[18th Anniversary] Asus Black Pearl - P5k-Premium Testing Report

[Budwise]

if you are running Vista go into the power management settings and set it to "Performance Mode". That should do the trick...

[scaramonga]

if you are running Vista go into the power management settings and set it to "Performance Mode". That should do the trick...

Running XP.

[Vapor matt]

I have found 0302 very stable and has my Go Q at 3.6g on water 100% stable. i found the release bios 0102 really flakey. when flashing to 0302 you get found new hardware and have to re install your GFX card.

i think this beta has a major change in the bios, thats why it does the found new hardware in windows after flash. iam running 4 X 1G cellshock PC8000 at 4-4-4-12 2.2v 450 fsb 1.1 and its 100% stable with the new beta bios 0302


dont forget to load setup defaults after flash and reboot before changing anything or you could get unstabilty as the bios hasnt reset from your old settings.

use ezzy flash from bios, not the asus update. and enable USB legacy devices in bios before trying to find your USB flash pen.

i think 0302 is a great bios! even if it is beta

[Budwise]

good to hear that its developing well. I'll wait for the official though...

[rhluhu]

Hey guys, if any of you have the SATA problem maybe you want to try the following:

1. Install 7.5XXXX SATA driver.
2. Flash to 0302 BIOS.
3. Change 'plug and play OS' to No in BIOS.


GoodLuck

[TinTin]

The 302 BETA BIOS has more Booster Level

Enable: 1,2,3
no try level = 0, too slow

266Strap, Level 1 = Performance Level 6
266Strap, Level 2 = Performance Level 5
266Strap, Level 3 = Performance Level 4 <== I think, result in no boot

333Strap, Level 1 = Performance Level 9
333Strap, Level 2 = Performance Level 8
333Strap, Level 3 = Performance Level 7

[andyr(uk)]

Hi ,do you have a link to 0302

[scaramonga]

Hi ,do you have a link to 0302

http://rapidshare.com/files/52031637/P5K-ASUS-Premium-0302.zip.html

No issues here with 0302 never had to install my GPU again either

What's this booster level thing do??

[Pyr0]

hi scara
it changes the perfomance level of the chipset which alters the internal chipset latencies to make it faster or slower

[gonx_me]

I did solve my problems with X-Fi and P5K Premium with latest intel drivers 8.40.XX drivers. The sound return to be perfect.
Any more tests with 0302?

[scaramonga]

hi scara
it changes the perfomance level of the chipset which alters the internal chipset latencies to make it faster or slower

Hey buddy!.......thee Pyr0?? ?

Thx for explanation

[theonlybabyface]

I did solve my problems with X-Fi and P5K Premium with latest intel drivers 8.40.XX drivers. The sound return to be perfect.
Any more tests with 0302?

Got a link. My Xi-Fi card hisses after driver is installed.

Also, my board has a double boot issue and if I shutdown my pc, I have to switch off the psu, turn it back on and then it'll boot. Running the enermax in my sig btw.

[GAR]

this board looks nice, i wouldnt mind it, but the x38 has pci-e 2.0 so i would rather wait for that.

[gonx_me]

Got a link. My Xi-Fi card hisses after driver is installed.

Also, my board has a double boot issue and if I shutdown my pc, I have to switch off the psu, turn it back on and then it'll boot. Running the enermax in my sig btw.

The driver name is INF_AllOS_8.4.0.1016_PV_Intel.exe.
Here is the link http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...=eng&PrdMap=36

My PSU is a Bequiet Truepower 550W

[theonlybabyface]

Thanks. I take it you don't get the double boot issue then?

[gonx_me]

yes. never did have problems with double boot problems

[theonlybabyface]

Ok...got rid of the double boot issue. It was caused be my Thermalright IFX mini heatsink that goes under the mobo shorting out. Yanked it out and dropped my Tuniq Tower back in and all good.

Sound is fine again as well....

[gonx_me]

Today... sniff sniff. The problems with X-Fi are back. After a week with no problems, and i didn't change anything in the pc (hardware or software)...
I didn't had anyproblem with the Evga 650 ...

