X48 Rampage Formula Preview.

[Ice009]

Any ideas what to do next? Can I get the OCZ Reaper HPC PC2 8500 RAM that I have to run with no errors at stock speeds or a bit above at this point?

Is there a problem running this RAM on the board? Cause this is the exact same kit I want to buy if I get this board.

[3lfk1ng]

chiman2-This is a pretty complicated board, but the auto setting work pretty well. If you are willing to devote some time into studying it, than you will be very happy with it. If you have no overclocking experience, you have a lot to learn. I've been using this board for four months now and I'm still learning.

Keep it up mate, you'll love the board once it becomes your best friend.

[mikeyakame]

Keep it up mate, you'll love the board once it becomes your best friend.

qft ;>

[Rickpatbrown]

I haven't tried tweaking my ram yet. I feel like I maxed out my CPU, but I'm not happy with the results. I got a weak E8400. The motherboard itself has been beautiful. The only thing limiting it is me.

I've been focused on my video cards and water cooling and unfortunately, school is about to start again. I hope that I get the chance to really run this board. I think that when I stellar 775 processor comes around, I'll get back into this board. Right now it is rock stable and fulfilling all my needs.

From reading your posts, mikeyakame, I can tell that you really appreciate what this board can do. I don't understand all your posts, though.

[menko2]

i just bought the RAMPAGE FORMULA.... i need some help....

i have been recomend to put the HR-05 for the NB and the SPIRIT II for the SB....is it necesary or recomended?? i can still cancel the purchase of the HR-05 but i have to do it quick...

my other question now is:

1) is there any guide to overclock this MB?? im totally new with intel MB. always used nvidia.

2) do i have to do something to my cd of XP instalation disk?? im going to install from 0.

3) any problem with my x-fi xtremegamer sound card??

4) any pics and help of mounting extra cooling??

5) which current bios is best for E8600??

6) my ram is OCZ PC8500 SLI 1066 5-5-5-12 (4X1GB)--- is it supported???

i know there are a few questions, but im totally new with intel boards....

let me know about the HR-05 for NB or just cancel the purchase..

thank you!!
________________

[panheimer]

As theese days are little colder, i started looking for pushing a little forward this cpu. 'til now my stable settings were: CPU 3.6 Ghz (450x8) 1.4375 vCore, FSB strap 266 and ram @1128, PL 7, CPU PLL 1.5, vNB 1.41, FSB Term 1.3, and both GTL ref on auto.
So i've started upping the fsb little by little using intelburntest for a quick 10 passes test and found i've got a weird CPU: it takes me 1 notches of vCore for each FSB gain, so i've stopped at 457x8 (3,656 Ghz) with 1.4625 vCore. Evidently going this way leads me to nowere as i don't want to give so much voltage for so little freq gain.
So the question is: i'm hitting CPU limits or do i have to play with other settings? Is there a way to scale cpu freq without adding so much vCore?

[panheimer]

i just bought the RAMPAGE FORMULA.... i need some help....

i have been recomend to put the HR-05 for the NB and the SPIRIT II for the SB....is it necesary or recomended?? i can still cancel the purchase of the HR-05 but i have to do it quick...

my other question now is:

1) is there any guide to overclock this MB?? im totally new with intel MB. always used nvidia.

2) do i have to do something to my cd of XP instalation disk?? im going to install from 0.

3) any problem with my x-fi xtremegamer sound card??

4) any pics and help of mounting extra cooling??

5) which current bios is best for E8600??

6) my ram is OCZ PC8500 SLI 1066 5-5-5-12 (4X1GB)--- is it supported???

i know there are a few questions, but im totally new with intel boards....

let me know about the HR-05 for NB or just cancel the purchase..

thank you!!
________________

1) This thread and the official maximus formula one have all the hint you may need, it only tooks a little time reading it...
2) You may want to slipstream it with raid driver if you plan to install it on a raid stripe (btw, i'm using the xp installed with my previous msi p7n diamond mobo - too lazy to reinstall it - and still works fine!)
3) no problem with x-fi sound cards - at least for me;
5) i think that only the 0407 officially supports E8600;
it's not mandatory to change nb and sb heatsink, but many people are affected with high temps especially on nb (i've saw 63°C on my rampage). someone solved it by reseating it (didn't worked for me), others by mounting a little fan over the nb (lowered my temps by 4-5°C). so i've mounted an hr-05 ifx on nb and a hr-05 ifx sli on sb: in this moment, while i'm priming and typing i have 45°C on NB and 33°C on sb.

[menko2]

thank you for the reply Panheimer; i will keep purchasing the HR-05 then....

lets see my if i get all correct about the questions::

1) i will read the post now i know which MB im getting. i just looked for some kind of introduction as Robilar did with the P5N32-E. i will start learning how it goes INTEL MB.

2) i wont make any RAID so i have to install my XP normally right?? (no slipstream)

3) it looks it fit properly!! great!! i had issues with my current MB.

5) i will look into ASUS website. they will say which BIOS is the official i guess.... i will research....

6) do you know if my RAM is ok for this board?? i have 4X1GB OCZ DDR2 PC8500 SLI 1066 5-5-5-12

thank you for the help panheimer!!!

