ASUS Maximus Formula SE: X38 and DDR2 Unite!
by Rajinder Gill on November 9, 2007 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Test Setup and Overclocking Results
We decided to use our base QX6800 CPU with our standard tests run on the 9x multiplier to simulate the attractively priced Q6600 CPU and to match previous benchmark results. In this section of testing, we aim to remain within realistic cooling capacity temperatures and current CPU stepping capabilities. This better shows an overall picture of motherboard performance potential, using widely available parts. Once again, Micron D9GKX based memory modules do not show outstanding results, requiring high voltages for stability on both our P35 and X38 based boards. We decided to stick with our D9GMH based OCZ Flex 9200 modules, as they seem to perform well on current P35 and X38 motherboards.
With such a vast array of overclocking BIOS functions at our disposal, a decision was made to stick with a single operating system environment. Microsoft XP SP2 was chosen due to its maturity, taking away some of the time burden looking for possible software level conflicts that may exist on a newer OS (though we ventured to run our standard Vista test suite for the non-overclocking benchmarks). This does not mean the board cannot work with Vista at present when overclocking; we are just trying to eliminate possible downtime on non motherboard/BIOS related issues. There's also the fact that a vast majority of overclocking enthusiasts have not switched to Vista (yet).
High and medium resolution 1920x1200, 1600x1200, and 1280x1024 game benchmark tests were run in order to cross-compare CPU MHz related gains in our board specific tests. We utilize new drive images on each board in order to minimize any potential driver conflicts. Our 3DMark results are generated utilizing the standard benchmark resolution for each program. We run each benchmark five times, throw out the two low and high scores, and report the remaining score to reflect a repeatable average.
Our cooling preference for pushing past 3.6 GHz with a quad-core CPU for 24/7 use is to move to water-cooling. The following water-cooling components are used in addition to our basic test components when overclocking:
Swiftech Apogee GTX CPU water block
2x Petra Top Laing DDC Ultra water pumps in series
Swiftech Micro-Res
Thermochill PA120.3 Radiator, with 3x Panaflo 120mm fans
Danger Den 1/2" ID Tubing
We limited our standard Vista test suite to a few benchmark results to indicate the general performance of this board when compared to current P35 motherboards. Since ASUS Maximus Formula was designed for the overclocker and gamer in mind, not your typical YouTube viewer, we decided to take a different look at this board and focus on overclocking for this particular article with results compared to the DFI P35 motherboard. We will expand our benchmark results to include direct comparisons to other X38 motherboards in a future roundup.
| ASUS Maximus Formula Standard Testbed |
|
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (QX6800 at 9x multiplier and OC Test) Quad Core, 2.4GHz, 8MB Unified Cache, 9x Multiplier, 1066FSB |
| CPU Voltage | 1.2500V |
| Cooling | Tuniq Tower 120 |
| Power Supply | OCZ Pro Xstream 1000W |
| Memory | OCZ Flex PC2-9200 (4x1GB) |
| Memory Settings | 4-4-4-12 (DDR2-1066) |
| Video Cards | MSI HD 2900XT for P35 comparison, MSI 8800 Ultra for OC Tests |
| Video Drivers | AMD 7.10, NVIDIA 163.75 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital 7200RPM 750GB SATA 3/Gbps 16MB Buffer |
| Optical Drives | Plextor PX-755A |
| Case | CoolerMaster Stacker 830 Evo |
| BIOS | ASUS 0505 |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows XP Professional SP2 |
| . | |
We decided to use our base QX6800 CPU with our standard tests run on the 9x multiplier to simulate the attractively priced Q6600 CPU and to match previous benchmark results. In this section of testing, we aim to remain within realistic cooling capacity temperatures and current CPU stepping capabilities. This better shows an overall picture of motherboard performance potential, using widely available parts. Once again, Micron D9GKX based memory modules do not show outstanding results, requiring high voltages for stability on both our P35 and X38 based boards. We decided to stick with our D9GMH based OCZ Flex 9200 modules, as they seem to perform well on current P35 and X38 motherboards.
With such a vast array of overclocking BIOS functions at our disposal, a decision was made to stick with a single operating system environment. Microsoft XP SP2 was chosen due to its maturity, taking away some of the time burden looking for possible software level conflicts that may exist on a newer OS (though we ventured to run our standard Vista test suite for the non-overclocking benchmarks). This does not mean the board cannot work with Vista at present when overclocking; we are just trying to eliminate possible downtime on non motherboard/BIOS related issues. There's also the fact that a vast majority of overclocking enthusiasts have not switched to Vista (yet).
High and medium resolution 1920x1200, 1600x1200, and 1280x1024 game benchmark tests were run in order to cross-compare CPU MHz related gains in our board specific tests. We utilize new drive images on each board in order to minimize any potential driver conflicts. Our 3DMark results are generated utilizing the standard benchmark resolution for each program. We run each benchmark five times, throw out the two low and high scores, and report the remaining score to reflect a repeatable average.
