Maximus II Formula Club

[Deton]

Maximus II Formula owners, you are invited to join us and share your experiences with this very sexy and
subdued board. Everything is related to the board goes here, from cooling to overclocking or any wicked
modifications are all welcome. Let show off your overclocking talent or pictures of your rig that you’re proud of.

MIIF featuring the latest Intel P45 Chipset and support for high speed DDR2 memory and ATI Crossfire technology,
the new Maximus II Formula brings high performance motherboards to a new level. It’s designed to be overclocked
to the max.


Latest official BIOS


version 1307 (09/03/08) Improve Memory compatibility and with some PCI-E Raid Card
version 1403 (11/03/08) fixed 45nm Quac Core CPU stability issue
version 1501 (11/06/08) fixed wrong Vcore display in Ai Suite
version 1802 (12/10/08) Fixed use 2 pieces of ATI4870X2 VGA Card can't display from Primary slot display monitor
version 1901 (12/31/08) Improve Memory compatibility
version 2104 (05/05/09) Improve Memory compatibility

Update: (11/12/08) Asus pulled off the 1501 and 1403 bios. There're reported, some bugs in the those bios. DON'T USE IT IF YOU HAVE THESE VERSION OF BIOS.
Asus Download Site
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

Asus FTP Site
ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/asus/mb/so...mus_II_Formula


MIIF’S BIOS has some new settings compares to the sibling Maximus Formula board and you can find some
definition for these settings in the manual book but some don’t even have the explanation what the new features does.
I’m going to list the most important common one.



FSB STRAP TO NORTHBRIDGE
This is a fairly new feature to Intel chipset boards, it did throw us old timers for a loop when they first came out.
The northbridge is actually its own processor which is tied or “strapped” to the front-side bus and memory, it’s
possible to change the speed of the strap. You can manually setting the speed of the northbridge strap, you can
change the memory clock speeds by simply increasing the front-side Bus speed will automatically increase the
speed of the memory or notching the strap down, you can get your RAM operating within pecification and while
leaving the FSB at its oveclocked state.

For more detail explanation about Bios definition
click here http://forums.pureoverclock.com/showpost.php?p=10897&postcount=2




CPU GTL REFERENCE (0/1/2/3)
Maximus II Formula uses a different method for setting the GTL Ref voltages than any other boards.
They do not simply have a multiplier, the multipliers are fixed and you have entered a "Y value” or “Item value”
that modifies the resultant voltage. If you have 45nm CPU, you are aiming for the voltage given by the
0.635x multiplier, so to work out what to put for the 0.667x GTL Ref (Item) values (it will be a negative
number to make the resulting voltage the same as the 0.635x GTL Ref voltage). You’re probably wondering
how to figure out the “Y or Item” value by now.


Here is the equation you can use to find out your CPU GTL value.

Equation for 45nm processor
Vtt x 0.667 + Item = Vtt x 0.635

What is Vtt?
It’s front-side bus (FSB) termination voltage

Example:
45nm CPU
FSB Termination: 1.35v
Formula:
Vtt x 0.667 + Item = Vtt x 0.635
1.35v x 0.667 + Item = 1.35v x 0.635
0.90045v + Item = 0.85725v
Item = 0.85725 – 0.90045
Item = - 0.0432v
Item= -43mv


Now round up to the nearest selectable value in the bios is -40mv and set the 0.667x Item value
to -40mv (negative), usually the (1 &3) core.
You have now made the 0.667x GTL voltages as close as possible to the 0.635x GTL voltages.

Bios setting Example:
CPU GTL REFERENCE (0) Auto
CPU GTL REFERENCE (1) -40mv
CPU GTL REFERENCE (2) Auto
CPU GTL REFERENCE (3) -40mv

Notice:
If the negative value is unstable then you might have to try the positive value and you also have to
tweaking it by trial and error until you find the stable value for your processor.




