ASUS P5B - Plus

[Scali]

I have its cousin, the P5B Deluxe (same chipset, pretty much same specs).
I've been running it with 6 GB for years now, with some Kingston ValueRam.
I have two (mismatching) sets... 2x2 GB and 2x1 GB. The 1 GB is 667, the other is 800 MHz, but I can only run the lot at 667 MHz. Funny enough, with only the 2x1 GB kit, I can run those at 800 MHz settings, but with 4 modules I couldn't find stable settings.
They run in dual channel too (have to pair them properly, else it will go into a sort of hybrid mode, where only part of the memory is dual channel, and the remainder is single-channel. I was surprised to see how flexible Intel's memory controller was in that respect).

I would think that 4x2 GB should work just as well on this board (although perhaps not fully stable on 800 MHz either, even with 800 MHz spec memory)... and probably on the P5B-Plus as well (iirc the Plus was a special Vista-ready version of the Deluxe).

But indeed, a BIOS update is required, for better memory support (and losing less in a 32-bit OS too!), and supporting the latest CPUs, including 1333 MHz bus which the 965 chipset officially isn't even specced at.
I've run my E6600 at 1333 MHz bus (3 GHz) for as long as I've had it... about 4 years now. No sweat.

 

[dgf2002]

Thanks for the reply. The P5b-Plus was last in series, an updasted P5B with better ovedrclocking. It had Vista ready and regular model which I have.

The Delux was popular board and got more attention re: updates. The q6600 is 65nm right? I am pretty sure that would be fine on my board. Its the 45n cpu's I am worried about.

My 6gb Patriot 8500 memory works well on the P5b-plus. But none of the hardware monitoring / overclock software does on Win 7 64 bit. Do they work on the Delux?

 

[Scali]

Yes, the Q6600 is 65 nm (and has a 1066 MHz bus, where most 45 nms have 1333).
The main difference with 45 nm is power consumption/overclocking potential.

I've never tried any hardware monitoring/overclocking software in Windows 7. I've used this system on these settings for so long that I really can't be bothered about temperatures and voltages anymore.

 

[Dillmiester]

dgf- The bios I modified is the P5B-Plus's bios. You just extract the cpu microcode (which is how it identifies the CPU)from the Commando bios which is essentially the same board they both use the same AMI bios which is modular. Nothings better than an AMI bios IMO, which is why I buy nothing but ASUS. The difference mainly in these high end boards is that they have better voltage regulation, cooling, ports, controllers ect.

However the chipset and basic board functionality, layout is the same their bios's just offer more compatibility and get priority from Asus because you paid a premium.

 

[Bateluer]

This board was suppose to run 45nm chips but I found it won't run any of the 45nm Exxx series so I have to get a Q6600 instead of a E8500.

Now I found out it won't support 8Gb or ram according to the supplier...GRRRRRRR

Anyone know for sure ?

I have this same board, running with the latest posted BIOS and an E8500 with 8GB of RAM. Works fine.