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

[atomica]

MF1201 has fixed the dreaded det RAM error. been a few days and the PC boots without hanging. phew.

[Sources]

This is a rock solid temp for me. I even dropped the cpu volts to 1.40 and NB to 1.47 and still stable for 1 hour so far.

For the guy that was looking for a stable q6600 overclock
here is a 9x425 6.5 hours prime blend stable



Extreme Tweaker
Ai Overclock Tuner : Manual
OC From CPU Level Up : AUTO
CPU Ratio Control : Manual
- Ratio CMOS Setting : 9
FSB Frequency : 425
FSB Strap to North Bridge : 400
PCI-E Frequency: 110
DRAM Frequency: DDR2-1133
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 : 3
Row Refresh Cycle Time : 30
Write Recovery Time : 6
Read to Precharge Time : 3

Read to Write Delay (S/D) : 8
Write to Read Delay (S) : 3
Write to Read Delay (D) : 5
Read to Read Delay (S) : 4
Read to Read Delay (D) : 6
Write to Write Delay (S) : 4
Write to Write Delay (D) : 6

Write to PRE Delay : 14
Read to PRE Delay : 5
PRE to PRE Delay : 1
ALL PRE to ACT Delay : 5
ALL PRE to REF Delay : 5

DRAM Static Read Control: Enabled
Ai Clock Twister : Stronger
Transaction Booster : Manual

Common Performance Level [6]

Pull-In of CHA PH1 Disabled
Pull-In of CHA PH2 Disabled
Pull-In of CHA PH3 Disabled
Pull-In of CHA PH4 Disabled
Pull-In of CHA PH5 Disabled
Pull-In of CHB PH1 Disabled
Pull-In of CHB PH2 Disabled
Pull-In of CHB PH3 Disabled
Pull-In of CHB PH4 Disabled
Pull-In of CHB PH5 Disabled

CPU Voltage : 1.475
CPU PLL Voltage : 1.50
North Bridge Voltage : 1.51
DRAM Voltage : 2.12
FSB Termination Voltage : 1.40
South Bridge Voltage : 1.050
Loadline Calibration : Enabled
CPU GTL Reference : 0.67X
North Bridge GTL Reference : 0.67X
DDR2 Channel A REF Voltage : DDR2-REFF
DDR2 Channel B REF Voltage : DDR2-REFF
DDR2 Controller REF Voltage : DDR2-REFF
SB 1.5V Voltage : 1.5

All voltages are bios set not actual

[Jodiuh]

EPU, and Ai Gear? I had an unstable experience with it the 1st time around back in early Oct '07. Have they fixed the drivers for it yet?

I had exactly the same experience, but it may have been due to OC and/or C1E/EIST disabled. Of course there was Vista 64 I blamed it on too. I did experience and odd issue of it locking once, then on boot, NOD couldn't connect to the kernel, but next reboot, all's ok. I can't exactly blame the software as I've been in and out of standby w/ dual monitors, MPC running, etc. It's pretty nice to get all setup, but I haven't managed to OC yet. PC Probe's terribly inferior to Everest or HW Monitor so it will not be used. The FAN EQ looks pretty bad too, but I use only quiet fans that don't require controllers. Now w/ this going, everything seems cooler. The pc does seem less responsive even opening FF, but it's interesting to play w/.

EDIT: EPU gets disabled as soon as a I manually change bus to 366 and boot. Changing back to 333 still does not help. It may be that auto needs to be enabled in the BIOS. No fun. So right now I've got all volts on lowest and it appears 3.6ghz will be close to the limit for no effort required OC.

[aussie-revhead]

I just cant get my L737B stable at 4Ghz ...

[MaXXimus]

Couple questions...

1. Whats the most stable BIOS out of these two 0907 or 1201?
2. What benefits are there with doing the Rampage conversion and is it easily reversable?

[The Coolest]

I just got a Maximus Formula and a E6850
The current BIOS is pretty old, 0505.
I can't get it to post with the RAM in my sig. I think it should be able to at least get up to 333MHz fairly easily with enough voltage.
It stops at "Det RAM". I tried an el-cheapo DDR2-667 1GB stick and it seems to be working fine.
I tried to set Vdimm to 2.18v, timings to 4-4-4 and to 5-5-5 niether is stable. with 5-5-5 I get ntfs.sys is corrupted...
I haven't yet checked into all the ram settings in the BIOS, as I'm kinda overwhlmed by the amount of them.

