Official MSI P7N Diamond (780i) Discussion/Review/Overclock/Guide/BIOS Thread

[theYipster]

Hey everyone,

NEW INFO! Quick Update #4 - 5/7/08 - MSI has released a new BIOS (1.1B8) with common voltage settings! vCore is still set the same way (as an amount added to VID,) but this has never really been an issue since figuring out VID has never been a problem. The good news is that the random integers used to set FSB Term, GTL Ref, etc. are gone. In their place are common and meaningful direct voltage settings (i.e. 1.2v.) This should make OCing far easier, as the BIOS settings can now be navigated meaningfully.

Obviously I'll need to re do the suggested settings section with the new voltages. I hope to get my hands dirty with the new BIOS this weekend and will update then. If you've been playing around with 1.1B8, please share your results.

Thanks!

Quick Update #3 - 3/28/08 - Apparently some people are experiencing a performance loss when running a two-card SLI setup with one card in the white PCI-E x16 1.1 slot. One user has reported a drastic change in performance when moving to the two PCI-E 2.0 blue slots, while several others report a gain of 500-700 3DMark points and 1-3fps in most games. I have updated the section about this accordingly.

Update #2 - 3/23/08 - Since the last update, people have found successful OC settings with the E8400 and E8500. However, while the latest beta BIOS (1.1B4) seems to provide the best shot of success, it does appear to be finicky with 45nm chips. MSI is indeed working on updates, and I have no doubt that the majority of issues will be solved in short time as the product matures. In the mean time, I have posted suggested OC settings for the E8400, based on results obtained from members on this thread. Please try with 1.1B4 and P05 and let us know if you've found success. It may be that it takes another update or two before everyone is covered.

Note that we've had one user (BKA) try out a non-extreme Yorkfield with this board (a Q9300,) and while it does work at stock, OC attempts seem to be hampered at the moment by a lack of BIOS support. (In particular, BKA has reported that half-multipliers are missing.) If you are looking to pair this board with a Q9300, Q9450, or Q9550, I would suggest holding off unless you are okay with running at stock for a while. Note that MSI lists these chips as under testing (rather than fully supported at the moment,) and from what we've gathered we can expect full support in an upcoming BIOS shortly.

Lastly, for those new to overclocking in general, I've posted a set of general points to consider. These are not suggested settings, but more-so cover the basics of OCing a Core 2 chip. It's not a full fledged guide, but it should help those new to the hobby get under way. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=178286&page=10 (Page 10, it's the long post...)

As mentioned in that post, the point of this thread is to support the growing P7N enthusiast community and to provide it with a rich information and support library. This can best be obtained by people contributing their successes (so we can learn) and their issues (so we can solve.) Thanks to everyone who has been a part of this thread :) Let's keep it coming!!

Quick Rundown

Motherboard: MSI P7N Diamond
Chipset: nVidia 780i (board is non-reference design)
NB/SB: nVidia 780i SSP / nVidia 570i MCP
Chipset Cooling: MSI Circupipe Design
Compatible With: LGA 775 Pentium 4, D, Core 2 Duo, Quad, and Extreme chips, including 45nm Wolfdale/Yorkfield chips.
FSB: Officially supports up to 1333mhz FSB.
DIMMs: 4x DDR-2 officially supporting up to 1066mhz RAM.
PCI-E: 2x x16 Physical / x16 PCI-E 2.0 electrical, 1x x16 Physical / x16 PCI-E. 1.1 Electrical, 1x x16 Physical / x8 Electrical, 2x x1 Physical / Electrical
PCI: 1x PCI slot.
SATA: 6x on board SATA 2 provided by MCP, 2x additional ESATA provided by jMicron add-on controller.
IDE: 2x IDE Connectors, allowing up to four drives. 1x Floppy drive connector.
On-Board USB/1394: 2 on-board USB headers, 1 on-board Firewire header for front port
Backplate I/O: 1x PS/2 Keyboard, 1x PS/2 Mouse, 6x USB 2, 1x 1394, 2x ESATA, 2x 10/100/1000 Ethernet
Sound: Included Creative X-Fi Xtreme-Audio PCI-E 1 add-in card.
Extras: Clear CMOS button on back plate, on-board power / reset buttons, status LED lights for standby, power, HDD, all PCI-E slots, all RAM DIMMs.

MSI Product Page

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=1372&maincat_no=1

Reviews & Product Tours

TigerDirect Product Tour (link via YouTube) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He9Roj2w-Ys) -- More of an "infomercial," but he does give a good tour of the board's features.

Digital-Daily (http://www.digital-daily.com/motherboard/msi_p7n_diamond_platinum) -- Looks to be an English review from a Russian enthusiast site.

Known Issues

- Kentsfield Quads wont operate with a reduced multiplier on the shipping BIOS or betas 1.1B1-1.1B4. Performance BIOS P05 resolves this.

- Overclocking a QX9650 may result in sporadic cold-boot failures. Beta BIOS 1.1B4 is known to resolve this for some, but others are still experiencing an issue. MSI is aware of the problem and should be working towards a fix.

- Users of optical SATA drives may experience blue-screens relating to an NVGTS.SYS driver in Windows XP 32-bit. This is a known issue across all nForce boards. To eliminate it, first try moving the drive's SATA cable to a different port. If this doesn't resolve it, you will need to uninstall your nVidia motherboard drivers. With all drivers removed (except for display if using a GeForce card,) re-install your drivers except for SATA / MediaShield. This will allow your drives to rely on the built in Windows XP SATA drivers, resolving the issue.

BIOS

- Shipping BIOS is v1.0, dated 1/15/08. No new released BIOSes are available yet.
- Current beta BIOS is 1.1B8. This BIOS is a recommended download, as it swaps the nonsensical integer voltage values with meaningful settings. Perfomance / reliability data is still pending, but expect it to be on par if not better than 1.1B6 / P07.
- Current performance BIOS is P07, based off of 1.1B6. This BIOS is known to solve multiplier issues with Yorkfield / Wolfdale chips. P09, which should carry over 1.1B8's new voltage settings, should be out shortly.

Beta and Performance BIOSes are available from the MSI forums. (http://forum.msi.com.tw) Note that you need to register in order to download these BIOSes. Once registered, see the "User Modified BIOS" sub-forum, availble from the "Overclockers & Modding Corner" forum. Beta and performance BIOSes are also available from MSI forum moderators, as well as from MSI support.

Overclocking Tips

Disable Features: As always, be sure to disable OC-hindering features before overclocking. In the CPU Feature menu (accessible from Advanced BIOS Features,) disable Execute Bit Support, C1E Support, Set Limit CPUID MaxVal to 3, and CPU TM function. If you do not see all of these options in the menu, press F4. In the Cell Menu, disable D.O.T. Control, Intel EIST Speed Spectrums, and Auto Disable DRAM/PCI Frequency. Lastly, for best results, set SLI-Ready Memory to EXPERT if available, and System Clock Mode to MANUAL.

Keep a 1:1 Divider between RAM and FSB: When overclocking, it is best to keep a 1:1 ratio between RAM and FSB, such that the base FSB speed = the base RAM speed. On reference nForce boards, a 1:1 ratio can automatically be obtained by setting RAM to "linked and synced." However, setting your System Clock Mode to LINKED on the P7N diamond does not result in a 1:1 ratio. To keep a 1:1 ratio when overclocking, you must set System Clock Mode to manual and do some math.

The math, fortunately, is rather simple. The important thing to remember is that the numbers set in the BIOS for FSB and RAM are rated, or multiplied speeds. The rated FSB speed set in the BIOS is the quad-pumped speed, so it is 4x the base FSB speed you want to match. The RAM speed is the double-data-rate speed, so it is 2x the base RAM speed you want to match. To keep a 1:1 ratio, simply set RAM to 1/2 your set FSB speed.

Below are some examples of popular 1:1 ratios, as set in the P7N BIOS.

* FSB = 1066, RAM = 533 (base speeds: 266mhz)
* FSB = 1333, RAM = 667 (base speeds: 333mhz)
* FSB = 1600, RAM = 800 (base speeds: 400mhz)
* FSB = 1800, RAM = 900 (base speeds: 450mhz)

Know your CPU's VID: The P7N has an odd way of setting vCore (your processor's voltage.) Unlike other boards where you simply set the voltage you wish to pump to your CPU (i.e. 1.3v, 1.45v, etc,) the P7N has you set the amount of voltage increase (i.e +0.0500 to stock, +0.1000 to stock, etc.) In order to know how much voltage you've set in the BIOS, you must know your CPU's default voltage. This is called VID, and is unique to each and every Core 2 CPU.

To find your processor's VID, you must use either Core Temp, Everette Ultimate Edition, or (I believe) CPUID Hardware Monitor. Each of these programs can be downloaded from the Internet, but note that Everette is trial-ware and may not display VID w/o paying for the full version. On a Conroe or Kentsfield processor, your VID will most likely be within the range of 1.2000v to 1.3500v. On the popular Q6600 G0, VID will likely not exceed 1.3250v, with most coming in around the 1.2500-1.2750 mark. On 45nm chips, VID will be lower, often below 1.2000v.

The amount of voltage sent to your CPU (according to the BIOS) is VID + the amount set in the BIOS. If you leave vCore on AUTO, then the VID amount is sent. Unlike the reference boards, the P7N will not guesstimate an increased voltage to match your overclock when vCore is left on AUTO. Note that this explanation does not account for vOffset or vDroop, which is explained below in its own section.

North Bridge Cooling: One of the more impressive aspects of the P7N Diamond is that the North Bridge seems to run genuinely cooler than on other 780i boards. While it won't run at breezy P35/X38 levels, NB heat shouldn't be as much of a concern on this board as on others.

Note that as of now, there is no easy way to accurately read the NB temp. The BIOS, the latest version of Everest, and HW Monitor report a MB temp, which according to MSI, is taken from near the center of the motherboard. You can feel for a hot NB (quite literally) by placing your hand on the NB heat pipe. If it feels too hot to touch for a short period of time, then your NB is running hotter than it should. (Note that this is not necessarily the case with other 780i boards, as they may naturally run too hot to touch w/o aftermarket cooling.) In this case, you may want to inspect the motherboard's heat pipe. Make sure that it's making proper contact with the board in all areas. Furthermore, you might want to remove the heat pipe all together and inspect the TIM. Often times, the TIM is applied poorly from the manufacturer, and replacing it can greatly reduce operating temps. If you do replace it, consider using an alternative to AS5, such as Arctic Silver Ceramique. AS5 is slightly conductive and can cause damage to your board if any of it gets where it shouldn't. If you use AS5, do not use it on the MOSFETS, as these are particularly sensitive components.

Lastly, if you plan for a high OC, you will likely have to raise NB voltage. Even though the NB runs cooler than on other nForce boards, you may still find it worthwhile to buy a small fan to blow air over the heat pipe. An Antec Spot Cool works wonderfully in this regard, as its easy to set up and does a good job. For example, at 1.425v, my NB heat pipe is never too hot to touch and the MB temp does not surpass 50c.

Suggested OC Software It's important to have the right software to monitor temps and stress test. Below is a list of recommended software.

Temp monitoring:

- Core Temp 0.97, Download from http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/. This is perhaps the most popular temperature monitoring program available. Note that the latest version is natively compatible with Vista x64.

- Speed Fan, Download from http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php. This is a popular alternative to Core Temp, but many do believe Core Temp to be more accurate. Speed Fan, on the other hand, will read the board's other sensors and report processor load and voltage. Important: Note that Speed Fan will inaccurately measure G0 stepping temperatures by -15 degrees. If you use this program, you must compensate for this inaccuracy in the settings.

- Everest, Download trial from http://www.lavalys.com/. This is the grand buffet of monitoring and reporting programs, and will tell you everything you could ever want to know about your PC. For temp monitoring, it's on par with Core Temp, but it will also monitor much more. This is trialware however, and you will have to pay to access all features in the full version.

Stress Testing:

Prime 95 25.6, Download from http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=9779. This is the golden standard for stress testing. When you are honing in on your final OC, standard practice is to run the Prime95 Small FFT Torture Test on all of your cores from anywhere between 4 to 24 (or more) hours. (Although I find 8-12 hours to be reasonable unless number crunching is a primary function of your computer.) If running a Quad Core, be sure to run version 25.0 or higher as it will automatically run an instance on each core. Also, be sure to check "Round Off Error Checking" before starting the test. Otherwise many stability errors will go undetected.

OCCT 2.0.0a, Download from http://www.ocbase.com/perestroika_en/. An excellent companion to Prime, OCCT is best used to test NB and RAM stability and for running a quick processor stability test.

Suggested Settings

The following settings are known to support a stable 400mhz FSB when paired with a Kentsfield quad. On a Q6600 at default multiplier, this will result in a 3.6ghz CPU. Note that your results may vary:

FSB: 1600mhz
RAM: 800mhz

vCore: <<entirely dependent on the OC capabilities of your cpu.>>
vDIMM: <<entirely dependant on your RAM. Set to maximum factory setting.>>
vNB: 1.425
vSB: Auto
CPU GTL Ref: 65
FSB Term: 25
All other voltages: AUTO

The following settings are known to support an E8400/E8500 at 4.0ghz and above. Again, the latest BIOS is still finicky when it comes to 45nm chips, so you may not have guaranteed success just yet.

FSB: 1800mhz
RAM: 900mhz

vCore: <<entirely dependent on the OC capabilities of your cpu.>>
vDIMM: <<entirely dependant on your RAM. Set to maximum factory setting.>>
vNB: 1.4
vSB: Auto
FSB Term: 63
All other voltages: AUTO


GTLRef doesn't seem to play as large a role here, and it shouldn't, considering it's concern is more with Quad Core cpus. Compared to the Q6600, the key difference here appears to be FSB Term. 65 (vs 25) seems to be the key for E8400s OCs on this board.[

vDroop Info, Mods

vOffset and vDroop do exist and are comparable to other nForce boards, including the reference boards. Expect a -.02 to -.04 drop between what was set in the BIOS to what is reported under idle operation (vOffset.) Expect another -.02 to -.04 drop under load (vDroop.)

At this moment, there is no setting to disable vDroop in the BIOS, nor is there a known physical mod (like the reference board pencil mod.) This section will be updated with new information if and when it becomes available.

Other, Misc

Two Card SLI: The manual states that for a two-card SLI setup, both cards must be placed in blue PCI-E 2.0 slots. This is incorrect. One card can use the top blue PCI-E 2.0 slot and the other can use the white PCI-E 1.1 x16 slot with no issues. Instead of using the two short flexible bridge connectors, which won't fit, simply use the one longer bridge connector. You should experience no issue enabling SLI and no performance loss in benchmarks or games. This will allow you to utilize the board's single PCI slot, which otherwise would be covered up by a double-width card in the second blue PCI-E slot.

Note that some have experienced a slight performance loss when running with one card in the white slot (500-700 3dMark points and 1-3fps in games,) while at least one user noticed a more substantial difference. This may be due to the loss of a bridge cable (for GTX / Ultra / 9800 users,) the fact that both cards are no longer communicating over the bridge chip, or both.

If you do want to run this board with a PCI card and 2x SLI, you may first want to see what performance loss, if any, you experience by having one card run in the white slot. 500 points and 1-2fps may not matter much, as I've seen greater performance swings just by switching drivers. However, any difference should be considered when making an evaluation for a long-term setup.

Update History

03/09/08 - Update #1 (updated issues list, added OC tips, settings, and vDroop info.)
03/23/08 - Update #2 (Added OC suggestions on NB cooling and useful software. Added E8400 suggested settings and blurb on two-card SLI.)
05/07/08 - Update #4 (new BIOS announcement)

[shawn1998]

I am the user that reported the cold-boot issues when increasing the multi on my QX9650. MIS sent me two beta bios' to try, but they only made the problem worse. With the beta's, my Logitech G15 (rev 1) keyboard would not always initialize. I would have to wait until Vista loaded, then unplug it and plug it back in. Plus, I had a hard time cold-booting with them, even when using the stock multiplier. If I stay with the shipping bios and leave the multiplier alone, the system is 100&#37; stable.

[theYipster]

My goal with this board is to find a thoroughly stable 24/7 operating environment with a Q6600 OC'd to 3.8-4.2ghz and with four to eight gigs of RAM. Achieving this is not always a trivial task on Intel-proc nForce boards, especially when paired with a quad core. If the MSI P7N Diamond can do it w/o a struggle, then it'll have an advantage (in my opinion) over the ASUS boards and the 680i/780i reference designs.

Unlike the reference boards, the P7N features all solid capacitors and a better PWM system. This should help to allieviate the RAM and Northbridge burnout issues so prevelant on the EVGA and XFX reference boards. Note that while the non-reference 680i boards had their own host of problems, they didn't have the same burnout issues, likely due to the better materials used.

Unlike the ASUS 780i boards, most early impressions of the P7N are quite positive, noting that the board is easy to work with and OC. The ASUS P5N-T has had some reported compatibilty issues with 45nm processors, while the Striker II has been very hit or miss in supporting even moderate overclocks.

Right now I have the board running on top of its box, with components taken from my main rig. So far, I've been pleased, as setting everything up has been a plug-and-play experience w/o the slightest issue. I started with a never used Q6600 G0 L737B266 proc, 1 DIMM of 2 GIG PC-6400 OCZ SLI RAM, a single 8800 GTX card, a Lite-On IDE DVD+-RW drive, and a SATA WD 250 Gig hard disk. With Windows XP installed, I began adding my other components, and now the motherboard is supporting nearly my entire rig, with the exception of a three extra HDs and another DVD burner.

.. unpacking the box ..

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/1904/img6049we1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

.. everything installed (note the board in the case is an evga 680i, the p7n is on the box) ..

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/6738/img6072ix0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

As seen in the pic (or not, thanks to the GTX cards,) a second DIMM of RAM, a second 8800 GTX, and a Creative Labs X-Fi Platinum card have been installed. Again, I've been impressed so far with my experience, as everything works without issue. Even the troublesome X-Fi is behaving perfectly.

Note: The P7N manual states that a 2-card SLI setup must use the blue PCI-E 2.0 slots to function properly. I used one blue slot and one PCI-E 1.1 x16 slot (the white one,) so that I have room to install my PCI X-Fi card, which is better than the included PCI-E card (although the PCI-E card is still very good for included audio.) Note that I had no issue enabling SLI and that it appears to be working properly.

The BIOS is from American Megatrends -- the setup is logical and the feature set is rich, with far more voltages to tweak than either a reference 680i or 780i board. The only real negative I can comment on at this moment is that the BIOS interface lags more than the Award interface on the reference boards. Nothing too bothersome, but still noticeable.

One odd function of this BIOS, however, is how vCore is set. Unlike other voltages in this BIOS and unlike vCore settings in other common BIOSes, you don't set an actual voltage. Instead, you set an allocated increase from the default voltage. This means that when OCing, you must know your chip's VID in order to gauge how your chip compares to others. Unfortunately, this information is not available from the BIOS, as the default VID is represented by the AUTO setting. Therefore, as I OC beyond what my chip can handle at stock voltage, I'll need to do some simple addition to calculate how much actual voltage I'm sending to the chip.

Another thing I've noticed is that your only options for setting RAM speed are Auto, Manual, or Linked. When choosing Linked mode, there does not appear to be a means to choose a divider, and the default divider under Linked mode does not appear to be 1:1 / Synced. When I upped the FSB to 333mhz (represented in the BIOS by a quad-pumped setting of 1333,) Linked mode had my RAM set to 532mhz (266 actual.) To maintain a 1:1 relationship, I had to set RAM speed to Manual and input 667mhz. Now this may be an error that will be fixed in an upcoming BIOS. At worst, all this means at the moment is that some more simple math is needed to keep a 1:1 divider when OCing.

Preliminary OC Results

With the system still running on top of the box and with the stock cooler attached to the CPU, I tried a modest OC to ensure that the board posts correctly on non-stock settings.

I simply bumped the FSB from 1066mhz to 1333mhz for 3.0ghz proc, set RAM to 667mhz for a 1:1 relationship, and set vDIMM to my RAM's stock of 2.0v. I left all other voltages on auto and I left RAM timings to SLI (EPP) optimized settings. Note that when vCore is on Auto, the MSI board will leave it on the processor's default voltage. This is different from the behavior of the reference boards, which try to guesstimate an appropriate voltage for your OC. I must say that I prefer MSI's approach, since a motherboard's guess at vCore is rarely accurate or helpful.

With the FSB set and the RAM voltage set, I saved settings and booted into Windows w/o issue. After a quick 10 minute Prime95 test to ensure that the chip could handle 3ghz on stock voltage, I set out to do some benchmarking. Here are my results:

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/9478/p7ndiamondproc3ghzram66xg2.th.jpg (http://img153.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p7ndiamondproc3ghzram66xg2.jpg)

(Please click above for a larger, readable image)

Certainly not too shabby for a first-run, modest OC.

As for temps, the cores were at what one would expect with the stock cooler. Idles in the 30s, with 10 minutes Prime95 bringing them up into the high 50s, low 60s. Again, 3ghz is likely as far as the stock cooler can handle, so of course I'll be putting this board into my case and hooking the cpu to my water loop for further benching.

What did impress me during this run, however, was the chipset cooling. Note that as of now, an accurate reading of NB and SB temps is not possible. The BIOS only reports a system temp, and neither Everette or any other program I could find is currently configured to read the temps of these specific chips. However, throughout the prime run and the benchmarks, the system temp did not pass 52c (with ambient at 21c.) Furthermore, and most importantly, the chipset cooling pipes remained relatively cool compared to other 680/780 chipset heatsinks/pipes (and good contact between the pipes and the chips has been confirmed.) By relatively cool, I do mean that they were of course warm, but they were certainly not scorching, as is often reported the case on other 780i boards. By another comparison, the pipes were no warmer than the bottom of my Yonah-based Macbook Pro on a typical day, and considerably cooler than my Macbook Pro after intensive use.

So far I've seen one other impression stating that the P7N manages to keep the 780i's SSP and MCP relatively cool, and my preliminary tests do seem to support this. We'll see how things keep as I reach for higher OCs, but so far what I've seen is encouraging, especially knowing that the cooling mechanism is entirely passive.

Next Steps

With my prelim OC out of the way, my next step is to move the board into my case and hook up some beefy cooling. Given my schedule this week, I doubt I'll have new results for a couple of days, but when I have the time to bench, I'll be posting results right here.

Thanks for reading :)

[theYipster]

I am the user that reported the cold-boot issues when increasing the multi on my QX9650. MIS sent me two beta bios' to try, but they only made the problem worse. With the beta's, my Logitech G15 (rev 1) keyboard would not always initialize. I would have to wait until Vista loaded, then unplug it and plug it back in. Plus, I had a hard time cold-booting with them, even when using the stock multiplier. If I stay with the shipping bios and leave the multiplier alone, the system is 100&#37; stable.

Shawn, do you know the VID of your QX9650? You can get it from CoreTemp under the VID label.

[NickS]

Looks sweet dude, can't wait to see the rest of your results! :D

[shawn1998]

Shawn, do you know the VID of your QX9650? You can get it from CoreTemp under the VID label.

CoreTemp says my VID is 1.0000 volts. The P7N defaults the vcore at about 1.21 volts, though. I have upped it as far as 1.35 volts when I try a 10X multiplier, but still the cold-boot issues. Btw, I use cpu-z to verify what the vcore is...

[theYipster]

Hmm... I've seen you post about this issue in several threads, but I haven't seen anyone else try to OC a QX9650 with this board.

Just a thought, but have you tried reaching the same speed by upping the FSB? if 333x10 = 3.33ghz, try for a 370 FSB (1480 in BIOS) at the stock x9 multiplier. If that doesn't cause the same cold boot issues, and if you can adjust the voltage on your proc (if necessary) such that 3.33ghz is stable, then you can at least confirm that the multiplier issue is BIOS or board related.

[shawn1998]

Good point. I am able to adjust the voltage on the P7N without an issue. If I up it in the bios, it reads accordingly in cpu-z, so that is not the issue. I'll go try that now and see if I can get it stable...

[shawn1998]

I upped the FSB to 1440 and had the ram set to 800 and could not reboot from the bios. It would not post. I tried it lower even, no post. I upped voltages, relaxed ram timings and nothing worked. I had to clear the cmos each time just to get back into the bios. I am wondering if I don't have a bum board because this really stinks!

[theYipster]

Hmm... That's not very encouraging. On the other hand, it may be that nothing is wrong with your BIOS or mobo, and that some other aspect of the system is preventing you from OCing. Probing deeper, I notice that you have 8 gigs of RAM in this system. That's going to put a good deal of stress on the north bridge of any chipset, nVidia or Intel. Try 1440 for the FSB again, and keep RAM at 800mhz. Also, try upping the NB voltage by, a step up until say 1.4-1.45 and see if that gets you stable. Alternatively, the FSB Termination voltage may need a kick. I haven't played with that voltage on this board, but on the reference boards, 1.4v was a good bet to get 1600mhz stable, and sometimes 1.5v would be needed. If bumping up the NB voltage doesn't solve anything, take a look at your FSB termination voltage. I'd imagine NB needs at least 1.4v however with 8 gigs of RAM.

