The Maximus Formula Thread - Help/OCing/Guide/Rampage conversion

[MurderCityDevil]

with all 4 sticks are you not getting the monitor to turn on at all? No splash screen or anything? What ram are you using? You might have to RMA your motherboard.

im using two sets of corsair dominator 1066 (2x2gig). the version numbers are the same. I'm not sure if it's the motherboard because any combination of two sticks in any two slots will boot and run fine. It seems like no matter what combination of settings I use, the second I populate another slot, the whole system turns into a vegetable and hangs at det_dram, no signal on screen, video card fan running 100%, etc. If someone can tell me for sure it's the motherboard, then i'll just return this set of ram and stick with 4 gigs because it's not worth it for me to go through the hassle. But so far, I have been unable to boot with any settings. I am stumped.

[Grnfinger]

im using two sets of corsair dominator 1066 (2x2gig). the version numbers are the same. I'm not sure if it's the motherboard because any combination of two sticks in any two slots will boot and run fine. It seems like no matter what combination of settings I use, the second I populate another slot, the whole system turns into a vegetable and hangs at det_dram, no signal on screen, video card fan running 100%, etc. If someone can tell me for sure it's the motherboard, then i'll just return this set of ram and stick with 4 gigs because it's not worth it for me to go through the hassle. But so far, I have been unable to boot with any settings. I am stumped.

Your still stumped eh, my Rampage just arrived today!!!!
I have some things to do shortly but in a few hours I'll power the board up and toss in 8GBs of ram, once I get it dial'd in I'll post actual pics of my bios setup.
You could always drop in the OCZ forum section here and ask Tony for advice
he is pretty damn smart ....PM is considerd bad for reps so dont pm him

[ZenEffect]

Your still stumped eh, my Rampage just arrived today!!!!
I have some things to do shortly but in a few hours I'll power the board up and toss in 8GBs of ram, once I get it dial'd in I'll post actual pics of my bios setup.
You could always drop in the OCZ forum section here and ask Tony for advice
he is pretty damn smart ....PM is considerd bad for reps so dont pm him

my 3870x2 just came in today, have a look

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2.../21k6thrun.jpg

6th run, and not even on a quad

[Grnfinger]

but you need to run 4800MHz to score it
Atleast mines is 24/7 stable
I might volt mod and overclock my card a bit further.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=9362364

[kup]

How is that Rampage, dude?

[Zucker2k]

Woah! You guys know it's actually Christmas? Yeah, let's see what Cory can do with that RF.

@Murder; you may need up to .1v more on the NB. Oh, don't forget to set DRAM clk skews to advanced, 200 - 300 on both CH A/B. Goodluck.

[t_ski]

I am back with some info. I changed out the 2x2GB sticks of PC2-8000 G.Skill I have for a pair of 2GB sticks of OCZ platinum 8500. I still can't get them up to rated speed, but at least these will run at PC2-6400 @ 4-4-4-12 (instead of 5-5-5-15 from the G. Skills).

I also took out the cooling and fitted my EK Spreme and S-Max on the board, along with some Enzo MST-81 mosfet sinks. I think the thermal material may have been a big part of the stability issue I saw before, as the stuff that was on there was a thick layer of some kind of rubbery-looking TIM. AND, underneath that stuff they had some blue paste of some kind on the SB & NB. I didn't even need the hair-dyer as the heatsinks just lifted right off. Right now the CPU is running about the same idle as it was before (I think I may need to tighten down the bolts on the Supreme), but load temps are much, much lower. Also, NB temps went from ~65C down to ~24C, even though I'm cranking more volts into it. Oh, and I tried the pencil mod on it, too since everything was out of the case. I have turned off loadline calibration and volts seem pretty solid at 1.4v.

I have it running at 4 GHz (10 x 400MHz) with the ram @ PC2-6400, 4-4-4-12 and it was Priming for nearly 23 hours without failure when I stopped it. I have to reboot sometime soon and get all the BIOS details so I can post them up for your wise scrutiny.

In the meantime, do any of you have some recommendations for some 1000W+ PSU's that work well with this board? I had a Tt 1200W that worked fine, as long as the CPU was not OC'ed. (The brief power-on, power-off, power-on cycle upon reboot didn't play nice with the caps in the PSU or something, because it never came back up ). I'm also worried the Tt 850W I have right now is not enough for the dual 4870X2 cards

[Simkin]

what are the benefits of flashing the maximus with rampage bios?

[loften]

my stock maximus se n/b cooler works perfect on my shuttle an35ultra n/b..

