X48 Rampage Formula Preview.

[mikeyakame]

try setting NB ref to 0.60x, 490mhz fsb needs around 1.55 - 1.57v NB. Also if DRAM clock skews aren't set correctly, it will either lock up, come up with ridiculous amount of errors in memory or fail to post. 333 strap works fine at high FSB if you understand how to tame it. Basically just loosen all memory timings and go from there. 333 strap timings are really tight, PL 9 at 333 seems equivalent to PL 7 at 266 strap. Using PL 8 with 333 strap and 490 fsb, I managed to corrupt some Windows system files! I've gotten memory 100% stable at 490 fsb, but am lost for reasons why heavy CPU activity is locking the system up even with 1.45v Vcore and 1.60v cpu pll, 0.62x cpu gtl+ ref. This is when the mch/cpu skew adjustment feature the P45 boards have would be helpful.

Memory Timings
CAS Latency (CL) 5T
RAS To CAS Delay (tRCD) 5T
RAS Precharge (tRP) 5T
RAS Active Time (tRAS) 18T
Row Refresh Cycle Time (tRFC) 60T
Command Rate (CR) 2T
RAS To RAS Delay (tRRD) 6T
Write Recovery Time (tWR) 14T (Bios WR=7)
Read To Read Delay (tRTR) Same Rank: 5T, Different Rank: 6T
Read To Write Delay (tRTW) 9T
Write To Read Delay (tWTR) Same Rank: 13T, Different Rank: 5T
Write To Write Delay (tWTW) Same Rank: 5T, Different Rank: 6T
Read To Precharge Delay (tRTP) 5T
Write To Precharge Delay (tWTP) 14T
Precharge To Precharge Delay (tPTP) 1T
Refresh Period (tREF) 3120T
DRAM Read ODT 3T
DRAM Write ODT 6T
MCH Read ODT 8T
Performance Level 9
Read Delay Phase Adjust Neutral
DIMM1 Clock Fine Delay 11T
DIMM2 Clock Fine Delay 2T
DIMM3 Clock Fine Delay 10T
DIMM4 Clock Fine Delay 2T

Thats roughly the memory timings that I got to work flawlessly at 490 fsb, using 1:1 divider, 980mhz ddr. Very loose but didnt get around to fine tuning the secondary/tertiary timings as yet, well only a few of them.

With those loose timings, everest cache test was showing ~ 8800MB/s read, ~8700MB/s write, 8100MB/s copy, 57ns latency at 980mhz.

[GAR]

Alright, so i have my system nice and stable at 400fsb with 1.43v to the nb and 1.3v to the fsb, memory running at 1066 with common performance level of 6, now when i try to go up to 450 i cannot even get prime to pass for 1 minute, fails within 30 seconds, this is prime blend. I have tried Nb voltage of 1.65 and fsb voltage of 1.5v, still fails within 30 seconds, I have lowered memory to 900mhz so it runs 1:1 divider with common performance level of 10 and it still fails just to see if its the memory at fault, now memtest passes with no problems, its prime blend that fails, prime blend is fine at 400fsb trd of 6 and low voltage settings, but 450fsb is a bit hard to attain, any ideas??? im on 0403 bios.

[mikeyakame]

It's safe to run whatever voltage you need for NB provided you keep it's temps below 50-55c load off top of my head. Otherwise they tend to fail rapidly.

[GAR]

It's safe to run whatever voltage you need for NB provided you keep it's temps below 50-55c load off top of my head. Otherwise they tend to fail rapidly.

with 1.43v it idles at 50-52c loads around high 50's.........maybe thats my problem???, i have a fan on my antec 900 pointing to the side which helps kind of.

[bigslappy]

with 1.43v it idles at 50-52c loads around high 50's.........maybe thats my problem???, i have a fan on my antec 900 pointing to the side which helps kind of.

lap & remount the cooler
Q9450\mine is at 3.36 Ghz volts 1.228 & temps run 54-49 under prime/blend idles at 32
MX-2 thermal compound

[Shadowthor]

Make sure there is a fan on the chipset to cool it down.

[Takle]

I have taken care of the chipset, its the ram modules im worried about, they get pretty hot to touch.

