***Asus Rampage III Extreme Owners Thread***

[zoson]

i am using the 1102 bios, and i meant the molex plug called "EZ Plug" which i
believe supplies power to cpu.

but if its no difference for you between T/X power balance then good.
in my case if i go from T_Balance to X_Power i would get bad memory residuals in Linx no matter what qpi/dram voltage used, if i set it to T balance then everything is good.....
maybe i should just plug that darn ez_plug myself...
i cant hump over 4333mhz.....bad memory residuals if i go over that

Incorrect.
EZ Plug supplies power to PCIE lanes. It provides no power to CPU. Only the 2x 12v 8 pin and atx 24 pin do.

@soulblade: I think your volts are VERY high. Even for bloomfield. With 4.4ghz I only needed 1.425v with 1.4875v QPI for 12gb @ 2ghz. How are your temps? I find lower temps = lower possible load voltage.

it is very clear R3E is desigend for Gulftown now that I have both Bloomfield and Gulftown. 3 i7 950's and 2 i7 930's didn't do very well in my R3E, but my i7 970 ROCKS.

All the 950's and 930's did BETTER in Gigabyte UD3R with CPU PLL at 1.8v and QPI PLL adjusted to 1.16v!!! It is IMPOSSIBLE to get this combo on R3E!!!
http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1585510

[Andreezy]

Incorrect.
EZ Plug supplies power to PCIE lanes. It provides no power to CPU. Only the 2x 12v 8 pin and atx 24 pin do.

hey no offense, i thought T_Balance in Digi+ PWR Mode kept everything normal and when you enabled X_Power it sort of turn the plugs into some kind of
*bridge mode*
maybe im super wrong

[soulblade]

@soulblade: I think your volts are VERY high. Even for bloomfield. With 4.4ghz I only needed 1.425v with 1.4875v QPI for 12gb @ 2ghz. How are your temps? I find lower temps = lower possible load voltage.

it is very clear R3E is desigend for Gulftown now that I have both Bloomfield and Gulftown. 3 i7 950's and 2 i7 930's didn't do very well in my R3E, but my i7 970 ROCKS.

okay i see, it´s a bit "booring" for us bloomfield users but at the same time its a great mb.
just as i thaught about that "easy plug" , by the way im using both 8 pin mb connectors , so om up in 16 lains in . so should have some little advantage of this?
did run som test last night, 3.8ghz 23x165 and mem goes in 992 cl9
Vcore 1.290 idle and 1.30x in full load,cpu pll 1.82 , qpi at 1.45 all other on auto , ( stress tested in linx <1hour full mem bench> and cinebench 11.5 a few times in a row)
resaulting in 37-56c on cpu , but cores run way higher, from 37-79
as i said before im running on watercooling in normal temped room, about 21-22c

anything under 1.290Vcore do instant bsod,guess its a "sweetspot" if i should be calling it that BAH .....
now im running on bios 1102 and so far it seems stable.
http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1585971

more tips about voltage and stuff will be appreciated

Thanks for answers
( Sorry for my english)

[zoson]

hey no offense, i thought T_Balance in Digi+ PWR Mode kept everything normal and when you enabled X_Power it sort of turn the plugs into some kind of
*bridge mode*
maybe im super wrong

Please provide documentation supporting your claim. All documentation I've seen states that EZ_Plug is _only_ for pcie.

[thesaucier]

Yea the easy plug is extra power for multiple video cards.

[Andreezy]

Please provide documentation supporting your claim. All documentation I've seen states that EZ_Plug is _only_ for pcie.

dewd i believe you trying to fiddle the wrong violin,
i never said ezplug directly feeds *power* to CPU
I only stated that i believed when you enabled X_Power in Digi+ PWR Mode
it kinds of makes a X Power bridge.
i will not look for documentation to please and make you shuush.
you can assume im wrong, heck i could be wrong i already said it.
so wacha want a COOOKIE...

im glad you went over 4.2Ghz and your not crashing your drivers on your GTX 275's
enjoy your overclock and stop trying to argue with people trying to learn...

[zoson]

dewd i believe you trying to fiddle the wrong violin,
i never said ezplug directly feeds *power* to CPU
I only stated that i believed when you enabled X_Power in Digi+ PWR Mode
it kinds of makes a X Power bridge.
i will not look for documentation to please and make you shuush.
you can assume im wrong, heck i could be wrong i already said it.
so wacha want a COOOKIE...

im glad you went over 4.2Ghz and your not crashing your drivers on your GTX 275's
enjoy your overclock and stop trying to argue with people trying to learn...

