ASUS Maximus II Formula - new P45 king?

[CryptiK]

where can i find those team extreme or cellshocks that you have there

I got my Team Xtreem from an Australian etailer, but I got my CellShock here:

http://www.memoryc.com/computermemor...ands=CellShock

Hi everyone, Thanks for all the feedbacks and advices you provide in this thread, really great job guys especially CryptiK . well i'm interested in getting the M2F and i dunno whether i should get it now or wait till it hits the shelves with the P45 Rev A3 in? and is it that reliable or it does suffer from the same P5Q D problems, if i get it now what Bios do u suggest, Thanks again !

A3 revision seems to clock a bit better, but the A2 rev is fine, I have seen it do 670 FSB and can do 600 FSB on air pretty easily if your cpu can do it. No harm in waiting though if you don't need a board soon but I'm not sure when/if the A3 M2F's will be out.

The board has been great, and has no issues like the P5Q-Deluxe. There is some ram incompatibility (some OCZ models IIRC) but most popular brands/models of ram seems to work fine.

BIOS 1307 (the latest one) has been the best for me. It's stable, and has the most ram compatibility.

[dawdaw]

Thanks Cryptik for the flash answer !

[radaja]

@cryptik, thanks for the link. ill be buying these tomorrow.

[Shiranui Gen-An]

Yeah a 2 x 1GB micron D9 based ram kit would be better for overclocking but not so good for longevity. My CellShock PC8000 CL4 GKX kits are nice though. The best 2 x 2GB ram kit available today is the G.Skill 9600 PI kit, they do 650+ MHz.

Speaking of CellShock GKX, it looks like my Maximus II likes them fairly well, as it can clock them to 600MHz CAS5 without giving errors in Memtest, my only Intel-based board that can do so. BTW, does anyone know the VDIMM voltage read point(s) on this board?

[screwtech02]

Anybody else getting random reboots, with all your bios settings lost??? I ended up having to reformat due to a unknown "uncorrectible hardware error" on my box that has been "stable" for more than 2 weeks now... Took me over a hour to get the vid cards to be recognized, i was runnin kets mod bios, but have since reverted back to the ASUS 1307. If this keeps up, im gonna slam my P5E back in and RMA the damn thing.... Ugh.....

[SiGfever]

I have been playing a little more with my settings and here is where I am at with the memory, still a long way to go but mid week I should have a couple new chips to play with.

[radaja]

this is with all volts set to auto except, vdimm set manually to 1.90 and cpupll set manually to 1.50(auto set 1.69). is this normal?also i have this wierd problem of my ch-5 pull ins disappearing and reappearing on every other boot, anyone else seeing this?

[CryptiK]

@cryptik ill give it a try. no to the ram , im going to get a new set any suggestions ,also would 2x1 kit be better for over clocking.UPDATE just tried 1.2 and 1.25 failed prime within 1 second tried 1.24 vfsb 1.25 vnb failed after 45 seconds

That certainly is strange. What are your NB temps like?

Speaking of CellShock GKX, it looks like my Maximus II likes them fairly well, as it can clock them to 600MHz CAS5 without giving errors in Memtest, my only Intel-based board that can do so. BTW, does anyone know the VDIMM voltage read point(s) on this board?

Yeah it seems to go well with GMH/GKX, I can get 1200 stable, and can bench @ 1320 CL5. I'm sure it could go higher if I got aggressive with the vdimm.

You can measure vdimm from the 2 mosfets above the dimm slots, but the voltage at each fet may differ, as the mem VRM is 2 phase.

Anybody else getting random reboots, with all your bios settings lost??? I ended up having to reformat due to a unknown "uncorrectible hardware error" on my box that has been "stable" for more than 2 weeks now... Took me over a hour to get the vid cards to be recognized, i was runnin kets mod bios, but have since reverted back to the ASUS 1307. If this keeps up, im gonna slam my P5E back in and RMA the damn thing.... Ugh.....

No such issues here. Have you tried setting your vFSB & vNB no furhter apart than 0.11v? (eg: if vFSB = 1.2v, set your vNB no higher than 1.31v)

I have been playing a little more with my settings and here is where I am at with the memory, still a long way to go but mid week I should have a couple new chips to play with.

Not bad

this is with all volts set to auto except, vdimm set manually to 1.90 and cpupll set manually to 1.50(auto set 1.69). is this normal?also i have this wierd problem of my ch-5 pull ins disappearing and reappearing on every other boot, anyone else seeing this?

At stock FSB, auto settings should give low/normal voltages, it's only when you start raising the FSB that the auto settings start to overvolt a lot.

[radaja]

@cryptik ive never seen the nb temps go above 35c.also do you think any of my issues could have to do with my power supply? its an antec basiq 550W w/ three 12v rails two are 22a and one is 25a.

[screwtech02]

I forgot about that issue CryptiK, i will check out my settings, i have been bumping different volts, so that is probably exactly what the issue is....

[screwtech02]

Oops, double post.....

