R6E from frustrated to very happy

[CharlieH]

I was very frustrated when I first got my i9 CPU and R6E MB. My first CPU was the i9 7980xe. With the earlier BIOS my rig would hang and other weird behaviors. So I returned that CPU and got the i9 7900x. Now I could run my rig. Unfortunately they fixed the issues and now it seems like the i9 7980xe works fine. My biggest problem was I run Hyper-V on Windows 10 and I couldn't soft boot the rig it would hang. This seemed related to the two Hyper x16 m.2 cards loaded with 8 Intel 900ps and/or VROC. I wasn't sure if it was the bios, the IRSTe driver, or what it was. And even with hard boots I could not OC it would hang on hard boots too. Finally after getting some updates I am able to hard and soft boot with a OC using Hyper-V. This makes me very happy. I get extremely fast Visual Studio integration and test run times now down to 5:25 minutes. It was close to 7 minutes with the latest code base before the OC. All I did to OC was use the wizard and set the OC to extreme. That gave me 4.4GHz CPU speed and a 3000 MHz memory speed. My memory is rated at 3600 MHz but I get you cannot get the full clock speed when you OC the CPU. And if I took the time to learn and manually OCed I could probably get the CPU and memory to run faster. But I am ok with where it is at. I don't run games or try to tune manually for best speeds anymore I just don't have the time right now and this box is built for work not play anyway.

I was seriously considering building an AMD Threadripper rig until all this worked out.

Here is the versions of BIOS, ME firmware, and drivers I am using:
BIOS: 1004
ME Firmware: v11.11.50.1436
ME driver: v11.7.0.1058
IRSTe: v5.3.1.1020

I did the ME firmware update before ASUS released theirs. The ME driver I ended up getting with the firmware was a little bit newer than the one ASUS released. The IRSTe drive I always get the latest I can I rarely if ever use the ASUS released one.

I haven't updated to the latest BIOS (1102) yet for two reasons. First off everything is working great for me. Secondly I have seen posts out here that BIOS 1102 affects performance negatively in a few different ways. I'll might try it soon but I will wait for a newer version first.

I have most all the chipsets in the BIOS turned off even PCH since I use VROC. I have the USB and 10G network enabled and that's pretty much it. I also have the Intel VT-IO disabled too.

My rig:
ASUS ROG RAMPAGE VI EXTREME LGA 2066 Intel X299 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i9-7900X Skylake-X 10-Core 3.3 GHz LGA 2066 140W BX80673I97900X Desktop Processor
G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 128GB (8 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3600 (PC4 28800) Intel X299 Desktop Memory Model F4-3600C17Q2-128GTZR
2x ASUS Hyper M.2 x16
8x Intel Optane SSD 900P (280GB, 2.5in w/ U.2-M.2 Connector PCIe 3.0 x4, 20nm, 3D XPoint)
1x Samsung 960 PRO Series - 512GB PCIe NVMe - M.2 Internal SSD (MZ-V6P512BW)
Corsair AXi Series, AX1500i, 1500 Watt (1500W), Fully Modular Digital Power Supply, 80+ Titanium Certified
ASUS NVidia GTX 1080
Thermaltake Tower 900 Black Tempered Glass Fully Modular E-ATX Vertical Super Tower Chassis CA-1H1-00F1WN-00
EK-FB ASUS ROG R6E RGB Monoblock - Nickel Acetal
EK-RES X3 250 RGB - Black Acetal
Iwaki RD-30 - 24 VDC - 318GPH -1200 L/hr. - Canned Motor Pump
Tygon R3400 1/2" ID (3/4" OD) UV Resistant Tubing- Black
Bitspower fittings
Lamptron FC-2 fan controller
4x Delta Fans
480 slim radiator
Silver Coils - Antimicrobial .999 Fine Silver Strip

[Silent_Scone]

Glad you're happy where things are now. Sounds like you spent a lot of time pottering about initially. Were you using XMP at the time?

[CharlieH]

Silent Scone wrote:
Glad you're happy where things are now. Sounds like you spent a lot of time pottering about initially. Were you using XMP at the time?

I tried XMP at one point. I never had any issues with just XMP enabled with the i9 7900x.

[Silent_Scone]

Yeah, so it's likely your only problem with the 18 core was memory instability. These things often need to be dialled out manually. Especially on a CPU with that many cores. Some UEFI builds favour certain memory kits better than others out of the box, too.

[CharlieH]

Silent Scone wrote:
Yeah, so it's likely your only problem with the 18 core was memory instability. These things often need to be dialled out manually. Especially on a CPU with that many cores. Some UEFI builds favour certain memory kits better than others out of the box, too.

