Asus Rampage Gene II Xeon Compatibility

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May 20, 2011
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I just picked up a gene II from a yard sale of all places. Guy got it off eBay awhile back but never got around to using. Sold it as is for $40, great deal either way. Will these boards run a Xeon 6 core? Does it need a bios update? Sold my 1366 setup years ago, no way to tell whAt bios version it has or even tell if it works. Thanks!
 
Running an X5650 in mine.

The Xeons are so cheap that it wont hardly cost you anything to try it.

The Rampage are known for having pretty good Xeon support even though it isnt officially documented so I bet even the early bios has support.

Try it...

I'd even be willing to bet you could get someone to send you a 920 for the cost of postage as those things have been rendered, sad to say, worthless. Then you could update the bios and then stick a x5670 in it and rock on. I did a X5650, as I said earlier, but I wish I'd gone for the higher multiplier.
 
So it will most likely need a bios update to work? I would hate to buy a x5660 only to have to find a 920 to get it to work. If someone is interested in lending me their old cpu that would be sweet.
 
Unless your not willing to mess with selling... there is literally no way you can lose money on this deal.

The motherboard is worth $100 more than you bought it for...

If your not willing to risk it, just sell the board on FS/FT. It won't last one day.
 
I have a 5660 in mine and when I got it, it was not the newest bios.
I did flash it to the newest to make sure all the features work.
I like the x5660 CPU, I can run the 23 multiplier, that is pretty much you will need anyway.

Also the is a guy on E-bay that sells bios chips for around 13$, they are flashed to the newest bios.
I did that with my P6T D V2 board, I had no 9xx chip to flash the bios.

Good luck, nice score by the way. I picked up my EVGA FTW3 for 60$, my Rampage3 Gene for 100.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I think I'm going to risk it and get a x5660, not much to loose.

The bios chip suggestion is interesting, what's involved in swapping one of those.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I think I'm going to risk it and get a x5660, not much to loose.

The bios chip suggestion is interesting, what's involved in swapping one of those.

All you do is pull the chip off the board and pop in the new one. Very easy.
After you put the new one in reset the bios.
Best way is to unplug the power supply, pull the battery and hit the start button to discharge the caps
Then short the pins or push the reset button for 15 seconds. Battery in, plug it in and boot to bios, then select fail safe option and reboot. Then go in bios and change what you need to.

Here is the link if you need it.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BIOS-CHIP-A...904?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cb17f8048
 
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All you do is pull the chip off the board and pop in the new one. Very easy.
After you put the new one in reset the bios.
Best way is to unplug the power supply, pull the battery and hit the start button to discharge the caps
Then short the pins or push the reset button for 15 seconds. Battery in, plug it in and boot to bios, then select fail safe option and reboot. Then go in bios and change what you need to.

Here is the link if you need it.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BIOS-CHIP-A...904?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cb17f8048

You are the man Bill, thanks a lot to you and everyone else here. Just bought a x5660. Hope this board works!
 
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UPDATE: The board works! Threw in the x5660 and it fired up no problem. I am having a problem with the ram though. No matter what I try, only one dimm is being recognized in the bios in single channel. Have tried 3 sticks and 2 sticks, but everytime only one works. First I thought one of the slots must be broken, but all A, B, and C slots work with one stick in single channel. I think I've tried every combo to get dual channel to work, but it's always stuck in single channel. CPUZ sees the other sticks. Also have tried playing around with the timings, no luck. Anyone have any insight? Bios flashed to latest version.
 
UPDATE: The board works! Threw in the x5660 and it fired up no problem. I am having a problem with the ram though. No matter what I try, only one dimm is being recognized in the bios in single channel. Have tried 3 sticks and 2 sticks, but everytime only one works. First I thought one of the slots must be broken, but all A, B, and C slots work with one stick in single channel. I think I've tried every combo to get dual channel to work, but it's always stuck in single channel. CPUZ sees the other sticks. Also have tried playing around with the timings, no luck. Anyone have any insight? Bios flashed to latest version.

Are you using Registered ECC or Fully Buffered ECC because most desktop boards that do document support for Xeons, like the Gigabyte UP4 and UD5 don't support it even though they support Xeon processors. If this is the case you need a motherboard that supports this type of ECC memory and to support more memory than a standard desktop board.
 
I'm using standard non-ecc 4gb sticks out of my haswell rig. Gskill 2100 9-11-11-31. I've tried those timings and a more common x58 timing 9-9-9-24.
 
I'm using standard non-ecc 4gb sticks out of my haswell rig. Gskill 2100 9-11-11-31. I've tried those timings and a more common x58 timing 9-9-9-24.

I don't know then. Maybe you have a bad memory controller on the processor or the memory slots are defective. Try putting another processor in with the memory and see if you get the same results. If the other processor doesn't then you know it was the processor causing the issue, but if you still have the same problem with both processors then you should know it was probably the motherboard.

Originally, I was thinking it was related to using registered ECC because Gigabyte told me that the UP4 and UD5 would only read one stick of Reg ECC if used in them, but that doesn't seem to be your problem.
 
Unfortunately don't have another cpu to try. Really wondering if it's the board or the cpu. Like I said all the slots are working, I've tried a single stick in all three slots and all of them register the ram. If the slots are working it must be the cpu right?
 
Drop the memory down to 1333 and up VDIMM to 1.65V; the 1st-gen Intel IMC's were super-picky about RAM and would often drop channels.
You can also try tweaking the IOH and other uncore voltages to get things stable, but that really shouldn't be necessary at stock clocks.
 
Tried that too, still only single channel. I'm going to try some older 2gb sticks in a few days when I can get them.
 
Turns out the board wasn't liking the newer ram. Put a 2x2gb kit in that was from 2010 and it registered all 4gb in dual channel mode. I have another stick of the same ram coming in a few days, hopefully triple channel works too. Looks like I'll be stuck with 6gb for now, I'd get another 3 stick kit but I remember my UD3R X58 not working at all with A2/B2/C2 slots filled.

On a better note the x5660 is a great clocker, [email protected] at the moment. Surprised how cool the chip runs, a Noctua D-14 handles it no problem. Hottest core hitting 76C
 
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