I just asked for the doc you got your info from... You're getting confrontational, not me. If it's true I want to know for sure.

[Andreezy]

I just asked for the doc you got your info from... You're getting confrontational, not me. If it's true I want to know for sure.

im not confrontational, cpu power is fed by 24 pin atx and (x2) 8 pin
i know that, ezplug feeds suplemental power for video "we know that" right?
i only said that when you (we) enabled X_power in Digi+ PWR Mode, it must make a bridge to supply more cpu power, thus using 2x 8pin, 1x ATX and ezplugs power

ussually in audio/elec devices when you refer to something as X is ussually a
power bridge to drive a higher volt/freq...
now like i said before you assumed i was confrontational...

I could be wrong

[zoson]

im not confrontational, cpu power is fed by 24 pin atx and (x2) 8 pin
i know that, ezplug feeds suplemental power for video "we know that" right?
i only said that when you (we) enabled X_power in Digi+ PWR Mode, it must make a bridge to supply more cpu power, thus using 2x 8pin, 1x ATX and ezplugs power

ussually in audio/elec devices when you refer to something as X is ussually a
power bridge to drive a higher volt/freq...
now like i said before you assumed i was confrontational...

I could be wrong

I know what you said. Everyone knows what you said, and can read it.

Please do not create rumors. Stick to the facts of what can be proven. X in x-power means eXtreme. It has nothing to do with a 'bridge.' It's also FALSE that anything with 'X' refers to a 'power bridge.' Way to try and BS an Electrical Engineer.

[Andreezy]

I know what you said. Everyone knows what you said, and can read it.

Please do not create rumors. Stick to the facts of what can be proven. X in x-power means eXtreme. It has nothing to do with a 'bridge.' It's also FALSE that anything with 'X' refers to a 'power bridge.' Way to try and BS an Electrical Engineer.

Yeah you still singing to the song of dead mans tune.
Bs in wiring..good for you I need some electrical done in my house
Maybe you can help...
Now back to rampage iii extreme...
Also when I enable xpower in digi power mode my qpi v droops all over the place
Do you know why that happens? When I leave it on tbalance its solid...
Can u help me solve or trace the source?

That's what I was trying to figure out.....
But u wanna focus in making yourself righteous or something..
So like I said before I could be wrong.....
So if you don't have any valid feedback, don't reply and look at your bs in wiring and assume I'm a moron.....its what I did. ;-)

[zoson]

Yeah you still singing to the song of dead mans tune.
Bs in wiring..good for you I need some electrical done in my house
Maybe you can help...
Now back to rampage iii extreme...
Also when I enable xpower in digi power mode my qpi v droops all over the place
Do you know why that happens? When I leave it on tbalance its solid...
Can u help me solve or trace the source?

That's what I was trying to figure out.....
But u wanna focus in making yourself righteous or something..
So like I said before I could be wrong.....
So if you don't have any valid feedback, don't reply and look at your bs in wiring and assume I'm a moron.....its what I did. ;-)

The vdroop when Xpower is turned on is most likely caused by severely high temperatures in the mosfets providing power to the QPI bus.

Xpower allows significantly higher currents to be utilized for signal generation. That is for sure. If you sufficiently cool your QPI mosfets, the vdroop should be minimized. The stock cooler for R3E does NOT cool these mosfets. EK full coverage, koolance full coverage, and bitspower full coverage do cool these components.

Nobody is trying to be righteous. I want correct information, and I want to limit the spread of bad information. You obviously got the idea from somewhere, show where. That's all I've been asking. You got defensive when I asked you very nicely to prove what you were saying. You're not fooling anyone because everyone can see your comments. I've been polite the whole time. I even said 'please' when I asked for your proof.

[Andreezy]

The vdroop when Xpower is turned on is most likely
caused by severely high temperatures in the mosfets providing power to the
QPI bus.

Xpower allows significantly higher currents to be utilized for signal
generation. That is for sure. If you sufficiently cool your QPI mosfets, the
vdroop should be minimized. The stock cooler for R3E does NOT cool these
mosfets. EK full coverage, koolance full coverage, and bitspower full
coverage do cool these components.

ok, so hear this i could be stable anywhere from 4000mhz to 4400mhz using
t_balance, and if i go over 4.4 i get bad memory residuals in LinX/IBT no
matter what QPI/CPU voltage i give, now when i enable X_Power i can pass
LinX even 15/17 passes @ upto 4.6Ghz and randomly it just goes BSOD/124

when using X_Power i have gone from 1.32v (QPI) all the way upto 1.58v QPI
no matter what i do i get BSOD/124 i have gone up and down many times
trying to find a stable qpi v, i only need (qpi)1.41v/43 to run 4.2Ghz and ram
@ 2000mhz so i refuse to give qpi over 1.58 just to hump over 4.4HGhz.

