680i SLI is too expensive? Asus as the solution : P5N32-E SLI PLUS

I think I've read through most of this thread, maybe parts of it multiple times, and I was wondering if anyone could let me know or maybe remind me if I should already know...

Is there anything I should know before I attempt to remove the heatpipe cooling on the motherboard in order to inspect it, apply a better thermal interface and re-seat it? I'm pretty sure the NB could use any help it could get. Is it worth doing this to the SB?

As an aside, I was wondering if it would be possible to modify the heatpipe cooling system by twisting the heatpipe + fins that comes off from the NB so that it gets cooled by my chassis exhaust fan, and install some other heatsinks over whatever else the fins were covering. Thoughts anyone?

When you are gonan cut up the heatpipes you are voiding ya warranty for sure... as it's easy to see physical damage to the board... if I was you I would opt for aftermarket cooling for NB, SB and PWM area... many have had good succes with Thermaltake Blue orbs on the chipsets and thermalright coolers on the PWM... I would leave the heatpipe intact just in case the board needs to be RMA'd

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Leeghoofd

many have had good succes with Thermaltake Blue orbs on the chipsets and thermalright coolers on the PWM

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You make a good point about the RMA. I'll leave the original system intact unless I plan on doing any other warranty voiding mods first.

More questions now, isn't the TT Blue Orb a CPU cooler? Is it easy to mount on the NB? Is it worth cooling the SB?

And back to my original question with about reseating the stock system, can I do the whole job with hand tools, thermal interface cleaner and AS5? I don't need that thick "thermal paste" or "thermal adhesive" do I?

Hi all,

I am running into a couple of problems with the mobo... Not sure if they are user error or not :)

1. The LAN ports were working for a while and are now not really working. I plug an RJ-45 plug from one of the ports into the router, and I can't successfully ping the router, nor see the Net. Initially, I could see the router and get to the Net. Then, Firefox would work and IE wouldn't. Now can't even ping the router. Anyone had problems with the LAN ports? I have tried enabling and disabling the unused ones, switching cables, etc.
EDIT: Found this article on the Web... Sounds like my problem is related to Zone Alarm: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316414
** RESOLVED **

2. Not really mobo related, but I have 4GB of RAM installed. Viewing the System in Control panel would show 3GB previously - I know why this is, understand the 32-bit OS problem. I thought that I would get a little more, but was happy with 3GB seen in windows and 4GB in BIOS. Now, it reports 2.75GB. I haven't changed anything that I can recall. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
onthepulse

I have looked on this thread for an explanation on how the ratio between the fsb and DDR memory buses are set or how it works.
If someone could explain just how that works, much appreciated.
Regards
Ed

Hey I just loaded up coretemp and HWmonitor and both of them reported one core to be 37C while the other was 23C at idle...and also 37C/25C load on my e8400. This is at 3.4GHz, 1.26vcore, 0901 BIOS. Could this be the result of an incorrectly mounted heatsink?

Another quick question:
- Does this board have a "memory hole remapping" option in the BIOS? I can't find one.

Thanks,
onthepulse

Hey if anyone is bored they can check out my thread about my rig at anandtech :

http://forums.anandtech.com/messagev...57&STARTPAGE=1

hmmm...interesting. Maybe with a 45nm quad support I just could live with this board in the future. Let's see how the ASrock oc's, once I get my hands on one.

@Panfist, ya thats probably a bad mounting... try it again.


@edsyl, the ratio is determined by your ram ratio. On this mobo its quite simple to click unlinked, then set the ram speed to what you want.




thx for your help guys.. got 3.0 ghz rock solid now :)


now the next step is 3.2ghz, gotta buy some more heatsinks.


(btw, i loved my Asrock Dual-Sata II, great mobo, untill i broke it with a bad volt mod *tear*)

I've tried re-seating the heatsink on my e8400 twice and i'm still getting a 15C difference between the two cores at idle and load. Also a weird thing the idle and load temps are the same...37C for core1 and 24C for core2. I'm thinking these are completely bogus.

Whenever i try running prime95 blend with 450fsb, it will freeze after 10-15 minutes. No matter what voltages I try, it's always the same 10-15 minutes.

Help? It's obviously an memory-related issue, since the max.fpu stress runs flawlessly with all 4 cores. Even at 6x450 it still freezes after 10-15 minutes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jultsu

Whenever i try running prime95 blend with 450fsb, it will freeze after 10-15 minutes. No matter what voltages I try, it's always the same 10-15 minutes.

Help? It's obviously an memory-related issue, since the max.fpu stress runs flawlessly with all 4 cores. Even at 6x450 it still freezes after 10-15 minutes.

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did you ever think to check to see if your northbridge is hot. if no matter what that every 10-15mins it crashs its a heat problem not a memory problem. feel around the board and see if anything is hot while prime95 is going right before it restarts about 5 mins in maybe then check again in 5 more mins.

NB is propably around 30degrees max. I'm giving it 0-degree water. The top of the waterblock is currently 8 degrees and I'm benching blend ATM.

Maybe you could try messing with the timings.


have you tried lower voltages? I've found my mobo can be just as stable with less voltages.

