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Posted
54 minutes ago, OPPOSITION said:

Awesome, thank you Duce. How about the vrm design? It looks like the m9a is a true 8 phase where as the mxa is an 8 phase via a doubling scheme. It seems like the m9a might actually be the better choice for a 5.4 daily with the 9900kf in addition to costing less, but there are other factors in this case 

Apex IX and X are true 4 phase, the XI is the only True 8 currently by ROG for 9900K(f)

https://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/f12/lga-1151-mainboard-vrm-liste-1175784.html#z370

Posted
3 hours ago, OPPOSITION said:

Awesome, thank you Duce. How about the vrm design? It looks like the m9a is a true 8 phase where as the mxa is an 8 phase via a doubling scheme. It seems like the m9a might actually be the better choice for a 5.4 daily with the 9900kf in addition to costing less, but there are other factors in this case 

actually m9a and m10a are the same board, only rgb unit is different. all this thread is about this.

  • Like 1
Posted
On 8/6/2019 at 2:19 PM, GtiJason said:

Apex IX and X are true 4 phase, the XI is the only True 8 currently by ROG for 9900K(f)

https://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/f12/lga-1151-mainboard-vrm-liste-1175784.html#z370

I see what you mean on the sheet, but I'm looking right at an m9a and don't see any doublers on the front or back and the path traces seem to back up being a true 8 phase on the vcore, so true 8+2 unless I'm missing something. Don't have a mxa for reference, but it's probably the same. As for the mxia, it seems to be a very similar 8+0 that just nixes the igpu vrm in favor of being able to dump quadruple digit amperage into the poor 1151 socket.  In any case, the m9a and mxa look good for 5.4 on a 9900kf with the right monoblock and loop 

Posted
2 hours ago, OPPOSITION said:

but I'm looking right at an m9a and don't see any doublers on the front or back

Yeah man. This has also confused me too for a very long time indeed!

 

According to the german vrms list here

https://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/f12/lga-1151-mainboard-vrm-liste-1175784.html

It says that it should have 4x IR3599 "Doppler" (="Doubler" in english)

But here is the part Buildzoid's video where he comes to the same initial conclusion as yourself:

What would be nice then is to try to CONFIRM that the other 2 phases for the igpu are coming from a completely different VRM controller (than the main vcore one). Because if the vcore is a true 8 phases, and it is an Asus rebrand of an IR35201.... then there should be 0 phases left on it for the igpu vrm --> needs a seperate controller.

Hopefully you can take another look! Many thanks because so many people keep saying it's just a doubled 4 phase and I truly don't know still. Would try to look myself but it's my main system here. So unfortunately cannot dismantle / examine.

Posted
On 8/7/2019 at 12:48 AM, Vital-uK said:

actually m9a and m10a are the same board, only rgb unit is different. all this thread is about this.

Nop, actually no, memory clocks are a huge improvement in apex x with proper setup you can do 4400 c12 for example, m9a hardly did 4280, plus m10a is way more consistent in training. there are also other changes as well.

  • Like 4
Posted
2 hours ago, Alex@ro said:

there are also other changes as well

Please tell us if you can what else was changed. It would be nice to hear about these other differences. It may be helpful to know about when running the new 10's BIOS on the 9.

Posted

I flashed with CH341A programmer clamped to BIOS chip directly; no wire mod at all.

Shorted the pins shown on page 2 but did not isolate any pins; works fine.

@dreamcat4 According to tweaktown review, m10a has stronger fets and (obviously) better heatsink than m9a

  • Like 2
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

I used a Flashcat USB programmer. Going to also need motherboard header pitch connector wire and individually setup the pins onto the 9 pin header thats on the motherboard. Worked for me.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted (edited)
On 6/10/2019 at 9:16 AM, dreamcat4 said:

[NOTE] New 2003 mod bios file is attached at the very bottom of this same post. Please download / save for later. However before flashing / updating, please read through very carefully and fully all of the post here, for the changelog information. Since this new BIOS includes new update(s) from Intel !!! And personally, as for myself I don't actually know what they actually are yet...

 

Hello again. Well it seems yesterday @dsanke has released new BIOS updates for some of these ASUS boards. Including this one. He did not include his normal summary information this time. But instead put:

dsanke Changes the same as before.

So therefore the only difference between this 2003 revision and the previous 1901 BIOS should be whatever the manufacturer, ASUS has added. And remembering that this is actually a modded the Apex 10 bios.  So that actually made me curious enough to bother checking what might be in it. Also because the version number seems like it is significantly higher now.

The original files are available from here:

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-MAXIMUS-X-APEX/HelpDesk_Download/

Unfortunately (unlike in their previous updates), ASUS did not tell us what was changed in this latest update.

JC91jv0.png

Wheras the previous 2 updates from ASUS did at least include some partial information, for what was improved:

 

 

 

Here I am just copying from a previous information which was included with the earlier '1901' BIOS. Assuming that nothing @dsanke has done has changed:

Author: @dsanke
Motherboard: ASUS ROG MAXIMUS IX APEX
Based on:ASUS ROG MAXIMUS X APEX 2003
ME: 11.7.0.1229
Microcodes: The same as original M10A BIOS.
Note: Flash via SPI Programmer. Support All LGA1151 CPU except Xeon and Skylake ES. AURA/SLI Fixed.

