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

[ReverendMaynard]

thanks rich! That test was at stock; after going back to my usual overclock, I gained 500mbps burst lol.

[w2richwood]

wow i'll have to post my matrix and compare my gsons playing a game on my p5w dh right now so later
Rich

[Dude87]

Last nite, my Samsung SH-S203N Dvd-writter starts to behave in a really weird way:

Every time I open the disk tray, it closes itself automatically in couple of seconds, and even when I manage to get a blank DVD into the tray; either Nero freezes or the writing process is interrupted in less than a min.

Then I went to the retailer to get a 203P as a replacement. This time, I even had problem getting the DVD-drive recognized by the P5K-P. After pluging-unpluging the sata cable for like a million times, I finally install the 203P, but same Nero freeze/writing failures occurred. Anyone has a similar problem? BTW, the drive was fine, for the first few months that I used it, this just happened last night.

I am on 0204 Bios and I my Samsung hard drive (the notorious 500GB T166) are running smoothly on Sata Raid 0 in Vista.

[ReverendMaynard]

Strange indeed...

Did you try different sata ports? Did you try re-installing Nero, or even better and different burning app?

[jonny_ftm]

Last nite, my Samsung SH-S203N Dvd-writter starts to behave in a really weird way:

Every time I open the disk tray, it closes itself automatically in couple of seconds, and even when I manage to get a blank DVD into the tray; either Nero freezes or the writing process is interrupted in less than a min.

Then I went to the retailer to get a 203P as a replacement. This time, I even had problem getting the DVD-drive recognized by the P5K-P. After pluging-unpluging the sata cable for like a million times, I finally install the 203P, but same Nero freeze/writing failures occurred. Anyone has a similar problem? BTW, the drive was fine, for the first few months that I used it, this just happened last night.

I am on 0204 Bios and I my Samsung hard drive (the notorious 500GB T166) are running smoothly on Sata Raid 0 in Vista.

I use SATA2 ports 1-2-5-6 for my 2HD + 2 SATA DVD burners without a problem. Compared to P-ATA, the SATA burners rock as I can use both without any slowdowns on RIP/Burn speeds

[haoster]

Last nite, my Samsung SH-S203N Dvd-writter starts to behave in a really weird way:

Every time I open the disk tray, it closes itself automatically in couple of seconds, and even when I manage to get a blank DVD into the tray; either Nero freezes or the writing process is interrupted in less than a min.

Then I went to the retailer to get a 203P as a replacement. This time, I even had problem getting the DVD-drive recognized by the P5K-P. After pluging-unpluging the sata cable for like a million times, I finally install the 203P, but same Nero freeze/writing failures occurred. Anyone has a similar problem? BTW, the drive was fine, for the first few months that I used it, this just happened last night.

I am on 0204 Bios and I my Samsung hard drive (the notorious 500GB T166) are running smoothly on Sata Raid 0 in Vista.

i had the same problem before with even 0404 bios. couldnt burn discs with nero, or even recognize the dvd drive. and i also got a bugged board for sure.
solved the problem with later newer bios, 0505 and 0602 both will do. and like jonny_ftm said, use your sate port 1, 2, 5, 6.

[jonny_ftm]

Ok, 2 months and half and my OC is still stable
Here are some 3DMark Vantage scores you can expect

[ReverendMaynard]

I ran Vantage and my submission failed. Since it's a one shot deal I can't run it anymore

[vcrajeeb]

The Zalamn will do the job of cooling your CPU. Heres a review to cheer you up http://www.frostytech.com/articlevie...articleID=2045
Must admit I had never looked at VID in pcwizard as I use it for displaying the Core temperatures - I like the display better than coretemp-lol! I would go with Coretemp VID reading - I have sent an email to CPUID support asking where they read the VID from.

Hi Sesdave,
i am using Zalman cooler now. there is a significant drop in the cpu temp. On an average the CPU runs at around 45c under normal load. the max temp it reached when i applied load is 63c. Is this still high? the room temp at my place at this time of the year is near 39c.

I am running my machine at 3.00 Ghz. (333Mhz x 9). I would like to OC it to 3.2GHz if it is safe. please help...

