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born2fli · ‎01-20-2013

Hey Guys,

I am considering purchasing my first ASUS board since a 2001 build using an AMD Athelon 1.3 Ghz. and I am looking hard at the MVF, but have a couple of questions before I hit the Submit Order button.

NOTES:
- I have downloaded and read the MVF manual.
- I typically water cool the CPU and graphics cards, as well as the mobo components if practical/necessary.
- This will be a CPU (3770k) / motherboard (?) / memory (Corsair Platinum) upgrade using two eVGA 680 Hydrocoppers.

QUESTION 1:

ROG Super Moderator TL@ASUS states in an earlier MV EXTREME thread that I can install one VGA card "to FIRST red PCIE slot (16x) or black PCIE slot (x8) to deactivate PLX chip". Can you guys please confirm that installing a single card in a FORMULA's PCIE_x16/X8_1 slot will definitely deactivate the PLX chip? Also, when I install that second 680 Hydrocopper in the PCIE_x8/X4_2 slot, will the PLX chip stay disabled so that I can run at x8/x8 without incurring PLX latency?

QUESTION 2:

How have the Z77 chipset temps been running on the Formula? Has anyone found the need to watercool this chipset? If so, I could you let me know which waterblock you used for that?

Along those same lines, has anyone recorded the temperature deltas of running water through the Fusion Thermo heat sink, versus on air? I would be helpful to know how hot the VRMs are running using both cooling methodologies.

Thanks, guys.

HotSauceOnPasta · ‎01-22-2013

For the first question, I could test it for you, but do you know how I would make sure if the PLX chip is deactivated? I found this in AIDA64:
a) under Motherboard - Chipset - South Bridge - PCI Express Controller - PCI-E 2.0 x1 port #7 - In Use @ x1 (PLX Technology ExpressLane PEX 8608 8-Lane 8-Port PCI Express 2.0 Switch)
b) under Devices - Physical Devices - Bus 6, Device 1, Function 0 (and a few more) - PLX Technology ExpressLane PEX 8608 8-Lane 8-Port PCI Express 2.0 Switch

For the second question, I found a picture (here, third picture under title Fusion Thermo VRM Cooling) and I am not sure, but I think there was a video like that of the entire board and the chipset was colored blue, which means it didn't heat up much, however AIDA64 gives a PCH temperature reading of 46 degrees Celsius, but mine is covered with graphics cards. 🙂

CRO AIR SLI ROG RIG:
PCMark 7: 6671 3DMark 11: P16718, X6969

MBo: Asus Maximus V Formula CPU: Intel i7-3770k (@4.6GHz)
RAM: Corsair Dominator GT (4x 4GB 2133MHz 9-11-10-27-1T)
GPU: 2x Asus GTX 680 DirectCU II OC in SLI (@1200MHz)
SSD: 2x Corsair Force GT 240 in RAID0
PSU: Corsair AX1200 Cha: Lian Li X500FX
Coo: Prolimatech Armageddon Fan: 5x Prolimatech Vortex Aluminium

Mon: LG IPS235V Cam: Logitech C920 Spk: Logitech Z906
Kbd: SteelSeries 6Gv2 Mou: Cyborg R.A.T. 7 Mat: Razer Sphex

born2fli · ‎01-22-2013

Hey HotSauce,

From my research on PLX so far, I have concluded that the Formula has the one PLX PEX8608 chip which "multiplexes" 8 lanes from the second PCIe slot and 8 lanes from the third PCIe slot if you are running THREE graphics cards, so that the three slots will operate at x8 / x8 / x8, at least as far as the CPU (which only has a total of 16 lanes to play with) is concerned. When PLX is active, there is latency incurred as the PLX chip buffers and shuttles data between the CPU and PCIe slots 2 and 3. I do not know of any way to physically detect if the PLX is active, and trying to run FPS benchmarks using various slot configurations could become quite complex. But thanks for your offer to help!

I was REALLY hoping that a ROG Super Moderator or some ASUS tech rep would simply reply to my Question #1 with a definitive answer, so I could with some degree of certainty determine if maybe an ASUS channel board would be a better choice for my single and dual graphic card setups.

Thanks also for the Fusion Thermo link showing the ASUS marketing slide with an 18C VRM temp drop on water vs air; that was was pretty much what I was looking for.

born2fli · ‎01-23-2013

I have just reviewed the full technical documentation on the PLX website for both the PLX 8606 and the PLX 8747 chips. I now feel fairly confident of the following regarding the ASUS Maximus V Formula:

1) That the board will run one graphics card with 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes and will run two cards with x8 / x8 PCIe 3.0 lanes, connecting directly to the CPU's 16 native PCIe 3.0 lanes.

2) The board does NOT contain a PLX PEX 8747, which is used on many Z77 boards to enable three-way SLI or four-way SLI/Crossfire.

3) The board DOES implement a PLX PEX 8608 to utilize it's lane mutliplexing methodology to "double" the CPU's 8 native PCIe 2.0 lanes to ensure that most if not all of the board's PCIe 2.0 devices (e.g., SATA and USB 3.0) will remain operable during simultaneous operations.

