*** Official ASUS P4C800/Deluxe (875P) Thread ***

[gogoman]

DAVIDS,
What do you use to test for stability? At first, I try using prime95 v2.37 but it always ends with an error after 16K passes( even when I don't overclock). Now, I have only Sandra "Burn-in Wizard" and 3Dmark2001SE loop mode to test for stability.

 

[chanfo]

I also think your temps are a little high. Mine runs at 31C on both CPU & Motherboard. Understress the CPU goes to about 42C. The northbridge hs only gets warm to the touch.

 

[DAVIDS]

Originally posted by: gogoman
DAVIDS,
What do you use to test for stability? At first, I try using prime95 v2.37 but it always ends with an error after 16K passes( even when I don't overclock). Now, I have only Sandra "Burn-in Wizard" and 3Dmark2001SE loop mode to test for stability.

Have you tried Memtest86? It's a good diagnostic tool for your RAM. link

I'm using an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro and was occasionally having problems with system freezes. At first, I thought it was a USB problem. But I installed Omega drivers in place of the regular ATI Catalyst versions, and the problems went away. The Omegas are third party drivers that are supposedly more stable than the ATI's. link Of course, if you're not having problems with your video card, then there's probably no need to install the Omegas. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I've made.

 

[Bartokomus]

well i hate to bud in, but i just had to say that i just picked up my p4c800 Deluxe, my 2.8c, and my new Zalman cooler. right at first boot i o/c to 3.31; and you know, i installed the OS, Apps, games, and then played HAlo for an hour at 1600 x 1200. do you know the hottest the CPU got was 31C? my old P4t533c would spike up to 48C when i tried to o/c that much. tonight i go higher. oh yeah, if you need a cooler, go for those new Zalman CNPS7000; the thing is whisper quiet and i think it has a large part in the new level of cooling. thanks, i had to say that!

 

[mjcumming]

New P4C800-E Deluxe owner

My first new system in about a year and I am not familiar with all the bios options

I have a retail p4 2.8 with a swiftech cooler. Corsair TWINX512-4000 512 meg (twin pack). Running XP SP1 with an ATI 9700 AIW (unfortunately a -01 version) which may be a problem (not sure)

I have read a number of threads on this board and have search for a beginners guide to OC'n it...

I easily reached 3.2 by increasing the fsb but have had no success going any higher. I have started to play with some of the memory timings without any success

My main concern is the ATI card is causing the problems but I am not sure how to tell.

I have been using 3dmark03 to test stablility.

My main lack of knowledge is how all the memory timings work vs. fsb etc. So many options

Would really appreciate some guidance

Thanks, Mike

 

[mjcumming]

New P4C800-E Deluxe owner

My first new system in about a year and I am not familiar with all the bios options

I have a retail p4 2.8 with a swiftech cooler. Corsair TWINX512-4000 512 meg (twin pack). Running XP SP1 with an ATI 9700 AIW (unfortunately a -01 version) which may be a problem (not sure)

I have read a number of threads on this board and have search for a beginners guide to OC'n it...

I easily reached 3.2 by increasing the fsb but have had no success going any higher. I have started to play with some of the memory timings without any success

My main concern is the ATI card is causing the problems but I am not sure how to tell.

I have been using 3dmark03 to test stablility.

My main lack of knowledge is how all the memory timings work vs. fsb etc. So many options

Would really appreciate some guidance

Thanks, Mike

 

[Rapamatic]

I have put together the following system, and expect delivery of it today. I would appreciate any comments/suggestions on what I've bought and any tips or tricks to getting it to all work together.

Also, I have never overclocked before, but with all the good things I've heard about this board and th 2.4C chip, I've decided to give it a try. Are there any good beginners guides to reference?

Thanks!

Specs:

Asus P4C800-E
P4 2.4C
Thermalright SP-94 + 92mm Tornado + fanbus
Corsair 1GB TWINX 1024-4000PRO
2X Maxtor MaXLine Plus II 250GB SATA (planning RAID 0)
Matrox P750
Pioneer A06
LiteOn 52X CDRW
Antec TruePower 480 (thinking of upgrading to PCP&C)

I'm putting all this in an Antec PlusView 1000 case, loaded with Antec UV-LED fans.

Later I'll add some other SATA HDD for backup (or put the Maxtor as backup and use the new Hitachi drives). I plan on using built in sound, at least for now.

