ASUS Maximus II Formula - new P45 king?

[radaja]

cryptik, i just got the board back from rma a few days ago.i didnt want to tear apart my ud3p system again,so i ordered a new power supply, graphics card, cpu cooler and harddrive, and they just got here yesterday. so this morning i put the RMA'ed maximus together with two sticks to load the operating system(i have vista original w/out sp1).once i was finished installing drivers and updating the OS i shut it down and installed the other two sticks of ram and no boot. then i proceded to test the stick and the slots individually and the only conclusion i could come to was that theres something wrong with the second white slot.

[CryptiK]

That's really bad. Good thing you resisted the temptation to put your first through it. I hope you can get a speedy rma and a fully functional board this time, you sure have had a bad run.

EDIT - the issues you guys have had just motivated me to pull apart my system and test slots 2 & 4 to make certain they worked, luckily they did

[Grnfinger]

cryptik, i just got the board back from rma a few days ago.i didnt want to tear apart my ud3p system again,so i ordered a new power supply, graphics card, cpu cooler and harddrive, and they just got here yesterday. so this morning i put the RMA'ed maximus together with two sticks to load the operating system(i have vista original w/out sp1).once i was finished installing drivers and updating the OS i shut it down and installed the other two sticks of ram and no boot. then i proceded to test the stick and the slots individually and the only conclusion i could come to was that theres something wrong with the second white slot.

Call Asus request level 3 tech support.
If possible ask for Mason Winner, this guy is one of the best and I highly recommend speaking to him.
Tell him everything from day one, he will take care of you.
iirc last dimm slot is 1.8volts so if your ram needs more it wont post.

[ViViD]

@Vivid
Yes you can use the ek block on this board i have one on mine with the lga775 Mounting Bracket

tanx M8

[Simps]

Call Asus request level 3 tech support.
If possible ask for Mason Winner, this guy is one of the best and I highly recommend speaking to him.
Tell him everything from day one, he will take care of you.
iirc last dimm slot is 1.8volts so if your ram needs more it wont post.

WOW, I didn't know that last ram slot was 1.8v. What are the others then? What is the difference from 1st, 2nd and 3rd to that last slot?
BTW, I am using the blue slots (1st and 3rd, two ram sticks here.).

What are you guys with two sticks using?

[loonym]

What are you guys with two sticks using?

White

[eligray]

A magnificent MB indeed, but the addition of a debug screen like my DFI has would truly give it the cake

[Simps]

A magnificent MB indeed, but the addition of a debug screen like my DFI has would truly give it the cake

It has that external LCD thing, that can work as a debug screen.

[Grnfinger]

It has that external LCD thing, that can work as a debug screen.

[Grnfinger]

4870X2 first run stock speeds 800/975
Q9550 @ 460x8.5




4870X2 800/975
Q9550 @ 500x8.5

[radaja]

i dont quite understand the 1.8v on the second white slot? are you talking about auto voltages?

[CryptiK]

I haven't measured with DMM so I'm not certain, but a few boards supply about 0.02 - 0.05v less to the 2nd & 4th slots, I think the M2F is like this, so you get better overclocking at a given BIOS set voltage in the blue slots (1 & 3). Other boards it's the other way around, so you get less voltage being supplied to slots 1 & 3 so you get better overclocking for a given set BIOS voltage in slots 2 & 4.

I run my 2 sticks in the blue slots, as the manual states that they are better for overclocking so I can only assume they have a higher supplied voltage than slots 2 & 4.

4870X2 first run stock speeds 800/975
Q9550 @ 460x8.5


4870X2 800/975
Q9550 @ 500x8.5

Nice scores, that card's going well.

[Simps]

Here is another example of how this board can really handle 500FSB on quads.
I have done 20 IBT loops on my load this time, and at this moment I am still priming (1:45h so far). I took the pic while priming so the full load board temps are there too.

Take a look at voltages required. This time, I am testing 1:1 divider, witch gives DDR2-1000 and PL10.

Rock solid stable.

quadcore 500FSB with DDR2-1000 5-5-5-18 PL10


[]'s
Simps

[eligray]

so grnfinger, i assume you're laughing at him for... wrongness? Just checking lol.

[IcemaN22]

How can this be the new "p45" king when it not even support OCZ reaper ram with over 800mhz and all other brands that have 1x 1GB ?
It's really disappointing, my friend tells me it's because the ram only have 1.0V DRAM VTT while motherboard require 1.1V DRAM VTT, I can't find any option how to increase it in bios.
No matter what, it fails on memtest test 7.