now through those finding/experiences i've gone through, i found out (for me)
that even @ stock speeds if i enable X_power i get BSOD/124 or just crash..

now someone came into the thread asking for help, cause they couldnt be
stable even @ low clock speeds with a XEON 3540...(soulblade) i tell him...
be carefull cause i run into a lot of issues when i enable X_Power,
i "believe" it must bridge into the EZPLUG to draw more power or something
i dont have the ezplugs plugged in so it could be my problem.....

immediately you try and jump down my throat coming all the way from left
field trying to catch a catchers fly-ball......asking for prooof or
documentation as to where i got my info from...

now from the minute i posted my power/clock profiles you came asking a question which i felt was biased and a sense of confrontation and i still answered...

since you know so much you should know what increasing the PCI-E freq does.....
now im the one trying to bull people
hey thumbs up
you deserve it.

again what are you trying to prove?
that i am wrong?
or that i gave a legitimize advice based on my experience using X_Power.
does it or does it do not affect Voltage....?
im done you can go and mole someone else.

i clearly stated i could be wrong,
PS i too went to school for CS
by the way, dont pollute the thread anymore.
i will not reply, you can PM or we can start a thread with informative information as to Xpower/T_Balance profiles and how to properly configure it.
im down for that...i would love to stabilize my chip at freq above 4.4ghz

[zoson]

ok, so hear this i could be stable anywhere from 4000mhz to 4400mhz using
t_balance, and if i go over 4.4 i get bad memory residuals in LinX/IBT no
matter what QPI/CPU voltage i give, now when i enable X_Power i can pass
LinX even 15/17 passes @ upto 4.6Ghz and randomly it just goes BSOD/124

when using X_Power i have gone from 1.32v (QPI) all the way upto 1.58v QPI
no matter what i do i get BSOD/124 i have gone up and down many times
trying to find a stable qpi v, i only need (qpi)1.41v/43 to run 4.2Ghz and ram
@ 2000mhz so i refuse to give qpi over 1.58 just to hump over 4.4HGhz.

now through those finding/experiences i've gone through, i found out (for me)
that even @ stock speeds if i enable X_power i get BSOD/124 or just crash..

now someone came into the thread asking for help, cause they couldnt be
stable even @ low clock speeds with a XEON 3540...(soulblade) i tell him...
be carefull cause i run into a lot of issues when i enable X_Power,
i "believe" it must bridge into the EZPLUG to draw more power or something
i dont have the ezplugs plugged in so it could be my problem.....

immediately you try and jump down my throat coming all the way from left
field trying to catch a catchers fly-ball......asking for prooof or
documentation as to where i got my info from...

now from the minute i posted my power/clock profiles you came asking a question which i felt was biased and a sense of confrontation and i still answered...

since you know so much you should know what increasing the PCI-E freq does.....
now im the one trying to bull people
hey thumbs up
you deserve it.

again what are you trying to prove?
that i am wrong?
or that i gave a legitimize advice based on my experience using X_Power.
does it or does it do not affect Voltage....?
im done you can go and mole someone else.

i clearly stated i could be wrong,
PS i too went to school for CS
by the way, dont pollute the thread anymore.
i will not reply, you can PM or we can start a thread with informative information as to Xpower/T_Balance profiles and how to properly configure it.
im down for that...i would love to stabilize my chip at freq above 4.4ghz

Way to selectively quote to try and make yourself look good. Too bad for you everyone can see my original posts. I have been very nice to you. I only asked where you got your info. You're just discrediting yourself further with personal attacks, and making up lies. It only takes someone 60 seconds to look back at the comment history and see you are the trouble maker.

[thesaucier]

You know this petty between the two of you is really childish. Wish you would both just stop. Its getting old looking at email saying their is a new post just to find this petty stuff.

[deachus]

Yeah you still singing to the song of dead mans tune.
Bs in wiring..good for you I need some electrical done in my house
Maybe you can help...
Now back to rampage iii extreme...
Also when I enable xpower in digi power mode my qpi v droops all over the place
Do you know why that happens? When I leave it on tbalance its solid...
Can u help me solve or trace the source?

That's what I was trying to figure out.....
But u wanna focus in making yourself righteous or something..
So like I said before I could be wrong.....
So if you don't have any valid feedback, don't reply and look at your bs in wiring and assume I'm a moron.....its what I did. ;-)

Did you switch the QPI Loadline jumper next to the CPU socket?

