Anyone Asus Rampage Formula owners here?

[flylow]

Is the BIOS chip soldered in on the Rampage Formula?

Way back the power went out while I was just about done reinstalling windows and after that I was a bit apprehensive every time I flashed the BIOS on my old TUSL2-C with it's soldered in BIOS chip. The TUSL2-C was a good MB but the EPoX boards I have owned were my favorites although very plain Jane by the looks of the latest high end boards. I bought a spare chip for my 4PCA3+ before I modded the BIOS to update the Highpoint driver. I seem to be hanging on to my builds a lot longer than in the past so buying a spare BIOS chip for just in case is not a big deal. Time to retire the old EPoX 4PCA3+ (almost like losing an old reliable friend) and move into dual core territory. I am out of the loop since it has been a few years since I built a box but am having fun researching parts for a new build. I just found out several weeks ago that EPoX closed shop. My short list so far is limited to either the Rampage Formula or the Maximus II Formula. 99% chance I will not be doing dual video cards so I am not overly concerned about Crossfire. The Maximus II Formula does have dual BIOS chips so even if they are soldered recovery should be easy. I have not found out if the Rampage Formula has 16 phase or 8 phase power. Personally I like the looks of the Rampage Formula a little better but I really do not spend much time looking at my motherboard so it does not matter.

Just because I am a grandpa does not mean I have to build and use a grandpa computer...

[MUff1N]

Don't feel alone here, I'm also a Grandfather with a performance machine!~
I would say Now the Motherboard is one of the Most Important Parts of the system, so choose wisely!!!
When I upgraded I couldn't believe just how much faster & more powerful it was!!! Things that took 30 mins before now only take 3, and games I play are as smooth as butter!!!

Bump to someone else that knows more than me about these boards...

[cloasters]

Welcome to AOA, flylow!

I'm pretty sure that at least one Member is using the Rampage, hopefully they'll chime into this thread.
Great Scott, MUff1N is a grandfather? I have to raise my hand, I have plenty of grey hair too.

[flylow]

Originally Posted by MUff1N

Bump to someone else that knows more than me about these boards...

I don't know that much but I am good at searching to find out. This board seems to be a lot less populated these days than back when EPoX was alive.

My first windows box had an Intel motherboard, replaced that with an Abit that got the dreaded "Mad Cap' disease. Then went with an Asus. Ended up trying the EPoXs and liked them alot. Now back doing research to find out who makes the better MB this product cycle.

My old 4pca3+ 3.2 northwood with a X850 XT PE is still kickin and plays UT3 pretty good but I am wanting more speed for divx conversion and hopefully photo processing will bet a good boost too. Almost bought a HD 3870 AGP card but decided it was time to start building a dual Core box. I am not into overclocking but it seems to me that the highend overclocking MBs are built with a bit better parts or should be anyway.

Probably will just buy a MB this month and stick it in the closet and pick up the rest of the parts when I find good prices. DDR2 memory is very inexpensive right now. Hoping the price will drop on the WD VelociRaptor when it comes time to put the pieces together.

I have learned a lot lurking at several different boards in the past week, a lot of improvements since my last build. I have fixed a lot of computers and put together a few out of old parts since then but just have not kept up with the latest. Looks as though, on the new Asus boards that if your BIOS update goes awry that you can load the BIOS on a USB thumbdrive and plug it in and it will find it and load it for you.

Do you know of any other new tricks I missed out on? I am always learning new things when I start researching parts for a new build.

[flylow]

Originally Posted by cloasters

Welcome to AOA, flylow!

Thanks for the welcome, it has been a long time since I was here. Came in again several weeks ago to try and find out which MB to buy since EPoX went belly up.


I still have a EP-3pta that I had up and running last year before I moved. Ran pretty doggone good too with my old p3 1.4s and a Voodoo 5500 card! Eventually I will put it back together just to play a few old Glide games, the original UT is my favorite but it just does not look good at all in directx. I gave my 4PEA to my son 4 1/2 years ago when I bought the 4PCA3+ and it is used every day. I have a 4PCA3+ revision 1.2 still sitting in the closet I picked up cheap (for a just in case scenario) from the EPoX online store several months before they folded.

I hope the new Asus boards are up to snuff, I never cared for my tusl2c that much. Looks as though the Rampage Formula or the Maximus II might be decent boards to get me through until DDR3 comes down in price. I don't think I will be researching the upcoming Nehalems until they mature and prices drop.

Kinda miss EPoX.

Ramble mode off...

[ccperf721p]

Don't own either of the board you are looking at, but I do have a Maximus Formula X38 board.

The bios chip on either of the boards you mentioned will be socketed and not soldered. The Rampage formula will be 8 phase power. Never had any issues with 8 phase (or 4 phase power for that matter) even with subzero quad core overclocking..

[flylow]

Originally Posted by ccperf721p

The bios chip on either of the boards you mentioned will be socketed and not soldered.

Thank you for the reply, finally found an obscure review that had a pic that I downloaded and zoomed in on. A bit fuzzy but certainly appeared to be a socket.

