The Maximus Formula Thread - Help/OCing/Guide/Rampage conversion

[Notechis]

Does this procedure for removing heat sink works for board that have been already powered on or works only for not powered "out of the box" board ?

[Renegade5399]

OK tried 1003 this afternoon. It's garbage. Can't boot on anything but the stock multi (9). Anything else and I get OC Failed! message. The extra tRFC settings are not needed for me anyways as it's never been an issue. It also makes the board WAYYY to finicky when I play with the timings. Settings that were once 24/7 rock stable all of a sudden were failing. Overall it's terrible and then some. I went back to 0907 and all was flying again with no issues.

[bro20000]

Any news of a beta bios 1003 sucks!

[BigGaroupa]

Thanks for the quality walkthrough man! You said that you're sitting at 42C idling...is that with an OC on your Q6600, or are you running stock?

Running stock no overclocking yet, only thing is RAM voltage at 2.1.

Does this procedure for removing heat sink works for board that have been already powered on or works only for not powered "out of the box" board ?

If the board has been powered on I assume it will be harder since the stock goop will have soften and adhere to the surfaces. However it should still work though since it's not pure epoxy adhesive becauses there's crap paste between that for some reason.

[Titus]

I installed the Maximus Formula board the other day and the Chassis Fan 3 temp readout in my BIOS is a bright red color while all the other Chassis and Opt Fan readings are all a normal blue color...the Chassis Fan 3 is spinning at 1300rpm so it looks to be working OK but I'm just worried about why the color is red...red usually equals a danger sign of some kind...anyone have any ideas?

[Gunlance]

Red probably means its below a warning threshold. Lower the threshold if 1300rpms is what the fan is rated for.

[Titus]

how do I lower the threshold of the fan speed?...I only see temperature thresholds in the BIOS (CPU, NB, SB etc)...is PC Probe II the way to do this?

[Spyrus]

Go to bios Fan Eq you can set according to temperature or manual
with percentages 100%-60%

[zlojack]

PC Probe is crap.


Just check the fan and make sure it's ok. Mine always turns red on one of my fans even though it's spinning full out and working just fine. It's like it doesn't read it properly. The RPMs are all over the place.

[Titus]

PC Probe is crap.


Just check the fan and make sure it's ok. Mine always turns red on one of my fans even though it's spinning full out and working just fine. It's like it doesn't read it properly. The RPMs are all over the place.

yeah my fans are running at max and no matter what level I set it to it still stays red in the BIOS...2 fans show up as red for me, Power Fan (which has no threshold option) and Chassis Fan 3 (which is controlled by PWM---and no matter if I set to 50% or 100%, Auto or Disabled it still stays Red)

[Eastcoasthandle]

It's found next to the black proprietary PCIe x1 slot (audio/PCI Express)

[DirtyShady]

Any news about new Bios ?


1003 is not official Bios yet. For me 1003 Bios work perfectly, no problem.

But I prefer to have new official Bios...

[Leeghoofd]

I think as long as many users are having issues with it , Asus ( hopefully) won't give it to the masses... better await a new bios as moslty there isn't much difference (if any at all) between beta and offical bios...

[p2501]

Why is it that Intel states in the q6000 spec sheet that Vccpllmax for this series is about the same as Vcc, which is about 1.5v, but with this board you can't set anything below 1.6v.. (actually manual Vccpll setting in BIOS 0907 starts at 1.5 as you know, but if i set it to 1.5, after reboot the BIOS reads 1.61, a whopping .11 overvolt... is this standart for this board?)

On a side note, I got bad luck with my quad, it's a 1.325 vid following coretemp but the BIOS sets it to 1.28, why is this? Are Asus BIOS programmer so bad that they can't even make the board read the vid right?

Overall I'm really having fun with this board, overclocking with this thing is a breeze..

[xgman]

Any news about new Bios ?


1003 is not official Bios yet. For me 1003 Bios work perfectly, no problem.

But I prefer to have new official Bios...

1003 does NOT work right with new processors like the qx9650.

