I'm so torn!!! Which Asus board to get!!!

mattspalace · Jul 6, 2008

Sigh - alright boys, I've decided I'll go ahead and upgrade...again... :beer:

I've got my sights set on one of these two boards. 1. The Rampage Formula; 2. The Maximus II Formula.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131284

or........

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131319

I love all the features provided on the Maximus II and it just looks like a great board with so much attention to detail. BUT the Maximus II is a P45 chipset and will only do x8 in crossfire mode versus the x16 provides with the X48 chipset equipped Rampage Formula. The price difference is only about $20 so I'm not too concerned there.
I also don't really have any plans to go crossfire, but is there a big diff between x8 and x16??? I've read about differences but nothing firm. I'd hate to change my mind about crossfire and then kick my own arse for making the wrong decision on the mobo.

Whatcha guys think? Please, before you give your opinion, do a little reading and give me your educated answer. I don't want "get the Rampage cuz it's got an X48 chipset and it's way better dude". That doesn't help.

I also can't find any reviews on that Maximus II board.. Guess it's still a little early.

This board will be paired with a Q9450 that will be arriving soon.

Gautam · Jul 6, 2008

I don't blame ya for being torn, if I were in the same position I have no idea what I'd do. CF is much faster on X48.

P45 might be a little better for FSB. I bet you'll be quite pleased with either.

nd4spdbh2 · Jul 6, 2008

if i am not mistaken the p45 is pcie 2.0 .... so even at "only" 8x your looking at the bandwidth provided by a single pcie 16x 1.1 slot... and current cards dont come close to saturating the bandwidth of a pcie 16x 1.1 slot let alone pcie 2.0 16x...

Shiggity · Jul 6, 2008

nd4spdbh2 said:
if i am not mistaken the p45 is pcie 2.0 .... so even at "only" 8x your looking at the bandwidth provided by a single pcie 16x 1.1 slot... and current cards dont come close to saturating the bandwidth of a pcie 16x 1.1 slot let alone pcie 2.0 16x...

I thought the new cards were getting close to saturating the 16 1.1 slot.

Talk is that ATI's new 2x GPU card will fully saturate it. (The 4870x2 coming out sometime in August?)

meionm · Jul 6, 2008

Tweaktown compared crossfire performance on x48 and p45 boards. Though with gigabyte boards. I don't really know how accurate is that.

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1472/1/intel_p45_vs_x48_crossfire_performance/index.html

nd4spdbh2 · Jul 6, 2008

Shiggity said:
I thought the new cards were getting close to saturating the 16 1.1 slot.

Talk is that ATI's new 2x GPU card will fully saturate it. (The 4870x2 coming out sometime in August?)

that might be true... i could see a dual gpu on one pcb type card getting very close if not oversaturating a pcie 1.1 slot... but i know for a fact that any of the single gpu solutions arnt there yet... considering that a G80 8800gts 640 is only about 10% bottlenecked by a 4x pcie 1.1 slot and a 16x slot has 400% more bandwidth than a 4x ... granted a g80 8800gts 640 is not top of the line any more but we still havnt come that far along in technology in single card solutions... i will say we are close to probably double the bandwidth usage with modern single cards, and when you put 2 of thoes gpus on one slot well ya your going to get very close if not over the max bandwidth.

jonspd · Jul 7, 2008

Y not the p5q deluxe? would save some $ and there are doing really nice AFAIK

dribblesnort · Jul 7, 2008

I just bought the Rampage on Friday to replace a DFI X38 board. If you're not going to go for TWO 4870X2 in Crossfire, the Maximus is probably your best bet.

mattspalace · Jul 7, 2008

Thanks for the input fellas. I should probably add that P5Q Dlx to my short list as well. Wonder why no new Abit boards have been released??

glock19owner · Jul 7, 2008

My vote is for the rampage...love this board...the best mb I have ever owned...

The power phase is pure bliss...the core voltage never drops...solid rails all around...

BIOS is so easy its unreal...made for all types...newbies to expert BIOS tweakers...

Within hours of getting it, I had the ballistix's running at a stable 1300Mhz (2.48v) in VU...havent been able to even come close to topping the board out with this CPU...hopefully with the 6700 comming this week will give it somewhat of a run...

