X48 Rampage Formula Preview.

[MaynardX]

Alien Grey
Big hello to you and to all of you guys making this thread so alive for so long time now. Alien Grey, you're a great man, I mean it. You've done so much work continuing RF subject and helping so many people here and on Asus forum, including me. I'm quite sure many guys still stick with their RFs only because they get so much feedback from you, it's really impressive. So I'm with you guys all the time although not posting much because I'm simply not smart enough to say sth more than it's already being said.

So to be honest I'm done with this motherboard. But decided to keep it as long as my Q9450 don't bottleneck my system. And to be honest Alien Grey, I'd rather wait till you decide to make a change in your rig just to be sure I've made the smartest possible decision OK, you convinced me, let it be LGA 2011

What I'm right now most sure of is that Asus has lost a costumer in me, I mean it. So still keeping my fingers crossed for you guys that every of you get their rig everyone dreamed of and live happy for longest time possible (posting on the forum only to show off their OC results). Greetings.

[JohnZS]

I do not want to distract from Alien Grey's excellent analysis of the situation, but not only do ASUS refuse to add what is essentially a very useful feature (MCH ODT, DRAM ODT settings) they also are very reluctant to OFFICIALLY update the ICH9R firmware.
It is crazy that I have created many BIOS files for users on the ASUS forum as ASUS are simply in denial over 2 issues in the very old and P35 era 7.5 ROM.

1) RAID0 of X-25M and new(er) or fairly new OCZ based SSD drives is impossible.
2) GTX 580 = No access to Option ROM menu due to an odd compatibility issue.

Intel officially updated their Option ROM for the X38/X48 in October 2009 and this resolved all of those issues. Even recently Gigabyte were updating P35, X38, X48 and P45 motherboards with the 8.9.2 Option ROM to resolve those 2 issues, yet ASUS are VERY stubborn to resolve this issue.

Only 3 motherboards officially received this fix. P5E3 (after I reported it to them), Maximus Formula and P5E3 Pro.

All other boards use the very old 7.5 Option ROM... even the Rampage boards

I know that when Skt 2011 is released I will purchase a Gigabyte board, purely because their longterm support appears to be better than ASUS.

John

[JohnZS]

I do not want to distract from Alien Grey's excellent analysis of the situation, but not only do ASUS refuse to add what is essentially a very useful feature (MCH ODT, DRAM ODT settings) they also are very reluctant to OFFICIALLY update the ICH9R firmware.
It is crazy that I have created many BIOS files for users on the ASUS forum as ASUS are simply in denial over 2 issues in the very old and P35 era 7.5 ROM.

1) RAID0 of X-25M and new(er) or fairly new OCZ based SSD drives is impossible.
2) GTX 580 = No access to Option ROM menu due to an odd compatibility issue.

Intel officially updated their Option ROM for the X38/X48 in October 2009 and this resolved all of those issues. Even recently Gigabyte were updating P35, X38, X48 and P45 motherboards with the 8.9.2 Option ROM to resolve those 2 issues, yet ASUS are VERY stubborn to resolve this issue.

Only 3 motherboards officially received this fix. P5E3 (after I reported it to them), Maximus Formula and P5E3 Pro.

All other boards use the very old 7.5 Option ROM... even the Rampage boards

I know that when Skt 2011 is released I will purchase a Gigabyte board, purely because their longterm support appears to be better than ASUS.

John

[leo27]

Does changing the MCH ODT via BAREDIT work successfully because if it does i might investigate using it??

If it works fine would you mind A-Grey to post which registers to change to what value

Cheers mate

[Alien Grey]

Changing MCH Read ODT


Search FED14290. Look in 0C and click register 00000668.





Replace the 8 with the number that you need to change the MCH Read ODT timing to the value that you want.

9 -> 9T
A -> 10T
B - > 11T
...

Click Write.

Do the same for FED14690.

To have BAR_Edit change MCH Read ODT on every boot, click Save and enable StartUp.

[spy2520]

1) RAID0 of X-25M and new(er) or fairly new OCZ based SSD drives is impossible.

John

This is the setup i have on the rampage formula and it works fine, i actually have 3 of them in RAID0 currently.

[neo_rtr]

Changing MCH Read ODT


Search FED14920. Look in 0C and click register 00000668.





Replace the 8 with the number that you need to change the MCH Read ODT timing to the value that you want.

9 -> 9T
A -> 10T
B - > 11T
...

Click Write.

To have BAR_Edit change MCH Read ODT on every boot, click Save and enable StartUP.

So in theory the issues iam having can possible be "corrected" if i try to change the values as shown!

[leo27]

I just got this reply from ASUS

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.

I have reported this suggestion to our related department.
They attach importance to this case.
If they develop a new BIOS, I will contact with you as soon as possible.
Please contact with me if you have any other questions.

Best Regards,

ASUS Customer Service

It sounds promising

[Alien Grey]

So in theory the issues iam having can possible be "corrected" if i try to change the values as shown!

It's for sure going to help you stabilize the board (MCH) but it won't help you to fix your BOOT problems because for that you need it in the BIOS so you can use the MCH Read ODT that is necessary to fix it.

I just got this reply from ASUS

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.

I have reported this suggestion to our related department.
They attach importance to this case.
If they develop a new BIOS, I will contact with you as soon as possible.
Please contact with me if you have any other questions.

Best Regards,

XXX

ASUS Customer Service

It sounds promising

That indeed sounds promising.

Edit your post and remove the name. We don't want anyone to get in trouble because of what they replied.

