Live MB OC Report :: ASUS Rampage Extreme

[eternal_fantasy]

Spent a few hours tweaking now trying to run at 425x9.5 but can't get Prime blend to run for more than 60 seconds but no BSOD's under normal use (surfting, itunes, etc) - think i'm missing a vital setting that this board needs. Have dropped the multiplier to 8 to eliminate CPU issues and mem timing is loose at 9-9-9-28. Will post what I have later tonight but from memory I have tried Vcore is 1.375-1.395, LLC-DIS, VMCH 1.48-1.55, VTT 1.3, PLL 1.5 , VDIMM 1.94.

Will try EF's comments in red on Mike's earlier post tonight to see if that helps - thanks for those.

What is the common setting for DRAM Static Read Control, DRAM Dynamic Write Control and LLC ?

Disable both the controls if you want to overclock the board and increase stability. Enabling LLC reduces the VCore needed at idle, however at load as opposed to having VDroop where the VCore drops around 0.6V under load, you get a slight increase of VCore. I would recommend leaving this disabled and raising the voltage to compensate for the VDroop, as people have had problems with LLC in the past.

My Rampage and Cellshock 1800 d9gtr. x48 Air-cooled

Nice results! how stable are those? prime? orthos? OCCT? screenshot?
And I wonder wonder where you got that idea in your sig! Glad we both agree on the crappyness of the Striker II Extreme.
Also what is this "new creed BIOS"? and which version are you using?

This is my 24/7 for now.

Very nice!

Great to see more people are posting their results.

Here's something to get you quad users started.


FSB 450
CPU Ratio 8.0
Skews AUTO
Strap 266
DRAM frequency 1803
Command Rate 1N
DRAM Timing Manual
CL 7-6-5-18
All other DRAM settings AUTO
Read/Write control Disable
Clock Twister Moderate
Transaction Booster Manual
Performance Level 6

Voltages as in BIOS:
VCore 1.34375
LLC Disabled
CPU PLL 1.51106
FSB termination 1.31216
All GTL AUTO
Northbridge 1.44472
VDIMM 1.98806
Vref AUTO
Southbridge 1.5 1.51106
Southbridge 1.05 1.06039

Spread Spec Disabled

This settings uses the parts in my signiture, and have been extensively tested, with minimum stable voltage + a slight overhead margin for insurance.

Note that I am using watercooling, so the voltage I need only applies to watercooling the NB and CPU. Aircooling may require a significant increase in voltage to acheve the same stable settings due to heat. With larger amount of RAM you man need to additionally raise the VMCH.

Happy clockin' !

[day187]

this i have encountered. with my Micron D9GTS or D9GTR, it is stable as a rock as certain settings, but sometimes i won't get POST. sometimes i get the startup/shutdown cycle, sometimes i just get weird POSTs and have gotten a couple corrupt BIOSs for no reason.

with the G.Skill Pi 2x2GB kit, never happens.

i am leaning on memory issues. i have been able to bypass having to clear CMOS and load settings with just taking one stick out, POSTing, turning off, installing 2nd stick again. sounds stoopid but is usually works

I'm having the same problem with my 4GB (CSX-Memory: 4096MB (2x 2GB), Diablo Kit, D9GTS) kit the boot cycle and weird post,

And my (4GB (2x2GB) CorsairTwinX XMS3 Dominator, DDR3 PC3-14400) i just cant get stable at 1800MHz

deffo need a bios for the 4GB kits compatibility..

day

[MikeMK]

Hey all... not done too much tweaking in the last 24hrs (my 4870X2 arrived which was a distraction lol ) but just wondering what those of you using 3rd party cooling are using on the SB. I have an evercool VCRE and an enzotech copper cooler here... any idea if they will fit?

[eternal_fantasy]

Hey all... not done too much tweaking in the last 24hrs (my 4870X2 arrived which was a distraction lol ) but just wondering what those of you using 3rd party cooling are using on the SB. I have an evercool VCRE and an enzotech copper cooler here... any idea if they will fit?

Here is my solution


The SB heatsink from an old Asus P5B Deluxe. To be honest any kind of small heatsink that can be stuck on the SB will be more then sufficient at cooling it, as the SB really don't produce much heat.

[MikeMK]

Thanks mate... looking at that I think my enzotech should fit quite nicely. Looks like the stock cooling is going this weekend

[rddave]

Hi All, haveing read through this thread I am pretty sure that i will be taking off the stock cooling on this mobo.
Just need you thoughts on a cooler for the southbridge?
I was thinkig of something like this... http://www.thecoolingshop.com/produc...oducts_id/2884 its the Enzotech SLF-1 Pure copper Low Profile Northbridge Cooler.
Just wondering if it will be good enough seeing as i will be using the cipset raid and not a raid card.

