![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , March 10, 2008
- Author:
- Daniel Dobrowolski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS Rampage Formula
ASUS has been on a roll with their Republic of Gamers lineup lately and now we take a look at their latest offering based on Intel’s X48 chipset based Rampage Formula motherboard supporting Intel's yet-to-be-released 1600MHz Quad Pumped Bus.
ASUS Utilities
Well the included ASUS Utilities are nothing new. In fact that are exactly the same as they have been for the last year or so. I guess if it isn’t broke don’t fix it. ASUS did include something new though, the AI Link software.
ASUS included their AI Suite as usual with the Rampage Formula. Version 1.03.17 came with our board. The ASUS AI Suite really is just a launcher for AI Gear, AI Booster, AI NAP, Q-Fan, and AI NOS. Other included software packages include PC Probe II and My Logo. The utility is straight forward to use. Simply click on the application you wish to use and a small window will appear to the right and you can then manipulate it.
AI NOS is an application for overclocking within Windows. The overclocking adjustments are defined in profiles or you can manually set the parameters for automatic overclocking. The system can alter the board settings based on the load placed on the PC at a given point. ASUS has set several sensitivity modes for governing the auto overclocking of the software. Auto, Standard, Sensitive and Heavy Load. Depending on the chosen mode, the utility can adjust board settings to suit your needs and provide an extra boost in speed. Unfortunately software like this is generally conservative and you won’t be able to reach your maximum overclock using this method. The ASUS Q-Fan utility controls fan speed. To adjust the fan speeds the fan in question needs to be selected and via the drop down menu three modes are available for selection. You may choose from optimal, silent, and performance.
AI Booster is essentially for manual overclocking in Windows. There are several buttons in the AI Booster menu. Written from left to right they are: Default, Performance, Advanced, User Profile, and Save. The first button has two options, Auto or Standard. The Performance button has but one option and that is Auto. The advanced button actually gives the user quite a few options. When clicked, three tabs appear in a new menu. CPU Frequency is controlled here. You can choose a new frequency from the drop down. Unfortunately, you cannot input your desired values. Below the CPU frequency lays the CPU ratio, and of course there is the memory tab where you can set DRAM voltages and frequencies. The final tab in this window is the PCI-E tab. Here you can adjust the PCIe clock frequency from 100-150MHz.
The ASUS PC Probe II utility hasn’t been changed in almost two years. Version 1.04.29 was included with our Rampage Formula. The ASUS PC Probe II utility allows the users to monitor voltages and temperatures. The power, chassis, system, and auxiliary fan headers are all monitored with this utility. Also monitored are the CPU temperature and voltages. Voltages for the south and north bridges can be viewed here as well. Voltages and thermal readings are displayed in rectangular boxes that resemble LCD gauges. They have magnet icons in their corners that when clicked allow you to move each display around and rearrange them as you wish.
PC Probe’s main application is in the form of a hexagonal window. It is expandable to reveal extra options for configuration. DMI, WMI, and PCI information is available in the application. There are many configuration settings for adjusting voltage, temperature and fan speed monitoring. You can also view threshold information. Also an alert log can be viewed here along with system information and a reporting tool that can be used to assist ASUS technical support should you need them. CPU, memory and disk drive usage can be displayed in a pie-chart format similar to those found in Windows XP.
ASUS Update is a utility designed for updating the BIOS within Windows. Let me first say I’ve had horrible experiences using this utility and I do NOT recommend it. I have bricked two boards with this software in the past and if you do so you have one of two options. Either RMA the board (which ASUS may or may not take back as flashing the BIOS may or may not be something they’ll cover) or you can pay (yes I said pay) for a new BIOS chip which you must install yourself. You can remove yours and send it in but you have to wait longer to get your board back in action if that happens. Some newer versions of some boards and some boards in general only have soldered down BIOS chips and that last option won’t be available to you if that’s the case. So I’d recommend using the EZ-Flash utility in the BIOS via a USB flash drive. That method has been 100% for me. Another problem is that this Windows utility will almost always want to update itself every single time you use it. To do that it will want to uninstall the old version and replace itself with the new version that you have to download. This is a completely manual process just to make things worse. After that the FTP servers are often busy and won’t actually let you download the new BIOS via this utility. You can always download the BIOS in the normal fashion and update it using this utility but again I would recommend avoiding that scenario. It just isn’t worth the risk. The warning below isn’t something I keep forgetting to pull from the article template, but rather something I check every time and find true every time.
ASUS online BIOS support inside of Windows is hideous at best. Our thoughts are they should not even offer this software feature on their motherboards till they fix their broken web infrastructure.