ASUS P5W DH - Problems + Fixes Thread

[tomcug]

And do you think that the mobo will work fine? For now, every time I have tried with this 1066kit windows vista didn't boot anymore (error in boot files), so I have restored two or three times all the system...

And do you think it will be possible to overclock a 1066 memory kit, for example reaching 1100 / 1150 MHz?

I think it will work but I don't think you can overclock those memories. Our motherboard doesn't like memories to run at speeds higher than 1066MHz. I'll check it with my configuration really soon.

[PaVi90]

I think it will work but I don't think you can overclock those memories. Our motherboard doesn't like memories to run at speeds higher than 1066MHz. I'll check it with my configuration really soon.

Let me know!!

Thanks for all and good new year!

[tomcug]

Let me know!!

Thanks for all and good new year!

I'll perform all tests tomorrow because today I was changing case. Happy New Year for everyone !

[LordX]

Well, after reading the last few pages of this thread, it looks like 45nm procs are nothing but a pain in the ass on this board... Especially if you want a solid OC.

I have a 2006 e6700 proc running water cooled @ 3.76ghz... stable for 2 years.

Seeing the results that people have had with this board, I don't think it would benefit me much to go the e8500 route.

I am going to be upgrading to 4GB of ram (2x2).. Found 4gb Crucial Ballistix for $41!!! CL4! I will post how that works out..

I will be replacing my old OCZ Titanium (2 x 1gb) kit. That cost me $500 2 years ago!

If I can get 940mhz @ 4-4-4 with this Crucial kit, I will be happy.

LASTLY: I have seen people on this thread having issues with the GTX280 video cards. Is this a known issue? Should I avoid this card? How about the 4870X2 card? Any recommendations would be welcome!

[tomcug]

Well, after reading the last few pages of this thread, it looks like 45nm procs are nothing but a pain in the ass on this board... Especially if you want a solid OC.

I have a 2006 e6700 proc running water cooled @ 3.76ghz... stable for 2 years.

Seeing the results that people have had with this board, I don't think it would benefit me much to go the e8500 route.

I am going to be upgrading to 4GB of ram (2x2).. Found 4gb Crucial Ballistix for $41!!! CL4! I will post how that works out..

I will be replacing my old OCZ Titanium (2 x 1gb) kit. That cost me $500 2 years ago!

If I can get 940mhz @ 4-4-4 with this Crucial kit, I will be happy.

LASTLY: I have seen people on this thread having issues with the GTX280 video cards. Is this a known issue? Should I avoid this card? How about the 4870X2 card? Any recommendations would be welcome!

LordX, if you have 1.04G revison of P5W DH Deluxe, then you don't have to worry about overclocking 45nm CPUs. I overclocked my E7200 to 4GHz without any problems with voltage at 1.4V. G40RoCkEt overclocked his new E8600 to 4GHz with 1.4V too. Even if you have older revision, it shouldn't be a problem because 1.4V isn't too high for those CPUs. About memories, it isn't any trouble to run them at 960MHz with 4-4-4-12 timings. I ran my memories at 980MHz with 4-4-4-12 timing and 2.3V without any troubles. I can also say that you don't have to avoid GTX 280 cards, they run fine with this board.

[LordX]

Tom - thanks for the reply.

Overclocking to 4ghz is something this e6700 can do.

I don't think that it is worth it to spend $250 on a e8600 and NOT hit FIVE Ghz. (hell, there were some people two years ago here who hit 5Ghz with the x6800).

The only benefit besides SSE4 is the 6 MB cache compared to 4...

I will have some fun with the Ram, I got 4gb (2x2) of OCZ ReaperX ram a month ago, and they installed, but the timings SUCKED! Especially @ 940mhz... I was at 5-6-5 from 4-4-4... Wasn't happy. Now I get to try all over again with Crucial.

[tomcug]

Tom - thanks for the reply.

Overclocking to 4ghz is something this e6700 can do.

I don't think that it is worth it to spend $250 on a e8600 and NOT hit FIVE Ghz. (hell, there were some people two years ago here who hit 5Ghz with the x6800).

The only benefit besides SSE4 is the 6 MB cache compared to 4...