[REVHEAD]

rddave I think you should be safe , they are all generally a standard size and seating arrangement.

[MikeMK]

Thats exactly the enzotech cooler I have here. If you can wait till sunday (earliest chance I will have to get the board properly watercooled) then I will confirm if it fits ok

[rddave]

Thats exactly the enzotech cooler I have here. If you can wait till sunday (earliest chance I will have to get the board properly watercooled) then I will confirm if it fits ok

Thanks Mike, really look forward to seeing your results.

ATM i have no option in waiting, as i am still in the process of building the system

[eternal_fantasy]

I brought a Enzotech CNB-S1L in the hopes of fitting it on the Southbridge, but the holes are quite some way off. I think they are designed towards Gigabyte and DFI boards... Now it is on my RAID card

I guess you can try using thermal epoxy, although that will be a permanent attachment, or thermal adhesive tape.

[Tony]

Guys im going to jump in here, I do NOT have an RE yet but I know why certain IC's work on some boards and some do not.

DRIVE STENGTH

Samsung needs weak drive, much like the old TCCD did, Micron needs stronger drive, some of the IC's need really strong drive.

Talking to Praz who has been beating on the T2/3R for weeks now he mentioned the cellshock issues that DFI were having and how he got his to work...a massive increase in drive, he then mentioned he had found the sammy DDR3 needs next to no drive on the T3R where the micron needs a lot more drive.

So, those saying cheap and chearfull OCZ need to look at the bigger picture here, I have found all newer bios files on Asus boards are being tuned away from Micron and more to Samsung based modules, I spent 14 hrs tuning some sammy using 1.25V NB on the P5E3 Premium at 2000MHZ 8-8-8-26, the ONLY way this ram would stand a chance of doing this is if it needed next to no drive at all, with Micron running the exact same speeds I need 1.5V+ on the NB.

I asked Asus to add some kind of memory drive to the bios files on ther X48 Premium, they need to do the same on this board, so it gives the owners of Micron dimms a chance of hitting some awesome speeds, and those dimms that don't work to well will suddenly start clocking well

DFI did this ages ago with the NF4, I had a board purely tuned for TCCD, it would not even boot with Micron or Hynix DDR1, thank god they changed the boards prior to sale so it worked with everything.

Motherboard manufacturers are in a FSB race at the moment., along with that Asus have entered into a memory overclock race fueled by screenshots of 2500MHZ+ memory....ofcourse they want more as they have to win, hence why bios files are tuned around those dimms that do these incredible speeds.


So pester Asus to add DQ drive etc bios and the Micron based memory etc that may not work so well will stand a chance.

[rddave]

I brought a Enzotech CNB-S1L in the hopes of fitting it on the Southbridge, but the holes are quite some way off. I think they are designed towards Gigabyte and DFI boards... Now it is on my RAID card

I guess you can try using thermal epoxy, although that will be a permanent attachment, or thermal adhesive tape.

Interesting, not quite the news i want to here

Wonder if one of the EK water blocks would fit without fouling the graphics card. Also i'm using 1/2" ID tubing for this rig.

[eternal_fantasy]

Guys im going to jump in here, I do NOT have an RE yet but I know why certain IC's work on some boards and some do not.

DRIVE STENGTH

Samsung needs weak drive, much like the old TCCD did, Micron needs stronger drive, some of the IC's need really strong drive.

Talking to Praz who has been beating on the T2/3R for weeks now he mentioned the cellshock issues that DFI were having and how he got his to work...a massive increase in drive, he then mentioned he had found the sammy DDR3 needs next to no drive on the T3R where the micron needs a lot more drive.

So, those saying cheap and chearfull OCZ need to look at the bigger picture here, I have found all newer bios files on Asus boards are being tuned away from Micron and more to Samsung based modules, I spent 14 hrs tuning some sammy using 1.25V NB on the P5E3 Premium at 2000MHZ 8-8-8-26, the ONLY way this ram would stand a chance of doing this is if it needed next to no drive at all, with Micron running the exact same speeds I need 1.5V+ on the NB.

I asked Asus to add some kind of memory drive to the bios files on ther X48 Premium, they need to do the same on this board, so it gives the owners of Micron dimms a chance of hitting some awesome speeds, and those dimms that don't work to well will suddenly start clocking well

DFI did this ages ago with the NF4, I had a board purely tuned for TCCD, it would not even boot with Micron or Hynix DDR1, thank god they changed the boards prior to sale so it worked with everything.

