Ch5 under the microscope

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05-31-2011, 10:29 AM
chew*

Ch5 under the microscope

First a full shot of the board.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/Ch5/IMG_3764.JPG

A while back ASUS asked me for motherboard input for future bulldozer boards. When a company asks for input you have to pick your battles wisely as they are more inclined to make sensible changes than drastic changes.

Knowing the power demands thuban had over deneb and the variance between wattage and amperage draw from deneb to thuban the first thing that I felt needed adressing knowing we would be seeing 2 cores added again is more input power.

Asus delivered in this respect, however the location of the of the extra 4 pin might have not been the best choice.

CH4
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/Ch5/IMG_3756.JPG

CH5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/Ch5/IMG_3757.JPG

Why not the best location? Here's a shot of a 790 board in a worst case scenario benched for an obscene amount of hours non stop. As you see that general area is ICE/WATER.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_0043.JPG

Moving along the next thing that was logical to ask for was practical and effective heatsinks.

CH4 with all the bling removed to show the actual PWM sink.
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/Ch5/IMG_3755.JPG

CH5, I think ASUS managed to nail this one.
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/Ch5/IMG_3754.JPG

The discussion of lucid was also brought to the table It's pros and cons ( of which there are many on lucids end ) in the end ASUS pushed for sli licensing at which point opened the door for 4way sli with expander supporting bios's.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3758.JPG

Unfortunately.....when mounted this poses a problem.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/Ch5/IMG_3759.JPG

Luckily, with ROG connect switched on and the provided USB cable you can power on the board remotely and reset, shutdown remotely.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/Ch5/IMG_3760.JPG

ROG connect has been removed from it's solitary sideway mounting to a normal USB port and is designated as white still.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/Ch5/IMG_3761.JPG

Last but not least due to the severe temperatures needed to get the most out of AMD cpu's care must be taken in component and chip placement.

I found this crystal to be sometimes problematic if the board was to cold on CH4.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/Ch5/IMG_3752.JPG

ASUS has taken care to relocate it further away on CH5.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/Ch5/IMG_3753.JPG

More to come. This is just my initial musing and thoughts on the board for now from a xtreme cold benchers POV.

Other than the heatsink which I personally think is an improvement visually and practically none of the above mentioned should apply or concern the 24/7 crowd.

Pulled the heatsinks since CH4 was plagued by bad contact at launch. It seems Asus nailed this on the head as well and other than some users having a preference of which paste they use I find no need for users to remove sinks.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/Ch5/IMG_3765.jpg

For those curious, pwm components have not changed, if it's not broken don't fix it is always a good approach.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3766.jpg
05-31-2011, 10:39 AM
SrJabardo

AMAZING REVIEW M8!!!!

Loved the sarcasm sometimes, but, unfortunatly it is needed!
05-31-2011, 10:40 AM
Vivi

i like it ! reviewing it with super subzero in mind. The way all reviews on XS should be done :).

Keen to see some sick dozer action from you
05-31-2011, 10:46 AM
runmc

Well your off to a great start. If anyone can overclock AMD it's you. I can't wait to see the real facts. :up:

Now all you need is a CPU.
06-01-2011, 09:26 AM
FlanK3r

good point of view, Im looking for continued
06-01-2011, 05:07 PM
theoldtimer

Have you been able to get any LN to test it cold chew*? Just wondering if there is any benefit moving to this one over my CH4E or wait till BD then spring for one of these or the extreme version of the board?

Interesting overclockers view of the board BTW.:up:
06-01-2011, 05:12 PM
chew*

Quote:

Originally Posted by theoldtimer

Have you been able to get any LN to test it cold chew*? Just wondering if there is any benefit moving to this one over my CH4E or wait till BD then spring for one of these or the extreme version of the board?

Interesting overclockers view of the board BTW.:up:

Well theres potential for a guranteed AMD 3dvantage High score with an expander.

I guess 03 and heaven is a possibility to.

I'm putting the board through the ropes on a stock cooler in prime blend at stock with high ram clocks on every set I have now to see if it can break any previously known barriers....

