X48 Rampage Formula Preview.

[neo_rtr]

mikeyakame - Can you explain how you removed the heatpipe between the NB and SB? I realize it can just be cut but did you remove it some other way so that it could be re-attached later if needed (like for an RMA)? From my personal experience RMA's are hard enough with Asus and modifying the heatsinks would most likely VOID any warranty coverage (can you verigy this A-Grey)?

Thanks to everyone for all the help and information in this thread!

I put this link here.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...2&postcount=22

My own
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...1&postcount=23
It explains alot.

I prefer "the cold method" than the "warm" one.

[529th]

Will these boards do 500fsb easily??? My MIIF is having trouble doing so...

[Alien Grey]

Will these boards do 500fsb easily??? My MIIF is having trouble doing so...

With Duals easily. With Quads possible if you know what you are doing and have good cooling.

[Alien Grey]

From my personal experience RMA's are hard enough with Asus and modifying the heatsinks would most likely VOID any warranty coverage (can you verigy this A-Grey)?

It will void your warranty. My excuse for taking everything from the board is bad thermal paste and bad connection with the components. Than hope that they will except that if you need to RMA the board.

[529th]

With Duals easily. With Quads possible if you know what you are doing and have good cooling.

Are they having trouble like the MIIF board? Or would you say it's possible as it's possible on the Gigabyte UD3 boards?

[Alien Grey]

Are they having trouble like the MIIF board? Or would you say it's possible as it's possible on the Gigabyte UD3 boards?

I let Zucker2k answer that. He is the one that can tell you that.

[529th]

I let Zucker2k answer that. He is the one that can tell you that.

I see you were running Prime95 & UT 2004 at the same time on a quad core. What was your FSB? 558?

[mikeyakame]

Zucker2k - Thanks very much for posting your settings, your help has made a huge difference in my own clocking results!

m4gg0t - I agree, those temps are very high! Since I put my GTX295 on water my NB temps are gone down almost 4C but the biggest temp change occured from attaching a 40mm fan (the stock eVGA 680i Ultra NB fan) to my NB. Its pretty ghetto but I just used a small piece of double-sided foam tape (1/4" x 14") to attach the fan directly to the NB heatsink (I put the tape on the center on the fan, right behind the fan motor). Fortunately there is a fan header right there next to the NB because the 3-pin cable is very short (Ch 3 Fan). Now my NB temps never go above 39C no matter what I'm doing which is great for such a cheap add-on.

mikeyakame - Can you explain how you removed the heatpipe between the NB and SB? I realize it can just be cut but did you remove it some other way so that it could be re-attached later if needed (like for an RMA)? From my personal experience RMA's are hard enough with Asus and modifying the heatsinks would most likely VOID any warranty coverage (can you verigy this A-Grey)?

Thanks to everyone for all the help and information in this thread!

It'll void warranty I believe.

All you need to remove it is a sharp wood chisel and a hammer. Lightly tap the chisel around the glue to break the bond and the heat pipe should come off. Getting it off the southbridge sink is easy. The chisel is more needed for the NB sink, so you dont damage the sink when removing the stubborn bastard of a heat pipe

[Roger_D25]

Thanks for all the replies in regards to the removal of SB/NB heatpipe, doesn't that sound that hard at all. I assumed the heatpipe was soldered onto the heatsinks not glued, in this case I'm glad its not soldered! Thanks A-Grey for your thoughts about the warranty, they probably take it on a case by case basis. I'll report back if/when I try removing my heatpipe and if I see any temp changes. I was also thinking about removing the ROG logo on the SB, it looks like removing that might help a bit with temps (but the difference might be negligable)?

neo rtr - Thanks for posting those links, very interesting! I wish I read that back when I first got my board because the first thing I did was completely remove the heatpipe assembly to replace the thermal paste and make sure everything was seated properly. Just like you noticed my stock thermal paste was rock solid and made very poor contact with the heatsinks so I'm glad it was the first thing I did. I think its a good practice to do this with pretty much any new motherboard (although some seem to be better than others).

