My Dual Harper - Asus Z7S WS living review *56K warning*

I've been having a lot of fun with the Z7S since this weekend. I started off the installation with 2 E5410s, but unfortunately these are not supported by the 0302 BIOS which was shipped with the board. Asus told me to get a supported CPU. I found the only place in town that sells xeon processors and picked up a E5405 so I could flash my BIOS to 0401... no dice. In both situations I was getting 3A from the diag. card when I tried to enter the BIOS, 60 when I did nothing during boot. Asus support tells me to RMA the board...

Fast forward to today... Since I asked them nicely to flash the 0401 BIOS before sending the new board out, I was hoping to have it on there already. I start off with one E5410 in CPU0... SAME ERROR CODES. I take it out and insert the E5405... SAME ERROR CODES.

What the **** is going on here... could I possibly have a graphics card that is screwing with this board? Video comes up fine, but always freezes at POST screen. I'm using certified memory and CPU. All I have plugged in are video, one stick of memory, CPU0, power, and keyboard. Can anyone provide some insight as to what I've done wrong? This is the first painful installation experience I've ever had.

Your 5405 could be an E0 stepping, check it.

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Originally Posted by STEvil

Your 5405 could be an E0 stepping, check it.

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Sorry for asking what is likely a newb question, but how do I figure this out?

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Originally Posted by jcool

I can get FBDimm for pretty reasonable prices :)
You can ask around here, most EU guys have bought something off me (yes, my job is building custom computers ;) ). Usually I buy Transcend or Buffalo with Mac style heatsinks, but I got something new: Compustocx 2GB 800Mhz FBDimms with flat heatspreaders, 45€ a piece (as many as you need) :up:

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Sounds great jcool:up: will just find out from the supplier if they only ordered the ones i ordered, or if they also got some extra for their own supply. Very desperate, have a machine for 1,300 EUR collecting dust for the last 3 weeks:mad: while waiting for the ram. If they didn't, then i will order some from you tonight. How long will it take to get to me, and how will you send it?

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Originally Posted by STEvil

Your 5405 could be an E0 stepping, check it.

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Originally Posted by komseh

Sorry for asking what is likely a newb question, but how do I figure this out?

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I have the same Q. Can't find much info on the web, only what the difference is between E0 and C0

Check the stepping. Should be a sequence of 4 letters of something along the lines of "QFUB" printed on both the IHS and the retail box.

Dump that in google and you can usually find out in a few minutes from poking at the intel processor identifier thing or somewhere. QFxx is a guaranteed E0 I think but i'm not 100% positive on that.

Just finished migrating my Windows install onto a RAID0 array (what a horrible job!!!) using 2 x GB OCZ Core V2 SSDs. Check out the screenshots comparing the speeds to a Raptor and 2 x Hitachi Deskstar 7,200RPM drives also in RAID0!

The real world increases are evident, applications pop open, Windows loads faster, everything is much more responsive. It's possible I'll get another two SSDs and an Adaptec 5405 or 5805 dedicated controller to boost the rates even further!

SSD RAID is the perfect combo for our V8 machines as it lets the CPU run wild without having to wait for last millennium's storage media...

2,571.9 :up:

Actually 0,5ms access time is rather bad for an SSD array - ICH9R isn't the best option here.. ok for 2 drives but for 4 drives, get a 5405 if you do a lot writes and care less about initialization time, if reads and fast bootup are all you're interested in go for the highpoint 3510.

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Originally Posted by jcool

Actually 0,5ms access time is rather bad for an SSD array - ICH9R isn't the best option here.. ok for 2 drives but for 4 drives, get a 5405 if you do a lot writes and care less about initialization time, if reads and fast bootup are all you're interested in go for the highpoint 3510.

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These are budget SSDs, but probably the best in the budget range from the research I did ;) My initial desire was to go for MTtron Pro 7500s but I couldn't justify the price - more than £2k for 4 x 32GB and a hardware RAID controller. Then I saw the Intel X series, but again the price was prohibitive. Having said that, 0.5 ms compared to 8.6 with the Raptor is a massive improvement and my Hitachi's are running 17's...Time to move all those tiny php files off the spinning array :)

The rated access time of the individual drives is 0.2-0.3 ms, so there's barely any real world latency for the array, even on the relatively rubbish (but free!) Intel controller.

My machine has a typical workstation IO pattern majority data read, minimal writes. I will look into the Highpoint - thanks for the tip! I was tempted by the idea of having a dual-core RAID on chip controller with the Adaptec...

angelshonnny: buy at www.shg.dk -> Produkter -> Hardware -> RAM -> DDR2 ECC Fully Buffered
I use varenr 2113838 with my Z7S WS and it works great
SHG should be able to get it for you well before Christmas.

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Originally Posted by STEvil

Your 5405 could be an E0 stepping, check it.

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Thanks for pointing this out... My Processer indeed uses E0 stepping, which is not on the list of supported CPUs for this board... I'll see what Asus has to say and probly rma again. I asked them to flash 0401 for a friggin reason.

Edit: Getting them to overnight me a BIOS chip with 0401 on it. God bless removable BIOS chips.

@STEvil: Does this also mean that my E5410 with E0 stepping will not work with 0401 since its not on the supported list?

Just picked up an Adaptec 2405 on eBay for less than half the going price - should tide me over for now...

