... but I NEED HELP!! PLEASE!

[jonny_ftm]

I ran prime small fft for 8+hours, blend for 6+hours, OCCT CPU for 4+hours, Ram for 6+hours... OCCT Mixed fails around 2hours for some reason. I tried upping my CPUPLL to 1.6v but it failed after 15min.. when I go back home monday I'll try to lower it a bit and see how it does.

Don't know what setting to touch though.. why would it fail on the mix but pass the other two? I don't think heat is an issue considering it (NB/CPU) does not get any hotter than when I run each test separately.

I was just wondering why do the tests fail when try to up my NB or FSBvt? Temps are not out of the norm so why is it so sensitive. I figured I could up my FSB to 1.5, NB to 1.65 and bring it down from there... but that fails pretty quick too. This setup I have currently have 1.3fsbvt(why does anandtech say minimum of 1.5?? for 440+fsb) and 1.59nb is the most stable this OC has been so far, but fails that damn mixed test after 2 hours.

I think you have to run OCCT in RAM mode again for a longer time, and a Prime95 Small FFT for a 8h also. I'd go with a long small FFT first to rule out vcore/vPLL/vFSB issues
Then, if stable, run a new OCCT RAM for at least 8h. If unstable, it is something to do with RAM timings/RAM voltage/vNB/NB-Strap/vFSB...

But yes, hard to say what it is exactly unless you debug it. OC needs now much more parameters unless intel improves its NB clocks and building (65nm instead of the 90nm) as it is getting a very limiting factor

[binormalkilla]

Anyone use the SPD/IF connection (optical) on the back of the board? I have yet to get this working.....running VIsta x64......I've installed the driver on the last install of Vista x64, but I recently started fresh and I don't have to install the driver.......
I guess I can hold out until my Xonar arrives from RMA, but I'd like to test out my new speaks (z5500), as I've never run optical before.

[Cornel]

Anyone use the SPD/IF connection (optical) on the back of the board? I have yet to get this working.....running VIsta x64......I've installed the driver on the last install of Vista x64, but I recently started fresh and I don't have to install the driver.......
I guess I can hold out until my Xonar arrives from RMA, but I'd like to test out my new speaks (z5500), as I've never run optical before.

Running this board with toslink spdif connected.
You must install the soundcard into the black pci x1 slot to use spdif toslink.

i dont think Vista 64 need any drivers for this soundcard.

[binormalkilla]

Running this board with toslink spdif connected.
You must install the soundcard into the black pci x1 slot to use spdif toslink.

i dont think Vista 64 need any drivers for this soundcard.

Yea I have mine in the top black PCI-E slot. Are there any configuration options that I need to keep in mind? I set my speakers to optical and they didn't detect a signal....I set the SPD/IF device to the current device in control panel/sound and this didn't seem to do anything....

[ReZ_]

Yea I have mine in the top black PCI-E slot. Are there any configuration options that I need to keep in mind? I set my speakers to optical and they didn't detect a signal....I set the SPD/IF device to the current device in control panel/sound and this didn't seem to do anything....

Is on-board audio enabled in the bios? just kidding

[binormalkilla]

Who is running 2X2Gb on this board? I'm going to sell my Ballistix and go with 2x2Gb....I think it's holding me back from 475x8........anyhow, looking at a few here:
Geil Esoteria
These are DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 and are warrantied through 2.4V...
Geil copper heatspreaders
Lower voltage.....=bad?
Geil MASSIVE heatspreader

Is on-board audio enabled in the bios? just kidding

Of course!

[raidalg]

Who is running 2X2Gb on this board? I'm going to sell my Ballistix and go with 2x2Gb....I think it's holding me back from 475x8........anyhow, looking at a few here:
Geil Esoteria
These are DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 and are warrantied through 2.4V...
Geil copper heatspreaders
Lower voltage.....=bad?
Geil MASSIVE heatspreader



Of course!

I'm running 2x2GB with Mushkin DDR2800 4-4-4-12 2.0-2.1 volt. It ran 1066 at 5-5-5-18 400 step with no problems for me, and their forum support has experience with that memory on this board and can recommend good settings for you.

[CERO]

isnt it about time that Asus is comming with a new BIOS?

[kup]

I was thinking that, but I fear our trials are just going into the Rampage bios now, as it's newer than the latest Maximus bios by about 2 weeks!!!

We just need a way to force a flash on the Maximus, seeing as the only change is the higher binned North Bridge chip!!! Then we can flash Rampage bios on the Maximus!