====

$ md5sum *
4904b53e1dceb1ac217e590bd43c7d69  ROG-MAXIMUS-IX-APEX-ASUS-2003.7z
9baf6299714bff49eb766bf48e7177bd  ROG-MAXIMUS-IX-APEX-ASUS-2003.bin

 

Anyhow, coming back to the missing changelog from ASUS... @dsanke also updated these 2 other ASUS boards. All together. And for *those other 2 boards*, they *do* include information in their changelog entries. And the other '2003' bios (for the Maximus 10 Hero) shares the same exact upload date. As the apex.

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-MAXIMUS-X-HERO/HelpDesk_Download/

So perhaps it was just an innocent error / forgot. Since the similar Hero board does explain it's changelog:

 

But it also shares exactly also the 2 previous changelog entries. So this really does strongly suggest that ASUS does try very hard to keep these 2 boards in-step / always together.

 

 

 

So then, the 2003 update includes 4 new changes. Vs the 1901, which was purely for compatibility with new intel processor SKUs.

The ASUS changes are:

* "Improve System Performance."
* "Updated ME FW."
* "Updated Intel commit for security."
* "Updated RAID driver."

Whatever that means. @dsanke mod bios for Apex 9 attached. Please discuss, it should be possible to find information elsewhere (from other sources) for what the middle 2 are all about. Kind Regards.

Just a quick note:

FWIW It almost seems as-if the increment of the minor version number reflects the number of different and unique feature (or bugfix) changes. That have been made since the last update. For this update, if we ignore and discount the "Improve System Performance" at the top. And assume that point 1 references the points 2 & 4 being the things that are 'improving' the performance. Then that leaves us with 3 different / unique changes in the clangelog here... And the last 2 digits are '03'. Wheras in the previous BIOS update, it was '01' and there was only 1 unique change. And then the 1st 2 digits counting and incrementing the major BIOS version (18, 19, 20). So therefore 2003 = "the 20th BIOS update, and it includes 3 new changes". Would appear to be the ASUS naming scheme is here. And for all of their other motherboards (and other types of devices too!). Unless I am mistaken about that.

Anyhow thanks to @dsanke for continuing to update this BIOS. Keeping it current with the latest. Although he still seems to be unable to register an account at this forum, for whatever technical reason(s) he cannot be here.

 

ROG-MAXIMUS-IX-APEX-ASUS-2003.7z 7.27 MB · 46 downloads

Thanks for Bios  @dsanke   dreamcat4

rogzpj4t.png

Edited by Mayk-Freak
Posted (edited)
On 9/9/2019 at 9:30 PM, Mayk-Freak said:

Thanks for Bios  @dsanke   dreamcat4

rogzpj4t.png

Woah, the 4400 memory divider is working for you? Or is it reading it incorrectly?  

Maybe 4133 is the upper limit for Kaby Lake only...

Edited by ducegt
added
Posted (edited)
19 hours ago, ducegt said:

Woah, the 4400 memory divider is working for you? Or is it reading it incorrectly?  

Maybe 4133 is the upper limit for Kaby Lake only...

4500 divider even works with that Z370 bios flashed to the board, I just confirmed with a kit of Team Dark.

Edited by sabishiihito
  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Posted
7 hours ago, sabishiihito said:

4500 divider even works with that Z390 bios flashed to the board, I just confirmed with a kit of Team Dark.

Bios 2003 ? Isn't that from Apex X Z370 or was it ported from z390 to 30 and then 270

Posted (edited)
45 minutes ago, GtiJason said:

Bios 2003 ? Isn't that from Apex X Z370

correct.

...still waiting for somebody to confirm whether this board is a doubled or a true 8 phase. Actually I can inspect mine today. So just wondering what I should be looking out for? There was some other way were were going to verify this.

 

Ah:

 

"What would be nice then is to try to CONFIRM that the other 2 phases for the igpu are coming from a completely different VRM controller (than the main vcore one). Because if the vcore is a true 8 phases, and it is an Asus rebrand of an IR35201.... then there should be 0 phases left on it for the igpu vrm --> needs a seperate controller."

Edited by dreamcat4
Posted

Hello.

During my BIOS mod today, I have had the opportunity to confirm that it is using 4x phase doublers. They are 4x IR3599s on the main Vcore, as you can see with the photos attached. The silkscreen says PU10x0, and there are no markings for 3 of them. However the 4th one PU1040 does carry a clear marking. And the package size and type matches the only package that the IR3599 comes in, the locations are where you would expect them to be etc. There is no possible way that this board does not use IR3599s. Without any doubt.

2016_0101_154846_001.JPG

2016_0101_154923_002.JPG

2016_0101_155430_008.JPG

2016_0101_155501_010.JPG

2016_0101_155452_009.JPG

2016_0101_155155_004.JPG

2016_0101_155308_006.JPG

  • Thanks 2
Posted
17 hours ago, sabishiihito said:

4500 divider even works with that Z370 bios flashed to the board, I just confirmed with a kit of Team Dark.

Awesome! What CPU did you use?

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