ASUS P5N32-E/Striker SLI Tips and Tricks Thread

[larsen_casper]

Mine as well

these are probably the defective boards

Hmm, interesting. I compared the two boards layout and specifikations, and there is no layout difference except for a smaller passiv heatpipe cooler on the P5N32-E, and no external SATA on the back panel, no thermal probes, less cables, and so on, compared with the striker.
What does thís mean? A cheaper board ripped of non-important functions, og a less overclockable board, 2. sorts?

Compare the specifikations and layout (via manual) here:
P5N32-E SLI specs sheet (HP) manual
Striker Extreme specs sheet (HP) manual

Another thing: did the new bios allow for more vcore?

The 0405 bios should:
1.Improve performance for certain memory modules.
2.Fix CPU Voltage max option goes down to 1.60V error when 'Tri Chinese' , 'Sim Chinese' or 'Japanese' is selected in Multi-Language option.

Any comments on the effect?

Thank you for contributing!

Casper

[rjw]

yes the bios upgrades allow for more vcore, but still a lot of vdroop

I have 3 or more sets of memory that this board does not like, especially at 1T.

the same mem works wonderfully on the nvidea reference boards at 1T.

So if improvements have been made to the memory compatability or whatever, it hasn't helped any of mine.

Hopefully others are having better luck...

[Ibinco]

Im on the striker, and for some reason this board is impossible @ anything beyond the 400FSB (1600) i can boot till 500FSb (X8) no problem but orthos stable...is as unpredictable as a woman on PMS. Last night i primed for 8hours on end @ 3.6ghz. Now today with the same exact setting it pooped out after 15minutes! WTF.. This CPU is upto 3.9 orthos stable hours on end...yet here on this strike out motherboard it seems not done.
BTW this motherboard is making my CPU run freaking hot!

Can some one tell me what their Vcore droop is like.(please check and report using my settings below)

Mine is for e.g. 1.45Vcore bios 1.34 windows 1.31v under orthos.

[rjw]

Mine as well

I can run at 4Ghz and -20c on my evga

Put the same chip on my p5n blah blah blah and it wants to go to 20c

same fsb, same voltage with droop, etc, it's unreal...

Sorry to hear about your woes, but relieved to hear that I am not the only one with a RED hot asus.

I am running my quad at 4.3Ghz @ 1.74v and -15c on the evga

On the asus, 40C and rising until I panic and shut it down!!!!!...

[Ibinco]

Mine as well

I can run at 4Ghz and -20c on my evga

Put the same chip on my p5n blah blah blah and it wants to go to 20c

same fsb, same voltage with droop, etc, it's unreal...

Sorry to hear about your woes, but relieved to hear that I am not the only one with a RED hot asus.

I am running my quad at 4.3Ghz @ 1.74v and -15c on the evga

On the asus, 40C and rising until I panic and shut it down!!!!!...

Man thats really crazy stuff!Im starting to get agitated...stupid motherboard cost a fortune...and its not better than the old P5b i had lol!

[adamsleath]

mmm hot why the temperature difference? why does 1 mobo dissipate the heat better than the other?

this temp diffrence is really important for lil ol me with an xp-120 ...whose still waitin for a cooool board

[sdumper]

I have been averaging around -30c with my modded mach II @ 1.64 vCore and 440 FSB. I run into a wall at around 450 and the wall goes away at 460. All in all this board rocks...no complaints really with the exception of available bios updates and a mem controller problem I had with dimm bank1.

http://www.blazingpc.com/attachment....2&d=1165370130

http://www.blazingpc.com/showthread.php?t=1273&page=1

[Nilson]

Hmm, interesting. I compared the two boards layout and specifikations, and there is no layout difference except

There are no some caps and two mosfets on P5N32-E. Take a look

[revenant]

Mine as well

these are probably the defective boards

I doubt they're defective.. they prolly just intend some to be the ramped down board and some get to be the ramped up version with all the bells, etc.. but they're the same board under all the crap they slap on for the "real" extreme version


Anyways.. has anyone tried stronger cooling on the NB for these boards, like adding a 40mm fan and/or checkintg for good contact on the chips with the sinks.. replacing the factory goop with AS5, etc.. that really helped the stability issues when OCing the P5W DH Dlx boards.. I was thinking perhaps the same might apply to these ones as well..

[rjw]

I doubt they're defective.. they prolly just intend some to be the ramped down board and some get to be the ramped up version with all the bells, etc.. but they're the same board under all the crap they slap on for the "real" extreme version


Anyways.. has anyone tried stronger cooling on the NB for these boards, like adding a 40mm fan and/or checkintg for good contact on the chips with the sinks.. replacing the factory goop with AS5, etc.. that really helped the stability issues when OCing the P5W DH Dlx boards.. I was thinking perhaps the same might apply to these ones as well..

i am running mcw30's on all my nb and sb's...made no difference with this board, it jut doesn't like my memory.

[ewitte]

Lol voltage regulation is crappier than I even though.

BIOS 1.45v = 1.39v
BIOS 1.5975v = 1.39v
BIOS 1.6v = 1.54v!

[Ibinco]

So i called asus...explaining everything possibly wrong with the board...the rep says nothing gets agitated and tells me hes only got 0402 bios..i decide to ask him why 0402 wasnt on the ftp server yet..he than say its cause it hasnt been fully tested and needs to be worked on. I then tell him ow that strange cause my striker got delivered with 0402. Anyway...they are full of kaka over @ asus and we have to face the fact that us early adaptors paid the premium and ty bioses. Cant believe the lack of supoprt for a 350 euro board ....kok suckers!