Equation for 65nm processor
Vtt x 0.635+ Item = Vtt x 0.667

Example:
65nm CPU
FSB Termination: 1.35v

Formula:
Vtt x 0.635 + Item = Vtt x 0.667
1.35v x 0.635 + Item = 1.35v x 0.667
0.85725v + Item = 0.90045v
Item = 0.90045 - 0.85725
Item = 0.043v
Item= 40mv

Now round up to the nearest selectable value in the bios is 40mv and set the 0.635x Item value
to 40mv (positive), usually the (0 &2) core.
You have now made the 0.635x GTL voltage as close as possible to the 0.667x GTL voltage.


Bios setting Example:
CPU GTL REFERENCE (0) 40mv
CPU GTL REFERENCE (1) Auto
CPU GTL REFERENCE (2) 40mv
CPU GTL REFERENCE (3) Auto

For thoroughly detail explanation of GTL ref voltages
click here http://www.thetechrepository.com/showthread.php?t=87



DRAM CLK (CLOCK) SKEW ON CHANNEL A1/A2/B1/B2
In a nutshell, clock skew is the variation in speed of a module’s individual signal paths to the memory controller.
Skew is the result of the signal distortion caused by the traces in the motherboard, the cleanliness of the power
going to the board and the RAM that’s in use. Tweaking the skew settings can help increase stability when you’re
pushing the chipset and RAM to its limits by overclocking. Tweaking clock skew is a game of trial and error but if
you have got the time and energy, it could help you achieve the few extra megahertz you were hoping to get out
of your system.



Gentelment start you engines!

[Deton]

Please notice, these are just reference samples. It doesn’t mean will work right out of the bat for you
if you copy it exactly; you need to do some tweaking. If you have the time to do the experiment then
you can poke around with the other voltage settings or you just concentrate on Vcore, NBv, PLLv,
CPU GTL REF and leave everything on Auto, the board will taking care it for you.