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Originally Posted by komseh

Thanks for pointing this out... My Processer indeed uses E0 stepping, which is not on the list of supported CPUs for this board... I'll see what Asus has to say and probly rma again. I asked them to flash 0401 for a friggin reason.

Edit: Getting them to overnight me a BIOS chip with 0401 on it. God bless removable BIOS chips.

@STEvil: Does this also mean that my E5410 with E0 stepping will not work with 0401 since its not on the supported list?

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No, any E0 CPU works with bios 0401, whether it's on their list or not.

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Originally Posted by jcool

Actually 0,5ms access time is rather bad for an SSD array.

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I managed to get the seek times down to 0.2ms by tweaking the caches and by using SuperCache from www.superspeed.com to act as a kernel controller cache - multi-tasking speeds now are unbelievable! I used to use it with the Raptor and it cut the audible drive activity by around 60% so it's more than a gimmick. I've given it 1GB of RAM to use for increasing the array performance.

SSpec
Give me the info thats engraved onto the IHS and I'll tell you whether it's a G0 or C0.
Send by PM so I don't miss this.
Thanks

I found it via: http://processorfinder.intel.com/

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Originally Posted by komseh

Thanks for pointing this out... My Processer indeed uses E0 stepping, which is not on the list of supported CPUs for this board... I'll see what Asus has to say and probly rma again. I asked them to flash 0401 for a friggin reason.

Edit: Getting them to overnight me a BIOS chip with 0401 on it. God bless removable BIOS chips.

@STEvil: Does this also mean that my E5410 with E0 stepping will not work with 0401 since its not on the supported list?

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0401 or better is required for E0's. You can make 0302 work but you need a non E0 CPU to make it into the BIOS to configure the board for the E0's.


If you get a chance berate ASUS for not mentioning that E0 stepping CPU's (all models) are not supported pre-0401.

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Originally Posted by komseh

I found it via: http://processorfinder.intel.com/

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Hey komseh,
How did you get Asus to send you a chip? My E5420s are also E0 stepping and i simply have no possibility of getting a non-E0 cpu to flash the BIOS.
Wrote them yesterday and the answer i got was

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Unfortunately, we have no BIOS chips to sell or provide you with

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. They have a contact number here in Denmark, although they don't answer. When you try and phone you get an answering machine that says that you have to find answers to your questions on their website:confused:, and then you open a tech ticket and get these very short and shortcoming answers from their tech department. They don't bother to read the whole thread of the tech enquiery, so you have to ask them the same thing over and over, don't think i'll ever buy Asus again:mad:
Sorry for the grumble
Have a great day:)

Angelshonny: I can lend you a Xeon dual core 1.86Ghz; you should be able to boot with that CPU and update the BIOS...

Or I can send you a bios-chip with 0401 so that you may boot up to DOS with that BIOS chip, hot-swap your own BIOS-chip in and flash from DOS the 0401 onto your own BIOS-chip using the engineering version of the BIOS-flash software...? A bit risky but do-able (I did it).

BTW:
shanems3: does OS X recognize all 8 cores with bios 0401 or are you using the 0302 from http://osrom.net/biosmod/ ?

if i remember correctly yes, it has been awhile since i messed with it, since i got the new video cards, i have since deleted osx, installed it on my AMD rig.. that bios does give a bsod in windows though, so be careful... once ati/apple releases 4000series drivers, ill jump back into osx.. ill be more help then..

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Originally Posted by colombodk

Angelshonny: I can lend you a Xeon dual core 1.86Ghz; you should be able to boot with that CPU and update the BIOS...

Or I can send you a bios-chip with 0401 so that you may boot up to DOS with that BIOS chip, hot-swap your own BIOS-chip in and flash from DOS the 0401 onto your own BIOS-chip using the engineering version of the BIOS-flash software...? A bit risky but do-able (I did it).

BTW:
shanems3: does OS X recognize all 8 cores with bios 0401 or are you using the 0302 from http://osrom.net/biosmod/ ?

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Thx colombodk, would be great if i can lend the cpu:up: Have also PM'ed you, don't know if you saw it?

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Originally Posted by angelshonnny

Hey komseh,
How did you get Asus to send you a chip? My E5420s are also E0 stepping and i simply have no possibility of getting a non-E0 cpu to flash the BIOS.
Wrote them yesterday and the answer i got was. They have a contact number here in Denmark, although they don't answer. When you try and phone you get an answering machine that says that you have to find answers to your questions on their website:confused:, and then you open a tech ticket and get these very short and shortcoming answers from their tech department. They don't bother to read the whole thread of the tech enquiery, so you have to ask them the same thing over and over, don't think i'll ever buy Asus again:mad:
Sorry for the grumble
Have a great day:)

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I live in the US... I was talking with tech support and they transferred me to the "BIOS" department. I had to pay $25 to have it overnighted.

I'm pretty frustrated with Asus too. If the first tech wouldn't have told me that the BIOS chip was not removable we could have avoided a lot of wasted time with the RMA.

Edit: Oh also everything is working great now... except I can't get my USB devices to show up. One of the devices is receiving power but not working.

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Originally Posted by komseh

I live in the US... I was talking with tech support and they transferred me to the "BIOS" department. I had to pay $25 to have it overnighted.

I'm pretty frustrated with Asus too. If the first tech wouldn't have told me that the BIOS chip was not removable we could have avoided a lot of wasted time with the RMA.

Edit: Oh also everything is working great now... except I can't get my USB devices to show up. One of the devices is receiving power but not working.

