ASUS RAMPAGE II GENE (Retail) : ROG. X58 m-ATX preview

[Leeghoofd]

could have been a false contact, in case it returns : turn off CPU fan monitoring (set IGNORE) in the hardware monitor section of the bios.

[dj883u2]

Very good Motherboard!

[ReignsOfPower]

Fantastic review mate. That little ASUS board reserves the credit, it's such a trooper (s on the eVGA X58 Micro)

I've tried all your settings and recommendations with my Hypers, but still I find that lower freq. tighter timings settings to be more friendly.

6-6-6-18 1T @ 1600MHz 1.25vQPI b2 on AUTO. LLC Enabled (perhaps I should disable this anyway?). Theses settings have been running for 3 months without a single crash or Hyper Pi death lol. BCLK 200 x 21 @ 1.25V VTT

Everest:
Read = 17500MB/s
Write = 14800MB/s
Copy = 21500MB/s
Latency = 44.4ns

I think that the amount of heat 1.5V QPI etc pumps out and the fact that I have to use B2B @ 10 for it to be stable at 2000MHz, that's pretty much the best setting to use for the Gene.

Thoughts?

[scottc19]

Very good Motherboard!

Is that the gene, does Turbo-v work with this board?

[aln688]

Fantastic review mate. That little ASUS board reserves the credit, it's such a trooper (s on the eVGA X58 Micro)

I've tried all your settings and recommendations with my Hypers, but still I find that lower freq. tighter timings settings to be more friendly.

6-6-6-18 1T @ 1600MHz 1.25vQPI b2 on AUTO. LLC Enabled (perhaps I should disable this anyway?). Theses settings have been running for 3 months without a single crash or Hyper Pi death lol. BCLK 200 x 21 @ 1.25V VTT

Everest:
Read = 17500MB/s
Write = 14800MB/s
Copy = 21500MB/s
Latency = 44.4ns

I think that the amount of heat 1.5V QPI etc pumps out and the fact that I have to use B2B @ 10 for it to be stable at 2000MHz, that's pretty much the best setting to use for the Gene.

Thoughts?

Do you use the Corsair GT RAM modules? Just curious. I was going to buy those and decided not to as I needed low-profile RAM, so I went with the Corsair XMS3 modules at CL7.

[RejZoR]

How do you know if RAM is working in 1T mode? Haven't really looked into the settings yet because i was stil using stock intel cooler.

[Leeghoofd]

Fantastic review mate. That little ASUS board reserves the credit, it's such a trooper (s on the eVGA X58 Micro)

I've tried all your settings and recommendations with my Hypers, but still I find that lower freq. tighter timings settings to be more friendly.

6-6-6-18 1T @ 1600MHz 1.25vQPI b2 on AUTO. LLC Enabled (perhaps I should disable this anyway?). Theses settings have been running for 3 months without a single crash or Hyper Pi death lol. BCLK 200 x 21 @ 1.25V VTT

Everest:
Read = 17500MB/s
Write = 14800MB/s
Copy = 21500MB/s
Latency = 44.4ns

I think that the amount of heat 1.5V QPI etc pumps out and the fact that I have to use B2B @ 10 for it to be stable at 2000MHz, that's pretty much the best setting to use for the Gene.

Thoughts?

You are not missing out on much. If ya rams can do 1600mhz C6 mate with B2B Auto, you get amasing bandwith. 2000mhz is just that tad faster. But this is noticeable in synthetic stuff, in daily games and co the difference is negligable. I too find 1600Mhz the sweetspot for this board, all volts are at a minimum and it runs and runs and runs...

Are you running a 64bit OS ?

[ReignsOfPower]

Yeah I am using Win7 RC1 at the moment.

Here's a quick screenie i took of what the system is like doing general things (MSN, Surfing, Torrents etc)

Figures are a bit lower than last time, maybe cause I haven't rebooted in a few days.

How do you know if RAM is working in 1T mode? Haven't really looked into the settings yet because i was stil using stock intel cooler.

CPU-Z can tell you under the Memory Tab.