[xxDayTrader]

to avoid a repost, here's my last post:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...postcount=7652

I tried the Mushkin forums which were really pretty good in the past but the Mushkin employee who watched the forums is gone.

thanks a lot.....Mike

[Commander_HK47]

Well I've put trying to get a stable 4Ghz with this quad i have to the side and focus on stabilizing a lower speed(3.6). Well i have manged to do that however my memory scores don't seem to be as high as every one else in fact they seem rather low.... I was wondering if i could get some advice on how to bring the scores up with this board.

[lohoutlaw]

Sorry to bust in here, but i have a question!

Does any one know the max temp thresholds for the N-bridge and S-bridge on a Asus Rampage Formula?

[Grnfinger]

Sorry to bust in here, but i have a question!

Does any one know the max temp thresholds for the N-bridge and S-bridge on a Asus Rampage Formula?

Intel states 90c is max BUT many would disagree.
In my testing I have found anything above 52c on the NB and stability issues arise...
My advice would be to remove the NB and SB assembly, remove the stock TIM and replace it with AS Ceramique, its a bit of a pain but worth the effort in the long run

Well I've put trying to get a stable 4Ghz with this quad i have to the side and focus on stabilizing a lower speed(3.6). Well i have manged to do that however my memory scores don't seem to be as high as every one else in fact they seem rather low.... I was wondering if i could get some advice on how to bring the scores up with this board.

Commander....
Post your bios setup please

We can get the bandwidth up to speed

to avoid a repost, here's my last post:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...postcount=7652

I tried the Mushkin forums which were really pretty good in the past but the Mushkin employee who watched the forums is gone.

thanks a lot.....Mike

I have a couple of Mushkin kits, I have many timing setups from Greg, RE-Post your troubles I will help if I can

[lohoutlaw]

Ty

[Commander_HK47]

Here they are:

Maximus Formula Converted to a Rampage Formula
BIOS: 0410
Q6600 GO
G.SKILL F2-9600CL5D-4GBPI @1200MHz 2x2GB (5-5-5-15-CL2)

Extreme Tweaker
Ai Overclock Tuner : Manual
OC From CPU Level Up : AUTO
CPU Ratio Control : Manual
Ratio CMOS Setting : 9
FSB Frequency : 400

DRAM Clock CMD Skew CH1 A1 : AUTO
DRAM Clock CMD Skew CH1 A2 : AUTO
DRAM Clock CLK Skew CH1 B1 :  AUTO
DRAM Clock CLK Skew CH1 B2 :  AUTO

FSB Strap to North Bridge : Auto/(266)
PCI-E Frequency: 100
DRAM Frequency: DDR2-1203
DRAM Command Rate : 2T
DRAM Timing Control: Manual
CAS# Latency : 5
RAS# to CAS# Delay : 5
RAS# Precharge : 5
RAS# ActivateTime : 15
RAS# to RAS# Delay : 3
Row Refresh Cycle Time : 52
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 
Ai Clock Twister : Auto
Transaction Booster : Manual

Common Performance Level [5]

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 Voltage : 1.425
CPU PLL Voltage : 1.50
North Bridge Voltage : 1.53
DRAM Voltage : 2.0
FSB Termination Voltage : 1.40
South Bridge Voltage :  AUTO			
Loadline Calibration : Enabled
CPU GTL Reference : 0.67X
North Bridge GTL Reference : 0.67X
DDR2 Channel A REF Voltage : AUTO
DDR2 Channel B REF Voltage : AUTO
DDR2 Controller REF Voltage :  AUTO
SB 1.5V Voltage : AUTO

[Grnfinger]

Here they are:

Do this one at a time and retest with Everest...

Enable Dram Static Read Control
Clock Twister..Start with Stronger, back off alevel at a time if there is stability issues..
You might have to test PL levels with clock twister
ie..PL6 with clock twister stronger may perform better than PL 5 and clock twister moderate.

Timing looks decent there might be room for adjustments

Play with your Dram static and adjust your PL and clock twister first, play around with a few combos and try to find the best for your hardware, after its stable we can tighten the timing if you like...

[kup]

Grn, those settings kill my Rampage. How did you work up to them?

[Grnfinger]

Grn, those settings kill my Rampage. How did you work up to them?

