Asus Maximus Formula SE X38 - Living Review.

[Faceman]

Thanks for the quick response - I think i'll have a look at the Abit IP-35 Pro, or just wait till x48 shows up!

Thanks again.

[tataraperz]

Hi clunk, your review is excellent , keep up the good work .

I got a few doubts, i am planning on getting this mobo and pairing it up with a e4500(i know its bad, but im planning to upgrade to a quad core penryn when they're available) and 4gig of OCZ platinum RAM(800mhz 4-4-4 timings), im planning to OC the e4500 to 3ghz as i currently had, but im worried about if i will have any problems with the memory.
Would i?

I also thought about the Abit IP35 Pro, but the lack of pci.e 2.0 made me discard it.

What do you think?

And besides of that, would i have any problem if i dont use the mobo's fusion block(read "if no watercooling used with the fusion block")?

P.D:
Sorry if i misspelled something, english is my third languaje.

[Clunk]

Thanks, and welcome to the forums

I havent used the IP35, but other people that I know seem to like it.

The pci-e 2 thing shouldnt be a problem for a while. I wouldnt have thought that Nvidia/ATI would change to pci-e 2 for a while yet, especially as there arent many boards that support it at the moment. I suppose it depends on how long you intend to keep the motherboard for

The fusion ran quite hot when air cooled, but I was using the stock thermal paste. I should think that it will run cooler when the paste is replaced with something better.

P.S. if this is your third language, its pretty damn good

[tataraperz]

thanks for the reply clunk, i think i'll go for the abit mobo

Look at this, this guy ripped out the northbridge when trying to take off the heatsinks of the Maximus formula XD



that must hurt :P

[Clunk]

I think that is the one from revolutionx on here isnt it? Or is it the one from Hardforum?

Could have been worse, at least the heat pipe didnt bend much

[Gillie]

Well thats it I've had enough of this motherboard. System wouldn't get past POST again tonight.
Finally got it working again but honestly this is a complete joke and I'm not prepared to waste any more time on what is the most unstable motherboard I have ever used. Almost £200 for this board. Asus are having a laugh. Its going back tomorrow and I won't be asking for a replacement. Hate to say it but bring on the Gigabyte GA X38 DQ6. At the minute all I want is a stable system.

[Clunk]

Originally Posted by Gillie

Well thats it I've had enough of this motherboard. System wouldn't get past POST again tonight.
Finally got it working again but honestly this is a complete joke and I'm not prepared to waste any more time on what is the most unstable motherboard I have ever used. Almost £200 for this board. Asus are having a laugh. Its going back tomorrow and I won't be asking for a replacement. Hate to say it but bring on the Gigabyte GA X38 DQ6. At the minute all I want is a stable system.

I honestly don't blame you.

I'm not sure that the gigabyte is the way to go though, the Abit is due any day, that might be worth a look? Failing that, get a P35 board.

I think that until the BIOSes mature, they are all going to suffer from similar problems.

Theres also the rumours about X48 being released next month as well, along with penryn - It's never ending

[Gillie]

Originally Posted by Clunk

I honestly don't blame you.

I'm not sure that the gigabyte is the way to go though, the Abit is due any day, that might be worth a look? Failing that, get a P35 board.

I think that until the BIOSes mature, they are all going to suffer from similar problems.

Theres also the rumours about X48 being released next month as well, along with penryn - It's never ending

What would be your recommendation for a P35 board to go with my Q6600 G0 and 4x 1GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-6400 memory?

[jorgito05]

Originally Posted by Clunk

You would need to use a divider then. Just use the closest divoder to what your RAM is rated at, or you can try slightly higher dividers if your RAM is up to it.

Or, you could go for 400x9 and run the RAM at 1:1, that would give you the 800Mhz on the RAM.

thank you very much

[macel]

Great review!

I guess I got lucky with the board, original bios handles 4x crucial dominators at 1066 without any issues.

I tried the latest bios too but since I couldn't even get the board to post with the same settings, I went back to the initial release.