[RejZoR]

Lol, i stabbed myself with my current build. It's fine in general, looks damn nice and all, but because of the micro sized case i can only use Big Shuriken cooler, which clearly isn't up to the task of cooling quad core i7 920 clocked much higher than 3,2GHz. I dropped the temperature for 5°C (now at 59°C instead 64°C idle) by replacing slim Scythe fan with high end Noiseblocker BlackSilent XL2, but still. So i'm just using CPU Level Up function for instant OC to 3,2GHz. You can't have everything

EDIT:
Wow, setting the C-STATE to C7 (instead Auto) drops the idle temps for another 10°C down to around 53°C. Not bad. I guess power consumption also goes down.

[phinix_mike]

I read that NB is pretty hot with stock HS. Is there a good water block for it, is there a full block for all parts like full ATX has?

[ReignsOfPower]

Do you use the Corsair GT RAM modules? Just curious. I was going to buy those and decided not to as I needed low-profile RAM, so I went with the Corsair XMS3 modules at CL7.

Yes they are the GT's. CL8 2000MHz version. Not the best binned, but much cheaper.

[ReignsOfPower]

I read that NB is pretty hot with stock HS. Is there a good water block for it, is there a full block for all parts like full ATX has?

There is a picture of a Swiftech waterblock that bolts onto the stock assembly a page or two back in this very thread. It's pretty much the same block that fits onto the Rampage II Extreme.

[aln688]

I read that NB is pretty hot with stock HS. Is there a good water block for it, is there a full block for all parts like full ATX has?

I've noticed this, even with just the 24-pin ATX power plug in the board with no CPU or RAM, the NB heats up quite a lot. I'd ideally like to remove the stock Asus cooling but I can't find a suitable MOSFET heatsink. I think I'll just need to remove the top part of the stock cooling and put a Thermalright HR-05 or Noctua U6 on there, and blow a fan over the entire area. I'd hope that reduces the NB temperatures to an acceptable level.

[aln688]

Yes they are the GT's. CL8 2000MHz version. Not the best binned, but much cheaper.

Those modules look great. I was going to buy them until I read Corsair is putting a freeze on selling them due to failures with the Elpida Hyper ICs. I'm running with the Corsair XMS3 1600 MHz modules, they are low-profile and perform the same as the Dominators, as they are low-profile I can fit 12 GB's of RAM on the board - useful for Oracle, SQL Server and Photoshop.

Different subject, how well does your Noctua U6 cool the Northbridge (NB) heatsink on this board? I'm considering an HR-05 or U6 with a fan blowing over the entire area - seeing that I can't find a suitable MOSFET heatsink if I removed the stock cooling.

[aln688]

I may consider this heatsink for cooling the Northbridge, be it directly over the chip or on the stock heatsink:

http://pcsilent.de/en-pd-passive-hea...ooler-946.html

[Leeghoofd]

Before you indulge yaself in upgrading the stock heatpipe. Try a small fan blowing over the rams like eg an Antec spotcool. My IOH temps never go over 65°C...

[aln688]

Before you indulge yaself in upgrading the stock heatpipe. Try a small fan blowing over the rams like eg an Antec spotcool. My IOH temps never go over 65°C...

Blow the Antec Spot Cool over the RAM? ...or over the MOSFET area between the CPU and back I/O ports? I'm going to do that as well, but I'm not going to take the entire Asus stock cooling off, only the modular top part and bolt on a Noctua U6. FYI, that heatsink above I can't obtain, it's not in stock.

[Leeghoofd]

I oriented mine over the rams and it get's the IOH temp down another 5°C, then without it. If you are intending to mount such a bulky cooler, have you ever thought of the extra strain on the original heatsinks mounting system ?? If you get some good air flow in ya case there's no need for this...

[aln688]

I oriented mine over the rams and it get's the IOH temp down another 5°C, then without it. If you are intending to mount such a bulky cooler, have you ever thought of the extra strain on the original heatsinks mounting system ?? If you get some good air flow in ya case there's no need for this...

Of course, but the stock Asus heatsink is screwed into the board, and one end of it (MOSFET) area is "secured" with push-pins. To be perfectly honest I don't want to replace anything on the board, but I will try just the fan on its own and see what this results in.