That wasn't the case. I had the issues without XMP or OC. There was a BIOS bug fix for it that came later. I started this back last year in mid-Nov. Others had the same issue reported out here back then too.

[Silent_Scone]

CharlieH wrote:
That wasn't the case. I had the issues without XMP or OC. There was a BIOS bug fix for it that came later. I started this back last year in mid-Nov. Others had the same issue reported out here back then too.

If it were that particular issue you're alluding to, then it would explain why changing the CPU helped. Bit of a drastic solution to opt for the 10 core instead, mind you 😄

[CharlieH]

Silent Scone wrote:
If it were that particular issue you're alluding to, then it would explain why changing the CPU helped. Bit of a drastic solution to opt for the 10 core instead, mind you 😄

Well at the time I just spent 10K on this rig and it wouldn't run. On top of that there was no telling what the issue was and when/if they were going to fix it. So I had no patience and just went for something that would work. The sad part is I got a great 7980xe chip too. Even though it hung with no OC and XMP during certain operations like the driver installs etc. I did run some benches, they seemed to not have issues running with that chip. I did a bit of manual OCing with it and it was a super strong chip, running 4.5GHz no problem. I was bummed to say the least. At the end of the day I wanted a working rig so I could use it to do my work so I did what I had to do. Of all I went through to get a functioning rig this particular scenario bummed me the most.

[andrei_opp]

CharlieH wrote:
Well at the time I just spent 10K on this rig and it wouldn't run. On top of that there was no telling what the issue was and when/if they were going to fix it. So I had no patience and just went for something that would work. The sad part is I got a great 7980xe chip too. Even though it hung with no OC and XMP during certain operations like the driver installs etc. I did run some benches, they seemed to not have issues running with that chip. I did a bit of manual OCing with it and it was a super strong chip, running 4.5GHz no problem. I was bummed to say the least. At the end of the day I wanted a working rig so I could use it to do my work so I did what I had to do. Of all I went through to get a functioning rig this particular scenario bummed me the most.

Hello!

Do not know if my problem has the same root as yours, but worth the question:
I get all sort of instability, so I run a Memtest with XMP at 3000 MHz (Corsair Vengeance LPX) with VDIMM at 1,35 V, manually set. It's the default for this speed.
I get so many errors that Memtest simply quits running. Error number is greater than 10000 (yeah, ten thousand) for a sub 5 minute run.
When I set the voltage of the RAM on Auto, no error occurs, however the UEFI lists 1,505 V for the memory. Which I find excessive.
On 2133 MHz there is no voltage where the memory passes the tests. Not on Auto and not on 1,2 V manual.
Any ideas? Rampage VI Apex, 1004, 7980XE not OC'ed. Help from anybody much appreciated!

[CharlieH]

andrei_opp wrote:
Hello!

Do not know if my problem has the same root as yours, but worth the question:
I get all sort of instability, so I run a Memtest with XMP at 3000 MHz (Corsair Vengeance LPX) with VDIMM at 1,35 V, manually set. It's the default for this speed.
I get so many errors that Memtest simply quits running. Error number is greater than 10000 (yeah, ten thousand) for a sub 5 minute run.
When I set the voltage of the RAM on Auto, no error occurs, however the UEFI lists 1,505 V for the memory. Which I find excessive.
On 2133 MHz there is no voltage where the memory passes the tests. Not on Auto and not on 1,2 V manual.
Any ideas? Rampage VI Apex, 1004, 7980XE not OC'ed. Help from anybody much appreciated!

Sorry no tips here, I am not really knowledgeable about memory OCing. I did make a mistake though my memory runs at 3200 not 3000. Maybe someone else has ideas for you.

[G75rog]

andrei_opp wrote:
Hello!

Do not know if my problem has the same root as yours, but worth the question:
I get all sort of instability, so I run a Memtest with XMP at 3000 MHz (Corsair Vengeance LPX) with VDIMM at 1,35 V, manually set. It's the default for this speed.
I get so many errors that Memtest simply quits running. Error number is greater than 10000 (yeah, ten thousand) for a sub 5 minute run.
When I set the voltage of the RAM on Auto, no error occurs, however the UEFI lists 1,505 V for the memory. Which I find excessive.
On 2133 MHz there is no voltage where the memory passes the tests. Not on Auto and not on 1,2 V manual.
Any ideas? Rampage VI Apex, 1004, 7980XE not OC'ed. Help from anybody much appreciated!

Update your bios to 1102.