Asus & Corsair X99 Enthusiast Level Test Rig... in progress

[MacClipper]

I suspend my further oc efforts till further notice

Stock on a R5E, the top end over-engineered 24/7 mobo... ? Haiz, such a pity.

I have been running my 5820K@4.4GHz since day 1 on the X99-A, the lowest end model.

Since then I have transcoded about 40-50 mp4 movies for my kids' portable devices ie. prolonged data crunching close to 100% loads. It's really fast!

 

[alantcy]

Perhaps the concern is more about avoiding data corruption due to overclocking hence some folks may be hesitant to put this platform to use as their production machine.

Interestingly, Legit has posted more updates about the case.
Looks like there some conflicting info about the issue.

 

[MacClipper]

OK congrats, have your 2 seconds of fleeting net fame at being mentioned... lol

In other news, 2 fresh updates are just out
1. Realbench 2.4 - updated for X99 and FM2+
2. X99-A BIOS 1004 - various fixes esp. for Xonar audio cards

Enjoy!

 

[mr_voodoo]

wth. I did not recieve or PM Asus SG about the article.
Only about WS board availability

edit: seems like a forum post, and the post was edited.

 

[MacClipper]

WinRAR

...

 

[MacClipper]

7Zip

...

 

[poor_poor]

OK congrats, have your 2 seconds of fleeting net fame at being mentioned... lol

In other news, 2 fresh updates are just out
1. Realbench 2.4 - updated for X99 and FM2+
2. X99-A BIOS 1004 - various fixes esp. for Xonar audio cards

Enjoy!

The release was so fast!

X99-A BIOS 1004
1. Update EC FW
2. Fix crash free issue
3. Fix Xonar card compatibility issue
4. Revise Thunderbolt memory resource
5. Enhance Xeon CPU compatibility
6. Rebuild SteamOS boot option

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA2011/X99-A/X99-A-ASUS-1004.zip

 

[MacClipper]

Flashed the X99-A successfully to BIOS 1004 and retesting the o'c now, so far so good.


And LR apparently has more details on this seemingly impt BIOS update.

Update 10/23/2014 - ASUS released UEFI 1004 for the ASUS X99 Deluxe today and we have been told that this update includes an EC (Embedded Controller) Firmware update that fixes something discovered by our board failing here at Legit Reviews. We don’t have the official response from ASUS yet, but Legit Reviews highly suggests that all ASUS X99 Deluxe owners update to UEFI build 1004 due to the fixes implemented in it for the way the board power is being handled. The build date on this UEFI is 10/16/2014, so it has been around for a week before it was made public. ASUS also reprogramed the memory tables after receiving new microcode from Intel. That made a world of a difference on our board when running memory kits beyond 3000MHz with 1T Command Rates.
...

We have been told to expect the final answer on our failure from ASUS on Friday.


Read more at Legit Reviews

HTH

 

[bemylove]

Disappointed that Asus SG tried to smoke us and got caught.

Exciting to see the final results whether it is now safe to buy Asus X99 boards (ex. RVE). I hope they dont 'downgrade' the performance to fix the power issue.

May just hoot X99S + 5960X for next month once clearance is given.

DDR4 Crucial RAM just received from Newegg. 5 days from ordering, box is damn big for RAMs.

 

[SimonLam]

Stock on a R5E, the top end over-engineered 24/7 mobo... ? Haiz, such a pity.

I have been running my 5820K@4.4GHz since day 1 on the X99-A, the lowest end model.

Since then I have transcoded about 40-50 mp4 movies for my kids' portable devices ie. prolonged data crunching close to 100% loads. It's really fast!

I wait till official Asus announcement first before ramping up. Maybe my worries are unnecessary

 

[MacClipper]

Finally, the official Asus answer is out.

Update 10/24/2014 - Legit Reviews was just sent the failure analysis response on our ASUS X99-Deluxe Motherboard. You can read it in its entirety below:

Hi Nate,

We have determined the primary cause of failure for the pre-production ASUS X99 Deluxe you were testing on September 6, 2014 along with a secondary cause gathered during the investigation phase. Our initial analysis of the VRM Phase-4 MOSFET/Driver package failure is a bad solder point that was also present at the VRM Phase-3 location resulting in the failure you described along with the presence of solder balls. Additional analyses lead us to believe this was the secondary cause for the failure described.

