ASUS Rampage II Extreme (Intel X58)
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Date: 25.01.2009 |
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BIOS
The BIOS of ASUS Rampage II Extreme is based on the AMI BIOS version, and its capacity is 16 Mbit.
All the memory settings are gathered in the overclocking tools section:
There is also a parameter that affects the performance - setting the memory operating frequency.
Now move on to the section to do with the system monitoring.
This section is really powerful. First, the board is able monitoring the current temperature of the CPU and the system, the temperature of the chipset (both on the north and south bridges) as well as three temperatures from additional thermal sensors. The user gets the opportunity to keep track of the temperature of any system components within reach of these sensors (the sensors are available in the package bundle).
Secondly, the board monitors all whatever voltages of the system:
Thirdly, the board monitors the speed of all the eight(!) fans which can be plugged in,
and controls their speed using the Q-Fan feature:
We also add that you can do the system monitoring from within Windows with the PC Probe2 utility. In practice, it is possible to acquire information using the LCD Poster module. In practice, this looks like this: with a joystick (installed on the board), the user selects the required parameter and fixes it with a "Confirm" button. In the end, the LCD Poster will display the info from a selected sensor. By the way, the latest BIOS version allows selecting parameters with a keyboard:
Finally, it is possible to keep track of the monitoring data with the multifunctional utility ASUS AI Suite:
It should be noted that the user gets access to all the technologies supported by modern Intel processors:
It is also possible to display the BIOS settings in multiple languages:
Another point to note is the support for the MyLogo 3, a feature for changing the boot-up image (POST-screen), as well as the CrashFree BIOS 3 which allows restoring the damaged BIOS firmware using the image on a diskette, flash disk, or a CD.
The BIOS version can be updated in a number of ways. First, make use of the AFUDOS (DOS) and ASUS Update (Windows) utilities. If needed, it is possible to restore the BIOS image from a backup chip:
The user can resort to the EZ Flash 2 utility integrated into the BIOS.
We note support for the power-saving technology EPU. The software part is represented by the EPU 6-Engine utility,
and the hardware part - with a chip near the CPU connector:
In the end, the defenders of polar bears will be delighted.
Note the OC Profile technology which allows saving all the BIOS settings into memory and loading them on demand. ASUS Rampage II Extreme supports eight (!) independent profiles:
Overclocking and stability
Prior to moving to overclocking, let's look into the power converter. It uses an 16-phase power scheme in which there are two 270 mkF and twelve 560 mkF capacitors.
Along with that, the PWM chip uses a solid-state 1000 mkF capacitor made by Fujitsu:
The same capacitor is used in the PWM for the memory modules. By the way, the power converter of the memory controller (integrated into the CPU) is made following the three-phase scheme, as are the PWM of the north bridge and memory modules.
The overclocking tools are gathered in the "Extreme Tweaker" section.
ASUS Rampage II Extreme supports the Intel X.M.P., CPU LevelUP, Memory LevelUP, and ROG Memory Profile technologies (the former D.O.C.P. or DRAM O.C. Profile).
The Intel XMP( Extended Memory Profiles) technologies are some sort of an analog to the NVIDIA EPP (Enhanced Performance Profiles) technology whose idea is in the additional information written into the SPD of the memory modules, where guaranteed stable memory operation parameters are embedded. Each set includes information on the memory frequency, voltage, respective latency timings, and most importantly, the sub-timings. Therefore, overclocking with the Super MemProfile is performed based on the memory capabilities: the memory frequency is set to the maximum possible level and then, with the available multipliers, the FSB (and thus the CPU clock speed) is set.
The idea behind the ROG Memory Profile feature is about overclocking the RAM primarily and only then in turning the QPI bus speed and the CPU multiplier frequency. Unlike the previous mode, the RAM modules may not support the Intel XMP technology, but the beginner user can get absolutely the same performance gain. As an example, we take overclocking the memory to DDR3-1333. In this case, the CPU multiplier is reduced to 16, while the basic QPI speed is raised to 166 MHz. On overclocking the memory to DDR3-1600, the following happens: the multiplier is reduced to 14, while the QPI speed is raised to 200 MHz. In the former case, the CPU clock speed remains nominal (2.66 GHz), and in the latter - is raised to 2.8 GHz.
As regards the CPU LevelUP and Memory LevelUP features, they occur much more frequently on ASUS boards, and we covered them repeatedly. We note that ASUS has developed a new utility which gives access to this feature right from within Windows:
Anyway, confirmed overclockers prefer tuning all the settings on their own. So, let's list all the respective features in sequence. First off, ASUS Rampage II Extreme allows adjusting the QPI bus speed within 100 to 500 MHz in 1 MHz increments. Of convenience is that you can enter the desired FSB value from the keyboard.
Remaining overclocking tools:
| Motherboard |
ASUS Rampage II Extreme |
| CPU multiplier adjustable |
+ |
| QPI adjustment |
within 100 to 500 MHz (1) |
| Vcore adjustment |
within 0.85V to 2.5V (0.00625V) |
| Vmem adjustment |
within 1.5 to 2.5V (0.01325V) |
| Vqpi-dram adjustment |
within 1.2 to 2.5V (0.00625 V) |
| Vioh adjustment |
within 1.1 to 2.2V (0.01325V) |
| Vsb adjustment |
within 1.1 to 2.0V (0.01325V) |
| Vpll adjustment |
within 1.8 to 2.5V (0.01325V) |
| PCI-E adjustment |
within 100MHz to 200 MHz (1) |
Now on to the practical overclocking. ASUS Rampage II Extreme has demonstrated the following results: a stable operation at QPI = 212 MHz with a Bloomfield processor.
This result can be regarded as very good since the QPI bus multiplier and the multiplier of the memory controller offered nominal values. The problem is that in using the engineering sample of I7-940 or I7-920 the Rampage II Extreme does not allow changing these multipliers. But using a retail CPU the user can reduce the multipliers and attain much higher QPI bus speeds.
Going on with the topic of overclocking, we note the new proprietary overclocking utility TurboV:
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