[CryptiK]

No one's under the illusion this board is the new P45 king, it never was and never will be. No you cant adjust dram Vtt on this board, it is simply 0.5 x vdimm. Not sure what you mean about 1 x 1GB incompatibilities, I use two brands not on Asus' QVL and they work fine, and are 1GB modules.

However if you are failing memtest #7, it suggests a FSB problem, not a ram problem. Try increasing the vNB or adjusting the NB GTL Ref value. Your CPU may not be stable and causing the issue.

OCZ memory seems to have issues with a lot of boards, pretty much whenever I see someone complaining of ram incompatibility issues etc with any motherboard, they have OCZ ram. I'm not bashing the brand, but they are not something I'd recommend from what I've read.

[andressergio]

Here is another example of how this board can really handle 500FSB on quads.
I have done 20 IBT loops on my load this time, and at this moment I am still priming (1:45h so far). I took the pic while priming so the full load board temps are there too.

Take a look at voltages required. This time, I am testing 1:1 divider, witch gives DDR2-1000 and PL10.

Rock solid stable.

quadcore 500FSB with DDR2-1000 5-5-5-18 PL10


[]'s
Simps

congrats Simps

I advanced and i'm still stable re testing each day on this

Q9650 @ 4104 Gskills PC29600@ 1200 PL7 Stronger



It's a shame this quad needs so much vcore but well, it's ok either, im testing 4185 but needs 1,3875 to pass a few runs of IBT and 1,4vtt

Cheers
Sergio

[Simps]

andressergio,

Very nice, I see you are passing IBT now.
There is no chance you can run on the 5:6 divider? I believe it is the fastest one.

I just woke up, stop priming and now I will call it 100% stable.

quadcore 500FSB
7h prime blend + 20 IBT loops on max stress


[]'s
Simps

[Simps]

No one's under the illusion this board is the new P45 king, it never was and never will be.

Well, for sure not the king of the bench boards. Now, for solid stability on quads I have not seen any other better board. Please show me one, so I can investigate.
I see you have a dualcore, and the thing is, dualcores won't push these high end boards, and they will perform very alike on different good boards (on bad boards they will suck of course), since they are all designed to handle quads, they won't have any problems with dualcores. Dualcores will run just fine on even 6 phase power boards.

Now with quadcores, you would really feel the difference the 16 phase power of this board has, against other boards. Stability on high clocked quads with high fsb, is very dependent on this 16 phase power, witch for dualcores, is of course a totally overkill.

Believe, this 16 power design, is not just a market thing. And I don't see non-asus boards using it. It is there for a reason.

So in a way, for me at least, if you have a quad, this is the best p45 board for it yes, for solid stability on 24/7 operation.

[andressergio]

andressergio,

Very nice, I see you are passing IBT now.
There is no chance you can run on the 5:6 divider? I believe it is the fastest one.

I just woke up, stop priming and now I will call it 100% stable.

quadcore 500FSB
7h prime blend + 20 IBT loops on max stress


[]'s
Simps

Hey same here lol

Will try i'm testing 4140 (460x9) on SAME settings but have residual but no BSOD...

Cheers
Sergio

[Grnfinger]

Well, for sure not the king of the bench boards. Now, for solid stability on quads I have not seen any other better board. Please show me one, so I can investigate.I see you have a dualcore, and the thing is, dualcores won't push these high end boards, and they will perform very alike on different good boards (on bad boards they will suck of course), since they are all designed to handle quads, they won't have any problems with dualcores. Dualcores will run just fine on even 6 phase power boards.

Now with quadcores, you would really feel the difference the 16 phase power of this board has, against other boards. Stability on high clocked quads with high fsb, is very dependent on this 16 phase power, witch for dualcores, is of course a totally overkill.

Believe, this 16 power design, is not just a market thing. And I don't see non-asus boards using it. It is there for a reason.

So in a way, for me at least, if you have a quad, this is the best p45 board for it yes, for solid stability on 24/7 operation.

