680i SLI is too expensive? Asus as the solution : P5N32-E SLI PLUS

[Radical_53]

@whizzer: Only had that boot issue with 803. I won't try it again too soon, hopefully the next bios release doesn't have that strange bug anymore.

@mrbusa: Did some further testing. I can run 2 sticks at 4-4-4 1T fine up to ~920MHz with ~2.15V, 4 sticks at 4-4-4 1T up to ~880MHz. Quite fine for me as I'm running it sync at 433MHz FSB anyhow

[The Viper]

quick question everyone: Does both 12V CPU connections need to be installed for the mobo to work
I just sold this board and the guy is ahving a no post or no beep problem, he only has one of the 12V CPU connections in

[safan80]

quick question everyone: Does both 12V CPU connections need to be installed for the mobo to work
I just sold this board and the guy is ahving a no post or no beep problem, he only has one of the 12V CPU connections in

the connection wouldn't be there if the motherboard didn't need it... granted you can use a 4 pin connect but I wouldn't recommend it. chances are it's his psu

[Radeon117X]

Hey guys fairly new to this forum and haven't had time to read all the comments.I have had this mobo for a while now but haven't really played around with it till a couple of months ago...

Around what range are your temps (CPU and mobo/chipset)? Also, any more detailed information on the exact voltages you have (or actually get via PC Probe II)? Also, what test do you run in Orthos (Blend? Gromacs Stress, small FFT?)

[>GSXR<mrbusa]

Has anybody found a clear photo of a vdroop pencil mod for this board?

[Radical_53]

The same as on the Striker I'd have to search for the photo, but it worked perfectly.

[Whizzer]

Hey guys fairly new to this forum and haven't had time to read all the comments.I have had this mobo for a while now but haven't really played around with it till a couple of months ago(when i finally got my Msi 8800 Ultra OC.Anyway i think i have already hit the wall on my setup for E6600@3.375@1.40V in bios(CPU-Z@1.248V).I can boot and run Orthos for 16 hours @3.465(with different voltage increases on NB,SB,Vtt etc...)but as soon as i play any game like COD2 or F.E.A.R.,system freezes on me and have to reset and also my HDD runs a CHKDSK if i go too far.I was thinking of getting a water setup for this mobo(CPU,GPU,NB,SB)but i don't know if it's worth it or not.I would love to see my E6600 at a stable 3.6(or more )I will read more on you guy's setings and try e'm out myself.My setup btw are:E6600,Thermalright 120 extreme,MSI 8800 Ultra OC,PC P&C 750 quad silencer,OCZ pc6400 Special Ops Edition and of course this mobo.

How hot do your NB, SB and CPU get? Watercooling may be nice for the CPU, but isn't quite mandatory for your NB and SB (look at the Thermalright HR-05 and/or Noctua NC-U6). If you have good airflow inside your case, that should drop the temperatures quite a bit. Also remember this board uses a big heatpipe system so you'll have to find something to cover the MOSFETs too (Thermalright has some expensive stuff but BGA ram sinks should do fine too, just use some good thermal compound, such as Arctic Silver 5 or OCZ Ultra 5+ (I use it too). You might even want to have a look under the NB/SB heatsinks and replace the thermal compound in case it has been poorly applied by ASUS.

[Radical_53]

HR-05 (non SLI) do work very nicely on NB and SB. The mosfet blocks from Thermalright do work too, but they don't fit the board too nicely. Nice passive heatsinks should do the trick here too.

[safan80]

here's the vdroop mod and here's what I used for the mosfets.

[>GSXR<mrbusa]

Thanks for posting those.
I have my mosfets cooled with Tweakmonster sinks instead of Enzotech. Did you use tape or Arctic adhesive to mount the sinks on the mosfets?
I was thinking of using Arctic adhesive before I do the pencil mod because I heard the mosfets get allot hotter after doing so. Is that a fact or rumor?
Where is the best place to ground and measure resistance.
How good of a multimeter should I get?
Is there a trick to getting the carbon to stick?
Thx

[safan80]

the mosfets don't even get that warm. I just used the tape that came on the heatsinks. as for the mods use a 4B pencil it works better that way.

[Snyxxx]

Hello, been running a Xeon 3070 for a while and just installed a E6850 (3.0 GHz) and noticed something weired. Bios is 801.

At all stock speeds except memory (2.1V), Prime 95 and OCCT failed. I thought that it was strange so I booted with Memtest 1.70 CD and got errors. I lowered the memory timings to 5-5-5 2T, upped its voltage and same problem with Test #5 which I thought was memory related. Just before putting in this processor, the memory passed all these tests no problem.

Guess what? If I bump up the cpu, NB, SB and all the other voltages just a notch or two, it all works fine.

Does using the 333 MHz bus require a voltage bump as if I was overclocking? It appears so.

Anyone else try this and find the same?

[>GSXR<mrbusa]

Hello, been running a Xeon 3070 for a while and just installed a E6850 (3.0 GHz) and noticed something weired. Bios is 801.

At all stock speeds except memory (2.1V), Prime 95 and OCCT failed. I thought that it was strange so I booted with Memtest 1.70 CD and got errors. I lowered the memory timings to 5-5-5 2T, upped its voltage and same problem with Test #5 which I thought was memory related. Just before putting in this processor, the memory passed all these tests no problem.

Guess what? If I bump up the cpu, NB, SB and all the other voltages just a notch or two, it all works fine.