I posted the question at two other boards that have a lot of Asus Rampage users but did not get one reply. AOA Forums is still has the best members.

[weldzilla]

It's been a long time. you were the first person I did NOT hit it off with in here. Got me a stinging letter from Daniel!! But I did love my Epox Boards!! They were great.

Now onto new and better. you know dollar for dollar I think the Best board out there is the P5KE-wifi from Asus.

I think you should spend the money on an E8400 wolfdale processor.
you just got to use G.Skill 6400HZ memory if you want serious speed from your system and even if you just want a good stable and fast set up.
They come in 1 gig sticks and the board will easily run 4 of them but does great with just 2.

I like this board and chipset cuz it is an easy set up to cool. Just something about this chipset.

I use a Scythe 1100 rev B. it is in-expensive and cools really well!!
Check out SVC for a nice selection of cpu coolers.

Get yourselff a good PSU I am using the Corsair 620HX, A PC&powercooling 750, I have a Rosewill 700+ watts also with great rails.

Put a minimum of a 90 mm fan blowing on your NB and memory and you will have it made.

This board has no problems running dividers with the G.Skill 6400HZ memory

As far as vid cards go well Nvidia Flavor or ATI is more of a personal choice. Right now you can get the 9800GTX below 180 with a mail in rebate at the egg.
It is a steller performer.
The new ATI 4850 and 4870 are no slouches either. Any of these will absolutley floor you after the 850XT and the P-4

Now. If you are going to go with a Quad core then I recommend the P5E
from Asus. As the X38 chipset is very robust. Again I would run everything else the same. Especially the memory.

If you feel you need to run 2gb mem sticks the the G.Skill 8500PQ will work for you but, it will only run dependably on the 1:1 and timings must be kept loose. 5-5-5-15. It will seem like a rocket after what you are used to but....

I would also recommend liquid cooling if you feel you need a quad core..
they make heat...

OK well that is my .02 worth and then some.

Spend the money right the first time and you will be happy with your build. If you don't you will in here wanting to know how come I can run my machines daily at 4500mhz and why you can't!!


WZ

[flylow]

Originally Posted by weldzilla

It's been a long time. you were the first person I did NOT hit it off with in here. Got me a stinging letter from Daniel!! But I did love my Epox Boards!! They were great.

LOL, not everyone gets along online or even in person. Things seem to work out as long as people do not hold grudges. Shoot, that was over 3 grandkids ago. Life is short.

I peered at a couple of your posts, always liked the cases you built/ modded.

Ordered A Rampage Formula a couple days ago, lots of neat things in the BIOS for my first attempts at overclocking. This old man might be able to learn something. My final decision was based on I might want dual video cards before my next build. Looked at the P5E Deluxe (is flashable to the Rampage Formula) but decided that since I found the Rampage Formula on a good sale I would go ahead and get it. Going to be a slow build this time, a part or 2 here and there - mostly sales and specials this time.

Looking at the Thermalright IFX-14 or Ultra-120 EXTREME for CPU cooling.

The G.Skill 8500 and the OCZ Platinum 8500 seems to be highly recommended for the x38/x48 chipsets. RAM is pretty cheap right now so I probably will go with 4G just in case I decide to try out Vista while waiting for windows7. Already have a new power supply, Corsair TX650w already here and the Rampage Formula is in Portland OR so will deliver it tomorrow. Hoping to go with a ATI flavor 4870 but I might settle for a 4850, will depend on price and availability when I get that far. Probably will go with the e8400 after the next price drop.

I almost bought a 3850 AGP for my 4pca3+ but finally talked myself out of it and decided to do a system upgrade. 3850 AGP would not be that much faster than my x850 xt pe AGP is with the 3.2 Northy. I can play UT3 with around 40 fps, have not tried Crysis but I do not think it would play very well. Mainly want to speed up video coding and pic processing but not much point, IMO, for me to build a box that does not game decent.

Going to recycle my 2 SATA drives for awhile WD 74G and WD 400G so I am just a video card, CPU and memory away. Not sure if I can go with my old PATA DVD burner but SATA ones are pretty cheap these days.

I am definitely keeping systems longer than in the old days, 4 and a half years for my 4pca+, my son is still running my old 4pea. I have more miles on it than any other motherboard I have owned. I hope I am half as happy with my new one.

Have a good one, keep building those cool cases!

[MUff1N]

Hey flylow,
I too come from the P4 & AGP system before the one I have now.
Let me tell you first hand that your new system is going to Blow You Away!!!
Things like encoding that would take an hour or the P4 now only takes 15mins!
My systems imaging backup used to take around 40 mins, now it takes 3!
So this is a HUGE jump in performance and speed.

Games? Oh Yea!!! That is my first love & these new systems play even the newest ones very smoothly...after some Overclocking & Tweaking of course.
The graphics now are so incredible and life like its unreal.

Yea, this is a great bunch here and very knowledgeable.
They sure helped me out so that my system runs very well.