I will have some fun with the Ram, I got 4gb (2x2) of OCZ ReaperX ram a month ago, and they installed, but the timings SUCKED! Especially @ 940mhz... I was at 5-6-5 from 4-4-4... Wasn't happy. Now I get to try all over again with Crucial.

LordX, I don't think you can hit 5GHz with any normal voltage. I've never seen any review where 5GHz was achieved. And I don't think that anyone needs more than 4GHz. About those timings, you can set them manually at 4-4-4-12, I don't see a problem. You just need to increase voltage of course. Timings are very important with 975X, for example this is my own testing:
- 400MHz, 800MHz, 5-6-6-18, 9159 MB/s
- 400MHz, 800MHz, 4-4-4-12, 9571 MB/s

[LordX]

Setting timings manually is one thing... having the system boot... now that is what is important.

With the OCZ ReaperX 4 gb kit, it would not post unless I set it at 5-6-5.

I will update my findings with this Ballistix kit... if this works, it will be the best upgrade I think I have ever done (price included in that)...

[tomcug]

Setting timings manually is one thing... having the system boot... now that is what is important.

With the OCZ ReaperX 4 gb kit, it would not post unless I set it at 5-6-5.

I will update my findings with this Ballistix kit... if this works, it will be the best upgrade I think I have ever done (price included in that)...

Can you post BIOS config you used for OCZ ReaperX kit? I can have system boot with manual timings and my memories wven at 450MHz.

[clip]

sorry!

i

lied

[WeldZilla]

You know the best memory I ever found for the P5W is the G.Skill 6400HZ @ 800mhz on the memory you can run it at 3-3-3-5. The board is at it's best on the 1:1 with memory.
you can run 4 sticks of the G.Skill as tight as 2. You will see a very nice performance boost.
here is a shot with my E6600 Check the timings.


Here is when I switched to the Q6600 this is with 4 sticks of 6400HZ again check the timings.


This was near the end for my P5W DH. Soon after I reinstalled the 950 Presler that I had used originally with the board and sold the system
It was a fine board but, it was time to go. I replaced it with the P5E and it just crushes the P5W DH on every front. So I made the right move for me
Oh here is a shot of my former P5W DH with the Presler I had.

Let me tell you it was no slouch!!

I found the board to be a strong runner right up to it's limits the 975X chipset was truly amazing when it came out!!
Especially when I coupled it with the G.Skill 6400HZ

WZ

[mikepaul]

I've run through several permutations of my old E6300 settings along with a manual 1.45V vCore, trying to find some magic numbers where the Q9450 would remain stable, but no joy.

So, is ANYONE actually using 1.45V with a 45nm CPU on a 1.02G revision and can say what works?...

[tomcug]

I've run through several permutations of my old E6300 settings along with a manual 1.45V vCore, trying to find some magic numbers where the Q9450 would remain stable, but no joy.

So, is ANYONE actually using 1.45V with a 45nm CPU on a 1.02G revision and can say what works?...

If I understand well, then you've already increased CPU Voltage to 1.45V but it hasn't made your system stable. I think you should try to increase FSB Termination Voltage too. This makes 45nm CPUs more stable, I've experienced it with my E7200.

[bcl1203l]

I have a P5W DH Deluxe 1.02g that I have been running a E6600 @ 3.4ghz with 2GB of ram on for over 2 years. Everything is fine, but I am ready for an upgrade. My usage is mainly general productivity, however, I use VMware a lot and have multiple OS's running simultaneously. On top of that, I do a bit of gaming and a bit of video encoding.

I've read through this thread and done as much research as I can, and I believe that my options are pretty limited on this motherboard. I have my eye on a Q9550 and an upgrade to 4gb of RAM. I know I can run this combo on my board, but I also know I will not be able to overclock very well, if at all. That is essentially unacceptable to me. My current E6600 @ 3.4ghz would outperform a stock clocked Q9550 @ 2.66 in most games. I've thought about a Q6600, which should allow me a modest OC up around 3.2ghz which is basically just a lateral move in my mind.

