ASUS Intel Beta BIOS Releases and Official Support

[Raja@ASUS]

Did searching around, no hope

I'll return that kit and get a BBSE kit.

Thanks for your reply.

If running single thread 32M there are a few tricks one can employ to aid stability, although it can be processor dependant. What kind of CPU speeds are you running and is this under sub-zero cooling or not?

-Raja

[Raja@ASUS]

With the Biostar board I just enable XMP and it works perfectly at 1.35V (20min Prime95 blend). That was the only stress test I managed to do (since I was doing a build for a friend that doesn't really like to have his computer lying 'naked' on the desk. Some people are just no fun ), but I did get to boot at 2133 8-9-8-28.

And I believe ECOs are (reasonably binned) PSC chips like most G.Skill kits these days. If I had other kits around I'd take the heatspreader out and discover it myself, but my current budget is kind of non-existing.

EDIT: Just tested 1333 7-8-7-20N and it's stable for 1:30h Prime blend at 1.35V, with all subtimings at auto.

Ok that means it's not completely unstable on the board. I would go up slowly from there and see at which point things start to be come "unfixable" via BIOS settings and get that back to me in a well laid out post that I can send off to HQ to see what is happening.

-Raja

[JohnZS]

I still believe that ASUS need to add more DDR3 RAM support for their LGA775 Rampage Extreme X48 based boards. 4GB DIMMS seem to be the norm these days and it would be nice for ASUS to upgrade the RAM compatibility.
Not only that but the ICH9R ROM and Marvell ROM's desperately need upgrading too.
Oh and the QX9650 CPU RATIO COLD BOOT issue needs resolving as well.
Thankfully ASUS support have provided me with a BIOS not to be issued externally which fixes the QX9650 manual multiplier cold boot issue and the ICH9R ROM, however ASUS need to issue these fixes for everyone.
I do appreciate LGA775 is old, but that is no excuse to leave the platform with an unfinished BIOS.
Please fix the remaining issues with 8GB and Quad Cores, MSR errors in BITS, update the ROMS and also add compatibility for 4GB DIMMS.
John

[Raja@ASUS]

Please fix the remaining issues with 8GB and Quad Cores, MSR errors in BITS, update the ROMS and also add compatibility for 4GB DIMMS.
John

Full validation of 4GB DIMMs may not be possible as the X48 chipset was designed around 2GB DIMMs at stock VMCH - so timings and frequency may be too conditional to validate in accordance with current 4GB DIMMs. I will take a look at the Intel white papers and see what the supported timings and frequency stipulations are for 4GB DIMMs on this now dated platform.

-Raja

[Brama]

Hi,

I have not had anything sent to me today. Which board do you have and what issues do you have with the BIOS please?

-Raja

I have an R3BE that is a little better than R3E but it has still the issues of R3E that Donmarkoni explained perfectly.
Plus there is another issue: if you use a PCIe raid disk controller, you can no more use the Intel raid controller since the update of Intel Option Rom in the BIOS to version 10.x.

Any other improvement is well accepted.

[Raja@ASUS]

I have an R3BE that is a little better than R3E but it has still the issues of R3E that Donmarkoni explained perfectly.
Plus there is another issue: if you use a PCIe raid disk controller, you can no more use the Intel raid controller since the update of Intel Option Rom in the BIOS to version 10.x.

Any other improvement is well accepted.

Well the QPI PLL I have already answered, so that leaves the OROM updates which will need to be validated before we update. I will ask HQ about that.

-Raja

[Ian[Frozen]]

Plus there is another issue: if you use a PCIe raid disk controller

Which many do..

you can no more use the Intel raid controller since the update of Intel Option Rom in the BIOS to version 10.x.

Can't understand why anyone would find a practical benefit too, I mean really...

[MrToad]

Plus there is another issue: if you use a PCIe raid disk controller, you can no more use the Intel raid controller since the update of Intel Option Rom in the BIOS to version 10.x.

I had the same issues with several boards and RAID/AHCI controllers (first time it happened to me was in a Striker Extreme with an Adaptec 5405), both ROMs try to load on the same address space, resulting in one of them (or both) not loading.

Easily resolved with BIOS update, although the fix might not be "universal" as different manufacturers and models load the ROM to different addresses, so the fix may resolve the conflict with one model of RAID card, but create a conflict with another one...

[spoolindsm127]

Well the QPI PLL I have already answered, so that leaves the OROM updates which will need to be validated before we update. I will ask HQ about that.

