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

[Zucker2k]

CPU GTL : .67
and NB GTL : .67

With your fsbt at 1.6+ you should drop your cpu gtl to x63 or even x62.

[xxDayTrader]

With your fsbt at 1.6+ you should drop your cpu gtl to x63 or even x62.

All-rightey-then..... will give each a try.

[Commander_HK47]

xxDayTrader;

What are your North, south bridge, and motherboard(i do mean motherboard) temps when you stress test?

[xxDayTrader]

xxDayTrader;

What are your North, south bridge, and motherboard(i do mean motherboard) temps when you stress test?

According to Probe II (and this is only about 7 minutes into Prime Small FFTs):

NB: 42
SB: 37
MB: 31

I've seen the NB hit 44 before but I think that was with different settings.

[binormalkilla]

So are you running 950 or 1140?

That chip is too hot. What cpu gtls are you running?

950. I can't POST at 1140 (even if I remove 2 sticks.)

[Zucker2k]

950. I can't POST at 1140 (even if I remove 2 sticks.)

For FSB 450 you should be able to run PL8 1:1 but try running everything tight; DRAM Clock Skews advanced 300 A/B, DRAM Static Read = Enabled, Ai Clock Twister = Stronger. If you jump to 1140, you should be able to run PL7 with same settings above. You can try decreasing FSB until it runs and then start bumping fsb up to see where it stops and try balancing nb and other settings to see if you can go past that point.

[MJR]

any suggestions on upgrading to a Maximus II or Rampage x48 for the 45nm quad? Is it worth it over the maximus formula x38?

[Renegade5399]

Man this thread is still kicking. I just wanted to point out that it appears this board likes the 45nm dual cores. 4.4GHz on my new 8600, no sweat.

[ChaosMinionX]

Has anyone tested whats the next best BIOS compared to 0308 since it doesnt have Q9550 E0 support in it?

[MJR]

Has anyone tested whats the next best BIOS compared to 0308 since it doesnt have Q9550 E0 support in it?

0701 wasn't any better for the 45 nm quads.

[binormalkilla]

For FSB 450 you should be able to run PL8 1:1 but try running everything tight; DRAM Clock Skews advanced 300 A/B, DRAM Static Read = Enabled, Ai Clock Twister = Stronger. If you jump to 1140, you should be able to run PL7 with same settings above. You can try decreasing FSB until it runs and then start bumping fsb up to see where it stops and try balancing nb and other settings to see if you can go past that point.

I'll see what the max FSB I can run PL7. I can POST and bench PL8 (no pull-ins) but it fails Prime blended after ~45miniutes. I'll report back tomorrow most likely.....too busy to play today

Before I do any of this I'm going to revert to 0308 (best BIOS?)

[ZenEffect]

Man this thread is still kicking. I just wanted to point out that it appears this board likes the 45nm dual cores. 4.4GHz on my new 8600, no sweat.

4.5ghz 1.352v e8500

ram at 1200 5-5-5-5 pl7

indeed one of my favorite boards. been through some p45s, have a dfi x48 and i keep coming back to this board. it clocks my ram higher at less volts than anything else and same w/ cpu. plus bandwidth could not be matched on any other board.

[Zucker2k]

4.5ghz 1.352v e8500

ram at 1200 5-5-5-5 pl7

indeed one of my favorite boards. been through some p45s, have a dfi x48 and i keep coming back to this board. it clocks my ram higher at less volts than anything else and same w/ cpu. plus bandwidth could not be matched on any other board.

Shhh, don't tell any dfi fanboy that. I've had a few skirmishes with them on my Maximus and needless to say, it kicked ass!

[ZenEffect]

Shhh, don't tell any dfi fanboy that. I've had a few skirmishes with them on my Maximus and needless to say, it kicked ass!

the dfi has a whole lot more bios options. the cpu voltage stepping is supposed to be finer however i think its a sham after further testing. it can go 1.34 vor 1.36v but no matter what i did it would not go to 1.35v. the board however is supposed to be the "king" of clocking 8gb of ram but im not running that much... in the end, it was more hassle than i was willing to put up with. just trying to figure out the proper gtl's for my nb/cpu was a few hours affair.

maximus/rampage ftw all the way. my dfi is listed in the for sale section

[Grnfinger]

Alotta guys jump'd on the DFI wagon, then quickly jump'd ship as the bios was over there heads.

I didnt buy one but got a chance to play with a UT, it was interesting to say the least.
I got the 9450 to 3.8 with decent bandwidth, but it was alot of fighting for something not overly hard to reach.

[orbiter]

Hi guys,

I hope you can me please?

