Official ASUS X38 Boards: P5E, P5E3 - Info/BIOS Thread

[Psycho_eddie]

A standard HB pencil works fine for the Pencil mod, say go over 5-10 times should be adiquate!

[lowtcell]

I've got a P5E and 2x2GB DDR2-1000. FSB @ 400. Timings 15-5-5-5 2T. 1.92v BIOS = 2.1v WIN. Transaction Booster off and AI Clock Twist auto.

Setting the RAM at 1:1=800 gets me P95 stable. Setting the RAM at 2:3=1000 gets me lucky to post.

I thought before RMA'ing to Newegg I'd talk to G.Skill and see if they had any recommendations. The tech I spoke with claimed that manually setting the timings, even to the rated values of 15-5-5-5, would not allow the RAM to be run async. He said all timings must be set to AUTO.

That doesn't sound quite right to me. I've been doing a lot of forum reading on Q6600 / P5E and haven't seen anything about that. Maybe I just missed it, but I can't try it until I get home tonight. I thought if anyone here with the P5E and G.Skill can tell me if they're running async with manual timings, then I can save the time and just fill out the RMA right here and now.

Thanks!

I have to manually set the GSkill to 800 before raising the FSB, otherwise it will not post. Memtest 86+ 18 hours, no errors @ 1066 5-5-5-15 2T 2.06 Volts.

[icywater]

I only paid for the one I kept in the end

I'm a reseller in Australia

how are you going to sell the chips as new if you open the box?

[aiya_au]

could a bios update fix the vdroop? if it does, then how would it affect people with the pencil mod? would it overvolt the vcore?

i'm thinking about doing the pencil mod, but i have a feeling a new bios would be pushed out very soon.

[zsero]

Can you get your addon soundcard to work with 3rd party microphones? I cannot get mine, all the mics I tried are mute. The same mics works fine with my laptop.

[WeldZilla]

Hey lowtcell ( I hope that is just a nic anmd not your condition) It is true using your DDR 2 1000 2gig sticks you need to just set it all to auto on the P5E which sets the your mem to 1:1 and you just can't get the same performance with the mem as you can with the 6400HZ. I have found that trying any other settings on my P5e is a no go. I have sticks laying all over the place in here. The only ones that really bring out the speed I have are the 6400HZ (G.Skill)

WZ

[Amurtigress]

Hi,

I just took the time to get to the bottom of the whole matter. I already suspected that the AI Suite's VDIMM readout is utter BS...

BTW; I used a Metex 4650 digital multimeter with a precision of 0.05% @ 2V.

BIOS AI Suite real voltage
1.90 2.05 1.964
2.10 2.55 2.154

I did not take the time to test more voltages, but it looks pretty linear to me in the BIOS and the DMM's measured voltage. Rule of thumb: BIOS ssetting plus 0.05V, and you got the real voltage. And, quoting Douglas Adams:

Don't PANIC! (about your RAM voltage)

[[VII]]

Hey guys...

yesterday i got my e8500 retail together with asus P5E WS Pro. I'm runnin them on air, but i've got problem to do fsb over 400...here my settings, where is my error?

[icywater]

what is the highest FSB can P5E with all 4 dimm slots in use? I am think of upgrade my P5B-D it can run 560FSB + with 2 dimm slot in use, with 4 it's a sux egg.

[Amurtigress]

VII: Keep in mind that the X38 chipset was designed for FSB 400, no need to increase the NB voltage and FSB termination voltage just yet.

To my experience, any FSB term voltage above 1.34 causes hangs/stalls at least when running certain games. In my case NFS: Underground 2.

The only thing that should be neccessary to be increased around 437 MHz is the NB voltage...I'd try 1.4V then. Give it a shot


Oh, yes. The voltage damper should be enabled. it's the droop mod. However I have no idea if it works on your version of the board. It doesn't on the P5E. Your BIOS might be old, too. It is still called damper and not CPU Loadline calibration, and that was only in the first BIOS version.

[[VII]]

is there any issue with 4 installed dimms? i have placed 4 x 2gb ddr2-1000 ocz's on it...

