ASUS Maximus II Formula - new P45 king?

[kwalker]

Well back to a simple oc 8x500 for 24/7 use. Read somewhere that CPU PLL can kill a 45nm C2D, so Im not messing with that option. Anyone know if 41-42c is ok at idle for 4ghz? For having a good water cooling kit it sure seems high to me.

60-65'ish for Prime and 70-77'ish for linpack. I also read somewhere 77 was considered to be max acceptable. But I seen a quick 78 just for a split second but never saw it again. I wonder if its time to clean the loop now? Same loop and coolant for over a year now, lol...

EDIT: Just dawned on me that I have my coolant pump on the lowest setting it has. Been like that ever since I installed it as to keep noise down.

I've been running my PLL at 1.63 volts for nearly two years now with a q9550 at 3.8 Ghz ,8 gigs of Gskills over 1100 MHz and 2 hd4870's in Xfire.
there are a lot of voltages elevated to what has been muttered as unsafe here and there around the web and I never shut er down.
It folds 24 hours a day except for time out to play a game or two.
There seems to be a misunderstanding of what is safe and what is not.
Rule # 1 if you think its unsafe then it is.
Every system responds differently to voltage tweaks and you have to live on the edge a little if you want that extra 50 mhz of raw power.
My northbridge runs a tad over 1.4 volts and VTT 1.37 v ..cpu is 1.39 to 1.40
I'm more concerned with stability and registry integrity than where My volts are
your dual core will run all day over 500 FSB on this board if you'll just step on it a little and rework that water cooling.
I have chipset, gpu water blocks, and the CPU on the same loop and it hovers around 61C... all four cores 100% CPU utilization in the summer time and 50 deg in the cooler months .
I idle at or near ambients (27 at the moment) and its about 26C in my apartment.
and yea.
Turn that pump up.
If it dosent sound like a low flying airplane next to your computer then your not overclocked enough

[CL3P20]

FYI- I run 1.78PLLv and 1.57v NB benching on my MIIF...

[SkOrPn]

OK so CPU PLL of 1.54 sounds like it is ok then?

@kwalker, I read that the PLL was bad for Core 2 Duo's but not Core 2 Quads. Thats just what I read from someone in another site that seemed to know what he was talking about. The thread and posts were dated though, back about a year ago or more I think. This machine was stable one year ago with the same exact settings as I posted above, but now it is not. Oh, I just remembered I had to RMA my last MIIF, my bad, so this is a different MIIF, (I ran this MIIF stock since November and just now trying the first overclocks on it) and seems to be a newer serial#, but the same settings are not working. Same CPU and Memory though, as is everything else. Weird

Im sure the extra 500mhz wont yield me any worth while results and since it seems to love 4000 mhz I think I should just be happy with that. The only thing I don't like about this board is that when I reboot, in order to actually boot back up I have to fully remove power from the board between each reboot, other wise she gets stuck in a blank screen not posting. Upon replying power she boots just fine. This is repeatable 100% of the time, its not an intermittent thing.

[kwalker]

The E7xxx and 8xxx series processor specs for PLL are 1.5 volts +5% or 1.575 volts and vtt 1.14 to 1.26 volts. The Qxxxx series processor specs are the same but the package design is more complicated with regards to reference voltages and GTL tweaks being that the incremental increases or decreases in gtl ref are directly proportional to Vcc and Vtt voltage adjustments..
that’s why a few key posters in this thread went to great lengths to explain this.
Yes the quad core is sensitive and the guides should be followed unless your not concerned like myself.
Now my QX9650 gets a little different treatment than the inexpensive Qxxx series.

[NoGuru]

How does this board compare the the Gigabyte EP45?

[kwalker]

The issue with the Maximus II and just about every other Asus ROG is the north ,south bridge heating up along with the mofets and power circuits.
most of the time you need to remove the heatpipe and use a better TIM or go for broke and water cool the board which makes the Asus the better board if you can control the temps.
I am more comfortable with Asus and never had good results from Gigabyte.
I guess I just like drama

[In-Fluence]

How does this board compare the the Gigabyte EP45?