[shawn1998]

I haven't changed my sig, but I took out two sticks this morning, so I tried it with only 4 gig installed. FSB termination voltage on this board is very confusing, I have no idea what the value actually means, as it doesn't indicate voltage, but rather a number value, ie 1, 2, 3 etc... Any insight as to what I shoud set it to to start? I have the NB running at 1.30 now, up from the stock 1.2 volts it defaults to. I'll try to up it a bit...

Edit: I have the FSB running at 1400, memory at 800, vcore at 1.258, NB voltage at 1.35 and FSB Terminatot voltage at 11. I was able to reboot and am now in Vista. I don't know if it was the FSB Terminator or NB voltage bump that worked. I would really like to find out what the FSB Terminator values equate to in voltage.

[theYipster]

Glad to here you've got it working. My guess is that NB voltage is more responsible for your success than FSB termination, but I could be wrong, as I haven't really explored those two settings on this board yet. The next step is to see if you can now reliably up the multiplier with those voltages in place.

As for the FSB termination setting, note that the reference boards don't have a setting called FSB termination, but instead have one called FSB voltage. It is my understanding that these are the same thing. However, the reference boards (which I'm familiar with) allow you to set a straight voltage, so another system would be just as confusing to me at the moment. In figuring out this setting, I would see if other MSI boards used the same system and read posts about them. Surely someone's covered FSB termination if it exists in the same manner with the P6N, or perhaps one of the P35 or X38 boards.

[shawn1998]

I am very used to the reference boards, as I only bought this one to hold me over until it comes back from RMA. I am not sure at all if it is actually working as far as cold-boot is concerned, but at least I got it to restart from the bios this time!

[WeldZilla]

Hey there yipster. It's a start but, you need to download and run the correct super pi. Uh it is from right here at XS it is mod 1.5. The old one you are using means nothing as it is overly generous on times and does not break down time enough.

http://www.xtremesystems.com/pi/

That's the address go and get it. Once you get past 3800mhz then I will start to give this a serious look.

WZ

[shawn1998]

Would not cold boot this morning. I give up.

[theYipster]

Before you give up, can you post all your current settings in the cell menu of the BIOS? Perhaps there's something that's overlooked.

[shawn1998]

WhenI get home this afternoon I will. I have tried everything in that Cell Menu, believe me. I have until Wed morning to figure it out, then it's outta here, one way or another...

[theYipster]

I think it's worth one last try, but I'm interested to see if you can get it to work. In the end, it could be a bum board. I too am angered by MSI's response to your issue. From what I've read on the MSI forum, it's not a matter of your board not working above stock, but a matter of your board not supporting the base / advertised features of your processor, despite a claim otherwise on the board's box. If you can't get it to work, I would call them up and complain on those grounds.

I've heard decent things about MSI's RMA policy. It's certainly not as generous as EVGA's, but then again what is? You should have a better chance of getting a new board than you would from say ASUS or ABIT.

[craigbru]

I'll be watching this thread with interest, and hopefully I'll be able to contribute. I've got one of these boards on it's way to me now.

[tompc3]

I couldn't help but notice you have the mobo sitting on the plastic shipping bag
which is conductive.... I can't believe the board even post.. All the crisscross
black striping on the bag is graphite impregnated for static protection......

[Psycho_eddie]

Interested in this board beacuse of great layout!!

Ive got eVGA 780I comming soon, but this board can be bought for £165 from OCUK with free X-FI soundcard!

Can i confirm that this PCI-E card can work in the bottom PCI-E slot?? if so would mean two 8800Ultras in the blue PCI-E slots would leave good sized gap between soundcard at the bottom!

Can board handle high FSB?

I have X38 with Q6600 @ 450x8 24/7

Can do 450fsb (1800) stable 24/7 with quads?

[theYipster]

Wow, what can I say? Granted I very rarely setup working rigs outside of cases, except to do a quick test or troubleshooting session if something is wrong. This setup is unique, as it's the first time I'm doing a full fledged motherboard review / exploration like this. In any case, the board had no trouble posting from a cold boot multiple times over the last two days, so I doubt that the bag is conductive as I have it. Regardless, it's no longer an issue as the board is now fully installed in my case.

Psycho_Eddie, the bottom (yellow) PCI-E slot is x8 electrical, so it's probably not the best place to put a graphics card, considering that the other PCI-E slots offer considerably more bandwidth. Given that, I haven't tried.

Two GTX or Ultra cards will fit w/o issue in the first two blue PCI-E 2.0 cards. The downside to this setup is that the bottom GTX / Ultra card will block the single PCI slot, which will then require you to use the included PCI-E audio card. The top GTX / Ultra will block one of the PCI-E x1 slots, but the other slot is left open just above the second blue PCI-E x16 slot, and this is where the PCI-E Xtreme Audio card will go.

While the manual states that 2x SLI should use the two blue slots, I had no trouble setting up or using SLI with one card in the first blue slot and one card using the third (white) PCI-E x16 (1.1) slot. This setup keeps the PCI slot free for the legacy X-Fi card, which provides full hardware processing unlike the PCI-E Xtreme Audio card.

[Psycho_eddie]

Thanks for getting back so quickly, im afraid you missunderstand what i meant

I am going to have 8800GTS SLI in both BLUE slots for PCI-E 2.0 :D

What i wanted to know is the bottom yellow PCI-E slot works with the included soundcard?

If so then will work with a Asus Xonar PCI-E soundcard!

You get me now?


Would provide best thermals/sound solution that way!


Whats stabilty like with this board, max FSB stable your stable OC?

[theYipster]

Ok, now I gotcha. I haven't tried a PCI-E audio card in any of the slots since I have the PCI X-Fi, and with everything else I have planned at the moment, the last thing I want to do is create an X-Fi driver mess. However, I can't think of any reason why it shouldn't work in the bottom slot.

As for max FSB stable, that info is yet to come. As mentioned, I have a busy schedule this week so I don't think I'll be able to get down to testing for a couple of days at least. My goal, however, is for a Q6600 G0 at 3.8-4.2ghz on water.

[humeyboy]

Total BS to the part about the plastic bag above BTW, I do it all the time.

Im still waiting on some peep actually trying to OC the FSB on these Mobos, the 2 reviews showed 584+FSB on Duals.

All I see in every forum is talk not actual results.

I got rid of the Striker II POS.

[shawn1998]

I would like to post more results with this board, but I seem to have a serious cold boot issue when I try to overclock my QX9650. I suppose I just posted my results, then...

[theYipster]

Hey Shawn,

Can you post the settings in the cell section of your bios? Thanks :)

[shawn1998]

Sure. First number is what I am currently at, the second in () is what I tried.

DOT - Disabled
EIST - Disabled
System Clock Mode - Auto (Tried linked and manual)
CPU Ratio - 9 (9.5, 10, 10.5, 11)
PCI-E Freq - 100
Auto Disable DRAM/PCI Freq - Disable

CPU Volts - 0.025 (all the way to .1000)
Dram Volts - 1.95
NB Voltage - 1.275 (up to 1.35)

All the rest at auot for now. I messed with FSB Terminator, had it to 11.


Nothing I change with those settings make a difference in the ability to successfully cold-boot when the multiplier as set to anything but 9, or the FSB is set to anything but 1333.

[theYipster]

I wonder if anyone else has this issue. It's a real conundrum. My last suggestion is to try 2.0 or 2.1v on the RAM and 1.4 or 1.45v on the north bridge. Then try raising the FSB. My guess though is that it's likely BIOS related, and despite what MSI support tells you (and I strongly believe they're wrong, and would make a strong case against them,) I would imagine that their developers are working on a BIOS fix.

[shawn1998]

I truly do believe that it is bios related. I tried upping the fsb just 10mhz, that's it, and bam, cold boot city. It's crazy.

[theYipster]

That's unfortunate. Well hopefully you can return the board... the next question would be is whether or not this issues occurs on anyone else's with a 45nm quad.

[r1ch]

That's unfortunate. Well hopefully you can return the board... the next question would be is whether or not this issues occurs on anyone else's with a 45nm quad.

You think it could be a famous nVidia FSB hole? Try skipping further ahead.

Also, go extreme underclock on the rest. Drop the RAM down to nice and easy 5-5-5-18 timings and 1:1 ratio to comepletely rule it out. Also might not hurt to take all but one stick out.

If you get it working at higher FSB at some point, then you can one-by-one start adding the RAM and settings back to see what's causing the issue.

[theYipster]

You think it could be a famous nVidia FSB hole? Try skipping further ahead.

Also, go extreme underclock on the rest. Drop the RAM down to nice and easy 5-5-5-18 timings and 1:1 ratio to comepletely rule it out. Also might not hurt to take all but one stick out.

If you get it working at higher FSB at some point, then you can one-by-one start adding the RAM and settings back to see what's causing the issue.

Good point. These steps are certainly worth trying.

[shawn1998]

I have actually tried it with one stick, each stick by itself and different ram slots. I have two motherboards arriving this afternoon, my EVGA 780i from rma and a new Gigabyte EX38 DS4 (as a back up). I will use them to figure this out.

[lee63]

I have a QX9650 and this board, the multi shows the right value in CPUZ. I just cant seem to run my Ram at 1066, what its rated at.

[loonym]

My setup doesn't seem to be very tolerant of big nb volt increases. By experimenting with the gtl voltages I have had modest success with fsb increases. I think msi is doing a decent job at trying to address specific user issues through beta bios releases, the most recent being A7510NMS.114 or .1B4 as it's otherwise identified, dated 3/2/08. I've only started to play with this but it is stable and seems to have the vdimm, at least, default to a higher voltage. I think this is either an attempt to fix coldboot or perhaps for those populating 4 slots.

[BKA]

Hello all,

I was wondering if somebody could tell me which driver (folder) on the CD for Vista are for the esata ports? I am working on a Vista SP1 disc with drivers slipstreamed and would like to include the drivers for the eSata ports. I understand they are part of the jmicron chipset, but the IDE\JMicron folder doesnt appear to include the eSata port drivers from the looks of it. Any help would be appreciated.

EDIT: Figured it out!

[theYipster]

Hi all,

Thought I'd give a quick update on my progress. First, my apologies for the delay in updating this thread. My busy schedule from last week extended into the weekend, and as such I haven't been able to sit down with the rig until this evening.

My eventual end goal remains the same -- 3.8-4.2ghz with a Q6600 G0 (L737B277.) Currently, I'm trying for a stable 3.6ghz. I'm not stable yet, and it is proving to be a bit of a challenge, but I do remain optimistic. For now, the challenge is due to my own lack of experience with the board's voltage settings, which do work quite differently than the settings on the reference boards. As I moved up from 3.0 to 3.6ghz (9x400 FSB) I didnt't experience any FSB holes, nor did I ever have to clear the CMOS from a bad overclock. I've been able to successfully post from both warm and cold boots, and Windows loads to the desktop with as little as 1.325 vCore. The challenge right now is getting the rig Prime or OCCT stable at 3.6ghz.

Here is what I've found so far:

The board is completely stable at 3.0ghz (9 x 333mhz FSB) with RAM 1:1 at 667mhz. The only voltage set manually for this setup was RAM, which was bumped up to a factory-spec 2.0v. The chip is running on stock voltage (1.2375v) and all other voltage settings are on AUTO.

Right now, my 3.6ghz settings are 1.45v in the BIOS (which I expect may be more than eventually needed,) 1.4v for the NB (SPP,) 1.55v on the SB (MCP,) and 15&#37; on the FSB Terminator Voltage. RAM remains at 2.0v and is now running 1:1 with the FSB at 800mhz. Timings are at a JDEC default of 5-5-5-15. What I am finding is that while I can run Super PI, any of the Everest benchmarks, and 3D Mark 06, Prime95 will fail around the 10 minute mark. This remains true even if I up the vCore a step or two. What's interesting is that in all my testing tonight, Prime 95 and OCCP have not thrown one error themselves, nor has Windows thrown a blue-screen. Instead, with each attempt at 3.6ghz, the system will eventually completely freeze (with mouse cursor and all) or simply reboot. This leads me to believe that the issue lies with one of the many motherboard voltages, likely NB or SB, but perhaps with one of the many reference or terminator voltages. Lastly, throughout my testing, the motherboard temp hasn't exceeded 55c, and the temps of the CPU cores haven't exceeded 60c. After 10 minutes of prime w/ 1.378v (on load,) temps are in the mid to high 50s. Compared to my old G0 (an L734A,) this is a bit high. However, ambient is a bit warmer than usual due to the warm weather outside today, and the AS5 hasn't yet cured.

Seeing that there is a lack of information on OCing the P7N Diamond, there is not much else to do but to continue to test different combinations. However, I would appreciate any and all insight and/or suggestions as I continue. For those familiar with the voltage settings on this or a similar board, I do have a couple of questions:

1. It's clear that as far as vCore goes, an AUTO setting in the BIOS translates to stock vCore, regardless of clock speed. This is different from the behavior of any of the reference boards, which will guess an appropriate vCore based upon your overclock when vCore is set to AUTO. My question is whether or not this is also true for the other voltages, such that regardless of FSB overclock for example, FSB voltage will remain at stock when set to AUTO.

2. On the reference boards, FSB voltage is set directly like any other voltage (i.e. you set the amount you want to pump--1.3v, 1.4v, etc.) However, on this board, FSB Termination Voltage (which is the same thing,) is set by choosing an integer (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.) There is no indication in the BIOS as to what this integer setting refers to, although after reading some P6N threads on the MSI forum, I gather it means percentage. Does anyone know what a setting of 12 or 15 relates to in actual FSB termination voltage?

3. In fact, all voltages besides vCore, NB, SB, and DIMM are set using similar integers which bare no indication to what they mean or any relation to an actual voltage being pumped through the component. Does anyone know how to translate these voltage settings, and can anyone recommend proper gtl, reference, and/or termination settings for a 400-450mhz FSB?

Hopefully these are questions that I will be able to answer on my own as I strive to find a successful combination of voltages for a stable 3.6ghz and beyond. To others who have this board, please post your benchmarking results as you retrieve them. The more information we can gather about what it takes to get a stable high OC, the better off we all are, as are people considering this board as an alternative to the reference designs.

Many thanks!

EDIT: One more thing I forgot to add -- an unfortunate, if not unexpected, finding. My board is showing to have as much vDroop as a reference board w/o the pencil mod, yet there is no BIOS setting to disable it (like Loadline Calibration does in the ASUS boards.) Hopefully MSI adds it to a later BIOS, or that someone finds a similar pencil mod. Please share if you are experiencing similar vDroop. If not, it may be just an issue with my particular board.

[x-built-Stan]

Hey everyone,

I've been working on overclocking my newest build. Here are the specifics:

Project Mercury - CPU Q6600 (L742A473) @3.4 GHz
MSI P75 Diamond (780i)
2x1GB OCZ PC2-8500 Dual CH SLI-Ready EPP
2 MSI 8800GTX 768MB 610MHz
1 LiteOn 2x Blu-ray Disc Triple Writer
2 500GB Hitachi HDD
Silencer 750 Quad Power Supply
Thermaltake Armour LCS Case
D-Tek Fuzion CPU Waterblock
Windows XP

Like theZipster, I am trying to get a Q6600 up to 3.6GHz on the MSI P7N Diamond board. I started out at 3GHz (1333 FSB) which was easy to achieve at stock voltages and memory settings. I slowly worked my way up to 3.4GHz increasing the CPU, Memory, and Northbridge Voltages. The last Prime95 run made was stable for 19 hours and 9 minutes before I stopped the test. (eventually I'll do a full 24hours). I have attached images of my bios and Prime95 screens for your review.

Temperatures during the 19 hour run got to 61C on the CPU and 52C on the system sensor. No doubt driven by the increased voltage on the CPU and NB.

Additionally, I have made several attempts at 3.6GHz (1600MHz FSB x9) and all have failed. Typically the failure occurs within ten minutes with one of the Prime95 threads dying.

Please review my data and let me know what you think.

[ban916]

I'm thinking of getting one of these boards with an e8200 or an e8400 and run it on air. Anyone running any of these in the board, Also what would be the best air cooler that will fit with the northbridge cooling?? This will be going fo max air overclock. Thanks :welcome:

[Overspeed]

I am running this board with the E8400. So far, I have not been able to achieve anything past 3.3Ghz regardless of voltages. It will boot at 1545FSB but is not stable. It will not boot at 1550FSB. I have my 1066 ram at 2.1v, vcore at 1.35v, NB at 1.5v. I have tried increasing/decreasing voltage values across the board without success. I will wait for an official BIOS update in all hopes, but right now I kinda wish I went with an Intel board. :o. I bought the E8400 specifically to reach 4.0Ghz as I have read so many guides online on how easy it is to get there.

[theYipster]

x-built-stan, why is your FSB Terminator setting so high? From what I've read at least for the P6N, a setting between 12-15 was usually needed for higher ocs.

[x-built-Stan]

theYipster,

I started out at 10 with my terminator voltage at 3.2GHz. As I ran my prime95 tests for longer and longer periods one of the threads would die. I started upping the terminator voltage which made the system more stable (longer successful test run). By the time I got to 3.4GHz, I was pushing 60 on the terminator with succesful test runs of more than 10 hours. My last run, as noted previously was 19 hours and 9 minutes before I stopped it. Eventually I would like to get the terminator voltage down if possible.

I also have a MSI 6PN Platinum with an X6800 in it. I have never had to run the terminator voltage up as high on that board.

Still working and tuning. I should have more results later in the week. I'll add a picture of the rig later. Any insights that you have would be welcome.

[theYipster]

The fact that you're getting Prime to error out and not system reboots suggests that the processor isn't being fed enough voltage, but that your motherboard is capable, hopefully, of supporting high Quad core OCs.

What is your processor's VID? This number alone can be a very good predictor of how much voltage your processor needs to be stable at high speeds. You can read VID from CoreTemp, and if you're using Vista x64, simply search google for a script to get it working w/o having to disable driver signing.

Also keep in mind that processors may need a bit more voltage on nForce boards than on Intel boards to reach the same speed.

[ban916]

I am running this board with the E8400. So far, I have not been able to achieve anything past 3.3Ghz regardless of voltages. It will boot at 1545FSB but is not stable. It will not boot at 1550FSB. I have my 1066 ram at 2.1v, vcore at 1.35v, NB at 1.5v. I have tried increasing/decreasing voltage values across the board without success. I will wait for an official BIOS update in all hopes, but right now I kinda wish I went with an Intel board. :o. I bought the E8400 specifically to reach 4.0Ghz as I have read so many guides online on how easy it is to get there.

Damn are you serious?? 3.3Ghz?? damn this boad should be able to push it a lot higher than that...Maybe I'll change my mind about the board...anyone else with an e8400 e8200 or e8500 on this board get to 4Ghz??:shrug:

[x-built-Stan]

The VID is about 1.42v (CPU voltage increase 0.175 in the bios). I agree about VID and if I was running a dual core instead of a quad I would focus on that aspect. However, I understand that the the quads use the FSB to "communicate" between the two dual cores. That is why I have been focusing on the FSB terminator voltage. I'll try upping the CPU voltage a little and see if I can drop the terminator voltage some.

[theYipster]

That's most likely not your VID. On a retail G0 Q6600, VID ranges from about 1.2 to 1.325 when EIST (speedstep) is disabled. I've never seen a G0 Q6600 with a VID lower than 1.2 or higher than 1.325, although according to Intel's spec they could exist.

VID is the default voltage supplied to your chip when running at stock speed, assuming you leave your chip's vCore BIOS setting on auto. The VID is imprinted on your processor, and is unique to each chip. Basically, it tells your motherboard what the processor needs for voltage at stock operation. On the MSI P7N Diamond, notice that vCore is set by increments to VID, where as on other boards you simply set a straight voltage (as done with the NB and SB on the P7N.) Therefore it's even more important to know what your chip's VID is on the P7N. Otherwise you don't know how much additional voltage your supplying your chip to reach a given OC.

Knowing VID on a quad core is just as important in gauging what voltage you'll need for a given OC as on a dual core. FSB Termination Voltage is not nearly as important as vCore on a Core 2 chip.

If you don't have Core Temp, download it, open it up, and read the number next to VID. Paste that here, and we'll have a good idea as to whether or not you should be tooling with vCore instead of FSB Termination Voltage.

[x-built-Stan]

I have it. But I'm at work right now. I'll post it later tonight.

[theYipster]

Sounds good. If you know that your BIOS is feeding 1.42v to your chip, and that you've selected .175 increase for vCore in the BIOS, then you can reason that VID is or should be around 1.245. This isn't bad, but as far as 3.6ghz on an nForce goes, you'll likely need more than 1.42v set in the BIOS.

The issue is one of vOffset and vDroop. On many motherboards, the voltage supplied to your chip at idle is less than what you've set it to in the BIOS. This difference is vOffset or vDrop. When you run Prime 95, you will likely notice that the voltage supplied to your chip drops further. This is vDroop. You can monitor vOffset and vDrop using CPU-Z. See what the voltage is after your Windows desktop loads, and note the difference between that and what you've set in the BIOS. Then, with CPU-Z open, start Prime95 and watch the voltage dip more. The trick is to supply enough voltage in the BIOS so that voltage doesn't drop below what is required for stability at load. As you increase vCore in the BIOS, you can expect the vDroop and vOffset deltas to increase slightly.

One thing I discovered about this board is that vOffset and vDroop are about as noticeable as they are on the reference 680i/780i boards, which is to say that they're quite noticeable. Unfortunately, I don't know of a way to reduce vDroop on this board. ASUS provides a BIOS setting called Load Line Calibration that reduces vDroop on their boards. On the reference boards, shading a particular resistor with a #2 lead pencil eliminates vDroop and vOffset almost completely.

[Overspeed]

I've spent another couple hours trying to reach a stable OC, so far w/o any luck. The highest I have been able to OC this E8400 stable is 3.21Ghz. I'm really stumped, and I don't think its a voltage problem. I have tried bringing to voltages up to 1.45 on the core and maxed out the NB. SB increases so far have no effect. RAM is OC series rated at 1066. I've seen the E8400 go to 3.6Ghz with no voltage increases and stock heatsink on Intel boards. 4.0+ was easily acheived with minor core increases only.

For the sake of trying, I tried the D.O.T. feature and set to 10&#37;. I put the CPU under heavy load and monitored CPU-Z. At no point did the core increase past 3.0 and then all of a sudden complete crash. This was supposed to be MSI's new flagship. Shrug.

[wolf1974]

sorry i am getting to this so late but i am here now, try and disable the speed step in youre cell menu, i am surprised you got it this high with it sill enabled,and for all,,,like me 9650 users MSI WILL BE POSTING A BIOS FOR OUR BIG FAST CPU,,,,IN ABOUT A WEEK SO JUST BE A LITTLE PATIENT OK GUYS,,,I GO BACK A LONG WAY WITH THE HIGH END MSI BOARDS AND WE WILL BE HAPPY WHEN THEY GET THE NEW BIOS OUT,RIGHT NOW I AM UP TO 3.7 GHZ,,, 9650 X 11 3770 FSB NB 1.40 V CORE 1.304 FSB TERM 4 AND MY CORSAIR 1066 SET TO MANUAL 2.1 VOLTS,WITH 2 FOXCONN 8800GTS 640,S I AM GETTIN 1900 AND SOME CHANGE, 3D MARL 06 1280 RES NOTE ALSO UP YOU PCI FREQ TO 107 THIS I LEARNED WITH MY K8N DIAMOND PLUS WITH FX-60 IT WILL LET YOU OVERCLOCK MORE,,I WILL TRY TO HELP ALL AND I AM SURE I WILL NEED SOME HELP, THIS IS MY FIRST INTEL BUILD,,, GOOD LUCK OK,,AND BY FAR THIS IS THE BEST 780I BOARD!!! LETS GIVE IT SOME TIME OK GUYS,,,,,WOLF

[theYipster]

Overspeed, try setting FSB Terminator voltage to 15 and see if that improves any. Also, please share how you are running your RAM timings and speed. When OCing, you should run your RAM at a 1:1 ratio with your FSB, thus eliminating RAM OC issues in your attempt to OC your proc. On the MSI P7N, you must do some manual math to find which RAM speed will get you a 1:1 ratio.

First set RAM speed to manual. Then, whatever you set your FSB to in the BIOS, divide that number (the quad pumped number set in the BIOS) by 2. Hence, a 3.6ghz E8400 should run with an FSB set to 1600mhz in the BIOS and RAM set to 800mhz. A 4.05ghz E8400 should run with an FSB set to 1800mhz in the BIOS and RAM set to 900mhz.

Also, be sure to loosen your timings to 5-5-5-15. Once you've found a proc OC you are happy with, then go back and work on your RAM timings. If you're confident it's not voltages, then perhaps its your RAM.

