Asus Maximus IX Apex and Coffee Lake Cpu's !

[NIK1]

I have a ASUS ROG MAXIMUS IX APEX motherboard and would like to know what is needed for to get a 8700k CPU to run on it.Any help with my is endeavor greatly appreciated..

[Gigelz]

5 hours ago, NIK1 said:

I have a ASUS ROG MAXIMUS IX APEX motherboard and would like to know what is needed for to get a 8700k CPU to run on it.Any help with my is endeavor greatly appreciated..

Read this thread...

[davidm71_2]

On 4/28/2019 at 5:32 AM, dreamcat4 said:

The bios modder Dsanke has also made an 0901 now. Here it is:

 

4:22 PM] dsanke: Author: @dsanke
Motherboard: ASUS ROG MAXIMUS IX APEX
Based on:ASUS ROG MAXIMUS X APEX 1901
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 *1901*
9ff2714a4b6ab8aedb5c877ff0eef8c3  ROG-MAXIMUS-IX-APEX-ASUS-1901.rar
d72335f098f3654945e9502664090057  ROG-MAXIMUS-IX-APEX-ASUS-1901.rom

 

ROG-MAXIMUS-IX-APEX-ASUS-1901.rar 7.33 MB · 14 downloads

 

Hi guys,

Recently acquired an Apex IX and someone on Hardforum told me of the 1901 bios by Dsanke. After some research I found this thread. 

Confused on whats inside this bios mod? Apex X core files? 

And how to flash it. Need to use a usb flasher with soic cable or will flashback work?

Also what does it bring to table that the old 1301 Asus bios not have?

 

Thanks.

[suzuki]

Did anyone of you noticed if the board degrades over time ? (Same settings not working with same hardware) ?

[Mikecdm]

15 hours ago, suzuki said:

Did anyone of you noticed if the board degrades over time ? (Same settings not working with same hardware) ?

Mine degraded

Using apex X now with same chip thats missing pad.  Runs full pot with way lower dmi and pll. 

Edited May 13, 2019 by Mikecdm

[davidm71_2]

Hi guys,

 

Got a Z270-WS I want to coffe-lake mod but would also like to graft the z370-WS bios onto it if possible but not sure how. Is it just use a programmer to transfer it onto the bios chip?

Would like to learn how thats done if someone could help?

 

Also if I want just a 8350K or 9350KF I will not have to solder anything short of shorting those two pads next to the bios chip? Is there a more powerful cpu that could go in there with minimal solder work on the board. Just in case I have to RMA the board don't want solder showing.

 

Thanks

[NorySS]

On 3/5/2019 at 5:09 PM, suzuki said:

I don’t have Ht with 0094 on 8700k,any ideea why ?

Ram oc is poor only on CFL,i cannot go past 3866 12-11-11 on same bios,but with 7350k/7700k i can do 4200 12-11-11 easy.

did you ever find the solution to this? I am running into the same exact thing

[davidm71_2]

@jjxaker Can you help me out? 

[suzuki]

8 hours ago, NorySS said:

did you ever find the solution to this? I am running into the same exact thing

No, i think board has degraded.

In my recent testing i could get only 4000 12-11-11 with both 7350k and 8700k.

I still need to test it with other cpu’s ,just to be sure.

[NorySS]

31 minutes ago, suzuki said:

No, i think board has degraded.

In my recent testing i could get only 4000 12-11-11 with both 7350k and 8700k.

I still need to test it with other cpu’s ,just to be sure.

Interesting. I only push daily timings, and I ran into the same thing you said. My 7700k does 4133 @ c17, but when I drop the 9900k, it's a brick wall @ 3866. And I have used the same 9900k on the zDark at 4133 speeds. 

[dreamcat4]

21 minutes ago, NorySS said:

Interesting. I only push daily timings, and I ran into the same thing you said. My 7700k does 4133 @ c17, but when I drop the 9900k, it's a brick wall @ 3866. And I have used the same 9900k on the zDark at 4133 speeds. 

That isn't actually what 'degraded' is supposed to mean. It's supposed to mean something other than comparing 2 entirely different motherboard. Which are never going to yield the same performance (despite both of them being very decent overclocking boards).

Also I am just wondering what part of the motherboard exactly do you believe has degraded? The smoothing caps on the DDR4 memory channels? That would be rather premature given the typical ratings of those components. Assuming they are at least 2v rated caps and you have not been running a very high voltage of 2v on your ram. Or perhaps the socket contacts have gotten dirty? (because it can happen fairly easily, and they can be just as easily cleaned, and then the performance restored). Same for the DDR4 memory slot. Debris can easily get into that. This kinds of statements about degraded motherboards puzzles me when there is not really 'much else' in the pathway directly between the ram and the cpu itself. Much less anything that can actually wear out, or 'degrade', in some non-reversable fashion as you both seem to be attributing the matter to here. I'm not trying to argue that your ram speeds have not become less. Because certainly you seem to both be thinking that. Just that maybe there is some alternative explanation, that isn't really the motherboard's itself fault (as much as any other model). And can be gotten back somehow.

[NorySS]

3 hours ago, dreamcat4 said:

That isn't actually what 'degraded' is supposed to mean. It's supposed to mean something other than comparing 2 entirely different motherboard. Which are never going to yield the same performance (despite both of them being very decent overclocking boards).