 

[DAVIDS]

For those wishing to overclock, this guide may be helpful.

Overclocking involves a lot of trial and error. It can be both fun and aggravating. Eventually, you will hit the so-called wall where you can't go any farther. Fanatics will resort to motherboard modifications and exotic cooling in an effort to squeeze a little extra performance out of their systems. The main thing you should always strive for is stability. It's never any fun watching your system crash, or getting random reboots and freezes. Good luck to everyone.

 

[laggerez]

3dmark2003 with matched pair 512mb ocz gold pc 500 and ati 9700 pro = 5271... stable on prime95 ... cpuz output below shows the 2.4c ghz OC to 3.22ghz at relaxed timings

CPU-Z Report

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CPU-Z version 1.19b.


CPU(s)
Number of CPUs 2 (1 Physical)

CPU#1 APIC ID = 0
CPU Name Intel Pentium 4
Code Name Northwood
Specification Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz
Family / Model / Stepping F 2 9
Extended Family / Model 0 0
Brand ID 9
Technology 0.13 µ
Supported Instructions Sets MMX, SSE, SSE2
CPU Clock Speed 3207.2 MHz
Clock multiplier x 12.0
Front Side Bus Frequency 267.3 MHz
Bus Speed 1069.1 MHz
L1 Data Cache 8 KBytes, 4-way set associative, 64 Bytes line size
L1 Trace Cache 12 Kµops, 8-way set associative
L2 Cache 512 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64 Bytes line size
L2 Speed 3207.2 MHz (Full)
L2 Location On Chip
L2 Data Prefetch Logic yes
L2 Bus Width 256 bits

CPU#2 APIC ID = 1
CPU Name Intel Pentium 4 (logical unit)



Mainboard and chipset
Motherboard manufacturer ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
Motherboard model P4C800-E, Rev 1.xx
BIOS vendor American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS revision 080009
BIOS release date 09/02/2003
Chipset Intel i875P rev. A2
Southbridge Intel 82801EB (ICH5) rev. 2
Sensor chip Winbond W83627THF
FSB Select 800 MHz
Performance Mode enabled

AGP Status enabled, rev. 3.0
AGP Data Transfert Rate 8x
AGP Side Band Addressing supported, enabled
AGP Aperture Size 128 MBytes



Memory
DRAM Type DDR-SDRAM
DRAM Size 512 MBytes
DRAM Frequency 267.3 MHz
FSB/DRAM 1:1
CAS# Latency 3.0 clocks
RAS# to CAS# 4 clocks
RAS# Precharge 4 clocks
Cycle Time (TRAS) 8 clocks
# of memory modules 2
Module 0 DDR-SDRAM PC4000 - 256 MBytes
Module 1 DDR-SDRAM PC4000 - 256 MBytes



Software
Windows version Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)

 

[gogoman]

Originally posted by: mjcumming
New P4C800-E Deluxe owner


I have been using 3dmark03 to test stablility.



Thanks, Mike

mjcumming,
How do you test for stability with 3dmark03 if it doesn't have a loop mode? You can try 3dmark2001SE cos it has loop mode.

 

[gogoman]

"3dmark2003 with matched pair 512mb ocz gold pc 500 and ati 9700 pro = 5271... stable on prime95 ... cpuz output below shows the 2.4c ghz OC to 3.22ghz at relaxed timings "

laggerez,
What version prime95 are you using? Do you get some error after 16K passes?

 

[gogoman]

Originally posted by: Rapamatic
I have put together the following system, and expect delivery of it today. I would appreciate any comments/suggestions on what I've bought and any tips or tricks to getting it to all work together.

Also, I have never overclocked before, but with all the good things I've heard about this board and th 2.4C chip, I've decided to give it a try. Are there any good beginners guides to reference?

Thanks!

Specs:

Asus P4C800-E
P4 2.4C
Thermalright SP-94 + 92mm Tornado + fanbus
Corsair 1GB TWINX 1024-4000PRO
2X Maxtor MaXLine Plus II 250GB SATA (planning RAID 0)
Matrox P750
Pioneer A06
LiteOn 52X CDRW
Antec TruePower 480 (thinking of upgrading to PCP&C)

I'm putting all this in an Antec PlusView 1000 case, loaded with Antec UV-LED fans.