[ewitte]

BTW this motherboard is making my CPU run freaking hot!

I think its an illusion. The P5W-DH I had listed temperatures almost 15-20C lower than CoreTemp. I believe this board reads directly from the chip the same as coretemp does as the temperatures match mine exactly.

[sdumper]

if that is the case then its very strange indeed. My temps are way lower on the stiker than on the P5B Deluxe and also lower than on the P5W DH Deluxe.

I am reading -30+ while running orthos for an hour or so and on the P5B Deluxe my temps go to -8c frequently...I dont trust mobo temps at all.

At least not on a SS...

[pumero]

i have a 20°C difference between the striker readings and coretemp.

[sdumper]

which direction and are you using air, water or phase?

[Nilson]

P5N32-E:
Guys, should I plug 8-pin 12V or 4-pin 12v? I'm talking about additional ATX power socket... Can't find it in manual

Looks like my A1-B1 memory slots doesn't work correctly. Random freezes and I can't restart it - I need to unplug PSU cable to power up it again.
My Corsair 6400C4D works fine only in A2-B2. at least it looks like.....

Vdroop: looks like digital power control in troubles on these boards...
1) bios - 1.4v, Probe - 1.3v
2) bios - auto, Probe - 1.18v
3) bios - 1.2v, Probe - 1.14v
I'm going to check Vdroop with 8pin 12V and 4pin 12V today....

This board runs very hot... can't keep my fingers on heatsinks. 80mm to NB directly - still very hot.

Can't run 8800GTX on second PCI-e: board says "plug to first for correct work"...

Attention! Memory voltage: bios - 2.175v, Probe - 2.22v.

[ewitte]

My 8800GTX is in the second slot right now and its working fine. I started having trouble with posting while in the first slot. I'm thinking its because its not installed in a case though and without being screwed in it kinda leans to the side.

[Nilson]

My 8800GTX is in the second slot right now and its working fine. I started having trouble with posting while in the first slot. I'm thinking its because its not installed in a case though and without being screwed in it kinda leans to the side.

hm... Mine stops at POST and says "replace card"

btw... Scythe Infinity installation not so easy on this board. I found only one way(position) to place it... Heatsinks impeded instalation. Also, Infinity heatsink bracket sets against mosfets

[rjw]

I believe that the 1st and 3rd slots are 16x

The white or middle slot is only 8x, so I would check for performance loss if video card is in 2nd slot.

I ran mine out of case with no problems and with vapochill evap on gpu as well.

I would try back in slot 1, and just prop it up with some foam or whatever


I need vdroop mod before attempting to put his board back in service.

It makes you wonder if asus really cares at all.

[Lood007]

I had an issue with the Beta 0505 BIOS for the Striker.

-Regardless of vcore setting in BIOS, motherboard would constantly put out 1.47V (measured).

I reverted back to factory BIOS (0402) and all was solved.

[rjw]

My p5n32 -3 sli suffers from vdroop badly.

I did the vcore mod, hoping to get 1.6 when I choose 1.6. this worked, but did not solve the droop. upping to higher causes the cpu to heat up too mucjh so vdoop is on the list of things to do, just before I hit the board with the BFH...

[ewitte]

I put it in the case and it works in slot 1 again. BTW I found something really disturbing about the vcore. It might be the reason why readings are so far off for everyone. I'm getting the impression that even with the vcore specified its still wanting to autodetect vcore a lot of times. Here is my reasoning.

When I switched over to air cooling I lost stability at 3.82Ghz and had to drop down to about 3.71Ghz. Now even at that its reading 1.37v instead of 1.39v as before. So even at 3.71Ghz its not completely stable any more. Dropped CPU again this morning to 3.6Ghz and now vcore reads 1.28-1.29v! Even when I bumped BIOS from 1.5v to 1.55v it stayed 1.29v. Those are the exact voltages it picks when VCORE is set to auto. This really sucks hard. I'm going to try the hardware vcore mod and see what happens. Maybe try yet another BIOS and clearing NVRAM again.

The good news. If its really just autodetecting vcore when its set manually then its most likely a BIOS issue that can be fixed.

[Ibinco]

I put it in the case and it works in slot 1 again. BTW I found something really disturbing about the vcore. It might be the reason why readings are so far off for everyone. I'm getting the impression that even with the vcore specified its still wanting to autodetect vcore a lot of times. Here is my reasoning.

When I switched over to air cooling I lost stability at 3.82Ghz and had to drop down to about 3.71Ghz. Now even at that its reading 1.37v instead of 1.39v as before. So even at 3.71Ghz its not completely stable any more. Dropped CPU again this morning to 3.6Ghz and now vcore reads 1.28-1.29v! Even when I bumped BIOS from 1.5v to 1.55v it stayed 1.29v. Those are the exact voltages it picks when VCORE is set to auto. This really sucks hard. I'm going to try the hardware vcore mod and see what happens. Maybe try yet another BIOS and clearing NVRAM again.

The good news. If its really just autodetecting vcore when its set manually then its most likely a BIOS issue that can be fixed.

This kind of issues are exactly the ones ive been having. The voltages make no sense.. M8 could you be so kind to write asus support an email with your findings...ive already done so...maybe then they will do something about it. Cause in order to oc this board on air... we need like a super chip that doesnt hug more than 1.4vcore....anythiing above that it reads horrid values.
I would appreciate it if u did so.

[ewitte]

I'll write them when I get a chance. BTW I did get it to go high once but it jumped all the way to 1.54v actual and I couldn't keep it cool. It was in the 60's idle.