[theonlybabyface]

I used older creative drivers and it solved the issue for me. Don't use the latest WHQL driver but the one just before it. Sorry, not at home so don't know the version number...ends in .0012 if I remember...Vista btw.

[gonx_me]

I used older creative drivers and it solved the issue for me. Don't use the latest WHQL driver but the one just before it. Sorry, not at home so don't know the version number...ends in .0012 if I remember...Vista btw.

I'm on XP SP2 full updates right now. I don't really like Vista.

[Jedipottsy]

Hi

Im looking to get this board for new build using PX9200 OCZ Flex XLC 4x1gb sticks, and a q6600 G0 SCLAR. Using water cooling is this a good board to hit 3.6Ghz all the time? Id love to hit higher, *cough*4ghz*cough* or would i be better getting 2gb ddr3 and X38?

[andyr(uk)]

I think if you have a go chip then 3.6 should be well within the limits

[petercintn]

Got mine Thursday and thought I'd got one of the bad ones. Just had to get rid of the nvidia raid on the HD's. Not to bad of a prob.

Been playing around with the board, everything works great, going to see which size stripe is best now. But no problems with board, loaded with 204 bios, made in TW. Lost my water pump, but I have a Q6600 G0 with the stock cooler running @ 356x9 with 1.25vid. This board seems great so far.

[XtremeTiramisu]

Got mine Thursday and thought I'd got one of the bad ones. Just had to get rid of the nvidia raid on the HD's. Not to bad of a prob.

Been playing around with the board, everything works great, going to see which size stripe is best now. But no problems with board, loaded with 204 bios, made in TW. Lost my water pump, but I have a Q6600 G0 with the stock cooler running @ 356x9 with 1.25vid. This board seems great so far.

I have the same board.
Made in Taiwan, shipped with 0204 BIOS.
And unfortunately, my P5K-Premium has that annoying abnormal SATA issue.
I'm using the 5000AAKS WD drive 500GB in AHCI mode and Vista 64bit.
The installation process took 1.5hours which was rediculous. Especially in the expanding file in stage 2.
I thought flashing to 0302 beta BIOS will somehow fix this damn problem but it's not. I get this intermittent system freezes due to the infamous mobo's SATA controller. You can identify the HDD led is on full blue means is on max loading when the system is unresponsive. You have to wait like 2-3 mins for the HDD to finish loading whatever it's loading..

Just exactly like everyone describes on every other forum, Asus support forum...not even my P5K-Deluxe does this....

I'm going to RMA this board in and get a store credit and use it towards the upcomming X38 mobo.

While the the system is running fine, the HDD is smooth and fast. HD tune reports very fast read/write/burst rate speed for one 5000AAKS HD under AHCI configuration, Avg 68mb/s and 112mb burst rate. But as soon as the intermittent abnormal HDD activity kicks in, I feel like I'm back in the P2/P3 days...OMFG....

I hate Asus's so called - 18th anniversary BLACK PEARL special edition Marketing bullsxxt crap....

Yes, I've tried everything I can to try to solve this but apparently, I think it's a hardware related issue like everyone else.

This is my 7th system I build/OC this year so I'm not a noob and I know what I'm doing...

Anyways...just to let eveyrone know that this mobo particularily, P5K-Premium is very buggy in terms of its SATA controller, other than that I belive it's a step above P5K-Dlx in its OC-ability. But it's useless to point out what good is left when the basic PC functionality fails to perform....

[petercintn]

I have the same board.
Made in Taiwan, shipped with 0204 BIOS.
And unfortunately, my P5K-Premium has that annoying abnormal SATA issue.
I'm using the 5000AAKS WD drive 500GB in AHCI mode and Vista 64bit.

It seems the WD drives are one of the worst with this board. I gave up on WD 3 years ago and went with Maxtors & Seagates and I've never been happier.


The Maxtors, where the OS's and games will be



The Seagates, backups, music & movies



Hope you get it all worked out for you, what ever you do. I wish I could get the new X38 DFI baby! I may for Xmas!