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

[wyemarn]

After a week with my P5E and Q6600, I'm still confused and its hard to overclock the quad. I'm using 0607 beta BIOS and I have a few questions:

1) The CPU temp is way to low compared to my core temps. CPU around 20 and core temps around 35. Is it normal or my the sensor on my mobo is broken?

2) Vdroop is terrible. Even enabling Load Line Calibration doesnt fix the problem. I've read about the pencil mod and eager to try it. Will it void the warranty?

3) Does X38 chipset requires high voltage for NB, PLL and chipset? With my previous MSI P35 on dual core CPU I can do around FSB 420 with default chipset voltages. Or is it because of quad core CPU?

Thanks.

[Brahmzy]

Do the Vdroop mod now. The board needs it. It's great after that.

Bump the NB voltage to 1.35 or so n see how things go...

[manieq]

After pencil mod it's stable with 0.05v lower cpu voltage.

[Brahmzy]

So, question to you all:

I just got an E8400 and I'm running it @ 4.1GHz. It's rock solid in Orthos for over 10hrs and in games etc. The problem I'm having is that in Vista x64, my computer refuses to wake up properly when it goes into hibernation. when I wake it up, it just sits on a black screen, locked up. The box powers back on, but there's no display etc. I have to power cycle the mobo. My E6600 never did this - it always went to sleep and woke up perfectly fine. This is really annoying as I love this feature because it actually works well in Vista vs. XP. Do you think I need to up any voltages? I've backed the oc down to 4.0GHz and it still does it.

Any ideas? Never had any issues with the P5E before I installed the E8400.

[INTREPID]

I had similiar issues. What's you Vcore setting in the bios? I needed 1.35v (bios set) for 4.0 Ghz. Look at my signature for bios settings details.

Try increasing your Vcore and see if that fixes the problem. I would not exceed 1.3625v

So, question to you all:

Do you think I need to up any voltages? .

[trans am]

where is the p5e3 vdroop mod?

[INTREPID]

http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/guide...droop-mod.html

where is the p5e3 vdroop mod?

[wyemarn]

Do the Vdroop mod now. The board needs it. It's great after that.

Bump the NB voltage to 1.35 or so n see how things go...

After pencil mod it's stable with 0.05v lower cpu voltage.

Thanks. I've tried bumping the NB voltage and testing now. About the Vdroop mod, will it void the board's warranty? I'm quite worry because it's an expensive board for me. Can I use mechanical pencil for the mod? Just draw a few lines would solve it? How hard should I draw the lines?

[Cranox]

Dont press to hard , draw 3 times over the resitor and check. ( i use a HB/n2 pencil , not all pencils are good ! )
Its impossble to see that u did this mod , so no warranty is void

[karl_eller]

Does anyone know if there are Linux (particularly Ubuntu) drivers for the RAID controller on the P5E? I'm looking to go back to a RAID0 for Vista, but I need to be able to get Ubuntu to see the RAID array in order to configure Grub properly.

The Asus website has a nice vague "Support Linux Drivers.zip", does that have the RAID drivers?

Eller

[doakh]

So, question to you all:

I just got an E8400 and I'm running it @ 4.1GHz. It's rock solid in Orthos for over 10hrs and in games etc. The problem I'm having is that in Vista x64, my computer refuses to wake up properly when it goes into hibernation. when I wake it up, it just sits on a black screen, locked up. The box powers back on, but there's no display etc. I have to power cycle the mobo. My E6600 never did this - it always went to sleep and woke up perfectly fine. This is really annoying as I love this feature because it actually works well in Vista vs. XP. Do you think I need to up any voltages? I've backed the oc down to 4.0GHz and it still does it.

Any ideas? Never had any issues with the P5E before I installed the E8400.

I had the same problems. I turned off 'hibernation' and it wakes up from 'sleep' fine.

[Brahmzy]

I had the same problems. I turned off 'hibernation' and it wakes up from 'sleep' fine.

Cool, I'll try that tonight, thanks! I upped my VCore even more to see if it was that and it wasn't.

[JohnZS]

Ok I have this strange problem with my P5E3
I cannot figure out what is causing it, As far as I knew the 8800GTS 512MB supported PCI-E x16 2.0, yet for some reason it only works @ X4 2.0 or on some ocassions X16 1.0 and IF I am lucky X 16 2.0
It does this in both Vista and XP, no matter what driver version or BIOS revision on my motherboard.

I have contacted support for Point Of View, but they never got back.



Any suggestions?

Thanks

John

[Milamber]

Ok I have this strange problem with my P5E3
I cannot figure out what is causing it, As far as I knew the 8800GTS 512MB supported PCI-E x16 2.0, yet for some reason it only works @ X4 2.0 or on some ocassions X16 1.0 and IF I am lucky X 16 2.0
It does this in both Vista and XP, no matter what driver version or BIOS revision on my motherboard.

I have contacted support for Point Of View, but they never got back.



Any suggestions?