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Great that you got it working:up: pitty about the USB devices. Luckily, one of the other guys on the forum, colombodk, is willing lo lend me a Dualc. Xeon, so I can update the BIOS. Great bunch of folks on on this forum.

angelshonnny: look in the mail tomorrow for letter with a bios chip with 0401 on it and a xeon dc 1.86ghz ES cpu. Enjoy.

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Originally Posted by colombodk

angelshonnny: look in the mail tomorrow for letter with a bios chip with 0401 on it and a xeon dc 1.86ghz ES cpu. Enjoy.

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Great colombodk:D, and yes, I will enjoy,belive you me:yepp: Let you know as soon as I'm done with it.

pretty cool stuff.

the spirit of XSDC

Ok, this issue is really getting on my nerves now so I am asking for assistance...

I know there are many Z7S owners who 'never' reboot their machines - if you are one of these, you can't help me! ;)

For those Z7S owners who do switch their computers off at the end of the day or reboot after a software or driver installation, do you find your BIOS / OC Profile settings are reset and see a prompt asking you to reconfigure BIOS or load default settings?

For me, this is a real problem, firstly the inconvenience of having to go back into the BIOS and reload my OC profile (and frequently I have to repeat this procedure before the BIOS reset prompt goes away), but secondly I occasionally have the need to work remotely and I wake up my PC using Wake On Lan (WOL) and when I am finished I switch it off (I pay my electricity bills!). If I am at a remote location and WOL my machine at it goes to the BIOS reset prompt, it's stuck until I get back to my office. Considering this is supposed to be a enterprise-level board I think this is unacceptable.

I am not sure if this problem is caused by something I have configured in the BIOS but I cannot see what I could have done out of the ordinary. I have overclocked the CPUs, changed the SATA controller to RAID mode, increased vcore to 1.3v, disabled the JMicron external SATA controller and configured a few other basic options. I am wondering if my problem is caused by something I haven't done, such as changing the other voltage settings - I don't know enough about them to want to change them and risk frying something! I also found that disabling quick boot seems to reduce the percentage of times the BIOS is reset, but it doesn't eliminate the problem.

I would ask if you have or have had this problem and have fixed it, please can you share your BIOS settings with me?

A possibly related issue is that I cannot use S3 sleep - or more accurately, I can put my computer to sleep, but when it wakes up, it momentarily shows the logon window and then reboots...typically showing the BIOS reset prompt afterwards...

Compared to my HP xw4300 workstation board that was 100% reliable in terms of BIOS this is a really bad situation to be in.

I have a 650w Antec PurePower Trio PSU and low draw components, so I don't believe power is the problem.

Regards

Andrew

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Originally Posted by drewhemm

Ok, this issue is really getting on my nerves now so I am asking for assistance...

I know there are many Z7S owners who 'never' reboot their machines - if you are one of these, you can't help me! ;)

For those Z7S owners who do switch their computers off at the end of the day or reboot after a software or driver installation, do you find your BIOS / OC Profile settings are reset and see a prompt asking you to reconfigure BIOS or load default settings?

For me, this is a real problem, firstly the inconvenience of having to go back into the BIOS and reload my OC profile (and frequently I have to repeat this procedure before the BIOS reset prompt goes away), but secondly I occasionally have the need to work remotely and I wake up my PC using Wake On Lan (WOL) and when I am finished I switch it off (I pay my electricity bills!). If I am at a remote location and WOL my machine at it goes to the BIOS reset prompt, it's stuck until I get back to my office. Considering this is supposed to be a enterprise-level board I think this is unacceptable.

I am not sure if this problem is caused by something I have configured in the BIOS but I cannot see what I could have done out of the ordinary. I have overclocked the CPUs, changed the SATA controller to RAID mode, increased vcore to 1.3v, disabled the JMicron external SATA controller and configured a few other basic options. I am wondering if my problem is caused by something I haven't done, such as changing the other voltage settings - I don't know enough about them to want to change them and risk frying something! I also found that disabling quick boot seems to reduce the percentage of times the BIOS is reset, but it doesn't eliminate the problem.

I would ask if you have or have had this problem and have fixed it, please can you share your BIOS settings with me?

A possibly related issue is that I cannot use S3 sleep - or more accurately, I can put my computer to sleep, but when it wakes up, it momentarily shows the logon window and then reboots...typically showing the BIOS reset prompt afterwards...

Compared to my HP xw4300 workstation board that was 100% reliable in terms of BIOS this is a really bad situation to be in.

I have a 650w Antec PurePower Trio PSU and low draw components, so I don't believe power is the problem.

Regards

Andrew

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Try the following:
Let it reboot at default values and than shutdown normally. Wait and
startup again than enter the BIOS and than do your settings BUT do NOT set CPU FSB yet (let it on auto) and reboot again, let it startup windows. Than shutdown the last time and reboot and enter the BIOS once again and set the FSB to whatever OC you used.
This works for me! I can shutdown/reboot without having to set the BIOS again.

However as soon as your PC hangs (due to OC or because of windows/software) or reboots (by itself or by the user) before windows is loaded (so before the bios detected all hardware), or when using S3 it starts all over again.

The BIOS is just a PAIN.:mad:
But than again maybe this is a hint, you should just leave it on and let it crunch :D

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Originally Posted by Madman666

However as soon as your PC hangs (due to OC or because of windows/software) or reboots (by itself or by the user) before windows is loaded (so before the bios detected all hardware), or when using S3 it starts all over again.