I had a p5kc for the first 2 weeks had nothing but issue with it...the rampage is what replaced it...havent looked back since...

Bad thing is...the rampage was my first choice and I kick myself for not going with my first choice now that I have it...would of saved a lot of money and time ordering this board instead of the p5kc...

mattspalace · Jul 7, 2008

That's good info, thanks glock

BLOOP! · Jul 7, 2008

I'll vote for the Maximus 2. It pushes above 500 FSB easily with less volts that also means it runs a lot cooler you'd never see it near 50. The board also has zero vDroop with load line enabled.

But if you're going CF then thats a different story

mattspalace · Jul 7, 2008

Bloop - how do you like the board overall? Could you provide a quick review for me? No other websites seem to have published their reviews yet.

Mr.Guvernment · Jul 7, 2008

psssst ...dfi

BLOOP! · Jul 7, 2008

mattspalace said:
Bloop - how do you like the board overall? Could you provide a quick review for me? No other websites seem to have published their reviews yet.

Overall.. Best board I had so far. Build quality is top-notch! Just by looking/handling it alone you can already tell that its solid.

I haven't really pushed it well to its limits as my quad @ 3.6 at only 1.43v is already peaking at 82 degrees

There is absolutely zero vDroop with load line calibration set to on, maybe at least on mine. But I can tell you that it takes me to windows at 540 FSB with NB still set to auto. BIOS shows around 1.35ish. Everything else left to Auto. You might have to play a little bit with the Transaction Booster to get a good Performance Level.

The NB never reaches 50. Around 37-43 depending on the time of the day. I suggest you get an high-clocking memory to keep with the FSB.

All this with just the initial BIOS. You wont be dissapointed if you do end up with this one

glock19owner · Jul 7, 2008

BLOOP! said:
The NB never reaches 50. Around 37-43 depending on the time of the day.

You removed the factory thermal tape for those temps

...

That was the very first thing I did...I have right around the same temps...

Also, becareful about leaving a lot of those settings at auto...I have seen the auto setting running the PLL at 1.8+v before...

Best thing to do is...adjust your voltage...reboot then go back into the BIOS then to hardware monitor and make sure nothing is in red...especially the DRR Ref voltages...

Also here is a thread at XS about some members having issue with certain memory after flashing to the rampage. Thread

As far as hitting 500...the rampage has been known to hit just as high (eccentrically the same boards anyways) right out of the box, for now I cant not confirm that since the CPU I am using now has a 437FSB limit...hopefully the 6700 will be more FSB friendly...

BLOOP! · Jul 7, 2008

glock19owner said:
You removed the factory thermal tape for those temps ...

That was the very first thing I did...I have right around the same temps...

Nope, didnt need to change it. It's already cool as is

glock19owner said:
Also, becareful about leaving a lot of those settings at auto...I have seen the auto setting running the PLL at 1.8+v before...

Best thing to do is...adjust your voltage...reboot then go back into the BIOS then to hardware monitor and make sure nothing is in red...especially the DRR Ref voltages...

Of course I checked that. It's sitting at 1.6PLL, it should be ok. Thanks tho

I'll check that thread.

mattspalace · Jul 7, 2008

BLOOP if I get the Maximus II, you're getting a PM about setting it up initially, maybe some hints and tweaks as well, as you're the only guy I've seen with one currently.

BLOOP! · Jul 7, 2008

mattspalace said:
BLOOP if I get the Maximus II, you're getting a PM about setting it up initially, maybe some hints and tweaks as well, as you're the only guy I've seen with one currently.

Sure, just let me know. I doubt you'd have problems but in any case just PM me

glock19owner · Jul 8, 2008

Well got the 6700 yesterday...spent a day playing around...CPU is still limited...but at least it goes up to 487FSB...

Anyways...this is what I have so far running at 1.25v on the NB...

I'm so torn!!! Which Asus board to get!!!

I been Dolk'ed Senior

Senior Benchmark Addict

Member

Member

Member

Member

Super Speedy Senior

Member

I been Dolk'ed Senior

Member

I been Dolk'ed Senior

Member

I been Dolk'ed Senior

Member

Member

Member

Member

I been Dolk'ed Senior

Member

Member

Attachments

Similar threads