X48 Rampage Formula Preview.

[bigslappy]

last pix

[bigslappy]

I have $1300 in my Rampage and the Dell guy is in second and only spent $6800 Canadian's. The real surprise was that I can run 2 instances of the benchmark simultaneously with NO DEFFERENCE in time.

WOW !
looks like i'm savin me pennies for a Xeon NOW !

Dell sucks ... Ho' buildin' is Way better BUT we all know THAT !!
L O L

[003]

Nice pics, however I need to know if the MPC-X38 NB block and the Fuzion V2 both fit on the Rampage. Is anybody able to confirm this?

[bigslappy]

Nice pics, however I need to know if the MPC-X38 NB block and the Fuzion V2 both fit on the Rampage. Is anybody able to confirm this?

i'll get them (Da pix) to Ya after dinner ! I'll match them up as i'm all ready to go on the comparasin . just gotta do & i will tonite !

[Shadowthor]

Looks good, can't wait to see results

[bigslappy]

ok here we go YES they do work together clearance is do-able

BUT the 4 holes on the out side of the plexi DO NOT match up with the MoBo

the 2 holes slightly closer to the block DO MATCH UP ! Now if it were me I would drill 2 more holes in da thing just to get a better fit & trim off the EARS where the other holes are

NOW also I do NOT think the Pro mount springs/screws will work

as u can see in pix of the " CyberDruid's backing mod " screws barely miss the plexi & the pro mount screws are spring covered SOO there a chance those will NOT clear the plexi on the DD X38 block without notching the plexi mount

[003]

Good to see. Umm, wtf? Screws on the block don't line up properly? Sorry I am not about to take a drill to it. If this is the case, I will have to sell/return it. I will try and contact DangerDen and find out whats up with this, maybe they can fix it for me. If not I'll have to stick with the MPC-Universal, which DOES fit, and works with D-tek pro mount.

[bigslappy]

mo pix

hope this helps 003

now it looks like the plexi is sitting on those capacitors but really it's all but a C-hair they are below it
But if u tighten down the block = they might/will hit
the plexi can be easy modded to miss those as well

[bigslappy]

Yeah i'm selling this block of mine

NO WAY am I gonna mod it as i'm going for the clean look on all my builds

tell the truth this is not the 1st time DD has sold me a block they said would fit for sure
& that it only is held by the two holes instead of the four holes is a deal killer also

any way while i'm at it i do pix of the EK blocks as I check clearances tonite !
I know this will help others out there in XS land !

[003]

I'd love to find a quality X38/48 NB block that fits the Rampage Formula and uses all four holes...

Thanks for the pics!

[bigslappy]

I'd love to find a quality X38/48 NB block that fits the Rampage Formula and uses all four holes...

Thanks for the pics!

let me go check the EK real quick

[bigslappy]

here's the EK block ... if it looks off center it slightly is when centered over the MoBo holes but it's a 2 holer also ..but it does cover 95% of the chipset & i like the low profile of the block last shoot shows the other chipset block which fits fine & looks to miss the 2nd Vid card if it's water cooled

any one have these on their board ?? do they(the Barbs) miss the 2nd Vid card as i'm going Crossfire with this rig

[bigslappy]

while i'm at it here's the test bed with my 2nd R/F & the Q9450

[traveler]

I just ordered an Asus Rampage Formula. It's on the way.

[traveler]

Hi guys! i didn't have time to read the full thread, so i hope this hasn't already been posted.

Recently got my new system with a Rampage Formula up and running.
One of the first things i noticed was how hot the NB got, so i removed the heatsinks and applied some Arctic Ceramique. That didn't help much at all. But the heatsink also didn't feel warm at all. With the NB at over 60c (at stock voltage under load) the heatsink should atleast feel hot if the heat is transferred the way it should. But when i felt the base of the heatsink (that lighter copper color base plate) i burned my finger.
So apparently the heat wasn't transferred from that base plate to the heatsink and heatpipes.
So i removed the heatsink to have a closer look and this is pretty much what you'll see then: (This pic is from the Maximus Formula thread. Apparently it's much harder for them to remove the heatsink, but with the Rampage ASUS just used some of that silicon stuff they also use for the heatsinks at the power area)


You can see the heatpipe and when you look from the side you can also see the heatpipe going to the SB. But i couldn't really see where it made contact with the baseplate and when you looked under the baseplate via the 'hole' from the middle heatpipe i didn't see where it made contact either. So i took a small screwdriver and popped that base plate right off. (it pretty much came off when i pushed the screwdriver between the base plate and the heatsink, i didn't even have to rotate or force it)
And here is what i saw (only have picture of the base plate, i got soo excited i put the heatsink back on the board without making a picture of it. )
Click for full screen


The red areas are the parts where the glue actually made contact with either the heatsink or the heatpipe. The part on the left made contact with the heatpipe going to the SB. The 'long' part in the middle is what made contact with the middle heatpipe (the part that made contact is just +/-1.5mm in width.) and the parts to the right made contact with the heatsink.
I think the total 'contact surface' was less then 1 square CM (for the metric people among us ) AND that 'contact' was through some simple glue!!!