[panheimer]

i think your ram is ok. i've used 4x1gb ocz flex with no issue, but now i'm using only 2x1gb as xp can't see more than 3 gb and found it useless (and because i'm using the 2nd 2x1gb kit on my 2nd rampage!) in normal apps and gaming. if you have old revision of rams probably you will have to manually set the REF Cycle Time (tRFC) in bios with a value of 50 or higher.

for what i know there are no official rampage formula guide, over the net you may find some guides for ocing intel chipsets but i'm afraid you will have to read all the thread searching for info you need - or try by yourself and then post questions!
btw, my last 2 mobo had nvidia chipsets (dfi lt680i and msi pn7 diamond) and lost almost 8 months trying to oc them and never managed to get them stable with a decent oc. on the other hand rampage (and intel chipsets in general) is much more friendly and you can keep almost every setting on auto and still get some decent clock. of course when you start looking for pushing every little mhz from cpu and ram you will have to start learning every setting and its correlation with other ones.

[menko2]

oh my god.... the post i have to read is the maximus one right??? its over 100 pages....

the HR-05 and HR-05 SLI need fans??? if yes, which size???

[Shadowthor]

So latest bios is still 0407?

[panheimer]

well, you can run them passively, it depends on your system airflow. in my case, i've a true in push-pull config and the fan is just in front of the hr05, so it benefits of its airflow. the same happends on the hr05sli over the sb wich is just in front of the 8800 ultra fan.
now i've also 2 80mm fan attached on both hr05 and hr05sli and they give me a benefits of another 4-5°C lower.

yes, the thread is the maximus formula one, and actually consist of 261 pages...but you'll find many interesting hints! ocing is a matter of patience...he!

it seems that the latest is 0407, but there is also a 0408

[traveler]

Well Buds ... I'm still having troubles. But I'd rather be tweaking BIOS settings than troubleshooting a floppy drive.

@Rickpatbrown - Thanks for your reply. I've been using both Memtest86 and Memtest86+. I'd like to see either one of them run with zero errors at this point.

No matter what I set things to, there are too many errors showing in Memtest86 and Memtest86+. This happens using any RAM slot and trying either of the two RAM sticks.

Currently I have been testing with one of the sticks in slot 3 and just tried the following settings:
CPU ratio ........................... 8.0
FSB freq ............................333
PCIE .................................100
DRAM freq ..........................DDR2 667
DRAM command rate ............ 2N
CAS ................................... 5
RAS to CAS ......................... 5
RAS pre time ....................... 5
RAS ACT time ...................... 18
Common performance level ..... 07
CPU voltage ........................ 1.3625
CPU PLL voltage ................... 1.6
NB voltage .......................... 1.55
DRAM voltage ...................... 2.1 + .1 overvolt = 2.2
FSB termination voltage ........ 1.4
SB voltage ......................... 1.125
SB 1.5 voltage .................... 1.55
CPU spread spectrum ........... disabled
PCIE spread spectrum .......... disabled
All other items are on auto or default settings

I started off using lower voltages and hoped that increasing the voltage would eventually result in zero errors in a Memtest pass. But that never happened (at least with the various settings I tried).

What do I have to set the BIOS settings to in order to run Memtest and get zero errors? Can it be done with this RAM? I'd like to see stock CPU speed (2.66) as well as at least a medium OC (3.0 to 3.2) run Memtest with zero errors with this RAM. Or can it not be done?



__________________
Asus X48 Rampage Formula / Intel Q9450 / 2 x 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC PC2 8500 / VisionTek Radeon HD3870X2 OverClocked Edition /
Western Digital Raptor X Hard Drive / Two Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5001ABYS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives /
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro 7.1 / Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 Speaker System /
Lian Li 343B cube case / PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Crossfire Edition

[GAR]

So latest bios is still 0407?

yes but 0308 looks to be the bes bios so far.

[003]

What makes 0308 better?

[Shadowthor]

i guess we won't find out for a while, GAR got banned.

[SirDaemon]

traveler:

- set performance level to auto;
- lower NB Voltage to 1.4-1.45
- and for that settings I believe you can also lower DRAM Voltage

EDIT: bios 0408 works just fine for me, but never tried 0407 or 0308

[panheimer]

0308 gives you a performance boost on memory read bandwidth and latency
0407 gives a smaller performance boost on memory read bandwidth and latency and on L2 cache
but if you're using 0408 and have optimized every memory and voltages settings you may have to tweak a little bit again as these bioses are more aggressive on mch

[003]

so 0308 > 0407 for bandwidth?

And WTF? Why was GAR banned?

[paulscholes]

And WTF? Why was GAR banned?

Yeh?

[panheimer]

so 0308 > 0407 for bandwidth?

here http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...07#post3196436 you can find some screenshot of differences between 0308, 0403 and 0407 with an E8400.
i've also tried 0308, 0406, 0407 and 0408 and, even if my l2 cache difference is smaller, i can confirm these results (but don't have any screenshot to post)

[traveler]

Thank you Buds for the suggestions.

I give up on the 2 x 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC PC2 8500 RAM. Even ASUS telephone tech support says says OCZ and current ASUS motherboards don't get along well.

I just ordered a set of G.Skill 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit from Newegg. That's the Pi Edition. I like those new Pi Edition extended heat spreaders! I didn't know G.Skill had that feature.

I hope they work.



__________________
Asus X48 Rampage Formula / Intel Q9450 / 2 x 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC PC2 8500 / VisionTek Radeon HD3870X2 OverClocked Edition /
Western Digital Raptor X Hard Drive / Two Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5001ABYS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives /
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro 7.1 / Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 Speaker System /
Lian Li 343B cube case / PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Crossfire Edition

[crash2k]

traveler i got them on my rampage, they work great!

[3lfk1ng]

traveler i got them on my rampage, they work great!

I have the same sticks with the older spreaders, they work great as well!

If you just use 4gb, you should be able to get the frequency up to 1113mhz 5-5-5-15 on this board. That was as far as I was able to push them.

[menko2]

what is the best program to measure temps in this board with a E8600 in xp??

thank you!!