Asus P5Q-E questions...

[dnottis]

I just went from a P5K-E to this P5Q-E. I have a few questions...

What is the best bios for overclocking a Q9550?

What are some suggested settings to break 4.0Ghz (this chip can do 4.1 @ 1.38v prime stable on other boards)?

I use GTX 280 in PCI-E slot 1 and 9600GT in slot PCI-E slot 2 but on this board they both drop to 8x, it was 16x and 4x on my P5K-E. They aren't SLI'd; just one for main GPU and other for physx, how can I fix this so that slot 1 is 16x still?

Thanks, I may update with more as I tinker with this, so far I really miss my P5K-E....

[ci2kla]

I think you have to try that out yourself...for BIOS part...
P5Q-E is a P45 mobo. P45 chipset only supports CFX 8x + 8x mode
hence explained why your mobo is configured to 8x 8x when both of your cards are plugged in. I don't think there's a solution on that issue to change it back to 16x on the first slot...sorry just a guess because I'm not using this mobo but IIRC on P5Q-Deluxe it don't have such related options in BIOS...

[dnottis]

I use GTX 280 in PCI-E slot 1 and 9600GT in slot PCI-E slot 2 but on this board they both drop to 8x, it was 16x and 4x on my P5K-E. They aren't SLI'd; just one for main GPU and other for physx, how can I fix this so that slot 1 is 16x still?

I fixed the issue with the GPUs. Running the 9600GT (Physx) on the 3rd PCI-E slot fixes this. PCI-e 1 is 16x and PCI-e 3 is 4x.

[Leeghoofd]

I used 1406 to full satisfaction on my P5Q series...

For best ram bandwith don't use the 1:1 Divider
NB GTL tuning is where the key is at for blend stability
Try CME : Compatible

[dnottis]

I went back to BIOS 0803 after reading alot of Q9550 users found the best stability overclocking with it. I used the Kodakey bootable CD and had no issues flashing backwards, Alt-F2 wouldn't let me obviously.

I've gotten stability at 4Ghz after alot of messing about, I was ready to throw in the towel last night a few times and just stick the P5K-E back in. Then I found a post where someone had suggested some really high voltages for NB, SB,etc. Starting from there things were stable, and I have worked my way back down maintaining Prime95 stability now though. I think the biggest factors were the CPU GTLs to 0.68 and NB to 1.3v (backed off to 1.28v now and still stable, previously I don't think I was giving it more than 1.24v though). Maybe more of it is the BIOS too, not sure, either way I can blend and small FFTs now.

GTL .68/.68
PLL 1.52v
FSB 1.22v
NB 1.28v
NB GTL .67
SB 1.20v
SATA 1.50v

This ran prime 95 last night for about 2 hours. Just starting it up again today. Let me know if you guys have any thoughts on the current voltages I'm using.

[sabe]

That seems rather typical of P45 A2 revision boards, is that the absolute lowest VCORE will go?

[dnottis]

That seems rather typical of P45 A2 revision boards, is that the absolute lowest VCORE will go?

...still working on it. I thought 4Ghz @ 1.34v was pretty good, considering my last Q6600 did 3.737 @ 1.42v hehe

So 4Ghz @ 1.34v for Q9550 is typical? I saw most people running them under 4Ghz.

[dnottis]

I managed to drop to 1.336v but had to bump PLL back to 1.54v

[dnottis]

Well after playing this game for the last few days and managing Prime95 stability I still had random BSODs using a multitude of Bioses. I started playing with LinX and for the life of me couldn't get it stable. So in the process of troubleshooting I removed everything from the board and started adding things back slowly. I've found the issue. I use a GTX 280 (water cooled) as my main GPU and an EVGA 9600GT for dedicated PhysX. As soon as I put the second GPU in either slot 2 or 3 I lost LinX stability and would experience random BSOD's. Its not the card as I had no issues on my P5K-E with all the same hardware. Its a problem with the board having 2 x GPUs installed.

Now the first thing, it's an open box from Newegg so it's entirely possible its just a bad board. I have ordered a NIB Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P that will be here Tuesday from Newegg. In the meantime I pulled the board removed the SB and NB and re-applied some decent TIM. The board seems better but still as soon as the second GPU is install LinX will fail. At the same settings or if I bump voltages it still fails.

So how many people here are using 2 GPUS? Crossfire or for PhysX and has it limited your overclock or affected stability in any way?

Thanks!

[Dua|ist]

dnottis
I'm sure you've already played with settings when trying to resolve this issue, but here's what I would've done:
- play with PCI-E frequency and toggle PCI-E Spread Spectrum on/off. I've seen an Asus board (P5K IIRC, but not sure) lose stability with PCI-E SS turned off in bios. This was with an HD4850 though
- obvious: how about raising PCI-E/SATA voltage a bit?
- I'd prefer 3rd slot for a PhysX card as it is most likely using PCI-E lanes from the southbridge, so less stress to NB and the main slot will stay at full x16 speed. In this case however some SB voltage increase might be needed and maybe vPll too
- when in 2nd slot the videocard will obviously use NB's PCI-E lanes. Then maybe increase NB voltage for better stability

All in all it looks like something chipset- and most likely northbridge-related. I wonder if lowering the clocks helps regain stability.

[dnottis]

dnottis
I'm sure you've already played with settings when trying to resolve this issue, but here's what I would've done:
- play with PCI-E frequency and toggle PCI-E Spread Spectrum on/off. I've seen an Asus board (P5K IIRC, but not sure) lose stability with PCI-E SS turned off in bios. This was with an HD4850 though
- obvious: how about raising PCI-E/SATA voltage a bit?
- I'd prefer 3rd slot for a PhysX card as it is most likely using PCI-E lanes from the southbridge, so less stress to NB and the main slot will stay at full x16 speed. In this case however some SB voltage increase might be needed and maybe vPll too
- when in 2nd slot the videocard will obviously use NB's PCI-E lanes. Then maybe increase NB voltage for better stability

All in all it looks like something chipset- and most likely northbridge-related. I wonder if lowering the clocks helps regain stability.

Thanks for the tips. I have tried everything you suggested over the last few days. I was just looking for some other suggestions, all of which were great btw. I guess I'll just keep my hopes up for the GB p45 and see how it goes there, maybe this is a bad board... no biggie I've got 30 days to RMA it.

Dean

[dnottis]

Just as a last follow up to this thread. I ordered my GB P45 UD3P and have had great luck so far.

I requested RMA from Newegg for this board. They not only waived the restock fee (15%), they are paying UPS shipping back to them. Great job Newegg - keeping another customer no matter how bad the experience might have been. I love Newegg