X48 Rampage Formula Preview.

[panheimer]

heres a cmos dump of mine if you want to have a look at it. 8x430FSB DDR2-1146 Q6600. Unzip it and put it on a USB flash drive and load it through Start OC Profile. Make sure to save your OC profile first, either to 1 or 2 or flash drive. Be careful with the DRAM voltage, as I've got it running at 2.32V real ( +20mV dram ref voltage (0.02V) ) . All the other voltages are sane and won't cause you any grief. It's also setup for RAID and wireless keyboard just so you know. Loading it will load all the CMOS settings. Not just the OC ones.

Well, i've tried your profile, or better, i've tried to try your profile, but can't load it, it says that it's not compatible version or something like that.
Wich bios are you using? i'm using the 0406, maybe this is the problem?
Or did i do something wrong? I've downloaded your file, unzipped and saved on a empty pen drive formatted in fat16. Restarted the pc, entered bios and started oc profile, here i can see the 430pl7.cmo file, but when i try to load it, the system refuses to proceed...

[panheimer]

nice work! all you can do I suppose is give it more vNB, that's the only way to tighten up PL any farther.

no way, every time i got stuck to det dram i've never managed to get around it, tried upping vNB to 1.56 (i'm using 1.41, but think i can still lower it once i find a good setup) and played also with PLL, VTT and both GTLs but never managed to make it post...
maybe you do know a trick to avoid det dram?

[systemviper]

Hi, I am thinking of getting this board, I see this thread been around for a long time so is this board as good as i hear?

or

thanks for your time.

the egg has it for around 280 delivered...

[GAR]

Anyone running this board with the G.Skill 4GB 8500 kit 450fsb or above, can you list your bios settings.

[SergioRoadster]

Much better, now idles at 41c and loads at 48-50c, great cooler for 20 bucks, my stock wasnt even making contact with the NB fully.

here is a pic

It's a very cool cooler, myself was thinking of getting that one or one of the thermalright's chipset coolers.

Could you tell me the NB voltage you're using when it gets to the 48-50c?

I check temps and voltages with pc probe II, but don't know if they are accurate, at least the CPU voltage and temp are the same as the ones on CPU-Z and Real Temp.

With the stock heatsink, prime95 on load, PC Probe II reports 46º with NB on 1.23v
Maximum temp I get is 55º with NB on 1.44v
I have 6 fans on my case, upgraded the window panel fan to a aerocool 140mm, but don't know if those temps are true, I'm no experten, but doesn't seems much temperature difference for 21 volts of setting change.

My RAM settings are all in auto, except the voltage and speed.
On my daily 400 FSB overclock and also when I test 444FSB I have them on the 2.1v max and 1066/1067MHZ.
Still trying to find the NB, FSBT and SB limit for those BUs speeds. Haven't tryed to go beyond their 1066MHZ limit or change the timings.

[GAR]

It's a very cool cooler, myself was thinking of getting that one or one of the thermalright's chipset coolers.

Could you tell me the NB voltage you're using when it gets to the 48-50c?

I check temps and voltages with pc probe II, but don't know if they are accurate, at least the CPU voltage and temp are the same as the ones on CPU-Z and Real Temp.

With the stock heatsink, prime95 on load, PC Probe II reports 46º with NB on 1.23v
Maximum temp I get is 55º with NB on 1.44v
I have 6 fans on my case, upgraded the window panel fan to a aerocool 140mm, but don't know if those temps are true, I'm no experten, but doesn't seems much temperature difference for 21 volts of setting change.

My RAM settings are all in auto, except the voltage and speed. At the 333FSB was with 2.04v and 1066MHZ as in the screenshots in the GSkill site.
On my daily 400 FSB overclock and 444 I have them on the 2.1v max.

With 1.43v in the bios, i get 39-43c idle, depending on room temp, and about 44-50c load

On the g.skill memory, they are these right http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231166
Whats the max fsb you have run them stable, thanks, i cant get anything above 427fsb stable with this ram.

[003]

Anyone running this board with the G.Skill 4GB 8500 kit 450fsb or above, can you list your bios settings.

Ive got 8GB of that RAM at DDR2 1103, FSB at 459. Max I can go it seems is 489 or thereabout.

Which BIOS settings do you want? I've got all my RAM settings at stock, except for the divider and voltage (2.1v).

[SergioRoadster]

Hi, I am thinking of getting this board, I see this thread been around for a long time so is this board as good as i hear?

or

thanks for your time.

the egg has it for around 280 delivered...

I think that depends of what you want to do.
At first I was thinking of getting a P5Q Deluxe. But for the 70 euros difference I choosed the Rampage for the 2 PCIE 2.0 slots (Thinking of gettin' another 4870 or 4870x2 next year).
On my experience, this is a very good board even for someone inexperienced as me on overclocking. On the long effort to find the right BUS speeds and components voltages for my CPU voltage limit, the little Clear CMOS button is a blessing. I've got the system frozen dozens of times not able to boot and just by a press of a button... BAM, BIOS defaults loaded.