Today I got my new Q9650 and shoved it into my Maximus Formula (Latest BIOS 1302.) Everything is ok (well apart from 2 temp sensors only working over 37*C) but that's not a problem. I just can't for the life of me though get this thing past 3.81GHz It will boot at 4GHz but as soon as I poke it with Prime 95, it just either freezes or BSOD's with an error "a clock interupt was not received on a secondary processor within the allocated time interval".

Now as far as I can tell this is not a CPU issue as prime95 isn't showing a fail at the time of the lockup. I've tried a load of BIOS settings within spec for this 45NM chip and my settings are currently as follows.....

FSB 422MHz
FSB-NB strap 333MHz
DRAM 1014MHz
CPU 1.30000v
DRAM 1.94v

Thanks in advance guys for your help

Regards

Orb

[ZenEffect]

Alotta guys jump'd on the DFI wagon, then quickly jump'd ship as the bios was over there heads.

I didnt buy one but got a chance to play with a UT, it was interesting to say the least.
I got the 9450 to 3.8 with decent bandwidth, but it was alot of fighting for something not overly hard to reach.

the bios was never over my head by any means, once you get it its pretty fast to set up as well. its just was not as fast as this board w/ my setup. on different hardware it could be a completely different story however. the gtl settings were retarded imho. they are impossibly hard to understand as it does not go by a % scale and each value will change if you change fsbt. so 1.2fsbt with 110gtl for all cores *there are 3 settings, 01, 23, and nb* would have a different voltage if it were 1.3fsbt 110gtl neither the scale of the gtl settings nor the voltage make any logical sense. you HAVE to rely on the charts or measure the voltage yourself with a voltmeter. retarded to me, grits and gravy to others i guess.

Hi guys,

I hope you can me please?

Today I got my new Q9650 and shoved it into my Maximus Formula (Latest BIOS 1302.) Everything is ok (well apart from 2 temp sensors only working over 37*C) but that's not a problem. I just can't for the life of me though get this thing past 3.81GHz It will boot at 4GHz but as soon as I poke it with Prime 95, it just either freezes or BSOD's with an error "a clock interupt was not received on a secondary processor within the allocated time interval".

Now as far as I can tell this is not a CPU issue as prime95 isn't showing a fail at the time of the lockup. I've tried a load of BIOS settings within spec for this 45NM chip and my settings are currently as follows.....

FSB 422MHz
FSB-NB strap 333MHz
DRAM 1014MHz
CPU 1.30000v
DRAM 1.94v

Thanks in advance guys for your help

Regards

Orb

you do realize that once we help you you will go mod it to the rampage bios and the whole process will start all over again. :p

also you are leaving out a lot of other settings that are vital to the oc.

[Zucker2k]

the dfi has a whole lot more bios options. the cpu voltage stepping is supposed to be finer however i think its a sham after further testing. it can go 1.34 vor 1.36v but no matter what i did it would not go to 1.35v. the board however is supposed to be the "king" of clocking 8gb of ram but im not running that much... in the end, it was more hassle than i was willing to put up with. just trying to figure out the proper gtl's for my nb/cpu was a few hours affair.

maximus/rampage ftw all the way. my dfi is listed in the for sale section

About the 8GB bit, I'm yet to see any board do what I've done with both my Maximus/Rampage.

[ZenEffect]

About the 8GB bit, I'm yet to see any board do what I've done with both my Maximus/Rampage.

i dont have 8gigs to test it with. thats why the "king" was in quotes because supposedly thats what it does well.

[Zucker2k]

Hi guys,

I hope you can me please?

Today I got my new Q9650 and shoved it into my Maximus Formula (Latest BIOS 1302.) Everything is ok (well apart from 2 temp sensors only working over 37*C) but that's not a problem. I just can't for the life of me though get this thing past 3.81GHz It will boot at 4GHz but as soon as I poke it with Prime 95, it just either freezes or BSOD's with an error "a clock interupt was not received on a secondary processor within the allocated time interval".

Now as far as I can tell this is not a CPU issue as prime95 isn't showing a fail at the time of the lockup. I've tried a load of BIOS settings within spec for this 45NM chip and my settings are currently as follows.....

FSB 422MHz
FSB-NB strap 333MHz
DRAM 1014MHz
CPU 1.30000v
DRAM 1.94v

Thanks in advance guys for your help

Regards

Orb

I have gotten that a few times. Up vdimm a little.

[chew*]

Well I've come to the realization that this PSU can just not handle the load of this cpu over 3.6 and my 4870 oced.......