Our cooling preference for pushing past 3.6 GHz with a quad-core CPU for 24/7 use is to move to water-cooling. The following water-cooling components are used in addition to our basic test components when overclocking:
Swiftech Apogee GTX CPU water block
2x Petra Top Laing DDC Ultra water pumps in series
Swiftech Micro-Res
Thermochill PA120.3 Radiator, with 3x Panaflo 120mm fans
Danger Den 1/2" ID Tubing
We limited our standard Vista test suite to a few benchmark results to indicate the general performance of this board when compared to current P35 motherboards. Since ASUS Maximus Formula was designed for the overclocker and gamer in mind, not your typical YouTube viewer, we decided to take a different look at this board and focus on overclocking for this particular article with results compared to the DFI P35 motherboard. We will expand our benchmark results to include direct comparisons to other X38 motherboards in a future roundup.
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mbf - Friday, November 9, 2007 - link
...handle DDR2 ECC memory? I for one would like to know. ASUS seems to be of two (or possibly more) minds on the matter stating conflicting information all around the product pages for their respective X38 board offerings. Then again, the P5W DH Deluxe still seems like a smart choice, considering the very small performance delta between the i975x and later chipsets. Also, ASUS claims Penryn support for several of their "mature" offerings, including the P5W DH Deluxe.AnnihilatorX - Friday, November 9, 2007 - link
Personally I would recommend everyone including enthusiasts to not to buy over-priced performance RAMs.And of course looking at price at the moment to choose DDR2 over DDR3
A low latency low frequency RAM are potentially *much* cheaper than a high frequency one. The performance discrepancy is at most 5% which relates to perhaps 2-3FPS in a game. This has probably the lowest cost-to-performance ratio of a system component.
steve4717 - Sunday, May 16, 2010 - link
when will the new bios be ready, and i exspect it, this time to make it possible so it can see, ddr2 1066 at long last.nleksan - Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - link
I have been looking for a motherboard for a recently acquired (given to me free of charge) set of somewhat older but almost entirely unused (i.e. no more than 100hrs use on anything, most have around 20-40hrs; came from 9 different full-or-partial PC's) hardware including:- Core2Duo E8600 (under 20hrs use, known to run stable at 4.5Ghz on air, 4.9Ghz on water)
- 4x2GB G.Skill DDR2-1066/1150 4-4-4-9
- 4x1GB OCZ DDR2-1066 4-4-4-12
- 3x 250GB Samsung Spinpoint SATA3Gbps HDD's
- 2x 150GB WD VR SATA3Gbps 10krpm HDD's
- 1x WD WD800BB 80GB SATA3Gbps HDD
- 4x WD2500JB 250GB SATA HDD's
- 3x WD Caviar Blue 320GB (AAKS) SATA3Gbps HDD's (repurposed for new X79 build)
- 2x Seagate 7200.7 160GB E-IDE HDD's
- 3x Hitachi Deskstar 320GB SATA3Gbps HDD's
- Enermax 690W High-Efficiency PSU
- Antec SOHO Server Case with 8x3.5" bays/5x5.25" bays (fits a Xigmatek 4x3.5-in-3x5.25 with 120x25mm fan converter nicely, for a total of 12xHDD's) and ripe for some heavy modifications
OR
- Thermaltake XASER V Limited Edition with 5x3.5" bays + 6x5.25" bays
OR
- Buy a new sub-$100 case for this (Rosewill ThorV2 would be nice for price, Antec 1100/1200/P283
- DD Maze6 CPU Block
- 2x DD Maze6 GPU Blocks
- 3x Swiftech MCW82 GPU Blocks
- Laing DDC3.25 + 2x Laing D5 Vario Pumps
- Swiftech MCRES-Rev2
- HWL Black Ice GTX 360 rad
- HWL Black Ice GTS 280 rad
- 4x Misc 120-240 Rads
- 11x Delta Fans (7x 120x38mm 2200-4500rpm up to 133cfm 14.25mmH2O, 4x 120x25 2400-4800rpm up to 155cfm 15.2mmH2O)
- 5x NIDEC Fans (120x38mm 0.98amps 11.5-13.2V, up to 4250rpm 151cfm 22.32mmH2O)
- >50x Misc 80x15/25/38mm, 92x25/38mm, 120x12/25/38mm, 140x25mm Fans
I have been looking for two things: a Motherboard and a GPU (or pair of GPU's), and while this will be a Home Server/Media Server, it will also function as a F@H box. I am thinking that 2x 9800GTX+'s or 2x GTX260 216core's in SLI would suffice, but perhaps not? I don't know much about the C2D/C2Q era MB's/GPU's....
I have been looking at the following boards:
- Asus P5Q Premium (huge amount of connections, would allow 4x GPU's for F@H or 3xGPU + 1x RAID Card)
- Asus Maximus Extreme
- Asus Rampage Extreme
For GPU's, I've been really considering the following, from lowest cost to highest:
- 2-3x 8800GTS 512MB (G92)
- 3x 8800GTX's
- 2-3x 9800GT's
- 2-3x 9800GTX+'s
- 2x 9800GTX2's
- 2-3x GTX260(216core)-to-GTX295's
- 2-3x GTX460's-to-GTX480's
Anyone remember enough about this older hardware to help me out?