[18th Anniversary] Asus Black Pearl - P5k-Premium Testing Report

[XtremeTiramisu]

It seems the WD drives are one of the worst with this board. I gave up on WD 3 years ago and went with Maxtors & Seagates and I've never been happier.


The Maxtors, where the OS's and games will be



The Seagates, backups, music & movies



Hope you get it all worked out for you, what ever you do. I wish I could get the new X38 DFI baby! I may for Xmas!

It's not the WD 5000AAKS 500GB fault.
Cos it's running lightning fast in AHCI configuration.
Please note that I only have ONE hard drive. Not like the RAID config u have there.

The following screen shot was taken today. It was from my P5K-Deluxe system. I've the exact same drive in my P5K-Premium system. Both have identicle HD bench results from the latest HD Tune.

While the system runs ok in the P5K-Premium, the hard drive activity and everything else are fine but as soon as the abnormal HDD activity kicks in, the system would freeze for 2-3 mins. This happends intermittently which is veyr annoying to a point that I cannot use the system and I'm using my P5K-Deluxe..

As for a single HD score, it's cosiderably higher score than a lot of other single HDD bench I've seen from others running in IDE or AHCI.
This is with the newest Intel storage manager driver. I noticed the curve and the burst rate is smoother and a bit faster than the previous driver

[sergers]

mine is a TW that came with the 0102 bios
i still got the double boot problem...

installed server 2003 x64 with no problems, besides install being really slow on my raptor. ended up running it in ide mode

i think I am also going to rma it and also just get credit aswell....

also I think my p5k deluxe is a better oc'er

I installed 0302 beta bios... but then for whatever reason, windows only saw 3 cores... could have just been a bad flash, but decided to go with 0204

[ChaosMinionX]

Very impressed with the P5K Premium thus far

Some results to come, takes .5v less on this board for processor, as well it runs much cooler than the deluxe.

[VIctorj]

ty board, running mine(look @ sig) and it has the same freaking problem with HDDs.

Returning this , im going with DQ6 and the hell with asus.

[theonlybabyface]

I've had no problems. This is an awesome board!

[VIctorj]

Damn, just saw dq6's gimmick pipe...i cant mount my tuniq there...DAMN!

[scaramonga]

I've had no problems. This is an awesome board!

DITTO!

[godsa]

Well it was tricky at first with the bios resetting and the norm learning curve learning the board..but thats what patience is all about if you want to Oc.


Not sure how good this is but looks good to me

[bobov]

Avoid WD&Samsung HD if you use P5K-Premium. Seagate works very well on this mobo.

[ChaosMinionX]

Avoid WD&Samsung HD if you use P5K-Premium. Seagate works very well on this mobo.

Im using all western digitals from caviar to raptors... 100% fine here

[impar]

Greetings!

No problem here with Raptor, 5000AAKS and 3200JS.

[IanB]

I've seen a report, I think on another forum, that the newer Samsung Spinpoint drives have firmware that is incompatible with new Asus boards. The forum member had confirmed this through extensive testing and discussion with Samsung tech support who confirmed the bug.

EDIT: Yep, here on this forum - http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=156540

I'd guess none of this is relevant if you connect the drives through a hardware RAID controller, which has the advantage of avoiding the chipset SATA issues so many seem to report and allowing full portability of the RAID arrays when you change mainboard.

[VIctorj]

I'd guess none of this is relevant if you connect the drives through a hardware RAID controller, which has the advantage of avoiding the chipset SATA issues so many seem to report and allowing full portability of the RAID arrays when you change mainboard.

Yes, but i didnt pay for a top of the line motherboard, to use an additional sata controler..it has to work OUT OF THE BOX...and is not OC problems, it has problems on STOCK...so go figure.
Im not pissed cause of the problems...im pissed because Asus doesnt say about this problem, they are ignoring their costumers...and thats bull.

At least for now, im not going with ASUS again...just like i did with BFG and their faulty 79s.

[gosmeyer]

Finally a good one. Guess 3rd time is a charm. At least now I can find out what the boards like for real.