I have never ran into a problem where a pc just literally reboots, no error in prime just black screen reboot so its got to be a hardware issue. Had the same issue with my seasonic trying to get past 3.4, this one has just a tad higher amps per 12v rail so If i grab a really high dual 12v rail or single 12v rail psu hopefully my issues will be solved.

I should have bought a larger seasonic or a PC p&c but i was in a rush and needed a psu right away. Guess this antec can server duty to power on my mach 2 from now on.

Any reccomendations? MY seasonic was specced at 1 16A 12v rail and one 17A 12v rail, the trio got me stable to 3.6 with 3 19A 12v rails but i'm guessing i need higher amperage and less rails at this point.

[Flameout]

Hi I need help please to overclock Q9450 which I have managed to overclock to 3.21GHZ but cannot go any higher as really I am not sure what I need to do, and unfortunatly I dont have the time to do the trail and error approach as I have a young family and my wifes giving me what for for spending hours on my pc!
I have flashed my Maximus formula to Rampage and I am using bios 601 .
I have Corsair Dominator ddr2 1066 ram

I would like to get 3.4 or 3.6 ghz is this possible on air cooling?
Any help or settings would be greatly appriciated!

My settings

Extreme Tweaker
Ai Overclock Tuner : Manual
OC From CPU Level Up : AUTO
CPU Ratio Control : Manual
- Ratio CMOS Setting : 8.0
FSB Frequency : 400
FSB Strap to North Bridge :400
PCI-E Frequency: 100
DRAM Frequency: DDR2-1066MHz
DRAM Command Rate : auto
DRAM Timing Control: Manual
CAS# Latency : 5
RAS# to CAS# Delay :5
RAS# Precharge : 5
RAS# ActivateTime :15
RAS# to RAS# Delay : auto
Row Refresh Cycle Time : 55 DRam clocks
Write Recovery Time : auto
Read to Precharge Time : auto

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
DRAM Static Read Control: auto
Ai Clock Twister : auto
Transaction Booster : auto

CPU Voltage : auto
CPU PLL Voltage : auto
North Bridge Voltage : auto
DRAM Voltage : 2.1v
FSB Termination Voltage :auto
South Bridge Voltage : auto
Loadline Calibration : auto
CPU GTL Reference : auto
North Bridge GTL Reference :auto
DDR2 Channel A REF Voltage : auto
DDR2 Channel B REF Voltage : auto
DDR2 Controller REF Voltage : auto
SB 1.5V Voltage : auto

NB LED Selection : NB Volt
SB LED Selection : SB Volt
CPU LED Selection : CPU VOlt
Voltiminder LED : enabled

CPU Spread Spectrum : Auto
PCIE Spread Spectrum : Auto

Advanced CPU Configuration
CPU Ratio Control : Manual
- Ratio CMOS Setting : 8.0
C1E Suppport : Disabled
CPU TM Function : Auto
Vanderpool Technology : Enabled
Execute Disable Bit : Enabled
Max CPUID Value Limit : Disabled


USB Configuration
USB Functions: Enabled
Legacy USB Support : Auto
vDroop Mod / vCore Mod / EPU Mod

[orbiter]

you do realize that once we help you you will go mod it to the rampage bios and the whole process will start all over again. :p

also you are leaving out a lot of other settings that are vital to the oc.

Yes I understand Although is flashing the BIOS to Rampage anymore difficult than a normal flash?

Also please advise which settings are required for your help, I will supply all that's needed.

Thank you

Regards

Orb

I have gotten that a few times. Up vdimm a little.

I've actually had the cpu voltage up to max (1.3625v) but I don't think it's the chip that's giving up the ghost as the moment my computer freezes Prime95 is still showing green icons for each core.

Regards

Orb

[chew*]

Flashing the bios is rather easy, Go to page 1 for info on how to and files you will need for flashing, 0308 is better for memory bandwidth, 0701 seems to give better video performance although it may just be better for ATI.

The only bios that oced halfway decent for me in the maxximus variant was 0907, rampage clocks higher and offers more memory performance/stability tweaks. Going from maxximus to rampage is reversible should you so choose to go back.

[orbiter]

Flashing the bios is rather easy, Go to page 1 for info on how to and files you will need for flashing, 0308 is better for memory bandwidth, 0701 seems to give better video performance although it may just be better for ATI.

The only bios that oced halfway decent for me in the maxximus variant was 0907, rampage clocks higher and offers more memory performance/stability tweaks. Going from maxximus to rampage is reversible should you so choose to go back.

I just tried to flash the my bios following the instructions however im having problems in that when i get to the DOS prompt in input the code I keeps saying BIOS file not readable. I also tried via EZFLASH which I've done many times previous and that didn't work either. Something about incorrect BIOS I was trying to update to BIOS 0403.