[deachus]

You know this petty between the two of you is really childish. Wish you would both just stop. Its getting old looking at email saying their is a new post just to find this petty stuff.

Thumbs up to that

I am so sick of my phone going nuts, thinking it's a report of a new bios release or informative information to come read this BS. I have been a member of XS since 2005 and I remeber when this Forum was a place you could come to find acurate information and great, helpful people. More and more this forum is about who can prove the other wrong or is smarter than the other person. It is serously turning me off to XS, which is a shame because I LOVE this place and spend more time on XS than anything else in my life and I even have a wife and child. At work, on my EVO, at home, laptop, it doesn't matter, I never get sick of XS and there is always something to learn.

We need to get this forum back to the way it used to be, even if that requires heavier moderating and bans.

[Toritechie]

Hey guys, been a few months since I've posted in here. I'm still using BIOS 1005; with an i7 930 - seem to have it pretty stable at 4.312Ghz.

How has the BIOS evolved in recent months - any gains for Bloomfield chips with new revisions?

Also thinking of picking up an engineering sample 980x; and putting it under water. I see some of you guys are getting up to 5Ghz with that chip.

[thesaucier]

Hey guys, been a few months since I've posted in here. I'm still using BIOS 1005; with an i7 930 - seem to have it pretty stable at 4.312Ghz.

How has the BIOS evolved in recent months - any gains for Bloomfield chips with new revisions?

Also thinking of picking up an engineering sample 980x; and putting it under water. I see some of you guys are getting up to 5Ghz with that chip.

Seems you well do better with an unlocked chip in Mhz than trying to get a very high bclk stable. I use the 1005 bios.

[deachus]

Hey guys, been a few months since I've posted in here. I'm still using BIOS 1005; with an i7 930 - seem to have it pretty stable at 4.312Ghz.

How has the BIOS evolved in recent months - any gains for Bloomfield chips with new revisions?

Also thinking of picking up an engineering sample 980x; and putting it under water. I see some of you guys are getting up to 5Ghz with that chip.

I have been running bios 0095. Have gotten 4.5Ghz 4C4T LinX stable and 4.4Ghz 4C8T LinX stable. Still testing and tweaking to get 4.5Ghz 4C8T LinX stable but my patience are wearing thin. Wish I could afford a Gulftown chip but unless they put out a sub $500 chip or I could pay Intel Retail Channel pricing it's a no go. Have a 10 month old boy so not to much money laying around anymore for expensive hardware.

[TreyWingbat]

New to this forum, and new to building systems. I've done some minor work in other PC's before (like installing RAM, fans, etc.), but this is my first complete build. It was fun to do.

I do have some minor issues thus far with my build. The main components are the R3E motherboard, Intel 980x processor, Corsair 1200 watt power supply, 12 GB G. Skill RAM, dual NVidia 580 GTX graphics cards (in slots 1 and 3)... in a Zalman MS1000-HS2 case.

Firstly, the computer boots up fine without any problems. Windows loads fast via the 160 GB Intel SSD. Both graphics cards are detected. Everything runs great. No issues with temperatures or any error messages. But after shutting down the computer via Windows 7, I can't get it to restart afterwards. I press the power button on the case, and I hear a click, but nothing happens. The lights on some of the fans stay on throughout. Only after I shut off the power supply from the back switch and turn that on again does the computer reboot. What could be causing this?

I also have an interesting issue with the Marvell Sata 6 Gb/s Controller on the Asus Rampage III Extreme motherboard. When I plug in one hard drive into one of the ports, it is recognized. When I plug in 2 hard drives, they both disappear in Windows 7. But when both are still plugged in, they show up during the start up screen.

If I take one hard drive and put it in a USB enclosure and connect it via USB, it shows up, and the other drive connected via the Sata 6 Gb/s controller is still there. So I know both hard drives work. It's only when both are connected to the Sata 6 Gb/s controller they disappear. There are hot swap bays on the front of the case, so the drives are easy to remove. I have updated the latest drivers off the Asus site, but still no luck.

Again, this is my first build, and my first new computer in 8 years. I bought this mainly for video editing in HD. I might play some games on it down the road. But I haven't overclocked anything or done any other mods to it (the graphics cards came superclocked). Overclocking is a whole new world and I'm slowly learning about it, but I would like to resolve these two issues first anyways. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[benniebeeker]

No idea if the Revo is gonna work properly with that Esata controller and soundcard plugged in... if it works it's amasingly fast...

My revo works fine in the bottom PCI-E 16X port, not tried any other slot...

