$200 case, $170 mobo, 955 BE, 4 GB of DDR2-1066, a GTX 280, two hard drives, PCP&C 750w, and best of all a $70 air cooler that isn't any better than some $35-40 ones...
But you can't afford a digital camera? :confused:
Anyway, I wish you luck.
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$200 case, $170 mobo, 955 BE, 4 GB of DDR2-1066, a GTX 280, two hard drives, PCP&C 750w, and best of all a $70 air cooler that isn't any better than some $35-40 ones...
But you can't afford a digital camera? :confused:
Anyway, I wish you luck.
That's WHY I can't afford a digital camera lol
and the Zalman does much better than a $30-40 cooler as reviewed here: http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/281...ler/index.html....especially the part at the bottom of page four....unless your a very serious perfectionist...this sucker doesn't need lapped :)
Also...toss away that stupid PWM control and it goes 2250 RPM vs 2000 RPM...as the article said though...they didn't leave enough room between the heat pipes for either/or mounting on AMD, like they did on the round copper ones ;/
here's my temps at 21C ambient:
http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/5593/image1ttj.jpg
....best of all though, Newegg has it..the price will come down and the ZM-STG2 Thermal grease is awesome
I didn't wanna quote the theoldtimers (good job with that) post due but I see he used 1.50 bios = 1.48 in windows to get to 3.9. Anything over 1.48 bios (1.44 windows) on mine gets unstable at 3.9GHz. My settings are darn near the same as his with minor differences with ram and core v. I posted one time at 4.0GHz with the cpu running @ 15c but that was it.
I have seen 940s that would not go past 3.6GHz so maybe the cpu might be the prob. It sounds like you have tried almost every things.... I will look at a few things and back track all ur posts from other thread.
I'm sorry but I LOL'ed really hard at the 18c motherboard reading.
I'm just speculating, but you could have easily had the same or even more performance with a $120 motherboard and $35 Scythe Mugen 2 (which, if you look at that review, performed better than your $70 Zalman!) and a cheaper case such as the HAF 932...and a quieter, more efficient PSU like the Corsair 750HX or Seasonic M12D SS-750 :S And tube of MX-2...TX-2 or TX-3...MX-3.
Then your would have had the money for a $200 digital camera.
Sorry for the offtopic...;)
you show me a 18C mobo temp in 21c ambient lol
I think you are right....for the present....2 things have to happen first....
1. I got 2x230mm and a 120mm fan still plugged into mobo....bad Ghot!
2. The BIOS on these boards is too immature yet...for example:
If i set CPU freq at 206 in BIOS it shows as 206 in HWMonitor. CPU-Z
and Everest.
If I set 208 it shows as 206.7 in all three proggies, 212 shows as
210.7...yet 210 shows as 210 lol
Like when i was OCing the M2N32 SLI Deluxe w/AMD 5000+ BE I was stuck at 3.0ghz for almost 3 months....UNTIL I hooked ALL the case fans, direct to PSU ! Most of these folks that are getting 3.9 and 4.0 or better are doing it on a test bench setup...NOT in a case. Their fan are all hooked to PSU. Even the A7N8X w/2800+ had same issue....all ASUS nVidia chipset boards..all same problem.
The 120mm fan draws 5v @ 1/4 amp...I shudder to think what amperage the 230mm fans are drawing :)
This thread is full of fail. Double, triple, and quadruple postings. You can't just magically take someones bios settings and they work for you. Every piece of hardware is different. There is a line between asking for help and just being a complete annoyance >.>
Be nice, guys. Thanks.
No, it wasn't that. I removed a couple rude posts per request.
I was just at ASUS forums...for this mobo...it seems most are having this same issue....general consensus (wrong or right) is that the 0802 BIOS is flaky when mixed with varying programs. It sure seems to be the case on my system.
I also have one other condition that may be affecting these attempts to pass 3.7Ghz....Verizon FIOS...
...it START to try to acquire IP at same time as the Windows loading screen progress bar. In fact, even when IN Windows, the icon by the clock on taksbar says acquiring address for almost 20 mins, even though I can get online in 8-15 seconds. I can make it stop this on each Windows load by going to network connections and then drill down through all the property sheets to the WINS tab, and then just closing them all. This will list the Local Area Connection as: Connected....instead of acquiring for 20 minutes.
Since the Windows load screen is where i get the 0X000000A error this could also be part of the issue. I have simply unhooked the CAT5e cable....but it didn't make much difference. My best guess at the present is what I've already said....first, I'm going to hook ALL the case fans to the PSU instead of the motherboard...this solved a similar problem on my M2N32Sli deluxe OC. I have a "feeling" that ASUS motherboards are really tocuhy with any voltage fluctuations (draws). Im use the same software and same FIOS as I had on the M2N32/AMD 5000 BE @ 3.2Ghz....which is rock stable 24/7 for almost 2 years....always on etc.