[dingmel]

hey there eveyone, i' have one of the earlier boards, but i can't seem to find the serial. where are yours located? i'm thinking of RMA'ing my board, the faulty controller is bugging me on and off. how does the RMA procedure go? how long did yours take? and if i may be so bold to ask, is it possible to RMA for another model, with some form of top up or something, just in case the newer revisions still have this hardware bug, Thanks !

[w2richwood]

i belive its on the side of one of the pci slots sn 70xxxxxxxxx
Rich

[Dude87]

Hi, I tried port 5,6,3 and 2, problem persists. I have 4 HDs, which occupy port 1234 at the moment. Then I installed vista Ultimate on one of the HDs, then the problem disappered in Vista. So i guess my XP was crewed up somehow then....

[bito]

I have found the 0504 bios quicker than 0612 for me....I am using OCZ ReaperX 4gb kit (2 x 2GB) at 1066 2T 5-5-4-15-3-46-4-3-3 @ 2.0v.
The SRC and Trans. Booster seem to work better on 0504 for me, with increased bandwidth.

[jonny_ftm]

i belive its on the side of one of the pci slots sn 70xxxxxxxxx
Rich

No

hey there eveyone, i' have one of the earlier boards, but i can't seem to find the serial. where are yours located? i'm thinking of RMA'ing my board, the faulty controller is bugging me on and off. how does the RMA procedure go? how long did yours take? and if i may be so bold to ask, is it possible to RMA for another model, with some form of top up or something, just in case the newer revisions still have this hardware bug, Thanks !

Serial is on the external box of retail product
The RMA can take up to 6-8 weeks, unless you use extra paying gold service for fast RMA, you must phone support from ASUS
I don't think you can RMA for other models as they still have much P5K Premium stock

I have found the 0504 bios quicker than 0612 for me....I am using OCZ ReaperX 4gb kit (2 x 2GB) at 1066 2T 5-5-4-15-3-46-4-3-3 @ 2.0v.
The SRC and Trans. Booster seem to work better on 0504 for me, with increased bandwidth.

For me (see setup in sig), the performance level of chipset is also worst with bios 0612 than 0504 (7 now instead of 6 with 0504). Despite the worst performance level, the brute tests in benchmarks favor 0612 with my two sticks of RAM.

Also, it seems, I need now 1.40v on NB to be stable on my settings where I used to need 1.20v with 0504. At 1.20v on NB, I'm still rock stable OCCT and Prime95 but I have random lockups on windows startup. On 0504, to avoid those lockups at startup I could set 1.20v for NB but needed GTL ref voltage at the maximum. I'll try now to set GTL ref voltage to lowest and see how it goes with 1.40v on the NB

Maybe you could give us some Everest results of memory bandwidth with 4 sticks compared to 0504

[dingmel]

wow, sure hope that means that the crappy problems we used to have with the HDD controller and samsungs are fixed with the newer revisions looks like i'll have to give them a call. thanks for the prompt reply

[jonny_ftm]

wow, sure hope that means that the crappy problems we used to have with the HDD controller and samsungs are fixed with the newer revisions looks like i'll have to give them a call. thanks for the prompt reply

End of story: never buy products as they're just out, you'll just be a beta tester in an aftermarkt productive process Hopefully, not all people will follow this valuable advice, so that the most careful people of us could have some feedback and the producer improve the building process. What happened on the P5K, happens quiet with every product: processors steppings, batches, PCB revisions, memory modules...

[sesdave]

Hi Sesdave,
i am using Zalman cooler now. there is a significant drop in the cpu temp. On an average the CPU runs at around 45c under normal load. the max temp it reached when i applied load is 63c. Is this still high? the room temp at my place at this time of the year is near 39c.

I am running my machine at 3.00 Ghz. (333Mhz x 9). I would like to OC it to 3.2GHz if it is safe. please help...

On air these temps are pretty good with an ambient like you have. You really cant afford any volts increase as it will up the temps so if your CPU is upto it try it with increasing FSB to get to 3.2 - 400x8 would give best overall CPU/MB/Memory performance. What your current BIOS setting.

[sesdave]

Speaking of which, I entered the Matrix



2x500g Seagate 32mb cache Barracudas in RAID0+1. 100g for the RAID0 and 400g for the RAID1. OS, programs and games on 0, all backup items on 1.