3 LOTES boards here : one topping at 235, one 230 and one 224 on air... don't think it's got anything to do with the slot mechanism... it's all in the IOH chipset... just quickly test them dude, it takes 10 minutes or so...

what other pci-e devices do you have plugged in??? im running 2 gtx 580's a revo2 360 and a asus xense... im not too happy about my revo speeds... haven't tried slot swapping or removing cards yet, but when i get back from my trip i'm going to be turning off cards...

[TreyWingbat]

New to this forum, and new to building systems. I've done some minor work in other PC's before (like installing RAM, fans, etc.), but this is my first complete build. It was fun to do.

I do have some minor issues thus far with my build. The main components are the R3E motherboard, Intel 980x processor, Corsair 1200 watt power supply, 12 GB G. Skill RAM, dual NVidia 580 GTX graphics cards (in slots 1 and 3)... in a Zalman MS1000-HS2 case.

Firstly, the computer boots up fine without any problems. Windows loads fast via the 160 GB Intel SSD. Both graphics cards are detected. Everything runs great. No issues with temperatures or any error messages. But after shutting down the computer via Windows 7, I can't get it to restart afterwards. I press the power button on the case, and I hear a click, but nothing happens. The lights on some of the fans stay on throughout. Only after I shut off the power supply from the back switch and turn that on again does the computer reboot. What could be causing this?

I also have an interesting issue with the Marvell Sata 6 Gb/s Controller on the Asus Rampage III Extreme motherboard. When I plug in one hard drive into one of the ports, it is recognized. When I plug in 2 hard drives, they both disappear in Windows 7. But when both are still plugged in, they show up during the start up screen.

If I take one hard drive and put it in a USB enclosure and connect it via USB, it shows up, and the other drive connected via the Sata 6 Gb/s controller is still there. So I know both hard drives work. It's only when both are connected to the Sata 6 Gb/s controller they disappear. There are hot swap bays on the front of the case, so the drives are easy to remove. I have updated the latest drivers off the Asus site, but still no luck.

Again, this is my first build, and my first new computer in 8 years. I bought this mainly for video editing in HD. I might play some games on it down the road. But I haven't overclocked anything or done any other mods to it (the graphics cards came superclocked). Overclocking is a whole new world and I'm slowly learning about it, but I would like to resolve these two issues first anyways. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Well, I figured out the power issue. I changed the EuP Ready setting in the Power section of the BIOS to Enabled. It states that when enabled, "Allows BIOS to switch off some power at S5 state to get system ready for the EuP requirement. When set to [Enabled], power for WOL, WO_USB, audio and onboard LEDs will be switched off at S5 state."

I'm hoping that setting this to enabled is fine. The system does turn off completely now - there are no fans rotating and no lights on. When I press the power button on the case, it reboots fine.

I still have issues with the SATA 6 Gb/s controller though.

[David1947]

Hi Vladimir,
That does look like a promising solution ,but alas, the company is out of stock and unfortunately
they don't appear to be set up to notify you when they have an item back in stock. That comes
in handy at times. I did make my own fix that should work with any USB device but for some reason
a USB driven laptop drive plugged into the front port doesn't work unless I plug into the same USB port
on the back of the case that is supplied by the mother board back panel that is feeding the USB port at the front.
What I did was buy four USB cables about five inches long with a five pin male header on one end. Those
plugged into the dual female headers coming from the front panel USB ports. That allowed me to pass the
male USB ends out through the back of the case and plug into four female USB ports in the rear. They work
with a jump drive memory device but not the hard drive. All I did was extend the rear port to the front. Two
feet of cable and the drive want work. I can't see that being a power issue. Its just two feet of wire and
the wiring has to be right for other USB devices to be working from the front ports. The only thing it might be
is a return ground issue. The cables from the front have their shields and grounds tiied together and the four I
bought are on seperate pins of the header strip. Hmmm, some experimentation may be required.
Hopefully that hardware solution will be back in stock soon and I can get my four USB ports back.

David

[zoson]

Well, I figured out the power issue. I changed the EuP Ready setting in the Power section of the BIOS to Enabled. It states that when enabled, "Allows BIOS to switch off some power at S5 state to get system ready for the EuP requirement. When set to [Enabled], power for WOL, WO_USB, audio and onboard LEDs will be switched off at S5 state."

I'm hoping that setting this to enabled is fine. The system does turn off completely now - there are no fans rotating and no lights on. When I press the power button on the case, it reboots fine.

I still have issues with the SATA 6 Gb/s controller though.

Try setting your sata6 controller to AHCI mode.

[TreyWingbat]

Thanks for the reply Zoson. However, it is already set to AHCI mode, and it still doesn't work.