Does anybody have any recommendations? If I should update the BIOS what would be the best choice? (My primary objective is 100% stability, less maximum overclockability)

[Dryden]

Another cold boot victim here. Instead of det dram my particular poison is cpu init. Gets about 2.5 seconds before the box shuts off from cold boot, and then instantly powers back on and is prime stable in excess of 8 hours. The "double boot" so to speak happens everytime the machine doesn't have any juice going to it IF and only if a slight overclock has been made. By slight I mean as little as 10 mhz on the fsb. Have literally tried everything under the sun (including the pwr fan thing, w/different ram, w/o ram, etc).

System specs:
rampage formula (this might not be the right post but I didn't see an official rampage formula)
e8400
8 gigs g.skill pc2 8000s
evga 9800 GTX SSC
Silverstone DA800
true 120

The rest is pretty inconsequential seeing as its not plugged in to anything . No fans in the board. I have replaced all parts but the board with known working parts in my other machine as well as 2 spare g.skill's and I've also tested all the parts in the other machine -- everything works fine even the PSU.

Other box:

dfi x48-t2r
e3110
4 gigs ocz reapers
evga 8800 GTS g92
corsair 620w

I thought ram and all the other things people mentioned about det dram (even though this is cpu init), but I'm not officially "hanging" so to speak. Just getting a double boot. Its almost as though the capacitors or something on the board just aren't working right until its been warmed up once. I sent a ticket in to Asus but we'll see. I doubt newegg will take this thing back since it works with stock auto settings.

[tc17]

The latest bios 1201 for the Maximus Formula did fix its incompatability (errors) with my previous Transcend memory.

Although its too late because I already bought Corsair memory. Kinda makes me angry, since I had to waste money on more ram, and now they fix the problem many months later.

[Talonman]

Couple questions...

2. What benefits are there with doing the Rampage conversion and is it easily reversable?

I would like to know what the advantages are too...

[MurderCityDevil]

If you dont mind post your current stable clock to see where you at now in terms of volts.

well, I just loaded defaults so i could use my comp without crashes until I start oc'ing again, so I don't think that would help much. I know that for that 5 hour stable run, my cpu volt was 1.50625

[Grnfinger]

well, I just loaded defaults so i could use my comp without crashes until I start oc'ing again, so I don't think that would help much. I know that for that 5 hour stable run, my cpu volt was 1.50625

defaults dont mean much to me, in order to help you better I need to have something to start with, you cant just take someones settings and expect them to work, there will be tweaking and adjusting to get your hardware to play nicely.

[The Coolest]

Just updated the BIOS to 1201 and its a no go. I guess this RAM just isn't what I have hoped it would be...

[Grnfinger]

I just got a Maximus Formula and a E6850
The current BIOS is pretty old, 0505.
I can't get it to post with the RAM in my sig. I think it should be able to at least get up to 333MHz fairly easily with enough voltage.
It stops at "Det RAM". I tried an el-cheapo DDR2-667 1GB stick and it seems to be working fine.
I tried to set Vdimm to 2.18v, timings to 4-4-4 and to 5-5-5 niether is stable. with 5-5-5 I get ntfs.sys is corrupted...
I haven't yet checked into all the ram settings in the BIOS, as I'm kinda overwhlmed by the amount of them.

Does anybody have any recommendations? If I should update the BIOS what would be the best choice? (My primary objective is 100% stability, less maximum overclockability)

Rampage can be a bugger to set up to avoid the Det Dram hang, I find its a Transbooster setting and PL setting, 400 strap is most stable, 333 can be fussy at times, I have settings for a quad and e8400 if you would like some templates to try

[kotty]

hi guys
does anyone here uses Crucial ballistix tracer as memory????
cause 80% of my friends that have this combination->Crucial Tracer + Asus Maximus Formula are having problems with bllue screen,resets,system unstable.......
and i have the same memory and i was planning to buy one maximus formula......
does anyone know if they fixed this bug?
thanks!

[Grnfinger]

hi guys
does anyone here uses Crucial ballistix tracer as memory????
cause 80% of my friends that have this combination->Crucial Tracer + Asus Maximus Formula are having problems with bllue screen,resets,system unstable.......
and i have the same memory and i was planning to buy one maximus formula......
does anyone know if they fixed this bug?
thanks!

Ballistix Tracers and Maximus are NOT compatible, call crucial they will confirm this.