Motherboard manufacturers are in a FSB race at the moment., along with that Asus have entered into a memory overclock race fueled by screenshots of 2500MHZ+ memory....ofcourse they want more as they have to win, hence why bios files are tuned around those dimms that do these incredible speeds.


So pester Asus to add DQ drive etc bios and the Micron based memory etc that may not work so well will stand a chance.

Great to have your knowledge here in this thread. However please post back when you have a RE to test your theory. What you said may very well be true on the P5E3 Premium, but remember that the BIOS is very mature on that motherboard. Rampage Extreme on the other hand have had 2 BIOS releases not counting what came with the board, which have functions advertised missing. Of the 2 released BIOS, 0403/0404, with the former I was able to clock my D9GTR kit to what I was able to on other motherboards (BlackOps/MaxiEx), but with the latter it won't post. Both BIOS will not alow me to POST with D9JNL kit, and both BIOS is unstable with my Samsung 2.2GB kit which works flawlessly on my Maximus Extreme. At the moment it is purely BIOS immaturity in my opinion. By your logic my D9GTR kit should not clock as highly as I could, as it didn't "stand a chance", or my micron kit just need low drive strength!

Another issue I have with some OCZ memory is that we have to manually "tune" the motherboard to get it to run at rated speeds, where as other memory manufactures' memory is almost a plug&play affair. Having owned a VERY cheap OCZ DDR3-2000 2x1GB kit and having it run at 1600Mhz 9-9-9-28 so the motherboard would BOOT is not a very cheerful experience, where as my Cellshock runs at DDR3-1800 7-6-5-18 as simple as dialing in the clocks in BIOS.

Which OCZ kit would you recommend that would allow me to clock it to DDR3-2000 8-8-8 on the Rampage Extreme with no more then 5 minutes in BIOS, and I'll hold you to your word and buy a pair to try.

[rob2k]

Hi Tony - good informative post ! - is there also a bios tuning for 2x1Gb sticks Vs 2x2Gb sticks ?.

Thanks for posting quad settings EF. Struggling with mine at 425FSB, threw everything at it and my settings were very similar (looser memory & higher VMCH volts as on air). Dropped back to 400FSB with 7-7-7-18 C1 timings and raised it to 415 for a compromise between CPU O/C, Mem FSB Vs timings and NB heat, still need some more test runs but this was giving 10700 memory read in Everest, 4160Mhz CPU and 20378 3dMark06 - on air with stock cooling.

Thinking that a new bios is needed before I can raise FSB on quad and 4Gb combo.

[Tony]

Great to have your knowledge here in this thread. However please post back when you have a RE to test your theory. What you said may very well be true on the P5E3 Premium, but remember that the BIOS is very mature on that motherboard. Rampage Extreme on the other hand have had 2 BIOS releases not counting what came with the board, which have functions advertised missing. Of the 2 released BIOS, 0403/0404, with the former I was able to clock my D9GTR kit to what I was able to on other motherboards (BlackOps/MaxiEx), but with the latter it won't post. Both BIOS will not alow me to POST with D9JNL kit, and both BIOS is unstable with my Samsung 2.2GB kit which works flawlessly on my Maximus Extreme. At the moment it is purely BIOS immaturity in my opinion. By your logic my D9GTR kit should not clock as highly as I could, as it didn't "stand a chance", or my micron kit just need low drive strength!

Another issue I have with some OCZ memory is that we have to manually "tune" the motherboard to get it to run at rated speeds, where as other memory manufactures' memory is almost a plug&play affair. Having owned a VERY cheap OCZ DDR3-2000 2x1GB kit and having it run at 1600Mhz 9-9-9-28 so the motherboard would BOOT is not a very cheerful experience, where as my Cellshock runs at DDR3-1800 7-6-5-18 as simple as dialing in the clocks in BIOS.

Which OCZ kit would you recommend that would allow me to clock it to DDR3-2000 8-8-8 on the Rampage Extreme with no more then 5 minutes in BIOS, and I'll hold you to your word and buy a pair to try.

I don't need a RE, I already know that boards are being tuned for samsung, I can tell thru all the testing i have been doing on the best clocking boards...such as the P5E3 Premium.