Also, maxing out your NB may just cause it to overheat. You're NB will definitely need a boost however to run a 4ghz proc. Expect 1.4+-. Maxing out will just cause other issues, especially if you are running it on the stock passive cooling.

[theYipster]

Wolf.. Thanks for sharing the result. Are you prime or OCCT stable with those settings?

[Overspeed]

Thanx for the reply yipster. Here are some details as per your post. First my system: P7N, E8400, 4x1GB PC2-8500 rated at 5-5-5-15, Termaltake Big Typhoon. So I have great cooling on the CPU. In the BIOS, I have not changed in any way the ram timings. Currently set to SPD. I have been doing as your suggested with the ram divider, I always make sure i'm set to manual and the ram frequency is set to half of FSB ... ie ... 1600/800. My ram manual says recommended voltage of 2.1 so I have manually set this. Other points to note:

BIOS says core votage at 1.2 - CPU-Z says 1.1 and I gather this is normal.
For now I don't intend on OC the RAM in anyway, just CPU

This next point i'm no expert so bear with me. After recovering from the failed OC I set everything back to auto and PC runs fine. When I go into CPU-Z, then under SPD tab, it shows as PC2-6400 (400). I know im in dual channel so really the 400 is 800. So the mobo is setting ram to 800 when set to auto even though it only needs 666Mhz to run CPU at 1333 the default. Here's what puzzles me. In the CPU-Z SPD tab, there is a chart below called Timings Table. JEDEC #3 lists frequency as 400Mhz with the followng timings: 5-5-5-18 at 1.8v. ??? According to my ram manual, its rated at 5-5-5-15. There is another table called EPP #1 with the following timings: 5-6-6-15 2T @ 2.1v. Is my ram manual or is CPU-Z wrong? Or do I interprate this all wrong?

An update from my last post in regards to D.O.T. This time I used the MSI windows application. I was able to acheive the 3&#37; gain OC stable. 5% and higher caused system to freeze. Suffice to say i'm concerned that 1 or more of my hardware may be faulty.

I'm not sure if this is worth noting but the MSI windows application also has a feature to monitor power levels and efficiency. My rig is constantly flucuating between 20-80% efficiency. This flucuation is not present when looking in BIOS HW-Monitor. I would think that if this is bad, and that my PSU is faulty, I would be experiencing issues even in no OC setups.

Anyways I will try your FSB Terminiation suggestion and let you know how it goes. Thanx again.

[Overspeed]

Yipster, I tried adjusting FSB Termination. No go. Here are the settings I used:

1600 FSB
800 on RAM (timings controlled by SPD)
RAM at 2.1v
CPU core at +0.15v
NB at 1.3v
FSB Term at 15

No post after 3 retries. I also tried twice at CPU voltage at +0.2v with the same other settings. No go. Over all, to date I have been able to achieve a 7&#37; OC using BIOS and only 3% using MSI application.

I have one question to P7N owners that is not OC'ing related. When you first power on your rig does your mobo beep? Mine make one long loud beep followed by 2-3 shorter beeps. I know that MSI mobos always make at least 1 beep during post, but I don't seem to remember hearing the other beeps when I first got this. Curious if this is normal.

[theYipster]

Overspeed,

Remember that for two DIMMS to run in dual channel mode, they need to spaced a part by one empty DIMM, such that if bank 1 is the rightmost DIMM slot furthest from the processor, one stick is in bank 1 and the other is in bank 3, or that one stick is in bank 2 and the other is in bank 4. MSI colors their RAM slots differently than other manufacturers, which can be confusing. Make sure that one DIMM is in an orange slot and the other in the associative green slot.

As for default timings, this is normal. The motherboard will not automatically default to a 1:1 setting. Instead, it will default to the highest standard JDEC setting specified for your RAM. Now you have 1066mhz RAM, but the highest setting specified by JDEC for DDR-2 RAM is PC-6400 / 800mhz, which is why you see your RAM running at 800mhz at stock, and not 1066mhz. If you had 667mhz RAM, then you would see it run at 667mhz at stock. Secondly, the default timings for a given speed are stored in your RAM's SPD chip. This chip stores timing information for various RAM speeds at various FSB straps. 5-6-6-15-2T just happens to be the timings stored with the JDEC 800mhz speed. Now EPP, or SLI Ready memory, will store extra settings in that SPD chip, which can be activated by going into your BIOS and enabling SLI Memory. Set the SLI Memory option to 0% OC or Expert to automatically enable better timings for your given RAM speed.

As for the OC attemps, I'm sorry you're having trouble. Right now it does seem that the board works better with Conroe and Kentsfield chips. I would not recommend you OC through the Windows utility -- they tend not to work well. As for OCing through the BIOS, are you sure you have all the necessary settings disabled? Make sure that EIST and Speed Spectrums are disabled in the Cell Menu. Then go into the chip features menu where the Execute Disable Bit feature resides, press F4, and make sure that C1E is disabled and that Thermal Management is disabled. Lastly, have you tried any of the beta bioses from http://forum.msi.com.tw? The latest, 1.1B4, was released two days ago and people are finding some early success with it regarding the 45-nm chips. Before giving up, flashing to a newer BIOS is absolutely worth a try.

Good luck. Lastly, what's your PSU?

[Overspeed]

Overspeed,

Remember that for two DIMMS to run in dual channel mode, they need to spaced a part by one empty DIMM, such that if bank 1 is the rightmost DIMM slot furthest from the processor, one stick is in bank 1 and the other is in bank 3, or that one stick is in bank 2 and the other is in bank 4. MSI colors their RAM slots differently than other manufacturers, which can be confusing. Make sure that one DIMM is in an orange slot and the other in the associative green slot.

I am running 4x1GB DIMMS so all slots are full.


As for default timings, this is normal. The motherboard will not automatically default to a 1:1 setting. Instead, it will default to the highest standard JDEC setting specified for your RAM. Now you have 1066mhz RAM, but the highest setting specified by JDEC for DDR-2 RAM is PC-6400 / 800mhz, which is why you see your RAM running at 800mhz at stock, and not 1066mhz. If you had 667mhz RAM, then you would see it run at 667mhz at stock. Secondly, the default timings for a given speed are stored in your RAM's SPD chip. This chip stores timing information for various RAM speeds at various FSB straps. 5-6-6-15-2T just happens to be the timings stored with the JDEC 800mhz speed. Now EPP, or SLI Ready memory, will store extra settings in that SPD chip, which can be activated by going into your BIOS and enabling SLI Memory. Set the SLI Memory option to 0&#37; OC or Expert to automatically enable better timings for your given RAM speed.

I'll give that a try.


As for the OC attemps, I'm sorry you're having trouble. Right now it does seem that the board works better with Conroe and Kentsfield chips. I would not recommend you OC through the Windows utility -- they tend not to work well. As for OCing through the BIOS, are you sure you have all the necessary settings disabled? Make sure that EIST and Speed Spectrums are disabled in the Cell Menu. Then go into the chip features menu where the Execute Disable Bit feature resides, press F4, and make sure that C1E is disabled and that Thermal Management is disabled. Lastly, have you tried any of the beta bioses from http://forum.msi.com.tw? The latest, 1.1B4, was released two days ago and people are finding some early success with it regarding the 45-nm chips. Before giving up, flashing to a newer BIOS is absolutely worth a try.

Good luck. Lastly, what's your PSU?

As of reading your reply I am 99% certain I have the necessary options disabled but i will go and verify. EDIT: I have verified that my settings match that you specified, all disabled. I have not been able to find any download locations for the beta BIOS yet. As for my PSU, I am running a Thermaltake Toughtpower 700W. Does your mobo beep like mine from cold boot?

I'm curious as to how these guys made it all work:

http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?t=1886633

If longsiew is to be beleived, he got the E8400 to 4.6Ghz on this board ... only difference that I can see was the ram used.

[theYipster]

There is a subforum in the Overclocks forum for beta bioses. Note that you may need to register to access that forum. If so, registration is well worth it. I believe the E8400 user in the Singapore forum used a beta bios. I'd say that's your best bet.

[x-built-Stan]

theYipster,

I checked my voltage and here are the results.
VID: 1.256v - Read from BIOS, EIST disabled Q6600@2.4GHz stock
Vcore(no load): 1.432v - Read from CPU-Z, EIST disabled Q6600@3.4GHz
Vcore(load): 1.376v - Read from CPU-Z, EIST disabled, Q6600@3.4GHz

Load was Prime95 v25.5, 4 threads, small FFT.

You can see that my voltage drop under load is 0.056v or 3.9%. Is that inline with your observations?

I'm going to push the Vcore up and see if I can drop back the terminator voltage. I'll keep the FSB at 1512Mz for now.

[BKA]

I'l chime in with some overclocking results of my own with my e8400 on this board. I started off going with 1600(400x9)(3.6) FSB and memory at 800 linked. Tried uping the cpu voltage all the way up to +.18750(1.200-1.208 in BIOS) (1.21-1.22 in CPUID) (1.208-1.216 in CPUZ). NB up to 1.4, memory at default of 2.2v. All other voltages on auto. I can boot into Vista but 3DMARK06 would lock up during the test at different test, requiring a hard reset.

Dropped FSB down to 1520(380x9)(3.4) and memory still linked, NB down to 1.35 and left the CPU voltage at +.18750. Got through a full 3Dmark06 test and and now running prime95 for about 2 hours with no errors.

I'm coming from an ASUS P5N-T deluxe which did 3.6 but required a very high CPU voltage. Not sure what I should try next to get stable at 400x9 but I will follow this thread and post when I can. I do know one thing though, it's much snappier than than the ASUS board and installed Windows a heck of a lot quicker.

[x-built-Stan]

I'm editing this post to clarify the beep codes. When you boot there are two series of beep codes with a slight delay between them. The first is the boot beep code - see table below. The second is the number of USB devices plugged into teh motherboard directly. So if you get 1 long <pause> 2 short you have an OK POST with 2 USB devices plugged into the motherboard. Note that plugging multiple devices into a monitor or USB hub and them plugging the monitor or hub into the motherboard only counts a sone device - 1 short beep. If you are concerned or confused, unplug all USB devices and boot to get the 'true' sequence.

Overspeed,

Here are thge AMI beep codes. Note that the 1 long is a good POST.

AMI BIOS Beep Codes:

1 short DRAM refresh failure The programmable interrupt timer or programmable interrupt controller has probably failed
2 short Memory parity error A memory parity error has occurred in the first 64K of RAM. The RAM IC is probably bad
3 short Base 64K memory failure A memory failure has occurred in the first 64K of RAM. The RAM IC is probably bad
4 short System timer failure The system clock/timer IC has failed or there is a memory error in the first bank of memory
5 short Processor error The system CPU has failed
6 short Gate A20 failure The keyboard controller IC has failed, which is not allowing Gate A20 to switch the processor to protected mode. Replace the keyboard controller
7 short Virtual mode processor exception error The CPU has generated an exception error because of a fault in the CPU or motherboard circuitry
8 short Display memory read/write error The system video adapter is missing or defective
9 short ROM checksum error The contents of the system BIOS ROM does not match the expected checksum value. The BIOS ROM is probably defective and should be replaced
10 short CMOS shutdown register read/write error The shutdown for the CMOS has failed
11 short Cache error The L2 cache is faulty
1 long, 2 short Failure in video system An error was encountered in the video BIOS ROM, or a horizontal retrace failure has been encountered
1 long, 3 short Memory test failure A fault has been detected in memory above 64KB
1 long, 8 short Display test failure The video adapter is either missing or defective
2 short POST Failure One of the hardware testa have failed
1 long POST has passed all tests

[theYipster]

Hmm... X-built-Stan, my guess is that you need more voltage through that processor. A G0 VID of 1.256 isn't bad by any means, but paired with an nForce board, I'm not sure you'll get it stable under 1.4v at load. Try upping the vCore in the BIOS until you the board is pumping 1.4v at load. Note that this may require setting up to 1.45-1.48 in the BIOS.

Your vDroop looks to be in line with what I've experienced.

As for myself, I don't think I'll be getting around to testing tonight. Hopefully tomorrow I can continue my quest to 3.6ghz.

[malik22]

does the thermalright ultra extreme fit on this board?

[theYipster]

I believe it does if you rotate it 90 degrees, but I am not certain. You may want to double check elsewhere.

[x-built-Stan]

theYipster,

I upped the Vcore delta in the bios to 0.2000 for a load core of 1.41v and dropped the FSB terminator voltage to 30 from 63. I've got Prime95 running now for 1.5 hour. Core temp is 60C and NB is 60C. We'll see how long that runs.

[theYipster]

Sounds good! You should be in the home stretch now. If Prime fails before you're ready to call it stable, just up the vCore one notch until it becomes stable. If it fails between 2-8 hours, usually one or two notches of vCore will take care of it and you'll be stable.

60C is within tolerable limits of the 780i nb, but keep an eye on the temp. If it hits or passes 70C, you'll want to investigate in an active cooling method. I just purchased an Antec Spot Cool fan for mine -- should be here by Friday. It's supposed to do wonders for the NB temp on this board, which at least on mine is not unreasonable, but could use the extra cooling as I pump up voltage past 1.4v.

A 780i NB running between 40-50c, in my opinion, is a happy 780i NB. Note that on the 680/780 reference boards, NB temps in excess of 70C were usually a good indication that a NB burnout / failure (represented by everyone's favorite C1 error) was not far away. I do not expect the P7N to suffer from these burnouts, thanks to the better capacitors and PWM system used. Still, it's best to keep temps under control when possibler.

[malik22]

I believe it does if you rotate it 90 degrees, but I am not certain. You may want to double check elsewhere.


Is there any cons to installing it that way? and does it have alot of vdroop with quads?

[Overspeed]

Just posting new results on the E8400. I was able to achieve 3.4Ghz and I think it was stable. It survived 2 3DMark runs, and using Handbrake was able to encode Simpsons Movie to H.264 in 19 minutes. Total stressing lasted about 32 mins. Here are the settings used:

1510 FSB (377x9 = 3.4Ghz)
Ram at 755Mhz
Vcore at +0.25 (15 jumps) CPU-Z reported 1.38v
Ram at 2.10v
NB at 1.4

Anything but these setting resulted in no post. Did not have to modify the FSB Termination. During stress, CPU temp reached 33C, and idles at 26C. Case temp was 45-52C. Vid card idles at 60C (8800GTS 512). I have no way of reading the NB or SB temps but when I touched the rollercoaster fins I had to pull away within 3 seconds of being burned, SB I touch for 8 seconds before got too hot. During non OC state I can touch the SB indefinately and the NB for a good 20-30 seconds.

I was not able under any conditions to reach 3.6Ghz.

I am concerned about the beeps my mobo gives off during post. According to X-built`s research on this I am suffering from the following: 1 long, 2 short Failure in video system An error was encountered in the video BIOS ROM, or a horizontal retrace failure has been encountered. I don`t know what this means. I just got this rig less than a week ago, should I be calling the store that built it for warranty support? I would be greatful if someone could explain what this error code actually means.

[Overspeed]

Yipster, I created an MSI forum account as you suggested and got all 3 beta BIOS's. The mods there were very fast in helping me with the mobo beeping problem as well. Turns out this mobo will beep once for every USB device it detects during post.

I have not tried the beta BIOS's yet. MSI also provides a utility that allows for a BIOS flash from a USB key. So the question is, which BIOS should I install? My options are 1.1, P05 or the 114. I think I can rule out the 1.1 as the MSI forum mods confirmed it was a junk release.

[BKA]

Hey Overspeed, did you see my overclocking results for my e8400. I am only able to get stable at 3.4 also although FSB is at 380 so far.

1520 FSB (380x9 = 3.4Ghz)
Ram at 760Mhz
Vcore at +.18750 CPU-Z reported 1.21v
Ram at 2.20v(default)
NB at 1.35

I can get Windows to boot at 3.6 (400x9) by just bumping the nb to 1.4 but 3DMark06 would lock up. I will try to get some more testing done today considering we got a snow storm and my place of work is closed. :)

My temps weren't nearly as cool as your though. What are you using to monitor. CPUID HW reports on prime 95 load, CPU up tp 60C and MB up to 55C.

[theYipster]

Overspeed, 1.1 is indeed a junk release. For the Wolfdales and Yorkfields, I believe people are having the best success with 11B4. Let me know what you find.

Interestingly enough, my NB doesn't seem to run as hot as others. I keep tabs on the motherboard temp sensor and from time to time I'll place my finger on the roller coaster fins and on the bottom heat pipe. At no time did I feel like I was going to get burned by the roller coaster fins, although when above 1.4v it did feel very hot to the touch. The bottom running heat pipe at 1.4v was thoroughly hot however. At stock, the coaster fins and heap pipe run cooler than the bottom of my Macbook Pro. I wonder if I just have a cooler running NB or if there's a problem with the mount -- although there certainly doesn't seem to be one from what I can detect.

EDIT: I also don't get any more than the standard one "Post OK" beep, and I have two USB external hard drives as well as a USB keyboard and mouse attached the computer.

[wolf1974]

Wolf.. Thanks for sharing the result. Are you prime or OCCT stable with those settings?
i am prime stable for 4 hours then i stopped it, and i am waiting for a good 45nm bios before i try and push further but i do believe 4 to 4.5 on air will be no problem. hey any one got a good temp monitor for nb,,cpu so on windows based??? i used to use ntune for this but i can only read the video cards with the ntune msi sent on the drivers disk,,, thanks wolf

[GOLDFISH]

Hi guys!
Interesting thread, gonna participate since I running the same board and we need a good know-how thread. :)

I got these goodies in my case:
Q6600 G0 cooled by Noctua-12, 2Gb GeiL Ultra 667MHz 3-4-4-8, 2x MSI 7900GTO and of course the P7N Diamond

I used OCCT to determine that system stability since OCCT seems to torture system even more, but it DOES NOT push the temps high. Hardware even makes a strange I-am-really-struggling-here-sound when it is running. Ran Prime95 for 10 hours with no errors (BLEND mode), but after 6 minutes of OCCT the thing crash.

Yes, and i'm experiencing a giant FSB-hole, actually from 1370 to 1505, but for all I know it might be my Q6600. Tried to change RAM speed from lowest the board can run to max oc the RAM can run.
When i select 8x multi, it will usually boot with 9x.
Tried @ 3.6ghz, but could get it nowhere close to stable.

Currently i'm running with these settings stable:
FSB Clock (MHz) : 1511
Memory Clock (MHz) : 814 (4-4-4-12 T2)
-------------------------------------------
Adjust PCI-E Frequency : 100
Auto Disabled DRAM/PCI Frequency: Enabled
-------------------------------------------
CPU Voltage (V) : 0.1500
DRAM Voltage (V) : 2.10
NB Voltage (V) : 1.325
SB Voltage (V) : 1.525
NB Memory Reference Voltage : Auto
Memory Reference Voltage : Auto
Memory Terminator Voltage : Auto
CPU GTL Reference Voltage : 25
NB GTL Reference Voltage : Auto
FSB Terminator Voltage : Auto
NB Memory Reference Voltage : Auto
SB Sleep Mode Voltage : Auto
PCIe Expander PLL Voltage : Auto
-------------------------------------------
Spread Spectrum : Disabled

Best regards, The Goldfish

[Overspeed]

Hey Overspeed, did you see my overclocking results for my e8400. I am only able to get stable at 3.4 also although FSB is at 380 so far.

My temps weren't nearly as cool as your though. What are you using to monitor. CPUID HW reports on prime 95 load, CPU up tp 60C and MB up to 55C.

Yes I did review your results, I think using shipping BIOSs we have both hit the same wall. I was using the MSI app to monitor my temps. I will try your HW monitor and see if it's different. That said, someone once told me that the E8400's were produced with a sometimes faulty temperature monitoring diode.

Edit: Ok I have CPUID HW running. I also set my bios to your exact settings. Here is what it reads:

vcore: 1.29v
tmpin0: 23C
tmpin1: 47C
core 0: 35C
core 1: 36C
gpu: 56C

What are the tmpin temps, I think 1 may be the mobo temp. I will now put under stress and see where the temps go...... ..... ..... .....
Ok according to CPUID HW monitor my temps hit 42C max after a 15 min prime95 run. The cores cooled back to the low 30`s within a minute. One thing I do notice about your settings is my NB did not get nearly as hot and still seems stable.

[Overspeed]

I also don't get any more than the standard one "Post OK" beep, and I have two USB external hard drives as well as a USB keyboard and mouse attached the computer.

Interesting. To test further, I added an external drive, a USB key and a printer along side my USB mouse and keyboard ... total of 5 USB devices. Rebooted and got 1 long, 5 short. I wonder why I hear the additional beeps and you don't?

[theYipster]

Welcome to the thread Goldfish.

On other boards, a GTL Ref of 65-67 is generally recommended for Q6600 overclocking. Note that I haven't yet played with GTL Ref on this board yet, so I can offer no direct experience. I would recommend however that you up the GTL Ref and see what results you have.

Also, you may find better results with higher FSBs if you set the FSB Termiantion Voltage between 12-15. Note that on the shipping BIOS, I experienced no FSB holes between 1333 and 1600, but I haven't yet done further tests to try and stabilize at 1600 / 3.6ghz.

Also, which BIOS version are you using? People are beginning to see better results with 1.1B4.

EDIT: Lastly, what is your Q6600's VID and batch number?

[wolf1974]

Welcome to the thread Goldfish.

On other boards, a GTL Ref of 65-67 is generally recommended for Q6600 overclocking. Note that I haven't yet played with GTL Ref on this board yet, so I can offer no direct experience. I would recommend however that you up the GTL Ref and see what results you have.

Also, you may find better results with higher FSBs if you set the FSB Termiantion Voltage between 12-15. Note that on the shipping BIOS, I experienced no FSB holes between 1333 and 1600, but I haven't yet done further tests to try and stabilize at 1600 / 3.6ghz.

Also, which BIOS version are you using? People are beginning to see better results with 1.1B4.

EDIT: Lastly, what is your Q6600's VID and batch number?
hey does anyone know if the 1.1b4 fix's the 45nm multi problem??

[theYipster]

I've heard they fix cold boot issues -- which may be the same thing. I don't have a 45nm chip so I can't confirm.

[wolf1974]

i will get msi to send the bios and i will try it out,, this is my rig,,,coolermaster 830 stacker,p7n, qx9650 4 gigs corsair 1066, a pair of foxconn 8800gts'640mb clocked to 656/1220,xi-fi card 1000w real power pro and raptor's in raid-0-,,,running 3.8ghz stable for about 1 week now, fsb term is at 8 cpu volt up 3 ,,,nb 1.4 sb 1.55 ram at manual 5-5-5-15 1t and pci freq to 107 i am pretty happy so far but i know it is capible of more

[Cannydog]

Hello all,

Last week a got this board, because I was having memory issues with an Asus P5E. The good news is that it will run the 2x2GB modules that had previously gone bad in the P5E. But the bad news is that NewEgg sent me the same modules back that I RMA'd. So those modules return errors under MemTest86. Also the 4 Corsair 1GB modules that I wanted to run won't seem to run on this board either. I suspect that those Corsair modules have something programmed on the SPD that prevents them being used together. Though they are exactly the same model.

In other respects I like some things about the M7N Diamond, and don't care for some other "features". Things I do like include; eSATA, though I had to jump through some hoops to get it working, that bundled X-Fi card is nice, though it doesn't work with the front ports on my case, and my Video card is boosted a bit, since it's also an Nvidia chip. It's also a comfort to me that what memory I am running is being used at it's proper speed and timings.

I did have some installation issues with XP. At first I didn't take the time to wipe the drive I was installing to, and I didn't have XP do a full format on that drive. This led to strange issues with phantom devices taking up many of the addresses for hardware. Which in turn prevented XP from properly initializing the JMicron SATA ports. That was corrected by wiping the HDD and reinstalling.

Now the only outstanding issue I'm having is the occasional BSoD, when I use my ROM drives. See the Nvidia SATA Performance Drivers don't play well with SATA ROM drives. So occasionally when I try to use a ROM drive (I have 2 SATA DVD ROM drives, one is read only and the other is a DVD/RW) I get a BSoD for "Driver_IRQ_Not_Less_Or_Equal..." and it flags the "nvgts.sys" file as the culprit. (That "nvgts.sys" is the Nvidia SATA Performance driver.) It seems to happen more when the computer has tried to enter sleep mode. The only consolation is that those Nvidia drivers do allow me to use NCQ on my hard drives, and the BSoDs are infrequent.

[theYipster]

The nvgts.sys is a known issue across all nForce boards -- reference and otherwise. I never experienced it on any of my boards until I plugged-in a SATA optical blu-ray drive. Apparently it can be buggy with SATA optical drives.

If you don't want to uninstall the drivers and just use the generic ones provided by Windows (a common solution to this issue,) try relocating the SATA cable to a new port in your motherboard instead. This eliminated the issue on my rig with the blu-ray drive.