If the moving all but the CPU fan to the PSU don't solve the issue...then maybe I do have a bad mobo or CPU.
The ONLY reason I don't think this is the case is that it hits 3.9 easy in safe mode....and since the software or FIOS connection hasn't changed since my M2N32 had similar problems....that being stuck at 3.0ghz no matter what i did. Moved fans to CPU...3.2Ghz easy, and that OC was in a generic mid tower case with 5x80mm fans.
Then I will wait and see if ASUS releases a new BIOS, and if that doesn't help...RMA I guess :/
Bro that's just outta line....I know the same settings won't work on every system lol....who doesn't. But asking questions gives ME more ideas....I spend 16 hours every day trying different settings...as we all do...pretty soon you run dry of new ideas....but it's not always the motherboard or CPU's fault.
Too many people just RMA till they luck out with a golden set of parts...now that's lame. It raises prices of parts and runs online retailers OUT of parts.
Personally I like to keep trying until I've either tried every combo of settings or can definitely prove I've got a bad part...so far I can't do that :) This is also my first AMI BIOS...so yes, I'm going to ask what others have tried....because trying every possible combo till I find the golden one will take longer than the warranty :)
If I could unlink the RAM from the FSB it'd be a lot easier, but this BIOS won't allow that.
Best thing I think is the old saying: If you haven't got anything good to say about something, remain silent. Flaming topics does nothing for anyone ^^
i've searched the asus support forum of this mobo for this problem but can't find it. could you point me to it ghot?
sure bro, here ya go :)
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?...Language=en-us
That's my point bro....there is NOT a lot of info about this board....and most of it thinks the BIOS is flaky. So in other words you DID find all the info there is so far, more or less.
Its not just the CPU freqs that are flaky...its also the RAM timings...in this BIOS there is 2 choices for the RAM timings....auto or both .....as far as I've seen thats kinda weird. I've even had the RAM timings change themselves, without my approval. W/o a manual setting, I guess this can happen.
One of my 3.8 attempts I had the 1066 RAM set at 5-5-5-15-22-2T-2.2v it passed 3+ hours of Prime 95/blend then blue screened...I went back into the BIOS, and IT had changed the RAM timings to 5-3-3-5-auto-2T-2.2v.
Now since I'm not over in the AMD chipset forums making snide remarks about others attempts at overclocking...I'd appreciate the same respect.
I specifically titled this topic M4N32/955 problems for a reason. I wanted a topic for those with THIS mobo and THIS CPU to have a chance to work together on this...because ASUS sure isn't helping.
As far as I know this forum was not put here for chat room purposes.
There is definitely something flaky about this BIOS on this mobo with this CPU, as well as something flaky about how it interacts with other software.
So unless you are willing to go out and purchase this mobo and CPU...you're really wasting both our time.
But thx anyways for your suggestions ?
I'm NOT angry, but I get frustrated when people with a motherboard with an entirely different chipset "try to help", as I have stated 5-6 times now. The adapters for the case fans will be arriving tomorrow and then i can remove them for the motherboard. If, like all the other nVidia chipset ASUS boards i've had, helps..then all is well. There's also a definite possibiolity that the BIOS is just flaky as this board only came out in 03/2009. Unfortunately, not many people own this board...so there is not much info to research. Further, ASUS is no help what-so-ever (unusually so)which just adds to the frustration.
So "help" from those with different chipsets, isn't going to be of any use and really just makes things more frustrating, because now I have to check everyone's system specs, before i even read the suggestions.
I really do not understand why this is so difficult to comprehend...I mean you don't take a Toyota to a Saturn repair man for advice....do you?
...and on top of everything else...this is my first AMI Bios and I really don't like it :)
you don't need the case fans if you remove the side panel. just disconnect them, leave only the cpu cooler and see what happens.
regarding my chipset, do I qualify for posting here if I used to own a K9N SLI, or do I have to own it at the time of posting?
The both setting is a manual setting. It refers to both dct0/dct1 "both" ram banks. You don't have the option to set ram timings to individual banks. Some sub timings and drive strength's can be set to individual banks by the looks of your manual. I'll agree that your bios looks to be rather flaky if the ram timings wont stay put.
I'll assume you figured the cpu-nb frequency settings. It's allows changes showing the imc frequency in relation to a 200 fsb clock. 800mhz being x4 multiplier and so forth.
As to the overclock bsod on reboots, it sounds like an extension of ram timings not sticking. It looks like the only solution may be to wait until a bios update or wait until the other 980a boars start showing up. MSI I know has one planned to come out Q3/4 of 09 and I'm sure Gigabyte will put one out as well. Sorry I can't be of more help but I've used quite a few boards with AMI bios and I can assure you it's not a symptom of the bios coming from AMI.
Here's a link to the MSI 980a board. DDR3 though : http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=pr...1&prod_no=1885
ASUS wrote a horrible manual for your mobo also, I looked at it last night. I learned nothing I didn't know about your BIOS. *tisk tisk*