Maximus VI Formula Discussion Thread

[Raja]

Maximus VI Formula Overview and Discussion Thread
The Maximus VI Formula should be available to purchase in a few weeks. A motherboard many have been waiting for, and for good reason. Plenty of cool features on offer, we won't go into them all, but have picked out some of the salient ones for you to check out below:

Board layout and features at a glance:



Gaming Features



SupremeFX






The Maximus VI Formula sports a specialized audio solution called SupremeFX. Based on Realtek’s latest ALC1150 chipset, the Cirrus Logic DAC and the TPA6120 headphone amplifier and an optimized PCB layout - isolating PCB layers and spacing sensitive traces away from other areas of the motherboard. Shielding is also utilized to minimize spurious noise from entering signal lines. High quality capacitors are used for power supply decoupling to minimize ripple and provide a low impedance at audio critical frequencies. The end result is a 120dB SNR, placing the Maximus VI Formula's onboard audio solution on par with the best discrete soundcards available.


On the software side, the latest addition to the package is Sonic Radar:






The Sonic Radar GUI


Sonic Radar is a HUD that is useful in FPS games. It shows a visual representation of where sounds are coming from. The location of footsteps, gunshots, explosions and anything else is shown in the 360 degree HUD while gaming:




BF3 – Sonic Radar showing direction of audio effects



The HUD can be made more transparent and its location on the screen changed. Sonic Radar very useful feature when gaming with stereo headsets, where surround effects are simulated and may not be easy to pinpoint.



On the subject of headsets, Perfect Voice has been added to improve the clarity of VOIP calls. It’s a software based filter that uses digital signal processing to remove noise pickup from your mic while making a call:






DSP helps reduce ambient noise for clearer comms


Perfect Voice works with any plug in microphone/headset to clean up voice transmission during calls.




ROG RAMDISK




With high density memory modules and kits becoming the norm, many of us have an abundance of free memory on our systems that never gets utilized. ROG RAM Disk has been coded to take advantage of that free space to help speed up the system.





ROG RAM Disk GUI


Unlike many free RAM drive tools, ROG RAM DISK has no size limitations – up to 80% of the free memory (not used by the OS) can be configured as a RAM drive.


To get you an idea of how fast a RAM drive is, check the screenshot below:





10000 MB/s sequential write speeds


Applications stored on ROG RAM DISK are written to hard storage (HHD/SSD) when the system is prompted for shutdown.



Of course, re-installing games to the RAM DISK would be a painful experience. That's why ROG RAM DISK has a feature know as Junction Mode.








Setting a junction point to a game folder allows critical game files to be transferred to the RAM DISK without interfering with the original installation. Just point the software at the game folder and it will take care of the rest. This way, critical files such as maps can be accessed directly from the RAM DISK, speeding up load times.



Discussing features is fine, but what really matters for many users in knowing a board can overclock and run stable. How about 24 hour stability testing? Here's a few screenies from JJ, showing the Maximus VI Formula running different memory configs and CPU overclocks:




Over 24 hours AIDA64 passed at 4.7GHz DDR3-2800 16GB 4x4




Over 24 hours AIDA64 passed at 4.6GHz DDR3-2133 32GB 8X4





4.8GHz DDR3-2400 AIDA 1 Hour - right at the limits of the CPU and cooling






Use this thread to discuss/share results when you get your boards folks 🙂

[Samurai_dk]

Hi all, quick noob question, i purchased Corsair Vengeance Pro CMY16GX3M2A2133C11R 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 11-11-11-27 RAM for my ROG Formula VI board, i was wondering whether anyone else has purchased this ram and whether they have had any issues? Im bumping up the CPU to 4.2.Ghz using the AI suite and in turn the RAM speed seems to match but i do get a random crash every few hours. I have set the RAM at frequ 2133MHZ in the BIOS.

another question - is it recommended to run the CPU at constant 4+ ghz by disabling CPU stepping? (cpu is cooled by corsair h100i closed loop waterblock)

many thanks

[gdubc]

Samurai_dk wrote:
Hi all, quick noob question, i purchased Corsair Vengeance Pro CMY16GX3M2A2133C11R 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 11-11-11-27 RAM for my ROG Formula VI board, i was wondering whether anyone else has purchased this ram and whether they have had any issues? Im bumping up the CPU to 4.2.Ghz using the AI suite and in turn the RAM speed seems to match but i do get a random crash every few hours. I have set the RAM at frequ 2133MHZ in the BIOS.

another question - is it recommended to run the CPU at constant 4+ ghz by disabling CPU stepping? (cpu is cooled by corsair h100i closed loop waterblock)

many thanks

I prefer to have my processors step down when not needed. That's the benefit of running offset voltage with speed stepping. Use less power/produce less heat when the pc is at idle.
Did you put the ram timings in yourself, or use an xmp profile? If you used xmp profile, maybe try re entering them manually to make sure they are right. Sometimes the motherboard may not read the ram timings correctly using the xmp ram profile.

