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

[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!

[By0T0xN]

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.

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.

It weird how some boards work well with certain bios versions and others don't. I personally don't completely understand what exactly causes this. But my board is running v907 w/E6750 and just recently Q6700 completely stable @ 3.4/1.31v along with my dbl sided 8500 Ballistix @ 1133 @ 2.2v. I want to try 1201 but I'm a lil apprehensive just because I'm happy with where I'm at right now with v907. I'm also curious about the Rampage mod, but again is it worth the effort/process to do the switch? I mean am I really going to gain anything out of it performance wise to risk the instability that might occur?

slightly paranoid,
By0T0xN