Processor	QX9770-4.20Ghz	Q9650-4.40Ghz	Q9650-4.10Ghz	Q9550-4.0Ghz	Q9450-4.0Ghz	Q6600-3.6Ghz	E8600-4.26Ghz	E8400-4.00Ghz
Ai Overclock Tuner	Manual	Manual	Manual	Manual	Manual	Manual	Manual	Manual
OC From CPU Level Up	Auto	Manual	Manual	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
Ratio CMOS Setting	9	9	9	8	8	9	8	9
FSB Frequency	467	490	455	500	500	400	533	445
CPU Clock Skew	Normal	200	Normal	Normal	Auto	Auto	Auto	Normal
NB Clock Skew	Normal	100	Normal	Normal	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
FSB Strap to North Bridge	333	333	400	Auto	Auto	Auto	333	266
DRAM Frequency	DDR2-1122MHz	DDR2-980Mhz	DDR2-910Mhz	DDR2-1000Mhz	Auto	DDR2-1150Mhz	DDR2-1068Mhz	DDR2-1116Mhz
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel A1	Advance 300ps	Auto	Advance 300ps	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel A2	Advance 300ps	Auto	Advance 300ps	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel B1	Advance 300ps	Auto	Advance 300ps	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel B2	Advance 300ps	Auto	Advance 300ps	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
DRAM Timing Control	Manual	Auto	Manual	Manual	Auto	Manual	Manual	Manual
CAS# Latency	5 DRAM Clocks	5	5	5	Auto	4	5	5
DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay	5 DRAM Clocks	5	5	5	Auto	4	5	5
DRAM RAS# Precharge	5 DRAM Clocks	5	5	5	Auto	4	5	5
DRAM RAS# Activate to Precharge	15 DRAM Clocks	15	15	15	Auto	13	15	12
RAS# to RAS# Delay	Auto	Auto	5	3	Auto	Auto	Auto	3
Row Refresh Recycle Time	55 DRAM Clocks	Auto	55	Auto	55	Auto	Auto	25
Write Recovery Time	Auto	Auto	6	6	Auto	Auto	Auto	6
Read to Precharge Time	Auto	Auto	3	3	Auto	Auto	Auto	3
Read to Write Delay (S/D)	Auto	Auto	8	8	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
Write to Read Delay (S)	Auto	Auto	3	3	Auto	Auto	Auto
Write to Read Delay (D)	Auto	Auto	5	5	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
Read to Read Delay (S)	Auto	Auto	4	4	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
Read to Read Delay (D)	Auto	Auto	6	6	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
Write to Write Delay (S)	Auto	Auto	4	4	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
Write to Write Delay (D)	Auto	Auto	6	6	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
Write to PRE Delay	Auto	Auto	14	14	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
Read to PRE Delay	Auto	Auto	5	5	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
PRE to PRE Delay:	Auto	Auto	1	1	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
All PRE to ACT Delay	Auto	Auto	6	5	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
All PRE to REF Delay	Auto	Auto	6	5	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
DRAM Static Read Control	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Auto	Auto	Enabled	Disabled
DRAM Read Training	Auto	Auto	Disable	Auto	Auto	Auto	Enabled	Disabled
MEM. OC Charger	Auto	Auto	Enabled	Enabled	Auto	Auto	Auto	Enabled
Ai Clock Twister	Moderate	Auto	Moderate	Stronger	Auto	Auto	Moderate	Moderate
Ai Transaction Booster	Manual	Auto	Manual	Manual	Auto	Auto	Manual	Manual
Common Performance Level	8	Auto	11	8	Auto	Auto	10	8
Pull-in of CHA PH1	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Auto	Auto	N/A	Disabled
Pull-in of CHA PH2	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Auto	Auto	N/A	Disabled
Pull-in of CHA PH3	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Auto	Auto	N/A	Disabled
Pull-in of CHB PH1	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Auto	Auto	N/A	Disabled
Pull-in of CHB PH2	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Auto	Auto	N/A	Disabled
Pull-in of CHB PH3	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Auto	Auto	N/A	Disabled
PCIE Frequency	101	100	101	100	100	100	101	100
CPU Voltage	1.41875	1.4000	1.33750	1.375 to start at	1.375	1.35	1.325	1.34375
CPU PLL Voltage	1.50	1.50	1.57950	1.55	1.63250	1.553	1.50000	1.5000
FSB Termination Voltage	1.35175	1.49	1.33850	1.33850	1.37825	1.1265	1.16300	1.16
DRAM Voltage	2.15775	2.10	2.0120	2.12	2.10475	2.10	2.20	2.10
North Bridge Voltage	1.39150	1.45	1.29875	1.39150	1.51075	1.1265	1.32	1.27
South Bridge 1.5 Voltage	1.50	1.50	1.50000	1.5	1.55300	1.50	1.52000	1.5000
South Bridge 1.1 Voltage:	1.10	1.10	1.11325	1.11325	1.15300	1.12	1.1325	1.11325
CPU GTL Reference (0):	Auto	Auto	+40mv	+20mv	+20mv	+10mv	Auto	+30mv
CPU GTL Reference (1)	-40mv	-55mv	Auto	+20mv	+20mv	+40mv	-35mv	-10mv
CPU GTL Reference (2)	Auto	Auto	+40mv	+20mv	Auto	+10mv	Auto	+30mv
CPU GTL Reference (3)	-40mv	-55mv	Auto	+20mv	Auto	+40mv	-35mv	-10mv
NB GTL Reference	Auto	+60mv	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto		Auto
DDR2 ChA Reference Voltage	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
DDR2 ChB Reference Voltage	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
North Bridge DDR Reference	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
Ratio CMOS Setting	9	9	9	8	8	9	8	8
C1E Support:	Disabled	Disabled	Enabled	N/A	N/A	Disabled	N/A	N/A
Max CPUID Value Limit	Disabled	Disabled	Enabled	N/A	N/A	Disabled	N/A	N/A
Intel Virtualization Tech	Disabled	Disabled	Enabled	N/A	N/A	Disabled	N/A	N/A
CPU TM Function	Disabled	Disabled	Enabled	N/A	N/A	Disabled	N/A	N/A
Execute Disable Bit	Disabled	Disabled	Enabled	N/A	N/A	Disabled	N/A	N/A
Load-Line Calibration	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
CPU Spread Spectrum	Disabled	Disabled	Enabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum	Disabled	Disabled	Enabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled

Legend: N/A (not available)

[Deton]

NORTHBRIDGE COOLING ISSUE
If you find your northbridge temperature soar over 55°C at idle then your heatpipe is not properly mounted. You need to remove it and reapply after market thermal paste such as AC5 or MX-2 for NB/SB
but you can reuse the stock thermal pad for the Mosfet sinks.
So what is cause of poor contact?
Some reason the spring screws couldn’t apply enough pressure to pull the heatpipe to make a full contact. You can solve this problem by add on extra washers to each screw to enhance more pressure to each screw.



You can use any of the above washers to add on to each screw to enhance the support so you can apply more pressure to the screws to help the heatpipe have better contact.
To remove heatpipe all you have to do unscrew the screws and the heatpipe just come off.






Asus used quite excess of thermal paste on the southbridge and northbridge chipsets. However, after thermal paste was cleaned, there were some traces of adhesive left at the surface of the copper base.
Therefore, it this board was used period of removing the northbridge heatsink then it might be harder to take it off.



A little elbow grease and rubbing alcohol then everything was clean as whistle.

[grumpydaddy]

Nice, Deton you've been busy again huh?

Love the Bios table Idea...I guess other owners can add their own results in the same format....what a boon to new guys!!

[Deton]

Originally Posted by grumpydaddy

Nice, Deton you've been busy again huh?

Love the Bios table Idea...I guess other owners can add their own results in the same format....what a boon to new guys!!

Thanks, hopefully Max 2 owners will show up at PURE
I think the table will make it easier to cross reference check and comparison. I can add on the setting from different processors if I can find them or new owners submitting them.

Yup busy...busy, doing this in between the reviewing...

[chalan30]

WOW! First time visiting pureoverclock. very nice post, and very informative. I have had my max 2 for a few months (upgraded from p5ke-wifi) and I was overwhelmed by all the new bios options that I had never seen before. this is rad! I am gonna mess with my cpu gtl ref when I get home. Question to any one. Is there software out there ya'll can recommend to measure NB temp?

[Deton]

Originally Posted by chalan30

WOW! First time visiting pureoverclock. very nice post, and very informative. I have had my max 2 for a few months (upgraded from p5ke-wifi) and I was overwhelmed by all the new bios options that I had never seen before. this is rad! I am gonna mess with my cpu gtl ref when I get home. Question to any one. Is there software out there ya'll can recommend to measure NB temp?

Welcome to Pure,
you can use Everest, this program will show every voltage and temp or you can use Asus Probe II.
I'm personally like Everest more than ProbeII.

[chalan30]

Oh sweet I even have Everest but haven't used it much, mainly just use Coretemp,thanks Deton!

[Geralt]

Great job Deton!

Once again you have proven your writers skills (which you obviously dont have )! Very inforamtive. I had a look on MFII settings when my brother bought it and it was some spread of new things. But now its gonna be esy like walking in the park!

once again Great Job!

[bullydog]

Great Job Dude!!! love it ... makes me wanna get the MIIF
do u think its sorta go a downgrade from Maximus Formula to MIIF ?

Since its P45 and dual PCI-E 8x instead of Dual PCI-e 16x on the Maximus Formula ? no fusion block?

Hey Deton...those 45nm really so clock well with such low vcore? i'm seeing average of 1.3xxx ++ vcore to reach average 4ghz range?

What Sorta Temps are u getting with such low vcore?