Those edges surrounding the baseplate aren't a problem since the baseplate is larger then the NB heatspreader, so the NB will fit perfectly between those edges.
Now i used quite a bit of arctic ceramique to fill the space around the heatpipe and the heatsink and also put some arctic ceramique on the heatsink and NB to make sure there was enough on there to fill the gaps and i put the heatsink back on the mainboard.

Right away i could feel the heatsink getting MUCH warmer then before, but since i put quite a bit of thermal paste between the NB and heatsink i wanted the heatsink to get really toasty fso the paste could settle. So i put a piece of paper between the NB heatsink and the CPU cooler to prevent airflow from the CPU cooler to NB heatsink.
I increased the NB voltage and stressed it for a while. The NB temp didn't even go over 55c with the piece of paper preventing airflow and now the heatsink acctually felt really hot to the touch like it should.

The end result, i went from 62C to 40C! while running Prime95 on 4 cores
That sounds too good to be true, but considering the lack of contact which means the NB was hardly cooled, it makes sence

The only downside to this mod is that my SB gets hotter now. The heat from the NB chip is transferred via the heatpipe to the SB heatsink and that actually heats up the SB now! So it might be better to cut the heatpipe close to the NB heatsink so that no heat is transferred from the NB to the SB but the SB still has the surface of it's heatpipe to cool.

WoW !!!

Definitely worth reading this post.

Thanks Abducted.

[Vivi]

Traveler when you get your Rampage formula will you test your Max FSb? most / all of them can do 585+ when tweaked right, and i would like to see what the newer ones can do.

Big slappy u look like some watercoolin god ! where u get all those stuff. like your benchtable

Btw: what did u test in your test setup?

[RealTelstar]

Which slots are better for higher clocks, white ones or blue ones???? thanks.

White.

[003]

Traveler when you get your Rampage formula will you test your Max FSb? most / all of them can do 585+ when tweaked right, and i would like to see what the newer ones can do.

Big slappy u look like some watercoolin god ! where u get all those stuff. like your benchtable

Btw: what did u test in your test setup?

!!!! 585 FSB?! On a quad??? Are you sure you don't mean 485??

[bigslappy]

@ oo3 looks like after sleeping on it ..I'm gonna Mod the DD block as I put together the Brass plate for the DD & it has a thinner plexi hold down plate that sits on top of the brass top(barbs mount flush on the brass) & I can use the other thick plexi as a drilling guide for the R/F mobo holes into the thinner plexi

the EK block is lacking in a few ways to my liking
1st it just a box no pins inside for better heat transfer ,
2nd i don't like the idea of 2 holes ,
3rd the EK has sliders for the holes making it even less stable
4th the DD block covers the whole chipset as the EK don't


with this mod i gonna do i'll also be able to use the copper backing plate that comes with the Rampage Formula & end up with a very firm,stable & high heat transfer water block
preformance is more important than bling with this chipset
PIX below

[bigslappy]

Big slappy u look like some watercoolin god ! where u get all those stuff. like your benchtable

Btw: what did u test in your test setup?

I test everything , I get the mobo up running, get it O/C'ed, test memory load O/S , drivers , run bench marks , test games ,test apps ,with the R/F having the power & reset buttons on the mobo it's self. this makes a test bed a very good tool to bullet proof the P/C before it goes into a case, also do the burn in , test the water blocks (test bench has a temp probe ,resevior,fans,psu,Rad & pump)

most all has come from Petra's Tech Shop with help from Quoc he's the best guy ..
the test bed is a modded HSPC test station

here's a link to them

http://www.petrastechshop.com/hstest.html

[situman]

Nice pics, however I need to know if the MPC-X38 NB block and the Fuzion V2 both fit on the Rampage. Is anybody able to confirm this?

It fits.

[003]

It fits.

Sweet! Your sig says just the Fuzion, not Fuzion V2, which has a pro mount standard. You sure the two work together on the rampage?

And what about the holes on the MPC-X38 not lining up on the motherboard?

[Rickpatbrown]

I don't know if I should post this in this thread or start a new one. I'm about ready to FREAK OUT MAN! I posted earlier about my DDR2 800 Crucial Ballistix not being able to pass Memtest86 http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...181921&page=20. I adjusted voltage and timings and even tRFC like suggested. They wouldn't pass. I RMA'd the RAM and the MB and got new of each. It was decided that the 2Gb sticks were not compatible with the Rampage.

I order some G.Skill DDR2 1066. They will not pass Memtest86 either. WTF?

Unfortunately, it's starting to look like the common denominator is me.

Am I running the right program -Memtest86 v3.4? Is it possible that something is wrong with the bootable CD?

[RealTelstar]

Maybe they sent u back the same (broken) board.

[Rickpatbrown]

What performance level do ya'll run 2x2Gb at? I had it set to auto. Now I'm trying 7. What tRFC?

-Thanks

It's not the same board. It came with all the accesories and another copy of Striker game. I reapplied the heatsink also and the new one is definitely a different board. Or they went through a lot of trouble to trick me.