[Overspeed]

So I had a chance to test out the 1B4 Beta BIOS this afternoon. Unfortunately it did not allow me to break the 3.42Ghz barrier on my E8400. I did some pretty intensive voltage experiments w/o success. I have not tried the P05 yet.

[Overspeed]

New high hit on the E8400. 3.51Ghz using these values:

BIOS: 1B4
FSB: 1560
RAM: 780
VCORE: +0.2v
DIMM: 2.1v
NB: 1.35v
SB: 1.6v
FSBT: 60

Stability unverified, but so far so good.

Edit: Above values refined after experimenting, still able to achieve 3.51Ghz:

BIOS: 1B4
FSB: 1560
RAM: 780
VCORE: +0.15v
DIMM: 2.1v
NB: 1.35v
SB: auto
FSBT: auto

I'm not sure what role the FSBT plays but I was able to get here with it left on auto. SB modification also seemed to be redundant. System would only become stable when NB voltage bumped up. 1.2v = fail 1.25v = fail 1.3v = OS load but not stable 1.35v = stable sweet spot. I'm also noticing that the vcore can remain relatively low ... at least at my current best of 3.51Ghz. More to follow.

[theYipster]

Overspeed,

I've asked MSI for a detailed explanation of all BIOS voltage settings. With this information we can shed a bit more light on the OC possibilities of this board.

However, it looks like the new BIOS is doing the trick for you. Two things to keep in mind:

On the reference 780i boards, 1.4v is often needed on the NB to achieve stability between 3.6-4.0ghz. Furthermore, I believe the reference boards default NB voltage to a higher value -- 1.3 or 1.35. Considering that the P7N uses the same NB, I would expect similar voltages are necessary to achieve stability. Try a NB in the range of 1.4-1.45 and see if that can't get you stable at 3.6ghz, let alone 4.0v.

As for your vCore, the consensus on a maximum voltage limit for OC'd 8400s is 1.45v. Unfortunately, thanks to the P7N's unique way of setting vCore, it's not necessarily easy to tell when you've set 1.45v in the BIOS. To do this, you need to know your chips VID. With Speedstep disabled, open (or first download if need be) Core Temp in Windows and read the number for VID. To get the actual voltage set via vCore in the BIOS, simply add the BIOS vCore to your VID. Note that the voltage you set in the BIOS will be higher than the voltage supplied to your chip while idling in Windows, thanks to vOffset, and that the voltage will further drop under load, thanks to vDroop. Your chip, however, should reach 4.0ghz on less than 1.45v, provided it's not a dud.

Also, what is the batch of your E8400? Many can do 4.0ghz on air as easily as a Q6600 G0 can do 3.6ghz. I had one (a Q746A) I sold which apparently can bench 4.5ghz on air on an evga 680i, but it does need a bit of voltage to get there.

[Overspeed]

theYipster, I have been following your posts on the MSI forums, hopefully Aaron can get us the voltage info. I'm not sure how to get my VID value. Hang on while I Google this... ok I have installed CT 0.96.1. My VID is 1.0375v. I don't think I will be able to find out my batch for the CPU. This PC was assembled for me and I don't have the original retail box or access to the CPU as I have a large aftermarket heatsink on it. I'd rather not remove the heatsink and ruin my thermal compound. Is there any other way to locate the batch via an application?

So it would seem the bottleneck for this CPU is the motherboard. My research shows that the E8400 is capable of easily achieving 4+Ghz with a reasonable heatsink on intel chipsets. Judging by my successes/failures so far, even if a new BIOS helps to get at 3.6Ghz, it seems unlikely that it will ever do 4.0Ghz, my original goal. A shame because when I ordered this PC I was clear that I wanted a good OC board for the E8400 and the P7N is what I was given. Who knows, maybe in time, and with a better undersdtanding of the voltage settings, 4.0 might be within grasp along side refined BIOS's.

I am concerned about putting the NB at 1.4v - 1.5v at it seems to get too hot at those settings. I'm unsure of the cooling potential of the rollercoaster and circupipe, but to touch them at default clocks, they seem hot already. Then again, my finger is not the best for judging temps lol. What feels hot to me might very well be cool for the NB. I have no way of measuring.

[theYipster]

Overspeed,

People are indeed having success getting their E8400's to 4.0ghz on 780i-based motherboards, and I am quite confident that it can be done here too -- if not with the latest BIOS, than likely with a future one. Take a look at the 780i and overclocking forums over at evga.com. Right now the evga 780i A1 is the most popular 780i board on the market, and as such has the most OC information available (as well as the biggest community to help people achieve their overclocking goals.)

Now many of the settings for the evga board don't apply to the P7N, due to the different BIOS used. However, you will no doubt see people putting more volts through the NB in order to achieve their goals. I am confident that you will need to do the same. At 1.4v, my circupipe does get rather hot, but it's not burning to the touch. I did order an Antec Spot Cool fan so that I can keep the NB reasonably cool while pumping more voltage through it. If you're goal is 3.6-4ghz, which I do believe is obtainable, then you should look to do the same.

Note that for my quad to boot and benchmark at 3.6ghz, I need 1.4v in the NB

EDIT: Unfortunately if you did not build the computer yourself, getting the batch number will be difficult. It will involve dismantling the cooling system from you cpu so that you can read the numbers across your cpu's heat spreader. I wouldn't recommend doing this -- it's certainly not worth the hassle.

[BKA]

Yes I did review your results, I think using shipping BIOSs we have both hit the same wall. I was using the MSI app to monitor my temps. I will try your HW monitor and see if it's different. That said, someone once told me that the E8400's were produced with a sometimes faulty temperature monitoring diode.

Edit: Ok I have CPUID HW running. I also set my bios to your exact settings. Here is what it reads:

vcore: 1.29v
tmpin0: 23C
tmpin1: 47C
core 0: 35C
core 1: 36C
gpu: 56C

What are the tmpin temps, I think 1 may be the mobo temp. I will now put under stress and see where the temps go...... ..... ..... .....
Ok according to CPUID HW monitor my temps hit 42C max after a 15 min prime95 run. The cores cooled back to the low 30`s within a minute. One thing I do notice about your settings is my NB did not get nearly as hot and still seems stable.


New high hit on the E8400. 3.51Ghz using these values:

BIOS: 1B4
FSB: 1560
RAM: 780
VCORE: +0.2v
DIMM: 2.1v
NB: 1.35v
SB: 1.6v
FSBT: 60

Stability unverified, but so far so good.

Edit: Above values refined after experimenting, still able to achieve 3.51Ghz:

BIOS: 1B4
FSB: 1560
RAM: 780
VCORE: +0.15v
DIMM: 2.1v
NB: 1.35v
SB: auto
FSBT: auto

I'm not sure what role the FSBT plays but I was able to get here with it left on auto. SB modification also seemed to be redundant. System would only become stable when NB voltage bumped up. 1.2v = fail 1.25v = fail 1.3v = OS load but not stable 1.35v = stable sweet spot. I'm also noticing that the vcore can remain relatively low ... at least at my current best of 3.51Ghz. More to follow.

Haven't checked in on the thread today, I picked up God of War for PSP and got caught up playing that most of the day. Anyways, yes my NB did seem pretty hot when set at 1.35 volts and under full load. I also had the same thing with the NB voltage, until I bumped it up to 1.35 Windows wouldn't even load without locking up. And I agree about the CPU not needing a lot of voltage.

With CPUID HW tmp0 is system temp and tmp1 is MB temp if I remmeber correctly. You have a pretty cool system temp going there because mine is in the low 30's. I get your kind of system temps in the summer when the air is on but normally get higher system temps in the winter with the heat blasting. And this has been one cold, snowy winter here in MI.

I'm currently back to default settings until probably this weekend. I will also try flashing one of the beta BIOS. I want to get some gaming in for now, still have to complete Hellgate London and Crysis. I would love to hit 4.0 for benchmarking purposes but would like to get a nice 3.4 - 3.6 stable OC for everyday computing.

[Overspeed]

theYipster, here is a look inside my case. You will notice right away my CPU cooler and the circu-pipe underneath. 2 inches below that is the 8800GTS. I wonder how I could possibly get a fan on that northbridge given my available space?

http://alpha.customfitonline.com/P1000678.jpg

[theYipster]

Antec Spot Cool is a small fan on an adjustable stock. I think it would do the trick.

[x-built-Stan]

Completed a 26Hr Prime95 Small FFT run on my new rig (see signature). CPU at 3.4GHz, Vcore: 0.2000, FSB 1512, FSB Terminator: 30, NB: 1.5v, Memory 800MHz 4-4-4-13. All other settings are Auto. Temps got as high as 61C on the core and 63C on the NB.

I'm going to start moving up to 3.5GHz.

[x-built-Stan]

Overspeed,

From looking at your picture, I would say yhat you have a real airflow problem on the NB radiator. You might be able to mount a small fan like the Antec Spot from the CPU cooler fan housing to at least get some air flow in there.
ASUS provided an optional NB vertical fan that attached to the radiator of their Striker Extreme board. Perhaps something liek that would do the trick, I included a picture.


I have also included a few pictures of my build (named Mercury). Note the clear air path from front to back over the NB radiator.

[Overspeed]

Stan, I see how you might think that based on my photo but that giant CPU cooler is moving a fair amount of wind which defects off the MB down the the NB rad. Case has rear, top, front and bottom fans all pushing the hot air out. I may still benefit from a spot cooler, if I could only figure out how to mount such a think. Just our of curiousity, how are you able to monitor NB temps?

This is WAY of topic but something is wrong with my keyboard when using this forum. The keys I type and the keys that show up are not the same. For instance, this is what gets printed when I type question mark: &#201; &#201; &#201; &#201; &#201; This is what gets typed if I hold shift and hit numbers 1 through 0: ! " / $ &#37; ? & * ( ) Notice the missing number symbol, at symbol, and the up arrow is replaced by the real question mark. Has anyone ever seen a keyboard behave like this? I swear this only happens when typing in this forum. In notepad, Word, in other forums, my keyboard behaves correctly. GRRRR.

[GOLDFISH]

TheYipster, hi and thanks for the info. I'll try to get it up to 3.6GHz later using your tips, but due to busy workschedule I have little time for my own projects.

CoreTemp shows my VID as 1.3125v and have no clue to what the batch number is. Gonna change the coolingpaste and lap the cpu after the weekend, so i'll take a looksy then before I lap it. It's a G0, SLACR revision by the way.

I'm using the BIOS shipped with this board, don't know where to download the beta bios (Well, haven't really tried to find it either) :P

The FSB hole i'm experiencing is strange, seems like i'm the only one.

[theYipster]

Goldfish,

Certainly keep us posted on your efforts. If you purchased the chip yourself and have the retail box, you can get the batch number from the white product label. It's under the section and barcode labeled FPO/Batch #. It will begin with an L. For example, mine is L737B266. Batch # together with VID are the best predictors of OC potential.

Unfortunately, a VID of 1.3125 is very high for a Q6600 G0, and you may find it quite difficult to achieve a stable 3.6ghz regardless of the motherboard used. It's not impossible and I have seen it done, but you you will likely need to pass upwards of 1.5v to the chip at load to see any stability. Since there's isn't a way (yet) to reduce vDroop on the P7N, you may need to set vCore in the BIOS upwards of 1.55v or 1.6v, which is a bit much for an air cooled chip.

Note that with my own experience with the four G0s that have passed through my hands, two had VIDs of 1.325v and neither could stabilize at 3.6ghz on an evga 680i with a tuniq tower. By the time I watercooled, I had gotten rid of both chips. One wouldn't post at 3.6ghz regardless of vCore, while the other would post with a reasonable vCore around 1.42, but wouldn't stabilize at anything higher.

Still, it's worth a shot, and if you can get the batch number, you'll at least have a more complete idea of whether or you'll succeed, as VID alone isn't as strong a prediction as VID and batch. Be sure to watch your core temperatuers while OCing. If they exceed 70-75c, then it's time to back down.

You can get Beta BIOSes from MSI's User to User forum: http://forum.msi.com.tw Note that you may have to register to get to the BETA Bioses sub-section, which can be found under the overclocking forum.

Also note that while I haven't experienced any noticeable FSB holes with my P7N, nForce boards are indeed famous for them, so I suppose it's to be expected. Often times new BIOSes will eliminate or at least move FSB holes.

[x-built-Stan]

Overspeed,

Look at the ASUS fan picture. The fan is a vertical mount, so the botom of the fan sits on top of the NB radiator (roller coaster). The fan draws air up from the radiator bottom and pushes it out the fan top. Note the paddle wheel fan blades. Since the fan simply clips to the radiator, you would not need any additional mount points. From your picture it looks like that might work. You can get the fans on e-bay for $10. Look for "Optional Heatpipe Fan Asus Striker". I'll try mounting mine on the radiator and let you know if it works.

[GOLDFISH]

TheYipster, I trew away the retail box long time ago. I am using some cheap coolingpaste now, my AS5 tupe was unfortunately empty.
I had a EVGA 680i earlier, but the thing died after just 2 weeks of use. The temps was at 70c max @ small FTT's in Prime95 (@3,2GHz 1.32v).

Now can pass 81c with ease using this bad coolingpaste, so I have backed down to 3GHz @ stock for now.

[theYipster]

Goldfish,

My apologies, but if you're passing 70c on the 680i at 3.2ghz, then 3.6ghz is really out of the ball park for your chip w/o substiantially better cooling -- an even then it's still iffy. I hate to say it, but you may have gotten a G0 dud. It happens :( Btw, what cooling are you using?

[GOLDFISH]

Yipster

I'm using Noctua NH-U12F with a Arctic Cooling PWM fan, max 1500rpm in a Antec P180 case.
BTW, I used the cheap coolingpaste on the evga also. Think things will improve once I have lapped the CPU, I lapped my old P4 3,2GHz and that did the trick. Shaved 5C of idle and about 8C on load.

I got no fancontrol on this board either, but that may be my fans without a rpm-wire so the board can't detect my fans. Next month I will receive a bonus at work, maybe i'll invest in new high-reving fans. I can handle some noise when i'm playing games, but when the machine is idleing I want the fans to slow down. No luck using SpeedFan either.
Got one chassisfan with an rpm-wire, but can't control that one either.


I am not to worried about i can't overclock that high, the cpu is still fast and can with ease run at QX speeds. It's just a hobby :)

Edit: on the evga it was 24h stable @ 3GHz with 1.23volts (My EVGA was vDroop modded)

[loonym]

theYipster, are you currently using the 1B4 bios? Will it use lower multis with your q6600? I've only been able to successfully use 6-7-8 multi with the .P05.

GOLDFISH, even with cheap silicone paste and unlapped surfaces I think those temps are too high for your hs to be working correctly. Are you certain it's making full contact and properly tightened?

[theYipster]

Loonym, I'm still using the shipping bios. I've had little time to do anything this week but look over this forum when I can. If I have time tonight I'll flash -- if not, then this weekend.

[x-built-Stan]

Overspeed,

I mounted the ASUS fan in the picture to the NB radiator, It fits fine and plugs right to the motherboard, see picture. The fan may look like it sitting on the Vid card, but it actually clipped to the radiator. It looks like my radiator temp is running about 3-4C cooler with the fan. You might get better results since the airflow at your radiator is more restricted than mine.

With respect to the NB tempreature. If you look at the from of my rig, there is a blue temp monitoring panel. I use a point thermal probe connected to the panel to monitor LCS temps off the waterblock. I can also use it to point check board components like the NB or the Radiator (which btw was at about 66C for my last test series).

TheYipster - I finished my 3.5GHz stability test. 12 hours Prime95 25.5 small FFTs. Here are the settings: FSB 1555, DRAM 800 (777 adjusted), VCore 0.2250, DRAM 2.10, NB 1.45, FSB Term 25. Mem 4-4-4-13-1T. All other settings to AUTO. Temps: Core 61C, Tmpin0 49C, Tmpin1 60C. See signature for system specs.

I'm configuring for 3.6GHz run, should have some results tomorrow.

I called MSI today to see if they could identify exactly where the two board thermal sensors are located (not the CPU). They had no info, so I put a post on their forum. If you have contact with any MSI engineers - could you ask them.

[Overspeed]

X-Built, your build looks very nice, clean and uncluttered. While I am not able to go the watercooled route at this time, I'll have to stick with my air cooler. So you are able to monitor NB somehow with your watercooler ... would there be any way for someone in my position to somehow monitor these temps? Is there hardware I can buy and install that would do this? The handheld heat probes are rather expensive, I would be looking for something that could be installed right in the case without having to remove the circu-pipe to make work. Thanx much for your feedback thus far.

Unfortunately that ASUS fan will not fit in my rig, as my giant cpu cooler actually hangs over the NB rollercoaster a bit, I will need to research other options. I wonder though if 3-4C would really have a long term impact. First thing I need to figure out is ... with my reduced air flow what are my NB temps in a no OC scenario under load, what are the temps during an OC under load, and what are the max safe temps the NB can handle. I also wonder what the effect would be if I removed two of my DIMMs ... instead of running 4x1GB, run 2x2GB. I have heard less DIMMs reduces demand on NB, but what that would mean in the way of temps is unknown to me.

Finally one thing everyone seems to be getting on my case about is the RAM that is in my system. The store I bought it from selected for me the Transcend Axeram OC Series PC2-8500 5-5-5-15 @ 1066. In recent days I have spoken to some REAL experts in this field and if I remember correctly they suggested I use a type of RAM that has a ... D9 chip?!?!? Does that make sense to anyone? If so I would love some recommendations on a 2x2GB kit either 800 or 1066.

Super finally, theYipster recently asked me the batch of my E8400. I bit the bullet and disassembled my rig so here is the number: Q745A830. Hope that means something to you :)

[theYipster]

X-Built-Stan,

Congrats on the test... very nice timings on the RAM. Kudos on the 1T :) Question though: how did you end up with 3.5ghz if FSB was set to 1600? Unfortunately I'm not in touch with any MSI engineers, but Aaron Yuri on the MSI forums has been responsive in answering technical questions. On the reference board, NB and SB could be read in the BIOS, but I don't there is a way to see an actual NB temp in Windows. The next best thing was the SB temp reported by Everest. Right now, I'm merely ballparking NB temps by keeping an eye on the motherboard temp reading and feeling the warmth of the heat pipes. Best I can do at the moment, as I don't have my NB watercooled, nor do I have temp gauge in my loop.

Overspeed,

Right now I don't have any suggestions on accurate ways to read NB temps. If there are sensor points, you could hook up a temp monitor once we know the correct readouts from MSI. Alternatively, if you had a water loop cooling the NB, you could install a simple thermometer to read the temp of the water in that loop, which gives an indirect idea of NB temps. As mentioned above, I'm simply going by motherboard temp and feel. If the rollercoaster fins feel like they'll burn your skin if you touch it too long, that's not good.

If you are concerned about NB temps but can't fit a fan, another thing you can try is to replace the stock TIM (thermal grease) sitting between the heat pipes and the chip itself. For this, you'll have to remove the MB from the case, but doing this is indeed good practice, as many MB manufacturers are careless when it comes to applying the right amount of TIM for the chips and mosfets. If you're up for it, remove the entire heat pipe circuit from the NB, SB, expander, and mosfets. This should be relatively simple, as the heatpipe system uses plastic snap-ins similar to those used on Intel's stock CPU cooler. Then, inspect the amount of TIM applied to the NB, SB, PCI-E chip, and mosfets. If it looks like there's too much or not enough, you can replace it. If you do this, be sure to use a non-conductive paste like Arctic Silver Ceramique, as AS5 is slightly conductive and can be dangerous to use on these components -- especially the mosfets.

As for the RAM, I'm not sure what the issues are. If your RAM is rated to 1066mhz, then it shouldn't have a problem supporting an overclock up to 4.5ghz. However, it's always best to run your RAM 1:1 when finding your processor's overclock, so you don't necessarily want your RAM set to 1066mhz until you're happy with your processor's performance. As for Micron D9 chips, they're a type of IC, the underlying memory chip used in RAM. Every stick of DDR-2 RAM employs a set of a particularly vendor's IC (memory chip.) RAM that uses certain versions of Micron D9 ICs is very popular with the enthusiast crowd, as they're excellent overclockers. However, they're not available in 2 gig sticks. Furthermore, they're best used in PC-6400 modules, as D9 equipped 6400 modules can match PC-8500 performance w/o the premium price. Don't worry that you're RAM doesn't have D9 chips, as you don't need to replace your RAM with sticks that do.

As for your batch, Q745 seems to be a mixed bag (from my limited knowledge,) although most should be capable of 4.0ghz. With your batch knowledge in hand, you'll want to read the many pages of the E8400 overclockers thread on this forum. You'll see what others have been able to do with chips from the same 745 batch. If you start at the beginning, be sure to read until the end, as the first 10 or so pages are filled with comments from the early adopters. Good batch data isn't available until many people have posted their findings. Also, you may want to investigate whether or not your processor is reporting temps correctly. Many early E8400s were not, although I'm not sure if this was a problem with the chips, the temp reporting software, or the BIOSes on motherboards.

[malik22]

Does anyone here use a thermalright ultra extreme with this board I know you have to to turn it 90degress but I want to know the clearence i would have if i put my 120mm fan under the heatsink pushing air up?

[x-built-Stan]

theYipster,

Sorry, I misquoted the FSB on the 3.5Ghz run, it has been corrected in the post. FSB was 1555. I was writting the post on one system and prepping the 3.6GHz run on Mercury.

Overspeed,

Thanks for compliment on the rig. I love building these beasts. With respect to the temperature probe. I am using the Thermaltake T-type water temperature indicator (the lighted panel on from of my rig). The temperature probe can be unplugged and another probe used. Here is the link.

http://www.google.com/products?q=CL-W0033&checkout=1&sa=N&lnk=next&start=10

For the tempeature probe , Koolance offers a cheap one that will plugs into the monitoring panel. Here is the link.

http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=100

Set it up and use the probe to find the hottest spot on the NB sink near the chip. Once found, use a thermal adhesive to mount the probe pemanently.
That should take care of your need. Total cost less than $40. You might want to pick up an extra temp sensor (cheap ~$4). Then you can simply plug it in and probe other board areas if needed.

Hope that helps.

[GOLDFISH]

Loonym, you might be right. Purchased the Noctua about 6 months ago, I used it on 4 different motherboards since then and the cooling performance never really impressed me. The Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro performed better cooling my old P4. So I have mounted the cooler multiple times and when I remove it the paste is even and nice. Got people visiting this weekend, so no time for playing with hardware until next week.

BTW, do I need the a rpm-wire on my casefans for the motherboard to be able to control it? they only run at full speed with no option to control them from BIOS or Dual Core Center.

[MagicMan]

I have been getting the occasionally BSOD since i got this board. I read that the EVGA board has problems with "media sheild" under windows XP is it the same for the MSI aswell??. I had it installed and i've kept getting a BSOD usually when i use my DVD drive to watch a DVD, burn a disc or install a game. Anyone else getting this problem with media sheild installed with the motherboard drivers?? The BSOD says "DRIVER IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL".

Any help is appreciated, thanks.


My system spec:-

Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 G0
MSI P7N Diamond V1.0 with 9.46 drivers
DDR2 Crucial Ballistix 2gig PC6400
2 X BFG 8800 GTX with 169.28 drivers
850W Enermax Galaxy PSU
BenQ FP241W 24" @ 1920x1200
Samsung SH-S183L Lightscribe drive
Razer Copperhead Mouse
Saitek Eclipse Keyboard
Windows XP 32bit

[theYipster]

MagicMan,

I'm assuming you have a SATA optical drive. Unfortunately this is a common bug with XP-32 and all nForce 780i boards. There are two things you can try. First, try plugging the Sata cable into a different port. While I normally use Vista, I have XP-32 currently setup for benching, and was able to solve the same problem with my optical drive by simply moving it to a different port. If this does not work, your next best bet is to remove the nVidia drivers from your Windows installation and use the defaults instead.

[MagicMan]

MagicMan,

I'm assuming you have a SATA optical drive. Unfortunately this is a common bug with XP-32 and all nForce 780i boards. There are two things you can try. First, try plugging the Sata cable into a different port. While I normally use Vista, I have XP-32 currently setup for benching, and was able to solve the same problem with my optical drive by simply moving it to a different port. If this does not work, your next best bet is to remove the nVidia drivers from your Windows installation and use the defaults instead.

Hi, thanks for the reply :) .

Yeah, i'm using a samsung SATA optical drive. Thanks for the tips i'll try later as its 4 in the morning right now :p: . I've had the board 3 weeks now and i love it, everything has been working fine, except for this annoying BSOD which appears out of nowhere, but it makes sense as i didn't have the BSOD for 2 weeks and in that time i never used my drive once and this morning i was installing a game and BAM! BSOD :( . I was beginning to think the board just didn't like my RAM or something.

