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

[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 .

[holwill]

In reply to haoster, mine is pretty much the same if not worse lol. But do not notice it any other time than running this. My board is 77 serial no




Both drives show Ultra Dma mode 5!

[jonny_ftm]

Ok, here's some more feedback

The 0612 bios gave me some headache. System was still stable at all bench test suites (Small FFT, OCCT in RAM mode, Vantage Suites...) but I expierienced random lockups at startup with the cold boot issue (usually signing an overclock failure). I think it is related to the RAM voltage. In fact, those extra performance compared to 0504 requiered more volts in my RAM modules.

Having to feed it now about 2.20v instead of 2.10v, I preferred for that voltage to use its full bandwidth.

I set a 4:5 ratio now instead of 1:1 to get a 1186MHz RAM at 5-5-5-15-4-45-8-6-6 (I shall tweak tRAS, trfc and other subtimings in a second time to improve memory copy performance) with 2.25v in the RAM now.
The system is rock stable, as usual (OCCT RAM, Prime95 small FFT, Futuremak suites and F@H). I increased vNB to 1.40 and vFSB to 1.30, all other settings are unchanged. In a second time I will try to set vNB and vFSB at lowest as they were in the setup with my signature

Here are the everest scores now, far better than my previous 950MHz CAS4 on the table in my signature



So, be advised, if your memory is running at its limits on bios 0504, 0612 may requiere some more juice in the DDR and NB.

Feed you back soon when the system setup is fully stable and the voltages (vFSB and vNB) tweaked to lower values

[jonny_ftm]

Ah, forgot to say these performances are explained by the strap... 266
Strap 333, CAS5 was crappy performance. Strap 266 at 1186MHz RAM and 475 FSB was not possible on 0504 with low voltages. Now, with bios 0612, this board can sustain those settings. I'll let you know if it handle them with lower vNB and vFSB, even if I'm already happy with stability at the actual voltages. I'll edit my signature soon when 100% finished tweaking

Really, intel should reinvent the P35 instead of flooding us with crappy X38 and X48 chips

[sesdave]

In reply to haoster, mine is pretty much the same if not worse lol. But do not notice it any other time than running this. My board is 77 serial no

Both drives show Ultra Dma mode 5!

I have a 76xx board and now run matrix raid 0/1 on my 2 old Hitachis - this setup spanks your single raptors for performance. With latest sata drives in a RAID 5/10 setup you can achieve upto 450MBs transfer rates and over 3000 - 4000Mbs burst with matrix setup! If you want best performance from drives do yourself a favour and join the matrix. http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=467848 Reverendmaynard did and he's one happy bunny

[ReverendMaynard]

I have a 76xx board and now run matrix raid 0/1 on my 2 old Hitachis - this setup spanks your single raptors for performance. If you want best performance from drives do yourself a favour and join the matrix. http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=467848 Reverendmaynard did and he's one happy bunny

Word ses. Incredibly reliable with that added RAID1 partition. Had a mass power failure last night and it did something to RAID1, but now the Intel Storage Manager is repairing it, without even noticing a glitch....in the Matrix lol.

[sesdave]

Word ses. Incredibly reliable with that added RAID1 partition. Had a mass power failure last night and it did something to RAID1, but now the Intel Storage Manager is repairing it, without even noticing a glitch....in the Matrix lol.

Yeah - it fun to watch intel doing something right! You really should get Acronis though if you want RAID0 recovery after a partition or total disk fail cos that is striped not mirrored. It works no problems from a partion backup on RAID1 or using recoveryCD and USB RAID0 partition backup in the event of a total drive fail - I assume you have that for you data backup anyway. I dont know of any other software that offers that for RAID.

[ReverendMaynard]

Yeah - it fun to watch intel doing something right! You really should get Acronis though if you want RAID0 recovery after a partition or total disk fail cos that is striped not mirrored. It works no problems from a partion backup on RAID1 or using recoveryCD and USB RAID0 partition backup in the event of a total drive fail - I assume you have that for you data backup anyway. I dont know of any other software that offers that for RAID.

it's only my OS and games on the RAID0...no need to buy Acronis. Anyone who puts precious data on a RAID0 set up deserves to lose it

Oh and we tested some Acronis products for work, nothing even came close to touching ubuntu + fog + PING we image 500+ machine a day.

[sesdave]

it's only my OS and games on the RAID0...no need to buy Acronis. Anyone who puts precious data on a RAID0 set up deserves to lose it

Oh and we tested some Acronis products for work, nothing even came close to touching ubuntu + fog + PING we image 500+ machine a day.

Only suggested it as before you went Matrix you said you were not keen to reinstall as you had your Vista setup the way you liked it I too would not be using Acronis on an industrial scale - only my games PC . Its cheap and does the job . We use Tivoli and Altiris at work for imaging PCs and servers.

[sesdave]

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 .

Your just unlucky with your CPu - it got a high VID and seems to want a lot of volts to overclock. Most should do 3.2 on stock volts and lowest settings or there about.. So if you want to clock that one you have limited option with your ambient temp. Check to see if the IHS and the HSF are flat. Lap whatever isnt flat. That should get some temp improvement which may give some overclocking headroom. Chilled cooling with your ambients would sort you out - but at a price!.. Overall you would be better off with a 45mm as they run cooler and need less volts. As a last go to try to get volts down and a 3.2 overclock try most settings on auto and see what CPUZ says for volts if it boots. Set the vcore to that voltage plus .025 for vdroop and try again. We can start a process of elimination for settings-lol!

AI Overclocking: Manual
CPU Ratio Control: Manual
- Ratio CMOS Setting: 8
FSB Frequency: 400
PCI-E Frequency: 100
DRAM Frequency: 800
DRAM Command Rate: 2T
DRAM Timing Control: Manual
CAS# Latency: 4
RAS# to CAS# Delay: 4
RAS# Precharge:4
RAS# Activate to Precharge:12
TWR: auto
TRFC: auto
TWTR: auto
TRRD: auto
TRTP: auto
DRAM Static Read Control: disabled

Transaction Booster: AUTO
Clock Over-Charging Mode: AUTO

CPU Spread Spectrum: Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum: Disabled

CPU Voltage: auto
CPU Voltage Reference: AUTO
CPU Voltage Damper: Enabled
CPU PLL Voltage: auto
DRAM Voltage: 2.2 or whatever yours need
FSB Termination Voltage: auto
North Bridge Voltage: auto
North Bridge Voltage Reference: AUTO
South Bridge Voltage: AUTO

Advance CPU Settings
CPU Ratio Control: Manual
- Ratio CMOS Setting:8
C1E Suppport: disabled
Max CPUID Value Limit: Disabled
Vanderpool Technology: Disabled
CPU TM Function: Disabled
Execute Disable Bit: Disabled
PECI: Disabled

USB Configuration
USB Functions: Enabled
Legacy USB Support: Enabled