Official Rampage Extreme Review/Overclock/Guide Thread

[Smirnoff]

Downloads

Manual

0301 BIOS

0403 BETA BIOS

0404 BETA BIOS

Recommended BIOS is 0403

Chipset

Window bases Intel raid tools + XP and Vista installation raid drivers

Compatable Ram List - Ram i've personaly tested with this board - All ram was tested as 4GB set 4x1gb sticks

Corsair 2GB (2x1GB) DDR3 Dominator 2000C9DF Twin3X (2x1GB)

Corsair 2GB (2x1GB) DDR3 Dominator 1800C7DF

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz Black Dragon EVO ONE XMP

Kingston 2x 2GB DDR3 1800MHz Non-ECC CL8 Intel XMP Certified ( KHX14400D3K2/2GX )

G.Skill 2GB (2x1GB) DDR3 1600Mhz

G.Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600Mhz

G.Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600Mhz

Problem Memory - If you know of any problems with any ram please post about it and i'll add it here

A-Data DDR3-1600 doesnt work well

Any ram with Samsung chips seems to have issued

OCZ 2000Mhz ram will not run at its rated speeds and timings - Board will not post

OCZ 1800Mhz XMP ram will not run at its rated speeds and timings - Thousands of errors in memtest

The board has issues with raid controller cards, Intermittent BIOS frezzing, Card not being able to install its BIOS, Cards unable to detect attached drives - Seems to be an issue with the boards BIOS

 

[Smirnoff]

Test system setup

Q9650
Rampage Extreme
2x 4870
4x 1GB sticks of Kingston 1800MHz DDR3
4x 36GB Raptors in raid0
1200w PC power and Cooling power supply
Vista 64 Ultimate

I am truly shocked at how good this board really is, I've played with nearly every x48 board there is and nothing comes close to this board. My old rampage formula toped out at 485 FSB with a quad, I feel this board still has room left for more

Running this board at 500 FSB+ has issues tho, It needs a lot of northbridge volts which results in a lot of heat around the northbridge and mosfet areas, You'll need really good case cooling or waterblock the northbridge and mosfet areas if your looking for long periods of stability with this board at 500fsb +

 

[Smirnoff]

Hint - Tweaks - Warnings

# Under the CPU socket on the rear of the board there is a large capacitor, If your using any cooler with rear mounting plates take care not to crush it when tightening.

# Asus have done away with there old thermal pads they used to use on the NB/SB of there ROG boards, This time there are using proper thermal paste but the application is extremely poor. If your having problems with high temptures it can be cured by removeing the stock cooling ( just undo all the black screws on the rear of the board and gently pull the the stock cooler away from the board ) Cleaing the NB/SB and applying some arctic ceramique thermal compound.

** Please note that removing the stock cooling incorrectly might damage your board and/or void your warranty **

** Please note that removing the stock cooling incorrectly might damage your board and/or void your warranty **

 

[MiNxYyY]

wow 25000+ very impressive score

 

[Smirnoff]

0403 BIOS shots

This is the first intel chipset board i've seen that can disable cores other than the Blackops and Nvidia boards

This board has two extra SATA ports, They use a separate SATA controller so you can Raid0 or Raid1 two drives to use as extra space or backup. I'm thinking of 2 Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB in Raid1 to use as a backup.

This board has two totaly separate BIOS's, The chances off corrupting both of them at the same time are pretty much nill

 

[Smirnoff]

Gone are the days of the little post LCD screen just showing the boot up sequence and the time With the buttons on the board you can change nearly all the major voltages and even the FSB using just the LCD and the controlls on the bottom of the board.

It took a little time to get used to the buttons and how it worked but it pretty good and it works as per the table

You can set it to display the just the temptures, voltages, fan speeds or FSB speed or it can just scroll though them all.

All Asus need to do now is make the display larger and more clear and move the buttons for the Tweakit feature to a better location, A drive bay adaptor with a display and buttons would be great

 

[CyZMyAssBaby]

A nice review Smirnoff,

I am on the verge of purchasing a Rampage Extreme. Before i do can i confirm is there still an issue of incompatibility between both OCZ memory and Asus motherboard combinations? I am considering purchasing OCZ 1800/ 2000 in combination with the Rampage Extreme.

I have been unable to locate a memory compatible list from the Asus website. Memory compatibility information would be appreciated.

Keep the information flowing Smirnoff

Thanks

Edit: Down loaded Man

 

[Cupra]

best looking motherboard ever built imo

 

[Smirnoff]

A nice review Smirnoff,

I am on the verge of purchasing a Rampage Extreme. Before i do can i confirm is there still an issue of incompatibility between both OCZ memory and Asus motherboard combinations? I am considering purchasing OCZ 1800/ 2000 in combination with the Rampage Extreme.

I have been unable to locate a memory compatible list from the Asus website. Memory compatibility information would be appreciated.

Keep the information flowing Smirnoff

Thanks

Edit: Down loaded Man

To be honest OCZ DDR3 isnt the best only the XMP stuff will run at its rated speeds. The normal OCZ DDR3 ( 1600Mhz, 1800MHz, 2000MHz ) will not run at its rated speeds in intel DDR3 boards.