-Raja

Hello Raja

I also think it's great Asus is stepping forward with some solid 'in-the-field' support

Okay so we may never have independent QPI PLL control in R3E bios. But can you try to find out what the voltage is set to for QPI PLL?

And regarding the QPI PLL voltage being linked to CPU PLL, I think this may be true. I get drastically varying results when running SPI32M and trying different CPU PLL values, but keeping all other voltages same..

I believe it was a Asus support guy or OCer (LardArse) who said the PLL values were linked.

[Raja@ASUS]

Hello Raja

I also think it's great Asus is stepping forward with some solid 'in-the-field' support

Okay so we may never have independent QPI PLL control in R3E bios. But can you try to find out what the voltage is set to for QPI PLL?

And regarding the QPI PLL voltage being linked to CPU PLL, I think this may be true. I get drastically varying results when running SPI32M and trying different CPU PLL values, but keeping all other voltages same..

I believe it was a Asus support guy or OCer (LardArse) who said the PLL values were linked.

Please refer to my previous post about the DC requirements of the CPU PLL rail and the QPI PLL rail. To clarify; the CPU PLL rail needs a minimum of 1.8V at stock, while QPI PLL requires 1.1V and both should be regulated. 32M as an example means nothing as the QPI bus plays no real part in Super Pi. I'd be looking at vIOH first and foremost due to the DC requirements of that rail being similar.

-Raja

[spoolindsm127]

Please refer to my previous post about the DC requirements of the CPU PLL rail and the QPI PLL rail. To clarify; the CPU PLL rail needs a minimum of 1.8V at stock, while QPI PLL requires 1.1V and both should be regulated. 32M as an example means nothing as the QPI bus plays no real part in Super Pi. I'd be looking at vIOH first and foremost due to the DC requirements of that rail being similar.

-Raja

I admit I did not completely understand your previous post regarding the DC requirements, so I appreciate the clarification thank you. I see what you are saying, I will have to see the effect of different IOH voltages.

Would you happen to know how to measure QPI PLL voltage on the motherboard? Or is that even possible?

[danielkza]

I think I made another bit of progress with my RAM troubles: trying XMP again, I decided to set the the timings to SPD values manually, with an addition, setting CAS Write Latency to 8 instead of the default 7. I got a boot at the rated DDR3-1600 7-8-7-24. Running a round of Prime95 Blend to see if it is actually stable: if it doesn't fail to quickly I'll leave it overnight, and if it is indeed stable, we'll have a clear culprit, tCWL.

[mjgr33n]

I think I made another bit of progress with my RAM troubles: trying XMP again, I decided to set the the timings to SPD values manually, with an addition, setting CAS Write Latency to 8 instead of the default 7. I got a boot at the rated DDR3-1600 7-8-7-24. Running a round of Prime95 Blend to see if it is actually stable: if it doesn't fail to quickly I'll leave it overnight, and if it is indeed stable, we'll have a clear culprit, tCWL.

Hi, I am currently running 4 x G Skill F3-12800CL7-2GBECO dated 2010Oct in my Asus Sabertooth P67.

I need to run it at minimum 1.425v to operate at 1600-7-8-7-24-2T.

Here are the sub-timings that AIDA64 reports you need to run it best 7-8-7-24 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 40-88-2-5-12-6-6 (RC-RFC-CR-RRD-WR-WTR-RTP).

I am running Write CAS Latency (tWCL) 7T and everything is great.

Not had great luck with overclocking 100% stable, but will report more if I do.

[oldsarge]

I have the same memory. It was 100% stable on my x58 Sabertooth at 1.35v.

On my P8P67 EVO it needs 1.45v @ 4.5GB OC. (1600-7-8-7-24-2T)
tWCL does not seem to be a factor.

[mjgr33n]

On my R3E it needed 1.4v, on this board at 1.4v I get BSOD. tWR does seem to effect stability though, at auto at 1600 it sets it at 10, but according to AIDA64 12 is best for the XMP profile, I put 12 in and it helped stability when I was gaming, but still need more testing )))

[mjgr33n]

Oh btw Raja, my ASUS Sabertooth would crash after 15 to 20 minutes of Intel Burn Test when I had 5 or 6 SATA hard drives on the intel ports, but not when I had 4 or less, have had to move things around so am using the marvell controller and no more than 4 intel sata ports, have not tried putting more than 4 on there since I updated to the 1606 BIOS, think it is worth trying or is there a limitation on the chipset?