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Is there no way to disable this 'feature'? Once I have decided on BIOS settings that are stable, I never want the motherboard to offer me the opportunity to reset to default just because of a Windows issue, unless I choose to manually go into the BIOS and reset it there - isn't this the way most other motherboards work?

Can I assume therefore that S3 doesn't work properly for you either?

Is it worth my getting onto Asus about this or have others found their responses regarding the BIOS less than helpful?

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Originally Posted by drewhemm

Is there no way to disable this 'feature'? Once I have decided on BIOS settings that are stable, I never want the motherboard to offer me the opportunity to reset to default just because of a Windows issue, unless I choose to manually go into the BIOS and reset it there - isn't this the way most other motherboards work?

Can I assume therefore that S3 doesn't work properly for you either?

Is it worth my getting onto Asus about this or have others found their responses regarding the BIOS less than helpful?

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I also have the S3 issue. And yes, a normal good stable BIOS will never show this kind of behaviour. This is the first BIOS I encountered that really s:mad:ks.
If you want to complain at Asus, send in a technical request.
Emailing is not working.
You could give it a try :up:

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Originally Posted by drewhemm

Is there no way to disable this 'feature'? Once I have decided on BIOS settings that are stable, I never want the motherboard to offer me the opportunity to reset to default just because of a Windows issue, unless I choose to manually go into the BIOS and reset it there - isn't this the way most other motherboards work?

Can I assume therefore that S3 doesn't work properly for you either?

Is it worth my getting onto Asus about this or have others found their responses regarding the BIOS less than helpful?

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Try this: leave Vcore on auto.l
I only have the "Bios defaults loaded" issue with manually set Vcore.
Auto Vcore limits your OC of course...

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and when I am finished I switch it off (I pay my electricity bills!)

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:rolleyes:

It may be hard to imagine for some people, but I built my Z7S machine for the sole purpose of crunching. Yes, I spent that much money just to have the most efficient hardware out there, the hardware that would do the most work with a relatively low amount of energy consumed. A Dual Harpertown was, and still is unbeatable in that respect (41500 PPD at ~300W drain) Because I pay my electricity as well :shakes:

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Originally Posted by jcool

Try this: leave Vcore on auto.l
I only have the "Bios defaults loaded" issue with manually set Vcore.
Auto Vcore limits your OC of course...

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I rebooted, of course saw the annoying prompt, had to go to BIOS, loaded defaults, still got the same prompt! Couldn't boot into Windows because my boot drive is on SATA RAID (until my Adaptec controller arrives).

I had to reboot and reload my OC profile six times before the prompt went away...

Also, I don't have an option for auto vcore, it's just a range adjuster. There's an auto option for the FSB - is that what you mean? Although even when I booted with default BIOS options I still got the prompt. I think it's time for me to get onto Asus about this...

No, I mean auto Vcore. I can set Vcore to auto.. you can't?

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Originally Posted by jcool

No, I mean auto Vcore. I can set Vcore to auto.. you can't?

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On the jumpless configuration page? No, I have just have the voltage range - BIOS 0401

Strange. I have had 3 pairs of Harpertowns (B1 step, C0 step. E0 step) and all displayed "auto" Vcore upon first entering bios or loading defaults, which is just the CPU's VID minus the undervolting of the Z7S... What CPUs do you have again?

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Originally Posted by jcool

What CPUs do you have again?

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I have the L5420s - 2.5Ghz stock clock - A Stepping, E0 revision

Might be a problem with those low voltage chips then... try setting Vcore according to your CPus VID (check with Coretemp)

According to Core Temp, my CPU's VID is 1.1125v, my vcore is currently set to 1.3v (which shows as 1.27 in Windows according to PC Probe) - are the two (VID and vcore) supposed to match?

Ok, I found the AUTO vcore setting, it's at the bottom of the vcore range, so you just hold the - key until AUTO is displayed.

I'm not sure exactly what is automatic about the AUTO setting as it doesn't appear to increase it to supply the CPU with enough power when the FSB is turned up, I had to set the CPU clock speed back to AUTO to prevent Windows from crashing.

I'll play around some more and report back.

Any suggestions on what my vcore should be for 440FSB with this chip, should it not have been as high as 1.3?

Just thinking about auto vcore for a minute ...

I had a little problem with this Opty system at one point thanks to my being a little over enthusiastic and sloppy with my TIM. A little had gotten onto the SMS caps on the CPU module. The result was unstable (and very high) core voltage when using the 'auto' setting (must have been on the feedback circuit). A careful clean (I used Artcic Clean) and the vcore now both reads much lower and is rock solid stable.

Auto means it uses the stock vcore of the chips, drewhemm.

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Originally Posted by STEvil

Auto means it uses the stock vcore of the chips, drewhemm.

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Ok, so it's less like automatic and more like default...

What about the other voltage settings in the BIOS, when if ever should one adjust them?

So far setting vcore to AUTO has fixed my BIOS reset, now I'm just trying to find out what is the maximum I can clock to - 3.26GHz at the moment - can't run the 3.3Ghz I was running without crashing...

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Originally Posted by drewhemm

Andrew

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check your CMOS battery? or the bios reset pin?

Didn't think of that ... worth a shot. A shorted BIOS reset ... wouldn't that kill the board?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by drewhemm

Ok, so it's less like automatic and more like default...