[Alien Grey]

I received some information today from my contacts at ASUS. They will verify the problems internally that we found with BIOS 0802.

[Alien Grey]

Thanks A-Grey for your thoughts about the warranty, they probably take it on a case by case basis. I'll report back if/when I try removing my heatpipe and if I see any temp changes. I was also thinking about removing the ROG logo on the SB, it looks like removing that might help a bit with temps (but the difference might be negligable)?

Yes, I think they do that. A lot depends why you have to RMA the board. When it's because you broke something on the board trying to remove the heatsinks you'll definitely void your warranty.

Removing the ROG logo on the SB might help a bit if you've got good air flow in your case. The plastic cover keeps the air flow from the heatsink. I don't expect huge temperature difference but every degree lower is a gain.

[neo_rtr]

It will void your warranty. My excuse for taking everything from the board is bad thermal paste and bad connection with the components. Than hope that they will except that if you need to RMA the board.

GregGun got his board last week. He told me that it didnt have thermal paste on the SB and NB.
Instead it had the same thermal pad as the moffsets.

If we can confirm that as well with another modo will be great.

So i would think that, ASUS knows, what people are doing (removing the heatsink) and took a step to the right direction making it easy for both them selfs and the users.

[mikeyakame]

Thanks for all the replies in regards to the removal of SB/NB heatpipe, doesn't that sound that hard at all. I assumed the heatpipe was soldered onto the heatsinks not glued, in this case I'm glad its not soldered! Thanks A-Grey for your thoughts about the warranty, they probably take it on a case by case basis. I'll report back if/when I try removing my heatpipe and if I see any temp changes. I was also thinking about removing the ROG logo on the SB, it looks like removing that might help a bit with temps (but the difference might be negligable)?

neo rtr - Thanks for posting those links, very interesting! I wish I read that back when I first got my board because the first thing I did was completely remove the heatpipe assembly to replace the thermal paste and make sure everything was seated properly. Just like you noticed my stock thermal paste was rock solid and made very poor contact with the heatsinks so I'm glad it was the first thing I did. I think its a good practice to do this with pretty much any new motherboard (although some seem to be better than others).

I completely forgot there was a logo on there! That was the first piece of garbage I removed when I got my board. All it does is trap heat. Nonsense I tell you.

[greg.m]

GregGun got his board last week. He told me that it didnt have thermal paste on the SB and NB.
Instead it had the same thermal pad as the moffsets.

If we can confirm that as well with another modo will be great.

So i would think of that they know what people are doing and that the heat sink gets removed.

Thats true. The new rampage i bought, which is made at august, has under nb and sb just a fine thermal pad just like under the mosfets. So removing the heatsink was a piece of cake.

[Alien Grey]

Thats true. The new rampage i bought, which is made at august, has under nb and sb just a fine thermal pad just like under the mosfets. So removing the heatsink was a piece of cake.

It's easier for them to. The heatsinks are going to make better contact with the thermal pads. It's a win win situation.

[Alien Grey]

Zucker2k can you tell me what core you have trouble with. Sometimes I've got trouble passing Prime95 Small FFT's. Core #2 fails sometimes in Small FFT's.
I wonder if that is because of the voltage fluctuations from the vtt or if there is something wrong again with the CPU GTL's.

[mikeyakame]

If voltage is fluctuating you need to isolate the problem. Make sure the PSU is able to handle the load at that voltage. Could be the VR on your board is failing too. I'm pretty sure mine isn't nearly as competent now as it used to be. If core is failing also raise the PL + 1 and see if that helps.

You think one core failing at high overclock is an issue! HAH! I'm getting a headache trying to find stable DRAM timing values on this DFI board heh. Playing with CLK/DQ drive strength at the moment because I'm getting instabilities few hours in. Also playing with DRAM DLL skew models, apparently DFI don't have the models for DDR2 listed anywhere so i'm playing guess who!

[Alien Grey]

If voltage is fluctuating you need to isolate the problem. Make sure the PSU is able to handle the load at that voltage. Could be the VR on your board is failing too. I'm pretty sure mine isn't nearly as competent now as it used to be. If core is failing also raise the PL + 1 and see if that helps.

