"ASUS P5Q Deluxe discussion".

[Singh400]

I'd aim for 4 Ghz stable, then move onto 4.2 Ghz

Go for CPU Ratio: 10 and FSB Freq: 400.

I'd move the DRAM voltage up to rated voltage.

Vcore is enough.

Also trying increasing you vtt and vnb.

[FinnEire]

Hey all,

I've been reading this forum for about a week now trying to work out settings for this P5Q Deluxe I've recently received. I've just moved over from an Asus Commando and E6600 with 2 x 1gb sticks of Crucial Ballistix ram (PC 6400) @ 5-5-5-15 @ 525fsb. That was prime95/3dmark06 looping 24/7 stable (boring), so my new challenge is an E8600 and P5Q mentioned above.

My problem is that I just can't get it blend stable in prime AT all and can't reach anywhere NEAR 500fsb 1:1 . Below are my settings, any suggestions?
I'm first aiming for about 4.2ghz and anymore would be a bonus....


AI Overclock tuner: Manual
CPU Ratio Setting: 9.5 ==> 10
FSB Strap to North Bridge: AUTO
FSB Frequency: 440 ===> 420
PCI-E Frequency: 100
DRAM Frequency: Not sure what your RAM is rated. My 4GB 1066 set at 1053
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel A1: AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel A2: AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel B1: AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel B2: AUTO
DRAM Timing Control: Manual

1st Information:
CAS# Latency: 5
DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay: 5
DRAM RAS# Precharge: 5
DRAM RAS# Activate to Precharge: 15
RAS# to RAS# Delay : AUTO
Row Refresh Cycle Time: 55
Write Recovery Time: AUTO
Read to Precharge Time: AUTO

2nd Information :
READ to WRITE Delay (S/D): AUTO
Write to Read Delay (S): AUTO
WRITE to READ Delay (D): AUTO
READ to READ Delay (S): AUTO
READ to READ Delay (D): AUTO
WRITE to WRITE Delay (S): AUTO
WRITE to WRITE Delay (D): AUTO

3rd Information :
WRITE to PRE Delay: AUTO
READ to PRE Delay: AUTO
PRE to PRE Delay: AUTO
ALL PRE to ACT Delay: AUTO
ALL PRE to REF Delay: AUTO

DRAM Static Read Control: Disabled
DRAM Read Training: Disabled
MEM. OC Charger: Enabled
AI Clock Twister: Moderate
AI Transaction Booster: AUTO ===> later try manual with PL 9 and maybe 8 after that.


CPU Voltage: 1.30 ==> see my note in reply
CPU GTL Voltage Reference (0/2): AUTO
CPU GTL Voltage Reference (1/3): AUTO
CPU PLL Voltage: 1.50 ===> 1.54
FSB Termination Voltage: 1.10 ===> 1.16
DRAM Voltage: 1.90 ===> Depends on RAM rating
NB Voltage: 1.20 ===> 1.26
NB GTL Reference: AUTO
SBridge Voltage: AUTO
PCIE SATA Voltage: AUTO

Load Line Calibration: Enabled ===> see my note in reply
CPU Spread Spectrum: Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum: Disabled
CPU Clock Skew : AUTO
NB Clock Skew : AUTO

At the minute I'm CPU stress stable for hours but an instant reboot or fail on blend tests. I've tried high vNB and FSB Term voltages.

Any ideas people?


TIA

I have same CPU but a P5Q-E board.

Not sure what your CPU vid is, but my 8600 is 1.25v and I needed 1.3625v in BIOS with LLC disabled for 4.2 GHz (10x420). See other suggestions above.

I recently encountered some instability but my settings, until messing with C1E and Speedstep, had mine 24/7 stable. Turn off C1E and Speedstep and do not use.

[mjh74]

Hey FinnEire thanks for your reply.

I've currently got all CPU Advanced options disabled. I will try and play with the settings that you've mentioned when I get home and also disable LLC and see what happens!

[yaddam205]

Testing 1403 here too... Now i could run 556x8 @ Ram 1:1 with all enabled as usual also DRAM Skews at normal... This is my personal record, last was on 546 FSB completely stable... It run all night memory test without errors

Nice, I'm curious to see your settings and compare them to mine as I have an old C0 step.

Pretty Please

[LUCI5R]

Don't even waste your money, Gigabyte is what I came from here they are worse alot worse,,.. I had a cold boot bug with two of their top end Boards. Put in a ticket guys it will push them harder to fix it for us....

Ticket where? Is there a place on the ASUS website where I can report this?

Also, @franknsb: I removed Six Engine long time ago from my System.

I'm already at work now but driving down to work something came to my mind. Yesterday evening when I downgraded to 0803, I cleared CMOS and boot into system on BIOS "Defaults". It is on the defaults that I did a Shut Down and it properly shut down. After that I OC'd in the BIOS and got into my system - I don't remember shutting down after that. My system is still running. (I had started some encodig operations & downloads). I'm almost wondering if it's not 0803, but the fact that my system was on Stock (Defaults) that it shut down without issue.
When I get home I'll try shutting down and if I'm able to shut down without issue, that'll shoot this theory out of the bin. If indeed I have shut down issues - then I'll upgrade back to 1403 and do a shut down on Stock (Defaults). Might be an OC issue.