[Amurtigress]

VII: I am using four 1 GB Corsair XMS2-6400 CL5 modules. I don't know of any particular issues other than the usual decrease of overclockability compared to two modules. I got mine up to 960 MHz....currently running them at 933 MHz (FSB 389 on a E6600)

[purecain]

try upping your vcore to 1.34... and keep upping it untill your prime stable because everything else looks fine to me....

[necron66]

So I just did the pencil mod, lightly shaded about 10 times over it, and I still can't overclock it. The settings I used on my DS3P to get 425x8 won't even post on this P5e x38. I'm using 502 bios.

Could some people fill out this for me with there settings, it can be higher than 425x8, it will give me something to work off.

-E- PC specs in sig.

Ai Clock Tuner :
CPU Ratio Setting :
FSB Frequency :
FSB Strap to Northbridge :
PCI-E Frequency :

Dram Static Read Control :
Ai Clock Twister :
Transaction Booster :

Vcore Voltage :
CPU PLL Voltage :
FSB Termination Voltage :
Dram Voltage :
Northbridge Voltage :
Southbridge Voltage :

Load Line Calibration :
CPU GTL Reference :
NB GTL Reference :
SB 1.5v Voltage :

CPU Spread Spectrum :
PCIE Spread Spectrum :

Thanks, greatly appreciated.

[godsfist]

how are you going to sell the chips as new if you open the box?

I sell them in combos installed on a motherboard at a slightly cheaper price, everyone wins

[godsfist]

ok asus just released a new version of AIsuite that fixes the problem. i can see my vDIMM now!!. get it here if you're interested.

1.9v bios = 2.05v windows
1.96v bios = 2.2v windows
2.0v bios = 2.3v windows
2.1v bios = 2.55v windows

omg! i've been pushing 2.55v through my ram. how stupid is that. the vdrop is insane!!??!?

no wonder i was getting more stable memtest results with 2.0v in the bios. ok going to retest with proper voltages now. hopefully my ram is still alive. i just did a prime blend test for 3 hours and it was fine.

Awww crap on a stick, Vdimm doesn't register for me, just the CPU voltage with 502 bios

[icywater]

I sell them in combos installed on a motherboard at a slightly cheaper price, everyone wins

ok lol

any one overclock with this board using 4 dimm slot, i wanted to know. I want to get this board but i don't want a board that can't overclock well with 4 dimm slots in use.

[godsfist]

Anyone know what the Vdimm will be in windows if you set it to Auto in the bios?

[karl_eller]

I tried doing the vDroop pencil mod, and all it did was make everything really unstable. Eg before vDroop mod, on BIOS 502 I can get 3.6Ghz stable with 1.625v BIOS (Q6600 B3, so it likes the voltage), but once I did the vDroop mod (even just a very light shade), I'd get random restarts and BSODs. Undid the pencil mod with an eraser, and everything was back to normal.

But so far, I've had the P5E for about 2 weeks, and I'm quite happy with it. The vDrop and vDroop (at 1.6v vCore, they're about 0.06v a piece, for a total drop of 0.12v) are a pain, but that's easily enough fixed by just upping the voltage in BIOS a tad. Aside from that, it's got my Q6600 B3 stable at 3.6Ghz with about 1.625-1.65v BIOS, or 3.5Ghz with 1.6v BIOS. It's running at 3.5Ghz at the moment, since 3.6GHz generates a little bit too much heat.

But aside from that, it's rock solid. I love it.

Eller

[devnull77]

hi everybody been away for while bought caught up a little today,
actually just wanted to tell about my experiences with this board,
dunno if it actually contains too much info for anybody here

first of all my initial thoughts of my p5e was super bad... here's what happened

---
my original mem-sticks didn't work, i had 4x1gb Mushkin XP2 ddr2-800 4-4-4-11 sticks, these worked ok with bios 0107 and 0201, but all others failed memtest(0203,0303,0401)

tried at least 10 forums and all possible settings, timings and so on, those sticks would not pass memtest

no response from asus support, and i saw other ppl complaining about it too, with certain corsair modules, mushkin replied but told me to stick with 0107(they suspected asus to have made a major memsubsystem routine)

so my board ate all mem on 0107, with no problem except i wasn't able to clock my cpu 1mhz more than standard, tried EVERYTHING, and i do mean everything... finally got pissed and bought so other sticks to test out

got 4x1gb Crucial Ballistix DDR2-1066 PC2-8500

and started again, now all my machine would pass memtest with flying colors no matter how i set it (almost)...

and with 0401 and onward i was able to get decent clocks on the cpu too

to this day my old mushkin modules passes 30 hours of memtest in my old p5b-deluxe still... wonder what was wrong, cause i eventually settled with my new crucial sticks


since then my board has run without a hitch..

config today is as follows...