Wicked fast man, and so far for the $180 that it cost in drives it's totally worth it.

You been saving up for this moment When are you getting another 2 drives to double up the speed by speading over 4 drives You may have also seen my post that I finally got a nonstandard recovery ISO of the Acronis tech that works fine on this MB so I can now fully recommend acronis 11 as the tools for RAID0 backup/recovery with this MB

[ReverendMaynard]

You been saving up for this moment When are you getting another 2 drives to double up the speed by speading over 4 drives You may have also seen my post that I finally got a nonstandard recovery ISO of the Acronis tech that works fine on this MB so I can now fully recommend acronis 11 as the tools for RAID0 backup/recovery with this MB

I wouldn't necessarily say "saving up" lol, but gathering up the balls to kill my OS. Acrosin is fine, but nothing beats a fresh install

I won't be going RAID0+5 with this rig. This is the last that I will invest in it. Right now, I'm looking forward to the DFI X48 TR3 to make the DDR3 leap and hopefully go HD4870 Crossfire.

BTW...still tweaking and getting results

[dingmel]

hey there, anyone knows what the GTL Refs do in the Bios? they are different compared to the GTL volt settings on other boards, i'm having a hard time making head/tail of it. i'm thinking its holding my overclock back.

[sesdave]

I wouldn't necessarily say "saving up" lol, but gathering up the balls to kill my OS. Acrosin is fine, but nothing beats a fresh install

I won't be going RAID0+5 with this rig. This is the last that I will invest in it. Right now, I'm looking forward to the DFI X48 TR3 to make the DDR3 leap and hopefully go HD4870 Crossfire.

BTW...still tweaking and getting results

Must admit I dont see the attraction of DDR3 at the price its at. DDR2 is soooo cheap in comparison and no real performance difference on current releases. This board seems good enough for anything I want for now -but if I did think of going down the crossfire/DDR3 route the Foxconn blackops X48 is the one I would be hankering after. http://www.quantum-force.net/news/N000000016/ Its a mean looking mother http://www.quantum-force.net/Products/P000000004/. I may be tempted!

[ReverendMaynard]

Must admit I dont see the attraction of DDR3 at the price its at. DDR2 is soooo cheap in comparison and no real performance difference on current releases. This board seems good enough for anything I want for now -but if I did think of going down the crossfire/DDR3 route the Foxconn blackops X48 is the one I would be hankering after. http://www.quantum-force.net/news/N000000016/ Its a mean looking mother http://www.quantum-force.net/Products/P000000004/. I may be tempted!

I did a bit of research on the Black Ops, and it was initially going to be my next board, but the layout is not what I'd expect from an elite board. The DIMM slots are inaccessible with a long graphics card in the top slot and it's apparently going for $400 which I swore to myself I would never blow that much ching on a board after my lovely Striker Extreme lol.

[FWD]

Hey guys, I'm having som serious problems with my P5K Premium Black Pearl Edition (sata HD related). If someone wants to help, please se this thread:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=186865

[haoster]

do you guys think this is normal for a raptor 150g with p5k premium 0602 bios, in ide mode, or it is slow.
i saw many people with rapotrs have higher transfer rate than mine, with ich9 or ich8.
min: 32.6mb/sec
max: 83.4mb/sec
average: 70.5mb/sec
burst rate: 114.8mb/sec
access time: 8.8ms



also, in the info page of hd tune, it says raptor supports udma 6(ultra ata 133), but mine is running at udma 5(ultra ata 100), is this how it suposed to be? i have searched the bios, but looked like nowhere would allow me to change this setting.

[vcrajeeb]

On air these temps are pretty good with an ambient like you have. You really cant afford any volts increase as it will up the temps so if your CPU is upto it try it with increasing FSB to get to 3.2 - 400x8 would give best overall CPU/MB/Memory performance. What your current BIOS setting.

I tried increasing the FSB to 400. This lead to increase in core temperature by 6c. It reached a max of 68c under max load and 47c at normal load. I have set the following setting:

CMOS Ratio : 8
FSB Strap: Auto
FSB Freq: 400
CPU voltage: 1.4375
CPU PLL volt: 1.5
FSB term volt: 1.4
NorthBridge volt: 1.4

I don't know how to try reduce these voltage settings .