[Deton]

Thanks guys,
@ Bully, I my thought was the same as your before I purchased this board, P45 or X48?
but I said, X48 is nothing different from X38 beside DDR3 and few different with bios settings, and I'm not ready for DDR3 yet and this board is much cheaper than the Rampage Xtreme. I will ready for it when the next build, the X58 + i7 though.

So I decided P45 instead because of its capability with high FSB, look at OC table data. It can goes over 500ish and keep going. So it's good to pair it with 45nm proc.

About 8x and 16x lane PCI, well...I don't have crossfire setup so don't really know and plus the grfx cards now aday are so powerfull. You won't notice much the different if you are not anual about its clock.

I wish I have the time to test the q9650 and 4870 Sonic with Max1 to see the different. As you know I have ton of reviews with the WC right?
That's why I stop at 4.1ghz, I know it can go higher than 4.5ghz, very time consuming...

Anyway, about the temp it's about 58c at load with WC setup like this (GTZ, MCR360, MCP-655, MCW-NBMAX, Micro Res and 3/8" tubing)

Max2 don't come with Fusion block, Asus save it for the Rampage Xtreme. I just finished the NB-Max block from Swiftech, hopefully it will published soon. The reason I don't post its picture because I don't want to spoil the review. I can tell you this, it's worth the upgrade to NB-MAX if you're already water cooled the CPU.

[grumpydaddy]

It seems possible...just wish I could get the settings

http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=52009dzh.jpg

[Deton]

I don't know how the people have 5Ghz @ 1.5v and core temps are under 30c?
It looks like he took the screen shots at 5mins of Prime95. My Q9650, 4.1ghz @1.34v at 60c core temps at load. There're no way he can runs that for 24/7.

I'm personally only interesting for 24/7 stable bios settings. The bragging highest OC is no good really, it's just for entertaiment only. I can get my quad to 4.5ghz already but of course it won't pass Prime95.

[grumpydaddy]

it's a dual. one of the newest ones at that ...half the heat .....that should help the temps

[Deton]

If your board is hang at Marvel Adapter initializing.......here is a fix;

1. Disable the Speeding HDD setting in the BIOS if you don't use it
2. Older IDE hardware (CD or DVD-ROM) prone to cause this problem, so disconnet it and reboot get into bios and disable this feature.

Last, if your IDE hardware unusable after you disable the SPEEDING HDD then upgrade it to SATA.

[cez]

First of all id like to say Hello Everybody as i am new here

Right. As i got q9550 c1 rev id like to overclock it to about 3.5ghz cuz dnt rly need nemore + dnt want the temperatures to be too high.

btw never OCed an Intel cpu
so Ive updated bios 0901 i think it was to 1307 or summin like that and tried to overclock looking at different ppl configs and so far my bios settings look like this:

ratio 8.5
fsb400
dd2-800mhz

cpu volt 1.175
FSB Termination 1.175
NB 1.175
SB 1.5
SB 1.1
Load-Line Calibration Enabled


everything else is default and i ran 2 orthos'es on all 4 cores and after 1h didnt get any errors temps were stuck at bout c1 61 c2 56 c3 53 c4 49 however after that played cod4 for a bit didnt get ne BSOD nd then played Crisis nd when i was jst about to exit the game i got BSOD so i went to bios nd increased cpu fsb nd NB voltages to 1.2 and now running prime95 (1h no errors nd still goin) and after bout 30mins i got temps around c1 60-67 c2 58-63 c3 57-60 c4 52-55 used real temp and core temp at 95deg tj max everest at default is showing about 10deg higher :S

im thinking to get another cooler for my cooler cuz im not to happy about those temps even if i wont probs ever see them again while playing games rendering 3d stuff etc but still so 5-7deg drop may be nice

btw jst reminded myself i got that pc since about 2 weeks so im not quite sure if the thermal paste is fully working yet

anyway any advice on that ? how to get bout 3.5ghz with low voltages nd good stability ? and wot do i do wrong how to improve it etc

regards
Cez