Later I'll add some other SATA HDD for backup (or put the Maxtor as backup and use the new Hitachi drives). I plan on using built in sound, at least for now.

Seems like cost is a non-issue with you. I would go for the Aspire SuperAlien case instead. I have been using Antec cases in the past...they are very nice case but my new SuperAlien case (comes with 500W PS) is much nicer. BTW, I am using stock fan for my CPU. The overclocking limit is usually capped by your memory or motherboard.

 

[gogoman]

Originally posted by: DAVIDS

Originally posted by: gogoman
DAVIDS,
What do you use to test for stability? At first, I try using prime95 v2.37 but it always ends with an error after 16K passes( even when I don't overclock). Now, I have only Sandra "Burn-in Wizard" and 3Dmark2001SE loop mode to test for stability.

Have you tried Memtest86? It's a good diagnostic tool for your RAM. link

I'm using an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro and was occasionally having problems with system freezes. At first, I thought it was a USB problem. But I installed Omega drivers in place of the regular ATI Catalyst versions, and the problems went away. The Omegas are third party drivers that are supposedly more stable than the ATI's. link Of course, if you're not having problems with your video card, then there's probably no need to install the Omegas. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I've made.

Ya, I have the memtest utility (windows version) which I ran stable overnight. You can't really tell your system is stable by just running memtest though.

 

[jhites]

Originally posted by: gogoman
"3dmark2003 with matched pair 512mb ocz gold pc 500 and ati 9700 pro = 5271... stable on prime95 ... cpuz output below shows the 2.4c ghz OC to 3.22ghz at relaxed timings "

laggerez,
What version prime95 are you using? Do you get some error after 16K passes?

You should run two instances of Prime95 (most current version) in order to test HT cpu. I have run 2 instances of Prime and 1 instance of Seti plus 1 instance of Prime for over 12 hours with no errors. Using only 1 instance with an HT cpu will only test 50% cpu usage, not 100%.

Running a 2.6C 262fsb 3.4Ghz @ 1.5875vcore with 2X512 HyperX PC3500 CL2-2-2-5 @ 2.85vdimm.

 

[chanfo]

How do you run 2 version of prime95 at the sametime? It won't let me open it twice.

 

[jhites]

Originally posted by: chanfo
How do you run 2 version of prime95 at the sametime? It won't let me open it twice.

Start the 2nd one from the command line like example (browse to location of Prime95 folder) with the -a2 switch:

"D:\Program Files\Prime95\Prime95.exe" -a2

 

[computer]

Thanks again Michael.

I guess I need to ask these again. If anyone knows anything, please LMK.

Does anyone know why this mobo wouldn't boot with an ATI Rage Fury Maxx?

Does anyone know of any DOS benchmarking programs or anything I can run in "DOS mode" from a floppy or CDROM to check stability? I'm not wasting my time setting up XP Pro if this thing is unstable, so I'd like to test it now.

If you set overclock to 30%, what ratio & settings is the memory running? Does the 30% overclock setting set the memory ratio to slower than 1:1?

When you set that DDR Frequency area to "Auto" what does that do? Is that 1:1 or 3:2, or 5:4?

Looks like I'm going to have to do the Vdimm mod on this mobo if takes 2.85v just to boot, the Geil is spec'd to 2.95v. Who has done the memory voltage modification, and can you post the exact directions please?

When I have the WD360 Raptor HD connected, there is no "beep" after POST. When I disconnect it, there is the normal beep. Why is this? I TRIED to format it using the WD format utility and had all sorts of problems. At WD's website, they had NOTHING for formatting SATA drives, only IDE & SCSI. Yet they said this is for ALL of their drives beginning with "WDxxx" so I used it. It's connected to SATA1 and shows as the IDE3 Master in the BIOS. When I set it as the first boot device, I get an error instead of the C: prompt. Error is "NTLDR is missing" and to "press cont-alt-del to restart". Is that normal for a Raptor and no OS installed yet? (Please see my post above from 10/09/2003 2:50 AM for more details on that).

BIOS related:
There are areas in the BIOS I've never seen before and of course no mention of what they are for on the BIOS screens or in the manual.
What is "MPS revision"? That's below the memory timings. Should it be 1.4 or 1.1? What is the difference?

Should "Spread spectrum" be disabled or enabled?

"DRAM Burst length"; 4 or 8?

"DRAM Idle Timer"; infinite, 0T, 8T, 16T, 64T, or Auto?

