X48 Rampage Formula Preview.

[sauria]

But I notice lately that my computer don't fully boot up...... Sometimes.It stops at the Rampage logo wallpaper, doesn't recognize the keyboard and restarts be itself at times. Did anybody have this problem ??

Maybe early BIOS woes. Are you running RAID?

[Fillthee]

Alright chaps,

Having some issues pushing my Q6600 (G0) past 3.2ghz! its stable as can be at 3.2 (1.416v) but the minute I try to go above that it might boot to windows but it wont finish a 3Dmark06 bench or any of the benchmarks included with sisofts sandra.

CPU cooling is provided by an Arctic Freezer 7 and temps at 3.2ghz are around 36c and under load they hit about 48c.

Ram is G.Skill F2-8500CL5 (2x4gig kits)

CPU speed - 3221Mhz
Bus Speed - 358Mhz
Rated FSB - 1431Mhz

DRAM Freq - 536mhz
FSBRAM - 2:3

Everything in bios apart from ram/cpu voltage is set to auto.

Any advice or help would be more than welcome as im not a big overclocker and dont really know what all the options in bios will or wont do for my overclock.

PC spec:

Rampage Formula
Q6600
8gigs G.Skill F2-8500CL5
BFG 9800GX2
Creative X-fi plat.
PCP&C Silvener 750w
Lian Li A71 5x120mm fans

[RobPuba]

Maybe early BIOS woes. Are you running RAID?

I have 6 sata hard drives and one usb 160Gb HD for backup...... didn't install any raid drivers. I only formated C drive. Everything install good in Windows. There's no updated bios on Asus website

[mngdew]

Maybe early BIOS woes. Are you running RAID?

Look at my sig

[sauria]

Look at my sig

Try it with just 1 HD. I had an issue when I ran with 3 x 74G Raptors in RAID 0. None with just 1 HD.

[mngdew]

I don't remember where, but I do remember seeing there are problems with Raptors and recent and latest Asus mobo.

[clip]

Damn, this upgrade buisness is always tricky. Can you post a link, I was just about to get this mobo & have raid0 150 raptors

[brinox]

Alright chaps,

Having some issues pushing my Q6600 (G0) past 3.2ghz! its stable as can be at 3.2 (1.416v) but the minute I try to go above that it might boot to windows but it wont finish a 3Dmark06 bench or any of the benchmarks included with sisofts sandra.

CPU cooling is provided by an Arctic Freezer 7 and temps at 3.2ghz are around 36c and under load they hit about 48c.

Ram is G.Skill F2-8500CL5 (2x4gig kits)

CPU speed - 3221Mhz
Bus Speed - 358Mhz
Rated FSB - 1431Mhz

DRAM Freq - 536mhz
FSBRAM - 2:3

Everything in bios apart from ram/cpu voltage is set to auto.

Any advice or help would be more than welcome as im not a big overclocker and dont really know what all the options in bios will or wont do for my overclock.

PC spec:

Rampage Formula
Q6600
8gigs G.Skill F2-8500CL5
BFG 9800GX2
Creative X-fi plat.
PCP&C Silvener 750w
Lian Li A71 5x120mm fans

Ive been playing around with my rampage formula for about am month or so now, and one thing that ive found is setting the FSB termination voltage up too high leads to instability issues after about 4-5 days (yes, days, you read that correctly).

this is with a newer X3110 (45nm penryn) as well as a Q6600 G0. I ran several benchmarks in those first few days, some for more than 24 hours, all passed with flying colors/excellent temps but then things got hairy in the middle of arena matches in warcraft, or even when i left WCG on constantly (which doesnt load as much as say Prime95 does)

after i stepped down the FSB termination voltage things really turned around... maybe just odd circumstances, but thats my experience so far.

I kinda agree with anandtech's claim of running the VTT voltage(aka FSB termination voltage in our case) no higher than 1.4v, but not with the across the board thing.

in your case you might manually set that manually to about .5-.7v lower than what you want, simply because the rampage formula overvolts that like mad.

[Fillthee]

Thanks for the info brinox, the VTT is set to auto right now, what do you reckon is a good point to start at? ie 1.2 or 1.3? And yea I have seen the info about the VTT burning out there CPU kinda made me wonder if I should even play with it?