[aowen512]

I have purchased the maximus formula and for the life of me cannot get both 2gb sticks of ram to work. I have only been able to get 1 stick of ram to boot. I have played with many settings but really am apparently kind of new to this(been quite some time since i have done any OC or new build). Well long story short, stuck on the detdram and after reading i dont know how many pages including the tips on the front... nothing. The tip on the first page of this thread says to "If you get the DET RAM hang its usally just a matter of finding the right Trans Booster setting
No need to clear cmos and certainly no need to power down and wait the bios." Could someone elaborate a bit for me and what they mean?? If i have both sticks in, i cannot even get into the bios so maybe im doing something very wrong. Ram is G.SKILL F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ. Any tips/help/WALKTRHOUGH!! lol would be very appreciative!! thx

BTW Fantastic site!! a new favorite and homepage of mine

[Nuckin_Futs]

this was happening to mine after a trial of v0907 and returning back to 802, and anything there after. I had to RMA it .

Hopefully your's is not as serious, but i had to clear CMOS, reset to get the F1 to enter set up or F2 to load default and continue. I used F1 to enter CMOS and changed at least CPU to manual and DRAM frequency plus timings to manual. If your RAM is PC2-6400, you can try setting spd to DDR800 and timings to 5-5-5-15 just to see if it saves and exits to restart and come back to CMOS to go on.

Give it a try, it was the only I could boot with my Crucials and oCZ's after that weird BIOS flash experience. Mine got worse though, afterwords, I could nolonger hit the kind of performance as before.

Good luck with yours!

[Grnfinger]

I have purchased the maximus formula and for the life of me cannot get both 2gb sticks of ram to work. I have only been able to get 1 stick of ram to boot. I have played with many settings but really am apparently kind of new to this(been quite some time since i have done any OC or new build). Well long story short, stuck on the detdram and after reading i dont know how many pages including the tips on the front... nothing. The tip on the first page of this thread says to "If you get the DET RAM hang its usally just a matter of finding the right Trans Booster setting
No need to clear cmos and certainly no need to power down and wait the bios." Could someone elaborate a bit for me and what they mean?? If i have both sticks in, i cannot even get into the bios so maybe im doing something very wrong. Ram is G.SKILL F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ. Any tips/help/WALKTRHOUGH!! lol would be very appreciative!! thx

BTW Fantastic site!! a new favorite and homepage of mine

I would hold the power button till it shuts off, then reboot and you will get the f1 /f2 option.

Hit f1 and now your into your bios. 2x2GB will tax the NB a tad I would up that to the max green voltage 1.49.
Set ram to 2.0-2.1 The board over volts a tad.
Now depending on what strap your using I would suggest this...
Ai Overclock Tuner : Manual
OC From CPU Level Up : Auto
CPU Ratio Setting : (set your multi here ie 8)
FSB Frequency : ( set ?? depending on how much MHz you want ie. 450)
FSB Strap to North Bridge : 400 / 333 ( you can choose here what divider you want)
PCI-E Frequency: 110
DRAM Frequency: DDR2-???? 400 will give you 900MHz ram
333 will give you 1081MHz ram

DRAM Command Rate : 2T
DRAM Timing Control: Manual
CAS# Latency : 5
RAS# to CAS# Delay : 5
RAS# Precharge : 5
RAS# ActivateTime : 15
RAS# to RAS# Delay : Auto
Row Refresh Cycle Time : Auto
Write Recovery Time : Auto
Read to Precharge Time : Auto

Read to Write Delay (S/D) : Auto
Write to Read Delay (S) : Auto
Write to Read Delay (D) : Auto
Read to Read Delay (S) : Auto
Read to Read Delay (D) : Auto
Write to Write Delay (S) : Auto
Write to Write Delay (D) : Auto
DRAM Static Read Control: Disabled
Ai Clock Twister : Strong
Transaction Booster : enabled for 400 strap
disabled for 333 strap
relax level 0

I hope this is somewhat clear to you, if not mc2k has 2x2GB gskill ram he can help out with settings.

[Nuckin_Futs]

Isn't anyone curious why all of a sudden, a set up that used to boot in full auto no longer does. I never had any of these problems before I moved to BIOS v0907. after flashing between BIOS version since v0205.