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...postcount=4337

IMHO

[NoGuru]

The issue with the Maximus II and just about every other Asus ROG is the north ,south bridge heating up along with the mofets and power circuits.
most of the time you need to remove the heatpipe and use a better TIM or go for broke and water cool the board which makes the Asus the better board if you can control the temps.
I am more comfortable with Asus and never had good results from Gigabyte.
I guess I just like drama

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...postcount=4337

IMHO

Thanks for the opinions! If I can get one on the cheap, might be fun to play with.

[humeyboy]

F.A.O SkOrPn :

Quoted : " DDR2 spot prices climb back above DDR3 "


http://www.techreport.com/discussions.x/18677

[SkOrPn]

F.A.O SkOrPn :

Quoted : " DDR2 spot prices climb back above DDR3 "


http://www.techreport.com/discussions.x/18677

And the last paragraph says...

What about retail? Newegg's cheapest 4GB DDR2-800 desktop memory kit starts at $81.99 before mail-in rebates and shipping, while similar kits of DDR3-1333 RAM start at $94.99. Presumably, it'll take a little while for changes in chip pricing to impact branded modules listed online. Still, DDR3 looks unambiguously pricier right now for consumers.

Thanks for the info. Im waiting just a tad longer for DDR3 prices to fall as low as the price I paid for my G.Skill per GB, the kit I want needs to drop another $30-$50 just to match the price mb for mb. Hopefully this happens by May though... My GSkill is $25 per GB and the Dominators I want are $38 per GB. My G.Skill was the #1 best rated ddr2 memory at Newegg the day I purchased it and today the ddr3 Dominators are rated #1. If Im lucky maybe these will drop to $30 range soon, at least that will be close enough for me. On a side note, I do remember spending as much as $500 for mem kits before tho, lol.

[al-]

Does anyone have a Bios Template or settings for a Q6600/B3...

I didn't have any problems with the E8400 installed, but this quad only wants to run stock or on auto.....

I'm trying to get at least 3.0GHz/prime95 stable, thanks-


EDIT: I managed to get it to 3.0, do these numbers look ok? Thanks-

Processor: 			Q6600
BIOS				2202
Ai Overclock Tuner : 		Manual
OC From CPU Level Up : 		AUTO
Ratio CMOS Setting : 		8.0
FSB Frequency :      		380
CPU Clock Skew : 		AUTO
NB Clock Skew : 		AUTO 
FSB Strap to North Bridge : 	266 MHz
DRAM Frequency: 		DDR2-1143MHz
DRAM CLK Skew On Channel A1: 	AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew On Channel A2: 	AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew On Channel B1: 	AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew On Channel B2: 	AUTO
DRAM Timing Control: 		Manual

CAS# Latency : 			5
RAS# to CAS# Delay : 		5
RAS# Precharge : 		5
RAS# Activate to Precha : 	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

Write to Pre Delay : 		Auto
Read to Pre Delay : 		Auto
Pre to Pre Delay : 		Auto
All Pre to act Delay : 		Auto
All Pre to Ref Delay : 		Auto

DRAM Static Read Control: 	Disabled
Dram Read Training : 		Disabled
Mem. OC Charger : 		Disabled
Ai Clock Twister : 		Moderate
Ai Transaction Booster : 	AUTO

PCIE Freguency : 		100

CPU Voltage :			1.375 
CPU PLL Voltage : 		1.50
FSB Termination Voltage : 	1.206
DRAM Voltage : 			2.21075
North Bridge Voltage : 		1.33850
South Bridge 1.5 Voltage : 	1.5
South Bridge 1.1 Voltage : 	1.1

CPU GTL Reference (0) : 	AUTO
CPU GTL Reference (1) :		AUTO
CPU GTL Reference (2) :		AUTO
CPU GTL Reference (3) :		AUTO
NB GTL Reference : 		AUTO	
DDR2 ChA Reference Voltage : 	AUTO
DDR2 ChB Reference Voltage : 	AUTO
North Bridge DDR Reference :	AUTO