Also is the bug still there using XP64? As i have another 2gigs of memory just sitting here and i'm wanting to use them.

Thanks

[theYipster]

Wouldn't know. I don't, nor woudln't run XP-64 on a home/gaming rig. I do know that it isn't an issue on Vista.

[wolf1974]

MagicMan,

I'm assuming you have a SATA optical drive. Unfortunately this is a common bug with XP-32 and all nForce 780i boards. There are two things you can try. First, try plugging the Sata cable into a different port. While I normally use Vista, I have XP-32 currently setup for benching, and was able to solve the same problem with my optical drive by simply moving it to a different port. If this does not work, your next best bet is to remove the nVidia drivers from your Windows installation and use the defaults instead.

i am also getting bsod when i use my sata dvd rom i did try a dif port but it still happens, could you explain what driver to un install, or should i just remove all drivers except display then install ??? or not witch drivers not i am not using any ide hardware, thanks wolf, and also the beta bios did not fix the multi problem for the qx9650!!!!

[theYipster]

Wolf, what beta bios did you try? I've heard that 1.1B4 has improved overclocking for 45nm chips.

If moving to a different socket doesn't work, then uninstall all nvidia drivers except display. Then when you reinstall, do not install MediaShield. Note that if you are using 4gigs of RAM, you will be better off using Vista x64.

[loonym]

i am also getting bsod when i use my sata dvd rom i did try a dif port but it still happens, could you explain what driver to un install, or should i just remove all drivers except display then install ??? or not witch drivers not i am not using any ide hardware, thanks wolf, and also the beta bios did not fix the multi problem for the qx9650!!!!You should remove the sata drivers. Those are the issue. MS default drivers seem to work fine on my system. I don't have the yorkfield but with my q6600 I can only change multis with bios .P05

http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=115073.0

[theYipster]

Loonym,

I see that on the MSI forum you mentioned that you're running your Q6600 with a 400mhz FSB. Are you stable, and if so, what are your voltage settings?

Thanks!

[wolf1974]

You should remove the sata drivers. Those are the issue. MS default drivers seem to work fine on my system. I don't have the yorkfield but with my q6600 I can only change multis with bios .P05

http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=115073.0

is bios .p05 the newest?? and if so could you email it to me??

[wolf1974]

Wolf, what beta bios did you try? I've heard that 1.1B4 has improved overclocking for 45nm chips.

If moving to a different socket doesn't work, then uninstall all nvidia drivers except display. Then when you reinstall, do not install MediaShield. Note that if you are using 4gigs of RAM, you will be better off using Vista x64.

it ended in .111

[theYipster]

Wolf,

Beta BIOSes are available from MSI moderators and on the MSI fourm at http://forum.msi.com.tw. You need to register in order to get the latest beta BIOSes. When you do, you'll notice a subform for "BETA and User Made BIOSES" in the Overclocking forum. From there you can find the latest P05 and 1.1B4 BIOses.

[wolf1974]

Wolf,

Beta BIOSes are available from MSI moderators and on the MSI fourm at http://forum.msi.com.tw. You need to register in order to get the latest beta BIOSes. When you do, you'll notice a subform for "BETA and User Made BIOSES" in the Overclocking forum. From there you can find the latest P05 and 1.1B4 BIOses.
i trie to register but they say my email witch is hotmail is not valid, could you email them to me???

[loonym]

No email necessary wolf, just go to that link at msi forum and d/l from there.

Yipster, I can run 400 stable, yes. I really haven't been using this 24/7 because my cooling isn't great and my house is hot. I have q6600 G0 batch L737A702, VID 1.2875.
Bios settings @400x8 with .P05
system clock mode manual
dram 800MHz 4-4-4-15 1T all other dram timings auto
cpu voltage .10000
dram voltage 2.00
nb voltage 1.300
sb voltage 1.525
nb gtl ref voltage 25
fsb terminator voltage 50
all others auto

bios hw monitor shows me vcore 1.344-1.352 (very slow fluctuation) and cpuz says 1.360 idle and 1.328 load

edit: I don't see an addy for you anywhere wolf

[theYipster]

Hi all,

First and foremost, I have a big win to report. I believe I've obtained the first successful non-extreme Kentsfield Quad bench above 4.0ghz on the P7N Diamond. It can be done :)

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/444/405ghzbenchsw7.th.jpg (http://img156.imageshack.us/my.php?image=405ghzbenchsw7.jpg)

The processor is a watercooled Q6600 G0 Batch L737B277 with a VID of 1.2375. The chipset is using the standard circupipe cooling, but I did buy an Antec Spot Cool to blow air over the NB. It seems to be doing a reasonable job.

Here are my OC settings and voltages:

Beta BIOS 1.1B4
Proc: 4.05ghz (450 x 9)
FSB: 1800 (450 x 4)
RAM: 900 (450 x 2)
RAM Timings: 5-5-5-15-2T (sub-timings on auto)

vCore: Max set in BIOS (haven't benched lower, but it may be possible.)
vDimm: 2.1
NB: 1.55
SB: 1.65
Gtl REF: 65
FSB Term: 35

all other voltages on auto.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Second, and less spectacularly, I'm still having a bit of trouble stabilizing at 3.6ghz. I've cornered it down to the same thing every time. The computer will eventually freeze (not blue screen or reboot, but freeze) at around 10 minutes of Prime 95 or between 2 and 5 minutes of OCCT (RAM stress.)

My current settings for 3.6ghz stable are as follows:

Beta BIOS 1.1B4
Proc: 3.6ghz (400 x 9)
FSB: 1600 (400 x 4)
RAM: 800 (400 x 2)
RAM Timings: 5-4-4-13-2T (default EPP timings)

vCore: 1.4375 (+2.000v set in BIOS)
vDimm: 2.1
NB: 1.4
SB: 1.55
Gtl REF: 65
FSB Term: 35

My guess is that the issue lies with the NB or SB, with RAM being the third option. I don't think it's the processor, based upon VID, batch, and the type of errors I'm getting (freezes, nothing else.)

I'm learning more about how NB and SB voltages effect the system, as well as how all of the reference, gtl, and terminator voltages interact (MSI's odd BIOS settings make this all the more difficult.) However, I'm still guessing at places, and without the ability to pinpoint a single voltage that's causing the freezing, it's becoming a bit tiresome. I've tried upping NB to 1.45 and SB 1.6 but can't seem to prevent the freezing. Perhaps its a combination of the two, or perhaps my FSB Terminator voltage is off. If anyone has any ideas on what could be causing this freezing, that would be great going forward.

Seeing that I can bench at 4.05ghz, I should be able to find stability at 3.6ghz. It's just a matter of time, and as always, further explanation of MSI's unique voltage settings always helps :)

Thanks everyone!

[loonym]

Great work Yipster!! :up:
I can only restate that my particular setup doesn't appear to be very forgiving of elevated nb voltage past perhaps 1.35. The key to any successes I've had are by experimenting with gtl and termination voltages. I only wish I had a better understanding of the actual values as they apply to the ami bios used on this board.

[theYipster]

Loonym,

Thanks :) A stable 400mhz FSB with less than 1.4v on the NB is quite impressive for any 780i chipset based board. I'm still in the process of discovering how the GTL and FSB Term settings relate to actual voltage, but Aaron Yuri over at the MSI forums was able to shed some light on FSB Term. Apparently, the min setting (which I suppose is 1, not -80) relates to 1.2v, while the max of 63 relates to 1.6v.

He also says that he's getting a board, and once it arrives he'll hopefully be able to dig in and provide more info on these mystery settings.

[x-built-Stan]

theYipster,

I am currently finishing a 12hr run at 3.6GHz stable on Mercury (see signature) - 1 hour to go. After the run I will post my settings.

Congrats on the 4.0GHz run. Really fantastic. I would love to be able to get there stable, but fear my LCS can't support the load. I did get a 3.7GHz run last night long enough to get 3DMark06 score of 19180.

After the I complete the 12 hour run today, I'm tearing down and lapping my chip. Core temps are running 65-67C at sustained full load.

With respect to the terminator voltages, I have been going under the assumption that they are a percentage of the parent voltage either added or subtracted.

[wolf1974]

Hi all,

First and foremost, I have a big win to report. I believe I've obtained the first successful non-extreme Kentsfield Quad bench above 4.0ghz on the P7N Diamond. It can be done :)

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/444/405ghzbenchsw7.th.jpg (http://img156.imageshack.us/my.php?image=405ghzbenchsw7.jpg)

The processor is a watercooled Q6600 G0 Batch L737B277 with a VID of 1.2375. The chipset is using the standard circupipe cooling, but I did buy an Antec Spot Cool to blow air over the NB. It seems to be doing a reasonable job.

Here are my OC settings and voltages:
i sent ya my email could ya send me .p05??? or the newest or what you think is best for my 9650,,,,,
Beta BIOS 1.1B4
Proc: 4.05ghz (450 x 9)
FSB: 1800 (450 x 4)
RAM: 900 (450 x 2)
RAM Timings: 5-5-5-15-2T (sub-timings on auto)

vCore: Max set in BIOS (haven't benched lower, but it may be possible.)
vDimm: 2.1
NB: 1.55
SB: 1.65
Gtl REF: 65
FSB Term: 35

all other voltages on auto.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Second, and less spectacularly, I'm still having a bit of trouble stabilizing at 3.6ghz. I've cornered it down to the same thing every time. The computer will eventually freeze (not blue screen or reboot, but freeze) at around 10 minutes of Prime 95 or between 2 and 5 minutes of OCCT (RAM stress.)

My current settings for 3.6ghz stable are as follows:

Beta BIOS 1.1B4
Proc: 3.6ghz (400 x 9)
FSB: 1600 (400 x 4)
RAM: 800 (400 x 2)
RAM Timings: 5-4-4-13-2T (default EPP timings)

vCore: 1.4375 (+2.000v set in BIOS)
vDimm: 2.1
NB: 1.4
SB: 1.55
Gtl REF: 65
FSB Term: 35

My guess is that the issue lies with the NB or SB, with RAM being the third option. I don't think it's the processor, based upon VID, batch, and the type of errors I'm getting (freezes, nothing else.)

I'm learning more about how NB and SB voltages effect the system, as well as how all of the reference, gtl, and terminator voltages interact (MSI's odd BIOS settings make this all the more difficult.) However, I'm still guessing at places, and without the ability to pinpoint a single voltage that's causing the freezing, it's becoming a bit tiresome. I've tried upping NB to 1.45 and SB 1.6 but can't seem to prevent the freezing. Perhaps its a combination of the two, or perhaps my FSB Terminator voltage is off. If anyone has any ideas on what could be causing this freezing, that would be great going forward.

Seeing that I can bench at 4.05ghz, I should be able to find stability at 3.6ghz. It's just a matter of time, and as always, further explanation of MSI's unique voltage settings always helps :)

Thanks everyone! i sent you my email could you send me the .p05 bios or the best one for my 9650 thanks wolf

[x-built-Stan]

Wolf, theYipster,

I completed the 3.6Ghz 12hr Prime95 v25.5 samll FFT test on Mercury. No failures occured. :up: I have attached a picture of the results and showing the temperatures. The settings probably still need some fine tuning but here they are:

D.O.T Control - Disabled
Intel EIST - Disabled
SLI-Ready Memory - Expert
FSB Clock (MHz) - 1600
DRAM Clock (MHz) - 800 (Adjusted also 800)
Adjust CPU Ratio - 9
Adjust PCI-E Frequency (MHz) 100
Auto Disable DRAM/PCI Frequency - Disabled
CPU Voltage (V) - 0.28750
DRAM Voltage (V) - 2.10
NB Voltage (V) - 1.425
SB Voltage (V) - Auto
NB Memory Reference Voltage - Auto
DIMM Memory Reference Voltage - Auto
Memory Terminator Voltage - Auto
CPU GTL Reference Voltage - 65
NB GTL Reference Voltage - Auto
FSB Terminator Voltage - 25
SB Sleep Mode Voltage - Auto
PCI Expander PLL Voltage - Auto
Spread Spectrun - Disabled

Memory Settings - Manual
CAS Latency - 4
tRCD - 4
tRP - 4
tRAS - 11
tRRD - Auto
tRC - 20
tWR - Auto
tWTR - Auto
tRef - Auto
1T/2T Memory Timings - 2T

Give them a try an post your results.

Inspired by Wolf, I may make a quick run at 4Ghz to see if I can get a 3DMark06 score before I lap the chip.

[theYipster]

X-Built,

Congrats on achieving stability at 3.6ghz. That's great news :clap:

After going through a few more unsuccessful rounds of the screen freezing in OCCT, I dialed in your settings and passed the standard 30 minutes test!

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/5069/occt36ghzstableyh1.th.jpg (http://img508.imageshack.us/my.php?image=occt36ghzstableyh1.jpg)

In my experience, passing this usually means clear sailing to Prime95 stability, as I've never found OCCT to pass when Prime fails within four to eight hours. This gives me great confidence, as even if Prime does fail, all that should be needed now is some slight vCore tweaking. It's the home stretch!

Here are my settings for 3.6ghz, OCCT Stable:

CPU: 3600mhz (400x9)
FSB: 1600mhz (400x4)
RAM: 800mhz (400x2)
RAM timings: 5-5-5-15-2T

PCI-E freq: 100mhz (stock)
Auto-Disable: Disable

vCore: .3000 (the next step is to find the lower bounds of stability.)
vDIMM: 2.1
FSB: 1.45
SB: Auto
GTL Ref: 65
FSB Terminator: 25
All other voltages: Auto
Speed Spectrums: Disabled

Interestingly enough, the last unstable settings were similar: FSB was at 1.4v while FSB Terminator was at 50. These previous settings caused the same freezing issue within 5 minutes of the OCCT Test. This certainly adds weight to my suspicion that the freezing issues were caused by incorrectly "tuned" NB voltages. Bumping NB voltage just .25 and reducing FSB Term to 25 did the trick.

My next step is to see how low I can go on vCore while maintaining all other voltages. I should be able to cut down a few notches, based upon my experience with this chip. With that finished, I'll do a 12 hour Prime run and call it a day for 3.6ghz. Then I'll likely want to get my Vista environment running on this rig before I try for 3.8-4.0 stable.

This is very good news we're having today. :) With the earlier 4.05ghz benchmark and our success at 3.6ghz stable, I'm far more inclined to recommend this board as an able overclocker. That's very exciting, as this will be the first non-reference Intel nForce board (680i or 780i) that works well out of the box and provides for ample overclocking (even if OCing isn't as easy yet as on the reference boards.) Given that the solid caps and the advanced PWM system should provide for greatly increased reliability over the long term when compared to the reference boards, I'd say the P7N is indeed a winner!

[x-built-Stan]

theYipster,

I'm glad that you were able to reproduce my results. After all that's what this is about. I was able to get a post and into windows at 4GHz by pushing the Vcore to .38 (max). However, I could not get it stable enough to pass a 3DMark06 run :down: . I'm tearing down now to lap the chip.

FYI: I have an E8400 (Q774A813) in the wings for testing later.

[BKA]

Yipster, which BIOS are you using for your successful overclock? I will probably get back into trying to get a stable 400 FSB with my E8400 later this evening. I have both of the beta's from the MSI forums, P05 & 1.14. Still using the 1.0 shipping BIOS.

I finally got my temperatures under control due to my 8800GT running in the 90's when gaming. At first I thought I could simply reapply some AS5 and hope the temps would go down but no go. My cards are factory overclocked and the stock fan was junk. After putting on a pair of Thermaltake DuOrb it dropped the temps to a max of 60c when playing Crysis and HGL for a couple of hours. So now I feel better about proceeding with overclocking the CPU now.

EDIT: Never mind, I just noticed in your post you mention 1.14.

[Overspeed]

theYipster,

I'm glad that you were able to reproduce my results. After all that's what this is about. I was able to get a post and into windows at 4GHz by pushing the Vcore to .38 (max). However, I could not get it stable enough to pass a 3DMark06 run :down: . I'm tearing down now to lap the chip.

FYI: I have an E8400 (Q774A813) in the wings for testing later.

Awesome, I look forward to your results on the E8400.

[Exavier]

excellent work guys, I'm looking forward to seeing this proceed :)
I'm also interested in this board, looking for an SLI equivalent of the P5K Black Pearl, so far looking at the P7N as it doesn't look quite as bad as the reference 780i boards and their RMA turnaround..

[theYipster]

Hi all,

I've updated the front post with new information collected over the past two weeks. Please PM me if you see any errors or if you'd like anything added.

Thanks!

[loonym]

Thanks so much Yipster :clap: And thanks to everyone who has shown interest in this board and participated in the discussion. I see good progress being made and I think as more and more successes are reported interest will grow. :)

[Overspeed]

theYipster, one change I think you can make to your top post is the value you assign to GTL Ref. This board has two settings that refer to GTL ... NB GTL and CPU GTL. It would helpful know which of these two your are modifying. Great work.

[memory]

Quick test on my MSI P7N Diamond on Bios v1.14(Beta)

Testbed:
CPU: E8400(Q746A476)
Memory: gskill GBPK PC8500 2gb x 2kit
Mobo: MSI P7N Diamond SLI (Bios V1.14 Beta)
GPU: XFX 7600GT
HDD: SATA II Hitachi 160gb 7200rpm
PSU: CoolerMaster iGreen 600watt
OS: XP Pro SP2

nb=1.4volt
FSB Termination Voltage = 63
vcore = 1.28volt
vdimm = 2.1volt
Rest = AUTO

500mhz x 8 = 4.0ghz
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/longsiew/msi4ghz128vcore-pi32mileve.jpg

Completed 06 run
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/longsiew/msi4ghz128vcore-pi32mileve06.jpg

[x-built-Stan]

All,

Great news. I installed the E8400 (Q774A813, VID=1.1125v) chip today.
After some trial and error, I was able to boot into Windows at 4.275GHz :D .
I haven't had any time to run the stability test series yet. But hey, I just had to tell someone.

UPDATE: Ran 3DMark06 and updated the picture - 19185 :shocked:

Here are the basic settings:

BIOS: v1.0 (yes - believe it)
FSB: 1900MHz (475 x 9)
DIMM: 950MHz
Vcore: 1.448 (0.20000 no load)
Vdimm: 2.1
NB V: 1.4
CPU GTL: 65
FSB Term: 63
All other settings to AUTO

Major tuning and testing needed - but this should provide you with a starting point. :up:

FYI - I did try to push to 4.5 but just got BSOD.
These results have been posted to the MSi Forum @ http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=115354.msg866366#msg866366

[Overspeed]

With great sadness, I must report I am unable to produce the same results as x-built-stan and memory. Using both posts, I tried each settings configuration and countless others ... literally. After two hours of trying every combination possible (yes I kept a chart) my setup will not boot windows stable beyond 3.54Ghz. I did all the right things:

33Mhz FSB incremental jumps
matched ram timings
correct bios settings
even temperate management

I tried the 9x and 8x mulitpier configurations without success. What's funny is I am able to boot Vista stable at 3.54Ghz with only 0.125v on the vcore and nb at 1.35, all others auto. One might speculate that simply increasing these values while increasing FSB accordingly would work but nope. GTL and TERM did not seem to have any notable effect.

A couple times I was able to post successfully and vista actually loaded ... for about 10 seconds before I started getting various BSOD's including:

Failure in ecache.sys
Failure in CI.dll
page_fault_in_nonpaged_area

I went even so far as to remove 2 or my 4 dimms to reduce stress on NB. I also increased all volt measurements to max and still no boot. A couple times got really scary because after it was clear that a post failed I was unable to power down the machine by holding power button. In some cases not even the clear CMOS button would work and I would have to unplug all power and reset.

I have a feeling that increasing volts higher and higher can also lead to instability even with the best cooling solutions. My 3.54Ghz stable configurations fails if I add more volts to vcore or NB, so I have learned that more is not always better, and that sometimes you need to find the happy medium. Officially I tried all of the below configurations:

Shooting for 3.888Ghz -->

For all tests, FSB set to 1728, ram set to 864, multi at 9x and dimms set to 2.10v:

NB Tests >
1.45 + all possible vcore voltages
1.4 + all possible vcore voltages
1.35 + all possible vcore voltages
1.3 + all possible vcore voltages

NB Tests + GTL at 65 and TERM at 63 >
1.45 + all possible vcore voltages
1.4 + all possible vcore voltages
1.35 + all possible vcore voltages
1.3 + all possible vcore voltages

NB Tests + GTL at 65 and TERM at 63 + SB at 1.6 >
1.45 + all possible vcore voltages
1.4 + all possible vcore voltages
1.35 + all possible vcore voltages
1.3 + all possible vcore voltages

No possitive results. Total tests 144. I also tried a few tests with DIMM's at 2.20v for the hell of it. To avoid potential FSB holes, I did about 20 tests using different FSB and multipier settings. No go. I think it's safe to say for whatever reason (BIOS, RAM type, temps) my board will not ever exceed 3.54. I do not believe this will be corrected by BIOS updates. x-built and memory have clearly demonstrated that no BIOS update is needed to push the E8400.

In closing I would like to thank all who have assisted me in my quest. I will continue to monitor this thread just in case I have missed something or a magical fix is discovered. Many thanx.

[wolf1974]

X-Built,

Congrats on achieving stability at 3.6ghz. That's great news :clap:

After going through a few more unsuccessful rounds of the screen freezing in OCCT, I dialed in your settings and passed the standard 30 minutes test!

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/5069/occt36ghzstableyh1.th.jpg (http://img508.imageshack.us/my.php?image=occt36ghzstableyh1.jpg)

In my experience, passing this usually means clear sailing to Prime95 stability, as I've never found OCCT to pass when Prime fails within four to eight hours. This gives me great confidence, as even if Prime does fail, all that should be needed now is some slight vCore tweaking. It's the home stretch!

Here are my settings for 3.6ghz, OCCT Stable:

CPU: 3600mhz (400x9)
FSB: 1600mhz (400x4)
RAM: 800mhz (400x2)
RAM timings: 5-5-5-15-2T

PCI-E freq: 100mhz (stock)
Auto-Disable: Disable

vCore: .3000 (the next step is to find the lower bounds of stability.)
vDIMM: 2.1
FSB: 1.45
SB: Auto
GTL Ref: 65
FSB Terminator: 25
All other voltages: Auto
Speed Spectrums: Disabled

Interestingly enough, the last unstable settings were similar: FSB was at 1.4v while FSB Terminator was at 50. These previous settings caused the same freezing issue within 5 minutes of the OCCT Test. This certainly adds weight to my suspicion that the freezing issues were caused by incorrectly "tuned" NB voltages. Bumping NB voltage just .25 and reducing FSB Term to 25 did the trick.

My next step is to see how low I can go on vCore while maintaining all other voltages. I should be able to cut down a few notches, based upon my experience with this chip. With that finished, I'll do a 12 hour Prime run and call it a day for 3.6ghz. Then I'll likely want to get my Vista environment running on this rig before I try for 3.8-4.0 stable.

This is very good news we're having today. :) With the earlier 4.05ghz benchmark and our success at 3.6ghz stable, I'm far more inclined to recommend this board as an able overclocker. That's very exciting, as this will be the first non-reference Intel nForce board (680i or 780i) that works well out of the box and provides for ample overclocking (even if OCing isn't as easy yet as on the reference boards.) Given that the solid caps and the advanced PWM system should provide for greatly increased reliability over the long term when compared to the reference boards, I'd say the P7N is indeed a winner! nice yip looking good, i am at work and my rig is running quad prime right now it has been good for 8 hours so far, i am at 4 ghz and some change!!! hey i need no know how to get my ram to run at 1 to 1 could you post you cell settings and mem settings so i can see what i am messin up but i am getting happy and i added a spot cooler for nb,,temp is 37,!! 1.5 v wolf,,,

[theYipster]

Wolf,

For your 4ghz setup, what is your FSB speed? To run 1:1, set your RAM speed to half of that. If you need to increase the speed of your RAM to get to a 1:1 divider, loosen your timings to compensate so that you remain stable. Once you've established stability at 1:1, you can then work to tighten timings, testing for stability as needed.

For my 4.05ghz run with my OCZ PC-6400 SLI 2x2 gig set, my FSB was set to 1800, RAM to 900mhz, and timings to 5-5-5-15-2T (other timings on auto.) vDIMM was set to 2.2v. Remember that proper settings for RAM at any frequency depends greatly on what RAM you have. If you have PC-8500 RAM, for example, you'll likely be able to run 900mhz with tighter timings. Also be sure not to exceed the maximum warranted voltage for your RAM, as DIMMS will fry due to overvolting much more easily than any other component in your rig.