[GAR]

Ive got 8GB of that RAM at DDR2 1103, FSB at 459. Max I can go it seems is 489 or thereabout.

Which BIOS settings do you want? I've got all my RAM settings at stock, except for the divider and voltage (2.1v).

If you can give me all your voltages that would be cool, as much bios settings from the overclocking part of it would be awesome

[SergioRoadster]

With 1.43v in the bios, i get 39-43c idle, depending on room temp, and about 44-50c load

On the g.skill memory, they are these right http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231166
Whats the max fsb you have run them stable, thanks, i cant get anything above 427fsb stable with this ram.

HUmm... I think I might spend 20 euros on that SPirit II even just for 5º difference, it shure is pretty and with leds! Damn, since I've build for the first time my computer, now I get crazy for led fans and stuff like that cooler. My pc is starting too look like a Christmas tree.

Yes, they are those.
Max FSB I've run stable was 450, but with 1.39vcore on my E8400, just ran prime 1 hour with that voltage. Since I've read more then 1.36v deteriorates the 45nm I'm afraid of passing that limit.
I've run also prime with 440FSB with 1.36vcore for 5 hours. No errors.

[Robilar]

I just wish I could get my QX9650 stable at 10x400. won't happen. I had no difficulty doing so with manageable temps on my EVGA 790i Ultra.

With this board I put 1.42 vcore in bios (LLC disabled) which comes out to about 1.38 under load and temps climb into the mid 60's with orthos.

On the EVGA board, 1.42 in the bios netted 1.344 in windows after vdroop and temps were much lower.


any ideas?

[GAR]

I just wish I could get my QX9650 stable at 10x400. won't happen. I had no difficulty doing so with manageable temps on my EVGA 790i Ultra.

With this board I put 1.42 vcore in bios (LLC disabled) which comes out to about 1.38 under load and temps climb into the mid 60's with orthos.

On the EVGA board, 1.42 in the bios netted 1.344 in windows after vdroop and temps were much lower.


any ideas?

My temps are the same as my 790i, re mount your cpu cooler.

[003]

If you can give me all your voltages that would be cool, as much bios settings from the overclocking part of it would be awesome

BIOS: 0403
Ai Overclock Tuner: Manual
OC From CPU Level Up: Auto
CPU Ratio Setting: 8
FSB Strap to NB: Auto
FSB Freq: 459
PCIE Freq: 100
DRAM Freq: DDR2 1103
All other DRAM settings: Auto
Ai Clock Twister: Auto
Ai Transaction Booster: Auto
CPU Voltage: 1.425
CPU PLL Voltage: 1.5
NB Voltage: 1.37
DRAM Voltage: 2.1
FSB Term Voltage: 1.32
SB Voltage: 1.05
SB 1.5V Voltage: Auto
LLC: Enabled
All REF Voltages: Auto
CPU Spread Spectrum: Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum: Disabled

[Zucker2k]

This should be the same for all bioses out there, but to prevent any confusion, I'm on bios 0308 and I highly recommend that you flash to this bios as well. This is a given, but it needs repeating, this is a solid board. Unfortunately, the 45NM cpus from Intel are very sensitive and if you're off by a few volts on one of the key voltages, aka, fsbt, vcore, and vnb, you'll have to use a lot of brute force and even that won't get you far. I recommend that everyone who is having problems reaching 8x450 and above SERIOUSLY needs to find a little time and patiently run their hardware all stock, moving up slowly till your system begins to show signs of instability then you can stop and tweak. To prevent confusion, try to set the most obvious settings manually. If you're not sure, leave the gtls alone. I have this CPU for one more night before someone picks it up on *cough* cough* *cough* 'bay, so here we go....

Setup:
Asus Rampage Formula, bios 0308
Intel Quadcore Q9450
G.Skill PC2-8500 (DDR2 1066) 2x2GB kit
Windows Vista x64 SP1

As you can see everything is set manually at the lowest levels. I'm not messing with GTLs, at least it was NOT necessary.






For what it's worth....



How the voltages look under hardware monitor. You want your voltages to closely match this as possible, with the exception of vcore and vdimm; those are dependent on your hardware.



The reboot...



The result...



You can further improve performance with pull-ins. That's all folks.

[GAR]

Your setup is stable at the lowest voltages at 450fsb????

I got the same setup, my cpu has a vid of 1.1275, same ram, same cpu but i fail prime blend with any setting above 427fsb i think i got a dud board maybe??? i have an asus silent knight 2 cpu cooler. my cores idle at 29-32c loads at 50c weird, very wierd, im thinking of getting a new board, maybe i got a dud????

