![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , November 11, 2008
- Author:
- Daniel Dobrowolski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS Rampage II Extreme
ASUS adds another Republic of Gamers branded motherboard. The Rampage II Extreme, hopefully a worthy successor to its predecessor, comes to us packed with innovative features supporting Intel's new Core i7 processors. ASUS promises that this board was designed for overclockers.
BIOS
ASUS chose the American Megatrends Inc. (AMI) BIOS for the Rampage II Extreme. Version 0503 was used for testing, screenshots, etc.
ASUS has chosen to go with a dual BIOS ROM solution. There are physically two BIOS chips on the board. What's cool about this is that you can select the BIOS you want to use via jumper or from the BIOS itself (Unless it is covered by the video card in the 3rd PCIe slot!). If you leave the jumper set to "switch" this will keep the BIOS set on BIOS 1 unless overclocking fails at which time it will switch over automatically to the BIOS 2. So theoretically you shouldn't have to count on the motherboards watchdog feature which on many boards is next to useless. You can mirror your settings between the two BIOS ROMs which is part of ASUS' BIOS Flashback feature and save or load profiles for each one. Additionally there is an LED near each physical BIOS chip which allows you to tell which BIOS the board is using at any given time. BIOS error and POST codes can also be viewed on ASUS' LCD Poster which is included in the board accessories bundle.
In my BIOS tinkering I discovered that BIOS 2 was a really old version (0404) and that BIOS 1 had been updated twice (0501, 0503) while BIOS two hadn't. So I ended up updating BIOS 2 in anticipation of my later overclocking endeavors and to address issues the board had earlier on with XMP memory modules not POSTing. It is nice that you can keep two different versions of the BIOS and that the second BIOS ROM has been made usable and isn't just a redundant feature. I've seen dual BIOS implementations before, but I have to say I really like the approach and level of refinement ASUS took to the idea on the Rampage II Extreme.
The BIOS for the Rampage II Extreme is one of if not the most complex I've seen to date. I cannot recall seeing so many configuration options in a BIOS on anything in the last two years and certainly nothing this complex even from ASUS. The BIOS throws you right into the thick of things by starting the end users out in the Extreme Tweaker section. This section of the BIOS is where all the tuning takes place. At the very top of this screenshot you'll notice some yellow text that's quite hard to read. Unfortunately that's the way the captures came out. However what that does say is “Target CPU Frequency” and “Target DRAM Frequency.” These are calculated for you on the fly as your change values so leave you calculator at home! The first option is highlighted in white and it didn't show up well in the capture. That setting is “CPU Level Up.” That is followed by “Memory Level Up.” These settings are basically for auto overclocking. There are two options in CPU Level Up and they are listed as "i7-crazy-3.60G" and "i7-crazy-4.00G".The Memory Level Up has three settings. DDR3 1600MHz, DDR3 1800MHz and DDR3 2000MHz. Ai Overclock Tuner also performs auto overclocking functions but does so by adjusting a larger array of settings based off of more parameters. CPU Ratio is obviously the CPU's multiplier setting. Also here are DRAM Frequency, UCLK Frequency, and QPI Frequency.
As you scroll down the page there are more options and also present is the DRAM Timing Control sub-menu. EPU II Phase Control which allows you to turn off power phases. Load-Line Calibration and Extreme OV are also located here. Below that we have more difficult to read yellow text. This text shows current voltages pertaining to the voltage adjustments below. This is a nice touch because you can monitor your voltages and change settings in one place rather than having to go to the hardware monitoring section of the BIOS. The second line of yellow text is temperature information which is also a nice plus. Next you'll find a whole host of voltage adjustment settings. Extreme OV which I mentioned earlier is a setting designed to protect the user from themselves. This unleashes the really dangerous settings that ASUS believes will probably fry your hardware. Use this with caution as you can set your CPU voltage (as an example) to 2.5v which is most certainly more than it can stand under air or water cooling. QPI DRAM voltage is also another setting that is potentially dangerous to mess with. Normally all these settings are capped at 1.8v. With the Extreme OV setting enabled you can choose voltages as high as 2.5v. In screenshot #3 you can see DRAM BUS voltage settings along with aa DRAM REF Voltages sub menu. Past that are POST Code settings and LCD Poster iROG Control Plus settings. At the very bottom are all the spread spectrum settings.
Coming back to the DRAM Timing Control sub-menus you'll see all your options for adjusting latencies. They of course default to automatic settings but can all be manually altered individually. The grayed out text 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, information gives you the SPD/XMP settings read off the chips which are used to configure the automatic settings. They are listed in order so you always have a base reference to go off of when you start manually tweaking in here. There is simply a bewildering amount of configuration adjustments that can be found here. Probably too many options but too many is certainly better than not enough.