With a QX9650, you have a great deal of flexibility in setting your FSB. Ultimately, you'll want to set your RAM so that your RAM's bandwidth is as high as possible with latencies as low as possible, while your proc remains at 4ghz. At times, lowering your RAM and FSB speed, while increasing your processor's multiplier (so that 4ghz is maintained) will result in more bandwidth and lower latency than with a higher set FSB. This is due to the ability to set tighter timings (and a 1T command rate) at lower speeds, and due to NB strap differences. Passing a certain FSB threshold may cause the NB to switch to a different strap which can have a drastic effect on bandwidth, despite your RAM and FSB running at higher speeds. If you can achieve 4ghz with your multi set to x9 or x10, test both and see which combination of multi, FSB, and RAM will result in highest bandwidth. Unfortunately I haven't tested the strap tendencies of this board, and it may very well differ between boards and BIOSes. Ultimately, the best way to find the best settings is by testing different combinations... overclocking is always a game of trial and error.

[theYipster]

X-Built, Memory, and Overspeed

Can you please post the following information about your E8400s, if you have it.

VID number (read from Core Temp)
Batch number (located on product box label, under FPO/Batch #)
Stepping & Revision Information (read from CPUZ)

Overspeed,

Two things come to mind before giving up:

It is not certain that there exists a linear relationship between GTL, FSB Term, and NB voltage. If X-Built's theory is correct, in that the setting for FSB Term is a percentage added or subtracted to NB voltage, you may very well need to decrease FSB Term as you increase vNB. Also, on other boards, GTL settings are best left to AUTO unless working with Quad Cores. Try setting GTL Ref to auto and see what that does.

Last, but certainly not least, it could very well be that the issue lies with your memory. Before deciding that the board is at fault, you should test each DIMM to ensure that your memory isn't faulty. ecache.sys and cl.dll issues can easily be memory related, and a page-fault is certainly a memory problem. To conduct a proper memory diagnostic, you will want to download memtest86 (there are two alternatives, memtest86 and memtest86+ -- some prefer one over the other. I don't see a difference between the two.) This is a memory diagnostic that you burn to a CD and run in its own bootable environment. Running the diagnostic will be quite time consuming, but it is important that you do it properly.

You will want to run memtest86 on one DIMM at a time. Remove all but one DIMM in your system and place the DIMM in the slot furthest away from the cpu socket. Then boot up your PC with the memtest CD in the drive, and let the test run for 5 to 8 hours. (Some suggest longer, but reducing the amount of memory being tested often will make errors pop up sooner.) If memtest display an error, you've found your culprit. If not, simply swap out for the next DIMM and repeat. Again, this is time consuming, but it is the best way to ensure that the issue does not lie with your memory.

[wolf1974]

Wolf,

For your 4ghz setup, what is your FSB speed? To run 1:1, set your RAM speed to half of that. If you need to increase the speed of your RAM to get to a 1:1 divider, loosen your timings to compensate so that you remain stable. Once you've established stability at 1:1, you can then work to tighten timings, testing for stability as needed.

For my 4.05ghz run with my OCZ PC-6400 SLI 2x2 gig set, my FSB was set to 1800, RAM to 900mhz, and timings to 5-5-5-15-2T (other timings on auto.) vDIMM was set to 2.2v. Remember that proper settings for RAM at any frequency depends greatly on what RAM you have. If you have PC-8500 RAM, for example, you'll likely be able to run 900mhz with tighter timings. Also be sure not to exceed the maximum warranted voltage for your RAM, as DIMMS will fry due to overvolting much more easily than any other component in your rig.

With a QX9650, you have a great deal of flexibility in setting your FSB. Ultimately, you'll want to set your RAM so that your RAM's bandwidth is as high as possible with latencies as low as possible, while your proc remains at 4ghz. At times, lowering your RAM and FSB speed, while increasing your processor's multiplier (so that 4ghz is maintained) will result in more bandwidth and lower latency than with a higher set FSB. This is due to the ability to set tighter timings (and a 1T command rate) at lower speeds, and due to NB strap differences. Passing a certain FSB threshold may cause the NB to switch to a different strap which can have a drastic effect on bandwidth, despite your RAM and FSB running at higher speeds. If you can achieve 4ghz with your multi set to x9 or x10, test both and see which combination of multi, FSB, and RAM will result in highest bandwidth. Unfortunately I haven't tested the strap tendencies of this board, and it may very well differ between boards and BIOSes. Ultimately, the best way to find the best settings is by testing different combinations... overclocking is always a game of trial and error.i think my fsb is 1371 with muliti at 11.5,,, idid have the ram set manual at 1066, so i should ste it to 685, and my ram is 1066 corsair 2 gig strips 2.1 v 5-5-5-15, this is good info thanks,me setting it to 1066 manualy has been keeping me from getting a good fsb overclock!!! now i will put multi to 9 and try like 1600 fsb and set ram to 800, this if it boots up, should look like 533 with 1-1 divider in cpuz,,correct??,, then i can up the multi and be smokin!!! hey what did ya think of my 3dmark score i sent ya?? it should only get better,once i get the ram running good,,,thanks for the help,,,wolf

[theYipster]

Try dropping the multi to 10, set FSB to 1600 and RAM to 800. This will be 1:1 with CPU-Z reporting that your RAM is running at 400mhz. (400 x 2 = 800 DDR2.)

With 1066mzh RAM rated for 2.1v, you should be able to tighten timings at 800mhz to 4-4-4-12 while keeping a 2.1v voltage. Honestly, there is really no reason to have RAM rated higher than PC-6400 / 800mhz unless you are pairing with a lower end, lower-multiplier chip.

It's hard to comment on your 3d mark score w/o knowing more about your setup. With the specs in my sig and the proc at 3.6ghz, I hit 18,300 in 3DMark06.

[loonym]

Very nice numbers Stan. These are the results I knew would start coming once people exercise a little patience. Overclocking new hardware is very time consuming but extremely satisfying at the same time.

Memory (longsiew), That is a very impressive thread you have at hardwarezone forum... link (http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?t=1886633), and also a very nice 8400 for benchies like that with 1.28v :up:

[BKA]

Good job Stan, those settings allowed me to do a successful OC of 400 FSB for 3.6 on my E8400. I'm not fully sure what the CPU GTL and FSB Term do, but it allowed me to run a full 3DMARK06 and system appears stable for the moment. The only thing I'm concerned about is NB temperatures which I have no idea of measuring exactly. Tommorow I will stop by the local PC store and pick up some AS5 ceramique and pull the heat pipes off and reapply the thermal paste for reassurance. I will let Prime95 run overnight to see how it goes. Thanks again.

https://home.comcast.net/~adamsbr2/myfilelocker/3.6OC.jpg

[x-built-Stan]

theYipster,

I added my VID to the my 4.275GHz post.

BKA,

Very nice indeed. :clap:
I'm going to start running my stability tests tomight. I'll start with a Prime95 small FFT.

If you want to monitor the NB temp you should read my previous post on the subject. I use a thermal sensor connected to my LCS monitoring panel. You can put together for less than $40.

Good luck on your tests

[BKA]

theYipster,

I added my VID to the my 4.275GHz post.

BKA,

Very nice indeed. :clap:
I'm going to start running my stability tests tomight. I'll start with a Prime95 small FFT.

If you want to monitor the NB temp you should read my previous post on the subject. I use a thermal sensor connected to my LCS monitoring panel. You can put together for less than $40.

Good luck on your tests

Thanks, I saw that post but I assumed it was for water cooling. I'm on air, using a Tuniq Tower 120. I had a front panel with temperature probes but I'm not sure what I did with it or if it even works any longer if I remember correctlty. I'll have to look into that.

[memory]

Very nice numbers Stan. These are the results I knew would start coming once people exercise a little patience. Overclocking new hardware is very time consuming but extremely satisfying at the same time.

Memory (longsiew), That is a very impressive thread you have at hardwarezone forum... link (http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?t=1886633), and also a very nice 8400 for benchies like that with 1.28v :up:

Thx.

Here are max FSB taht I could achieve last night with blend test for 1 hr. 514mhz x 6 nb at 1.6volt. Dual Core Centre report about 1.57xx volt. On Bios P05
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/longsiew/msi514mhzx6prime-1hr.jpg

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/longsiew/msi514mhzx6prime-1hr-end.jpg

[Overspeed]

theYipster, x-built-stan, memory,

I just can't figure out my rig. You three are the only others who have the E8400 and you have all been able to manage decent OC's using this mobo and common settings. I tried the P05 tonight and I couldn't even get windows vista to load at stock settings. BSOD every time. I was only able to restore PC by reflashing 1B4. I did as theYipster suggested and ran memtest on all my dimms ... no errors after several runs. My Ram must be ok, they use the D9 Micron chip and are always cold to the touch, nor are they overclocked. I am nervous now that maybe my CPU or mobo is bad, or something else is going on. I just don't know what to do and i'm very bothered.

[BKA]

So far so good. Prime ran all night with no errors. So I will increase the FSB to see how far I can get with the current voltage. I really don't want to go past 1.4 on the NB but if more CPU voltage is required I'll bump that up some. My 3.6 OC is with the default 1.0 BIOS also, I never flashed any of the betas.

[Psycho_eddie]

Im interested in this board, but will a True 120EX fit vertically alligned?

I.e conflict with NB rollercoaster cooler?

Any1 got 450x8 fsb on a quad stable (3600mhz) ??

[memory]

Does anybody of you here experiences some significant performance decrease by upping FSB more than 451mhz?? It is some kinda 'nb strap' kicked in(sorry I do not know the correct term to describe the performance decease)

I run some tesing for 450mhz x 9 on Pi4mil, eve and sandra to compared the memory bandwidth and the timings for pi 4million run

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/longsiew/nbstrap-msi450mhzx9pi4milevesandra.jpg

This is with 454mhz x 9. It is very clear that memory bandwidth on eve and sandra had decreased a lot. Same as Pi 4 million even the seeting is all the same as per 450mhz x 9.
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/longsiew/nbstrap-msi454mhzx9pio4milevesandra.jpg

Can anybody test this decrease on yr P7N Diamond or is this a common issues on nvidia chipset as intel 965 chipset??

[memory]

theYipster, x-built-stan, memory,

I just can't figure out my rig. You three are the only others who have the E8400 and you have all been able to manage decent OC's using this mobo and common settings. I tried the P05 tonight and I couldn't even get windows vista to load at stock settings. BSOD every time. I was only able to restore PC by reflashing 1B4. I did as theYipster suggested and ran memtest on all my dimms ... no errors after several runs. My Ram must be ok, they use the D9 Micron chip and are always cold to the touch, nor are they overclocked. I am nervous now that maybe my CPU or mobo is bad, or something else is going on. I just don't know what to do and i'm very bothered.

May be trying to active cool yr nb and sb??

For me I cool both nb and sb with a 80MM fan. U might want to up the nb voltage and set the FSB Termination Voltage to 63.

[Overspeed]

May be trying to active cool yr nb and sb??

For me I cool both nb and sb with a 80MM fan. U might want to up the nb voltage and set the FSB Termination Voltage to 63.

I do not at present have any cooling on the NB. I have tried the NB voltage increases in several steps as well as the FSB Term. As for NB temps, OC still fails even if I leave PC off for a long time in a cold room. If my rig won't OC cold, no fan will make a difference.

I wish there was software out there that would test all hardware. Lets say ... memtest, cputest, mobotest, nbtest ... someone should write these!

[memory]

I do not at present have any cooling on the NB. I have tried the NB voltage increases in several steps as well as the FSB Term. As for NB temps, OC still fails even if I leave PC off for a long time in a cold room. If my rig won't OC cold, no fan will make a difference.

I wish there was software out there that would test all hardware. Lets say ... memtest, cputest, mobotest, nbtest ... someone should write these!

No harm trying to active cool the nb. You might want to cool it and report the findings here. For me, my nb is HOT even it is at stock voltage in the room ambient about 28 degree celcius.

[memory]

500mhz x 8 = 4.0ghz done. Bios is V1.14

Pls find the following results for Pi32mil run, 01se, 03, 05 and 06. All direct boot from Bios and load into windows.
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/longsiew/msi4ghzoi32mileve.jpg

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/longsiew/msi4ghz03.jpg

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/longsiew/msi4ghz05.jpg

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/longsiew/msi4ghz0601se.jpg

[BKA]

Well, 425 FSB currently without touching any voltages. Time to try for the almighty 4.0GHz.

https://home.comcast.net/~adamsbr2/myfilelocker/3.8OC.jpg

[theYipster]

Wonderful work everyone! :clap: I'm thrilled that so many encouraging results are flooding in :)

Overspeed,

Unfortunately I don't have an E8400. I bought one about a month ago when Microcenter had them for $189, but then sold it two weeks later for $220 :) From what I hear it's one hell of a chip though. The buyer told me it does 4.8ghz on an evga 680i on air :shocked: Clearly he isn't too concerned about voltage degradation though.

I agree with others that you should look to cool your NB. If you're NB is overheating, it will cause stability problems. In my experience on nForce boards, the NB is not something that will stay cool on idle and then shoot up to high temperatures on load. If the NB is getting too hot, you'll likely be able to tell the moment you turn your computer on. There are three things to consider here: First, you may want to investigate in a method to accurately read your NB temps. X-Built had a post about this a while back. Second, you may want to dismantle your rig and ensure that a) the heat pipe is making good contact with all components and b) the TIM is applied correctly. Again, I wrote a post a while back explaining this in more detail, but feel free to ask any questions. Third, installing a simple fan to blow air over the NB heatpipe does wonders. My Antec SpotCool keeps the NB operational upwards of 1.55v.

Psycho,

You can indeed mount a TRUE by turning it 90 degrees and it will fit properly.

Memory,

Thank you for your contributions. Wonderful stuff, and some great stuff at the Singapore thread as well. The drop in bandwidth that you notice passing over a high FSB threshold is indeed to be expected with nForce boards. All 680i, 780i, and apparently now 790i boards do this. It's strap related.

On some high end Intel boards, such as the ASUS Maximus and Rapage Formulas, you can somewhat adjust strap and RAM TRD values to mitigate this. I say somewhat because it's very hard to get stability if you try to lower strap or TRD below what the motherboard feels is appropriate for a set FSB speed. I don't know of any nForce board that gives you these options. Alternatively, nForce boards allow you to set RAM independently of FSB (manual mode.) I don't think any Intel board has this option.

[BKA]

Thanks for reminding me of the Antec Spot fan. I'll be picking one of those up along with my thermal grease on the way home. I didn't get a chance to try testing 4.0GHz before I left for work but I will certainly be trying it when I get home. Good luck everyone.

[BKA]

Hey guys,

I'm thinking of adding another 4GB set of the same memory I have now to this motherboard. I'm wondering if its going to cause stability problems with overclocking by populating all slots and maxing out the memory at 8GB.

I mean I don't really need it but the price is just so darn cheap. Newegg has it at $80 after a $15 MIR and free shipping. It's just too good to pass up.

[wolf1974]

With great sadness, I must report I am unable to produce the same results as x-built-stan and memory. Using both posts, I tried each settings configuration and countless others ... literally. After two hours of trying every combination possible (yes I kept a chart) my setup will not boot windows stable beyond 3.54Ghz. I did all the right things:

33Mhz FSB incremental jumps
matched ram timings
correct bios settings
even temperate management

I tried the 9x and 8x mulitpier configurations without success. What's funny is I am able to boot Vista stable at 3.54Ghz with only 0.125v on the vcore and nb at 1.35, all others auto. One might speculate that simply increasing these values while increasing FSB accordingly would work but nope. GTL and TERM did not seem to have any notable effect.

A couple times I was able to post successfully and vista actually loaded ... for about 10 seconds before I started getting various BSOD's including:

Failure in ecache.sys
Failure in CI.dll
page_fault_in_nonpaged_area

I went even so far as to remove 2 or my 4 dimms to reduce stress on NB. I also increased all volt measurements to max and still no boot. A couple times got really scary because after it was clear that a post failed I was unable to power down the machine by holding power button. In some cases not even the clear CMOS button would work and I would have to unplug all power and reset.

I have a feeling that increasing volts higher and higher can also lead to instability even with the best cooling solutions. My 3.54Ghz stable configurations fails if I add more volts to vcore or NB, so I have learned that more is not always better, and that sometimes you need to find the happy medium. Officially I tried all of the below configurations:

Shooting for 3.888Ghz -->

For all tests, FSB set to 1728, ram set to 864, multi at 9x and dimms set to 2.10v:

NB Tests >
1.45 + all possible vcore voltages
1.4 + all possible vcore voltages
1.35 + all possible vcore voltages
1.3 + all possible vcore voltages

NB Tests + GTL at 65 and TERM at 63 >
1.45 + all possible vcore voltages
1.4 + all possible vcore voltages
1.35 + all possible vcore voltages
1.3 + all possible vcore voltages

NB Tests + GTL at 65 and TERM at 63 + SB at 1.6 >
1.45 + all possible vcore voltages
1.4 + all possible vcore voltages
1.35 + all possible vcore voltages
1.3 + all possible vcore voltages

No possitive results. Total tests 144. I also tried a few tests with DIMM's at 2.20v for the hell of it. To avoid potential FSB holes, I did about 20 tests using different FSB and multipier settings. No go. I think it's safe to say for whatever reason (BIOS, RAM type, temps) my board will not ever exceed 3.54. I do not believe this will be corrected by BIOS updates. x-built and memory have clearly demonstrated that no BIOS update is needed to push the E8400.

In closing I would like to thank all who have assisted me in my quest. I will continue to monitor this thread just in case I have missed something or a magical fix is discovered. Many thanx.how high have yoy had youre v core up to and how long have you ran the cip?? the 45 nm chips do not need alot of voltage!!! was the chip ever stable if so how long did you test it for!!! let me know ok i may be able to help ya out, since i am running the qx9650 and have been up to 4.2 on air stable quad prime, v core still low...wolf

[Overspeed]

how high have yoy had youre v core up to and how long have you ran the cip?? the 45 nm chips do not need alot of voltage!!! was the chip ever stable if so how long did you test it for!!! let me know ok i may be able to help ya out, since i am running the qx9650 and have been up to 4.2 on air stable quad prime, v core still low...wolf

I have tried all possible vcore voltages against all possible NB voltages. GTL and TERM to not have any effect. The only OC I am able to achieve is the 3.54Ghz using the settings: vcore +0.175v and NB 1.375v all the rest auto. Thats FSB at 1574 and ram at 787. Timings of ram at SPD. Ram voltage at 2.10v. Bios 1B4. It's weird because 1600/800 will not post period regardless of voltage settings, but 1750+ will post sometimes but BSOD at windows. I have also tried relaxing ram timings.

This is an off topic question but I feel I must ask. When running Prime95 at stock settings, only 1 of my two cores is utilized. Core 1 is only ever maxed at 85&#37; and core 2 never surpasses 20%. I have priority set to 10. I have also tried H.264 video encoding with a program called Handbrake which supports multi threading and I see here also that core #2 is hardly used. Does this mean anything? Are there tests I can run that will max out both core to prove that my #2 core is working ok?

Finally there is a section in Prime95 that suggests running 1 instance on one core and other instance on others. When I try lo load multiple instances of this program the first loads and stays loaded but subsequent instances just shutdown immediately. Is this normal?

Update: I have since replaced Prime95 with SP2004 so i can get multiple instances. Both cores max out with two running. I have also aquired Everest Ultimate and i ran the cache and memory test. Compared to other results i've seen I think my results are alarming. See here:

http://alpha.customfitonline.com/cachemem.png

[wolf1974]

I have tried all possible vcore voltages against all possible NB voltages. GTL and TERM to not have any effect. The only OC I am able to achieve is the 3.54Ghz using the settings: vcore +0.175v and NB 1.375v all the rest auto. Thats FSB at 1574 and ram at 787. Timings of ram at SPD. Ram voltage at 2.10v. Bios 1B4. It's weird because 1600/800 will not post period regardless of voltage settings, but 1750+ will post sometimes but BSOD at windows. I have also tried relaxing ram timings.

This is an off topic question but I feel I must ask. When running Prime95 at stock settings, only 1 of my two cores is utilized. Core 1 is only ever maxed at 85% and core 2 never surpasses 20%. I have priority set to 10. I have also tried H.264 video encoding with a program called Handbrake which supports multi threading and I see here also that core #2 is hardly used. Does this mean anything? Are there tests I can run that will max out both core to prove that my #2 core is working ok?

Finally there is a section in Prime95 that suggests running 1 instance on one core and other instance on others. When I try lo load multiple instances of this program the first loads and stays loaded but subsequent instances just shutdown immediately. Is this normal? hey put one prime 95 on youre desktop, then put one in youre documents,,, this way you can run 2 at a time, or you can just name them prime 1-2-3 so on but for dual core just do what i said first,, then look at task manager and you will see each core's usage,,,also if you have ran youre cpu at 1.4 volts let me know,,wolf

[Overspeed]

hey put one prime 95 on youre desktop, then put one in youre documents,,, this way you can run 2 at a time, or you can just name them prime 1-2-3 so on but for dual core just do what i said first,, then look at task manager and you will see each core's usage,,,also if you have ran youre cpu at 1.4 volts let me know,,wolf

I have tried once where I set vcore to +0.3v add that to basic voltage would have equalled 1.412v.

[wolf1974]

I have tried once where I set vcore to +0.3v add that to basic voltage would have equalled 1.412v.

hey, 1.4 is very bad for the 45nm core, you may have damaged the cpu already do NOT GO OVER 1.375, CHECK TOMS HARDWARE AND READ UP ON YOURE CPU OVERCLOCKING, I HOPE YOU DID NOT KILL IT YET, RUN THE DUAL PRIME AT DEFAULT SETTINGS AND WATCH YOURE CPU USEAGE UNDER TASK MANAGER AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU SEE, I WILL BE BACK IN ABOUT AN HOUR OK,,,WOLF:down: :down:

[memory]

4.5ghz done with 1.5vcore. During pi run, vcore drop to 1.48volt
nb at 1.6volt.
vdimm at 2.1volt
FSB Termination at 63

Pi32mil, sandra and 03
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/longsiew/msi45ghz15v03.jpg

3D 05
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/longsiew/msi45ghz15v05.jpg

3D 06
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/longsiew/msi45ghz15v06.jpg

Dual Pi 8million. Failed to run dual Pi16 million=(
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/longsiew/msi45ghz15vdualpi8mil.jpg

On this mobo, my E8400 needs at least 1.5vcore to run benchies. Whereas on my Maximus Formula, I need only 1.45vcore for 4.5ghz run.

All on air

[memory]

Wonderful work everyone! :clap: I'm thrilled that so many encouraging results are flooding in :)

Overspeed,

Unfortunately I don't have an E8400. I bought one about a month ago when Microcenter had them for $189, but then sold it two weeks later for $220 :) From what I hear it's one hell of a chip though. The buyer told me it does 4.8ghz on an evga 680i on air :shocked: Clearly he isn't too concerned about voltage degradation though.

I agree with others that you should look to cool your NB. If you're NB is overheating, it will cause stability problems. In my experience on nForce boards, the NB is not something that will stay cool on idle and then shoot up to high temperatures on load. If the NB is getting too hot, you'll likely be able to tell the moment you turn your computer on. There are three things to consider here: First, you may want to investigate in a method to accurately read your NB temps. X-Built had a post about this a while back. Second, you may want to dismantle your rig and ensure that a) the heat pipe is making good contact with all components and b) the TIM is applied correctly. Again, I wrote a post a while back explaining this in more detail, but feel free to ask any questions. Third, installing a simple fan to blow air over the NB heatpipe does wonders. My Antec SpotCool keeps the NB operational upwards of 1.55v.

Psycho,

You can indeed mount a TRUE by turning it 90 degrees and it will fit properly.

Memory,

Thank you for your contributions. Wonderful stuff, and some great stuff at the Singapore thread as well. The drop in bandwidth that you notice passing over a high FSB threshold is indeed to be expected with nForce boards. All 680i, 780i, and apparently now 790i boards do this. It's strap related. On some high end Intel boards, such as the ASUS Maximus and Rapage Formulas, you can somewhat adjust strap and RAM TRD values to mitigate this. I say somewhat because it's very hard to get stability if you try to lower strap or TRD below what the motherboard feels is appropriate for a set FSB speed. I don't know of any nForce board that gives you these options. Alternatively, nForce boards allow you to set RAM independently of FSB (manual mode.) I don't think any Intel board has this option.

Thx for the input. Then we need to manipulate the strap for our optimal benchies run:)

I got the hunch that this strap on nvidia chipset is the culprit behind the so-called memory hole or FSB hole??

[BKA]

Same voltage settings, up to 1780(445) FSB @ 4.0GHz. :)

https://home.comcast.net/~adamsbr2/myfilelocker/4.0OC.jpg

[memory]

Cinebench 10

Hm....can't break 10k:(
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/longsiew/msi45ghzcine10.jpg

[x-built-Stan]

Im interested in this board, but will a True 120EX fit vertically alligned?

I.e conflict with NB rollercoaster cooler?

Any1 got 450x8 fsb on a quad stable (3600mhz) ??

Eddie,

Check out my post on the Q6600 @3.6GHz (400x9) stable Prime95 for 24 hours. All settings are included in the post.