What about the other voltage settings in the BIOS, when if ever should one adjust them?

So far setting vcore to AUTO has fixed my BIOS reset, now I'm just trying to find out what is the maximum I can clock to - 3.26GHz at the moment - can't run the 3.3Ghz I was running without crashing...

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Told you so ;)
And if you don't mind me asking, why the hell did you go for low voltage CPUs when you wanted to OC in the first place? :D :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by D_A

Didn't think of that ... worth a shot. A shorted BIOS reset ... wouldn't that kill the board?

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not necessarily

Managed to set vcore manually to 1.2250 and FSB back to 441 giving me 3.3Ghz again :D It's been stable so far and haven't had the reset prompt, but at least I know when I go travelling for any length of time to load my other OC profile, which has AUTO vcore and should be 100% stable.

I also changed a number of other settings on the CPU configuration page and now my CPU benchmarks are coming out much higher than before even with the same FSB/Clock speed - PassMark is giving me a 35.5% CPU performance improvement!

I went for the low voltage chips as a) I wanted less power consumption and 2 x 50w is a lot less than 2 x 150w!!! and b) I thought that having cooler chips would give me more headroom for overclocking, which I think they have - has anyone been able to go much higher than 441/3.3Ghz with the non power saving E5420 variant?

I will quote myself ;)

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Originally Posted by drewhemm

...has anyone been able to go much higher than 441/3.3Ghz with the non power saving E5420 variant?

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Just did some searching on this topic and on Google and it seems like people struggle to get stable with the E5420 past 2.8-3.0Ghz so it does appear as though the L5420 has more headroom - rock solid stable at 3.3GHz...

It wouldn't surprise me if the L5420s are machined to a higher quality than the E5420s, that would explain their better thermal efficiency, better overclocking potential and of course the 25% higher price point!

My E5420's (C0 stepping) did 3.0Ghz at stock vcore on the Asus Z7S.
(400x7.5)
435x7 was also possible , so I knew the cpu's needed more vcore.

Stock vcore was 1.2v IIRC , Asus Z7S gave me ~1.18vcore full load.

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Originally Posted by drewhemm

I will quote myself ;)



Just did some searching on this topic and on Google and it seems like people struggle to get stable with the E5420 past 2.8-3.0Ghz so it does appear as though the L5420 has more headroom - rock solid stable at 3.3GHz...

It wouldn't surprise me if the L5420s are machined to a higher quality than the E5420s, that would explain their better thermal efficiency, better overclocking potential and of course the 25% higher price point!

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Lol dude.. the L is exactly the same as the E or X, they just have different VIDs and are binned differently. How good a given set of chips are depends solely on luck of the draw and their stepping.

For example, my 5420 C0 could do 430x7,5 even back when the Z7S was released, no Vcore nothing. Z7S gave them 1,14V Vcore under load, VID is 1,2V.
I couldn't go higher than 430 stable even with 6x mult, because they would need more VTT to go higher, which the Z7S still doesn't provide.
Any E0 step CPU will do FSB 440-450 on the Z7S regardless of what they are binned for.
The B1 step E5440 I had wouldn't go past FSB 370, go figure.

My X5450 which are also E0 can do a max of FSB 452 primestable (at any multiplier). Above that either the CPUs or mobo have reached their limit.

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Originally Posted by jcool

Lol dude.. the L is exactly the same as the E or X, they just have different VIDs and are binned differently. How good a given set of chips are depends solely on luck of the draw and their stepping.

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That's cool - it still means I have a setup at least equal in performance to 2 x E5420 but with up to 60w less power draw/heat generation - it gets very hot here in the summer and cooling is a challenge; no, I don't want air conditioning - I didn't move to the Costa del Sol to be cold!!! :p:

In addition to being a power-saving freak, I am also a silence-man. I am looking forward to getting an external RAID enclosure for my mechanical hard drives so I can take them out of my case and leave the SSDs to run Windows and everyday file storage and just turn on the mechanicals when I need something (which will be nearly never) and enjoy the sound of my thoughts the rest of the time! :up:

Actually my E5420 didn't draw 85W at stock... neither do my X5450 draw more than ~120W even though they are OCed to 4Ghz (because they run 1,23V vcore load which is below their vid).
It all comes down to how you set Vcore. Frequency plays its role, but Vcore is where it's all at. Your L's will take 90-100W if you feed them 1,3V as well, just as my E5420 will run in 50W mode at 1,1V Vcore :)

Of course, on any mobo other than the Z7S, where you can't adjust Vcore, the L chips do eat less power.

Tried FSB 450 yet?

You should have a look at my storage solution, WD6400AAKS in a watercool quadbox - completely inaudible from 0,5m distance.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jcool

Frequency plays its role, but Vcore is where it's all at. Your L's will take 90-100W if you feed them 1,3V as well, just as my E5420 will run in 50W mode at 1,1V Vcore :)

Tried FSB 450 yet?

You should have a look at my storage solution, WD6400AAKS in a watercool quadbox - completely inaudible from 0,5m distance.

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Thanks for the tip - I didn't know about the correlation between vcore and power consumption, I will work on having it as low as possible while remaining stable.

Funny thing with the FSB, I can't set it to 450 in BIOS and get past the BIOS reset prompt, but I can set it to 449, which is reported by Core Temp as 450 and that gives me 3375MHz - 450 x 7.5. I can now run Cinebench R10 64-bit in 33 seconds flat - a score of 26092.