[kotty]

Ballistix Tracers and Maximus are NOT compatible, call crucial they will confirm this.

owwww =(
thanks for the information.......
now i must find a motherboard that is good as maximus formula........=(

[Grnfinger]

Grab a DFI LT X48 TR2 excellent board

[The Coolest]

Rampage can be a bugger to set up to avoid the Det Dram hang, I find its a Transbooster setting and PL setting, 400 strap is most stable, 333 can be fussy at times, I have settings for a quad and e8400 if you would like some templates to try

Thanks.
The problem is that I can't even get a post at stock or after reset to the CMOS. that would require me to constantly swap sticks to get the system up each time an OC fails and it tries to go back to defaults.
I'm now considering an upgrade to 4gb, what 4gb kit would be a good combo with this board? My budget is a bit limited so something in the price range of a decent PC6400 ram will have to do.

[MurderCityDevil]

defaults dont mean much to me, in order to help you better I need to have something to start with, you cant just take someones settings and expect them to work, there will be tweaking and adjusting to get your hardware to play nicely.

ok, the most stable settings (5 hours) were the following -

fsb: 425
ram : 850
CpuPLL - 1.62
Nb - 1.53
FSBT - 1.52
Cpu - 1.50625
dram: 2.12

all ram settings were on auto except for the frequency. Clock twister was on "Lighter". everything else was auto except for loadline callibration being enabled.

By the way, about 95% of the time, i get a bsod. I almost never get actual prime rounding errors, my system just crashes and reboots.

[Nuckin_Futs]

Couple questions...

1. Whats the most stable BIOS out of these two 0907 or 1201?
2. What benefits are there with doing the Rampage conversion and is it easily reversable?

I cant speak for 1201, but v0907 was far from stable for me w/ a E6750 & Q6600, but it was mostly to do w/ it corrupting my eProm so it didnt matter what I flashed or CPU I ran there after. Eaqch of our experiences is different, so really depends on who answers, I know there are some that will swear by v0970. I can speak of v1004, it doesnt support S3/STR, but for testing, it is nice for a q6600/E6750 and Tracers on low vDIMM w/ relaxed trfc.

I just got a Maximus Formula and a E6850
The current BIOS is pretty old, 0505.
I can't get it to post with the RAM in my sig. I think it should be able to at least get up to 333MHz fairly easily with enough voltage.
It stops at "Det RAM". I tried an el-cheapo DDR2-667 1GB stick and it seems to be working fine.
I tried to set Vdimm to 2.18v, timings to 4-4-4 and to 5-5-5 niether is stable. with 5-5-5 I get ntfs.sys is corrupted...
I haven't yet checked into all the ram settings in the BIOS, as I'm kinda overwhlmed by the amount of them.

Does anybody have any recommendations? If I should update the BIOS what would be the best choice? (My primary objective is 100% stability, less maximum overclockability)

First off get to know how much your mobo overvolts by looking in Power Management (CMOS) and from here on, reffer to actual used voltages. Next This mobo is picky w/ forced straps and dividers. So start out w/ Strap and DRAM spd to Auto, this will allow you to view all dividers if needed but use most stable of 1:1 if DRAM is left to Auto. Keep youir RAM loos as done, adjust vDIMM for 2.22v (actual, used) and make sure timings are set manually even f left loose, ie; 5-5-5-15. I have seen plenty of value RAM go well above rated, especially DDR533 to DDR830, so if you feed it the vDIMM, it shoud do 800MHz easily + some or a few. For our E6750/E6850's, these OC to 4GHz on 500x right out of the box on origional to final (v0802) but v0602 was most richest in stability, everything worked, S3/STR, S4, most dividers, etc. 1x 1g is much easier 9more NB OC) to OC then 2x 1g and especially 2x 2g.

hi guys
does anyone here uses Crucial ballistix tracer as memory????
cause 80% of my friends that have this combination->Crucial Tracer + Asus Maximus Formula are having problems with bllue screen,resets,system unstable.......
and i have the same memory and i was planning to buy one maximus formula......
does anyone know if they fixed this bug?
thanks!

