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 🙂

[Nodens]

zk1mpls wrote:
I see. That is unfortunate. Will try to re-route the front panel audio cable some place else inside the case to see if it lessens the "buzzing". Thanks for the response. 🙂

You can also shield the cable with EMI tape..see here: http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Electronics_NA/Electronics/Products/Product_Catalog/~/El...

[AusRoG]

If you're willing to spend the money and effort, you can sense and control almost anything with an AquaComputer Aquaero 5 "liquid system controller" (3 variants depending on budget/requirements):
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/13696/bus-271/Aquacomputer_Aquaero_5_LT_USB_Fan_Controller_Liquid_...
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/17839/bus-335/Aquacomputer_Aquaero_5_PRO_USB_Fan_Controller_Graphi...
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/13215/bus-259/Aquacomputer_Aquaero_5_XT_USB_Fan_Controller_Touch_S...

Mine will control the fans in my system based on the air/water delta temperature. It will also be wired into my PSU's "power-on" line, and shutdown the PC in case of pump failure or if the coolant flow sensor (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/16788/ex-res-407/AquaComputer_G14_MPS_Flow_Sensor_-_400_21-106_Gal...) flow rate drops too low (obstruction in the loop or major leak).

[JackNaylorPE]

AusRoG wrote:
If you're willing to spend the money and effort, you can sense and control almost anything with an AquaComputer Aquaero 5 "liquid system controller" (3 variants depending on budget/requirements):
[

Mine will control the fans in my system based on the air/water delta temperature. It will also be wired into my PSU's "power-on" line, and shutdown the PC in case of pump failure or if the coolant flow sensor flow rate drops too low (obstruction in the loop or major leak).

I'm familiar with the Aquaero 5 but 1) was waiting for the new 6

http://www.overclock.net/t/1423333/aquacomputer-aquaero-6
http://forum.aquacomputer.de/weitere-foren/english-forum/103573-new-aquaero-6/

and 2) with all the fan control features of the Formula and the Enthoo, a lot of it's features were redundant

[AusRoG]

JackNaylorPE wrote:
I'm familiar with the Aquaero 5 but 1) was waiting for the new 6

http://www.overclock.net/t/1423333/aquacomputer-aquaero-6
http://forum.aquacomputer.de/weitere-foren/english-forum/103573-new-aquaero-6/

and 2) with all the fan control features of the Formula and the Enthoo, a lot of it's features were redundant

Depends. An Aquaero is fully independent with its own microcontroller. Since it doesn't rely on AISuite, the UEFI or other software running on your PC, it will always work regardless of those components. It can immediately shut down the entire system during a critical event, even if the PC is hanging or the software acts up (as it does). I am personally glad I won't have to bother installing AISuite or FanXpert, while having fan and pump control that's completely customizable and far superior to anything you can do with mobo fan headers or cheaper fan controllers.

Cheers for the links to the new Aquaero 6. I don't think I will be upgrading since it seems the major improvement is increased current capability per controller channel, which is not an issue for me with the Aquaero 5's already generous capacity.

[JackNaylorPE]

AusRoG wrote:
Depends. An Aquaero is fully independent with its own microcontroller. Since it doesn't rely on AISuite, the UEFI or other software running on your PC, it will always work regardless of those components. It can immediately shut down the entire system during a critical event, even if the PC is hanging or the software acts up (as it does). I am personally glad I won't have to bother installing AISuite or FanXpert, while having fan and pump control that's completely customizable and far superior to anything you can do with mobo fan headers or cheaper fan controllers..

Doesn't the CPU protection feature works regardless of AISuite or Fan Expert ? I know I usually get the "low fan rpm" warning on bootup when using 3rd party coolers w/600 rpm fans even when these utilities aren't installed. The Aquaero is a beautiful device but watching the videos on Martins and elsewhere, it's hours of setup time. What I have seen w/ Haswell so far, unless you really get lucky in the silicon lottery, the investment in WC isn't paying huge returns. Is going from say 4.5 GHz to 4.6 GHz worth $xxxx over say a Phanteks Air Cooler ?

Of course, performance isn't the only reason we build these things but justifying the expense, is harder when the additional expense provides overlapping functions. If adding the Aquaero w/ face plate, addons and necessary accessories adds say $300, how much of that investment duplicates the fan control already provided by the Enthoo fan control PCB and the MoBo built in functions ? That's a question each user has to weigh themselves.

I'm not doubting it's capabilities.... I'm questioning whether what it offers over and above what is there already is worth the investment.... on this system. And as to the bother of installing FanExpert.... it's quite a bit easier than installing the Aquaero....and like anything else it can fail too. I like the Aquaero, if one arrived in the mail for free, I'd install it. But sitting on the fence at this point as to whether it's worth my T & E as I still don't have a full understanding of what functions are provided by the Board / Chassis already. I'll probably wind up working with what arrives with the board and chassis and upgrading to the Aquaero 6 if I find the system wanting. The 1st step however is getting an understanding of what I'm starting with, hence the original question.

[AusRoG]

An overview/discussion of MVIF by newegg and JJ@Asus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iofn03Fgf4

[Nodens]

CPU protection features work of course regardless. But they can't account for things like failing pumps or watercooling leakage etc etc. The CPU will just shut itself down when it reaches Tjmax (#THERMTRIP) or will throttle itself on #PROCHOT. But that's it.

Regarding RAID1, yes it will autorebuild even if it's a boot drive. RAID levels that include redundancy (1, 10, 0+1, 5, 6) can be booted even if degraded as long as degradation is not irreperable (for example you can't boot OR repair a 4 drive RAID 6 array if 3 drives are gone).
Now NAS gives you decentralized network access to data. A RAID1 array on a system would require that system to be powered on and available to the network for access to its data. That's your main difference here.

[JackNaylorPE]

Internet burp dupe

[JackNaylorPE]

Nodens wrote:
CPU protection features work of course regardless. But they can't account for things like failing pumps or watercooling leakage etc etc.

I know that my Rampage and WS systems won't start if the CPU Fan is unplugged or if usinga 3rd party cooler with low rpm fans.... on 1st boot I usually get a screen message saying "Check CPU fan", CPU Fan rpm too low" or something to that effect. I have never yanked it while system is running tho to see what would happen. Is that a boot time only check or does that the provision kick in at any time that CPU fan speed drops below the set point.

Oh....btw, newegg has $10 discount promo code thru tomorrow on M6F ....cant see $ until shopping cart tho.

[KenV99]

So with AISuite III running with the latest BIOS on a MVIF, unplugging the CPU fan in Windows 7 Ult 64 does NOT shut the system down or anything. In fact with the radiator on the Noctua U14, the temps didn't even change, at least at idle.

For those of you that have interior liquid cooled systems for the CPU with the radiators occupying the top of the case: do you have to find supplemental ways to increase airflow at the top of the case to keep the mobo and memory cool?