Anyways, ahead of myself now. Need to get home. Soon.

[truehighroller]

Sounds like the 1403 is making people happy here. That is good to hear. Yes you can open a ticket with Asus just go to their support page and get the number and call them and it is option three then three then 1 and that makes it quicker IMO. I don't like emailing people about my issues.. Luci5r, hope that works out for you. My issue is that when I am on a revision higher then 0803 everything is fine until it goes to load Vista then it will do the progress bard thing then when it goes to hit the password part boom everything locks up.. It is almost like it stops talking to the hard drives...

[jVIDIA]

Any performance gains with a Q6600 with this new beta bios ?

PL7 with FSB @ 450 yet ?

[LUCI5R]

Sounds like the 1403 is making people happy here. That is good to hear. Yes you can open a ticket with Asus just go to their support page and get the number and call them and it is option three then three then 1 and that makes it quicker IMO. I don't like emailing people about my issues.. Luci5r, hope that works out for you. My issue is that when I am on a revision higher then 0803 everything is fine until it goes to load Vista then it will do the progress bard thing then when it goes to hit the password part boom everything locks up.. It is almost like it stops talking to the hard drives...

That is really weird!! Are you sure that's a BIOS issue? What kind of Hard Drives are using? If you're using SATA, are you using AHCI/IDE/RAID?
To me (And I know you say that on 0803 it works just fine) it just doesn't seem like a bios/chip issue - but more of a software/programmatic issue. But I could be wrong of course.
Did you try going into Safe Mode? Also, make a no-password Guest Account and see if you can get to the Login Screen without locking up.
Did you also try disabling Password (I'm assuming you have one) on your main account?

I'd switch back to 1403 and play a little more.

My issue, compared to yours, is really not that big a deal. I mean once I shut down and the OS is shut down, I just have to hold the PC Power Button 4 seconds to power the PSU Off. That's about it. So technically I can go on using 1403 or higher revisions if I want to deal with turning off the PC Manually. It's just a PITA is all.

[truehighroller]

That is really weird!! Are you sure that's a BIOS issue? What kind of Hard Drives are using? If you're using SATA, are you using AHCI/IDE/RAID?
To me (And I know you say that on 0803 it works just fine) it just doesn't seem like a bios/chip issue - but more of a software/programmatic issue. But I could be wrong of course.
Did you try going into Safe Mode? Also, make a no-password Guest Account and see if you can get to the Login Screen without locking up.
Did you also try disabling Password (I'm assuming you have one) on your main account?

I'd switch back to 1403 and play a little more.

My issue, compared to yours, is really not that big a deal. I mean once I shut down and the OS is shut down, I just have to hold the PC Power Button 4 seconds to power the PSU Off. That's about it. So technically I can go on using 1403 or higher revisions if I want to deal with turning off the PC Manually. It's just a PITA is all.

Done it done it done it done it done it done it done it .... I have done everything yes. I work with PCs all day any way so, I thought of every possible scenario and swapped parts and everything and Western Digital I actually spoke with first thing when everything started and they said it's not us.. so. They recreated the issue at Asus.. so then they came back at me with the BIOS so, my guess is that they know it is a BIOS issue..

[Big Lar]

I ended up going back to 1402.

"truehighroller",this may be of interest to you, I was running at my same Everyday settings and decided to change Optimized to Performance to see what difference there was, well, long story short/ my OC fell completely apart I couldn't run Prime without getting Lockups right away, same with OCCT, Linpack was giving errors as well. So I went back in and changed to Optimal again, and still the same thing!

So for me, messing with that setting in any way shape or form ruins my OC and I said piss on it and flashed back to 1402. My OC is back to normal again, and the same exact settings as before. That cpu optimization setting can really screw things up

Larry

[truehighroller]

I ended up going back to 1402.

"truehighroller",this may be of interest to you, I was running at my same Everyday settings and decided to change Optimized to Performance to see what difference there was, well, long story short/ my OC fell completely apart I couldn't run Prime without getting Lockups right away, same with OCCT, Linpack was giving errors as well. So I went back in and changed to Optimal again, and still the same thing!

So for me, messing with that setting in any way shape or form ruins my OC and I said piss on it and flashed back to 1402. My OC is back to normal again, and the same exact settings as before. That cpu optimization setting can really screw things up

Larry

Exactly,, I think it fried what ever it controlls on my shiznit and the bad thing is that this chip is a champ at over clocking in my book...... That would mean they fried mint 9450....

[CryptiK]

That is interesting. I have no idea what that setting is really supposed to do, it just seems to cause issues and doesn't have a clear beneficial purpose. IMHO Asus should remove it from their next bios, and put in a couple of options that would actually be of benefit, like 4 separate GTL settings instead of just the 2 linked ones for example. A Dram drive strength option would also be a great addition.