[mikeyakame]

i've been using a dominator ram cooling module for a long while, they fit the part pretty well, and have kept a couple sets of ddr2 alive for > 1yr at 2.4v daily

[Shadowthor]

With the 3 year warranty its all good (at least for the rampage)

[Rickpatbrown]

Foxy-

Your English is a lot better than my French. I wish I could blame it on my schools.

Your settings with the FSB seem to indicate it as the culprit, especially if you've already pushed the voltage up. People have been getting Corsair to work on this board, but the exact model numbers need to checked.

Lower your NB voltage. I've heard of instances were the NB didn't like voltage too high.


To everyone-

Can the Rampage support any 775 socket chip? I'm wondering if my memtest86+ errors are because of my e8400. A buddy lent me a Pentium E2160 to see if it could pass memtest86+. Do you think the CPU could be the reason it won't pass? Cache, maybe?

[foxvengeor]

mm yeah language school was horrible

I've already test to find my FSB max with the rampage... At coef 6 , CPU@Stock. And the ram at the lowest level as possible always strap 400.

I've test FSB 475 vNB 1.67 vFSB 1.48. Can't boot !
FSB 470 vNB 1.6 to 1.67 : can boot but errors at 4 seconds max

According to french forum i had a Volt Damage on my rampage??! And i must do a RMA... And my revendor propose an change with a P5 premium.... With 100 euros of différence. Or with a new rampage. i'm hesitating. Sav or not? Rampage or P5E5? I will receive my Gskill tomorrow for test before.

[Eurasianman]

Could you link where you found that information?

Don't have a link. I just don't see how going from 333 FSB to 400 FSB+ on the NB could require going from 1.25V to 1.50V+... but that's just me.

It's safe to run whatever voltage you need for NB provided you keep it's temps below 50-55c load off top of my head. Otherwise they tend to fail rapidly.

I don't even have my NB voltage that high and I'm already at 50C-55C load! Thank God for QX and unlocked multiplier.

with 1.43v it idles at 50-52c loads around high 50's.........maybe thats my problem???, i have a fan on my antec 900 pointing to the side which helps kind of.

I don't think that's your problem. I'm running less voltage and and still getting similar temps at load and remain stable.

With the 3 year warranty its all good (at least for the rampage)

Some of us voided the warranty when removing the stock TIM. In a way, it shouldn't since the TIM ASUS used sucked major cajones!

Foxy-

Your English is a lot better than my French. I wish I could blame it on my schools.

Your settings with the FSB seem to indicate it as the culprit, especially if you've already pushed the voltage up. People have been getting Corsair to work on this board, but the exact model numbers need to checked.

Lower your NB voltage. I've heard of instances were the NB didn't like voltage too high.


To everyone-

Can the Rampage support any 775 socket chip? I'm wondering if my memtest86+ errors are because of my e8400. A buddy lent me a Pentium E2160 to see if it could pass memtest86+. Do you think the CPU could be the reason it won't pass? Cache, maybe?

Agreed about the NB voltage. As far as memtest goes, using a different CPU won't change anything. I've been reading that memtest gives errors on the X48 regardless of what RAM you use. I just use Prime95 and F@H SMP to test my overall system stability

mm yeah language school was horrible

I've already test to find my FSB max with the rampage... At coef 6 , CPU@Stock. And the ram at the lowest level as possible always strap 400.

I've test FSB 475 vNB 1.67 vFSB 1.48. Can't boot !
FSB 470 vNB 1.6 to 1.67 : can boot but errors at 4 seconds max

According to french forum i had a Volt Damage on my rampage??! And i must do a RMA... And my revendor propose an change with a P5 premium.... With 100 euros of différence. Or with a new rampage. i'm hesitating. Sav or not? Rampage or P5E5? I will receive my Gskill tomorrow for test before.

Are you referring to the RAM slots being overvolted? I know my board likes to add around ~.04V to the RAM voltage

[foxvengeor]

No. With the load calibration enabled if i put 2.20 i had 2.20

[hsinhow]

Everest tends to report much higher core temperature than RealTemp and SpeedFan. In Everest, my core is ~71 C under load and RealTemp reports ~65 C. I recalled that these two programs use different thermal constant to calculate core temperature. I think the general consensus is that RealTemp is the more accurate one.