Every time I would prppare for a new flash, I always loaded default values and exited to restart entering CMOS, so I know it was working correctly before hand. I would then do the same just after the new flash, entering CMOS, to load default values and exiting to save and it worked up to v0903. So v0907 changed something major that never got rewritten when flashed again to any other BIOS version. Even my old, and just recently CMOS profile saves worked anymore for their coresponding BIOS versions (ie: freshly saved CMOS profile saves from v0903 no longer worked when right back to BIOS v0903).

Anybody else notice this?

It's all fine to be able to work around it (mine got worse though, isolated issue I guess)

[SWFLTrader]

Isn't anyone curious why all of a sudden, a set up that used to boot in full auto no longer does. I never had any of these problems before I moved to BIOS v0907. after flashing between BIOS version since v0205.

I went thru several formula boards before finding one that worked or was stable, the first one overclocked like mad on the original bios (0505) but when I changed to 0907 it ate ram within minutes, 2nd was DOA, 3rd overvolted on stock settings like it had its own power plant inside, on the two that worked out of the box, both overclocked better on the original bios, this 4th board so far is working great on the original bios 0602 and I probably won't change it.

[Nuckin_Futs]

I'm starting to notice that. My 2nd go around looks like v0602 did best and better then v0802 for me. I get use of fixed 333 or 400 strap and 3:4 or 5:6 to 500FSB. Should've stayed there all along.

All this fuss with tightest RAM timing and performance was so not worth it for real world daily use.

If I had to pick a BETA, v0903 was the only one worthy for me w/ E6750 for 5:6 to 500FSB. even though the S3 was iffy most the time.

OUT OF STOCK - Rev 1.02G? So what's this I here, are they gonna' offer me a non SE Rev 1.03G instead? Cool, I was gonna use my own water blocks anyways and only got the SE because it was the only choice in September last year. So works for me.

Anybody frop this in the new Danger-Dan box case (clear plastic) yet? I like it but no more room for my tri-120mm rad.

[Robin77]

Just for info:

I've already written that I've rockstable 67 C NB temp (idle) and 77 C loaded.
Cause some didn't believe and I also wanted to be sure for 100% I've removed the Asus NB and replaced it with Noctua NC-U6 cooler, which is one of the best passive NB coolers you can get. I also extra bought Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste (also one of the best you can get).

And now guess what....my temps dropped from 67 C idle to insane 66 C.
All the done wasn't necesarry. I also checked if original cooler had the paste applied over the whole surface. All was ok.

So whatever it may be, my over 60C idle NB temps showen in BIOS and Everest are rockstable even when oced, are not to get lower without using watercooling, fan or similar and are ing undescribable.

[SWFLTrader]

Just for info:

I've already written that I've rockstable 67 C NB temp (idle) and 77 C loaded.
Cause some didn't believe and I also wanted to be sure for 100% I've removed the Asus NB and replaced it with Noctua NC-U6 cooler, which is one of the best passive NB coolers you can get. I also extra bought Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste (also one of the best you can get).

And now guess what....my temps dropped from 67 C idle to insane 66 C.
All the done wasn't necesarry. I also checked if original cooler had the paste applied over the whole surface. All was ok.

So whatever it may be, my over 60C idle NB temps showen in BIOS and Everest are rockstable even when oced, are not to get lower without using watercooling, fan or similar and are ing undescribable.

What are your NB volts, bios and actual? My 3rd board overvolted like crazy and temps were in the high 50's on the NB, wouldnt stay stable, my experience with this board is higher temps take higher volts, and higher volts cause higher temps & electron migration, so on the 4th board I put a fan on it and stays below 41c allowing me to lower volts dramatically.

For me, the lower the temps & volts the better it works. Each board is different though

[Underwater Mike]

Guys, I really tried to wade through this whole thread... but I can't do it!

Is the heatpipe removal/TIM reapplication necessary or just for peace of mind?

[iadstudio]

Guys, I really tried to wade through this whole thread... but I can't do it!

Is the heatpipe removal/TIM reapplication necessary or just for peace of mind?

Not necessary unless you are pushing high volts on the NB. Even then, you can get away with a fan on it and you will be just fine.