[flylow]

Originally Posted by MUff1N

Hey flylow,
I too come from the P4 & AGP system before the one I have now.
Let me tell you first hand that your new system is going to Blow You Away!!!

Only thing that has kept me from upgrading is the same problem that most people have - money. Just have to do it anyway but a bit at a time. Hard to wait, just like a kid at Christmas.

I will give my old system to a friend who is still running a an old P4 1.7, never sell my old stuff just end up giving it away. Trouble is I end up installing everything for others and doing tech support for free. I do not know much but I am good at looking things up. It always takes me weeks of research before I start buying parts but I have not had the problems a lot of folks do.

Have to admit that I enjoy building computers as much, if not more, than playing games.

[MUff1N]

I really don't enjoy building or upgrading as much as using it.
I do the work because I can and it saves a ton of money and time.

[weldzilla]

Well I think you are going to be just completely giddy over your new system flylow. It will help you to FlyhigH. I have some goodies sitting at the ups hub in portland today too. I work about a block away from there I wish i would have stopped in and tried to get my stuff.

Remember with the 8000 and 8500 memories you will be severely limited on experimenting with thimings and dividers. This is my biggest reason for running with the 6400HZ with it you can go 1:1 extremely tight or as high as 1300DDR and still be tight by pc 8000 or 8500 standards.

Have a look with an e8400 on the p5e.
See with the 6400HZ if heat holds you back you can still tweek the memory to the out reaches of sanity. The pc8000 or 8500 sticks won't take you here!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...killdammit.jpg

and if you do reach some screaming clocks the 6400 HZ will just scream along with you!!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...la/bios607.jpg

you see you can achieve very good clocks with the G.Skill 8500PQ but you must use loose timings and it pretty much only works when running your mem 1:1


Note that cpu score. I will run a shot at 4500 mhz with the 6400HZ running alot faster and compare the 2 cpu scores.

[weldzilla]

Now for these tests I am running 4 sticks of 6400HZ giving me 4 gigs
This memory does not limit you cuz all slots are filled.

Look and you will see that I ran at the same 1:1 with this 6400HZ but I am able to tighten the timings dramatically even at this high clock speed
which yielkds me a cpu score of 26,299 which just wastes by 784 points ad even though the graphics score was lower the overall score is way higher.

Now check out the difference when I set the divider to 5:6
with tight timings Now my system with the 6400HZ just absolutely crushes the same setup with the 8500 mem.
As you can see it beats the CPU score by almost 3,000!!! and overall score by 8,000.

you will be happy with your set up as compared to anything you have ever had but as you can see you will not be getting the full potential that is there with the wrong memory.

G.Skill 6400HZ is the best memory I have ever used. It is the most flexible memory I have ever used. The choice is your ultimately but now you are armed with a little more info.

When you get it together let us know and we'll go throught the tweeking process with you!!

WZ

[flylow]

Originally Posted by weldzilla

When you get it together let us know and we'll go throught the tweeking process with you!!

WZ

First disappointment already, BIOS chip is soldered on the motherboard. Really prefer a socket, nice to have a spare.

Going to be at least 2 months before I get all the parts, will be hard waiting but oh well. Will give me plenty of time to learn a bit more about all the new BIOS settings in the ROG boards.

[weldzilla]

What parts do you lack at this time??

WZ

[cloasters]

TUSL2-C. Was that the m'board that used the very expensive Memory, the stuff that Intel tried to create a market for, then gave up on about two years later? Sorry, too lazy to "Google" it.

[flylow]

Originally Posted by cloasters

TUSL2-C. Was that the m'board that used the very expensive Memory, the stuff that Intel tried to create a market for, then gave up on about two years later? Sorry, too lazy to "Google" it.

No that was the model that replaced the very popular cusl2 when the P3 Tuatalin processors came out. I think the P4 socket 423 that were out before the 478 are the ones you are thinking about.

Came back to edit, just remembered intel called that memory rambus. There was a bit of controversy if I recall correctly that ended up with intel and I think gateway being sued because the first p4s were slower than the faster p3s. The friend of mine who will be getting my old stuff is running one of those early p4s. I understand that you had to have a p4 faster than 2GHZ to beat out the fastest p3. Think they are right because my old p3 1.4s is faster than my friends p4 - I think it is 1.7GHZ. Still going to put that old box back together one of these days when I have an extra case and monitor to use for it. Original UT on a voodoo 5500 will bring back a few memories. I read that more people are on the servers for the original than for the later versions.

[flylow]

Originally Posted by weldzilla

What parts do you lack at this time??

WZ

Way too many, have to buy a CPU, memory, video card and maybe a SATA burner if I cannot install winxp off of a PATA. I am wondering if it is possible to install winxp off of an USB flash drive. Might just give it a try just to find out. Always takes me awhile to get all my parts, money seems to a problem for most people. I have done upgrades slowly before, just a bit harder because of upgrading everything all at once. Hopefully will not have to buy everything at once again for a few years. I have rebates due to be paid to me next month that will cover some of the cost so I should have it up and running early to mid September.