ASUS Maximus II Formula - new P45 king?

[CryptiK]

@cryptik, tried your settings and it failed to load windows.but any way heres mem settings on auto,i just upped fsb mem-5/6 pl8.icouldnt get it to boot with same fsb 5/6 w/g.skills.are ozc gold pc-8800 any good?

Perhaps you need more vNB to get my timings stable, the tighter the ram timings the harder it is for the MCH and the more vNB you need. Try 5-5-5-15-3-45-6-3 @ 2.01XXX vDimm. Personally I don't like OCZ memory, there's always a better option, like G.Skill, Mushkin, even Corsair.

Thanks for the reply CryptiK, I've not actually got the board yet or I'd test myself. I'm just wondering if I'm going to have a decent amount of control over them from the board itself, or if I'm going to have to splash out on a controller.

Try first before you buy a controller, I don't have a need for one, I just use BIOS to control chassis and ram fans, and I use an Antec TriCool 140mm blowhole and 120mm CPU fan.

thx mate however i'm wondering about the voltages: 1.5 over the NB isn't too much? also what about the vFSB and PLL?

I used to be very gentle with motherboards until I had my P5B vanilla, I vMCH modded it and ran 1.45v 24/7 through it for 1 year+ and it was fine. Personally I wouldn't hesitate to use 1.4v 24/7 on a P45, 1.5v is about the highest I'd go with vNB on stock cooling. vFSB max is 1.26v, vPLL max is 1.575v, above that is beyond Intel spec and it becomes a guessing game of balancing risk with performance.

Hi Cryptik,
Well this is the point I ask for help. I got a Q9550 E0 step (1.18xx VID), put it into the M2F and put in all 8GB (2GB x 4) Mushkin RAM (996580) onto the board with a vanilla 8800GT 512MB...powered up...and NO BOOT. Pulled out 2 sticks of RAM from the white sockets and it POSTED...

I swapped the 2 sticks I pulled out into the blue sockets and posted again, so I guess all 4 sticks are alive...

Vista 64 SP1 loaded onto the 300GB Velociraptor in less than 20 mins

Now could you point me in the direction to my settings; I know you probably have given them before to someone else to get up and running with 8GB of DDR2 but I've started to trawl through from page 1. I'm not sure if I should be trying to get my OC up before getting the 8Gb stable or try to get the CPU up to speed and then add the other 4GB. Any advice at all would be welcome

Have a look at Grnfingers settings for 4GB, then increase vNB about 0.06v and try again, you may need about 1.4v vNB to get 8GB stable. You may also need to loosen up a lot of your secondary timings to get stability.

Okay Cryptik I have spent the last 3 hours reading all of the posts and I was just wondering if you can post some 24/7 settings of your rock solid E8400 OC??

I mean with the best acceptable bandwith and processor OC around 4.0...

I am running E8400 CO with (4X1GB) Crucial 1066 D9 and I am plugging in all these settings I can make it into the OS prime for awhile but when I reboot my computer shuts down and hangs....

I was just thinking you have some settings I could plugin and give it a run I saw the posts from earlier page 43 and I can run that set up fine but as soon as I introduce any memory performance I hang or have to reset the CMOS...

Thanks or any settings you might have.....

P.S. Forget my signature this is my back up rig I am referring to Asus Maximus II Formula, E8400, D9 Crucial 1066

Here is my totally stable 4 GHz overclock using C0 e8400 with ram/NB settings yielding highest bandwidth & lowest latency. Also make sure to never have a larger gap than 0.11v between vFSB and vNB, or it will hang on reboot with a cleared CMOS, so if you set 1.2v vFSB do not set more than 1.31v vNB.

Extreme Tweaker
Ai Overclock Tuner : Manual
OC From CPU Level Up : AUTO
CPU Ratio Control : Manual
- Ratio CMOS Setting : 9
FSB Frequency : 445
CPU Clock Skew : Normal
North Bridge Clock Skew : Normal
FSB Strap to North Bridge : 266
DRAM Frequency: DDR2-1116
Dram Clock Skew CH1 A1 : Auto
DRAM Clock Skew CH1 A2 : Auto
Dram Clock Skew CH1 B1 : Auto
Dram Clock Skew CH1 B2 : Auto


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 : 30
Write Recovery Time : 6
Read to Precharge Time : 3

Read to Write Delay (S/D) : Auto
Write to Read Delay (S) : Auto
Write to Read Delay (D) : Auto
Read to Read Delay (S) : Auto
Read to Read Delay (D) : Auto
Write to Write Delay (S) : Auto
Write to Write Delay (D) : Auto

Write to PRE Delay : Auto
Read to PRE Delay : Auto
PRE to PRE Delay : Auto
ALL PRE to ACT Delay : Auto
ALL PRE to REF Delay : Auto

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

Common Performance Level [8]

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

PCIE Frequency : 100

CPU Voltage : 1.34375
CPU PLL Voltage : 1.5000
FSBT : 1.16XXX
DRAM Voltage : 2.01XXX
North Bridge Voltage : 1.27XXX
South Bridge Voltage 1.5 : 1.5
South Bridge Voltage 1.1 : 1.1

CPU GTL Reference 0 : +30mv
CPU GTL Reference 1 : -10mv
CPU GTL Reference 2 : +30mv
CPU GTL Reference 3 : -10mv
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 

@ Cryptik (and others) just few questions:

1) what's the max voltage that i can give to the NB without any trouble for the mobo?
2) same question for the PLL

thx

I think 1.40v vNB should be fine 24/7 just watch your NB temps.

vPLL should be fine up to 1.8v or more without damaging the mobo, however that is not good for the CPU, keep it under 1.6v at all times.