You need to look at what your FSB will be, For 1600Mhz you'll need 400 FSB, 1800MHz you'll need 450 FSB and for 2000Mhz its 500FSB, I would got for the Corsair Dominator not the DHX as its pretty poor, The GeIL or the new G Skills DDR3 as they work well with the board. I hope to get my hands on some of the new G Skills ram and will bench it with my board soon

 

[CyZMyAssBaby]

To be honest OCZ DDR3 isnt the best only the XMP stuff will run at its rated speeds. The normal OCZ DDR3 ( 1600Mhz, 1800MHz, 2000MHz ) will not run at its rated speeds in intel DDR3 boards.

You need to look at what your FSB will be, For 1600Mhz you'll need 400 FSB, 1800MHz you'll need 450 FSB and for 2000Mhz its 500FSB, I would got for the Corsair Dominator not the DHX as its pretty poor, The GeIL or the new G Skills DDR3 as they work well with the board. I hope to get my hands on some of the new G Skills ram and will bench it with my board soon

Thanks for the information Smirnoff. I am also considering:

A-Data Extreme X PC3-12800 (1600MHz) 7-7-7-2 at 1.75-1.85V

2Gb Cellshock DDR3 (1800MHz) CL8 (8-7-6-21), 1.7-1.9V Micron 128Mx8 DDR3 chips

2GB CellShock DDR3 Micron D9JN PC3-15000 8-8-8-16 at 1.7V-2.0V. Built using Micron D9JNL chips

Edit: I will consider the Corsair 2GB DDR3 Dominator 2000C9DF Twin3X (2x1GB).

Ideally i would like to hit FSB500+ as i have also pre-ordered the new E8600 LGA775 'Wolfdale' " E0 Stepping"

Are you water cooling the NB/CPU?

 

[Smirnoff]

You'll need to watercool the NB at 500FSB+, Cellshock is the best DDR3 out at the moment

 

[CyZMyAssBaby]

You'll need to watercool the NB at 500FSB+, Cellshock is the best DDR3 out at the moment

Nice one smirnoff,

I will be water cooling NB. Thanks for the confirmation, I will be ordering the Cell Shock memory.

Thanks for the information. I will post back with results, approx 3 weeks time (delay to new house purchase and move). I have subscribed to thread will continue to read your updates and valuable information.

Thanks Smirnoff

 

[eternal_fantasy]

Thanks for the information Smirnoff. I am also considering:

A-Data Extreme X PC3-12800 (1600MHz) 7-7-7-2 at 1.75-1.85V

2Gb Cellshock DDR3 (1800MHz) CL8 (8-7-6-21), 1.7-1.9V Micron 128Mx8 DDR3 chips

2GB CellShock DDR3 Micron D9JN PC3-15000 8-8-8-16 at 1.7V-2.0V. Built using Micron D9JNL chips

Edit: I will consider the Corsair 2GB DDR3 Dominator 2000C9DF Twin3X (2x1GB).

Ideally i would like to hit FSB500+ as i have also pre-ordered the new E8600 LGA775 'Wolfdale' " E0 Stepping"

Are you water cooling the NB/CPU?

The CellShock Blue DDR3-1866 D9JNL sticks are not compatible with the Rampage Extreme. If that A-Data DDR3-1600 sticks are 2x2GB they are Samsung ICs, and they BSOD if I stress them for any more then 30 Minutes. The Dominators I think are also using Samsung IC depending on the version, 3.x are Micron, 4.x are Samsung. Don't have these modules so no idea if they will work on the RE. Your best bet are the CellShock 2x1GB DDR3-1800 Black, or the G.Skill series as they are the most compatible memory with this motherboard. The Rampage Extreme is extremely picky about what memory you run it with, but if it works it is amazing.

I have post this with much more you might need/want to know about this motherboard on another forum, so I can't be bothered to post it all over again, and the forum rules here seems to be pretty strict that I may get banned for linking elsewhere. Anyway look around, google and I'm sure you'll find them quite easily.

 

[CyZMyAssBaby]

The cell shock 2Gb Cellshock DDR3 (1800MHz) are indeed the black (heat spreaders). Will look into the MB further and memory. Cheers Eternal Fantasy

 

[eternal_fantasy]

And with that image I assume you are T_M from the other forum? /wave Otherwise you would have linked the image to the origional source to avoid complications.

 

[Smirnoff]

Nope i just used his picture as I took my board appart before i thought about taking pictures lol, As for the Cellshock memory it seems to be a issue within the BIOS Asus should fix it soon hopefully. All Intel DDR3 boards are very picky about ram the Rampage Extreme seems MUCH better than the blackops and the Asus P5E3 Premium I had so many problems getting them stable with any brand of memory.

 

[RTB]

Nice review colleague....

 

[Smirnoff]

...

- Added the memory issues the the first post

 

[roller]

rampage extreme

http://
hi this was with cellshock blues they work fine just fired it up after doing insulation very pleased withit after 3 x blackops with stability probs this is in a different class thanks sky lui

 

[Smirnoff]

Keep us posted on how you get on with that ram roller