So far I've discovered that with 1.45v CPU VTT from BIOS (everest shows 1.50v) I GET A BSOD. Upping or lowering the VTT voltage results in a freeze. I also tried lowering the subtimings A LOT, but with no results. 1.7v NB seems to be the lowest possible voltage, any lower and it will just freeze within minutes. Haven't tried any higher than 1.85v to NB, and I'm not sure I even want to :D

Damnit, I'm so close. Maybe it's the 1.2v HT voltage? It's just an infinite number of possibilities, trying every voltage combination etc.


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ok, so what I've gathered from numerous sources around the internet, the CPU VTT voltage has actually NOTHING to do with the CPU frequency. It's basically the FSB VTT (what Everest suggests in the first place :D).

So, for every FSB there is a certain FSB VTT voltage. When running these kinds of FSB speeds (333+ MHz) the voltage has to be PRECISELY correct. Else, it will just freeze randomly.

Now that I've got the VTT voltage dialed in correctly, I'm still so lost with all the other possibilities. SP-MCP HT frequency, LDT multiplier, 1.2v HT voltage, SB voltage (maybe it has something to do as well?), the DIMM VTT (which I'm thinking of trying next) and so on... sheesh.

What are the FSB VTT voltages for different FSBs?
Do you have a list or table so one can have a look at it to see what VTT voltage is needed at a certain FSB?

Well, actually, it's not that simple :D I discovered that the VTT voltage is dependent on the NB voltage :D When I'm giving 1.65v to the NB, the VTT voltage needs to be exactly 1.35 (from bios) to NOT freeze (it's still not stable though). 1.85v NB requires 1.45v VTT. 1.60v NB required 1.30v VTT from bios.

This is just insane! How am I ever going to get this stable ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jultsu

Well, actually, it's not that simple :D

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I was afraid you would say that... :D

Thanks for the information! :up:

Hello guys ... I have been following this thread for some time already.. pretty much from last year when I decided to build a new rig. In December I finalized my build and everything worked fine .. right until yesterday when I decided to put less TIM on the HSF so that means reseat the heat sink fan. I took the HSF out and other components but the CPU.. when I put back everything in place and turn on nothing.. no beep no screen nothing.. all components are on since I can see the light on mobo green and all fans on.. the GPU fan is at full speed and my memory leds ..are only on but the blue ones (using tracers) in any case the computer do not POST at all no matter what I do.. I have tried taking off GPU.. Memory.. 1 GB slot .. changing memory slot .. clear CMOS.. battery removed all that and nothing.. I even tried with CPU and HSF only and nothing. SO i wonder if you guys have any ideas of what could have been. I put it out and re builded once again and nothing.. I used anti static wrist strap .. Any help would be appreciated.

here are my pc specs :

Q6600 G0
Evga 8800GT
P5N32-E SLI plus
PCP&C 750 Silencer
Crucial Ballistix Tracers PC2-8500
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
1 DVD RW SONY Optiarc 7170A
Cooler Master HyperTX2 HSF

Thanks all

@jultsu: Can you increase the clocks a little more, so that the problem occurs a little sooner?
I always do that to fiddle out those stupid combinations, which one works and which one doesn't. If it takes 15 minutes for each test run you'd sit there for days and might not come out with a result.
I increased my clocks for example so that Prime would stop shortly after 1 minute was over. Then I tried numerous, changing one setting at a time, then noted how long, minutes and seconds :D , it would run without an error. After that I tried to combine the settings that ran for the longest time, adjusted again slightly and then I re-checked the clock rates I wanted to use originally. Worked out quite nicely ;)
Other things, like sub-timings, are impossible to set without this method.

Quote:

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Hello guys ... I have been following this thread for some time already.. pretty much from last year when I decided to build a new rig. In December I finalized my build and everything worked fine .. right until yesterday when I decided to put less TIM on the HSF so that means reseat the heat sink fan. I took the HSF out and other components but the CPU.. when I put back everything in place and turn on nothing.. no beep no screen nothing.. all components are on since I can see the light on mobo green and all fans on.. the GPU fan is at full speed and my memory leds ..are only on but the blue ones (using tracers) in any case the computer do not POST at all no matter what I do.. I have tried taking off GPU.. Memory.. 1 GB slot .. changing memory slot .. clear CMOS.. battery removed all that and nothing.. I even tried with CPU and HSF only and nothing. SO i wonder if you guys have any ideas of what could have been. I put it out and re builded once again and nothing.. I used anti static wrist strap .. Any help would be appreciated.

here are my pc specs :

Q6600 G0
Evga 8800GT
P5N32-E SLI plus
PCP&C 750 Silencer
Crucial Ballistix Tracers PC2-8500
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
1 DVD RW SONY Optiarc 7170A
Cooler Master HyperTX2 HSF

Thanks all

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Any help highly appreciated

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pifive

Any help highly appreciated

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Borrow another PSU if you can... see if that's the problem. Also, are you at OC? Try loading defaults and see if you can start up then.

The computer is on stock speed both CPU and GPU.. ..the computer just wont POST...

Radical_53: I'll try, because I REALLY REALLY like this board. On the other hand, I have the new ASrock board (still a 650i board, lol) waiting for me at the local computer store, which has support for the new 45nm dual and quadcore cpu:s, and should also clock better with quads. We'll see which one stays in my rig.