[003]

Zucker, I really hate you. I want that Q9450 of yours. Oh well -- I'll have to settle for brute force. My VID is 1.2250.

GAR, I'm not sure if you were aware, but I am on water cooling

[GAR]

Zucker, I really hate you. I want that Q9450 of yours. Oh well -- I'll have to settle for brute force. My VID is 1.2250.

GAR, I'm not sure if you were aware, but I am on water cooling

Maybe i need a different cpu heatsink, i have the Asus Silent Knight II, i guess ill sell it and get a new one.

[003]

Not worth it. Air will only take you so far, and a 2-3C temp decrease from a better heatsink won't get you squat. You need to save for water cooling if you are really looking for a cooling increase that actually yields more overclocking headroom. I have both my CPU and NB on water.

[traveler]

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.

[snip]

I have to get it built first.

Finally finished assembling it today. Did a first boot. Went into the BIOS and set a few things.

But then, after exiting the BIOS, it won't recognise the floppy drive or the DVD drive, and I get an error message saying "No CD-ROM drive found" and "IDE CD-ROM device driver not installed". Eventually it reads the CD-ROM starting Caldera DOS but then stops saying "driver not found" and "invalid drive specified".

Am I missing something here?

[Zucker2k]

Your setup is stable at the lowest voltages at 450fsb????

I got the same setup, my cpu has a vid of 1.1275, same ram, same cpu but i fail prime blend with any setting above 427fsb i think i got a dud board maybe??? i have an asus silent knight 2 cpu cooler. my cores idle at 29-32c loads at 50c weird, very wierd, im thinking of getting a new board, maybe i got a dud????

It could also be your cpu. My cpu does 3.4Ghz stable at 1.08v. The best thing to do is start all over, everything low and start raising your fsb till you get stuck. It'll require a lot of reboots but start with vcore first, if it doesn't cure it, move to fsbt, then nb. Move in 2-7 FSB increments. The whole key to this is to know your hardware first, that is cpu and ram so their settings don't interfere with board settings.

Zucker, I really hate you. I want that Q9450 of yours. Oh well -- I'll have to settle for brute force. My VID is 1.2250.

I jumped a E8600, 10x multi proved too tempting. I'm watercooling my chipsets too, it helps for stability at higher fsb/clocks.

[Zucker2k]

I have to get it built first.

Finally finished assembling it today. Did a first boot. Went into the BIOS and set a few things.

But then, after exiting the BIOS, it won't recognise the floppy drive or the DVD drive, and I get an error message saying "No CD-ROM drive found" and "IDE CD-ROM device driver not installed". Eventually it reads the CD-ROM starting Caldera DOS but then stops saying "driver not found" and "invalid drive specified".

Am I missing something here?

What CD-ROM are you trying to access? Is it scratched?

[DaLiu]

All members with Q9450 @ 450 fsb and Rampage Formula could you please post your overclock settings, im thinking that im using too much voltage on NB and VTT to reach 3600 Mhz with Q9450. I use 1,55 V for NB, 1,38 V for VTT and 1,26 V for CPU. Im gonna try Zucker2k settings when im out from work, im curios if is gonna boot at least.

[DEFLORATOR]

New old bios is out
ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/so...rmula-0407.zip
So, here is the sequence from asus: 0406 - 0408 - 0407.
Pls anyone report how 0407 works with raid-controllers.

[traveler]

What CD-ROM are you trying to access? Is it scratched?

Thanks for the reply Zucker2k.

I tried two different optical disks. Both of the optical disks boot fine from another computer so based on that and looking at them, I would say no scratches.

One disk is PowerQuest's PartitionMagic, a OEM factory made disk and the other is Western Digital DLG Tools, burned to disk by me. As I said both optical disks boot fine on any other computer I put them in.

There are no jumper switches on the back of the floppy, so that's not a problem. The jumper switch on the DVD burner, which is a Samsung SH-S202N, is set to master as per the instruction sheet for the drive and is the only drive on the IDE channel.

Am I overlooking something?

[Zucker2k]

Thanks for the reply Zucker2k.

I tried two different optical disks. Both of the optical disks boot fine from another computer so based on that and looking at them, I would say no scratches.

One disk is PowerQuest's PartitionMagic, a OEM factory made disk and the other is Western Digital DLG Tools, burned to disk by me. As I said both optical disks boot fine on any other computer I put them in.

There are no jumper switches on the back of the floppy, so that's not a problem. The jumper switch on the DVD burner, which is a Samsung SH-S202N, is set to master as per the instruction sheet for the drive and is the only drive on the IDE channel.

Am I overlooking something?

I've had problems with Partition Magic too. Are your disks in raid mode, and connected to Intel Matrix Controller?