Please can you post a link to your storage enclosure?

It's a bit old (same rig with aircooled 5420's :D ) but still the same rig: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=465

Hey jcool, please check your messages. Thx

I changed my memory, from Kingston to jcool memory :)
With Kingston my OC froze at FSB 400, now I'm already @ FSB 425 :D
This memory rocks!!!
I keep pushing and let you know what will be the end result.

@jcool:you got PM

Update
@FSB 430 vCore auto = 100% stable

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Madman666

I changed my memory, from Kingston to jcool memory :)
With Kingston my OC froze at FSB 400, now I'm already @ FSB 425 :D
This memory rocks!!!
I keep pushing and let you know what will be the end result.

@jcool:you got PM

Update
@FSB 430 vCore auto = 100% stable

---

Well it is CSX (Compustocx) memory, not mine ;)
Glad it's working though :up:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Madman666

I changed my memory, from Kingston to jcool memory :)
With Kingston my OC froze at FSB 400, now I'm already @ FSB 425 :D
This memory rocks!!!
I keep pushing and let you know what will be the end result.

@jcool:you got PM

Update
@FSB 430 vCore auto = 100% stable

---

Great to hear you are happy with the ram Madman:up:.
Waiting for the same jcool ram:yepp: Will post as soon as the system is up and crunching:D

Ok, time to pick your brains..:D
best bios for Z7S? and where to get it?
I have clovers to use for flashing to new bios so thats not an issue.
Ball park settings to start for voltages or anything else that needs to be changed from defaults..
Will be using X5460 G0's and 4x1 gig Kingston HyperX DDR2-800FBDimms.
Any and all comments appreciated.;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Movieman

Ok, time to pick your brains..:D
best bios for Z7S? and where to get it?

---

0401 - asus.com

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Movieman

I have clovers to use for flashing to new bios so thats not an issue.
Ball park settings to start for voltages or anything else that needs to be changed from defaults.

---

nothing really. Possibly you need to raise vMCH when overclocking.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Movieman

Will be using X5460 G0's and 4x1 gig Kingston HyperX DDR2-800FBDimms.
Any and all comments appreciated.;)

---

Don't reboot or your board will pop ;)

Dave.. they are called E0, G0 is as old as my Q6600 :D
And yeah.. people seem to be having bad luck with the Z7S lately... also some issues with manually set Vcore pertain.
For max FSB use 1,35V MCH, good MCH cooling, 1,83-1,9V Vdimm and whatever Vcore you need... try with Auto first, as there are some issues with bios resets still.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jcool

Dave.. they are called E0, G0 is as old as my Q6600 :D
And yeah.. people seem to be having bad luck with the Z7S lately... also some issues with manually set Vcore pertain.
For max FSB use 1,35V MCH, good MCH cooling, 1,83-1,9V Vdimm and whatever Vcore you need... try with Auto first, as there are some issues with bios resets still.

---

Ok, a slip of the finger.. yes, E0's..:D
Now what is this about rebooting and "popping"
That I don't like..Explain please?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Movieman

Now what is this about rebooting and "popping"
That I don't like..Explain please?

---

Reboot your cruncher when the board is at bad mood and it will not wake up anymore :rofl:

Sounds a bit like my wife.

Are USB devices supposed to show up in the BIOS under Advanced / USB Configuration?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by s0lid

Reboot your cruncher when the board is at bad mood and it will not wake up anymore :rofl:

---

I dont think its limited to rebooting as seen in my thread in the other place..

Swapped the board to get the USB ports working... whew this has been an interesting build, and it's not quite over.

I want to get some better cooling going. Can someone verify that I have the right idea? There is some contradicting information in the thread.

My goal:
HR-01-X for CPUs
Stock HS for NB
Asus Memcool for Memory - What size fan does this thing take?

Will I have problems with the HR-01-X if I'm using the Asus supplied backplate? The backplate adhesive seems super strong. Right now I have the rubber pads stuck in the middle of them to provide extra support to the mobo in that region.

With the HR-01X's you need to either change the northbridge heatsink or mod one of the HR-01X's but cutting a few fins off a bit.

As long as whatever backplate you are using lines up with the motherboard mounting holes you will be fine (you need a backplate, there is no exception, the asus ones works fine). They do not need to be attached to the case but it helps.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by STEvil

With the HR-01X's you need to either change the northbridge heatsink or mod one of the HR-01X's but cutting a few fins off a bit.

As long as whatever backplate you are using lines up with the motherboard mounting holes you will be fine (you need a backplate, there is no exception, the asus ones works fine). They do not need to be attached to the case but it helps.

---

A quick check for NB heatsink turns up the HR-05 IFX... does this work well with the HR-01-X?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by komseh

Asus Memcool for Memory - What size fan does this thing take?

---

You get it with a 70mm noisemaker :down:
I just removed this one put on a 80mm Papst with some silicone kit (works like glue only if you want to, you can still remove it without breaking things).
I even attached another 90mm to cool the NB.
I love my silicone kit :p:

Komseh, I set mine up in a similar way, but I chose the Ultima 90's instead of the HR-01's because I didn't want to hack the heat sinks to get to the attachment screws. Even then, I ended up buying some hex head 5/8 inch 6-32 captive screws so I didn't risk stripping out the Phillips heads or busting my knuckles with the little wrench. You'll need to get a long shaft 7/64 ball end hex driver from Bondhus or similar to get easy access. I'll post some pictures once I crop them down to under the forum's 200kB limit.