[hsinhow]

I am also using PWM fan (Nexus) with Thermalright Black 120 heatsink. In order to ramp up the fan speed under QFan, you need to use the Performance Mode profile under the bios's CPU fan control menu.

My Nexus PWM fan can go full speed under load.

[GAR]

The temps i was talking about were my NB temps, im not sure if everyone is talking about the same.............my cpu is fine, idles around 28-32c per core, load is very cool as well.

[hsinhow]

Yes, I am talking about CPU core temperature difference between Everest and RealTemp.

I have similar high NB temperature at ~60C under benchmarking. However I set my NB voltage at 1.53V. The NB voltage setting depends on the PL level you select. Mine is PL10 with FSB=496MHz. I found this configuration to be quite stable (though I tried PL9 at one time and it is fine too).

An excellent NB voltage vs. performance article can be found at http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3208&p=5

[alexlyc]

Can someone tell me if I can use two different video card in this board?
I want to hook up my 9800GTX to windows via D-sub, and a different series Nvidia card or an ATI card to Mac OS via DVI.

[3lfk1ng]

Pushed a pair of 2gb Corsair Dominator PC2-8500C5D ver 1.2 all the way to 1233.2mhz STABLE @ 2.18v today

[Rickpatbrown]

I've been reading that memtest gives errors on the X48 regardless of what RAM you use

Those guys are doing something wrong. There are so many settings on this board . . .

I was much more impressed with memtest86+ v2.01. This is the one from http://www.memtest.org/. The one from memtest.com is memtest86 v3.4 (notice there is no plus sign). memtest86 v3.4 had my CPU listed as pentiumIII. That shows you when the last time they updated it was.

Anyway. I figured out my problem. It was from a Saitek back lit keyboard being plugged into a Dtek USB hub . The problem is reproducible. I need to do some more testing, but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the Rampage or the RAM or the E8400 (so sad, I was hoping for a chance to RMA cause 3.9Ghz at 1.4v sucks).

This FAQ was very helpful in figuring out my problem, especially the part about getting rid of all unecessary components. You'd think common sense would have told me to do this, but it didn't. http://forum.x86-secret.com/forumdisplay.php?f=14 If you have any questions about memtest86+, this is the place to go. The guys seem very dedicated to solving any problems that may occur.

The good things about this whole ordeal is that I really got to learn about the settings on the board. "DRAM controller reference voltage" still alludes me as well as the GTL settings. I haven't messed with them yet.

On a side note- I realized that the power connector for the CPU has a cap over half of it. I originally had a four pin PSU connector plugged into it. Tonight, I took the cap off and plugged in the eight pin connector. The difference is two more yellow (+12v) wires. Could this make a difference in anything? Is this for quad cores maybe? Maybe I can get some more out of my E8400.

[bigslappy]

On a side note- I realized that the power connector for the CPU has a cap over half of it. I originally had a four pin PSU connector plugged into it. Tonight, I took the cap off and plugged in the eight pin connector. The difference is two more yellow (+12v) wires. Could this make a difference in anything? Is this for quad cores maybe? Maybe I can get some more out of my E8400.

yer gonna find that things will run much better useing the eight pin connectors as i have the same psu on both my R/F MoBo's & have not had the problems some have had ,I've been useing the 8 pin all along on both builds , get back to us on what u fibd out

[Eurasianman]

No. With the load calibration enabled if i put 2.20 i had 2.20

Load Line Calibration only refers to the CPU voltage, no other voltage IIRC.

Everest tends to report much higher core temperature than RealTemp and SpeedFan. In Everest, my core is ~71 C under load and RealTemp reports ~65 C. I recalled that these two programs use different thermal constant to calculate core temperature. I think the general consensus is that RealTemp is the more accurate one.

From my understanding, all Core 2 CPUs Tj Max is 95C. I believe Everest and Real Temp uses 105C as the Tj Max. If you look at Core Temp, you'll see that the program now lists the Tj Max for Core 2's as 95C

Yes, I am talking about CPU core temperature difference between Everest and RealTemp.

Noted above.

