.jpg "Raja"){kind=avatar}
Raja@ASUS wrote:
Hi,
Can you provide me with a list of issues please?
The basic BIOS of the R3E BE uses the same code and fixes that have already been rolled out for the R3E model. That's why there have been fewer total BIOS releases from the Black Edition - because most of the issues had already been addressed on the standard board.
-Raja
Okay their are quite a few of them, and I will do my best, once again, to post them all.
There are five main bugs I have discovered personally, and two feature requests which should not have had to been made:
One is the Bclck has random spikings between 3 MHz - 10 MHz, while at full load and sometimes while idle. At first I thought it was the multiplier fluctuating up and down by 0.5x but using PC Probe II / ASUS Suite II, I narrowed it down to Bclk fluctuation.
Example Image:
Image Link: http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/4392/strangebclckspike10mhz.png
This isn't much of a problem at stock or even with a slight overclock, but if you are going for a higher overclock:
i7 980x Example:
4.123 GHz (a modest overclock)
133 MHz Bclk x 31 Multiplier
When you begin to stability test, or even just run applications, you can run into situations where the spike makes you unstable even at a modest load.
So:
133 MHz spikes to 143 MHz but the Multiplier doesn't change so its 31, which now makes your CPU core frequency hit 4.433 GHz. Which requires a substantial bit more of CPU vCore voltage to stabilize. The above image illustrates it best, and there have been numerous tweaks and tested BIOS settings to get rid of this, and none of the current settings in BIOS will fix it.
The next big bug/issue, is this board did not like to post with 24GB+ of RAM at speeds greater than 1600~1615 MHz. It will post, but it would post with DIMMS showing as blank or empty. When enabling the "RAM Not Found" option in BIOS, it will eventually post with the correct voltages, manually adjusted timings, and the correct speed... after the 5th or 6th reboot. Thats just weird. There is no issue at 1600 MHz. I understand it can also go down to RAM compatibility, but I experienced the exact same issue with Kingston HyperX T1 line, which is supported by this motherboard. 24GB @ 1600 MHz, not a single hiccup when booting up, began ocing it over 1623 MHz, and the computer would begin seeing 12 GB or 16GB of RAM, and random DIMM slots would seem unpopulated. I would also add, that when I did manage to get all 24GB of memory recognized in all six slots, and at the correct speed, and timings, I was never able to stabilize with Prime95 or IBT. The memory was carried over from my EVGA E770 Classified board, where it had past Memtest86+ at rated speed, for over 12 hours, and Prime95 stable @ 2000 MHz for 24 hours (all using the same CPU / IMC.) This lead me to conclude that perhaps there is some instability in fully populated DIMM slots running at rated speeds above IMC. Have no issue running 3 slots at any speed.
Issue number three involves the use of a RevoDrive X2. Utilizing a RevoDrive X2 as a boot drive, I am unable to use ICH10R chipsets ability to RAID. If I enable RAID in BIOS for the SATA ports, it disables my ability to boot from the RevoDrive X2. I had no issue on my EVGA E770 Classified booting with both RAID enabled and the RevoDriveX2 as my boot drive. There was also no issue on my GA-790FXTA-UD5 AM3 platform for booting with this configuration, although I never tried it on my Crosshair IV Extreme, so I don't know if this is an ASUS motherboard limitation, or an actual bug.
The fourth main issue, is if using a few hard drives and switching the HDD Order, not the Boot Up Order, but the HDD Ordering for Boot Up (which is a separate menu), you can get to the point where you discover a memory leak, and are unable to make anymore changes, and the BIOS will not save the correct boot order any more. It looks like instead of making changes to a list of (for example) 7 hard disk drives installed into your system, it appends to the end of the list.
For example, if you had the following boot order:
HDD0
HDD1
HDD4
HDD5
HDD6
HDD2
HDD3
And wanted to change to Number 4 is first:
HDD4
HDD0
HDD1
HDD5
HDD6
HDD2
HDD3
What it appears to do in memory is this (create a new list and set the boot point a new):
HDD0
HDD1
HDD4
HDD5
HDD6
HDD2
HDD3
Start Point points to here now: HDD4
HDD0
HDD1
HDD5
HDD6
HDD2
HDD3
Everything above the new Start Point is invisible to the USER, but its still being stored in BIOS memory. Unfortunately once you have triggered the glitch to appear, i.e. can no longer save your boot order, you have to clear CMOS. You can't reload profiles (it saves the glitch to the profile) so they have to be deleted. The reason I know it saves the Previous list, is if you continue to use +/- option, you will traverse your old list and watch the old list re-appear if you continue to use move up and move down options.
Currently the only way to avoid the glitch is to change HDD boot order as little as humanly possible.
The fifth massive issue is the fact that the ASUS Thunderbolt addon card has a driver that constantly crashes in Windows 7 (x64) and we have posted numerous times in the forums about losing audio, music players crashing, videos crashing, and video games crashing. I even posted a dump of the entire driver crashing and my Windows log with an AIDA read out which you can find in this ASUS Support thread:
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20110517103025753&board_id=1&model=Rampage+III+Black+Edition&...
The Thunderbolt is currently useless except as just a Network Interface Controller.
Lastly are two feature requests which we should not have had to ask:
We have no ability to utilize RAID on the Marvel 9182 controller, which is bizzare since this controller actually has the ability to utilize real SATA6Gb/s speeds.
We don't have access to the NB/SB/VRM temperatures in ASUS Suite, PC-Probe II, HW Monitor, Open HW Monitor, or a few other applications. Someone said you can see it in AIDA64, but I have learned in the past that sometimes these applications guess which temperature is which. Since we can't see these temps in BIOS, there is no way to correlate which temperature any of these programs are actually seeing is correct. This is very silly for this high end of board, or any benching x58 board period.
