UnOfficial Asus Rampage II Extreme Thread

[PytonOrm]

Brama

Thanks for advice mate

[JackNaylorPE]

Not being an avid gamer and primarily focused on building production boxes, never spent much time seeing what I can get outta any individual box.....if it took more than 15-20 minutes configuring BIOS, I wasn't interested. My usual approach was to use built in BIOS OC settings to get that 20% OC and then try and tone down things a bit to make it run a little cooler w/o sacrificing that 20%.

With my son building his 1st box paid for w/ his own money, this gave us a project to work on together which, as any Dad will tell ya, 18 year old kids asking to spend time w/ Dad is a rarity to be treasured . So after a month of chasing down Event Viewer errors w/ Win7-64, the 4 day weekend was our time to try and see what we could do on this.

Have downloaded many OC guides and the R2E MoBo gives us plenty of tools. He blinged it up w/ an OC Station which I only went along with cause it was a great fan controller and seeing as he spent his own money, he was entitled to a little bling.

System includes R2E MoBo, i7-920 (DO), Mushkin CAS 6 (998692) w/ 6-7-6-18 timings.

Went looking for a 24/365 stable OC and with a CPU voltage of 1.2 and hit a wall at BCLK 177 .... no raising of CPU, QPI etc voltages would do squat and get me stable at 177. Have since found I can drop CPU voltage to 1.125 and scored even lower core temps (59/56/57/56 under 100% load) ....and this got me a stable 177 under OCCT (haven't prime95'd yet).

Have tried ..... CPU voltages up to 1.45 ...... QPI voltages up to 1.3875 ...... and DRAM from 1.56 to 1.65 ..... but I find it puzzling that 1.125 -> 1.45 on CPU and QPI from 1.363 (under Auto setting) to 1.3875 and DRAm from 1.56 to 1.65 a won't get me even one more BCLK.

Our goal for this profile was to get a 40% OC w/o disabling HT or any other BIOS features and we've done that.... We are just trying to get our minds wrapped around the fact that those voltage increases are producing nada results.

Realizing that this is elementary for you guys and once we get done with this profile, I'll start on our 4.2 GHz profile which ya'll might find more interesting....but in the meantime anyone have any suggestions to try and pinch our 177 BCLK a bit further and why substantial voltage increases not having any effect at all ?

Here's an image of the current BIOS settings with the exception that:

CPU voltage now at 1.125
59/56/57/56 under 100% load
BCLK now at 177



Click on my name for system specs
Temps as indicated in spreadsheet (CoreTemp / Realtemp)

[CrewXp]

does anyone know if there's a Max CPU Id option in the bios for the rampageII? My overclock frequency is not showing up under windows properties, and I read that toggling that setting will fix it (I know... it's just a minor annoyance).

Thought it'd be best to ask here in the specific motherboard forum.

Thanks.

[trt740]

fellas how do you down grade your bios I would like to go back to 1504. My video card bugs out past 4.0ghz with 1639 and I need to down grade but cannot remember how.PCIE is at 100 in bios.

I cannot use that procedure because I accidental copied the 1639 bios to both bios chips. I tried Afudos but the bios won't fit on a floppy and I tried using it with a usb drive that I made it bootable and it says bad file name when I type afudos /ibiosname

it appears that once I go over 4.0ghz the 1639 bios is over clocking my PCIE slot and effecting my video card. It tried setting the bus manually to 101 but it acts the same as the default 100. My screen goes crazy

My problems were fixed when I noticed my ram voltage jumped like crazy by default , also the default ram timing went to case 8. Once I changed those settings my issues are gone and all is well with 1639 bios . Now all issues are fixed this bios seems to be very good.

[trt740]

Not being an avid gamer and primarily focused on building production boxes, never spent much time seeing what I can get outta any individual box.....if it took more than 15-20 minutes configuring BIOS, I wasn't interested. My usual approach was to use built in BIOS OC settings to get that 20% OC and then try and tone down things a bit to make it run a little cooler w/o sacrificing that 20%.

With my son building his 1st box paid for w/ his own money, this gave us a project to work on together which, as any Dad will tell ya, 18 year old kids asking to spend time w/ Dad is a rarity to be treasured . So after a month of chasing down Event Viewer errors w/ Win7-64, the 4 day weekend was our time to try and see what we could do on this.

Have downloaded many OC guides and the R2E MoBo gives us plenty of tools. He blinged it up w/ an OC Station which I only went along with cause it was a great fan controller and seeing as he spent his own money, he was entitled to a little bling.

System includes R2E MoBo, i7-920 (DO), Mushkin CAS 6 (998692) w/ 6-7-6-18 timings.