"DRAM Refresh mode"; 15.6uSec, 7.8uSec, 64uSec, or 64T?

"ICH Delayed transaction"; enabled or disabled? (Why does it say nothing about "ICH5R?)

For this specific mobo (P4C800-E Deluxe) is it best to have PnP OS set to Yes or No? Does it do a better job at assigning IRQ's than XP Pro?

I have "allocate IRQ to PCI VGA" set to "NO" since I'm using an AGP video card. I assume that's correct. ?

If you enable only 2 USB ports, WHICH are they!? Which "numbers" are the rear USB ports? Also, I have one USB 2.0 device, and one USB 1.1 device. If I use the 1.1 device, MUST I enable "Legacy USB" in the BIOS? If I disable Legacy USB will the 1.1 device still work? I heard that enabling Legacy USB can cause some problem with this mobo with o'clocking. If USB 2.0 is backward compatible (and I think it is) then the 1.1 device should work if Legacy USB is disabled.

My 12v is running only 11.67v in the BIOS. Is that cause for alarm? I find that rather annoying since this PS was top rated by Anandtech and Tom's for the "400 watt & under" units. It's the Fortron/Source FSP400-60PFN and in all tests its 12v was running @12.0v! Yet, it's 11.67 on this mobo.

I'd appreciate it if someone can clear these things up.
Thanks.......Clint

 

[DAVIDS]

Computer, I'll try to answer as many questions as possible.

AI Overclocker - I never use it because I'd rather do my own settings.
DDR Frequency - I have no idea what Auto does. I've used 1:1 since day one.
Raptors - Remove the jumpers from your HDD's if you haven't already done so.
If you're interested in doing a Vdimm mod on this board, check this link.
NTLDR is missing - Could be a number of things. You should have CDROM listed first in the boot sequence. I'm assuming you're going to use the Windows install CD.
Spread spectrum - Disable it, especially if you're overclocking. For an explanation of what spread spectrum is, go here
DRAM Burst length - Try 8 clocks
DRAM Idle Timer & DRAM Refresh Mode - This is all up to you. I'm using 64T & 64uSec respectively.
ICH Delayed Transaction - I left it at enabled which I believe is the default setting.
PCI PnP settings - I haven't changed any of them.
Legacy USB Support - Many people have disabled it. I'm running in Auto with USB 2.0 Controller Mode set to HiSpeed. Works for me.
Power supply - As long as the voltage doesn't dip by more than five percent, you should be okay.

 

[MikEHunT2]

I can see after reading this page alone i may need me a nice Zalman h/s/f. My temp as i write this is 43'c, and under load goes upto 60'c.
ALthough i must say, it is stable at that after my extensive Prime95 and other tests.
Time for me to place another cooler order!

 

[DAVIDS]

Originally posted by: MikEHunT2
I can see after reading this page alone i may need me a nice Zalman h/s/f. My temp as i write this is 43'c, and under load goes upto 60'c.
ALthough i must say, it is stable at that after my extensive Prime95 and other tests.
Time for me to place another cooler order!

Yes, 60C is way too high. Even under load, my CPU rarely goes above 32C. I'm using a Zalman CNPS-7000AlCu. Your heat sink may not be making good contact with your CPU. When you remove the HSF, you'll be able to tell, just by looking at the CPU and the patterns left on the thermal paste.

 

[MikEHunT2]

You should run two instances of Prime95 (most current version) in order to test HT cpu. I have run 2 instances of Prime and 1 instance of Seti plus 1 instance of Prime for over 12 hours with no errors. Using only 1 instance with an HT cpu will only test 50% cpu usage, not 100%.

I tried this, and even with 2 instances of Prime95 running, my cpu usage was still low, as it just used the pagefile like mad?
It never reached 100% cpu usage?
I am now running this again, and as i type this, my cpu usage is only a max of 11 %, whereas my pagefile stays constant at 1.91 Gb.
The physical ram is also maxed out too, so i do not see where the 100% cpu usage comes into it?
Anyway, that is a minor problem as it is very trivial, LOL.

 

[jhites]

Does anyone know of any DOS benchmarking programs or anything I can run in "DOS mode" from a floppy or CDROM to check stability? I'm not wasting my time setting up XP Pro if this thing is unstable, so I'd like to test it now.