You'll find a lot of us using the older double sided w/ great results just fine. There are a lot of unlucky one too, but same for any part we buy, some go further then others. Intel will tell you they cant guarenty your CPU over 10% OC but we all do it anyways cause it works for the most part. A good handfull of errors are user side, so I'm sure Crucial and ASUS are not willing to deal w/ the droma anymore and keep it simple. Mine have worked on every BIOS since new, and a previously daily user, P5K Deluxe and test bed Gigabyte P35C-DS3R and even an older set in a P5WDG2-WS Pro. If you have 'em now and they are over 9 months + old, chances are you're good to go. Just keep them cool, Mine respond well to relaxed sub timings and can work on lower vDIMM.

[The Coolest]

First off get to know how much your mobo overvolts by looking in Power Management (CMOS) and from here on, reffer to actual used voltages. Next This mobo is picky w/ forced straps and dividers. So start out w/ Strap and DRAM spd to Auto, this will allow you to view all dividers if needed but use most stable of 1:1 if DRAM is left to Auto. Keep youir RAM loos as done, adjust vDIMM for 2.22v (actual, used) and make sure timings are set manually even f left loose, ie; 5-5-5-15. I have seen plenty of value RAM go well above rated, especially DDR533 to DDR830, so if you feed it the vDIMM, it shoud do 800MHz easily + some or a few. For our E6750/E6850's, these OC to 4GHz on 500x right out of the box on origional to final (v0802) but v0602 was most richest in stability, everything worked, S3/STR, S4, most dividers, etc. 1x 1g is much easier 9more NB OC) to OC then 2x 1g and especially 2x 2g.

Well I'm using the 1gig stick just to get the rig going as you can see my secondary system isn't really cutting edge
The problem with the OCZ is that I can't get it to post after a CMOS reset, I have to put in the Kingston stick just to get to the BIOS, that isn't what I'm after.
So this is why I'm also wondering what is a recommended 4GB kit (2GB is just doesn't quite cut it for me, as I like to keep the page file off). If there was a way to get this set of RAM running, great, but if not I'm going for an upgrade
Thanks!

[Jodiuh]

Rampage can be a bugger to set up to avoid the Det Dram hang, I find its a Transbooster setting and PL setting, 400 strap is most stable, 333 can be fussy at times, I have settings for a quad and e8400 if you would like some templates to try

I would love anything you have to offer bro. I'm doing my very best to keep all volts on board aside from CPU to minimum and hit 4G stable. So far it's looking good, but I'm sure I'll get the itch for more shortly.

Room temp 25.7C, BIOS 1201

[ZenEffect]

I would love anything you have to offer bro. I'm doing my very best to keep all volts on board aside from CPU to minimum and hit 4G stable. So far it's looking good, but I'm sure I'll get the itch for more shortly.

Room temp 25.7C, BIOS 1201

why not set it to the desired frequency then raise volts till its stable. i dont understand the point of the point of incremental overclocking like most people do. if i cant get the processor to do the frequency at the voltage i want its returned. everybody here always knows what ballpark they want. if you cant get the frequency you want with the voltage set the volts you are comfortable with and start backing down frequency until it becomes stable, then back down volts more until it becomes unstable and thus you find your lowest operating voltage at highest operating frequency much quicker. mabye im just impatient.

[Jodiuh]

Fewer bsods this way and no "verify" crap while gaming at a LAN party. I suppose I could just boot to another OS, but I really enjoy seeing how far my new chip can go under day to day activity. It's like watching an electronic pet grow.

I have had it gaming @ 4.3, but do not like surprises, heh. To each his own.

[Nuckin_Futs]

Well I'm using the 1gig stick just to get the rig going as you can see my secondary system isn't really cutting edge
The problem with the OCZ is that I can't get it to post after a CMOS reset, I have to put in the Kingston stick just to get to the BIOS, that isn't what I'm after.
So this is why I'm also wondering what is a recommended 4GB kit (2GB is just doesn't quite cut it for me, as I like to keep the page file off). If there was a way to get this set of RAM running, great, but if not I'm going for an upgrade
Thanks!

Odd, I had the best luck w/ OCZ Platinum. When BETA BIOS screwed up my system, I could only boot w/ OCZ to load profiles and put Tracers back in.

As for a good 4g kit, do try to stick to a 2 slot kit, 2x 2g. You'll of corse need to relax timings accordingly, as they will most likely not hold to your old profile w/o some volting in vDIMM and vMCH. I found the OCZ Platinums to bee good and stable and OC pretty good for what they were. I had a 2x 2g DDR800 kit to DDR1000 @ 2-2-2-13 w/ trfc to 50 @ 2.20vCel Shock makes a nice 2x 2g but I cant speak for their DDR2 version.