Asus K8N/K8N-E tweaking guide

[Nem]

Right, decided to start another thread for this motherboard as the old one was basically about how bad it was.

Asus have today released a new bios, 1004, which the main purpose is the increase overclocking ability. What they have added is the HT bus multipler option, which was locked before at 4x.

With all other bios version before this my maximum HTT speed was 214HTT. Today, with the HTT bus multi set to 3x, the results are below...





You will notice that I have got the ram using the 333Mhz divider, my ram is not willing to go above about 218HTT speeds - owing to the lack of Vddr, the max being 2.7v

Nick

[LilGator]

Very Longhorn-ish

I assume there is a working vDimm mod for this board ?

Can you drop your CPU multi and raise the HTT further ?

How high does your HT go with 4x LDT ?

Multiplier options in BIOS ? How high can vCore go in BIOS ?

[Nem]

Using the Jade theme at the moment, quite liking it

Right, I tried to lowed the HTT Bus Multi, but even 2x and 1x do not offer any more really. I can get up to about 270 HTT but I think my ram is causing me problems there. Same as also dropping the CPU Multi, does not allow any higher either.

The vcore goes from 1.375 to 1.750.

At 4 LDT I can get to about 215 HTT, and thats all. So you can see what an improvement this is today!!!

Nick

[LilGator]

How about a lower RAM divider ?

[Nem]

Nope, lower ram divider does not help either. So Looks like my system tops out at 255 - 260 ish.



Looking good tho!!

Nick

[SmokeyTheBandit]

Thx for pointing this out Nem

Will get one tomorrow hopefully :P
Will also look into the vmods for this mofo

Lets hope the vmods are not so hard to find out as the EPoX 8KDA3+

The reason for upgrading for me is a stable vcore under load is the K8N-E Capable of doing that.

The EPoX realy messes that up with almost 0,1 V difference for idle and load ..... :grr:

Can you look into that ..... i know for sure im not the only one with this question

Thx for pointing this out once again

[LilGator]

It's nice to see ASUS listening to people's problems and fixing overclocking related things with new BIOS releases

ABiT could learn something here

[IvanAndreevich]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!! Gonna test it RIGHT NOW!

OK in Windows @ 250 HTT. Good thing ASUS didn't :smileysex us over this time around

[Nem]

Originally posted by SmokeyTheBandit
The reason for upgrading for me is a stable vcore under load is the K8N-E Capable of doing that.

Just ran a full pass on 3dMark03, the vcore in the bios is set at 1.65v.

The history in Asus Probe while idle, running the test and at idle again after ranges from 1.648v up to 1.696v.

Looks pretty stable to be. It did not drop more than 0.002v below the setting in the bios, and just overvolted a small amount at times.

Nick

EDIT: the bios is actually set at 1.70v - so thats not looking too great now!!

[IvanAndreevich]

OK it's doing 266 HTT no sweat passing 3DMark2001 with lowered multi to 9 and 5:3 mem divider. Going for more.

[althes]

kepp us updated, bios seems to of worked.

[ekOms]

Very good news.. glad to see Asus put in the effort to fix the issues.. I look forward to seeing your progress with this board fellas.

[chunkylover77]

Boy if DFI was not coming out so soon I would be looking at this.

[IvanAndreevich]

It turns on @ 300 HTT, but BSOD. I didn't try the 2x multi on the HTT, though. I really need some memory that would do higher clocks!

Actually, this does 220 @ 2.7V so it's not that bad. What I need is more volts on the memory. If we can convince ASUS to get it up to 2.9V, that would suffice for now. If not - voltmod.

[K8N]

Trans Am complained (somewhat in jest I believe?? ) that it "only" took Asus 6 weeks to get a BIOS fix for the OC issues with the K8N-E Deluxe. I'm glad I waited ... I almost reinstalled an MSI Neo Platinum (still brand new in the box received as a replacement for another MSI Neo Platinum that I RMAd ... it was about the worst board I've ever encountered ... check the MSI forums for all the stuff those guys are still enduring).

Anyway, I opted to try the Asus K8N-E (even though I have a replacement MSI) because of fear of all the MSI issues I'm reading about, and decided that I'd stick it out with the Asus board because at least all the functions and features work aside from OCing...that is until now. OCing is here!