Once I get through all this ram I will move onto some other stuff.
06-01-2011, 07:36 PM
ZenEffect

keep pushing it! great review, im anxious to see more :)
06-01-2011, 07:56 PM
Hondacity

is that a 4pin eps connector on top right near the controller?

i've never seen that driver-mos setup...

no proadizer cap at the bottom of board?
06-01-2011, 08:49 PM
chew*

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hondacity

is that a 4pin eps connector on top right near the controller?

i've never seen that driver-mos setup...

no proadizer cap at the bottom of board?

It's CPU power yes.

You have been using to many intel boards :p:.

ASUS has been using this driver mos setup for a while for AMD.

Me personally I don't think that proadlizer cap was doing much but taking up space and getting frozen.

2 nodes back M4a79T, this is the ddr III board....the ddr II board was the same.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/Ch5/IMG_3767.jpg
06-02-2011, 02:43 AM
Dark Mantis

Thanks for the overview, very interesting.:clap:
06-02-2011, 03:39 AM
SoF

you are only looking on the "sweet spots" for the overclockers...

...I like it very much, nice one! :clap: I can take much information out of this special view for me, so it is very appreciated :up:
06-02-2011, 04:08 AM
bulanula

Can you please ask them if there will be a Crosshair V Extreme motherboard in the works ??? If not then I will buy from a competitor right now etc. but I prefer to wait for Asus ROG boards.

Thanks !
06-02-2011, 08:21 AM
chew*

Quote:

Originally Posted by bulanula

Can you please ask them if there will be a Crosshair V Extreme motherboard in the works ??? If not then I will buy from a competitor right now etc. but I prefer to wait for Asus ROG boards.

Thanks !

I think without even asking ASUS this question it can be answered. Does the market need one and is there a market for one at this point in time.

I would say the answer is no at this point in time. I would also say the out come of retail bulldozer glass will be the deciding factor here.
06-02-2011, 08:37 AM
Dolk

I want to see this board coverd in Ice already :D
06-02-2011, 09:03 AM
chew*

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dolk

I want to see this board coverd in Ice already :D

Before it gets covered in ICE it goes.............
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/Ch5/under%20the%20ice.jpg

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3769.jpg
06-02-2011, 09:15 AM
tom1

Finally CH5 in details :)
06-02-2011, 10:13 AM
chew*

So like i said doing some ram testing.

I haven't put alot of time in but so far no sets have been able to breach 2100 ram in prime 95 blend win 7 64.....

One set in particular is failing drastically which oddly enough is probably the best set.....

GTX3 on a mainstream M4A89PRO just tested a few weeks ago.........

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...1&d=1302121269

GTX3 slacked all the way off on CH5 and still almost an instant failure. I will look into this more with ASUS.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/Ch5/gtx3.jpg

Here's 3 other common sets of ram.

8 gig sandy kit 9-11-9 2133

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/Ch5/2000%20gskill.jpg

4 gig sandy kit 8-9-8 2133 ( ignore SPD, it's wrong )

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/Ch5/2000%20gskill%202.jpg

4 gig Gskill Flare

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/Ch5/2000%20gskill%203.jpg
06-02-2011, 10:48 AM
Praz

Chew, is 0128 the latest BIOS you have? There have been several more since that one.
06-02-2011, 11:14 AM
chew*

Quote:

Originally Posted by Praz

Chew, is 0128 the latest BIOS you have? There have been several more since that one.

I have access to all bios's. No need to change yet, the GTX3 issue is due to the subs the board is defaulting to by auto, just verifying it.
06-02-2011, 01:48 PM
Leeghoofd

nice and interesting testing Brian !! as always job well done...
06-02-2011, 02:12 PM
Raja@ASUS

I think it all comes down to how you setup the BIOS to be honest ;)

Hot running chip:

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/4018/prime95pass.jpg
06-02-2011, 02:40 PM
chew*

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raja@ASUS

I think it all comes down to how you setup the BIOS to be honest ;)

Hot running chip:

http://.jpg

Thank you thats all i needed to know.
06-02-2011, 02:45 PM
Raja@ASUS

Quote:

Originally Posted by chew*

Thank you thats all i needed to know.

Yeah, you just gotta figure out the BIOS. The board is primarily for BD but it does a darn good job with Thuban if you configure BIOS properly - also why I run Memtest first, just to give you a hint ;)

-Raja
06-02-2011, 02:52 PM
Praz

Nice Raja. Even with HT and NB in sync at almost 3000MHz. :up:

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