Now we move onto the Main settings tab which contains simple time and date settings as well as storage configuration and system information screens. Pretty basic stuff here and of little interest for the most part.
Moving onto the Advanced part of the BIOS we see CPU Configuration settings along with Chipset, Onboard Devices, USB, PCI PnP, LCD Poster and LED Control, and finally iRog Configuration settings. Under the CPU Configuration sub menu you'll find CPU information displayed at the top followed by options at the bottom for things like CPU Ratio settings, C1E support, Hardware Prefetcher, Adjacent Cache Line Prefetch, Intel Virtualization Technology, CPU TM Function, Execute Bit Disable, Intel Hyperthreading Technology, and settings for disabling CPU cores. Intel Speedstep and Intel Turbo Tech mode support are also found here as well. The bottom option you can't see to well (due to the white lettering on the light background) is Intel C-State Technology.
Under Advanced Chipset Settings you'll find two sub menus. The first is North bridge configuration which allows you to select PCI-Express slot priority. The second submenu is for the Intel VT-d Configuration which allows you to enable or disable the VT-d feature which is directed I/O for virtualization. Unfortunately you can't see some of the options too well in the screenshots because of the chosen colors scheme that ASUS went with.
Next is the onboard devices configuration which is not normally of much interest. This just allows you to enable or disable onboard functions that either aren't needed or need to be disabled because add-in boards are being used and you want to avoid potential conflicts. However at the very top of this is a setting called Onboard Device. It can be enabled or disabled. What that does is allow you to enable or disable all onboard functions. It leaves one LAN port functional for internet access purposes. You can see a note concerning this in the help section on the right hand side which is clearly visible in the screenshot. This is a pretty neat feature I thought. Just one setting that allows you to turn off everything you don't need.
Pictured above are PnP/PCI settings, LED Poster and LED Control, and iROG Configuration. You use these menus to adjust PnP/PCI settings, LCD Backlight behavior and LCD Poster related settings in general. You can also enable or disable the volt-minder LED's, EL Light, ROG Logo and so on. I don't know why you would want to mess with any of these things, but they are here for you to customize the board to your liking. The iROG configuration is an interesting menu. This controls the CrashBIOS Rule. Keep will tell the board not to switch BIOS ROMs in the event of a failed overclock or POST problem while switch tells the board to switch to the alternate BIOS immediately. I messed with BIOS 2 while I was working with the board, and left BIOS 1 setup with settings I always knew worked. This way I could recover more easily.
Next is the Power Management settings which contain APM Configuration settings and more importantly the Hardware Monitor. The APM Configuration just contains settings for power on and power off rules or last state settings for some events and is pictured above.
The Hardware Monitor contains four separate sub-menus. The first of which is the voltage monitor. This simply shows a voltage reading list. Present are all the voltages you can monitor by volt-meter using the Extreme OC monitoring plugs on the front of the PCB as well as 3.3v, 5v, and 12v rail voltages. Next is the temperature monitor which shows temperatures in both Celsius and in Fahrenheit. Here you can also set overheat protection thresholds for each of the monitored values. The Fan Speed Monitor of course as its' name implies allows the monitoring of fan speeds. Fan Speed Control allows you to control fan speeds with profiles. You can set Standard, Silent, or Turbo modes for your CPU and Chassis fan values. You can also set fan duty cycles for the various fan headers shown at the bottom.
Next is the Tools Menu which contains various tools included in the BIOS. ASUSTek EZ Flash 2 is shown first which allows you to flash your BIOS from a hard drive or other storage device. I used a USB flash drive to flash BIOS ROM 1 from BIOS 0501 to 0503 and BIOS ROM 2 from 0404 to 0503. Both flashes executed flawlessly. From the Tools Menu you will also find the ASUS O.C. Profile utility which allows you to create and store various performance profiles of your own creation and then there is the AI Net 2 utility which is basically built in LAN diagnostics. Finally we have the BIOS Flashback Function. With this feature you can mirror over your BIOS settings from the current operating ROM to the non-operational ROM. This is probably a safety feature to prevent you from mirroring settings that don't work by accident over a BIOS ROM that has settings that do. Here you can also name each BIOS in order to differentiate between the two. I named mine Normal and Performance. I kept safe settings I knew worked in BIOS 1 and set the boot priority to BIOS 2 which is where I did the bulk of my tweaking.
The only thing I didn't like about working with the Rampage II Extreme's BIOS was that you couldn't highlight a setting and simply press enter and scroll through a list of available options. You had to use the -&+ keys to choose your settings. It normally told you what was available on the right hand side of the BIOS in the help section, but it just seemed slow and clumsy to work with in this manner. The caveat to this is that you don’t have to use the + or – keys at all, but simply key in the value you want. Want 1.5 vCore, type in “1.5” and hit the enter key. Once you get used to this, not having the pop-up menu is somewhat nice.