CPU Configuration		
Ratio CMOS Setting : 		8
C1E Suppport : 			Disabled
Max CPUID Value Limit : 	Disabled
Intel (R) Virtualization Tech. :Disabled
CPU TM Function :  		Disabled
Execute Disable Bit : 		Disabled

Load-Line Calibration : 	Enabled
CPU Spread Spectrum : 		Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum : 		Disabled

[kwalker]

That q6600 B3 will do 3.6 on air but needs more voltage than the G0.
you don't have to worry so much about the termination voltage or north bridge as you would the 45nm quads so you can push that higher if you like the 8X multiplier and higher FSB , otherwise I would use that 9X and go for 400 FSB ,leave the ram at 1066 pushing the nothbridge to 1.4 - 1.45 and FSB as high as 1.36(or a little higher )
your pll can come up a little more also.
as long as your cooler can remove the heat from the CPU you can push the cpu to 1.45 - 1.48 and drop it down until you loose stability ..raising it up small increments at a time until you regain stability.
you can go after the ram later

[al-]

That q6600 B3 will do 3.6 on air but needs more voltage than the G0.
you don't have to worry so much about the termination voltage or north bridge as you would the 45nm quads so you can push that higher if you like the 8X multiplier and higher FSB , otherwise I would use that 9X and go for 400 FSB ,leave the ram at 1066 pushing the nothbridge to 1.4 - 1.45 and FSB as high as 1.36(or a little higher )
your pll can come up a little more also.
as long as your cooler can remove the heat from the CPU you can push the cpu to 1.45 - 1.48 and drop it down until you loose stability ..raising it up small increments at a time until you regain stability.
you can go after the ram later

Awesome, thanks kwalker

[kwalker]

Awesome, thanks kwalker

no problem
hope it works out.

[evo3rs]

Please accept my apology if I posted on the wrong forum. My newly finished MIIF is driving me crazy. I would appreciate if someone could give me any idea on how to resolve my problem.

From cold boot the system will turn-on for about 2 seconds then power-off for 3-5 second then it will properly turn-on as normal. Please note the problem only happens when the system is overclocked, also when mildly overclocked.

I am not sure if it was board itself or something else was wrong. I have tried 3diffferent PSUs, first one was Antec Neo 550, then Antec Earhwatts 650 and finally Topower 950w.

Here's the system specs:

Maximus II Formula bios 2202
Q9550
ATI4870
2x2GB Corsair Dominator
2x30GB OCZ Vertex in RAID 0
Topower 950W PSU
Swiftech MCP655 pump and swiftechs blocks.(Works perfectly on my R2E).
Window 7 HP x64

Thanks in advance!!!

[Musho]

Please accept my apology if I posted on the wrong forum. My newly finished MIIF is driving me crazy. I would appreciate if someone could give me any idea on how to resolve my problem.

From cold boot the system will turn-on for about 2 seconds then power-off for 3-5 second then it will properly turn-on as normal. Please note the problem only happens when the system is overclocked, also when mildly overclocked.

I am not sure if it was board itself or something else was wrong. I have tried 3diffferent PSUs, first one was Antec Neo 550, then Antec Earhwatts 650 and finally Topower 950w.

Here's the system specs:

Maximus II Formula bios 2202
Q9550
ATI4870
2x2GB Corsair Dominator
2x30GB OCZ Vertex in RAID 0
Topower 950W PSU
Swiftech MCP655 pump and swiftechs blocks.(Works perfectly on my R2E).
Window 7 HP x64

Thanks in advance!!!

Not doing that for me with my Q9650 @ 4050mhz. Only does that if my overclock failed, to load the bios' defaults. I would try a CMOS clear (the button at the back of your case, on the I/O plate and manually re-enter your overclock settings. Try with a mild overclock first (100mhz or so).

[CL3P20]

Please accept my apology if I posted on the wrong forum. My newly finished MIIF is driving me crazy. I would appreciate if someone could give me any idea on how to resolve my problem.