[breakneckspeeds]

Just last week I got the premium and it refused to run with my WD 500gb AAKS (the only drive i have). I had no choice but to return it, and got a deluxe which works perfectly fine.

[cyberhof]

Hello all, new here.

I just want to report that my system is working great and Im running it on 0204 bios.

And I have no trubble whit my diskspeeds althoug Im not running RAID.

System:
[Chieftec Mesh Miditower]
[OCZ 700W GameXstream]
[Intel Core 2 Duo E6850@543x7=3,8Ghz]
[Tuniq Tower]
[Asus P5K Premium]
[2x1024 Patriot Extreme XP2-8500@1086Mhz 5-5-4-9]
[2x300GB Seagate SATA, 1x500 GB Seagate SATA, 1x400GB Samsung SATA]
[Geforce 8800GTS 640MB]
[Samsung 204Ts 20" TFT]
[Windows XP SP2]

[3dHeli]

I find the P5K Premium issues confusing to say the least.

Many say WD and Samsung have issues, many say Seagate is fine, a few say only newer Seagate Sata II's (3gb) are ok.

Some say a new motherboard fixed the problem for them, some say a new Rev 2 motherboard was the cure.

One got lucky on his third board.

Some have changed the WD or Samsung drives to newer revisions of same model, and have solved the issue.

Some took the drives that didn't work, and found they worked fine on other boards (such as Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6, or Abit IP35 Pro, or Asus P5K-E).

One had no issues, but then the problem occured despite no obvious change being made.

I'm curious to know where the issue lies, as I can't see why the P5K-E or P5K Deluxe should be any different - yet they have few issues of this type.

What perhaps we know for sure, is the problem hard drives typically work on another motherboard - and the problem Asus P5K Premium motherboard typically works with other drives (Seagate).

With all the variables, I don't see (and I'm not defending them) how Asus can take the blame or create the fix. Although I do think they have to issue a statement to give some clarity to the next step.

I'd hope it was Asus hardware design or production fault, or a bios problem - which could I'd have thought been easily defined in a consistent way, and a remedy proposed.

Could it be a heat issue that causes damage (if OC too far), loose board coolers (heat syncs), cables . . . who knows.

I was about to buy the P5K Premium (with Q6600) until XtremeTiramisu announced he was having problems . . . I wonder if others that haven't reported problems haven't yet found them, or if others are remaining quiet until they have tried every option themselves to remedy the issue..

It was enough to put me off buying the board, so I had to look at alternatives;
Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 with Q6600 - but bios ease of use is a concern
Abit IP35 Pro with E6850 (due to vdroop concerns) - but slow 1394 is a concern
Asus P5K-E with Q6600 - but the cables/brackets I'd need to buy make it as expensive as the Premium

I only have Seagate drives - lots of them - so find myself coming back to the P5K Premium, after all it's a sexy motherboard, with all the 18th Anniversary Black Pearl marketing hype.

What is it that Asus could have done to the ICH9R on the Premium to have caused these issues.

If anyone has some clarity to the numerous different experiences of (perhaps) the same SATA drive compatiability problem, I look forward to hearing them . . . so I can decided whether to buy the Premium or the DQ6 once and for all.

[WSX]

Damn, just saw dq6's gimmick pipe...i cant mount my tuniq there...DAMN!

they've redesigned the DQ6 heatpipe in the latest revision, it's now smaller!

[VIctorj]

they've redesigned the DQ6 heatpipe in the latest revision, it's now smaller!

The problem is that Crazy Cool thing on the back of the mobo...the tuniq has a backplate...so cant mount it there.

[IanB]

Yes, but i didnt pay for a top of the line motherboard, to use an additional sata controler..it has to work OUT OF THE BOX...and is not OC problems, it has problems on STOCK...so go figure.

The way I see it, most people here when they buy a new motherboard use the same RAM they used in the last one. If it's proven good, they keep it. It's an investment. Same with a good processor, if it's a good clocker. So all I'm saying is that a good offboard RAID controller is a similar sort of investment that you can carry forward from board to board.