I'd go with Ultima 90's or Noctua U12F's. U12's have holes so you can reach the mounting screws properly.

I think jcool or serlv used the HR-05 northbridge sink, worked fine. I used a Noctua U6 or something. It is "too tight" when you get it on (you cant get it off without side cutters to cut the plastic push pins) but the heatsinks clear it easily.

Wow thanks for mentioning Noctua. I'm going with two NH-U12DX and a HR-05 IFX. Will post pics :)

I think I'm gonna end up getting a new case because I've realized that this CHENBRO SR10769-BK-H has bad airflow(only one exhaust fan in the rear). Can anyone recommend a case with 8 internal 3.5" bays, 120mm push and pull fans for hard drive cages, and rear/top exhaust? It would be nice to have a 120/140mm fan blowing on my gfx and raid card too.

The Antec 300 (and probably the 600 and 900 ) would fit your requirements. I have a 300 and am pretty happy with it (comes with a 120 rear and 140 top variable speed exhaust plus mounts for two 120s in front of the drive cages and another in the side panel) though I did feel it worthwhile to use silicon rubber fan mounts to cut down the noise (pretty nice now though).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Madman666

You get it with a 70mm noisemaker :down:
I just removed this one put on a 80mm Papst with some silicone kit (works like glue only if you want to, you can still remove it without breaking things).
I even attached another 90mm to cool the NB.
I love my silicone kit :p:

---

Could you tell me more about this "silicone kit" and where to get it? Also how much CFM should I have blowing on these FBDIMMs to keep them at a reasonable temp? I picked up a Noctua R8 for this and it blows 31CFM.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by komseh

Could you tell me more about this "silicone kit" and where to get it? Also how much CFM should I have blowing on these FBDIMMs to keep them at a reasonable temp? I picked up a Noctua R8 for this and it blows 31CFM.

---

Just use plain Silicone kit you can buy at your local DIY shop.
BTW: Let it sufficiently dry, so for at least 4 hours.

I use a Papst fan (80mm), ± 20CFM, temps of my 4x2 Gb FBDimms are 50C Idle, 65C Load. So your fan will be fine.

Hi,

I am having another issue with this board now - the Intel RAID controller. I have an Adaptec 2405 hardware RAID controller but it didn't come with the cable so I now have to wait another couple of weeks for that to arrive... :(

I am using 2 x OCZ Core 60GB SSD's in RAID0, two Hitachi 160GB Deskstars in RAID0 and 1 x WD 250GB hard drive as a standalone. I've heard that other people are having bad performance with the OCZ SSD's while running RAID on an on-board controller, but my system seems to be having problems with the Hitachi's as well.

The symptoms of the problem appears to be related to writing data. As soon as the controller starts to write a large amount of data on one drive (not necessarily the SSD's), for example 1GB+ during an install of a program, the whole system freezes and the HD activity light stays on solid. This freeze can last for a few seconds up to a minute, typically as long as there is write activity going on. Everything else grinds to a halt and it is like having only one CPU core and it being maxxed out, there's no hourglass and I can move the mouse, just when I click on things, nothing happens.

Has anyone else had problems similar to this? I know I have the Adaptec nearly ready to install, but my curiosity wants to know why I am having problems with the on-board on a high-end motherboard like this. I was able to use the on-board RAID on my old HP motherboard and never had this problem.

I have the Intel Matrix Storage Manager installed and have tried with the write-back cache enabled and disabled and it seems to make no difference.

Any advice?

Regards,

Andrew

The onboard raid gave me trouble as well, I'd steer clear from it especially when using fast raid setups. Also the ICH9R isn't really optimized for SSDs... neither is the 2405 I'ma fraid, but for 2 SSDs it will work fine.

Happy new year!!

I picked up the 2405 in a hurry for a good price on eBay, but if the performance isn't up to par, I'm not against upgrading to something more powerful at a later date, especially as the 2405 only supports up to four drives, I may wish to add another two SSD's later in the year.

What controller would you recommend for maximum speed with SSD's in RAID0?

That's currently the big problem, no controller that I/we here at XS know of is really optimized for SSDs yet. Or, it highly depends on the specific SSD/controller combination, some work better together than others. If you got the money, go for the Areca 1231ML and put 2GB cache in it, that's about the only controller that will scale all the way up to 8+ drives.
Check out NapalmV5's benches, he has different SSDs and lots of controllers and posts benches regularly.

The 2405 will work perfectly fine with 2 SSDs and is very strong on writes even with 4, however the read speed could be tuned better yet. Again it depends on which SSDs you have... which ones do you have? :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jcool

The 2405 will work perfectly fine with 2 SSDs and is very strong on writes even with 4, however the read speed could be tuned better yet. Again it depends on which SSDs you have... which ones do you have? :)

---

I have two of these:

http://www.ocztechnology.com/product...ata_ii_2_5-ssd

Should work ok I guess.. please report back and do some write benches if at all possible (HDtune/HDTach, works only when there are no partitions on the array tho)

I got my new heatsinks installed. The noctua cpu sinks are quite wide and made it so I had to mount my HR-05 IFX at the edge of the northbridge chip. Is this going to make the northbridge sink inefficient for heat dissipation? I'll post a picture if needed.