I will take a look at the settings in a little bit really want to wait for new HSF to arrive before I take it any higher than 3.2 as the AF7 is good but I want air to be passed down from the heatsink and over the chipset heatsink to hopefully help with its cooling slightly.

Filllthee

[sauria]

I don't remember where, but I do remember seeing there are problems with Raptors and recent and latest Asus mobo.

I'd like to see that -- if you take your WD drives out of the picture is it stable? Mine is with Seagate Barracuda drive 7200.11.

[3lfk1ng]

I'll see what I can get out of my Rampage hopefully this weekend.

[Celoth]

Ok then, I got my Rampage Formula up and running with an E8400 @ 4.2 GHz (9x467) and the 8 GB Corsair TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF PC2-8500, 5-5-5-15 RAM at 1121 MHz. It's Prime95 stable. Full system specs at bottom.

The only voltage I changed from Auto is the Vcore, which I set to 1.393V. CPU-Z (latest version) reports it as 1.352 at idle and 1.328 during Prime95. Not sure why that is though.

Leaving all the other voltages at Auto has me worried though, so would like some feedback on these numbers from the Bios hardware monitoring:

CPU Voltage: 1.344 (Manually set to 1.393 though)
CPU PLL Voltage: 1.616V
FSB Termination Voltage: 1.408V
DRAM Voltage: 2.256V (Is this a problem? The sticks are rated at 2.1V)
North Bridge Voltage: 1.600V
South Bridge Voltage: 1.056V
SB 1.5V Voltage: 1.504V
DRAM Controller Voltage REF: 1.136V

Any glaring problems? I don't want anything dying on me.

Full System Specs:

CPU: E8400
GPU: Evga 8800GTS (g92) SSC
RAM: Corsair Dominator TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF 8GB PC2-8500, 5-5-5-15
MB: Asus Rampage Formula (X48)
HD: 2x Samsung 750GB (32MB cache) in Raid 1
DVD: Samsung S203B
Cardreader: DeLock Multipanel 5.25"
PSU: Enermax Modu82+ 625W
Fan controller: mCubed T-Balancer bigNG
Fans: 2x Noiseblocker XL series @7V
Case: Lian-Li PC-V2100B Plus II

Watercooling gear:

Radiator: 2x Thermochill PA160
Rad Fans: 2x Noctua NF-P12 @9V
Pump: Aquastream XT Ultra
Flow-meter: Aqua-Computer 5.6mm flow-meter
GPU-block: EK-FC88
CPU-block: D-Tek Fuzion (bowed + nozzle)
Chipset blocks: EK waterblocks for mosfets, NB and SB
HD-block: Watercool dual HD cooler.
Tubing: 1/2" Tygon Silver Tubing and some generic 6/8mm ID/OD tubing.

[LostHawk]

I kinda agree with anandtech's claim of running the VTT voltage(aka FSB termination voltage in our case) no higher than 1.4v, but not with the across the board thing.

in your case you might manually set that manually to about .5-.7v lower than what you want, simply because the rampage formula overvolts that like mad.

That original article at Anandtech was not a good idea imho but they added more comments after.
There is nothing proving that it's the VTT that killed their QX9650.

But using simple logic the FSB termination voltage which is applied between the N/B and the processor follow the same rule than for the processor core voltage.
The FSB VTT is only affecting a small part of the processor but it's still the 45nm technology involved so: maximum 1.45V.

I'm still at 1.55V VTT here and so are some others but with at least water cooling on the CPU & N/B.
We know we take a risk but not more than someone giving 1.55V to the CPU core voltage.
(and I added warnings about the risk in my overclocking results' posts)

Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm an IT specialist but I can't say the same for electronic.
Still crossing fingers for a new Bios where we can lower this VTT...

Anybody tried the older 0215 bios btw ? I read somewhere it gave better overclocking results.

[triple]

cpu init on a e6750 that has worked in:

-a maximus formula
-a p5w dh deluxe
-a dfi x38 LT

what now.. pressing reset cmos on the back didn't work, reseating the cpu didn't work, now I have the battery out..

[swiftex]

I don't remember where, but I do remember seeing there are problems with Raptors and recent and latest Asus mobo.

i've had no problems 3x150 raptor on rampage

[sauria]

i've had no problems 3x150 raptor on rampage

In RAID0?

