My Experience: Core 2 Extreme X6800 and Asus P5W DH Motherboard (a step backwards with Arctic Silver 5!!!)

[InterMurph]

I am going to document my experience with the following hardware:

[*]Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor
[*]Arcitc Cooling Freezer 7 Pro heat sink/fan
[*]Asus P5W DH Deluxe Motherboard
[*]Corsair 2GB XMS2 PC2-1067 memory
[*]Western Digital WD1600ADFD 10K disk (the Dell 160GB version)
[*]ATI (Gigabyte) Radeon X1300 PCIe 16x video card (I'm not a gamer)
[*]OCZ PowerStream 600-watt power supply (OCZ-600ADJ SLI) (replaced the original Antec 380-watt supply)
[*]Antec P180 case

I haven't built a system in 5 or 6 years, and I have never overclocked one. So I'm hoping that the Anand community can help me out a bit.

The first step: updating the BIOS...

 

[InterMurph]

BIOS Problems

My Asus P5W DH Deluxe motherboard came with BIOS revision 0502. After doing a little research, I determined that I needed to update it to 0801.

Fortunately, I happened to have another Socket 775 processor around, so I popped that in, and it booted into the BIOS setup program no problem. If you don't have such a processor lying around, I think your best bet is to call Asus tech support at 502-995-0883, and ask for them to send you a BIOS chip with 1101 in it.

EZ Flash with USB: So I put the 0801 BIOS update file on a USB flash drive, inserted the drive, and started the BIOS EZ Flash utility. It didn't recognize the flash drive. I tried a few reboots, and a few different USB slots, but it never worked. The drive was powered, but the EZ Flash program didn't see it.

EZ Flash with CD: So then I burned the BIOS file onto a CD, and inserted that. The EZ Flash program recognized the CD (it showed the directory tree), but for some reason it decided that there were no BIOS image files on the CD. I read somewhere that the file had to be named P5WDH.ROM, so I burned another CD, but that didn't work either.

Boot CD with AFUDOS.EXE: So I created a boot CD with the DOS-based update program (AFUDOS.EXE) and the BIOS image on it. I used Nero to do this, and it's very simple; ask if you want detailed instructions. I booted the system with this CD, then typed "afudos /iiP5WDH1101.ROM", and it worked.

I then replaced my X6800 processor in the system, and it didn't boot at all.

I eventually called Asus tech support, and the very helpful guy told me that I needed BIOS revision 1101. I told him that I couldn't find it on their web site, so he emailed it to me.

I burned another CD with this image on it, put my old Pentium back in, rebooted, flashed the BIOS, put the X6800 back in, rebooted, and viola, it worked!

The Asus guy told me that Intel screwed them with some changes between the engineering samples and the retail versions of the chip, and that the X6800 in particular had more problems than the others. I pity the non-technical person who has to deal with such problems.

 

[InterMurph]

A POST mystery...

So during the successful POST, the BIOS claimed that it found 2GB of "PC2-5300 Dual Channel Interleaved" RAM. The problem is that the unit contains 2GB of PC2-1067 RAM.

Is this just a reporting issue? It seems odd, since the fastest official DDR2 memory is PC2-6400 (DDR2 800); shouldn't it at least report that?

The BIOS doesn't seem to have anything that will report details on the RAM; in System Information, it merely reports 2048MB of RAM.

I'll look into this later...

 

[InterMurph]

Stock Temperatures, Voltages, etc....

The BIOS Hardware Monitor, reports the following stock values:

CPU temperature: 40.5 Celsius, 104.5 Fahrenheit
MB temperature: 47 Celsius, 116.5 Fahrenheit
CPU Fan Speed: 975 RPM
VCORE Voltage: 1.224V to 1.248V
3.3V Voltage: 3.328V (steady)
5V Volate: 5.043V to 5.068V
12V Voltage: 12.196V (steady)

 

[tylerw13]

you can get all the downloads for the updated bios here for those who are still looking


http://wiki.p5wdh.de/doku.php?id=downloads:bios

 

[TheInternet1980]

What the hell is this 1101? I'm using 0903 any differences?

 

[InterMurph]

Originally posted by: TheInternet1980
What the hell is this 1101? I'm using 0903 any differences?

There is clearly a difference; 1101 - 0903 = 0108 of difference.