[aln688]

I oriented mine over the rams and it get's the IOH temp down another 5°C, then without it. If you are intending to mount such a bulky cooler, have you ever thought of the extra strain on the original heatsinks mounting system ?? If you get some good air flow in ya case there's no need for this...

You may, or may not have posted this, but do you have a picture of your motherboard with the Antec Spot Cool positioned to blow air over the IOH? I just want to see how it's set up. Thanks.

Another topic, is it worth in your opinion buying 2000 MHz RAM modules to use with this board? I have Corsair XMS3 1600 MHz CL7 modules (6 x 2GB). The timings on these modules are low, at CL7. Between 6GB's of fast RAM, or 12GB's of slower RAM - I'd take the latter.

[ReignsOfPower]

Good news.
We can now push our GT's knowing if they die we get the new revision of the modules

http://www.theguiltygeek.com/index.php?article=1368

The new top of the line's are not 7-7-7-20 @ 2k instead of 7-8-7-21 @ 2k.

[aln688]

Good news.
We can now push our GT's knowing if they die we get the new revision of the modules

http://www.theguiltygeek.com/index.php?article=1368

The new top of the line's are not 7-7-7-20 @ 2k instead of 7-8-7-21 @ 2k.

Nice! Did Kingston modules suffer the same problem then? They seemed to keep selling their modules without any freeze on sales. I thought they didn't use Elpida Hyper IC's in their modules but used something else.

[Leeghoofd]

You may, or may not have posted this, but do you have a picture of your motherboard with the Antec Spot Cool positioned to blow air over the IOH? I just want to see how it's set up. Thanks.

Another topic, is it worth in your opinion buying 2000 MHz RAM modules to use with this board? I have Corsair XMS3 1600 MHz CL7 modules (6 x 2GB). The timings on these modules are low, at CL7. Between 6GB's of fast RAM, or 12GB's of slower RAM - I'd take the latter.

Piccie in the test setup : Rampage GENE II review

No for 24/7 use, stick with ya current Corsair rams and run the B2B setting as low as possible. Will keep performance almost on par with 2000mhz rams C7 with B2B 10.

[aln688]

Piccie in the test setup : Rampage GENE II review

No for 24/7 use, stick with ya current Corsair rams and run the B2B setting as low as possible. Will keep performance almost on par with 2000mhz rams C7 with B2B 10.

Oh you wrote that review?! That is a very comprehensive review, nice. I especially like the fact you point out not to run power cables behind the board incase it touches the MOSFET's on the back of the board, very good point, as I was going to run the 8-pin CPU power cable back there in my Antec Mini P180.

So using the Asus stock cooling, with an Antec Spot Cool fan blown over the area shown in the photograph, your IOH temperatures don't go over 65 C under load? When you say "load", that is Prime95 Large/Small FFTs, LinX, etc.? I'll try the Antec Spot Cool first, just to see - my Spot Cool arrived in the mail yesterday.

I'll stick with the Corsair XMS3 1600 MHz CL7 modules, I read your review and it sounds like these modules with a B2B of 6 I can come close to matching 2000 MHz modules.

What was your CPU temperatures under "load" with the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme 1366 RT? I'm considering this heatsink or the Noctua NH-U12P SE1366.

Thanks.

[Leeghoofd]

Thx man, I do my best. I checked the temps with AI probe during my runs and it never got over 65°C while priming. The TRUE already blows some air over it, but with the spotcool the rams are cooled and the IOH ran 5°c lower... (take note that I ran the mobo tests in a big modded Lian Case with plenty of air flow ( 2 fans in the front, one in the rear and 2 on top )

For the CPU temps, it will be different on each CPU. My TRUE was equipped with a faster fan (1600rpm version) , the ones in my nearest shop all have the 1000rpm version (chekc that first if you ever wnt to get one (the 1000rpm version is too light for socket 1366) . On the TRUE I applied the washer trick, to get a more solid mount. I did not lap it (too lazy :p )

The TRUE cools about 25°C better than the stock cooler at the same clocks ( sub 4ghz) Once at and beyond 4ghz that gap gets even bigger !