Does using the 333 MHz bus require a voltage bump as if I was overclocking? It appears so.

Anyone else try this and find the same?

Just so ya know the new 0803 Bios is supposed to really help all the voltage bugs and overclocking holes with the new 1333fsb processors. It is on the official site or FTP and is recommended if you are running the new processors. Hope it helps.

[Whizzer]

As I mentioned earlier, I had a rather nasty problem with both 0801 and 0803 BIOSes, but are these required using a new FSB1333 processor (E6850 specifically)? My friend is buying my current CPU (E6420) and I do still have an old Pentium 4 lying around, but I'd rather not screw around with older CPU's and BIOSes if someone can confirm that the new BIOS is required. Also, 0803 is also on ASUS's support page, does that mean it's not beta anymore (it does not say that as it did with 0602). I'm asking this because I did not have to use 0501 to use my E6420 even though ASUS claims it wasn't supported in 0302. This is a whole new range of FSB of course, and I just want to be sure.

[Leeghoofd]

the board does 1333FSB but not on auto settings for the 1333FSB CPU's so you will need to update anyway to 0803 to let the board make the correct alterations for this FSB (as it is a sort of small overclock anyway)

[Whizzer]

Thanks for the quick reply. I already thought so as a different base FSB is a more drastic change than just 2MB of extra L2 Cache. I'll see if I have more luck this time with that otherwise great BIOS.

[Snyxxx]

Thanks for the input, I will flash to 803 now.

I noticed on Everest that the voltages reported are way off what is set in the BIOS. For example, Auto for Vcore shows 1.47V

I will flash and report any changes.

[>GSXR<mrbusa]

Thanks for the input, I will flash to 803 now.

I noticed on Everest that the voltages reported are way off what is set in the BIOS. For example, Auto for Vcore shows 1.47V

I will flash and report any changes.

You never want to leave anything that you can find a value for set on auto in your systems BIOS, especially your voltages and RAM timings. Auto settings detect conservatively so the system will boot for the first time with a huge variety of hardware. If I leave my vcore on auto it will boot at 1.35 which is the max my e6600 is rated for but I can run it stock and stable at 1.225.

[Radical_53]

As for the PWMs, they might get warm. Mine do I put a thermal sensor on the back of the board, just below the left bank of the PWMs. They go up to ~60&#176;C using a Thermalright heatsink on them.
Plus: The little coils (with the black cover) in front of the PWMs did really get hot on both of my boards. I put little heatsinks on them too (at least where the hold-down of my CPU block allowed me to).

[safan80]

As for the PWMs, they might get warm. Mine do I put a thermal sensor on the back of the board, just below the left bank of the PWMs. They go up to ~60°C using a Thermalright heatsink on them.
Plus: The little coils (with the black cover) in front of the PWMs did really get hot on both of my boards. I put little heatsinks on them too (at least where the hold-down of my CPU block allowed me to).

got any pics?

[Radical_53]

No, but I can take some

Edit:



I'm still searching for the best CPU block for what I'm trying to do, but when I found it I'll try to cut the mounting plate to shape so that I can put heatsinks on all the coils. They really get warm, much warmer than the PWMs themselves.

[Snyxxx]

Ok, I flashed from 801 to 803. I already had most everthing "non auto" except for the CPU and chipset voltages. Observations:

Bios 801 and 803 produce 1.47V on the CPU when set to auto. I hard set 1.325 and that is the value reported in everest.

I then hard set all the chipset voltages to default voltages and they are reported correctly in everest as well.

Good call >GSXR<mrbusa. With hard set "default" voltages, everything OCCTs, Prime95s and Memtests over 24 hours. Thanks.

Now time to push it.

P.S. I am using EK MOSFET waterblocks with MCW30s on the NB and SB chips. Today I just made some aluminum back plates for the MOSFET blocks to keep the mobo from bending as AndyM did in the liquid cooling forum.

[Radical_53]

Nice to see that there's some board that doesn't overvolt everything. My two boards did always overvolt at least the voltages for chipsets and the additional voltages (like HT and VTT).

About Vcore: If you have your FSB below 400, it should be somewhere around 1.3V on auto. If the FSB is above 401, Vcore normally goes up to around 1.4V.

PS: Did you gain anything by putting all those waterblocks on the board? I thought about that, right now I'm pretty satisfied with the Thermalright heatsinks I installed (2 x HR-05 and 2 PWM sinks).

[Snyxxx]

I am not really sure if I gained anything by the MOSFET blocks, but was kind of pushed in that direction by wanting to cool the NB and SB which were "burn your fingers" hot. THE MOSFET blocks require the mobo to be removed and when I decided to just put on the MCW30s, I did not want to take everything apart again to put the EK MOSFET blocks on, what a pain. Here is some of the work:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ghlight=snyxxx

I am using a Storm (Rev. 1) block and my flow rate (physical bucket to bucket test) went from 7.6 l/m to 7.1 l/m by adding all four of these blocks. Not much of a flow rate hit or temperature hit. I think the storm and EK FC 8800 blocks ate up most of the flow rate. Since there was not much penalty, I decided why not. If I get a fusion, maybe all this will change.

[Radical_53]

The EK shouldn't have too much restriction, at least by far less than a normal CPU block like the Storm.
Quite interesting. I would have imagined that the additional restriction of 4 blocks, added tubing and fittings would give a bigger performance drop of the loop (that's why I didn't want to use water blocks on my system where I don't need them).