Asus Rampage Formula (X48) Thread

[Robilar]

Looks like I am going to have to take it apart then. The P5E ran about 45C under load.

At least I know I don't have to reload windows which is a relief.

[Robilar]

Here is a bit of a work log.

Taking the nb and sb off is quite easy. In fact, if I had roomI might consider going with an aftermarket solution on the nb (my sound card limits the space quite a bit).

there are the usual crap thermal "tissues" used. I cleaned off the heads and replaced it with thermal paste.

I also added cardboard washers on the backplate to add torque to the screws.

end result is that under orthos load, temps now do not exceed 55C on the nb. I'm still not happy as my prior P5E X38 ran mid 40's but it will do until I figure out something better.

[Robilar]

A few more pics

[ParaSwarm]

Nice pics. I didn't think to add washers to add torque, that's a good idea.

I attached some pictures as well. I removed the whole assembly.

In the first picture, you can see where they put those crappy thermal pads. The next two pictures are fully cleaned heatsinks and heatspreaders. The fourth are the NB & SB applied with OCZ Freeze (good stuff), and in the fifth picture you'll see I applied a small dab of thermal paste to each MOSFET.

Like Robilar said, the whole process was pretty simple. Most of it is just squeezing the black knobs on the back to release the whole contraption.

You know what though? Your guys' NB temperatures are way better than mine right now. I'm sitting at 59C idle with NB voltage at 1.55V (with a 450 FSB.) On stock settings, with NB at 1.26V, my NB temperature was 40C idle and 45C load. I'd hate to see what my temps would be like now if I hadn't reapplied the TIM...

And yes, definitely set the NB voltage manually on the Rampage. This board is VERY generous with Auto voltages, especially with the NB.

[Robilar]

I set my nb voltage to 1.27 in the bios and my temps are now max of 52C with orthos running.


I'm currently running 9x400 as well so its well above stock settings (at 1.208 vcore in windows)

It seems perfectly stable.

Take into consideration that the sb auto voltage is only 1.06v.

If it passes a couple of hours of orthos I can't see any reason why to raise it back up.

Btw, my room ambient is about 27C at this point (two hd4870's and my office is top floor of my house and its 32C outside. my poor central air can't keep up)

[We Gone]

Originally Posted by Robilar

What kind of temps are you getting on the nb and what do you have your nb voltage set to? I turned it down to 1.41 which is stable but temps are 53-55C (mind you my office ambient is hot today, around 25C).

I guess I got lucky.. My Nb temps @ 1.45v run from low 30c to only as high as 36c. this is with a 120 side fan A900 case room temps 22c to 24c.. with the CPU @ 4.0 and NB @ 1.62v they run as high as 45c.

[Robilar]

Lucky is not the word I would use. thats lower in temps than any X38 or X48 board I have seen.

Mind you, you are only running one card. Two cards in crossfire runs right through the nb, increasing temps a fair bit.

Also, now that the ceramic paste I used is cured after several hours of orthos, my load temps have dropped to 48C and idle low 40's. not a lot better but at least some improvement.

[ParaSwarm]

Has anyone here successfully enabled Loadline Calibration with the Rampage on a 45nm CPU with no instability/power issues? According to the Anandtech review, loadline calibration is best left disabled for a 45nm CPU due to problems, but they're also using a pretty old BIOS revision in this review. I'm getting a pretty bad VDROOP problem (losing .05 volts under load) and I really don't want to raise my voltage any higher for the one of my four cores that keeps failing Prime95.

Any words on this?

Edit: Loading up prebeta BIOS 0406 which supposedly fixes this (thanks Robilar), I'll let you know how it goes...

[RPIJG]

I read that and threw it away. I've always used LLC, I think it was the hardware canucks review that shows how smoooooooth the Vcore is with LLC enabled.

[We Gone]

Not a 45nm, but I have been running LLC from the start with no issues. I see less of a drop in Everest readings with it enabled.