KILLED????
I had slowly backed off till the system booted, then used memset till the bugger would pass memtest. used them for a month or so with no troubles.
Please say your board is not actually dead

you could try this, it got my Mushkins 1200MHz stable

*In Brackets are timings that can be optimized later, outside of the brackets is a good starting point*
CAS# Latency - 5
RAS# to CAS# Delay - 5
RAS# PRE Time - 5
RAS# ACT time - 18
RAS# to RAS# Delay - 4(3-4)
Ref Cycle Time - 55
Write Recovery Time - 6(3-6)
READ to PRE Time - 4(2-5)

READ to Write Delay (S/D) - 9 (7-10)
WRITE to READ Delay (S) - 5 (3-6)
WRITE to READ Delay (D) - 5 (4-6)
READ to READ Delay (S) - 4 (3-5)
READ to READ Delay (S) - 6 (5-7)
WRITE to WRITE Delay (S) - 4 (3-5)
WRITE to WRITE Delay (D) - 6 (5-7)

DRAM Static Read Control - Disabled (Enabled)
Ai Clock Twister - Light (Strong)
Transaction Booster - Disabled
Relax Level - 2 (0-3)

Just adapt it for Rampage bios as this was done on MF bios 1004

[Commander_HK47]

Here are my results with Static read control and CLKTWR
Stress test included 10 pass run with IBT 1.9, unless stated otherwise:

PL	SRC	CLKTWR		Read	Write 	Copy 	Lantency	Notes		
5 	D	Auto		9157	7300	8132	55.6		(IBT stable)

5	E	Auto		9209	7300	8153	55.4		(IBT stable)

5	E	Stronger	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A 		(would not post)

5	E	Strong		9367	7300	8170	54.1		(pass 9/10 IBT)

5	E	Moderate	9400	7300	8170	54.0		(IBT stable)		

6	E	Auto		9200	7150	8120	55.0 		(stablity not tested)

6	E	Stronger	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A 		(would post but stop at USB itn)

6	E	Strong		9150	7100	7999	55.1 		(Stability not tested)

[Grnfinger]

hmm those seem not so good for 1200
heres mine at 500FSB/1200 ram



24/7 setting with e8400 @ 4.3GHz



Q6700 3.6GHz 24/7 setting



So there is room for improvement, let me try some setting with my 8800 kit, from my understanding there the reject ic's from your 9600 kit

Why not try alittle different setup, 450x8, the higher FSB will improve bandwidth. You can still run ram at 1200MHz

[Commander_HK47]

What bios version are you using? I read that people get better results with the 308 bios do you have any exp with that bios in that regard?

[Grnfinger]

Bios 308 is best imo for stability and bandwidth, if your not running 308 I would recommend it

[kup]

KILLED????
I had slowly backed off till the system booted, then used memset till the bugger would pass memtest. used them for a month or so with no troubles.
Please say your board is not actually dead

you could try this, it got my Mushkins 1200MHz stable

*In Brackets are timings that can be optimized later, outside of the brackets is a good starting point*
CAS# Latency - 5
RAS# to CAS# Delay - 5
RAS# PRE Time - 5
RAS# ACT time - 18
RAS# to RAS# Delay - 4(3-4)
Ref Cycle Time - 55
Write Recovery Time - 6(3-6)
READ to PRE Time - 4(2-5)

READ to Write Delay (S/D) - 9 (7-10)
WRITE to READ Delay (S) - 5 (3-6)
WRITE to READ Delay (D) - 5 (4-6)
READ to READ Delay (S) - 4 (3-5)
READ to READ Delay (S) - 6 (5-7)
WRITE to WRITE Delay (S) - 4 (3-5)
WRITE to WRITE Delay (D) - 6 (5-7)

DRAM Static Read Control - Disabled (Enabled)
Ai Clock Twister - Light (Strong)
Transaction Booster - Disabled
Relax Level - 2 (0-3)

Just adapt it for Rampage bios as this was done on MF bios 1004

Didn't kill it outright, but had some crazy bios error with the POST *BEEP* having some kind of fit, BEEPING about 30times a second!!! A full CMOS clear and then a fresh flash (just to be safe) and all was back to normal. I'll have to give 'em a tweak tomorrow because I quite fancy working on it again.

[Grnfinger]

Didn't kill it outright, but had some crazy bios error with the POST *BEEP* having some kind of fit, BEEPING about 30times a second!!! A full CMOS clear and then a fresh flash (just to be safe) and all was back to normal. I'll have to give 'em a tweak tomorrow because I quite fancy working on it again.

Jeebus man you had me thinking I'll killed your board...
I have a few different timing setups that can get your ram to max MHz.
I'll pm them to you shortly, just about to bench a bit atm

[Commander_HK47]

Big jump Grnfinger, but not at or past the 10K mark i would like to be at(like you guys). Never the less thank you so far. IBT stable,

PL6, Static read control Enabled, & Clock Twister :Moderate.