ASUS P5W DH - Problems + Fixes Thread

[bodka]

You really don't want to run a quad on this board with intention to overclock it unless you have an unlocked multiplier.

Can you give your current BIOS settings? What is your stable overclock with QX9650?

[Falkentyne]

Can you give your current BIOS settings? What is your stable overclock with QX9650?

Hmm.....
FSB 333, multi x12
DRAM timings 3-3-3-8-3
vMCH 1.65v (didn't seem to make any difference from 1.55)
Dram voltage 2.1v (2.05v if using my gskills but 1 stick is dying; needs 2.3v to post but then runs at lower voltages after POST; Corsair XMS needs 2.1v to be cas 3 stable at 333 fsb and 2.15v for 340 FSB at cas 3).
CPU vdroop pencil mod applied.
CPU vcore 1.375v (not 100% prime stable over several hours; sometimes does a full 3.25 hour small FFT prime run complete pass (8k-64k), sometimes errors out on one core after like 2 hours; i do NOT want to run prime 12 hours and raise the heat and stress my CPU even more; if it doesn't crash in games that's fine). I consider this to be fully stable as nothing can make the CPUs reach 71C except quad prime.
Rybka multiprocessor Chess engine (4 threads) stable.

Vcore 1.3875v runs prime just fine but gets WAY too hot; I stopped it as soon as temps got to 80C; Tuniq tower 120 simply has trouble dealing with 4 cores giving off this much heat, plus nothing is lapped. Linpack makes things get so hot that the entire system just freezes (1 test with 5 loops is fine but do a 2nd test and boom...; Got up to 88C....followed by the absolute WORST horrible screeching sound you've EVER hard in your life, coming from the speakers (even if I set the volume to 10%); i think it startled some apartment neighbors at 1 am in the morning...it was THAT bad.

4.1 ghz @ 1.4v bios (1.392v loaded) runs Rybka chess 4 threads, and 3dmark 2006 as many times as I need it to; seems game stable but I need to run a lot more games; don't ask me to prime at this voltage; pretty obvious it won't pass that; may need a TRUE Black 120 for that.....
FSB 315, multi x13 for this.

[LordX]

Got my new Ram, trying to decide which kit to keep.

OCZ gets 5-4-4-14...

Crucial gets 5-5-4-12...

Which timings are better? What is a good program that I can use to test the speed of my Ram? That will tell me Gb/Second and such? So I can test these timings and their affects..

[Falkentyne]

If I were you, I would timings and just find out which kit runs at the highest FSB your P5W can hit with your CPU.

Everest is a good program for testing memory speed, i think the option is benchmark or cache something.

There shouldn't be much difference in the bandwidth, so you definitely want the most FSB possible. Intel systems like FSB more than timings, while AMD systems like timings more than FSB.

[LordX]

No kit I have ever had will boot faster than 940mhz...

I have my FSB @ 376... I will not change that.

No idea why even a PC-8000 kit wont boot @ 1003mhz....

So now that I am MHZ limited, I am looking for the best timings.

[LordX]

It appears that a 4Gb Kit will not function at the same timings as a 2Gb kit. (this may be common knowledge from what I saw on Google).

The best timings I could achieve with all the kits I tried was 940 Mhz @ 5-5-4-12. (FSB @ 376) (Voltage @ 2.1 - May go lower but I didn't try)

The system would boot @ 5-4-4-12, but error on Memtest repeatedly. Even when I tried slamming these kits with up to 2.35V....

I even tried a more expensive, and higher rated kit, to no avail.

Since all the kits I tried worked at the same timings and speed, the best priced one I found was the Crucial Ballistix kit.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148212

I got them for $41, they are at $43 now. That is NUTS for 4Gb of Ram IMO. An upgrade that seriously begs the question: Why Not?

[bodka]

Hmm.....
FSB 333, multi x12
DRAM timings 3-3-3-8-3
vMCH 1.65v (didn't seem to make any difference from 1.55)
.

What memory ratios worked best for you ( above 333 and below 333 ) ?

For me, above 320, 1:1 and 4:5 are the only ratios which seems to be stable. But this is with RAM underclocking. Below 320, I am able to run at almost all ratios.

[Ruud]

Hi

I would like some advice i currently have:
Buffalo FireStix PC2-6400 2GB DDR2
Asus P5W motherboard
Intel core2duo 6420 oc @3.20ghz
8800GTS 640MB
Corsair 520W PSU
Windows XP SP2 Pro

so i was wondering if getting the Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 would be a good idea to beef it up even more

[LordX]

Bodka - Yeah, with my FSB so high, I am limited to that same thing. But I am not willing to sacrifice my CPU overclock for the ram timing. No chance.

Ruud - With WinXP, 2Gb of ram never failed me. However, when I moved to Vista 64 (in order to get DX10 for Fallout3), I found that Fallout3 used sick amounts of Ram in combination with Vista. That was my final straw in order to upgrade.

I guess the question is what are you using your system for? Have you ever experienced a time where your memory utilization was at 100% like I did?

[Falkentyne]

I never used anything except 1:1
I'm also not really familiar with how setting different DDR ratio speeds affects straps....I think I tried it once a long time ago (to see if the ram would run at ddr2-1000, i forgot though....i remember having some no posts though....)

[Ruud]

Bodka - Yeah, with my FSB so high, I am limited to that same thing. But I am not willing to sacrifice my CPU overclock for the ram timing. No chance.

Ruud - With WinXP, 2Gb of ram never failed me. However, when I moved to Vista 64 (in order to get DX10 for Fallout3), I found that Fallout3 used sick amounts of Ram in combination with Vista. That was my final straw in order to upgrade.

I guess the question is what are you using your system for? Have you ever experienced a time where your memory utilization was at 100% like I did?

well i am hoping to play GTA 4 on my pc , i know it will run it at the moment but i think 4GB will give it a little more boost