I have also reviewed gaming benchmark testing (Tom's Hardware) between PCIe 3.0 vs. 2.0, which revealed only an average of a 5% increase with 3.0 across a variety of graphically intensive games.

Additionally, I have reviewed gaming benchmark testing (HardOCP) between 16 x 16 lane SLI vs 8 x 8 lane SLI, which revealed no real world dicernable differences between the two setups.

I will therefore be purchasing a Maximus V Formula, along with an Intel 3770k, 16 gigs of Corsair Dominator Platinum 2400, a second water cooled GTX680, a second Samsung 840 Pro 512 gig SSD, plus USB 3.0 peripherals (SATA docking station and flash drive). I will apply a nice, healthy 24/7 overclock and I look forward to using the built-in WiFi, Bluethooth, SupremeFX sound, as well as the other ROG exclusive software and hardware innovations.

HotSauceOnPasta · ‎01-23-2013

Remarkable researching skills! 😄 Nice to know there is no unneeded additional latency.

I believe you will enjoy your new MVF board, as much as I do! Nice specs for your next build! If I may digress by asking, will you be including Fusion Thermo in your water cooling loop?

P.S. "Only" an average of 5% increase? It's 5%! I like 5%. Give me every percent there is. 🙂

CRO AIR SLI ROG RIG:
PCMark 7: 6671 3DMark 11: P16718, X6969

MBo: Asus Maximus V Formula CPU: Intel i7-3770k (@4.6GHz)
RAM: Corsair Dominator GT (4x 4GB 2133MHz 9-11-10-27-1T)
GPU: 2x Asus GTX 680 DirectCU II OC in SLI (@1200MHz)
SSD: 2x Corsair Force GT 240 in RAID0
PSU: Corsair AX1200 Cha: Lian Li X500FX
Coo: Prolimatech Armageddon Fan: 5x Prolimatech Vortex Aluminium

Mon: LG IPS235V Cam: Logitech C920 Spk: Logitech Z906
Kbd: SteelSeries 6Gv2 Mou: Cyborg R.A.T. 7 Mat: Razer Sphex

born2fli · ‎01-23-2013

Hot Sauce,

Yes, I will be running water through the Fusion Thermo. According to an ASUS marketing slide I found, they got up to 18C cooler VRM temps on water vs air.

I do agree with most folks, who suggest that ASUS should ship the Fusion blocks with standard G1/4 threads for the barbs so that they can be swapped out to be compatable with most enthusiast's 1/2" tubing. My guess is that there was some kind of design/manufacturing consideration - maybe a cost consideration as well - which resulted in the barbs being integral with the water pipe. However, it is totally no big deal to step down to 3/8" for that part of the loop. To paraphrase your post, I like 18C. Give me every degree C there is!

HotSauceOnPasta · ‎01-26-2013

Pictures or didn't happen. 🙂

CRO AIR SLI ROG RIG:
PCMark 7: 6671 3DMark 11: P16718, X6969

MBo: Asus Maximus V Formula CPU: Intel i7-3770k (@4.6GHz)
RAM: Corsair Dominator GT (4x 4GB 2133MHz 9-11-10-27-1T)
GPU: 2x Asus GTX 680 DirectCU II OC in SLI (@1200MHz)
SSD: 2x Corsair Force GT 240 in RAID0
PSU: Corsair AX1200 Cha: Lian Li X500FX
Coo: Prolimatech Armageddon Fan: 5x Prolimatech Vortex Aluminium

Mon: LG IPS235V Cam: Logitech C920 Spk: Logitech Z906
Kbd: SteelSeries 6Gv2 Mou: Cyborg R.A.T. 7 Mat: Razer Sphex

born2fli · ‎01-26-2013

Pictures or didn't happen

Sorry, HotSauce - ya lost me on that last post...

HotSauceOnPasta · ‎01-27-2013

I meant pictures of the water cooling loop. 🙂 It's always interesting to see setups like yours is going to be.

CRO AIR SLI ROG RIG:
PCMark 7: 6671 3DMark 11: P16718, X6969

MBo: Asus Maximus V Formula CPU: Intel i7-3770k (@4.6GHz)
RAM: Corsair Dominator GT (4x 4GB 2133MHz 9-11-10-27-1T)
GPU: 2x Asus GTX 680 DirectCU II OC in SLI (@1200MHz)
SSD: 2x Corsair Force GT 240 in RAID0
PSU: Corsair AX1200 Cha: Lian Li X500FX
Coo: Prolimatech Armageddon Fan: 5x Prolimatech Vortex Aluminium

Mon: LG IPS235V Cam: Logitech C920 Spk: Logitech Z906
Kbd: SteelSeries 6Gv2 Mou: Cyborg R.A.T. 7 Mat: Razer Sphex

redbluecai · ‎01-28-2013

think so, According to an ASUS marketing slide I found, they got up to 18C cooler VRM temps on water vs air.

Formula Questions: PLX / SLI / Watercooling