[Raja@ASUS]

On my R3E it needed 1.4v, on this board at 1.4v I get BSOD. tWR does seem to effect stability though, at auto at 1600 it sets it at 10, but according to AIDA64 12 is best for the XMP profile, I put 12 in and it helped stability when I was gaming, but still need more testing )))

Oh btw Raja, my ASUS Sabertooth would crash after 15 to 20 minutes of Intel Burn Test when I had 5 or 6 SATA hard drives on the intel ports, but not when I had 4 or less, have had to move things around so am using the marvell controller and no more than 4 intel sata ports, have not tried putting more than 4 on there since I updated to the 1606 BIOS, think it is worth trying or is there a limitation on the chipset?

There should be no loading limitation on the SATA ports per se. Were you running the system at stock or overclocked?

-Raja

[some_one]

Would it be possible to unlock the MMIO space for the RAM timings for P67 so they can changed in software?

[Brama]

Which many do..

Can't understand why anyone would find a practical benefit too, I mean really...

Consider for example this configuration:

- OCZ Revo drive
- 2 HD in raid0 on ICH10r

or

- Adaptec SAS/SATA controller with 2 HD in raid0
- 2 SSD in raid0 on ICH10r

Both configurations can not be used since the Intel OROM was updated to version 10.x
They are not common configurations, but not so rare.

[Brama]

Can you please confirm that on R3E and R3BE it is not technically possible to have automatic reduction of cpu voltage from full cpu load to idle when you overclock?

It was a very usefull BIOS setting in R2E which enables RELATIVE Vcpu with an OFFSET regulation, or an ABSOLUTE value which never changes.

[zoson]

Oh btw Raja, my ASUS Sabertooth would crash after 15 to 20 minutes of Intel Burn Test when I had 5 or 6 SATA hard drives on the intel ports, but not when I had 4 or less, have had to move things around so am using the marvell controller and no more than 4 intel sata ports, have not tried putting more than 4 on there since I updated to the 1606 BIOS, think it is worth trying or is there a limitation on the chipset?

This sounds like a problem with your PSU, not your motherboard.

Can you please confirm that on R3E and R3BE it is not technically possible to have automatic reduction of cpu voltage from full cpu load to idle when you overclock?

It was a very usefull BIOS setting in R2E which enables RELATIVE Vcpu with an OFFSET regulation, or an ABSOLUTE value which never changes.

He did confirm this. R3E and R3BE does not do absolute changes. I think it's because R3E and R3BE use digital power circuitry vs analog found on R2E.

[mjgr33n]

There is no problem with my PSU, please read what I posted before commenting, I said I moved them to different ports, so I still have the same amount of hard drives in the system, just now I am using the marvell ports instead of the intel ones and it is fine, also with same psu I did not have this issue with my R3E or R2E, PSU is also a Corsair Gold AX1200, so plenty of power, using different ports does not change power requirements.

[danielkza]

Hi, I am currently running 4 x G Skill F3-12800CL7-2GBECO dated 2010Oct in my Asus Sabertooth P67.

I need to run it at minimum 1.425v to operate at 1600-7-8-7-24-2T.

Here are the sub-timings that AIDA64 reports you need to run it best 7-8-7-24 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 40-88-2-5-12-6-6 (RC-RFC-CR-RRD-WR-WTR-RTP).

I am running Write CAS Latency (tWCL) 7T and everything is great.

Not had great luck with overclocking 100% stable, but will report more if I do.

I let Prime95 ran for 6h and it was stable at rated 1600 7-8-7-24 with tCWL 8 at 1.35V. Maybe it's worth trying if you want to keep 1.35V. But I had no suck luck with tRCD 9 over 1866, I even tried some weird combinations like 11-9-11-40 but I cannot boot it at all. Can't complain that much considering I can get 2133 9-10-9-28 at 1.6V, and probably still a bit better (I'll find out later today, I hadn't previously tired to mess with tCWL, maybe it'll help me to get CAS 7 or 8).

[zoson]

There is no problem with my PSU, please read what I posted before commenting, I said I moved them to different ports, so I still have the same amount of hard drives in the system, just now I am using the marvell ports instead of the intel ones and it is fine, also with same psu I did not have this issue with my R3E or R2E, PSU is also a Corsair Gold AX1200, so plenty of power, using different ports does not change power requirements.

You can't rule out the PSU as an issue unless you try another, different, psu in the configuration that was causing issues before.

[amdsempron_xs]

If running single thread 32M there are a few tricks one can employ to aid stability, although it can be processor dependant. What kind of CPU speeds are you running and is this under sub-zero cooling or not?

-Raja

The speed is 5GHz and I'm on water :-)

The kit has been returned. I'm gonna get a Ripjaws X BBSE kit

Thanks anyway