After extensive testing and collaboration with leading power supply manufacturers and our VRM supplier (International Rectifier) it was determined that the new VRM design on the X99 Deluxe board needs a firmware update to balance start-up and shutdown power loads and sequencing across the MOSFET/Driver packages. We determined that higher loads were placed on the VRM Phase-4 package when the processor was drawing less than 70 amps of current during start-up and shutdown sequences based on the original firmware. This along with some older power supply OCP/Shutdown anomalies results in a bad component combination that randomly (very) leads to a VCCIN spike and power surge on the VRM Phase-4 MOSFET/Driver package that could cause component failures. We still have not replicated this failure in our test labs after thousands of hours of testing across a significant number of component combinations. However, we believe this was the primary cause for the initial board shutdown and the solder point issues exacerbated the subsequent component failures in the manner you outlined when using the secondary power supply. The good news is that we have a solution to this potential issue.

We are releasing a new EFI (build 1004) today that addresses this issue by balancing start-up and shutdown power loads across all VRM Phases when the processor is drawing less than 50 amps. This will greatly mitigate the chance of a VCCIN spike or power surge in rare instances based on extensive testing. Our new balancing/sequencing rules will decrease overall power efficiency results by a few percent based on processor loading under 50 amps but otherwise the board’s overall performance will not change. In addition to the new power rules, EFI release 1004 features a host of performance improvements with significant improvements in the area of memory overclocking using the 100 strap at speeds up to and past DDR4-3300.

We highly recommend that all users of the ASUS X99 Deluxe board download and install EFI 1004. This EFI is available from our support site starting today - X99-Deluxe EFI 1004. Please follow the proper instructions for updating your EFI. The update guidelines are available at ASUS USB BIOS Flashback Guide or follow the instructions in the user manual when utilizing USB BIOS Flashback or EZ Flash 2.

ASUS is firmly committed to supporting our class leading X99 Deluxe motherboard that features unmatched performance and options like our patent-pending OC Socket, 5-way Optimization for one click overclocking and fan control, 3×3 802.11ac, Fan Expert 3 and Crystal Sound 2.

Sincerely,
ASUS

...


Read more at Intel X99 Motherboard Goes Up in Smoke For Reasons Unknown - Legit Reviews

 

[SimonLam]

so its a ASUS issue after all..

I am glad that industry leaders like Asus, Corsair and Intel can work together to produce a solution, rather than pointing fingers

 

[MacClipper]

so its a ASUS issue after all..

To be even more precise, it is a X99-Deluxe only issue.

ASUS X99-Deluxe Motherboard owners should immediately update to UEFI 1004. (No other ASUS Intel X99 board is impacted since the ASUS X99 Deluxe had a unique VRM design and firmware setup)

Read more at Intel X99 Motherboard Goes Up in Smoke For Reasons Unknown - Legit Reviews

 

[ondooy]

oh so it's not an intel issue after all....

 

[MacClipper]

Now that Asus has concluded its X99 Deluxe investigations, wonder if the other burnt X99 mobo story is also already concluded or dismissed... did anyone follow up?
[Phoronix]

Definitely seems much less publicity in comparison.

 

[bemylove]

Sound to me like Asus tried to use power saving and load up VRM4 only, but some compatibility problems may cause overcurrent and boom! Now they will spread the bootup/shutdown load across the VRM so less power savings.

Interesting they say only affect Deluxe, does this mean X99A, Pro and S use different/lesser VRM than Deluxe?

Confirm here Pro(and most likely -A) uses 'lesser' components
Review: ASUS X99-Pro | OCDrift.com

Still hoping X99S using same components as Deluxe and not just the outlook.

 

[simon45op]

Now that Asus has concluded its X99 Deluxe investigations, wonder if the other burnt X99 mobo story is also already concluded or dismissed... did anyone follow up?
[Phoronix]

Definitely seems much less publicity in comparison.

no follow up on my case yet. kind of expected it will be asus board problem and not intel processor with faulty cores. At least now i know its not software (asus oc suite) problem too.

 

[MacClipper]

Meanwhile, back to our regular programming of what was achieved in the first few hours of X99-A tinkering.



Cinebench 15

...

 

[MacClipper]

Cinebench 11.5

...

 

[ondooy]

how does this board compare to msi x99s sli plus ?