Went looking for a 24/365 stable OC and with a CPU voltage of 1.2 and hit a wall at BCLK 177 .... no raising of CPU, QPI etc voltages would do squat and get me stable at 177. Have since found I can drop CPU voltage to 1.125 and scored even lower core temps (59/56/57/56 under 100% load) ....and this got me a stable 177 under OCCT (haven't prime95'd yet).

Have tried ..... CPU voltages up to 1.45 ...... QPI voltages up to 1.3875 ...... and DRAM from 1.56 to 1.65 ..... but I find it puzzling that 1.125 -> 1.45 on CPU and QPI from 1.363 (under Auto setting) to 1.3875 and DRAm from 1.56 to 1.65 a won't get me even one more BCLK.

Our goal for this profile was to get a 40% OC w/o disabling HT or any other BIOS features and we've done that.... We are just trying to get our minds wrapped around the fact that those voltage increases are producing nada results.

Realizing that this is elementary for you guys and once we get done with this profile, I'll start on our 4.2 GHz profile which ya'll might find more interesting....but in the meantime anyone have any suggestions to try and pinch our 177 BCLK a bit further and why substantial voltage increases not having any effect at all ?

Here's an image of the current BIOS settings with the exception that:

CPU voltage now at 1.125
59/56/57/56 under 100% load
BCLK now at 177

You need to post all your systems specs, cooling power supply and ram rated speeds we need all this to help you. Also i realize this is not the same motherboard but some items on these boards are similar take a look at these templates they may help you. http://forums.techpowerup.com/showth...ng+setting+x58. This guide will also help you http://forums.techpowerup.com/showth...clocking+guide

[Solarfall]

im starting to get the hang of this board and how it behaves under subzero temps too bad my cpu does not scale too well under -100c when i tortured it with my cascade

[sheaga]

hey guys and gals, i am haveing trouble ocing mine and was wounding if someone could help me. it seems no matter what i do i can't gst it stable under prime, prime will run for about an hour then workers will stop so i up the voltage, still no joy. can someone PLEASE help? here are my settings. i would like to stable at 4ghz

CPU configuration
CPU Ratio Setting - auto
C1E Support - enable
Hardware prefetcher - enable
Adjacent Cache line prefetcher - enable
Intel Virtualization tech - enable
CPU TM Function - enable
Execute Disabled bit - enable
Intel HT Technology - enable
Active Processor Cores - all
A20M - disabled
Intel Speedstep tech - enable
Intel Turbo Mode tech - enable
Intel C-STATE tech - disabled
BCLK frequency - 150
PCIE frequency - 100
DRAM frequency - DDR3 1805MHz
UCLK frequency - auto
QPI frequency - auto

Dram timing control all auto
1st information - Insert Timings Here in X-X-X-XX -X-X-Xformat
2nd information - Insert Timings Here in X-X-X-XX -X-X-Xformat
3rd information - Insert Timings Here in X-X-X-XX-X-X-X format
EPU II phase control - full phase
Load-line calibration - enable
CPU differential amplitude – 800mv
Extreme OV - disabled
Current voltage 1.40v - 1.812v - 1.468v
Cpu voltage – 1.40v
CPU PLL voltage - auto
QPI-Dram voltage - auto
Current voltage 1.204v - 1.508v - 1.111v - 1.508v
IOH voltage - auto
IOH PCIE voltage - auto
ICH voltage- auto
ICH PCIE voltage - auto

Current voltage 1.654v
DRAM Bus voltage – 1.65v
DRAM REF voltage - auto

Debug mode - string
Keyboard TeakIt comtrol - disabled

CPU spread spectrum - enable
PCIE spectrum - enable
CPU clock skew - auto
IOH clock skew - auto

[Salamndar]

Try these settings :
CPU configuration
CPU Ratio Setting - (21)
C1E Support - (Disable)
Hardware prefetcher - enable
Adjacent Cache line prefetcher - enable
Intel Virtualization tech - (Disable)
CPU TM Function - (Disable)
Execute Disabled bit - enable
Intel HT Technology - enable
Active Processor Cores - all
A20M - (disabled)
Intel Speedstep tech - (Disable)
Intel Turbo Mode tech - enable
Intel C-STATE tech - (disable)

Don't try auto voltage, try manual settings.

Then try what I do, set CPU ratio to 13 and CPU voltage to 1.27, RAM at lowest speed, and then increase bclk from 133 to 150 and so on, every time when u test the PC gets unstable increase the QPI/DRAM voltage, some times increase PLL voltage do help.
When you reach the wanted Bclk stable in Linx ( Stop wasting your time with Prime95) then you look at increasing the CPU ratio and CPU voltage.