My question is this. What is the best upgrade I can do on this motherboard? I am definitely going to overclock and take advantage of whatever I can to achieve optimal performance. I need a step up from my E6600 @ 3.4ghz, and I am already OK spending around $400 in order to do this (Q9550 + 4gb kit is in this price range). Is it worth upping the budget to around $500 and buying a new motherboard along with the CPU and RAM? There seem to be some well priced options (Asus P5Q-E, Asus P5Q SE+, Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R). Will these suit my needs? I have an external X-Fi sound card, one 8800GTS, and only 2 hard drives, so I really don't need many onboard features. I just need performance, OC-ability and stability. Also, for around $500 would it be possible to do i7? Would it be worth it?

Thanks

[LordX]

Tomcug - Well, I got the Crucial Ram, and put it in...

The timings I have gotten with no errors in Memtest are:
940mhz @ 5-5-4-12 for the 4Gb (2x2) kit.

My old OCZ Titanium 2 gig Kit got:
940mhz @ 4-4-4-4 (yes, I cant believe I got 4 on the last timing too!)

I am sad about the timing loss, but I need the extra ram... Sadly Vista + Fallout3 (at max settings) really DO use more than 2Gb.... I have alt-tabbed and seen memory utilization at 100%, and huge slow downs entering VATS...

I know its better to have less memory at tighter timings than more memory at looser timings, but I need the extra 2gb...

The small performance hit of the 5-5 compared to the 4-4 will be nothing if this upgrade gets rid of my issues with Fallout3 (and future games!).

I have Vista64, so at least I can see and use all of the Ram...

I will miss having one of the best timings for DDR2 @ 940mhz though...

This board is great... 2.5 years later, and I can still upgrade it...

e6700 @ 3.76ghz (totally 100% stable @ 40%+ OC!)
Crucial 4gb (2x2) 940mhz @ 5-5-4-12
WD Raptor 150gb
(Soon to be GTX280)

That's not a bad system at all for 2.5 years old

The e8600 proc is stock clocked at 3.33ghz...

[Yolanda]

My question is this. What is the best upgrade I can do on this motherboard? I am definitely going to overclock and take advantage of whatever I can to achieve optimal performance. I need a step up from my E6600 @ 3.4ghz, and I am already OK spending around $400 in order to do this (Q9550 + 4gb kit is in this price range). Is it worth upping the budget to around $500 and buying a new motherboard along with the CPU and RAM? There seem to be some well priced options (Asus P5Q-E, Asus P5Q SE+, Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R). Will these suit my needs? I have an external X-Fi sound card, one 8800GTS, and only 2 hard drives, so I really don't need many onboard features. I just need performance, OC-ability and stability. Also, for around $500 would it be possible to do i7? Would it be worth it?

Thanks

If you need gaming perfomance, you can wait a couple of weeks and buy Geforce GTX295 (about ~500-550$), with a small overclock it should be as fast as two Geforce GTX 280 in SLI mode on Nvidia mainboard with their SLI chipset, so it's about 3 times faster then 8800GTS512 and four times then older versions of 8800GTS, if you use high resolutions with antialiasing. Only this upgrade can give you such big inrease of perfomance. Quad core CPU can give you 2 times faster processing power only in special programs designed for multicore computing such as video decoding or software animation.

[tomcug]

Tomcug - Well, I got the Crucial Ram, and put it in...

The timings I have gotten with no errors in Memtest are:
940mhz @ 5-5-4-12 for the 4Gb (2x2) kit.

My old OCZ Titanium 2 gig Kit got:
940mhz @ 4-4-4-4 (yes, I cant believe I got 4 on the last timing too!)

I am sad about the timing loss, but I need the extra ram... Sadly Vista + Fallout3 (at max settings) really DO use more than 2Gb.... I have alt-tabbed and seen memory utilization at 100%, and huge slow downs entering VATS...

I know its better to have less memory at tighter timings than more memory at looser timings, but I need the extra 2gb...

The small performance hit of the 5-5 compared to the 4-4 will be nothing if this upgrade gets rid of my issues with Fallout3 (and future games!).

I have Vista64, so at least I can see and use all of the Ram...

I will miss having one of the best timings for DDR2 @ 940mhz though...