What you need to ask yourself is this, these kits that work better, they used to be Micron, but i bet 90% of them are now samsung. I can take a 4GB Micron kit running 1800 8-7-7- with skew adjustment and replace it with a 4GB samsung kit and i do not need the skew, I need less NB vcore and in some cases less Vdimm. Samsung is clocking a lot better, boards tuned to it clock even better still.

The addition of DS and DDS on the T3R bios has opened up the board for Samsung and Micron based memory, all I asked is that you had an open mind to what i was telling you and please remember I have 100GB+ of DDR3 here and over 50 motherboards, I base my results over a large hardware test, not just the 1 or 2 kits a standard end user has.

The next topic you need to talk about is the clock on this new board, has it been improved over the clock on the p5E3, Anandtech conducted an experiment replacing the clock on a ME a while back, I just wish they had published more results..all we got was a teaser. I have a feeling the clock on the RE is of a lot better quality than that on the older boards, hence why its easier to clock up with less skew needed.

Try to remember board clock ram, the quality of the board and the clock signal to the ram is paramount. Remember when A64 came out and BH5 suddenly started doing 2-2-2 at DDR500? This was due to massively improved clock signal and MCH overall; older boards were pushing the same ram to 230ish tops if you remember.


The other item i want to clear up is the talk of D9JNL or D9GTR, this means absolutely NOTHING. Micron have die revisions every month, even different week codes of different IC's can make a huge difference.So just because you have JNL does not mean its going to be a good or bad clocker,It just means you have a specific build, nothing more. The specific die rev is what you need and the week code that goes with it, such as week 30 to 33 BH5 which did DDR500 with 2.8V, or one of the 4 or 5 good weeks of TCCD that did ddr600 2.5-3-3-8 with 2.6V.

Bios engineers and motherboard manufacturers completely control the memory industry (especially the enthusiast companies) everything they do dictates how well the ram will clock, so if a new IC comes along and pushes the envelope higher with a board then the bios engineer will tune the board to get the absolute max from the board and that memory...they call it "patching" the board, it goes on all the time. I actually patched the bios on the old NF4 boards to be memory friendly, I forced bootup timings and made DFI's board boot well with anyones memory, it also clocked well with the tables me and Oskar finalized on. So as you see boards have massive control of memory, I just wanted to highlight that its very easy to tune a board to suit 1 type of memory which will make it harder to set up with another type, hence give us DS and DDS and allow us to fine tune the board for what ever ram I have...Samsung needs weak drive, micron strong drive and the new Elpida may need moderate drive...so please give us the options to be able to set this in bios.

[eternal_fantasy]

I don't need a RE, I already know that boards are being tuned for samsung, I can tell thru all the testing i have been doing on the best clocking boards...such as the P5E3 Premium.

I didn't ask you to try a RE to confirm if it is tuned for Samsung. I asked you to do it because the current BIOS tuned for Samsung or not are not compatible with many memory brands, including Samsung IC ones. So what you get from the P5E3 Premium does not represent the RE. This is a RE thread, and unless you have a RE to at least contribute on memory settings or compatibility, your P5E3 results means NOTHING to us. Maybe as the BIOS matures they start to behave more similarly, but not at this point in time.

I use the D9GTR/D9JNL loosely to identify my 2 sets of CellShock memory, which incidentally, uses D9GTR/D9JNL ICs. To me the only difference between them are the ICs. I don't know.. maybe the RE don't like the colour blue? I'm only trying to be logical here on why one pair would run perfectly and the other would not allow booting into windows.

Remember that your 100GB+ of DDR3 and over 50 motherboards result also means NOTHING when the 1 or 2 OCZ kits a bog standard end user has does not work at advertised settings with his 1 motherboard. When we have the choice of spending money on memory should we spend it on something that are guaranteed to work or something that "may work, just give it time and tune"?

And after your wall of text, you still fail to address the second half of my post. Why do we need to spend a week tuning GTLs and Skews to get OCZ memory to run at advertised speeds, when competing manufactures seems to be plug and play?

And please recommend a pair of OCZ memory capable of DDR3-2000 8-8-8 on the RE that runs at it rated speed without weeks of frustration tuning it.

I can take a 4GB Micron kit running 1800 8-7-7- with skew adjustment and replace it with a 4GB samsung kit and i do not need the skew, I need less NB vcore and in some cases less Vdimm. Samsung is clocking a lot better, boards tuned to it clock even better still.

Please tell me the part number, and I will gladly buy it and see if it runs on the RE as you discribed, with the speed and no skew adjustments. If you are so sure about the RE that you don't need one to test and confident on the integrity of OCZ memory, then I am more then happy to trust you and buy those memories. But note that if they are not as you discribed, then it will be posted together with your comment. Don't worry, I won't create drama for the sake of drama, and I sincerely hope they are as good as you say.