On top of that, it has the distinct advantages (as I said) that it not only allows you to move existing RAID arrays without problems between boards, but it totally insulates you from the regular problems being reported with chipset SATA controllers on *any* board. One rarely if ever hears of problems with particular drives and RAID controllers, as known incompatabilities are generally noted in detail in the controller manual. Perhaps the controller card manufacturers feel they have more to lose by not fixing incompatability problems with popular drives, and vice versa the drive manufacturers feel they have more to lose by not making their firmware incompatible with the popular controller cards. Maybe the torrent of new mainboards is just too hard a moving target to chase for the drive manufacturers. And if there is still a problem you've clearly got a better chance of confirming it and getting a driver/firmware fix from companies whose reputation and business is built solely on mating drives with hardware, unlike mainboard companies.

Frankly, I've heard so many reports of SATA problems with on-board chipsets (and subtle ones too, that only show up when doing high-stress verifications using software like WinRAR and QuickPAR that aren't easily traced to memory problems) that I'd never trust an onboard SATA controller anyway to attach hard drives to. From that standpoint, getting a good offboard RAID controller isn't just an investment, it's solid insurance against problems later. And the best part is that you can use the board you want and take advantage of its killer features, like the PK5 Premium which has so much going for it, without having to worry about this unfortunate little wrinkle which seems to affect people randomly and inconsistently.

[Vega]

Well..a lot of people here seems to use Samsund HD but are not happy with the performance but I can not use it at all! I can find the HD in bios and in some software as Everest for example but not in Vista under "My computer". I have read a lot of firmware and bios issues but will there be a solution to solve this problem??
I cant found the satadrivers some talk about on Asus homepage?

[kinghong1970]

so what's the verdict? is it worth all the fuss?

rma it for a P5K-Dlx?

i'm having some issues with the SATA DVD drives and for sure i dont want to hold on to a MB that's going to give me woes down the line...

my RMA date is running out too...

[XtremeTiramisu]

My suggestion for everyone who has being experiencing difficulties with P5K-Premium's SATA issues is just RMA the mobo and save yourself the trouble and any possible grief. At least that's what I did as soon as I'm fed up with its SATA controller issue on the Premium board I had (Made in Taiwan, 0204 shipped bios).
Same system components in the P5K-Dlx setup works like a charm but in the premium it just fxxked up. Not even the silly beta 0302 BIOS update can solve it. Tired of waiting and wasting another sec of my life in putting my trust in ASUS to release a "working" bios for the Premium. I'm not alone, hundreds of ppl over at the Asus forum are also experiencing this issue.

If you can't wait, just get a P5K-Dlx as it's cheaper than we once had to pay when it first released. Asus P35 series BIOS are known to be quite mature upon release and the newest beta BIOS 0503 for P5K-Dlx has even better overclocking-ability. I couldn't even set the transaction booster to enabled and +1 even with DRAM static read control dissabled in the past with older BIOS, but 0503 has solved this issue for me. Currently has my system OC'ed to DDR2-1175, DRAM static read control dissabled, Transaction booster, level +2, 5-5-4-7-3-30-3-3-8
I've find the Asus P5K series bios to be the most overclocking-friendly than other P35 mobos. It's really to get on with abundant of helpful BIOS configuration shared from the Asus OC community.

If you can just wait a bit and don't mind paying a little more $, Asus x38 mobos are just on the horizon

[kinghong1970]

well, i've submitted a RMA for my P5K Premium...
contemplating whether go the P5K Deluxe or wait and see what comes over the horizon...

[hausner]

This mobo is almost perfect for OC. But like other ppl here i have a big problem to boot with any WesterDigital hard drivers So i bought cheap Maxtor and now everything is fine .So ppl if you want to buy this mobo and you have some WD hdds just buy Maxtor or Segate hdd and everything will be perfect


My best with WC @1.6v

4188MHz (465x9)
http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=245451