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 **

 

[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

 

[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

 

[Smirnoff]

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

 

[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.

 

[Smirnoff]

...

- Added the memory issues the the first post

 

[Smirnoff]

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

 

[Smirnoff]

Good to hear CyZMyAssBaby I'll hopefully have some of the new G Skills kits to test in my board soon, Will post some results today hopefully.

 

[Smirnoff]

Smirnoff/ roller

Does the RampEX MB have any issues with over volting memory?

I've not noticed any, But i've only had to use a max of 1.9v so far.

 

[Smirnoff]

If you use either photo bucket or image shack. when posting click on insert image. Copy and paste the url of hosted image and that should insert your attached image with your post.

look forward to further updates and OC of both the CPU and CellShocks with pi runs

Smirnoff/Roller

Regarding the Fujitsu ML cap at the rear of the CPU socket, what type of back plate are you guys using to avoid crushing the ML cap? Does Asus provide a back plate with the motherboard as standard? As i will be water cooling using my existing Dtek Fusion.

I just used the backing plate that came with my Dtek Fusion, I just took extra care, turning each screw a little untill it was tight. When i do the final build on my system i'll cut out the back of the plate around the cap. If you dont want to cut the plate have a search around for the " crossbow backplate "

 

[Smirnoff]

Like this roller

 

[Smirnoff]

I'm having some problems getting it running, I think i may have some faulty sticks. I'll try and get a mini review posted monday or tuesday.

 

[Smirnoff]

May replace my blackops with this motherboard as long as my cell shocks (blue) run ok with it.

I've been throught 4 blackops so far, The current one stalls detecting IDE when useing a 4870... Post fine with other cards and the 4870 works in other boards, Blackops is good but it can be flaky at times.

 

[Smirnoff]

New Swiftech chipset block soon to be released

 

[Smirnoff]

Its just a northbridge block that replaces the stock Asus one, I'll try find out when its released over here

 

[Smirnoff]

Cellshock probably make the best DDR3 sticks at the moment. There DDR2 range was legendary Get the board first as you can always DSR the ram back if you dont like it.

 

[Smirnoff]

Add me to MSN, Its in my trust.