P5E or Maximus Formula owners - please report MB temps

[graysky]

Finally narrowed down my next board purchase to a P5E or a Maximus Formula. My goal is to run a Q9450 or Q9550 (likely the 9450) @ 8x400 or 8x450. Anyway, I've read that the NB/SB temps on these boards can be quite high and wanted to solicit some feedback from you guys.

1) What board do you have?
2) What is your overclock setting and chip (q6600 running 8x400 for example)?
3) What is your idle/load motherboard temps (like NB/SB, etc.)?
4) Optional - what are your board voltage settings?

Thanks all!

 

[lopri]

May I add a question (#5, I guess?), without hijacking the thread..

Can one of you w/X38 try the bottom PCIe x16 slot for a video card and report back? (Does it work? Is there a performance overhead? Can you install a vid card in the bottom slot and install some other PCIe card in the top slot? etc.)

 

[lopri]

No one has an X38? And a video card?

 

[Tempered81]

sorry, just a video card. jk jk jk

 

[bharatwaja]

I've got Maximus formula with 8800 GT.... I'll check to see if I can work with the card in the last PCIe slot and tell u, i am in office now ::sad::

but i dont have any other PCIe cards to see if it works in the top slot..... and by top slot, i hope u mean another x16 PCIe slot

 

[bharatwaja]

as per the original questions (sorry graysky, jus forgot in the last post, no offense)

#1. Maximus formula
#2. QX9650 @ 3.8GHz on stock HSF (346x11)
#3. Idle 37-40 (NB/SB) Load 48-50 (ambient temp = 35C, This is India... very hot here mate, its summer too)
#4. Vcore 1.25V (thats all I remember)

Other details....
* Some boards have trouble POSTING when all RAM slots are in use, I found no such troubles, the first time I started up the board, heard the POST and was jumping with joy!

* Very good board to OC especially if you get Maximus formula SE with fusion block and use liquid cooling

* Lot of fan PWR headers, so u can individually monitor all ur case fans (to control noise and cooling)

* Jus a bit difficulty while installing intel stock HSF, the 4 Push PIN design is pretty hard to insert... Initially I was afraid I'd crack the board, but with lotta pressure I was worried that I'd crack my thumb before this thing goes in.... but jus a minor discomfort, otherwise its good to go... if u r using an aftermarket cooler then jus dive right in ( i am waiting for TRUE to arrive)

* if ur case is not quite a bit roomy, it would be difficult to add new sata devices (jus a bit difficult, not too much)

* BIOS sucks Except for 0802 and 0907 versions.... jus upgrade to these....

* on the asus website, ppl describe lotta horror stories about 0907, but personally I have not had any of these issues

* No eSata Ports... I have no use for them, but wouldnt hurt to have them jus in case.... if u need these then u need an external bracket to internal header for one of the SAta ports....

* LCD poster is very handy and useful.....

* No SLI... but u can get a 3870X2 and later on add one more make is a 4 core GFX thingy!

* Overall, Pretty rock solid performing board... I would suggest it to you....

Thats all for now... if u need any more details feel free to PM me or post a reply here....

 

[graysky]

@bharatwaja- great info, thanks@

 

[lopri]

Video card?

 

[bharatwaja]

Originally posted by: lopri
Video card?

Nope, I have only one video card, my 8800GT....

it does work in the last slot, with the top PCIe even left empty... I wonder how that happens, i thought it wouldnt.

EDIT: There doesnt seem to be much of a performance overhead

 

[bharatwaja]

Originally posted by: graysky
@bharatwaja- great info, thanks@

glad to be of help....
jus a suggestion....
Unless you absolutely need a quad core, I would suggest getting an C2D E8400 along with the Maximus Extreme Board and good DDR3....

That is what my friend did and the E8400 is now OCed to 4.2 GHz as well....

later on if u do need quad core, you can always toss in one, and by then the Q9550 price might have come down, making it a better option, or even the QX9650 might be a considerable price/performance option....

Jus think about it.... It sounds like a wonderful path to go by....

 

[TC777]

Originally posted by: bharatwaja
as per the original questions (sorry graysky, jus forgot in the last post, no offense)

#1. Maximus formula
#2. QX9650 @ 3.8GHz on stock HSF (346x11)
#3. Idle 37-40 (NB/SB) Load 48-50 (ambient temp = 35C, This is India... very hot here mate, its summer too)
#4. Vcore 1.25V (thats all I remember)

Other details....
* Some boards have trouble POSTING when all RAM slots are in use, I found no such troubles, the first time I started up the board, heard the POST and was jumping with joy!

* Very good board to OC especially if you get Maximus formula SE with fusion block and use liquid cooling

* Lot of fan PWR headers, so u can individually monitor all ur case fans (to control noise and cooling)

* Jus a bit difficulty while installing intel stock HSF, the 4 Push PIN design is pretty hard to insert... Initially I was afraid I'd crack the board, but with lotta pressure I was worried that I'd crack my thumb before this thing goes in.... but jus a minor discomfort, otherwise its good to go... if u r using an aftermarket cooler then jus dive right in ( i am waiting for TRUE to arrive)

* if ur case is not quite a bit roomy, it would be difficult to add new sata devices (jus a bit difficult, not too much)

* BIOS sucks Except for 0802 and 0907 versions.... jus upgrade to these....

* on the asus website, ppl describe lotta horror stories about 0907, but personally I have not had any of these issues

* No eSata Ports... I have no use for them, but wouldnt hurt to have them jus in case.... if u need these then u need an external bracket to internal header for one of the SAta ports....

* LCD poster is very handy and useful.....

* No SLI... but u can get a 3870X2 and later on add one more make is a 4 core GFX thingy!

* Overall, Pretty rock solid performing board... I would suggest it to you....

Thats all for now... if u need any more details feel free to PM me or post a reply here....

Have you tested all your Transcend ram with memtest? I have two sets of matched transcend ram... four 1gb sticks total.

Two of the sticks give me errors in memtest, the other two sticks pass with no errors (when each are installed single by themself). However all 4 sticks pass with no errors in my AMD board.

I have no clue what is causing that.

 

[bharatwaja]

Initially I got about 200 errors, but after running the latest version of memtest I didnt get any error.... I still have no clue why it happened so.... I've run memtest atleast a dozen times, 3 passes every time... and once I ran it all night for about 12 hours.... didnt get any error when using the latest version.... jus check it out....
When u run all 4 sticks and it doesnt give an error, then i wud say u r good to go.... but check with others....

I PM'ed john (How to guide: Memtest86+, Prime95, and SP2004 sticky in CPUs and OCing section) when i got my errors, he helped me out very nicely.... u'd get a clear response to ur doubts from him....