[Alien Grey]

I hope that they don't forget to use BIOS 0001 so we don't lose the Refresh Period in the BIOS because I don't know if BIOS 1001 is exactly the same as BIOS 0001 but without the Refresh Period.

[Alien Grey]

Alien Grey
Big hello to you and to all of you guys making this thread so alive for so long time now. Alien Grey, you're a great man, I mean it. You've done so much work continuing RF subject and helping so many people here and on Asus forum, including me. I'm quite sure many guys still stick with their RFs only because they get so much feedback from you, it's really impressive. So I'm with you guys all the time although not posting much because I'm simply not smart enough to say sth more than it's already being said.

So to be honest I'm done with this motherboard. But decided to keep it as long as my Q9450 don't bottleneck my system. And to be honest Alien Grey, I'd rather wait till you decide to make a change in your rig just to be sure I've made the smartest possible decision OK, you convinced me, let it be LGA 2011

What I'm right now most sure of is that Asus has lost a costumer in me, I mean it. So still keeping my fingers crossed for you guys that every of you get their rig everyone dreamed of and live happy for longest time possible (posting on the forum only to show off their OC results). Greetings.

I always said that ASUS couldn't sell me a new board but I think that I'm wrong.

If it would be possible for ASUS to build a Rampage Formula Special Edition would you buy it?

A X48 board with 24 phase power, digital VRM's, 3 pin fan control, thermal sensors incuded, better CPU GTL handling, no heatpipe between the heatsinks, a SB/NB cooler with a small fan, 2 CPU Fan connectors for push/pull...

I would buy it and I think a lot of you guys would also because I don't need more CPU cores and don't need faster memory and it would be a lot cheaper than having to upgrade to a complete new build.

[JohnZS]

Sounds like some semi positive news leo27

ASUS are also looking into finally fixing the VID Ratio error when using manual multiplier on QX9650 for the Rampage Extreme. I also gave ASUS a list of other effected motherboards (with links to people experiencing the same problem).

Hopefully a plethora of BIOS updates for the 775 platform will be released in the near future!

I did mention MCH ODT, DRAM Read/Write ODT and linked to this thread and the other thread you mentioned as well as provided proof of my own findings with 8GB testing, but they have not really commented on this, so I think the addition of this feature is unlikely.

John

[SoLoR]

BTW new hosting for "my" rampage stuff is here: http://hotfixrepo.geeksmack.net/Asus.Rampage.Formula/

there is no new updates since middle of last month tho... just new hosting.

[Spyrus]

SoLoR the acpi driver is for?
And can you say again the moded bios what has over the latest official?
I have to remind you that i have a Maximus Formula with a Rampage Formula bios on it.

[SoLoR]

SoLoR the acpi driver is for?
And can you say again the moded bios what has over the latest official?
I have to remind you that i have a Maximus Formula with a Rampage Formula bios on it.

tref and updated option rom modules and ezflash... if you have any "unkown" in device manager thats big chance its acpi driver missing... "ATK0110 ACPI UTILITY". I have no idea what benifits are, but i just hate to have "unkown" and "not working properly" and things like that in my device manager

[kuebk]

Without installing drivers to ATK110 I was experiencing random BSODs.
BTW: this device is only available if you use AHCI.

[Alien Grey]

The ATK0110 ACPI utility is necessary to read the voltages and temperatures with ASUS PC Probe II.

[leo27]

i think it was discussed before that it is a driver for the EPU

[SoLoR]

Yes could be, but since i personaly dont want to install whole pcprobe (that had random bad effects for me), im just installing driver... for example im also not installing whole intel rapid storage package (its useless bloat), but only drivers...

[JohnZS]

Anyone here get the VID Ratio has failed error with QX9650 series CPU when using a manual multiplier from a cold boot?
ASUS seem to be having difficulties reproducing this problem
John

[Alien Grey]

Anyone here get the VID Ratio has failed error with QX9650 series CPU when using a manual multiplier from a cold boot?
ASUS seem to be having difficulties reproducing this problem
John

This is already confirmed for the ASUS Rampage Extreme by Leeghoofd: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...postcount=2868

Maybe greg.m knows if this is also a problem with the ASUS Rampage Formula.

[greg.m]

This is already confirmed for the ASUS Rampage Extreme by Leeghoofd: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...postcount=2868

Maybe greg.m knows if this is also a problem with the ASUS Rampage Formula.

I really don't remember having this problem but then again its been more than a year since i changed from qx9650 to an q9650...

[mistargill]

Would this place listen to our requests or probably not...

http://www.asusrog.com/forums/forumd...mpage-Formula&

[leo27]

The latest form ASUS

This is XXXXXX, from ASUS.

Sorry to bother you.

I have received your feedback about adding some options in BIOS such as MCH Read ODT, DRAM Read ODT and DRAM Write ODT.

May I ask you something more about the suggestion?

Could you please tell me why you need such options in BIOS？

Is there something wrong with your settings for the PC at present?

It looks like they are trying to investigate the problem!!

[Alien Grey]

Could you please tell me why you need such options in BIOS？

To have a stable running board for once and for all.

Is there something wrong with your settings for the PC at present?

Running 4 X 2GB at DDR +1066MHz is almost impossible. A few degrees higher temperature and the board starts randomly failing. A MCH Read Delay of 8T is to tight for Quads in almost every situation.

And most important of all Intel only suggested to use these timings as default but I don't think that they've said that you can't relax them to improve stability.