This board is great... 2.5 years later, and I can still upgrade it...

e6700 @ 3.76ghz (totally 100% stable @ 40%+ OC!)
Crucial 4gb (2x2) 940mhz @ 5-5-4-12
WD Raptor 150gb
(Soon to be GTX280)

That's not a bad system at all for 2.5 years old

The e8600 proc is stock clocked at 3.33ghz...

I've got a few questions. First of all, what memory voltage are you using? I had to use 2.3V to make 980MHz with 4-4-4-12 timings stable. At any lower voltage it was unstable in almost every game. What is more, lowering tWR timing in BIOS to 5 or even 6 makes memories much more stable. You can try this too. Right now you have 4GB of memory, so increasing MCH Voltage to 1.65V may help you too. I'm sure that you can reach those 4-4-4-12 timings.

[bcl1203l]

If you need gaming perfomance, you can wait a couple of weeks and buy Geforce GTX295 (about ~500-550$), with a small overclock it should be as fast as two Geforce GTX 280 in SLI mode on Nvidia mainboard with their SLI chipset, so it's about 3 times faster then 8800GTS512 and four times then older versions of 8800GTS, if you use high resolutions with antialiasing. Only this upgrade can give you such big inrease of perfomance. Quad core CPU can give you 2 times faster processing power only in special programs designed for multicore computing such as video decoding or software animation.

I'm reasonably happy with my gaming performance right now. If it goes up 10-20%, that'd be great, but my main goal is being able to run multiple OS's in VMware better. Any amount of money for an upgrade that nets me only gaming performance would be a waste for me.

[LordX]

You know what... I may have made a mistake thinking I could hit those timings with this ram...

This ram is rated 4-4-4 for 800mhz...... not 4-4-4 for 1000mhz....

So pushing to 940 on this ram......

I tried all those settings (my mch is already at 1.75)...

The system simply will not POST with CAS latency @ 4.

[tomcug]

I'm reasonably happy with my gaming performance right now. If it goes up 10-20%, that'd be great, but my main goal is being able to run multiple OS's in VMware better. Any amount of money for an upgrade that nets me only gaming performance would be a waste for me.

I think that you can buy E8600 and overclock it to 4GHz. This will give you better performance. If you really need quad-core, then you should buy another motherboard because P5W DH has troubles with overclocking those CPUs.

[bcl1203l]

I think that you can buy E8600 and overclock it to 4GHz. This will give you better performance. If you really need QuadCore, then you should buy another motherboard because P5W DH has troubles with overclocking those CPUs.

So the P5W DH rev 1.02g can overclock and manually adjust voltage on the 45nm Wolfdale dual cores, but not the 45nm Yorkfield quad cores?

[tomcug]

So the P5W DH rev 1.02g can overclock and manually adjust voltage on the 45nm Wolfdale dual cores, but not the 45nm Yorkfield quad cores?

No, P5W DH Rev. 1.02G can overclock and adjust voltage for both Wolfdale and Yorkfield CPUs. The only limitation is that voltage can't be set to any value lower than 1.4V. However our board has only two GTL reference voltage dividers. And this makes it quite poor at overclocking quad-core CPUs. So if you want to change CPU, then go for E8600 or change motherboard.

[retrogamer1990]

you seen the number of veiws for this thread! OVER ONE MILLION! :O

[G40RoCkEt]

Hello people,

After my new upgrade (E8600), i put some screenshots of my modest overclocking.

Thanks again to my friends Tomcug and Firestarter here.














AI OVERCLOCKING - MANUAL
CPU FREQUENCY - 400
DRAM FREQUENCY - DDR2 800
PERFORMANCE MODE - AUTO
PCI - 100
PCI CLOCK - 33.33
MEMORY VOLTAGE - 2.05V
CPU VCORE VOLTAGE - 1.400V
FSB TERMINATION VOLTAGE - 1.30V
MCH CHIPSET VOLTAGE - 1.65V
ICH CHIPSET VOLTAGE - 1.05V


ASUS P5W DH DELUXE ROCKS!!!! (Revision 1.02g)

[LordX]

Ok, I am ordering the 4Gb Kit rated 5-4-4 @ 1000mhz...

We will see if this kit hits 4-4-4 @ 940mhz. If so, then I will be a happy dude..

Will keep posted so others who want tight 4Gb Kits will know.