[unex|st]

Anyone noticed multiplier issues when powering on from power off state? My board keeps starting up with 9x multiplier even if it is set at 8x. After applying a reboot the multiplier is set correctly (1307 bios and E6600 conroe)

[Grnfinger]

Anyone noticed multiplier issues when powering on from power off state? My board keeps starting up with 9x multiplier even if it is set at 8x. After applying a reboot the multiplier is set correctly (1307 bios and E6600 conroe)

no have yet to see that one. But then again I have yet to experience any of these anomalies

[radaja]

check this out, i lowered vtt to 1.12 vnb to 1.16 and was able to go even higher with my fsb. im going to see how much farther i can push with these volts.

[BuGjAE]

check this out, i lowered vtt to 1.12 vnb to 1.16 and was able to go even higher with my fsb. im going to see how much farther i can push with these volts.

Radaja ,So Can you get pass Prime95 over 35 minutes with your setting?
For me I can't get pass above 35 minutes and constant FATAL ERROR around 31 minutes of "Blend" both Prime 95 and ORTHOS
but I'm pretty sure my Vcore is enough.

anyone have a suggestion? ThanX in advance.

[WaterFlex]

BuGjAE
OOwwweeee. You will kill your chip with that CPUPLL! 1.50 is quite enough for your clock!

[radaja]

@buGjae, yea on that run it ran for an hour before i stopped it to try and go higher .

[CryptiK]

@cryptik ive never seen the nb temps go above 35c.also do you think any of my issues could have to do with my power supply? its an antec basiq 550W w/ three 12v rails two are 22a and one is 25a.

That PSU should have enough power for your system, unless it's getting old and/or failing. Your 12v rail is low however, at 11.82v. If you can borrow one from a mate to test with it wouldn't hurt to rule it out. Upping the vNB though isn't going to really pull much more power, it's more the cpu pulling the most power. At a low cpu clock, can you run higher vNB without problems?

Anyone noticed multiplier issues when powering on from power off state? My board keeps starting up with 9x multiplier even if it is set at 8x. After applying a reboot the multiplier is set correctly (1307 bios and E6600 conroe)

Do you mean being unplugged from the power point or just a normal cold boot? I haven't noticed this from either situation but I use the 9x multi 24/7.

Radaja ,So Can you get pass Prime95 over 35 minutes with your setting?
For me I can't get pass above 35 minutes and constant FATAL ERROR around 31 minutes of "Blend" both Prime 95 and ORTHOS
but I'm pretty sure my Vcore is enough.

anyone have a suggestion? ThanX in advance.

Definitely lower you vPLL to 1.50v to start with, and try to stay below 1.6v no matter what. Also you may either need more vdimm (depends on your ram) or more vcore and vNB.

[unex|st]

Do you mean being unplugged from the power point or just a normal cold boot? I haven't noticed this from either situation but I use the 9x multi 24/7.

It is happening on both plugged and unplugged power boots. I'm running a very standard 400*8 config with relatively low voltages, during every cold boot I get 400*9 and sometimes system is unable to boot (due to cpu instability I suppose). If I press ctrl alt canc during bios screens I get the correct 400*8 at next boot.

At the moment I think this board is really not worth the money it costs, nice performance when using conservative OCs along with low voltages, but going for a more aggressive oc is a no go.
At the end of the day an x48 board would have probably been a better choice...

[electricl]

Hello everybody

I just got a 2X2gb kit of corsair dominators 1066MHz and now my system feels flaky. Right now Im running them at 950MHz because the other speed I can choose with 333 strap is 1140MHz. Ill get the board to boot with mem@1140MHz but it will fail prime within seconds, intelburn test will also fail. Any ideas of how to get everything stable? Should I give up on 4GHz? stable? Thank you all for a very good forum.


Heres my current settings



CPU Ratio Setting: 8
FSB Strap to NB: 333
FSB Freq: 475
PCIE Freq: 105
DRAM Freq: 951
DRAM Command Rate : 2T
DRAM Timing Control: Manual
CAS# Latency : 5
RAS# to CAS# Delay : 5
RAS# Precharge : 5
RAS# ActivateTime : 12
RAS# to RAS# Delay : 3
Row Refresh Cycle Time : 55
Write Recovery Time : 6
Read to Precharge Time : 3

Read to Write Delay (S/D) : 8
Write to Read Delay (S) : 3
Write to Read Delay (D) : 5
Read to Read Delay (S) : 4
Read to Read Delay (D) : 6
Write to Write Delay (S) : 4
Write to Write Delay (D) : 6

Write to PRE Delay : 14
Read to PRE Delay : 5
PRE to PRE Delay : 1
ALL PRE to ACT Delay : 5
ALL PRE to REF Delay : 5

DRAM Static Read Control: Auto
Dram Read Training : Auto
MEM OC Charger : Enabled
Ai Clock Twister : Lighter
Transaction Booster : Manual

Common Performance Level [10]

Pull-In of CHA PH1 Disabled
Pull-In of CHA PH2 Disabled
Pull-In of CHA PH3 Disabled
Pull-In of CHA PH4 Disabled
Pull-In of CHA PH5 Disabled
Pull-In of CHB PH1 Disabled
Pull-In of CHB PH2 Disabled
Pull-In of CHB PH3 Disabled
Pull-In of CHB PH4 Disabled
Pull-In of CHB PH5 Disabled


