Asus Rampage for Crossfire?

[Howie]

I plan to either get a 4870 and crossfire later or wait for the 4870x2(R700). I was previously looking at the Asus P5Q Deluxe but was told that for crossfire, the X48 chipset is better. I was also looking at getting the E8500.

My question then is that if I go with an x48 chipset (perhaps the Asus Rampage), should I get a quadcore cpu or is the E8500 fine? What about ram?

 

[jamesbond007]

If I had to summarize the Rampage in two words...my choice would be, "F*CKING AWESOME!"

I don't know where to start, but the seemingly endless plethora of features and capabilities is amazing. I purchased a Q9450 (2.66GHz stock, 12MB L2, 1333MHz FSB) and used the "CPU Level-Up" utility in the BIOS to overclock this sucker to 3.2GHz and 1600MHz FSB. It's _ROCK_ solid and I just did a fresh install of Windows Vista x64 Ultimate all while the system is overclocked. I'm currently running the stock Intel HSF, but am thinking about getting something more fancy down the road. Who knows, I may just leave it. Idling, my CPU is around 45-48C and load is mid 50C range. Nothing bad, considering the OC.

The northbdrige and southbridge run mighty toasty, but that's to be expected with the X38 and X48. Some people enjoy putting third party coolers on there or reseating with AS5. I haven't done any of that yet since I've been busy with my business. I'm not really pressured since it all runs so stable anyways, so why bother? FYI, my NB runs around 70C idle/max...doesn't seem to change. I have 2x92mm intake and a 120mm exhaust. All 3 are by Antec and are running on the highest RPM, but the system itself is still very quiet. I've read over and over again that the max you're suppose to run is about 91C on the NB...but I'd be more worried about fire than burning up the motherboard.

Sorry for the rambling...I just cannot imagine a better board, especially if you're going to overclock. I also have the ASUS Radeon HD4870 and plan to crossfire later down the road when the cards come farther down in price. Right now I mainly play Counter-Strike: Source at 1920x1200 at max everything and still average 170-200FPS. Many times I see it peak the HL2 engine at 299FPS! Incredible motherboard. You will not regret this purchase.

CPU-Z

As for RAM, I bought 8GB (4x2GB) of G.Skill PC8500 PC1066 for about $75-ish per 4GB kits at NewEgg a few weeks ago. Incredible stuff and I was suprised the OC is this stable across 4 DIMMs! G.Skill has earned my respect! I even put 4GB of G.Skill in my MacBook.

~Travis

 

[imported_juhatus]

jamesb

had to register just to answer you.. your are running way high temps on your processor.

I have rampage formula and antec nine hundred gamer, xeon x3350 (most same as your q9450) and a Noctua 120mm cpu cooler. OCZ 850w and 4870(i want another so bad or X2

I have overclocked it to 3.39Ghz so the FSB is 420 and no-load it idles at 6*420 2520Mhz. Temp is between 17-22 while room temp is 23

Underload @3.39 temps are below 40.

_FFS get a decent cpu cooler_

To the point: rampage rocks!

 

[Howie]

I'm more or less an Asus fanboy when it comes to motherboards so I'm definitely going with Asus.

So with the Rampage and Crossfire, does it matter whether I put a quadcore cpu in there or the E8500?

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: Howie
So with the Rampage and Crossfire, does it matter whether I put a quadcore cpu in there or the E8500?

CPU just determines how fast you want to go, not your limitations with graphics choices and what-not. Either would be quite fine.

juhatus, welcome to the forum. While my temps are higher than yours, my ambient is about 80F (I like it warm in the apartment). Additionally, they are well within the safe region of operating temps, so why change when everything runs tip-top?

~Travis

 

[Nickel020]

Originally posted by: juhatus

Underload @3.39 temps are below 40.

_FFS get a decent cpu cooler_

To the point: rampage rocks!

You're using a bad program to read your temperatures, below 40 is not possible on an overclocked quad (not with an air cooler at somewhat normal room temperature).
Try this program:
http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/

 

[sgrinavi]

FWIW I bought a P5E and stuck a Rampage BIOS on it. From what I have read the performance is equal you just don't get the bells and whistles.

I stuck my q6600 and my 8GB of PC8000 G.Skil on the board set the FSB at 400 , upped the voltage to 1.375 and it went up to 3.6 on the first try... everything else was set to auto.

It took me a freaking week to do that with my p35 boards with 2 sticks of RAM.

Right now I have it running at 3.2 at around 1.27 volts.

On the other hand, the crossfire performance of the x48 boards is not that much greater than the p45 boards....