You think one core failing at high overclock is an issue! HAH! I'm getting a headache trying to find stable DRAM timing values on this DFI board heh. Playing with CLK/DQ drive strength at the moment because I'm getting instabilities few hours in. Also playing with DRAM DLL skew models, apparently DFI don't have the models for DDR2 listed anywhere so i'm playing guess who!

I already have trouble getting it back stable at FSB 465 with this BIOS. The 12V never goes under 11.98V on full system load.

[neven]

Heya all.
First post but long time lurker.

I'm having a problem which I'm draging from my Maximus Formula MB and now it is present on Rampage too. I have 3 HDs (2xSeagate 320 in RAID0 + 500GB WD) and Pioneer DVR-216 SATA DVD Burner all connected to ICH9R. Seagates are on ports 0 and 1, WD is on 2, Pioneer is on 5. Vista x64 installs fine but after some time raid fails or WD is missing from drive list. I can make it fail almost instantly after clean install if I watch few movies from DVD. So I narowed it down to SATA DVD. I've used old IDE Pioneer DVD on JMicron and could not replicate the error.
Since the first time I've encountered this problem I've changed all components including MB, DVD, and few BIOS versions. Only same component are those two Seagate disks. Are they a problem? Will changing them with differend brand/model HDs solve it? Or is RAID+nonRAID+DVD on ICH9R mission impossible?

[greg.m]

Well...here are my bios settings with which i can pass 5 passes with half memory stressed succesfully and that with my new(replaced) QX9650 and the new Rampage board:

Ai Overclock Tuner : [Manual]
CPU Ratio Setting : [8]
FSB Strap to North Bridge : [AUTO]
FSB Frequency : [475]
PCI-E Frequency: [105]
DRAM Frequency: [DDR2-1141]
DRAM Command Rate : [2N]
Dram CLK Skew on Channel A : [AUtO]
Dram CLK Skew on Channel B : [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 : [AUTO]
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]
Ai Transaction Booster : [Manual]
Common Performance Level : [08]



CPU Voltage : [1.43]
CPU PLL Voltage : [1.50v]
North Bridge Voltage : [1.51v]
DRAM Voltage : [2.12]
FSB Termination Voltage : [1.44v] 1.36v real
South Bridge Voltage : [AUTO]
SB 1.5v Voltage : [AUTO]
Loadline Calibration : [Disabled]
CPU GTL Reference : [0.63x]
North Bridge GTL Reference : [0.67x]
DDR2 Channel A REF Voltage : [AUTO]
DDR2 Channel B REF Voltage : [AUTO]
DDR2 Controller REF Voltage : [AUTO]
NB LED Selection : [NB Volt]
SB LED Selection : [SB Volt]
CPU LED Selection : [CPU Volt]
Voltiminder LED : [Up to you]
CPU Spread Spectrum : Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum : Disabled
CPU Clock Skew : [200]
NB Clock Skew : [100]

During the burn test my vcore was exactly@ 1.32
Before, i had fsb@1.42, cpu nb skew and cpu nb gtl were untouched and i couldnt pass the burn test. Now i will try to fine tune everything and see which the lower volts i can run 475fsb @ 3800mhz.

[xr1140]

Rampage Formula BIOS 802, Intel Q9550 C1 @ 4.01Ghz, Mushkin Ascent 4x2Gb XP2-8500 (996619) cooled with a ZEROThrem FZ120 in a Antec P180 case. I didn`t had much time to stress it to the limit. I hope I have some time for some IntelBurnTest tomorrow.