[x-built-Stan]

This is an off topic question but I feel I must ask. When running Prime95 at stock settings, only 1 of my two cores is utilized. Core 1 is only ever maxed at 85&#37; and core 2 never surpasses 20%. I have priority set to 10. I have also tried H.264 video encoding with a program called Handbrake which supports multi threading and I see here also that core #2 is hardly used. Does this mean anything? Are there tests I can run that will max out both core to prove that my #2 core is working ok?

Finally there is a section in Prime95 that suggests running 1 instance on one core and other instance on others. When I try lo load multiple instances of this program the first loads and stays loaded but subsequent instances just shutdown immediately. Is this normal?



Overspeed,

Get Prime95 v25.5 it supports multiple cores with multiple threads.

[Overspeed]

Does this mean anything to you guys?

Look at the L2 cache numbers compared to other users:

http://alpha.customfitonline.com/cachemem.png

My numbers are in some cases 1/6th that of other users in this thread with the exact same hardware. Look at post 164 by memory. If any other E8400 owners have Everest, please run the cache test and post your results?!?!

Wolf has suggested that perhaps my CPU is fried due to pushing 1.4v into it for just a single moment (no bios post). This while I see others users pushing 1.4v+ and even 1.5v+ into it easy. Clearly these Everest numbers must be telling us something right? On the other hand, if my CPU was bad, would I not be experiencing regular errors and crashes? At stock settings my PC runs fine, and SP2004, Prime95 report no errors and neither does memtest. I refuse to beleive my system is special somehow... everyone else is achieving good OC's with this board and CPU. I will gladly replace defective hardware if thats my case but how would I identify it?

Finally how long should it take to complete a SP2004 run on blend? 6 hours so far and still going when focused on core #2 specifically. Oh yah get this. After dual SP2004 runs ongoing for over 6 hours, my cores at full load have never surpased 42C temp. That seems a little low, and just re-enforces my nervousness. Touching the CPU heatsink, it's dead COLD.

[memory]

Does this mean anything to you guys?

Look at the L2 cache numbers compared to other users:

http://alpha.customfitonline.com/cachemem.png

My numbers are in some cases 1/6th that of other users in this thread with the exact same hardware. Look at post 164 by memory. If any other E8400 owners have Everest, please run the cache test and post your results?!?!

Wolf has suggested that perhaps my CPU is fried due to pushing 1.4v into it for just a single moment (no bios post). This while I see others users pushing 1.4v+ and even 1.5v+ into it easy. Clearly these Everest numbers must be telling us something right? On the other hand, if my CPU was bad, would I not be experiencing regular errors and crashes? At stock settings my PC runs fine, and SP2004, Prime95 report no errors and neither does memtest. I refuse to beleive my system is special somehow... everyone else is achieving good OC's with this board and CPU. I will gladly replace defective hardware if thats my case but how would I identify it?

Finally how long should it take to complete a SP2004 run on blend? 6 hours so far and still going when focused on core #2 specifically. Oh yah get this. After dual SP2004 runs ongoing for over 6 hours, my cores at full load have never surpased 42C temp. That seems a little low, and just re-enforces my nervousness. Touching the CPU heatsink, it's dead COLD.

My cpu is at 4.5ghz and yrs only at 3.0ghz

Further more my memory is at 584mhz and yr only 400mhz. I am on 2gb x 2 kit(wonder how significant is the capacity of the memory on L2 cache bandwidth. I am on XP Pro SP2 32bit)

This explained why you have lower score for L2 cache than mine.

edit: If possible. Do not pump more than 1.35vcore to yr cpu. I pumped 1.5vcore just for benchies. Perhaps, my CPU will just KIA,,,but I do hope that my E8400 can live longer than me.hahahahh...On 24/7, I am on AUTO vcore at 3.6ghz=)

[Overspeed]

My cpu is at 4.5ghz and yrs only at 3.0ghz

Further more my memory is at 584mhz and yr only 400mhz. I am on 2gb x 2 kit(wonder how significant is the capacity of the memory on L2 cache bandwidth. I am on XP Pro SP2 32bit)

This explained why you have lower score for L2 cache than mine.

Your numbers were OC numbers, ok I get that. But then again you are able to get 3.6Ghz on auto vcore ... this I am unable to acheive ... I can't get any level of OC without seveer ups to my voltages. Also, here is some new info. Leaving the FSB at default (1333) I upped the RAM mhz from 800 to 1066, set the DIMM voltage to 2.1 and left timings at SPD. PC would not post. I tried the same thing again only this time I relaxed my timings, still no post. :(

Update: To further test my RAM, I loaded cpu-z to find my official rated timingw on the SPD tab. The last timings table says ram is rated to run at 533mhz at 6-5-5-15-2T at 2.10v. I mimiced this in the BIOS exactly and set ram to 1066 and left FSB at 1333. PC would not post. I can post successfully by leaving ram at 800, and setting timings to 4-4-4-12-2T. So with everything on auto ram runs fine at 800, so i don't think its my ram forbidding me to OC at 1600FSB 1:1 ... 3.6ghz.

To sum it up:

My ram won't run at its rated specifications
It will however run at much tighter timings at only 1.8v

Surely all this info must mean something to someone...

Continued Update: Without OC'ing the CPU at all, I tried to set my ram to any mhz above 800. I also tried greatly relaxing the timing. In all scenarios the PC would not post. Seems my ram is not even able to run at it's own specifications. I also tried the sli-ready memory bios setting, no post. I tried the spread spectrum, no post. Maybe having 4 dimms is putting too much load on the NB. Maybe removing two dimms would help me. Or maybe I should stick my dimms in the microwave for a light show and buy a 2x2gb kit of higher quality ram. Meh.

[theYipster]

If your RAM can't run at its rated speed with rated voltage, then there is a good chance your RAM is at fault. First, try OCing with only two sticks and see if that improves things.

[loonym]

Populating 4 slots will definately have the nb working harder, which to me means nb voltage may have to be increased accordingly.

[BKA]

I removed the heatpipes on my board last night and applied some AS5 ceramique thermal compound. The original stuff was kind of dark pink/light burgundy in color. It seemed spread out pretty well over the NB and SB. But it was barely applied to SLI heatsink, kind of sliding off to the side. The mosfets had a thermal pad so I left those on.

[theYipster]

Very cool. Let us know how that effects your temps BKA. The mosfets don't seem to be an issue on this board so I wouldn't worry about them.

[x-built-Stan]

Overspeed,

This may be a long shot but... try removing one of your video cards. I noticed that you have a 700W power supply and our signature implies that you are running multiple video cards. This may be a classic under power situation.

Let me know what the results are?

[memory]

Ok..

All 4 ram slots populated. Quick testing

Memory is gskill GBPQ PC8000 2gb x 2 kit and gskill GBHZ PC6400 1gb x 2 kit. Total is 6gb

500mhz@5-5-5-15@2.1vdimm. nb at 1.4volt. Too bad I do not have another pair of 4gb kit to test 8gb run on this mobo
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/longsiew/msi6gbDC500mhz5-5-5-1521v03.jpg

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/longsiew/msi6gbDC500mhz5-5-5-1521v05.jpg

[Overspeed]

Overspeed,

This may be a long shot but... try removing one of your video cards. I noticed that you have a 700W power supply and our signature implies that you are running multiple video cards. This may be a classic under power situation.

Actually my sig is inaccurate. I am only running 1 8800GTS so there should be plentry of power to spare. I will correct following this post. Maybe it's just me but I feel that my ram should be able to run at it's specified rating. If the ram isn't the problem, then I have no idea what it could be. System runs fine with ram at 800 ... IE everything auto. theYipster frequenty suggests that the ram and cpu be run at 1:1. If my E8400 is only running at 333FSB and I try making the ram work at 533FSB could that be the problem?

I do understand that even if I find a way to make my ram run at rated specs, it won't offer me any real noticable performance gains. I just want to know the ram is either ok or not, and if not then i'll replace right away.

I'll also make note of the following in case it means anything. If I leave everything on auto in BIOS but I turn on the SLI-Ready feature to any setting, the PC crashes. Also if I enable spread spectrum, PC crashes (sometimes).

[theYipster]

Given that your RAM won't run at spec, your RAM could very well be the problem. If you have another system lying around that excepts DDR2 RAM, you might want to test your sticks in that and see if they run at 1066mhz.

[malik22]

If anyone has a ultra extreme on this board could you post a pic of you have it setup.

[theYipster]

Malik,

The P7N will fit a TRUE with out issue if it is mounted at a 90 degree angle. I have seen a picture somewhere but don't remember where.

Note that several boards require turning the TRUE 90 degrees. It's not uncommon, so if you have any questions regarding its performance when turned, just search. I'm sure information is readily available.

[x-built-Stan]

Overspeed,

You might want to look into just getting another memory set. The OCZ that I use are great and have an excellent range for the price. $60 at newegg.

OCZ SLI-Ready Edition 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227181

[Overspeed]

Overspeed,

You might want to look into just getting another memory set. The OCZ that I use are great and have an excellent range for the price. $60 at newegg.

OCZ SLI-Ready Edition 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227181

I would like to have at least 4GB, and to reduce stress on the NB, I would like to have a 2x2GB set instead of another 4x1GB. So many options out there ... talk of "this chip vs that chip", makes and models and so on. Also PC6400 vs PC8500. Would love to hear some opinions. Most people suggest a set with D9 Micron (whatever that means) but that was a while back. Ultimately, since I will stick with this board, whatever memory make/type that works best with it is ideal.

[theYipster]

Right now, the best sets at a reasonable price are the G.Skill 2x2 sets on newegg. If you want fast RAM, consider the 2x2 PC-8000 set for $100 on newegg. Unfortunately, the D9 models people love are all in 2x1 configuration. While Micron made a 2 gig version of their D9 IC a while back, they are very hard to find now and aren't known to be as good anyway.

[Overspeed]

Right now, the best sets at a reasonable price are the G.Skill 2x2 sets on newegg. If you want fast RAM, consider the 2x2 PC-8000 set for $100 on newegg. Unfortunately, the D9 models people love are all in 2x1 configuration. While Micron made a 2 gig version of their D9 IC a while back, they are very hard to find now and aren't known to be as good anyway.

Thanx theYipster. I'll have a look at that link you provided. That said, regalrdless of price, this there a "champion" type/make/model out there? I don't mind spending extra if it means it will be:

A) more stable on P7N Diamond
B) best OC potential for E8400
C) better CAS timings
D) whatever else might make it great. :up:

[loonym]

Those 1gb axerams are very nice micron. I bet if you pulled 2 out they oc like mofo.

[BKA]

This is my first time using Patriot memory. I've always used Corsair until now. I've heard good things about Patriot and at the time newegg had a great deal on the 4GB(2x2GB) Viper set I'm currently using. So far they have been flawless at the 4-4-4-12 2T advertised timings. Only PC6400 though, not sure if you want to stick with PC8500. I almost bought another set earlier in the week because newegg had them on one of their daily deals. Memory is just so cheap now days its hard to resist maxing out a motherboard.

On a side note, I ordered a Q9300 OEM from TigerDirect today and hopefully it should be here on Monday. Hopefully the 1.0 BIOS will recognize it. On the MSI website for this board under the CPU support list they verify support for the C0 stepping, but they list the C1 and M1 stepping as Under Testing. And according to Tigerdirect the M1 is the one they are selling.

[x-built-Stan]

Overspeed,

With respect to PC6400 vs PC8500, consider this. PC6400 will support an FSB of 1600MHz at stock speeds, PC8500 will support an FSB of 2132MHz at stock speeds. If your operating FSB is less than 1800MHz (900MHz on the Ram) than you should probably us PC6400. Above 1800MHz FSB you should get the PC8500. Those are just general guidelines. There are plenty of forums and articles comparing the OC capabilites of various memory modules on the net.

I personnally chose the PC8500 for several reasons. First the Mercury build is a testbed, not my primary system, so I wanted flexibilty to evaluate chips like the E8400 at higher FSB speeds. Secondly, while everyone discusses overclocking their memory I feel it is equally important to get a good underclock. My PC8500 is rated 5-5-5-15 @1066Mhz, but I run it most of the time at 4-4-4-11 from 700-900MHz.

If you ask everyone on this board what the best memory is you'll get a dozen answers. It really comes down to your needs and price point.

[GOLDFISH]

I finally got time to lap my Q6600, and it was incredible uneven!
When I was getting ready to put it together, i found out why my Noctua delivered bad cooling performance. It too needed to be lapped!
But I was careless then I tightend the screws and destroyed threads on the mountingbrackets that is mounted on the motherboard. So now i got a useless Noctua because of this. Really annoying.
The stock cooler that came with the quad is long gone (gave it away to a friend, never been used).

So guess what cooling i'm using now? A STOCK INTEL P4 COOLER!
The worst part is that it performs abit better then the Noctua (remember, I lapped my CPU)
Main difference between P4 and Quad cooler is the core of the cooler. Quad has a more massive copper core, P4 got a puny aluminium core. (Please correct me if i'm wrong, just concluded that after looking at both cooler some time ago)

[theYipster]

Hey everyone,

Unfortunately it seems like I only get time to work on the rig on the weekends. Hopefully as my work schedule lightens up a bit, I'll be able to spend more time tuning.

Anyway, right now I'm trying to see how low I can go on vCore while maintaining stability at 3.6ghz. Originally I was at +0.3 in the BIOS (1.5v in Windows, idle) and now I'm at 0.225v in the BIOS (1.43v in Windows.) What I've found so far is that GTL Ref needs adjusting in tandem with vCore.

When I lowered vCore from .3 to .275, the system froze within two minutes of OCCT. Lowering GTL ref from 65 to 60 solved this. My experience does indeed support the notion that GTL Ref plays a big role in maintaining stability at high overclocks. As I learn more, I'll post further results.

[BKA]

Hey everyone,

Unfortunately it seems like I only get time to work on the rig on the weekends. Hopefully as my work schedule lightens up a bit, I'll be able to spend more time tuning.

Anyway, right now I'm trying to see how low I can go on vCore while maintaining stability at 3.6ghz. Originally I was at +0.3 in the BIOS (1.5v in Windows, idle) and now I'm at 0.225v in the BIOS (1.43v in Windows.) What I've found so far is that GTL Ref needs adjusting in tandem with vCore.

When I lowered vCore from .3 to .275, the system froze within two minutes of OCCT. Lowering GTL ref from 65 to 60 solved this. My experience does indeed support the notion that GTL Ref plays a big role in maintaining stability at high overclocks. As I learn more, I'll post further results.

In this in reference to the quad 6600 or the e8400?

[theYipster]

The Q6600. I don't have an E8400.

[theYipster]

An update. Right now it seems that I'm stuck at +.225v for 3.6ghz stability. NB at 1.425v, GTL Ref at 60, and FSB Term at 25 (all other settings auto) are the most stable settings I've found for +.225v, but it's not perfect. Lowering GTL Ref to 55 causes the system to reboot about 6-8 minutes into OCCT, while going back up to 65 causes the system to freeze within two minutes. GTL Ref set to auto causes my system to freeze within 11 minutes of the test.

Interestingly, increasing FSB Term to 35 and/or lowering NB voltage to 1.4v will prevent Windows from booting, while a combination of 1.425v on the NB and 25 on the FSB Term voltage has been rock stable (passes OCCT NB / RAM test continuously, regardless of vCore.)

[wolf1974]

An update. Right now it seems that I'm stuck at +.225v for 3.6ghz stability. NB at 1.425v, GTL Ref at 60, and FSB Term at 25 (all other settings auto) are the most stable settings I've found for +.225v, but it's not perfect. Lowering GTL Ref to 55 causes the system to reboot about 6-8 minutes into OCCT, while going back up to 65 causes the system to freeze within two minutes. GTL Ref set to auto causes my system to freeze within 11 minutes of the test.

Interestingly, increasing FSB Term to 35 and/or lowering NB voltage to 1.4v will prevent Windows from booting, while a combination of 1.425v on the NB and 25 on the FSB Term voltage has been rock stable (passes OCCT NB / RAM test continuously, regardless of vCore.)hey i am stable atathis but i am stll tryin to lower some volts,,,,wolf note this is bios 1.oo

[x-built-Stan]

wolf,

Excellent. :clap:

[wolf1974]

An update. Right now it seems that I'm stuck at +.225v for 3.6ghz stability. NB at 1.425v, GTL Ref at 60, and FSB Term at 25 (all other settings auto) are the most stable settings I've found for +.225v, but it's not perfect. Lowering GTL Ref to 55 causes the system to reboot about 6-8 minutes into OCCT, while going back up to 65 causes the system to freeze within two minutes. GTL Ref set to auto causes my system to freeze within 11 minutes of the test.

Interestingly, increasing FSB Term to 35 and/or lowering NB voltage to 1.4v will prevent Windows from booting, while a combination of 1.425v on the NB and 25 on the FSB Term voltage has been rock stable (passes OCCT NB / RAM test continuously, regardless of vCore.)
here is a pic,,tellme what ya think also i did register with msi but i cannot find were to download beta bios,shttp://a target='_blank' href='http://img408.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cpu4038do1.png'><img src='http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/3307/cpu4038do1.th.png' border='0'/></a>

[x-built-Stan]

Wolf,

Here is the link to the 1.1B4 bios on the MSi forum.
http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=115073.0

I tried them and they didn't seem to really help with the Q6600 or the E8400. Give them a try anyway and let us know. Make sure you use the bios flash tool and a USB drive.

FYI: I reinstalled my Q6600 to do some further tuning.

Yipster - I set you voltage and setting. The system rebooted during an OCCT CPU run. Did you complete an OCCT CPU run?

[loonym]

The most obvious benefit of using the .P05 bios with kentfield quads is that it enables using multis other than stock.

[theYipster]

x-built,

I was able to complete an OCCT CPU run, but Prime errored out at around the 1 hour mark.

Right now I'm at +.25v with all other settings listed above, and this is Prime stable (8 hours) with temps hovering around 58 under load. I think further tuning can get me lower, or perhaps newer BIOS releases, but this is a good stopping point for the moment.

Tomorrow, I'm going to reinstall Vista and get my normal computing environment back online. Then I'll continue fiddling before doing an 8-12 hour Prime run. (I'm not one to go much longer with Prime, as I've never felt the need.)

[wolf1974]

x-built,

I was able to complete an OCCT CPU run, but Prime errored out at around the 1 hour mark.

Right now I'm at +.25v with all other settings listed above, and this is Prime stable (8 hours) with temps hovering around 58 under load. I think further tuning can get me lower, or perhaps newer BIOS releases, but this is a good stopping point for the moment.

Tomorrow, I'm going to reinstall Vista and get my normal computing environment back online. Then I'll continue fiddling before doing an 8-12 hour Prime run. (I'm not one to go much longer with Prime, as I've never felt the need.)
i am gonna try this again wolf[IMG]http

[wolf1974]

http://://imageshack.us]http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/1993/cpu4038le0.png[/URL]

[Overspeed]

So I took my PC down to the place I brought it from and explained that I wasn't able to get the ram to operate at specified settings. If you recall I have been concerned about bad ram hindering my OC ability. Well I picked it up today and they had all 4 dimms running at the advertised 1066. They did this by enabling Sli-Ready setting to Expert, overvolting the DIMM setting to 2.20v and manually setting the timings in the advanced dram area to 5-6-6-15-2T. So then is the ram ok? I'm still not sure.

I tried once again to get the E8400 up to the levels others have gotten with the P7N .... without success. If the ram is in fact not bad then I guess the CPU or mobo must be. I guess i'm SOOL. I will wait for a official BIOS update, until then I am suspending all OC efforts. A shame.

[BKA]

My Q9300 OEM came in today, got it installed and BIOS 1.0 recognized it fine. Temperature reading is not okay at the moment though, this could be due to the programs (CPUIDHW, Realtemp) not reading correctly or me not screwing down my heatsink tight enough. I will reseat it this evening and see if there is any difference.

https://home.comcast.net/~adamsbr2/myfilelocker/9300.jpg

It's weird because after running 3DMark I rebooted to check what the BIOS CPU temp was and it was in the high 30's. So I have a feeling I seated the heatsink correctly. Problem is I want somewhat accurate temps before I increase Vcore for overclocking. So for now I plan to see how far I can get on default Vcore with the first increment set in BIOS and probably 1.3 NB. Any suggestions on where to start with the CPU GTL and FSB Term?

[theYipster]

I wouldn't worry too much BKA. The first E8400 users experienced the same issues regarding temp readouts. I'm not sure if their issue was with the chips themselves, but my guess is that it's was due to monitoring software not correctly supporting the chip. I suppose it's the same issue with the Quads, and that it'll be resolved in future software updates.

[BKA]

Thanks Yipster, any suggestion on the GTL or FSB TRM to get started or should I just play around with the setting? I read your earlier comments on the Q6600 settings for these values. Maybe I'll start around there somewhere.

I was just looking at the detail for that 3DMark score and the CPU is recognized as a 4 Core, Intel Pentium III. LOL

[theYipster]

Bka,

Expect the Yorkfields to stabilize under different voltage needs. You might want to try 1.425 for the NB and 25 for FSB Term. I've found those to be stable throughout different vCore and GTL ref combos. As for actual vCore and GTL Ref needs, you're pretty much trailblazing here.

Btw, what's your chip's VID in Core Temp?

[theYipster]

Hi everyone,

Quick interjection here: As I've noted, it's very important to know your chip's VID when overclocking on this board due to the way vCore is set in the BIOS. The easiest and most popular way to get this information is from Core Temp, which until now was quite a pain to get working in Vista x64.

A new version (0.97) has just been released and it support Vista x64 natively. No more 3rd party batch script enablers or running the program in disabled-driver-signing mode.

Download here: http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

[BKA]

Bka,
Btw, what's your chip's VID in Core Temp?

I'll have to check when I get home from work. I do have the new version but haven't really been using as CPUIDHM was giving the same temps plus my GPU temps but I'll check when I get home and report back. Thanks for the suggestions!

EDIT: I do know the BIOS was reporting 1.20,1.28,1.36 in BIOS setting, fluctuating between the three.

[loonym]

Please correct me if I'm wrong because my knowledge and understanding of this is somewhat limited. Isn't VID a non-changing value, programmed into each individual cpu that tells my bios what the 'stock' voltage is for my processor?

[theYipster]

Loonym,

You are correct.

[BKA]

Bka,
Btw, what's your chip's VID in Core Temp?

CoreTemp reports 1.0375 as the VID, CPU-Z report curent Vcore at 1.128-1.136, CPUID as 1.13-114.

CoreTemp and CPU-Z also report it as a C1 revision not M1 like TigerDirect listed for the CPU description.

[theYipster]

I've never heard of an M1 stepping. I believe C1 is correct. Do you have your chip overclocked or do you have speed step (Intel EIST) enabled? At stock settings, cpu-z should be reporting vCore below your VID. Note that Speedstep / EIST can cause an incorrect VID reading (reporting a VID that's too low.) If you suspect this is the case, turn off Speedstep and read the VID again. Unfortunately, I don't have a comparative basis at the moment as I haven't read up on Q9300 chips.

[BKA]

I've never heard of an M1 stepping. I believe C1 is correct. Do you have your chip overclocked or do you have speed step (Intel EIST) enabled? At stock settings, cpu-z should be reporting vCore below your VID. Note that Speedstep / EIST can cause an incorrect VID reading (reporting a VID that's too low.) If you suspect this is the case, turn off Speedstep and read the VID again. Unfortunately, I don't have a comparative basis at the moment as I haven't read up on Q9300 chips.

No, I disable Speedstep/EIST from jump. MSI does report a M1 stepping on the supported CPU's for this board, although both C1 and M1 are listed as "Under Testing". Only the C0 is listed as supported by BIOS 1.0.

Another thing I noticed, although the BIOS has it listed as 7.5 for the ratio, the highest that can be adjusted is 7.

EDIT: Intel only has the M1 listed in their Core2 Quad processor list. Hmm.

[loonym]

I really never thought it was significant enough to mention but I doubt the boards 'true' support for the .45 line. i.e. the ability of bios to set the initial voltage of the cpu correctly at boot.

[BKA]

Okay, so I have screwed up somehow. So I tried a simple overclock with no luck getting into Windows. So I decided to try the beta BIOS 1.1B4 but noticed that if I disabled EIST it drops the adjusted CPU Ratio down to (7x333) for 2.33 core clock with all auto settings. And the option for "Adjust CPU Ratio" only has 7 or 6. No matter what other setting I use the only way to get back to a 7.5 ratio is to enable EIST. I know this wasn't the case with the 1.0 bios because I double-checked it after you mentioned it.

So then I tried P05 with the same results if I disable EIST, no 7.5 ratio only 7 or 6. So I figured I'll just flash back to 1.0 and leave it at default for now until MSI gets another BIOS out there. But now its happening with 1.0 also. No 7.5 ratio unless EIST is enable and of course that removes the Adjust CPU Ratio option altogether. Not really a problem in Vista because I always have my power managment set to High Performance and Processor Power Management set to 100% in minimal and maximum, so it runs at (7.5x333) all the time but now the the auto vcore is at 1.200-1.208 instead of the 1.128-1.136 it was earlier.