Also I am just wondering what part of the motherboard exactly do you believe has degraded? The smoothing caps on the DDR4 memory channels? That would be rather premature given the typical ratings of those components. Assuming they are at least 2v rated caps and you have not been running a very high voltage of 2v on your ram. Or perhaps the socket contacts have gotten dirty? (because it can happen fairly easily, and they can be just as easily cleaned, and then the performance restored). Same for the DDR4 memory slot. Debris can easily get into that. This kinds of statements about degraded motherboards puzzles me when there is not really 'much else' in the pathway directly between the ram and the cpu itself. Much less anything that can actually wear out, or 'degrade', in some non-reversable fashion as you both seem to be attributing the matter to here. I'm not trying to argue that your ram speeds have not become less. Because certainly you seem to both be thinking that. Just that maybe there is some alternative explanation, that isn't really the motherboard's itself fault (as much as any other model). And can be gotten back somehow.

I don't think it's degration, I think it's something else. At least my situation of being able to pass 3866 MHz.

I always get past training and then I get stuck on code 26.

I have 2 other 9900ks which can do 4k+ memory, just to rule out the cpu factor. 

[davidm71_2]

Anyone know why Asus would sneak in microcodes for Kabylake and Skylake in their stock non-modded 1901 Apex X motherboard bios? Was taking a peak with Uefitool NE and found there were old microcodes in there but it doesn't make sense because they say Coffeelake not backwards compatible with older z270, Z170 cpus??

 

Thanks.

 

Confused.

 

 

[speed.fastest]

Its probably not degraded, just not clean enough or contact is bad because insulation & cold.

[davidm71_2]

Anyone know how to access the spi header on the Apex IX? On my Z270-WS I was able to use a flash programmer device connected to 9 pin SPI header without issue but when I tried to do the same thing with the apex my flash programmer device couldn't identify the flash chip. Suppose it would be simpler to short those two pads and use flashback. Anyhow heres a photo of what I think is the spi header and the two flash chips. There is a jumper above the header I assume is for selecting the appropriate flash chip out of the two. Maybe I'm wrong?

 

[dreamcat4]

3 hours ago, davidm71_2 said:

how to access the spi header on the Apex IX

here you go pal

[davidm71_2]

2 hours ago, dreamcat4 said:

here you go pal

Thanks but on the apex I think its a little different in that because there are two bios chips think you got to place a jumper to select the right one.

I tried to wire up my programmer according to that same layout and it only worked on the Z270-WS and not on the Apex IX for some reason.

 

Thanks

Edited May 20, 2019 by davidm71_2

[dreamcat4]

39 minutes ago, davidm71_2 said:

I tried to wire up my programmer according to that same layout and it only worked on the Z270-WS and not on the Apex IX for some reason.

Oh. Well you can check if the pinout is correct by using a multimeter, and probing the resistance between each pin and the corresponding pin on the SPI chip.

I am not sure how the jumper to select the A or B bios. But maybe it just affects only 1 of those pins, like the !CS (spi chip select). Which is shown here to be pin #1 on the SPI chip, and pin 5 on the header. Also check it with the multimeter.

[davidm71_2]

On 5/20/2019 at 5:15 PM, dreamcat4 said:

Oh. Well you can check if the pinout is correct by using a multimeter, and probing the resistance between each pin and the corresponding pin on the SPI chip.

I am not sure how the jumper to select the A or B bios. But maybe it just affects only 1 of those pins, like the !CS (spi chip select). Which is shown here to be pin #1 on the SPI chip, and pin 5 on the header. Also check it with the multimeter.

Not sure how to do that. 

[davidm71_2]

On 5/20/2019 at 2:14 PM, dreamcat4 said:

here you go pal

Was able to access the bios chip via the motherboard SPI header port and using a jumper through my Flashcat USB programmer. Worked like a charm reading the flash.

So now want to try Dsanke's 1901 but was wondering will it be compatible with a 9700K cpu? Also will my old 6700K cpu work as well until I get my 9700K ready?

 

Thanks

[GtiJason]

On 6/7/2019 at 8:42 PM, davidm71_2 said:

Was able to access the bios chip via the motherboard SPI header port and using a jumper through my Flashcat USB programmer. Worked like a charm reading the flash.

So now want to try Dsanke's 1901 but was wondering will it be compatible with a 9700K cpu? Also will my old 6700K cpu work as well until I get my 9700K ready?

 

Thanks

Sure looks like it will as long as the 6700K is not an engineering sample. I hope to test it out soon myself but only have Kaby 7600k to see if it supports pre Coffee sku's

[dreamcat4]

[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.

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

Edited June 10, 2019 by dreamcat4

[phobosq]

I updated modded 1602 to 1901 in my board yesterday just to make sure it supports i3 9100f, and it worked fine. 

Is there a version that supports xp? I'd like to play some 32m

[AresThomas]

Hi guys, i've done hwmod to a m9a, i've downloaded 1901 bios and put into a USB Key, renamed as M9A.rom and done USB flashback, but when It finishes flash nothing happened. Bios was not flashed. What's wrong? 

 

Edit. I'm a jerk ? creative.rom not m9a.rom. It works. Thanks. PS. I'm trying 2003 bios

Edited June 10, 2019 by AresThomas
I'm a jerk

[ducegt]

Thank you for this thread fellas. I just got this board for $40 after a mail in rebate. It was an open box, but looked entirely untouched. Unfortunately I damaged my 7700K and only one memory channel works so I will wait a few more weeks to see if the 9900KS launches or if there will be 9900K discounts to compete with the new Ryzens. New soldering iron is in the mail. Can't wait to push my 3600CL15 kit.