Asus P5N-E SLI small review

[VASkO]

doesn't matter which subtiming, just change one, cause it seems, they aren't saved, if you leave them as they are - even if they are set manually to whatever you want.

i for instance have them like this:
tRC 22, tRFC 35, tWR 5, tWTR 8, tRRD 5

now if i restart my computer, it wont POST - don't have a speaker so I don't know what beep codes I'm getting, but the signal to the monitor goes off and i have to hard reset the system so that ASUS CPR kicks in and sets the timings to some safe value. In this way I'm able to go into BIOS and change something under subtimings, for instance tRRD from 5 to 6 and do a save&exit and the PC boots just fine. If I don't do this, I can restart for 100000000 times and not once will it boot up. So I assume, everytime you do a save&exit from the BIOS, the subtimings just revert to the auto values in next booting process, if you don't change at least one of them in that last visit to your BIOS before you did save&exit.

clear enough now?

[sbinh]

Running a quick Orthor to post the result .... It ran Orthor fine for 14hrs yesterday. Same settings though ......



This board is acting so freaking weird ... Yesterday, I ran orthor fine for 14hrs, then it failed dual Prime95 after 3hrs ... Ran dual prime95 again .. it ran without issue for 8hrs ....
Don't know if it is the board or other freaking applications popup running while Orthor/Prime was running.

Waiting 0401 from John to test it out ...


Update with SuperPI 32M ...

[John44]

401 update
Memory strap has seemed to change 423 424 is not the same
My temp sensor on the NB temps are running 6f cooler suggest maybe a voltage drop there
Sbinh has it and I'm sure he'll give you the full details shortly

[sbinh]

401 update
Memory strap has seemed to change 423 424 is not the same
My temp sensor on the NB temps are running 6f cooler suggest maybe a voltage drop there
Sbinh has it and I'm sure he'll give you the full details shortly

Quick overview ... Pretty good.
After flashed BIOS to 0401, booted right up into windows (forgot to reset BIOS) .. Once I am in windows, several popup windows which recommended to install bunch of new hardwares (bios...something , floppy, Mem..something, etc) .. Went ahead and installed all of those. Suggested to reboot. Fine.

After reboot, tried to go into BIOS ... BLACK screen .. Turned off power .. RESET BIOS then turned back on... This would help to reboot and went right into BIOS (checksum error).

Set everything back to what I got before flashed to 0401 except COMMAND RATE = 2T. Saved and booted into windows.

Currently, running Orthor for almost 15 minutes ...... No issue yet ... It seems CPU is cooler abit. Will post image after Orther reaches 1hr.

After that, will try to set Command Rate = 1T .. Let's see what happen.


P.S: Thanks John for the new BIOS.

[Ron 61]

@ sbinh Are there any changes in the NB voltage options or memory voltage options? What about the vdroop, is it any better?

[sbinh]

After 1hrs and 14minutes .. here it is ....



Set Command Rate to 1T .. booted to windows now .....

[sbinh]

@ sbinh Are there any changes in the NB voltage options or memory voltage options? What about the vdroop, is it any better?

Ron,
There are nothing changed on those voltage settings (at least what I know)

As you can see on previos pictures, looks like it uses less voltage (both on vcore and +5). I just dropped vcore by 1 notch .. and running Orthor again .... Let's see what happen ..... Will update tomorrow .. (time to bed now .. )

Note: Ambient temp increased by 1*C (cuz I am running Orthor on another PC - E6400 on P5B Dlx @3200MHz)

[zeeke]

Well to be honest, I dont trust those windows reading for 1 secund. Can't you measure it with a multimeter, the review on vr-zone shows what spots to use.

I've measured the drop on this board during several benches and eventhough asus probe is reporting a drop in Vcore from 1.5v to 1.3V something,the real drop is from 1.51V to 1.49V so.

[Highland3r]

Well to be honest, I dont trust those windows reading for 1 secund. Can't you measure it with a multimeter, the review on vr-zone shows what spots to use.

I've measured the drop on this board during several benches and eventhough asus probe is reporting a drop in Vcore from 1.5v to 1.3V something,the real drop is from 1.51V to 1.49V so.

^^ agreed, software doesn't seem to capture the voltages correctly at all. Much better using hard read points.
Regarding vDroop - this is a hardware thing is it not? Short of the board actively compensating for voltage droop under load there's not much that can be done.
If there is/was a discrepancy between bios values and actual vcore, this could be corrected via a bios update however.
If you set the vCore you want in bios, and just use the + 100mv option, that gives you much closer to the vCore you "set" in bios.