Can someone tell me if I can use two different video card in this board?
I want to hook up my 9800GTX to windows via D-sub, and a different series Nvidia card or an ATI card to Mac OS via DVI.

I believe you can depending on the OS. Best way to find out is by testing it... if you can.

Those guys are doing something wrong. There are so many settings on this board . . .

I was much more impressed with memtest86+ v2.01. This is the one from http://www.memtest.org/. The one from memtest.com is memtest86 v3.4 (notice there is no plus sign). memtest86 v3.4 had my CPU listed as pentiumIII. That shows you when the last time they updated it was.

Anyway. I figured out my problem. It was from a Saitek back lit keyboard being plugged into a Dtek USB hub . The problem is reproducible. I need to do some more testing, but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the Rampage or the RAM or the E8400 (so sad, I was hoping for a chance to RMA cause 3.9Ghz at 1.4v sucks).

This FAQ was very helpful in figuring out my problem, especially the part about getting rid of all unecessary components. You'd think common sense would have told me to do this, but it didn't. http://forum.x86-secret.com/forumdisplay.php?f=14 If you have any questions about memtest86+, this is the place to go. The guys seem very dedicated to solving any problems that may occur.

The good things about this whole ordeal is that I really got to learn about the settings on the board. "DRAM controller reference voltage" still alludes me as well as the GTL settings. I haven't messed with them yet.

On a side note- I realized that the power connector for the CPU has a cap over half of it. I originally had a four pin PSU connector plugged into it. Tonight, I took the cap off and plugged in the eight pin connector. The difference is two more yellow (+12v) wires. Could this make a difference in anything? Is this for quad cores maybe? Maybe I can get some more out of my E8400.

As far as my experience has gone, USB hubs always seem to give users more issues. As far as the 4 pin and 8 pin CPU power connector. The 8 pin power connector is there for CPUs that are rated for 130 WATT use such as the Intel Extreme Edition CPUs. Although, it won't hurt to have it utilized when using a non extreme edition CPU. If anything, it might help with stability.

[Shadowthor]

Load Line Calibration only refers to the CPU voltage, no other voltage IIRC.


From my understanding, all Core 2 CPUs Tj Max is 95C. I believe Everest and Real Temp uses 105C as the Tj Max. If you look at Core Temp, you'll see that the program now lists the Tj Max for Core 2's as 95C


Noted above.


I believe you can depending on the OS. Best way to find out is by testing it... if you can.


As far as my experience has gone, USB hubs always seem to give users more issues. As far as the 4 pin and 8 pin CPU power connector. The 8 pin power connector is there for CPUs that are rated for 130 WATT use such as the Intel Extreme Edition CPUs. Although, it won't hurt to have it utilized when using a non extreme edition CPU. If anything, it might help with stability.

BTW, realtemp tj max is 95 its coretemp that has tj max at 105.

[coo-coo-clocker]

As far as the 4 pin and 8 pin CPU power connector. The 8 pin power connector is there for CPUs that are rated for 130 WATT use such as the Intel Extreme Edition CPUs. Although, it won't hurt to have it utilized when using a non extreme edition CPU. If anything, it might help with stability.

This seems especially true when driving the voltages higher than spec...

[bigslappy]

As far as the 4 pin and 8 pin CPU power connector. The 8 pin power connector is there for CPUs that are rated for 130 WATT use such as the Intel Extreme Edition CPUs. Although, it won't hurt to have it utilized when using a non extreme edition CPU. If anything, it might help with stability.

as most of just about everyone who buys the R/F MoBo is doing O/C'ing & putting their systems into the realm of the Intel QX9xxx Xtreme chips anyway & is on this Xtreme Systems Forum for that reason .

The Asus Rampage Formula is made for the Xtreme use of your CPU .

YOU would be wise to use the 8 pin power connector ,
use a highend psu that has a clean stable 12 volt power single rail rated in the stabilty of 80%+ range of ripple free 12volts & a deadedcated 8 pin connector
use proven memory for the X48 chipset,

alot of reported instabitly of this MoBo by persons has been due to the above reasons of ppl Not having the above !
as some ppl have no problems at all while other ppl have problems from the get go!

all this is " I M H O " as it's your MoBo do as you want .