From cold boot the system will turn-on for about 2 seconds then power-off for 3-5 second then it will properly turn-on as normal. Please note the problem only happens when the system is overclocked, also when mildly overclocked.

I am not sure if it was board itself or something else was wrong. I have tried 3diffferent PSUs, first one was Antec Neo 550, then Antec Earhwatts 650 and finally Topower 950w.

Here's the system specs:

Maximus II Formula bios 2202
Q9550
ATI4870
2x2GB Corsair Dominator
2x30GB OCZ Vertex in RAID 0
Topower 950W PSU
Swiftech MCP655 pump and swiftechs blocks.(Works perfectly on my R2E).
Window 7 HP x64

Thanks in advance!!!

Sounds like some bad OC settings... try leaving GTL's on auto, and only adding MCHv and vcore...

*btw- what FSB you attempting here..?

[CryptiK]

Please accept my apology if I posted on the wrong forum. My newly finished MIIF is driving me crazy. I would appreciate if someone could give me any idea on how to resolve my problem.

From cold boot the system will turn-on for about 2 seconds then power-off for 3-5 second then it will properly turn-on as normal. Please note the problem only happens when the system is overclocked, also when mildly overclocked.

I am not sure if it was board itself or something else was wrong. I have tried 3diffferent PSUs, first one was Antec Neo 550, then Antec Earhwatts 650 and finally Topower 950w.

Here's the system specs:

Maximus II Formula bios 2202
Q9550
ATI4870
2x2GB Corsair Dominator
2x30GB OCZ Vertex in RAID 0
Topower 950W PSU
Swiftech MCP655 pump and swiftechs blocks.(Works perfectly on my R2E).
Window 7 HP x64

Thanks in advance!!!

Hi and welcome. Cold boot - you mean power off at the wall or PSU right? My board did that too, if it turns on, then off, then back on and boots with the desired overclock, its normal IMO. If you leave power on at the wall/PSU then just turn on the PC it should just boot with out the on/off/on cycle.

[evo3rs]

Thanks Musho,CL3P20 and Cryptik for the help!!!.

Cryptik, exactly as you've described, on-off-on from cold boot and boots fine when psu is on all the time, if that's normal I will leave it alone.

[Musho]

Thanks Musho,CL3P20 and Cryptik for the help!!!.

Cryptik, exactly as you've described, on-off-on from cold boot and boots fine when psu is on all the time, if that's normal I will leave it alone.

Ahhhh, I misinterpreted your question! Yeah, mine does the same thing if I turn off the PSU or disconnect it from the wall. I thought you meant it did it as well when booting normally (without shutting down your PSU). Glad all is well though

[evo3rs]

Ahhhh, I misinterpreted your question! Yeah, mine does the same thing if I turn off the PSU or disconnect it from the wall. I thought you meant it did it as well when booting normally (without shutting down your PSU). Glad all is well though

Thanks again!. I'm glad it's not an isolated problem. All I need now is to re-install the original psu back. It's been rock solid at 3.8 Ghz

[al-]

It looks like this thread has s-l-o-w-e-d way down...maybe people have moved onto other boards, or just lost interest in the MIIF-

Are there any active MIIF threads?

[SkOrPn]

Yeah I think most have moved on to i7. Which I am finally doing myself this week. I cant believe I will have this ROG mobo sitting in a closet though. lol

EDIT: Stupid me I forgot a friend is getting this system the moment I have my i7 up and running, so at least she will continue to be used for many years to come....

[al-]

Yeah I think most have moved on to i7. Which I am finally doing myself this week. I cant believe I will have this ROG mobo sitting in a closet though. lol

EDIT: Stupid me I forgot a friend is getting this system the moment I have my i7 up and running, so at least she will continue to be used for many years to come....

I'll be using it for awhile...there's still a lot of life left in it...

[CL3P20]

i still bench mine..just looking for some high Q ram to get me over this 610mhz FSB zone.. using crap IC's for waaaaaay to long atm. :o