Seriously, I don't know what the differences are; I just know that 0801 didn't work for my X6800, and that 1101 does. Perhaps 0901 or 0903 would have worked for me, but the Asus support guy just mailed me 1101, the latest.

 

[TheInternet1980]

Odd...wonder if it'll help me get more out of my 6700.

Guess I'll find out after work.

 

[phile]

Most people with P5W DH will notice a surprisingly high motherboard temp reading. It appears that this is due to the sensor being located very close to the southbridge, which has a less than sufficient passive cooling solution. Adding a fan to the solution dramatically reduces the temp, but if you do not have southbridge fan handy, there are astill a few things you can do. For starters, remove those useless copper plates that cap both the north and southbridge heatsinks. Second, remove both heatsinks and replace the terrible thermal gunk with some artic silver 5. Doing both of these got my idle mobo temp down to 42 from 48.


On the BIOS issue: what's with ASUS employees telling us we need BIOS revisions that can only be found on some German enthusiast's site? If BIOS 1101 is truly the best BIOS for a particular scenario, why doesn't ASUS make it available through the site? And, who's producing these BIOS revisions, in any case? I've never seen anything like this, before.

-phil

 

[TheInternet1980]

Originally posted by: phileOn the BIOS issue: what's with ASUS employees telling us we need BIOS revisions that can only be found on some German enthusiast's site? If BIOS 1101 is truly the best BIOS for a particular scenario, why doesn't ASUS make it available through the site? And, who's producing these BIOS revisions, in any case? I've never seen anything like this, before.

-phil

Exactly. Freaking bizarre. I stumbled onto that site by chance, and was like WTF is this?

 

[InterMurph]

Originally posted by: phile
On the BIOS issue: what's with ASUS employees telling us we need BIOS revisions that can only be found on some German enthusiast's site? If BIOS 1101 is truly the best BIOS for a particular scenario, why doesn't ASUS make it available through the site? And, who's producing these BIOS revisions, in any case? I've never seen anything like this, before.

-phil

He told me that they were in the process of making updates to their web site. He was looking at the same web site that I was (support.asus.com), but obviously the mirror he had was fully updated, but the mirror I got wasn't.

I would expect that to be rectified shortly.

 

[phile]

I will not be holding my breath. Over the past week the 0901 BIOS would sometimes be there, and sometimes not... total crap-shoot. Must be that mirror issue you mentioned.

Generally, though, he ASUS site is mindnumbingly frustrating to use, assuming that the page you're requesting loads in under 5 minutes. If you're ever tempted to use the forums on their site, do so between 2AM and 2:17AM EST, as it seems to be the only time the site doesn't act as if it's under DDoS attack. I think I'd rather use that German site, to be honest. Heh.

-phil

 

[InterMurph]

Here is what CPU-Z reports, with default settings for everything:

CPU
Cache
Mainboard
Memory
SPD

Everything looks good except for the SPD tab, which displays the correct part number (CM2x1024-8500), but reports that the maximum bandwidth is PC6400 (400MHz). This is slightly faster than what the POST reported (533MHz), but still not what I'm looking for.

I guess it's time to start looking around the BIOS settings...

 

[soydios]

I think your problem might be that the 975X chipset doesn't officially support RAM speeds higher than DDR2-800/PC6400/400MHz, IIRC.

 

[InterMurph]

Originally posted by: soydios
I think your problem might be that the 975X chipset doesn't officially support RAM speeds higher than DDR2-800/PC6400/400MHz, IIRC.

Except this is the board that Anand is using to test high-speed memory. I guess the chart on this page is key:

Corsair and OCZ: New Standards in Fast DDR2

Memory Configuration Options/ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe Motherboard
Auto DDR2-400 DDR2-533 DDR2-667 DDR2-711* DDR2-800* DDR2-889* DDR2-1067*
FSB-1067 X X X X X X X X
FSB-800 X X X X X
FSB-533 X X X

It's hard to read without a fixed font, but it basically says that at FSB-533, the maximum supported speed is DDR2-533. To get to the DDR2-1067 speed I want, I need to run FSB-1067.

I'm snooping around the BIOS now to see how to do that.

 

[InterMurph]

Rats, my internet connection was down for a day...

At any rate, since I don't understand memory speeds enough yet, I tried the simplest overclocking; I increased the CPU multiplier from 11 (2.73 GHz) to 12 (3.2 GHz). It works great.