I can show you one, Rampage X48 will beat this board everytime, on FSB and Bandwidth. Gigabyte UD3 beats MIIF in FSB and Bandwidth at alot less $$. Hard to make a sweeping claim like that when you only have 1 board. I have tested 6 boards this year and probably 15 chips. Your intitled to your opinion and yes this is a good board but to call it the best when the bios is need of a major overhaul, many valuable performance feature's simply do not work makes it hard to support your claim. More to a board than having 1 chip clock well. Do it with 3 or 4 different chip's and you start to add merrit to your claim

[humeyboy]

How can this be the new "p45" king when it not even support OCZ reaper ram with over 800mhz and all other brands that have 1x 1GB ?
It's really disappointing, my friend tells me it's because the ram only have 1.0V DRAM VTT while motherboard require 1.1V DRAM VTT, I can't find any option how to increase it in bios.
No matter what, it fails on memtest test 7.

Because OCZ are crap.

Go and read their forum stickies, see that the Asus NF6 Mobos had issues with them.

They blame Asus for non Ref Bios's, well why do they also mention the EVGA 680 has issues when it uses a Nvidia ref Bios ?

The fact is all Asus mobos use non Ref bioses, and Corsair work best with them IMO, I have had OCZ both for Ram and PSU (very loud for a so called Silent model) and they are crap IMO.

[Simps]

I can show you one, Rampage X48 will beat this board everytime, on FSB and Bandwidth. Gigabyte UD3 beats MIIF in FSB and Bandwidth at alot less $$. Hard to make a sweeping claim like that when you only have 1 board. I have tested 6 boards this year and probably 15 chips. Your intitled to your opinion and yes this is a good board but to call it the best when the bios is need of a major overhaul, many valuable performance feature's simply do not work makes it hard to support your claim. More to a board than having 1 chip clock well. Do it with 3 or 4 different chip's and you start to add merrit to your claim

X48 is not p45 so. And about the Gigabyte UD3P. You should go for it then, and compare it to your MIIF. I doubt that board can make a better stable overclock on quads at high FSB's then MIIF. That board has a cheap 6 phase power design. Entry-level board these days uses 4 - 6 phase design, maybe that is why these gigas cost 100 bucks? That is a mistake for people running high FSB and 4GHz quads. That will for sure jeopardize your stability. There is a huge huge difference from 16 phase to 6 phase. Like I said, you shoud go for it, and compare yourself. That board is a nice bench board. You can boot up to windows up to 560FSB on quads, and therefore the mem bandwidth will be a lot better, and you will never manage to do that with a MIIF. That is because of the Rev03 chipset those giga use, and they allow much higher voltage. Now that is only good for entering windows, bench, taking a SS. That's it. I am talking 24/7 board.

Also, I went to the UD3P thread, I post a SS of what it takes for the MIIF to make 500FSB stable on quads. The voltages and board load temps. I asked for them to post the same overclock, with their UD3P, so we can compare MIIF and UD3P, and see what are the volts both boards needs, and their temps, at the same overclock. So far, no UD3P matched it, and one UD3P user called me a cheater, that the voltages MIIF needed were "impossible". You can see for yourself here:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...205132&page=54

I don't have a special board, and I don't have a special CPU. My CPU is a 1st revision B3 65nm quad. I think that says it all.

Just because there are people with UD3P pushing 1.7PLL and 1.7VTT on their quads, breaking WR's of highest clock on Q9650, doesn't mean anything of how solid the board is. Don't get yourself fooled.

I have never had a giga board before, but I know some people here on XS lost a lot of ram sticks on giga boards. I don't know if they kill ram or not, like I said, I never had one, but I have read here on XS a lot of people getting D9 ram killed by giga boards. Good luck. Also good luck on having some BSOD or freezes once in a while =/

I have been looking at all the P45 threads here and on other forums. I can tell you that Maximus II Formula is the best P45 board for a quad solid stable 24/7 use.

[]'s
Simps

[loonym]

Now, for solid stability on quads I have not seen any other better board.

Personally I found it rather disappointing compared to some of my other setups. Both my 790i ultra and x48t-dq6 are more stable. I bought the m2f for price only, I paid $160, and that has been it's one redeeming factor.

[Simps]

Personally I found it rather disappointing compared to some of my other setups. Both my 790i ultra and x48t-dq6 are more stable. I bought the m2f for price only, I paid $160, and that has been it's one redeeming factor.

I was saying P45 boards, and non of your examples are.
We can discuss what is the best chipset too, but it is a different discussion.
And it won't be any Nvidia one, you can bet on that too.

[]'s
Simps