[swiftex]

I have 6 sata hard drives and one usb 160Gb HD for backup...... didn't install any raid drivers. I only formated C drive. Everything install good in Windows. There's no updated bios on Asus website

disconnect the usb hard drive
- after you get things updated you'll be ok to reconnect
-initially its a usb problem with this board for some reason

keep in mind no raid drivers - no ahci mode - ide only for you

[sauria]

Interesting -- why no AHCI?

[Rickpatbrown]

CPU Voltage: 1.344 (Manually set to 1.393 though)
CPU PLL Voltage: 1.616V
FSB Termination Voltage: 1.408V
DRAM Voltage: 2.256V (Is this a problem? The sticks are rated at 2.1V)
North Bridge Voltage: 1.600V
South Bridge Voltage: 1.056V
SB 1.5V Voltage: 1.504V
DRAM Controller Voltage REF: 1.136V

Any glaring problems? I don't want anything dying on me.

You look pretty good. You can probably drop the voltage down on some on those components and still maintain stability. If you have the time, just start taking things down one at a time until your system is unstable, than knock it back up a notch.

CPU PLL could probably come down a little -see lost hawk's post.
North bridge could come down a little.

Your Ram is getting a little high. Does it need that much? If so, than if it isn't too hot (use a finger thermometer) you should be alright.

What batch number is your e8400?

[Celoth]

You look pretty good. You can probably drop the voltage down on some on those components and still maintain stability. If you have the time, just start taking things down one at a time until your system is unstable, than knock it back up a notch.

CPU PLL could probably come down a little -see lost hawk's post.
North bridge could come down a little.

Your Ram is getting a little high. Does it need that much? If so, than if it isn't too hot (use a finger thermometer) you should be alright.

What batch number is your e8400?

Batch is Q751A447.

I went ahead and started to take down the voltages. The board is showing the voltages all wrong though, compared to what I manually set them to. For example, I took the CPU PLL all the way down to 1.50V, but the bios hardware monitoring reported 1.55V. I took the FSB termination voltage down to 1.30V, and it reported it as 1.20V. I also tried lowering it all the way down to 1.20V and it was reported as 1.11V... Default 0219 bios. The DRAM voltage I set to 2.098 or some such so it showed as 2.1V in the bios. I also lowered the NB to 1.47V (reported in bios as 1.456V) and it seemed completely stable at the same 467 FSB at those voltages.

However, I set it to run Memtest86 overnight, and in the middle of the night I woke up because the power went out. It turns out the friggin Enermax Modu82+ died on me and took out a fuse along with it. I took the PSU out and tried to run it with a PSU tester thingy, but it's completely dead. I just hope it didn't take anything else with it. I don't have a replacement handy, so I have to send it to germany for a RMA and get a replacement before I can continue.

[MikeMK]

Started prepping my formula last night, and got the MCW30 on the NB and SB, however my GX2 catches on the MCW30 mounted on the SB, so thats a no go. My evercool VC-RE will not fit either, so I have to look at other options!

Sooo, I no an enzotech will fit, but I came accross this vantec chipset heatsink in my box of random PC cooling gear and wondered if it would do the trick. It came with a Vantec CCB-A1C.



I have an evercool 40mm fan that i might be able to mount on it some how to get some airflow, but really I have no idea how much heat this thing kicks out, so not sure if this solution will be enough.

[003]

This should work for sure:
http://www.jab-tech.com/Jing-Ting-Fo...r-pr-3450.html

[MikeMK]

Yup, i was just wondering if the vantec would do the job specifically as I have it here and can use it rather than anything else. If not I'll look for something else.

However, that cooler u recommend does look very good. Is it definately the right specs to mount on the SB of the rampage. Ive noticed a number of caps are very closel, and stop all my other fans/heatsinks fitting.

[Stelios]

MikeMK , you can also try the HR-05 SLI from Thermalright .

[MikeMK]

Yup, ive seen that, they look great I just wasnt sure if it would clear the GX2. I'll post a pic with the GX2 in the mobo later, and maybe someone can give me an idea if it'll be ok.

EDTI - sorry, i was thinking of the standard HR=05, didnt realise there was an SLI version. Just seent a pic of it, and looks like it will do a great job. Now ive just gotta find one in stock somewhere in the UK!