[Samurai_dk]

gdubc wrote:
I prefer to have my processors step down when not needed. That's the benefit of running offset voltage with speed stepping. Use less power/produce less heat when the pc is at idle.
Did you put the ram timings in yourself, or use an xmp profile? If you used xmp profile, maybe try re entering them manually to make sure they are right. Sometimes the motherboard may not read the ram timings correctly using the xmp ram profile.

Thanks for the reply, after reading a bit on this forum i will have go back to the BIOS and tweak some settings. I don't think I have set the memory on XMP (first thing i will check when I get home) and check the voltage is set at 1.5v.

I will leave the processor stepping alone, I want to push the CPU somewhere around 4.2/4.5 stable so hopefully the new found information from the guides will help. I will post my results.

One small grievance I have with the mobo is the lack of control in the Audio settings, I find the windows 7 default sound settings and the ROG audio control panel too basic. You tend to jump around between windows and the realtech audio panel to get the 5.1 to work with the optical. Kind of wish you could test individual speakers too. Is there anyway to know the headphone amplifier is working or am i assuming it is from the picture of the headphones?

[zk1mpls]

Had to do a clean install on my rig after my user profile wasn't detected on my hard drive (changed to another drive).

Anyway, Lynx Point Rev. 04 Southbridge is C1, right? That's what I have, according to CPU-Z. Not really a big deal for me since I never put my desktop to sleep (always gets shut down after every use anyway).



Quick question: Is there a setting to switch on to turn on the built-in headphone amplifier? Or is it turned on by default?

So far I'm liking the new AI Suite Interface. Much more handy than the one on the Maximus V Formula. 🙂

[Fred_Fuchs]

I was able to refuse my package from the second shipment of flawed (and price hiked) C1 boards and Newegg has accepted my RMA and issued a refund.

Just wanted to give anyone else who was misled that the issue was fixed, and ordered a heads up, that they can do the same and won't be stuck with the board due to Newegg's no return policy on that item.

[Arallu]

Fred Fuchs wrote:
I was able to refuse my package from the second shipment of flawed (and price hiked) C1 boards and Newegg has accepted my RMA and issued a refund.

lol maybe thats why its back down to $299 at newegg. 🙂

[Samurai_dk]

Samurai_dk wrote:
Thanks for the reply, after reading a bit on this forum i will have go back to the BIOS and tweak some settings. I don't think I have set the memory on XMP (first thing i will check when I get home) and check the voltage is set at 1.5v.

I will leave the processor stepping alone, I want to push the CPU somewhere around 4.2/4.5 stable so hopefully the new found information from the guides will help. I will post my results.

Just played briefly with the bios last night, i left the ram at default and tried the 4.7Ghz gamer profile out of curiosity, wouldnt let me boot into windows/did a BSOD right away.

So i went back and set my ram to its XMP profile and used CPU UP to 4.4ghz. Booted into windows no problems, ram timing all correct running at 2133. Set to peformance profile on the AI Suite, played a few rounds of BF3 and had no stability issues, definitely impressed with ease of overclock.

I might try to bump it up to 4.6 and see how that goes, the corsair H100i liquid loop seems to be keeping temps comfortably around the 30-40 degree mark. Is there any point to go deeper into the settings and tweak values as part of the OC? The CPU UP feature takes the guess work out but i am always interested in learning new things.

zk1mpls wrote:
Quick question: Is there a setting to switch on to turn on the built-in headphone amplifier? Or is it turned on by default?

So far I'm liking the new AI Suite Interface. Much more handy than the one on the Maximus V Formula. 🙂

I believe the headphone amplifier kicks in automatically, in the instructions it lists the green jack in the middle of the audio board. When you plug it in make sure in settings the jack is set as a HD source, you can also switch between the rear and front panel jack via settings (found when you open up the realtech hd audio icon, there is a small cog in the top right). I noticed there is a performance, loud and extreme option.. can anyone elaborate the difference between these? I find that the headphones are a bit quiet even when i turn them all the way up.

[JackNaylorPE]

I'm kinda surprised we haven't seen 22 reviews since launch day .....

Has any of you done the temp check with armor on / armor off .... I thot it was odd no lil fan this time.

Also curious to see what RAM ya'all put in ?

[AboutToExplode]

How do I know if I have a C2 revision board or something else?? This is my CPU-Z report http://valid.canardpc.com/2893684

Also, in my Bios under "" South Bridge Stepping "" it says 05/C2 is this what you are looking for guys?

[Krab19]

AboutToExplode wrote:
How do I know if I have a C2 revision board or something else?? This is my CPU-Z report http://valid.canardpc.com/2893684

Also, in my Bios under "" South Bridge Stepping "" it says 05/C2 is this what you are looking for guys?

On your cpu-z, where you see the southbridge (labelled as SB), that's where you see the C2 stepping or rev. 5. And yes, that is what you would be checking for in your bios.

Looks like you definitely got yourself a C2 stepping!!