[JackNaylorPE]

You need to post all your systems specs, cooling power supply and ram rated speeds we need all this to help you.

As power and cooling were not an issue, I didn't bother to post those but if need full specs, click on my name and you'll find specs added to my personal page. Thanks in advance.

[sheaga]

Thanks Salamndar, i'm trying it now and seems to be working out gr8 so far. what about ocing the memory do i do that after the cpu?

[Salamndar]

Yes you can do the same for the RAM after you finish the CPU, but remember the RAM speed after reaching 1600MHz won't have that impact on performance that much.

The jump from the 1333 MHz to 1600 MHz in Performance is bigger than from 1600 MHz to 1800 MHz.
So try not to get too greedy with RAM, Also the QPI/DRAM voltage has an effect on stability when you reach high RAM speeds.

[reygjabla]

JackNaylorPE

CPU voltage now at 1.125
59/56/57/56 under 100% load
BCLK now at 177

What did you use to monitor the temps?

[Salamndar]

OMG, for the first time ever I'm able to boot with Bclk above 212MHz, infact it is so good I'm currently testing with Linx.

I was not ablt to even POST with any Bclk above 212 even with CPU ratio at 13x !!!!


Too much testing I tell ya !!

[monza1412]

OMG, for the first time ever I'm able to boot with Bclk above 212MHz, infact it is so good I'm currently testing with Linx.

I was not ablt to even POST with any Bclk above 212 even with CPU ratio at 13x !!!!


Too much testing I tell ya !!

lol...what did you change??

[Salamndar]

OK I spoke too soon, even when completing 20 runs of Linx ( which in my opinion is never enough ) the PC would randomly freez!

Trying to boot any thing higher than 213bclk will never allow the PC to POST at all.

I think I have to surrender for now and wait to buy next year a new CPU to keep on venturing in the land of Corei7.

Right now I'll settle with the best overclock/low voltage I could get which is 4.305.

Maybe I'll opimize the RAM to RUN CL7 @ 16xx MHz

[trt740]

OMG, for the first time ever I'm able to boot with Bclk above 212MHz, infact it is so good I'm currently testing with Linx.

I was not ablt to even POST with any Bclk above 212 even with CPU ratio at 13x !!!!


Too much testing I tell ya !!

this bios is very stable. 1639

[Salamndar]

I'm still on 1504, tried 1639 but didn't like it

[monza1412]

I'm still on 1504, tried 1639 but didn't like it

1639 adds a new qpi multiplier, pretty useful for some blck oc.

[AlfaBoy]

1639 adds a new qpi multiplier, pretty useful for some blck oc.

what do you mean?

I don't remember saw anything new in the bios 1639, i'm having some difficult pass block over 215. I already try to raise PCI to 110 and 115 and don't help, and the my 260GTX don't like.

[monza1412]

what do you mean?

I don't remember saw anything new in the bios 1639, i'm having some difficult pass block over 215. I already try to raise PCI to 110 and 115 and don't help, and the my 260GTX don't like.

well.. check the qpi link in the cpuz shots in this post:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...postcount=3238


latest bios adds a slower ratio for qpi/link.. real good for spi benchs but not so good for 3d benchs

[AlfaBoy]

well.. check the qpi link in the cpuz shots in this post:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...postcount=3238


latest bios adds a slower ratio for qpi/link.. real good for spi benchs but not so good for 3d benchs

wow this is insane validation @ 250, i already have evga, gigabyte and this asus is so far the best board that i have for core i7.

[Salamndar]

I'm still confused, I don't know what's lagging me behind, is it the CPU or the mobo ?!?

[JackNaylorPE]

What did you use to monitor the temps?

They listed in the spreadsheet image I posted......Realtemp / CoreTemp / HW Monitor / Asus Probe (1 at a time) just to see if they are different. Realtemp and CoreTemp gave the highest which was what i was quoting.

[Solarfall]

I'm still confused, I don't know what's lagging me behind, is it the CPU or the mobo ?!?

hey try if different uncore modes help, i had this weird issue that some uncore speeds would just make the system really unstable or would not let me clock the cpu further when i would put the higher one bang i could clock the cpu i have further and the system became more stable. its a really weird things both of my memory kits behave like this it could be the cpu or the boards fault i cant really tell witch yet.

[Salamndar]

hey try if different uncore modes help, i had this weird issue that some uncore speeds would just make the system really unstable or would not let me clock the cpu further when i would put the higher one bang i could clock the cpu i have further and the system became more stable. its a really weird things both of my memory kits behave like this it could be the cpu or the boards fault i cant really tell witch yet.

Setting Bclk at 214 would make the BIOS slower than a Friday noun in the office as menus lag like hell, before it freezes even in BIOS.