One thing I noticed is that thankfully, my Maximus II Formula does not have that 'cpu optimization' option in it's bios, even the latest 1307. I want to run a quad on my M2F soon so I am very happy it is not in there. I don't know why they chose to put it in the P5Q-D bios.

[LUCI5R]

Very interesting.
Unfortunate thing is, I did switch to 'Performance Mode' on that inauspicious CPU Margin Enhancement setting at least once in the past - and that did indeed, similar to Big Lar, screw up my perfectly awesome OC. At that time I didn't need to re-flash BIOS, I just set it back to 'Optimized' and my OC was back to stable again.

But I get the feeling, just like truehighroller & Big Lar, the damage was permanent. Not that my Shut down issue started immediately after that incident - but whatever damage it did to the chip, it probably stuck.

I'm still uneasy about the fact that my Shut down issue started all of a sudden one fine day - when I was not messing with any settings and everything had been running stable for a while.

I still have to test my Stock (Defaults) vs. OC theory later today on 1403.

[jVIDIA]

where is the 1402 ?

[truehighroller]

Very interesting.
Unfortunate thing is, I did switch to 'Performance Mode' on that inauspicious CPU Margin Enhancement setting at least once in the past - and that did indeed, similar to Big Lar, screw up my perfectly awesome OC. At that time I didn't need to re-flash BIOS, I just set it back to 'Optimized' and my OC was back to stable again.

But I get the feeling, just like truehighroller & Big Lar, the damage was permanent. Not that my Shut down issue started immediately after that incident - but whatever damage it did to the chip, it probably stuck.

I'm still uneasy about the fact that my Shut down issue started all of a sudden one fine day - when I was not messing with any settings and everything had been running stable for a while.

I still have to test my Stock (Defaults) vs. OC theory later today on 1403.

That is how it went with me, BOOM no longer going into Vista..

I just sent you my config Luci5r,

[CryptiK]

jVIDIA - IIRC it's a beta that pmp posted. Cant remember exactly where it is and didn't DL it as I'd RMA'd but I'm sure someone can link you to it.

[jVIDIA]

I've been a little far from this thread ..... what's the best stable bios now ? 1402 ?

[LUCI5R]

I've been a little far from this thread ..... what's the best stable bios now ? 1402 ?

1403 from what most people are stating.

@truehighroller: You probably tried it, but, did you try booting into Vista with 1403 on all Defaults (Stock)?

[truehighroller]

Yep. Every single one after 0803 all on defaults except my voltages ofcourse and my raid controller set to raid as well.

[Big Lar]

I should add again that I am Completely Stable on 1402 again, same settings, same clock in my sig. Not touching that damn Cpu Optimization setting again tho !

Larry

[jVIDIA]

The CPU optimization setting gives problems with 1402 or 1403 ?

[LUCI5R]

The CPU optimization setting gives problems with 1402 or 1403 ?

As far as I know it's only giving that problem to Q9450 owners, any BIOS > 0803. But like I said, AFAIK.

@truehighroller: check pm, also, what do you mean by "except voltages of course"? Did you try the "Set defaults" in the BIOS itself (Under Exit) which sets EVERYTHING at Defaults - including voltages?

[truehighroller]

Yep. In other words. I set my voltage for my ram and my cpu and the ones that overvolt on default. Everything else was stock. I used the set defaults at the exit tab yes. I did have to set my ide controller to raid of course as well. Hell on the 1403 I actually took the battery out and shorted the clear cmos jumper and unplugged her of course for ten minutes..

[Ket]

That is interesting. I have no idea what that setting is really supposed to do, it just seems to cause issues and doesn't have a clear beneficial purpose. IMHO Asus should remove it from their next bios, and put in a couple of options that would actually be of benefit, like 4 separate GTL settings instead of just the 2 linked ones for example. A Dram drive strength option would also be a great addition.

One thing I noticed is that thankfully, my Maximus II Formula does not have that 'cpu optimization' option in it's bios, even the latest 1307. I want to run a quad on my M2F soon so I am very happy it is not in there. I don't know why they chose to put it in the P5Q-D bios.

CPU Margin Enhancement is there on recommendation from intel. Its purpose is to supposedly provide better FSB clocking on cheaper \ lower end C2D models.

[LUCI5R]

Yep. In other words. I set my voltage for my ram and my cpu and the ones that overvolt on default. Everything else was stock. I used the set defaults at the exit tab yes. I did have to set my ide controller to raid of course as well.

Did you find anyone else who has the 'exact' same problem as yours?
Did you ever consider RAID being the culprit here? Although, on second thought, why would it work with 0803 if RAID was the problem. But regardless - again - you probably tried this, but did you ever put in a regular SATA drive in there, with Vista loaded, non-raid, single IDE drive setup and see if that works with BIOS > 0803 ?