So I figure I will test out by putting the E8400 back disabling EIST, do a few reboots and then replace the Q9300 to see what happens.

Also with EIST enabled now Coretemp shows a VID of 1.1125V which lets me know I'm not going crazy because I know it was disabled at first when I reported the 1.0375 as the VID.

So if swapping CPU brings back the option to disable EIST while keeping a 7.5 ratio, I will probably flash the 1.14B again and see what I can come up with at the 7 ratio just for kicks tonight.

[theYipster]

It could very well be that MSI does not yet have a BIOS capable of handling the half-multipliers found on the Q9300, Q9550, and E8500 chips. If they don't, I am sure they are working on one, as the P7N Diamond is indeed advertised as 45nm ready.

You should e-mail MSI tech support about this issue, and you may want to start a thread on the MSI forums as well. The issues with EIST may also be a factor of missing / incomplete BIOS support.

In the mean time, I would suggest leaving everything at "Optimized Defaults." When MSI releases an update that addresses the half multiplier issue, you should then revisit your OC efforts.

[BKA]

It could very well be that MSI does not yet have a BIOS capable of handling the half-multipliers found on the Q9300, Q9550, and E8500 chips. If they don't, I am sure they are working on one, as the P7N Diamond is indeed advertised as 45nm ready.

You should e-mail MSI tech support about this issue, and you may want to start a thread on the MSI forums as well. The issues with EIST may also be a factor of missing / incomplete BIOS support.

In the mean time, I would suggest leaving everything at "Optimized Defaults." When MSI releases an update that addresses the half multiplier issue, you should then revisit your OC efforts.

Good idea, will do. In the process of putting the 8400 in now and if that gets me back to EIST disbaled with the 7.5 I'll leave on defaults for now.

[loonym]

Yes, it's always a good idea to make the people at MSI tech support aware of every issue. They are probably sick of me by now even though they are always friendly and polite. I have an ongoing dialogue with them and they have asked me to help them test a few things as well. They are the ones that are going to write the bios that will make us all very happy ;)

[BKA]

Well, with my E8400, I get choices of 6, 7, 7.5, 8. 8.5 and 9 under Adjust CPU Ratio, so go figure. I'll make sure to included all this in the email.

[loonym]

You doing a cmos clear with mobo power discharged when you make these cpu swaps?

[BKA]

You doing a cmos clear with mobo power discharged when you make these cpu swaps?

Yup, because I have my normal settings saved (RAID and stuff I disable) in the user setting. So I only have to adjust the Cell Menu after loading those.

EDIT: So after putting the Q9300 back in, sure enough EIST disabled and its auto set at 7.5, but still only 6 and 7 ratios were available. Leaving well enough alone for now. Going get some gaming in before I retire for the night. Thanks again for the suggestions Yipster.

[memory]

I think the VID under core temp for different mobo also plays an role in determine the voltage

Under Core Temp 0.97. My E8400 is 1.0XXvolt for MSI P7N Diamond but it is 1.1XXvolt for my Asus Maximus Formula.

It might due to the different manufacturer has different calibration on the vcore even the cpu is the same...

So, I will use the monitoring software as a guide and reference only. Using multimeter is still the best way for reading more accurate voltage

[theYipster]

Memory,

I have never encountered a chip whose VID differs based on the motherboard, but you may be right. I've never used the same chip in an nVidia board and an Intel board. If you have a multimeter, that is of course the way to go.

[BKA]

Well, I emailed MSI and they told me to Scram, Beat it, you idiot, its still under testing, didn't you read the CPU support list for this motherboard!!!!!

Just kidding but they did say that I would have to wait for the next BIOS release because they are still testing this revision.

[theYipster]

Well, at least now you have something to look forward to :) Ah, the joys of being first with new technology.

[andrew2004gto]

Hey has anyone found a pencil mod for the vdrop cuz im droping about a 0.05 and its cause me to have high volts to keep stable

[loonym]

I really think they must be very close to releasing a new official bios to address whatever issues are currently present and to support the new wave of cpus from intel.

[BKA]

I really think they must be very close to releasing a new official bios to address whatever issues are currently present and to support the new wave of cpus from intel.

Do tell, do tell. Any insight there loonym?

[loonym]

I guess just really call it a hunch. I've received a couple e-mails from MSI support taiwan asking me to load certain bios' and test specific thing like boot priority, eist functionality, seemingly silly stuff, but it feels good to know they aren't forgetting us and I'm sure I'm not the only guinae pig they are approaching in this way.

[BKA]

That's cool. Hopefully by this weekend so I can play around with it. I sold my E8400 so the Q9300 will be staying in for now. Although I have a Celeron E1200 that I can use if needed.

[gamin]

hi guys. first post here after reading from you for weeks. I just built my system and wanted to know if one of you could tell me which are the best settings I should use in the bios (see my sig for specs). for now, I'm using the load default settings except for the RAM which I had to put manually at recommanded timings and voltage by crucial. I don't want to overclock anything right now, I still have to learn a lot about it before trying. all that I want is to be sure I'm using the right and faster settings available. also shall I upgrade to 1.1b04 or perf 05 bios if I don't plan to overclock now ?

thanks in advance for your help ;)

[loonym]

gamin, If your not overclocking and everything is stable and working to your satisfaction I feel you should be happy. Very nice rig too :up:

[Lutefisk]

Hello All,

Your thread helped convince me to migrate from an MSI Neo2 FR to the P7N Diamond. Overall, I would say I'm quite pleased with the beefier board.

I have, however, a nagging graphics problem: 3dmark06 skips a few frames every couple of seconds... just a little hop. My score has also lowered from about 13000 to just above 10000. All my hardware is the same aside from the new board and 3dMark06 was silky smooth with the Neo2. I've tried two drivers, 169.02 and 169.25. Also ran a diagnostic through rivatuner and everything seems okay.... getting a x16 PCI bus. I've even played around with the "PCI Latency Timer" under the advanced BIOS features to no avail. In fact 3dmark06 wouldn't load under the highest setting, 128.

I'm still running the shipping bios on the motherboard- v1.0. Is there a bios update that addresses graphical hiccups like this?

From reading this forum, it seems you guys know more about what's happening on the ground than the tech guys a MSI. Any clues about how I can proceed?

Thanks much for your reply. This is an extension of my first build and I'm still learning every day.

[gamin]

gamin, If your not overclocking and everything is stable and working to your satisfaction I feel you should be happy.

thanks for your reply loonym. so I'll stay that way for now. btw, do you have any advice in a good article/place explaining overclocking ? I mean I'm totally newbie in this, and I really need to learn from the beginning before trying.


Very nice rig too :up:

thanks for that ;)

[loonym]

thanks for your reply loonym. so I'll stay that way for now. btw, do you have any advice in a good article/place explaining overclocking ? I mean I'm totally newbie in this, and I really need to learn from the beginning before trying.



thanks for that ;)So far this thread is about the best advice I've seen. Some very good testing being done by these guys.

[gamin]

yes, I know, but I have to admit I don't understand everything (told you, a real newbie in overclocking :confused: ). what I need is a step by step tutorial or something like that, where I can learn each step before trying to reach the max of my cpu... if only MSI would have documented the manual more completely...

EDIT: I took some time to read and understand theYipster's update#1 on opening message, and I guess I've understood a little now... :yepp: gonna give a try and post my results (if I don't burn or break everything of course... I'd be happy if I can reach and have a stable CPU at 3.6/3.8Ghz for now). don't expect results 'til next weekend, I unfortunately have a lot to do at my job this week :(

[theYipster]

Ahoy hoy,

It's been several weeks since I've updated the first post, but I'll be putting up new information today (along with guidelines to OC the E8400.) For an early BIOS, 1.1B4 and P05 have shown to be quite good at supporting demanding OCs, but clearly they still have lingering issues (particularly with 45nm chips.) I concur with Loonym that an update is forthcoming. Keep in mind, however, that the reference boards have been on BIOS P03 for some time now, and that the non-reference boards often get BIOS development cues from the reference ones. After the 790i hoopla settles down (and hopefully it will quickly...) expect to see this and other 780i boards continue their march towards BOIS maturity.

As for my own endeavors, I'm sitting pretty at the moment at 3.6ghz. The P7N has gone into my main rig, which I recently reformatted with Vista SP1. The limited time I've had with my rig these past couple weeks has gone into getting my software, mp3, games, etc. back up and running, so I've paid little attention to my OC efforts. I'm looking forward to picking them up again once we see new a BIOS from MSI.

Andrew2004gto,

I'd love to have a pencil mod, but I don't think I'm going to be the one to find it. If anyone is up for the task, many of us would be eternally grateful! :D

Lutefisk,

That's a very interesting problem and it’s the first I've heard of it. I'm running two GTXs and I haven't experienced any frame hiccups or a loss of 3DMark score. (Hit around 18300 in XP, which is up about 500 points from my 680i.) Try updating to the latest BIOS, 1.1B4, and see if that resolves it. Two questions: Are you running SLI, and which slot is your graphics card in?

Ash,

From what I've seen the board is pretty easy going with memory, although I do recall people having issues with certain Corsair models on the MSI forum. Here are a few points to consider, and a few questions for you to answer. Please reply with your findings so that we hopefully help you further.

Point 1: MSI colors their DIMM slots differently than other manufactures, and in a way that many would classify as incorrect. In order for RAM to work in dual channel mode, the DIMMS can’t be set in adjacent slots. If you are running with two DIMMS, the best slots to use is the one furthest away from the processor and the one that is second closest to the processor. If installed correctly, one DIMM will be in a green slot and the other in an orange slot, with one and only one slot in between them empty. This can trip up many builders, as every other Core 2 board on the planet (except those from MSI) colors DIMMS by channel and not by physical pair.

Point 2: If you have four DIMMS installed, they should each be running at dual channel speeds. However, if each DIMM is a 2 gig stick, for a total of 8 gigs installed on the board, you might need to bump up the North Bridge voltage to achieve stability. 8 gigs is possible, but as on any desktop motherboard, it can be taxing on the NB. As such, you may need to manually adjust voltages before your system can successfully boot and remain stable.

Point 3: Standard PC-6400 DDR2 RAM is designed to run at 1.85v. Performance RAM, which can either be PC-6400 RAM with tighter timings, or RAM designed to run faster than PC-6400 / 800mhz, may require a higher default voltage in order to boot and maintain stability. Be sure to set your RAM voltage manually to your manufacturer's spec.

Question 1: What RAM vendors & models have you tried, and what DIMM positions have you tried?

Question 2: What are your BIOS settings for RAM? Please list voltages and timings.

Question 3: What tool are you using to determine whether or not your RAM is running in dual channel mode? If possible, please post a screenshot of the information and/or benchmark.

It may be that your board is defective, but before you look towards an RMA, it's important that you verify the basics. Please post your responses to these questions, and we can go from there. Also note that there is no such thing as DDR2 RAM running in quad channel. With four sticks installed or with two sticks installed in the correct positions, your RAM should be running at dual channel speeds. With an odd number of sticks installed, RAM will be forced to run single channel. This is a design limitation of DDR RAM.

Gamin,

Welcome to the community. I've found the P7N to be a very good overclocker, but unfortunately it's not as easy to manage as some other boards. This is due in part to the particularly cryptic voltage settings in MSI's BIOS, which we (and MSI's forum moderators) are still trying to figure out completely. In the mean time, our successes have come largely from trial and error, and while some find mastering a difficult BIOS to be a fun challenge (ask anyone with a DFI LanParty,) it can indeed turns others away. My only advice is to stay with it and to stay with us, and I'm sure you'll find success (barring any BIOS incompatibilities or hardware defects.) My own opinion is that a tricky BIOS is a small price to pay for a board that avoids the myriad issues found with the 680i and 780i reference models. I've been burnt by them twice, and I'm very wary of going back now.

The other impedance to a strait and easy OC with this board is that the enthusiast community of P7N owners is quite small (but growing,) especially compared to the reference boards, which seem to particularly attract people who are looking for high end hardware but aren't necessarily old hats at PC tweaking and tuning. As such, there is a wealth of information on hitting that easy OC with the reference boards (P0wner's guide is probably the best at the moment,) but little outside this thread for ours. You should indeed read P0wner's guide, as well as some other general Core 2 Overclocking guides. These won't apply directly to managing the P7N BIOS, but they do cover the basics very well and you can bring over much of the information they provide. Of course, as more and more people choose this board, I hope that we build a community (and information library) to match those of other nForce models. That's my goal with this thread.

To start you off, here are a few basic guidelines. I'm not going cover everything a proper guide will, but hopefully this can get you oriented. This may be a bit too general for your needs, but I thought I’d post it here just in case it helps you or others new to OCing.

1. As any guide will tell you early on, the "art" of overclocking is to run a component out of spec--particularly faster than its rated stock performance. Due to the way chips are manufactured, overclocking has been a cherished hobby of many for some time. Yet due to fantastic architectural and yield properties, the Core 2 has heralded in a golden age of OCing. 50-75&#37; OCs can be had easily with good air and water, and insane 100-200%+ OCs have been achieved by some of the famous LN2 masters here at XS. The trick is to find the right motherboard that will support your OC ventures. The "experiment" with the P7N is to find a Core 2 SLI board that a) OCs well and b) is reliable and lasts. So far, the P7N is proving itself up to the task, but at the expense of a tricky and still (quite arguably) immature BIOS.

2. There are two ways to OC a Core 2 chip, but unless your chip retails for $1000+, you'll only have one. On Extreme chips, the user can adjust the processor's multiplier (more on that in point 3) for an easy one setting OC, barring any necessary voltage adjustments. For everyone else, the processor must be overclocked by making adjustments to FSB speed. These adjustments will also affect the speed at which your RAM runs, unless you set RAM to manual control and keep it at a constant setting. Since your sig' suggests you have an E8400, it's on to point 3.

3. Base FSB speed and the relationship between processor, FSB, and RAM: This is the key to overclocking non-Extreme Core 2 setups. The operational speeds of your processor, FSB, and RAM are all based off this base FSB speed--each by a different multiplier. (Note that while you can also overclock your PCI-E bus and graphic cards, these are handled independently.)

** Your E8400 ships with a default multiplier of 9.5, and its stock speed of 3.16ghz is obtained by multiplying 9.5 by it's target / stock base FSB speed of 333mhz. (Note that older 65nm chips have a base FSB speed of 266mhz, while some lower end Allendale and Pentium E chips have a stock base FSB speed of 200mhz.)

** Your rated FSB speed, like all Core 2 FSBs, is quad pumped. Hence, the FSB speeds you see advertised on the box (and the speed you set in the BIOS for FSB) is 4x the base FSB. As such, a 333mhz base FSB is 1333mhz rated / quad pumped. This is the default supported FSB speed of the P7N.

** Your rated RAM speed is 2x the base FSB speed when set to a 1:1 divider, such that RAM running 1:1 with a base FSB of 333mhz runs at 667mhz. Note that on an nForce system, you can set your RAM independently of your FSB, and even on Intel chipsets, you can change this divider. However, most recommend using this 1:1 divider when overclocking for two reasons. First, running 1:1 will have your RAM run only as fast as it needs to in order to maintain performance, and not more. Some point out that running RAM faster than FSB results in no noticeable performance gain on a Core 2 system, but whether this is true also depends on the chipset and motherboard used. Second, on nForce chipsets particularly, many find that they can best maximize their RAM's bandwidth and latency when running 1:1 with the FSB. This is why you'll see so many guides stress the importance of running RAM 1:1 when overclocking a 680i or 780i board.

4. To overclock, you simply raise the base FSB speed. This will in turn raise your processor's speed (and your RAM's speed if you're keeping a 1:1 relationship, but as of now you'll have to maintain this relationship manually in the BIOS, as explained in the front post.) The best way to overclock is to raise base FSB speed in small increments (like 20mhz.) Then reboot, test for stability, and repeat until you've hit a stability wall. Note that since the P7N BIOS accepts a quad-pumped FSB setting, you will want to times your increments by 4, so if you are raising your base FSB is 20mhz steps, you'll want to adjust the FSB setting in the BIOS by 80mhz.

5. Stability: Sooner or later you will find that you have OC'd past a stable setting. Assuming you haven't reached your OC limits (outlined in final point 6,) you can then go back to the BIOS and raise your processor's voltage to raise the stability ceiling. Raise vCore by one or two increments until your stable, then you can go back and raise FSB some more, repeating the process until you've reach one of the two OC limits described next. Note that after a certain threshold, you'll have to consider the voltages of other motherboard components (such as vNB or the GTL reference voltages) to maintain stability. This is where OCing on the P7N gets tricky due to the cryptic BIOS, but you likely won’t have to worry much about these settings until you’re past a 25-40% OC. When you’re at a point where secondary voltages are preventing stability, come back and review what settings others have used to get their chips stable.

6. Limits: The biggest limiting factor to your overclock is heat. Raising your CPU's operating frequency increases its operating temperature, and raising the voltage will increase its temperature doubly-so. As such, it's important to have good cooling when overclocking, and it’s important to run stress and stability tests to ensure that a) your processor is stable and b) that it doesn't get too hot. On a Wolfdale, you should look to keep core temps below 75c, although temp monitors aren't known to be accurate with Wolfdale CPUs yet. The second limit you need to consider, especially with your Wolfdale, is a maximum safe voltage. Previous generation Conroe and Kentsfield CPUs can withstand a lot more voltage than a Wolfdale or Yorkfield, and you will have to keep this in mind. Wolfdales run cool, and if you are shooting for a big OC, you will likely find that you can raise voltages past a safe level before temperatures rise past theirs. Early on, the consensus for a safe 24/7 Wolfdale / Yorkfield voltage limit was 1.45v, but now some are suggesting less. If you can achieve 4ghz-4.5ghz below or at around 1.4v, you'll be in good shape.

Note that while I've covered some of the basics of Core 2 overclocking, I haven't discussed some of the necessary prerequisites, like turning off Speedstep or the like, nor any of the pitfalls, such as the famous nForce FSB hole. You can get this information easily from any Core 2 OC guide. I also haven't touched upon what software you'll want to use to stress test and monitor temps, but that information can be found in many corners around here. Hopefully though, this will get you on your way :)

Good luck and keep us posted on your results.

[gamin]

GEEEEZ !!! :shocked: that's what I call an Answer !!! (notice Answer, with A capitalized). I'm gonna be busy for the next 2 weeks with all the info you gave me, I thank you for that :) I'm gonna take time to understand everything before trying (already said : newbie here). this is not my first attempt in building my own computer (17th to be exact), but this is the first time I took so many time for choosing and buying my components, and this is also the first time I build such a tricky system. P7N diamond is my choice, definately what I wanted and needed, so there's no way that I return it and buy another one. to tell you the truth, this my first non Asus mobo. I was a little scared after reading all the posts at MSI forum with people getting problem from this component or this other one etc... all I can say : study everything, read a lot and choose the right components. I wanna keep this computer for the next 3 years, so it deserve right stuff, and no cheap components. my computer booted perfectly the first time and I didn't get any issues for now (running XP32 SP2). I'm gonna give a try to XP64 and vista, but I'm not in a hurry. I first have to learn "the beast" completely.

things I didn't say about my computer is the cooling system. I'm using a Lancool K7 tower (alu), and I replaced the fans with 3 Noctua NF-S12 1200 (yes, I want it silent). for the CPU, I choosed the NH-U12P. all I can say is this is definately silent, and performing good cooling. I'll post pictures if I can. so, about your advice on a good cooling system, I think it's all right.

the only thing I don't get for now is which bios am I supposed to use ? stay with 1.0, P05 or 1.14 beta ? I guess 1.0 if I don't overclock, but which one if I wanna try ?

many many thanks for your post and for all your explanations. I'll try to learn, and I promise to post my result in here. :up:

[theYipster]

No problem, and best of luck with your efforts :) As for the BIOS, it's always best to see how far you can go with what you have before upgrading. If you choose to upgrade, you might consider trying both P05 and 1.1B4, although most have found 1.1B4 to provide for best results.

Btw, while this is not an OS thread and I by no means want to start a discussion on this topic, you will no doubt find Vista x64 to be a better option than XP-64 for a home / gaming rig. I would suggest forgoing XP-64 all together. Vista x64 has better application and driver support, largely in part because it shares a code-base with Vista 32. (XP-64 is built on Server 2003 and is an entirely different beast compared to XP-32. Support and compatibility is far below XP-32 levels or Vista for that matter.) For instance, if you use iTunes or own an iPod or iPhone, you will find native 64-bit application and driver support for Vista x64, and no support for XP-64.

[gamin]

are you reading in me or what ??? :p: yes, I'm using iTunes for my iPod... so, event if it's not what we are here to talk about, I'll follow your opinion and skip XP64 for Vista64. thanks again ;)

[theYipster]

Hi all,

I updated the first post with new information, including E8400 settings, tips on NB cooling and software to use, as well as a blurb on two-card SLI.

[theYipster]

Ash,

For RAM and NB, the BIOS allows you to set an actual voltage. Only with vCore do you set an increased amount. Your RAM should be set to factory specs and NB can be left on auto unless you are overclocking or if using eight gigs causes the system to be unstable.

I haven't heard of anyone else having this issue with dual channel mode, and if this is your second board and it does the same thing with all four sets of RAM, then my guess is that the BIOS may not be reporting your RAM settings correctly and that you are indeed running your RAM in dual channel mode.

Install two DIMMS in the position I detailed in my previous post, so that you are running with four gigs. In the BIOS, load optimal defaults and verify that your RAM is set to run at 800mhz. Then in Windows, download Everest (see first post for link) and run the Cache and Latency benchmark. Post a screenshot of the results. This will tell you whether or not you're really running in dual channel.

[loonym]

I'm sorry I can't test this but I think 8gb mem is going to require timings somewhat more relaxed than manufacturer ratings.

[theYipster]

{cp [n][y][n][y] is correct. Try four gigs first at stock settings (set RAM to 2.2v as required) and you won't need to up the NB voltage. Later, once you've verified dual channel mode is working via Everest, you can try 8. Unfortunately I don't know what settings you'll need to get it to work. It might work perfectly w/o adjusting voltages, or as Loonym suggested, you may need to reduce timings in addition to bumping up the NB. For starters though, lets just verify that dual channel mode is working with the 2 DIMMs.

[pacific vortex]

got an issue with the p05 bios...it crashes my vid drivers...tried all nvidia drivers and even the 169.25 dont work...any ideas???in the mean time im gonna remove my sata drivers:hitself:

[xraymtb]

Hi

Been reading this thread since I got my new P7N and it helped me to get a fairly easy overclock of my Q6600 to 3.6GHz using the suggested settings in post 1. It also seems to need less voltage to the core than the same chip did on an Intel X38 board.

My only issue is the statement that using the second card for SLI in the white slot works ok with no performance loss. I tried this to reduce temps on my main card (which was a success) however I noticed a drop in my 3dMark06 score from 17600 to 13400 and a drop in my Crysis benchmark from 33.5fps to 24fps (1900x1200, High, no AA or AF).

Just worth noting that not every board seems able to run SLI on different slots without losing performance.

[theYipster]

Xraymtb,

It is very strange that you experienced a performance loss when using the white slot for the second card. What bridge cable are you using between the two cards and have you made any changes to the BIOS regarding the PCI-E bus?

[loonym]

That's interesting xraymtb. I haven't tested the difference but I am running my second card in the white slot. I'll try a couple things and post back, thanks for the post.

edit: Could pci-e 2.0 really make that much diff? My cards won't use that but I have some 9600gt coming today.

[phardfr]

Hi All,

First, Thank you to x-built-Stan & theYipster for informations about o/c with the P7N diamoand. :up:

I've got the same problem like pacific vortex with the P05 bios. (BSOD with Vista 32 bits, when loading the video driver and the same with linux when loading proprietary drivers from nvidia) I'm using the 1B4 bios for now. :confused:

I could push my Q6600 to 3,5 Ghz, but it's not 100 % stable. (3dmarks06 ok -17348 with 2 GTS 8800-512 SLI, but occt freezes - 2 minutes after the beginning of test, prime95 freezes too after 15 minutes)

My VID is 1.225 (coretemp used) I've tried much much combinations to go to 3.6 Ghz without success. I've never exceeded 75° C in full load @ 3,5 Ghz. I think it will be better to use 450 Mhz FSB with a multiplier of 8, but can't do that with actual bios.

RAM: 800 Mhz (my Rig wont start with ram@1066 Mhz) Timings to AUTO.
Vcore: 1,4 (with from 0,4 to 0,6 vdroop when full load)
Vdimm: 2,10 V
Nb: 1,425
Sb: auto
CPU GTL REF: 65
FSB Term: 25
All AUTO

Any ideas to help me please ? (Sorry for my poor English):shrug: