ASUS Rampage VI Omega coming from ASUS ROG STRIX x299-XE
Thank you to this community for providing very valuable, useful and reputable information. I hope that this will help others (by giving back to this community).
Omega is a worthwhile upgrade from my X299-XE. Last year, I wanted a Rampage VI Extreme or APEX. None was in stock, so I settled with X299-XE. X299-XE was a great board but wanted more. If I had an Extreme or Apex, I might not need to upgrade. I would water cool your VRMs- I had monoblock but ended up with direct die as I had a 50mm fan on my VRMs (monoblocks do not work well with delidding – even if you replace IHS with copper. The other neat aspect of the Omega is that the dims and Dimm.2 are moved down on the board to that I have more room at the top. Also like the live dash.
Bios:
Same experience as others. Once updating to 0504, even the bios 2 at 0218 had error code 70, so now have two 0504. I tried all three ways of updating, 1) USB, 2) Bios-EZ flash, and 3) AI suite 3. It works with 0504, 0218 is not even available.
VROC:
My experience – YMMV. Yes, I felt the pain like most of you that tried to VROC. I started with 4-SM961 and Hyper 16 M.2 (because I read that it was supported on the Intel website), Disappointed - no boot but good performance with 4 drive NVME (data only). Then I took the plunge on a small scale with 4-Intel 760P and another Hyper 16 m.2. It worked flawlessly with supplied drivers that came with the board (RTSe_f6_iaVROC_win8_10_64), bootable (no key 4-760P raid 0-pass through). Yes, not the greatest Q depth but with Ramcahe II or III, Q depth increased from the 58 to over 200. Ok with me and with the higher read/writes.
Fast forward to Omega. The Hyper 16 with Intel 760p worked fine in slot 1 and 2 (x16) with four drives, bootable. The Hyper 16 worked in slot 2 (x8) with two 760P and the third with 2 760P (x8). I then tried the three PCIE slots on the motherboard (DIMM2 and PCIE on MB) VROC and worked fine. I had to disable 10G ethernet to get the 10 NVME drives to work on the OMEGA (four in 1, GPU in slot 2 x8, two in slot 3 and four on the motherboard.
In this process, True Image 2017 did not restore to the Raid, only to a single 970 PRO. Not a problem after upgrading to True Image 2019 where in the Universal WINPE restore, you can add the F6 VROC drivers (again – using the drivers that came with the motherboard USB). No fear on RAID 0 VROC any more, within five minutes, True Image 2019 will restore to single drive or VROC raid 0 drives either on Hyper 16 or three m.2 on motherboard.
Rebuilding VROC:
Five main steps in the setup with the fourth being the volume setup which never has to happen again even when clearing and updating the Bios on the same bios number. Array information is saved on the first drive (I think as I never had to delete or recreate volumes once done, only did to change block size when playing). If you change the bios number on the motherboard, the array did not boot for me. The ASUS manuals for Raid and x299-xe are very clear in this process. Remember VROC is RSTe and not IRST and no key is necessary for raid 0 pass through.
1) Clear bios
2) Boot, disable CSM, set PCH storage options to RST RAID
3) Boot, Set CPU storage options to Hyper 16 m.2 with VROC in slot 1 (4 drives, where it resides since it always stays at x16 – slot 2 will change from x16 to x8 if slot 3 is used)
4) Boot, INTEL VROC drive volume setup – create raid volume, select drives and block size.
5) Boot, install windows 10 – F6 (RSTe) for custom install to see the single volume raid drive, install.
After Windows installs, you only have to go through steps 1-3 to use VROC on the Hyper 16 after clearing or updating the bios (not changing the bios from 1 to 2 as this made my array fail to boot). After installing Windows, you can unplug the drive, clear CMOS and only have to setup the initial raid and Hyper 16 storage options – do NOT delete or touch the VROC volume settings in the VROC bios settings as the volume information will stay with the Hyper 16 array( I think this is saved on the first drive in the array on the Hyper 16 . I have gone though the entire week end playing around with this. Let me know if you need more clarity.
Bottom line up front (BLUF): VROC works with the Intel 760P drives and don’t be afraid if you have the proper restore methods that can add the F6 drivers and build the universal boot disk like the True Image 2019.
The only hiccup is that Windows needs to be reactivated on the restore. Phone call activation worked fine. I was told by Acronis that this is a Windows issue and that activation will be necessary with all restorations...
Omega PCIE:
STRIX X299-XE had 16x16x8 in any configuration. I had 4-760P in first x16 slot, 4-SM961 in second x16 slot and GTX 1080 in third x8 slot. Omega will do only 16x16-no slot 3 or 16x8x8. With the Omega, I have 4-760P in first x16 slot VROC Raid 0, GTX 1080 in second x8 slot and two SM-961 in the third x8 slot. The 2 Dimm.2 SM961 plus the other two SM961 for my 4 drive Windows data raid 0. Engaging the other two M.2 slots on the motherboard was challenging as the PCH slot would always work for a total of 9 NVMEs but to get the motherboard PCIE to see the 10th NVME I had to disable the 10G ethernet in bios. If I wanted to have two x16 for GPUs, I would do a three VROC raid 0 on the motherboard.
Direct Die:
Both the X299-XE and the Omega are running my Iceman Direct die x7900x with very low, even temperatures across all cores as my main focus was only a quieter and cooler machine. I am liquid cooled with only a 420mm Push/Pull, Velocity and Thermaltake Silent D5. I tried the Rockit copper IHS. but with the 4 degree drop in temperatures, I settled on – no IHS, just liquid metal. My 7900x delidded running 43/45 runs at 63 degree at 100% CPU all day and the system is very quiet. It is 35 degrees with no load, 20 degree ambient. cleared bios temperatures were at 24 degrees, all 10 cores within 1-2 degrees of each other. The six ML140 fans run off the CPU. VRM fans turn on only at full power on after PS switch being off. Then never came back on again after booting. Need to play more now with overclocking…
I like the ASUS Aura Addressable RGB hub works fine for all of the addressable lighting/CPU water block (the motherboard only has one and the EK Velocity needed one too. Velocity is using 2066 jet plate.
Memory:
Using memory from the QVL – 3600 GSKill 16-16-16-36. AISUITE II likes 3200mghz but I have set if back to 3600 after AI Suite 3 tuning at 43/45. I will start the OC later- too tired for now and just enjoying my PC.
Thank again to all!