If anyone is interested in some great deals on DDR2 667 FBDIMMs:
2x2GB for $75: http://www.provantage.com/kingston-t...g~7KIN90UA.htm
2x4GB for $132: http://shop.kingston.com/partsinfo.a...667D2Q8F5K2/8G

The heastpreader of the northbridge is very large , so you have some room to move the HS a little.
But you better post a pic, if possible.

Here it is... as you can see it's basically touching my CPU sinks. The fins on the NB sink get pretty hot so it does seem to be working, but the other problem is that I don't have clearance between the FBDIMMs and NB sink to mount a 80mmX25mm fan. It's going to be even worse once I have a memory cooler.
http://mindframe.org/hr-05.jpg

try to find a 70 or 80mm x 15mm fan. like this one

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jaco

try to find a 70 or 80mm x 15mm fan. like this one

---

Thanks. I didn't even know 15mm fans were made. I went with a Hiper fan from performance-pcs.com. I wanted to do SilenX but I know they have a reputation for producing crap.

I can't wait for my Lian-Li PC-A70B to get here. The only thing that irks me about that case is the fact that only seven hard drives fit in their cages that have push/pull fans on them. Why not just engineer it to have an even eight? It will be a lot better for noise and airflow than my current setup, so I'll get over it :)

Hey Everyone
Just got my system up and running:D Runs great, but gets sooo hot that it gets unstable. This is cause i only have the stock passive sinks that i just screwed 2 fans onto. It's winter here, so i just leave my window open, then the temps stay in the low or mid 40's. Can't get propper coolers here in Denmark:( Anybody got some they wanna sell or know where to get them for reasonable prices? It has been running BOINC for 2 days, but i can't see any points yet? How long does it take before it shows? It is also running all the projects (cancer, rice, proteome, AIDS), is it supposed to run all of them at once?
Another problem is that when the system starts up and i have my USB mouse plugged in, I get a message at post that it can't detect the keyboard. Windows loads fine but i just can't use the kboard. Then i remove the usb for the mouse and it post no problem. After windows has loaded then I can connect the mouse again. I'm using a MS wireless mouse and kboard, that uses a single receiver. Anybody have/had the same problem?
@jcool Thx for the ram:up:
@colombodk Thx for lending me the cpu and chip:up: sending it on monday:)

Angelshonnny: glad you got your rig up and running.
I use the ThermalRight HR-01 coolers http://shg.dk/p/2114178 (the one slightly modded to fit next to the north bridge cooler) with the Xeon bolt thru-kit which I got here: http://shg.dk/p/2114177
You might be able to get them faster from coolerkit.dk

Anyone successfully got the PCI-X slot running at 133Mhz?

My 3Ware 9550SXU-12MI controller firmware reposts it running at 100Mhz even though I used the jumper on the Z7S SW for setting the PCI-X to 133Mhz?

Any comments?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by angelshonnny

Hey Everyone
Just got my system up and running:D Runs great, but gets sooo hot that it gets unstable. This is cause i only have the stock passive sinks that i just screwed 2 fans onto. It's winter here, so i just leave my window open, then the temps stay in the low or mid 40's. Can't get propper coolers here in Denmark:( Anybody got some they wanna sell or know where to get them for reasonable prices? It has been running BOINC for 2 days, but i can't see any points yet? How long does it take before it shows? It is also running all the projects (cancer, rice, proteome, AIDS), is it supposed to run all of them at once?
Another problem is that when the system starts up and i have my USB mouse plugged in, I get a message at post that it can't detect the keyboard. Windows loads fine but i just can't use the kboard. Then i remove the usb for the mouse and it post no problem. After windows has loaded then I can connect the mouse again. I'm using a MS wireless mouse and kboard, that uses a single receiver. Anybody have/had the same problem?
@jcool Thx for the ram:up:
@colombodk Thx for lending me the cpu and chip:up: sending it on monday:)

---

Glad you got it running :up:
Yes, BOINC points need a while to show up, but after 2 days the points should start pouring in.
About your problem, did you enable USB keyboard support in bios?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jcool

Glad you got it running :up:
Yes, BOINC points need a while to show up, but after 2 days the points should start pouring in.
About your problem, did you enable USB keyboard support in bios?

---

Not sure, but the keyboard has a normal PS/2 plug, so should I then still enable it?

You could, but it won't make any difference to that keyboard. Just make sure it's properly plugged in BEFORE you power on the system and it should work fine.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by D_A

You could, but it won't make any difference to that keyboard. Just make sure it's properly plugged in BEFORE you power on the system and it should work fine.

---

It is propperly plugged, but it still can't detect the keyboard if I, at startup, have the mouse usb plugged in. :confused: It's this one http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mo...s.aspx?pid=016
The receiver has 2 plugs, the usb for the mouse and then a PS/2 for the keyboard. I've also tried with only the usb, as i would on my laptop, no luck. It's of course not fatal, but still quite annoying:(

How odd. Mic <gag> micro <heave> ... THEY usually make pretty good keyboards and mouses (yes that is correct grammar ... this time).

As far as I can tell from the docs from THEM, you shouldn't need the ps/2 connection at all. Have you tried the whole set up with just the USB connection in and not the ps/2?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by D_A

As far as I can tell from the docs from THEM, you shouldn't need the ps/2 connection at all. Have you tried the whole set up with just the USB connection in and not the ps/2?

---

Yes, tried that, doesn't work:shrug:

Have you tried in in a ... less auspicious system?