Idle - 43 grade
Fulload (Prime95) - 65-68grade

ASUS Rampage Formula BIOS 0802 Template 

*Extreme Tweaker* 
Ai Overclock Tuner               [Manual] 
CPU Ratio Setting                [08.5] 
FSB Strap to North Bridge        [333Mhz] 
FSB Frequency                    [470] 
PCIE Frequency                   [100] 

DRAM Frequency                   [DDR2-941MHz] 
DRAM Command Rate                [2N] 
DRAM CMD Skew on Channal A       [Greyed Out] 
DRAM CMD Skew on Channal B       [Greyed Out] 
DRAM CLK Skew on Channal A       [Advance 300ps] 
DRAM CLK Skew on Channal B       [Advance 300ps] 

DRAM Timing Control              [Manual] 
 1st Information 
  CAS# Latency                   [5] 
  RAS# to CAS# Delay             [5] 
  RAS# PRE Time                  [5] 
  RAS# ACT Time                  [15] 
  RAS# to RAS# Delay             [3] 
  REF Cycle Time                 [50] 
  WRITE Recovery Time            [6] 
  READ to PRE Time               [3] 
 2nd Information 
  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 Dealy (D)       [6] 
 3rd Information 
  WRITE to PRE Delay             [14] 
  READ to PRE Delay              [5] 
  PRE to PRE Delay               [1] 
  ALL PRE to ACT Delay           [6] 
  ALL PRE to REF Delay           [6] 

DRAM Static Read Control         [Enabled] 
Ai Clock Twister                 [Light] 
Ai Transation Booster            [Manual] 
  Common Performance Booster     [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 CHA PH6             [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] 
  Pull-In of CHB PH6             [Disabled] 

CPU Voltage                      [1.3000]	real 1.288 
CPU PLL Voltage                  [1.50]		real 1.552
North Bridge Voltage             [1.33]		real 1.2
DRAM Voltage                     [2.00]		real 2.0
FSB Termination Voltage          [1.30]		real 1.32
South Bridge Voltage             [1.05]		real 1.056
SB 1,5V Voltage                  [1.50]		real 1.502
Loadline Calibration             [Enabled] 
CPU GTL Voltage Reference        [0.63x] 
NB GTL Voltage Reference         [0.67x] 
DRAM Controller Voltage REF      [AUTO] 
DRAM Channel A Voltage REF       [AUTO] 
DRAM Channel B Voltage REF       [AUTO] 

CPU LED Selection                [CPU Voltage] 
NB LED Selection                 [North Bridge Voltage] 
SB LED Selection                 [South Bridge Voltage] 
Voltiminder LED                  [Enabled] 

CPU Spread Spectrum              [Disabled] 
PCIE Spred Spectrum              [Disabled] 
CPU Clock Skew                   [Delay 100ps]
NB Clock Skew	                 [Normal]


*Advanced settings* 
CPU Ratio Setting                [08.5] 
C1E Support                      [Disabled] 
CPU TM Function                  [AUTO] 
Vanderpool Technology            [Enabled] 
Execute Disable Bit              [Enabled] 
Max CPUID Value Limit            [Disabled] 
Intel(R) SpeedStep (TM) Tech.    [Disabled]

CPU-Z Validation

[Alien Grey]

I see you were running Prime95 & UT 2004 at the same time on a quad core. What was your FSB? 558?

No mate, it's FSB 465MHz with the memory at 1117MHz like it says in my sig.

[ElAguila]

I think I am as tweaked as I can get with this mobo and cpu with 8GB of RAM. I have it stable with the settings in my sig and I have the memory set to PL 7. I took out one of the X2 video cards and it didn't make any difference. I am satisfied with this oc on a quad running 8GB.

[Alien Grey]

Rampage Formula BIOS 802, Intel Q9550 C1 @ 4.01Ghz, Mushkin Ascent 4x2Gb XP2-8500 (996619) cooled with a ZEROThrem FZ120 in a Antec P180 case. I didn`t had much time to stress it to the limit. I hope I have some time for some IntelBurnTest tomorrow.

Are you the same person who posted this settings on the ASUS Rampage Formula forum?

If you are the same person, well I think that I did buy garbage.

[xr1140]

Are you the same person who posted this settings on the ASUS Rampage Formula forum?

If you are the same person, well I think that I did buy garbage.

yes, I am the same. Thank you, i know you and mikeyakame deserve some credit for this bios release.