I'm using the BIOS 1004.3 Beta with the following:

HTT: 3
Processor Multi: 9 (Stock)
CPU: 255 @ 1.625v
Memory: 333 @ 2.6v / 2.5-2-2-10

That equates to CPU running at 2295.4MHz with memory at 208.7MHz. Similarly to others here, I couldn't get stable beyond 215 "FSB" with the earlier BIOSes (1001 through 1003.x).

Anyway, bumping up to 260 caused a lock-up at the Win XP Pro (SP2) login screen, so I backed off to 255. Anything further will require some changes to voltage and memory timings, I'm sure. I'm gonna stick with 255 for a couple of days and then experiment some more.

Thanks for the posts.

[StormPC]

Asus makes great stuff. My A8V (even with it's initial problems) is the fastest non-vmodded 100% air-cooled computer on the ORB.

I'm testing a K8N-E Deluxe and I really like it so far.

[K8N]

Update: I couldn't wait a couple of days...so more experimentation .

The latest stable is up from 255 to 260:

HT Ratio: 3
Processor Multi: 9
Mem: 333 @ 2.7v = 212.8MHz / 2.5-2-2-10 1T
CPU: 260 @ 1.650v = 2340.3MHz

I was able to get 260 stable by raising the voltage on the CPU and memory slightly.

I tried setting the HT Ratio to 2 (there is no 2.5, only full unit increments from 1 -4) and bumping up higher, but no go. I got a lot of strangeness on my boot manager screen (BootIt NG)...video breakup... the screen was blank where [parts] of images should have been, mouse pointer trails would "erase" the screen, etc. etc. I just had to power-off from there and change settings in BIOS.

By the way, I notice screenshots of ClockGen, but I can't use it if I set anything higher than ~240 HTT. If I go higher, the computer just shuts off or hangs when I click "Set Values". So, I've just been making all settings changes the old fashioned way...in the BIOS.

[Mentaly]

Hi


Nice I just knew they would pull it off, I bought the board real cheap, from some guy who needed a fast overclock , will be fun to see how it faires with my 2x512 Crucial Ballistix, they run 220 cas 2-2-2-5 default volts no problems . Now we just need a modded bios with 1.85 for vcore again and some more vdimm if its possible.

Menty

[Nem]

If we could get some bios guru to have a look at the 1001 bios to see how they had 1.85vcore in there, and then mod the 1004 that would be amazing.

I was showing the pics of clockgen just to show thae speeds, mainly for the locked agp/pci busses. I cannot use clockgen on this board at all now, just locks up.

Nick

[K8N]

Nem,

Okay...I gotcha now regarding ClockGen. I originally thought your screenshots of ClockGen implied you were using it to set HTT, etc. Glad I'm not the only one that has to use BIOS for settings changes.

By the way, I am stable at 263HTT now. I can make 265HTT stick while doing low load tasks, but as soon as I run something that applies a load for several minutes, the computer reboots. Bumping to 266HTT won't even boot into Windows...it just boots over and over until I reset BIOS.
266HTT (*3=798) seems that it would be as close as I could get to the 800MHz bus max anyway at an HT Ratio of 3 (am I correct in my estimation of how the AMD 64 HT ratio works?).

If I am correct, I guess "263 * 3 = 789MHz" is close enough to the 800 MHz bus maximum for now. Any other tweaks wouldn't gain much before running into the 800MHz wall, right?

[Mentaly]

Hi


Well it looks promising , both the board and my Crucial Ballistix





Im gonna test some more a little l8r btw mem is still at 2.5 volts .


Menty

[Nem]

Which ballistix is that????

The PC3200 as it says in CPUz?

Nick

[Mentaly]

Hi


Yep the same stuff from this test Its based on Micron pc3200 G sample chips.
http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2145

It roxx big time as he says it also do 220 2-2-2-5 at 2.5 volts no problem, havent really tested the max yet as I got the mem Monday and the bios fix came today .

Edit: Sandra scores went from 1500 to 3300 now well thats BW loving.

Menty

[Nem]

Just placed my order for 2x 512Mb Crucial Ballistix PC4000.

The PC4000 was only £3 more per stick that the PC3200 - so thought it was worth it to make sure.

Thanks for the info!!

Nick

[IvanAndreevich]

K8N
For my board it seems that the HT wall is 220*4=880 Mhz. However, I also max out around 266*3=798 with memory running @ 217.

We need more volts on the core & memory!