NB cooling is an issue on this board for high clocks. Keep the NB cool and it's a much easier board to overclock.

[Lt_JWS]

Anyone have a link to a "good" beta bios, also has anyone got there 7950GX2 to work.... I haven't had any luck even getting it to post with mine.......

[sbinh]

Well to be honest, I dont trust those windows reading for 1 secund. Can't you measure it with a multimeter, the review on vr-zone shows what spots to use.

I've measured the drop on this board during several benches and eventhough asus probe is reporting a drop in Vcore from 1.5v to 1.3V something,the real drop is from 1.51V to 1.49V so.

Measured the vcore using DMM .. it showed vcore=1.427v while CPUz showed 1.392v

[chri5g]

I just installed all.Run mem at 4-4-4-12 1T stable at 433(866) i was able to load windows at 450(900) with 1T but NOT stable


I have problem with OC my E6400 es a4 L2 4mb needs high V 1.55 to get 3.3GHz.Default vcore only 2.8 stable after that needs more more and more.
Update
with OC Cpu and mem I was able to get only 805 4-4-4-12 1T

that the best setings fo me

[gplracer]

I got my system going. Well it is one that I did for someone else. I have an Asus P5N-E and a 6400. I had to up the chipset voltage to 1.5. Now that computer is 10 hours prime stable at 3400mhz with a cpu cover voltage of 1.45v.

[Highland3r]

How far are people able to run 1T on this board? Having issues running above ~ 425 FSB at the mo. Dropping timings, increasing vDimm/NB voltage doesnt seem to help.

[zeeke]

1T rock stable @ 360, goes into windows @ 365mhz but wont even post @ 370

[Lestat]

yeah 1T wouldnt even post for me at 400.
so i just dont even bother.

i found a little trick for those of us when overclocking to far the system wont boot into safe mode so you can get into the bios.
power down. no need to unplug the psu, and walk away for 10-15 minutes.
come back and mine boots right up into safe mode almost everytime.

if you stress the overclock too far like lack of voltage or too high cpu or too high mem, it wont boot into safe mode, why i dont know but it sucks cuz you have to reset the cmos, so try this, it works for me.

[sbinh]

1T rock stable @ 360, goes into windows @ 365mhz but wont even post @ 370

Mine works fine at 389 ... I tested at 400, it booted and ran fine .. but I dropped it down to 389 cuz of the heat issue.

BTW, I am using OCZ PC2-6400 Gold XTC KIT (OCZ2G8002GK)

[sbinh]

Just wanna prove that I can boot at 425 .....


RAM brand

[chri5g]

@Sbinh
give link to this bios i can`t find it
or sent me to chrisgrajzer@vp.pl

[sbinh]

chri5g,
U've got mail! ..

[couppi]

Someone hosted the 401 bios on their site.

Get it here

[Ron 61]

Anybody else tried this bios 0401 on a board already stable on 0202?

[zeeke]

hmm, have to try the 0401 bios tonight, see if I can get over 400 with 1T

[P@N]

Just setup my new rig, containing:

P5n-E Sli (bios 0202)
e4300
2x 1gb gskill f2-6400phu1-gbzx (in black slots @ 400mhz @ 4-4-4-12 1T @ 2.05 vdimm)
Gigabyte 6800gs

The problem is I can't overclock my system; every time i made changes in the bios and tried to save it, it wouldn't boot and CPR had do kick in... (the standard settings are memtest86 + and Orthos stable)

I tried the following settings:

mulitplier @ 9
- unlinked 1000 (qdr) / 800 (mem)
- linked 1000 (qdr) / 800 (mem) / 5:4 divider
- linked 801(qdr) / 801 (mem) / 1:1 divider

none of these booted (vcore 1,45 and nb 1,5.. v )

multiplier @ 6
- unlinked 1200(qdr) / 800 (mem)

Did boot (vcore 1,45 and nb 1,5.. v )

Also tried reflashing the bios with 0202 and clearing cmos. (without any succes)

The Asus AI 20% overclock option does work ....

Since this is my first Intel Core 2 duo setup I might be doing something wrong, but I can't figure it out...

[chri5g]

chri5g,
U've got mail! ..

Thanks