[Kimi.Rk]

Disable both the controls if you want to overclock the board and increase stability. Enabling LLC reduces the VCore needed at idle, however at load as opposed to having VDroop where the VCore drops around 0.6V under load, you get a slight increase of VCore. I would recommend leaving this disabled and raising the voltage to compensate for the VDroop, as people have had problems with LLC in the past.


Nice results! how stable are those? prime? orthos? OCCT? screenshot?
And I wonder wonder where you got that idea in your sig! Glad we both agree on the crappyness of the Striker II Extreme.
Also what is this "new creed BIOS"? and which version are you using?

Very nice!

Great to see more people are posting their results.

Here's something to get you quad users started.


FSB 450
CPU Ratio 8.0
Skews AUTO
Strap 266
DRAM frequency 1803
Command Rate 1N
DRAM Timing Manual
CL 7-6-5-18
All other DRAM settings AUTO
Read/Write control Disable
Clock Twister Moderate
Transaction Booster Manual
Performance Level 6

Voltages as in BIOS:
VCore 1.34375
LLC Disabled
CPU PLL 1.51106
FSB termination 1.31216
All GTL AUTO
Northbridge 1.44472
VDIMM 1.98806
Vref AUTO
Southbridge 1.5 1.51106
Southbridge 1.05 1.06039

Spread Spec Disabled

This settings uses the parts in my signiture, and have been extensively tested, with minimum stable voltage + a slight overhead margin for insurance.

Note that I am using watercooling, so the voltage I need only applies to watercooling the NB and CPU. Aircooling may require a significant increase in voltage to acheve the same stable settings due to heat. With larger amount of RAM you man need to additionally raise the VMCH.

Happy clockin' !

I do not like to use orthos like, occt or programs perche in the past they also gave mistakes with everything to default I prefer to use area3d and I try with games for hours ... however my arranges and building and the ram to at times try it with you put under dos and it is all OK.

[Leeghoofd]

Lighten up EF, due to Tony's hard work not only OCZ ram will benefit but also other vendors rams, think we have similar issue on P45 with DDR3 when using high FSB and ram speed... The boards need more time and hopefully the bios engineers will get their act together to support more ram or make the bios more compatible (I know at least one guy that works pretty hard on it)... ony thing is that Asus has zillions of boards and development might be a bit slower then the end user expects...

Maybe this time it's OCZ that has the most issues but I've had numerous times other vendors ram too that had to be run under stock speeds to be just compatible... with decent feedback from the end user we all will benefit...

[Kimi.Rk]

On the situated asus the bios 404 had appeared and it is now missing again????

[eternal_fantasy]

On the situated asus the bios 404 had appeared and it is now missing again????

It is still there..
ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/so...mpage_Extreme/

[Kimi.Rk]

It is still there..
ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/so...mpage_Extreme/

OK infinite thanks! But perche took away him? Does any problem maybe have the 404?

[Kimi.Rk]

It is still there..
ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/so...mpage_Extreme/

However I use the bios 301 now. Did I hear a lot of good with the microns d9gtr say the 404 does not go?

[Clump]

I brought a Enzotech CNB-S1L in the hopes of fitting it on the Southbridge, but the holes are quite some way off. I think they are designed towards Gigabyte and DFI boards... Now it is on my RAID card

I guess you can try using thermal epoxy, although that will be a permanent attachment, or thermal adhesive tape.

I'm using that same cooler on the southbridge. It can be mounted by rotating it to about 2:00 and the mounting holes line up. It's not square on the chip, but covers it completely. With AS Ceramique I'm getting about 4-6 C lower than stock. The big improvement was a TT Extreme Spirit II on the northbridge.

[rddave]

Hi All,
Just had the stock cooling of the MB, and yes the TIM is the same on mine as on others shown.
Also noticed that on the bottom of the stock metalwork on the screw holes that there is a little black plastic washer of ~1mm thick, do you think that removing them after reapplying TIM would get better cooling results on the stock cooler?

[Kimi.Rk]

Hi All,
Just had the stock cooling of the MB, and yes the TIM is the same on mine as on others shown.
Also noticed that on the bottom of the stock metalwork on the screw holes that there is a little black plastic washer of ~1mm thick, do you think that removing them after reapplying TIM would get better cooling results on the stock cooler?

I removed those washers and I changed the thermal paste and it is OK all