Intel C2Q Q6600 B3 @ 3.2ghz 8x400 (39 c idle/54 c load(orthos) with coretemp 0.96) (bios set for 1.325v)
TR U120 Ex w/ Scytche S-Flex 120mm @ 1200rpm
Asus P5E (bios 0502)
4x1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-1066 @ 1066 4-4-4-12 (bios set for 1.96v)
Zotac AMP! GeForce 8800GT-512
1x74GB WD Raptor AFDF
2x500GB WD RE2
3x750GB WD RE2
850w CoolerMaster Modular
Antec Ninehundred case

i consider this 100% stable, orthos run about 20 hours...
uptime of normally 2-3weeks between eventual update forces me to reboot


-----
one question tho':
- will the upcommin' Xeon 45nm series work fine as well with bios 0502, fx. the Xeon X3350? i was thinking if there's any microcode difference from the Q9450 to the X3350, that the 0502 might not have?






//devnull77

[lowtcell]

Just did the pencil mod with HB and so far 0 loss at full load. Running at 425mhz FSB (E6750@3400) Vcore set to auto 1.320 idle and full load in both CPU-Z and AISuite 1.03.19. Had around .03 loss before the mod.

Now for the question.
How accurate is the AISuite reading for the memory voltage?
I had bios set to 2.06 (.04 bellow G-Skill recommendation) and AISuite showed 2.450 I knocked bios setting to 1.92 and now reading 2.10 in AISuite, but have not ran any Memtest passes on it yet to see how it reacts.

[Amurtigress]

lowtcell:

In case you haven't noticed my previous posting, AISuite's VDIMM voltages are totally OFF. I have confirmed that with a REAL multimeter.

The REAL voltage for the DDR2 modules is roughly the voltage the BIOS is set to plus 0.05V. Maybe even less, taking into consideration that there is an inductor between the moduels and the MOSFETs that regulate the voltage.

I suspect AISuite isn't supposed to display the VDimm readout because ASUS saved the money for an extra sensor on the P5E amd whatever comes out ar emore or less lottery numbers. And this current AISuite only accidentally displays something.

[karl_eller]

Has anyone had issues with this board and monitoring the Northbridge/Motherboard temperature?

I'm using Everest Ultimate to monitor temperatures, and every now and then (doesn't seem to matter if the comp is idling or fully loaded), Everest will lose the NB temp sensor. If I open up AI suite, it'll display something completely impossible like 190C. Touching the heatsink directly over the NB, it's warm, but not hot, I'd say somewhere around about 30-40C, and when Everest DOES report temperatures, it usually reads about 30-35C (and AI Suite will also agree with Everest's temps). Northbridge voltage in BIOS is set to 1.31v, and I'm using the 502 BIOS. I can't remember exactly, but I think the same thing also happened with the 107 BIOS.

Eller

[death]

Has anyone had issues with this board and monitoring the Northbridge/Motherboard temperature?

I'm using Everest Ultimate to monitor temperatures, and every now and then (doesn't seem to matter if the comp is idling or fully loaded), Everest will lose the NB temp sensor. If I open up AI suite, it'll display something completely impossible like 190C. Touching the heatsink directly over the NB, it's warm, but not hot, I'd say somewhere around about 30-40C, and when Everest DOES report temperatures, it usually reads about 30-35C (and AI Suite will also agree with Everest's temps). Northbridge voltage in BIOS is set to 1.31v, and I'm using the 502 BIOS. I can't remember exactly, but I think the same thing also happened with the 107 BIOS.

Eller

what Everest you useing in the corp version i see a colt saying 2.20 sound like thats my mem volts as for nb does that show as mb senser or is there ment to be a nb one to

[necron66]

what Everest you useing in the corp version i see a colt saying 2.20 sound like thats my mem volts as for nb does that show as mb senser or is there ment to be a nb one to

Yea I see a lot of new unknown readings in the Corp version also. But the ones that seem close to vDimm and NBv are still off.