Thanks

John

Perhaps try using the latest CPUz 1.44.1

[JohnZS]

Perhaps try using the latest CPUz 1.44.1

Thanks for the suggestion Milamber I tried with 1.44.1 and 1.44.2 and also GPU-Z 0.19, all say the same.
What I have also noticed is that my 3dmark06 scores can vary by around 1000, I either get 142xx or 129xx
All depend on whether my card "decides" to be in X4, X16 or X16 2.0 mode
Crysis and game performance also varies, when I get stutter and lag, the card is in X4 mode.
Do you think there is something wrong with my Graphics card?
Would a VGA BIOS update fix this?
I have tried various Forcewares and even Intel Chipset Drivers and mother board BIOS'!
Thanks
John

[wyemarn]

Dont press to hard , draw 3 times over the resitor and check. ( i use a HB/n2 pencil , not all pencils are good ! )
Its impossble to see that u did this mod , so no warranty is void

I tried the mod and it works. I have did around 10 times because 3 times I can't see any difference. Now My idle vcore is around 0.015V less than BIOS settings and virtually no vdroop under load. Is there any side effect on both CPU and mobo after doing this mod?

[Mtrx]

I have tried the vdroop mod in my p5e and now I got some confusing results with the vcore of the quad. Before the mod, at 9*333 the q6600 needed 1,264v and 1,224v in idle-load to get stable with prime95, and now needs only 1,200v that is the same in idle and load after the vdroop mod, so I thought the same should happens at higher speed and the quad should need less vcore but don´t.. L. At 8x400 before was 1,288-1,248v and now is stable with 1,264v, and at 8*425 before was 1,376-1,328v and now needs 1,352v, so the temps under load are a bit higher.

Well, after few days of some tuning I found the answer to my own question.. there wasn´t a problem with the vcore of the Go at higher speed after the vdroop mod, just needed to raise the vmen and nb a bit and the quad is stable now at 3,4 with 1,336v, it´s getting better

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/3...agen122vn1.jpg

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/8...agen123va9.jpg

[wyemarn]

Well, after few days of some tuning I found the answer to my own question.. there wasn´t a problem with the vcore of the Go at higher speed after the vdroop mod, just needed to raise the vmen and nb a bit and the quad is stable now at 3,4 with 1,336v, it´s getting better

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/3...agen122vn1.jpg

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/8...agen123va9.jpg

Can you post your NB, chipset and extreme tweaker settings to get that stable OC? Thanks.

[barfastic]

I know this might sound stupid and all, but how do you know when your mobo FSB is running at 1600Mhz?

Reason im asking is because i got some new DDR3 ram at 1600MHZ and i would like them to run at their full potential.

i have overclocked my cpu to 3.8 using 1333mhz ram.

Is there a setting i need to adjust, or is it done automatically according to the overclocking you have done to the cpu?

[Mtrx]

Can you post your NB, chipset and extreme tweaker settings to get that stable OC? Thanks.

Sure,

8*425
333
1:1
5-5-5-15 2T
dram static read control: enabled
ai clock twister: strong
transaction booster: disabled
relax level: 0
core: 1,35625v (bios), 1,336v (cpu-z)
nb: 1,31v
dram: 1,94v

I´m trying different configurations with other bios settings and found no changes for now, the system is stable with those so I leave the others at auto. It can pass blend test and is also stable for gaming with vmem at 1,90v, but for FFTs needs 1,94v. Hope this helps!

[Mtrx]

how do you know when your mobo FSB is running at 1600Mhz?

Has you increase the cpu frequency the fsb does: 9*266= 2.394mhz cpu =1066 fsb (4*266); 9*333=3.000mhz cpu = 1333fsb (4*333); 8*400= 3.200mhz cpu =1600fsb (4*400).. because is the quadruple.

Is there a setting i need to adjust, or is it done automatically according to the overclocking you have done to the cpu?

For example if you have a q6600 at 3.800mhz with 1.333mhz ram using 9*422=3.798mhz cpu, 1,688fsb (4*422), 333strap, 5/8 divider= 1.340mhz ram (422/ 5/8*2), you´ll need to choose manually the memory divider that gives the ram at 1.600mhz, keeping the cpu speed; in the example just changing to the ½ divider with the same strap gives you the 1.688mhz ram (422/ ½*2), with the same cpu speed. So, manually choose the 200/266/333/400 strap and the divider that gives approximately 1.600mhz ram, check stability and enjoy!

[barfastic]

coolios. thanks alot.

[JohnZS]

Ok I've done some more investigating and have found that this

Problem happenes on cold boot, but if I reset the PC then I have PCI-E x16 2.0 transfer rate working and everything else is hunkydory.
Now, does anyone else on here have a G92 GTS with a P5E3?
Do you have the Cold Boot X4 2.0 or X16 1.0 PCI-E rate problems?
Thanks
John

[wyemarn]

JohnZS, my 8800 GTS runs at x16 with P5E all the time.

I have questions on overclocking with this board. Which voltage is more important for overclocking? Vcore or chipset voltage? I have no problems with stock chipset voltage on P35 board till FSB440. Why do I need to raise chipset voltage on X38 even at FSB400?

[INTREPID]

I would use a Northbridge voltage of 1.35v as a matter of course with 2 x 2gb or 4 x 1gb sticks. I've also read it helps overclocking Quads. It can also improve stability or resolve post freeze issues with higher overclocks of memory and CPU.

Test your Ram with MemTest+ and your cpu with Orthos or Prime95 or OCCT. If it's stable and you have no problems the NB should be fine at default. But bumping it up from 1.25v to 1.35 couldn't hurt (no heat issues with this small increase).

JohnZS, my 8800 GTS runs at x16 with P5E all the time.

I have questions on overclocking with this board. Which voltage is more important for overclocking? Vcore or chipset voltage? I have no problems with stock chipset voltage on P35 board till FSB440. Why do I need to raise chipset voltage on X38 even at FSB400?