Then I tried 13 (3.46 GHz). Windows booted, but I got several spontanous reboots. I scaled back to 3.2 GHz, and it became stable again.

 

[Regs]

3.2 is not bad considering you all ready have the top rated clocked CPU.

As for motherboards, always a problem in new releases. I'm in no rush for higher performance. I don't understand why people all want one at once. I know it's new and exciting, but why go through the trouble of spending 1k for cpu, memory, motherboard just so that they don't work?

Though I thank you very much for showing your results.

 

[InterMurph]

OK, I finally figured out how to change the memory speed in the BIOS: Advanced Tab, select JumperFree Configuration, and for AI Overclocking, select Manual.

I configured it for DDR2-800MHz and rebooted, and it worked fine.

I configured it for DDR2-1067MHz and rebooted, and it said it couldn't find a Windows file it needed to boot.

I tinkered around with the memory voltage setting a bit, and found that at 2.30V, it works at DDR2-1067.

Here is the CPU-Z report:

CPU-Z Report: DDR2-1067 at 2.30V

It says:

Frequency: 534.2MHz
FSBRAM: 1:2
CAS# Latency: 5.0 clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay: 6 clocks
RAS# Precharge: 6 clocks
Cycle Time (Tras): 18 clocks
Bank Cycle Time (Trc): 21 clocks

I obviously need to tighten those timings up a bit , as SuperPI runs slower at these settings than it did at the default settings.

 

[InterMurph]

But before I figure out how to do that, I'll just increase the CPU voltage from the default (Auto) to 1.300V, and increase the CPU multiplier to 13 (3.46GHz).

It boots fine. Now I'm running 3.46 GHz. But SuperPI keeps crashing before it can finish...

 

[InterMurph]

3.78 GHz, DDR2-1050 at 4-4-4!

OK, I finally got some time today to tinker with this. I'm slowly figuring out this overclocking stuff.

So here's where I stand now:

I'm running the FSB at 315 MHz, and running the CPU at a 12x muliplier, for a resulting speed of 3.78 GHz. Here's the CPU-Z CPU tab with the data.

My memory is running at DDR2-1050, with 4-4-4 timings. Here's the CPU-Z Memory tab with the data.

The BIOS Hardware Monitor display says that the CPU is 49.5 degrees Celsius (121 Fahrenheit), but that's not under load. I haven't figured out how to determine the CPU temperature while Windows is running.

Here are my BIOS settings:

Under JumperFree Configuration:

AI Overclocking: Manual
CPU Frequency: 315
DRAM Frequency: DDR2-1050MHz
Performance Mode: Auto
PCI Express Frequency: Auto
PCI Clock Synchronization Mode: Auto

Memory Voltage: 2.30V
CPU VCore Voltage: 1.45V
FSB Termination Voltage: Auto
MCH Chipset Voltage: Auto
ICH Chipset Voltage: Auto


Under CPU Configuration:

Ratio CMOS Setting: 12
CPU Internal Thermal Control: Augo


Under Chipset :

Configure DRAM Timing by SPD: Disabled
DRAM CAS# Latency: 4 Clocks
DRAM RAS# Precharge: 4 Clocks
DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay: 4 Clocks
DRAM RAS# Active to Precharge:: 15 Clocks
DRAM Write Recovery Time: 4 Clocks
DRAM ECC Mode: Disabled
Hyper Path 3: Disabled
DRAM Throttling Threshhold: Auto

 

[InterMurph]

-- Duplicate Post --

 

[InterMurph]

SuperPI Benchmarks

Here are my SuperPI numbers with the above settings:

512K: 6.047 seconds
1M: 13.390 seconds
2M: 32.640 seconds
4M: 1:15.500 seconds

What other benchmarks should I run?

 

[Technonut]

I would like to see the 32M time.....

EDIT: Some AutoGK 2.27 encoding times would also be interesting...

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Nice O/C! Is it prime stable?
What are your load temps?

Some other benches to try

Crystal Mark
PCmark05

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: InterMurph
SuperPI Benchmarks

Here are my SuperPI numbers with the above settings:

512K: 6.047 seconds
1M: 13.390 seconds
2M: 32.640 seconds
4M: 1:15.500 seconds

What other benchmarks should I run?

Let's see CrystalMark results. The SuperPI numbers look good, what is your 32M time?