CPU volt:1.32500
CPU PLL Voltage: 1.52650
NB Voltage: 1.35175
DRAM Voltage: 2.17100
FSB Termination Voltage: 1.31200
SB Voltage: 1.1
SB 1.5 Voltage: 1.5

CPU GTL Reference 0 : +20mv
CPU GTL Reference 1 : +20mv
CPU GTL Reference 2 : +20mv
CPU GTL Reference 3 : +20mv
North Bridge GTL Reference : AUTO
DDR2 Channel A REF Voltage : AUTO
DDR2 Channel B REF Voltage : AUTO
North Bridge DDR Reference : AUTO

Load Line Calabration : Enabled
CPU Sread Spectrum : Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum : Disabled

[Grnfinger]

Hello everybody

I just got a 2X2gb kit of corsair dominators 1066MHz and now my system feels flaky. Right now Im running them at 950MHz because the other speed I can choose with 333 strap is 1140MHz. Ill get the board to boot with mem@1140MHz but it will fail prime within seconds, intelburn test will also fail. Any ideas of how to get everything stable? Should I give up on 4GHz? stable? Thank you all for a very good forum.


Heres my current settings

Try this

Dram Clock Skew CH1 A1 : Advanced 350ps
DRAM Clock Skew CH1 A2 : Normal
Dram Clock Skew CH1 B1 : Advanced 350ps
Dram Clock Skew CH1 B2 : Normal


DRAM Timing Control: Manual
CAS# Latency : 5
RAS# to CAS# Delay : 5
RAS# Precharge : 5
RAS# ActivateTime : 18
RAS# to RAS# Delay : 5
Row Refresh Cycle Time : 65
Write Recovery Time : 6
Read to Precharge Time : 5

Read to Write Delay (S/D) : 10
Write to Read Delay (S) : 4
Write to Read Delay (D) : 5
Read to Read Delay (S) : 6
Read to Read Delay (D) : 6
Write to Write Delay (S) : 5
Write to Write Delay (D) : 6

Write to PRE Delay : 16
Read to PRE Delay : 6
PRE to PRE Delay : 1
ALL PRE to ACT Delay : 6
ALL PRE to REF Delay : 6

DRAM Static Read Control: Disabled
Dram Read Training : Disabled
MEM OC Charger : Enabled
Ai Clock Twister : Moderate
Transaction Booster : Manual

Common Performance Level [8]

[electricl]

Thanks Grin for the fast answer, Ill try these settings right away.

Try this

Dram Clock Skew CH1 A1 : Advanced 350ps
DRAM Clock Skew CH1 A2 : Normal
Dram Clock Skew CH1 B1 : Advanced 350ps
Dram Clock Skew CH1 B2 : Normal


DRAM Timing Control: Manual
CAS# Latency : 5
RAS# to CAS# Delay : 5
RAS# Precharge : 5
RAS# ActivateTime : 18
RAS# to RAS# Delay : 5
Row Refresh Cycle Time : 65
Write Recovery Time : 6
Read to Precharge Time : 5

Read to Write Delay (S/D) : 10
Write to Read Delay (S) : 4
Write to Read Delay (D) : 5
Read to Read Delay (S) : 6
Read to Read Delay (D) : 6
Write to Write Delay (S) : 5
Write to Write Delay (D) : 6

Write to PRE Delay : 16
Read to PRE Delay : 6
PRE to PRE Delay : 1
ALL PRE to ACT Delay : 6
ALL PRE to REF Delay : 6

DRAM Static Read Control: Disabled
Dram Read Training : Disabled
MEM OC Charger : Enabled
Ai Clock Twister : Moderate
Transaction Booster : Manual

Common Performance Level [8]

[screwtech02]

Man, it would appear that the bios needs a bit of work in the memory bandwidth dept... Can only get 9523 read, 8497 write, and 9334 copy in Everest. Latency is 54.2. That is running with the modded bios posted previously in the thread. I would like to hope that ASUS will work on it.... They certainly cant tout a board to support 16gb, and not have individuals try and push the envelope with lotsa memory....

[SiGfever]

Man, it would appear that the bios needs a bit of work in the memory bandwidth dept... Can only get 9523 read, 8497 write, and 9334 copy in Everest. Latency is 54.2. That is running with the modded bios posted previously in the thread. I would like to hope that ASUS will work on it.... They certainly cant tout a board to support 16gb, and not have individuals try and push the envelope with lotsa memory....

If Asus doesn't step up to the plate this being an ROG board, they will lose a lot of customers. Why pay top dollar if lower boards seem to receive more attention?

[CryptiK]

Yes it really needs some increased efficiency and bandwidth with lower latency at a given PL, FSB and ram speed.

Also, when are they going to release the next BIOS? The P5Q-Deluxe (and other P5Q series boards) has had 1402, 1403 and now 1406 but they seem to have just forgotten about the Maximus II Formula. Very poor effort by Asus indeed.

EDIT - sure there aren't any glaring issues they need to address, other than increasing memory compatibility with more ram types, but it would certainly be nice to see further optimization and increased efficiency with new BIOS revisions.