There is one program that will test all the hardware for stability that I know about but the pro version is $295. I do personally use MemTest86 prior to installing the OS. Using all 11 tests will give a pretty good warm fuzzy of stability. I will normally install about 5mhz fsb under a no error maximum using MemTest86.

If you set overclock to 30%, what ratio & settings is the memory running? Does the 30% overclock setting set the memory ratio to slower than 1:1?

Using the AI overclock relaxes the mem timings and other timings. Don't use it. Use manual and find your own sweetspots.

When you set that DDR Frequency area to "Auto" what does that do? Is that 1:1 or 3:2, or 5:4?

Auto could set the ratio to any of these depending on the fsb. Again, find your own sweetspot. Note that bus speed will overcompensate for a mem ratio timing. 1:1 is not always the fastest setting if the fsb has to be lowered to much. (ex: my 2.8 running 1:1 ddr494 2.5-3-3-7 is slower than my 2.6 running 5:4 ddr420 2-2-2-5)

Looks like I'm going to have to do the Vdimm mod on this mobo if takes 2.85v just to boot, the Geil is spec'd to 2.95v. Who has done the memory voltage modification, and can you post the exact directions please?

Can't help you here. I have only run the 2.85vdimm and that is really only about 2.80v actual.

Should "Spread spectrum" be disabled or enabled?

disabled

"DRAM Burst length"; 4 or 8?

4 is faster if you can run it. I do

"DRAM Idle Timer"; infinite, 0T, 8T, 16T, 64T, or Auto?

If you can get 8T, go for it. Lower is faster but depends on having some really good memory.

"DRAM Refresh mode"; 15.6uSec, 7.8uSec, 64uSec, or 64T?

This is how often the memory is cleared. I use 64uSec with 1Gb ram.

"ICH Delayed transaction"; enabled or disabled? (Why does it say nothing about "ICH5R?)

The is for older devices. Has nothing to do with the ICH5R that you are thinking about. You can leave it enabled, no matter. Some say disabled shows performance gain. I doubt that personally.

For this specific mobo (P4C800-E Deluxe) is it best to have PnP OS set to Yes or No? Does it do a better job at assigning IRQ's than XP Pro?

Microsoft recommends setting this to NO. I always install Win2K and XP with it set to NO.

I have "allocate IRQ to PCI VGA" set to "NO" since I'm using an AGP video card. I assume that's correct. ?

Again, no bigger. Either, won't matter under XP. NO, is fine. Leave it.

If you enable only 2 USB ports, WHICH are they!? Which "numbers" are the rear USB ports? Also, I have one USB 2.0 device, and one USB 1.1 device. If I use the 1.1 device, MUST I enable "Legacy USB" in the BIOS? If I disable Legacy USB will the 1.1 device still work? I heard that enabling Legacy USB can cause some problem with this mobo with o'clocking. If USB 2.0 is backward compatible (and I think it is) then the 1.1 device should work if Legacy USB is disabled.

The primary usb ports are the one's closest to the rj45. Legacy USB is for DOS based. Loading USB2.0 in XP will take care of your needs.

My 12v is running only 11.67v in the BIOS. Is that cause for alarm? I find that rather annoying since this PS was top rated by Anandtech and Tom's for the "400 watt & under" units. It's the Fortron/Source FSP400-60PFN and in all tests its 12v was running @12.0v! Yet, it's 11.67 on this mobo.

11.67 is a little low. 11.87 would be closer to norm. This is due to the drain from the length of power connector wiring and other factors. It is normally only 12v coming out of the PS. You can adjust the pots but I would not bother. As long as you don't have any major fluxuations on the 3.3, 5.0 or 12.0 lines this will not cause you any trouble.

 

[jhites]

Originally posted by: MikEHunT2

You should run two instances of Prime95 (most current version) in order to test HT cpu. I have run 2 instances of Prime and 1 instance of Seti plus 1 instance of Prime for over 12 hours with no errors. Using only 1 instance with an HT cpu will only test 50% cpu usage, not 100%.

I tried this, and even with 2 instances of Prime95 running, my cpu usage was still low, as it just used the pagefile like mad?
It never reached 100% cpu usage?
I am now running this again, and as i type this, my cpu usage is only a max of 11 %, whereas my pagefile stays constant at 1.91 Gb.
The physical ram is also maxed out too, so i do not see where the 100% cpu usage comes into it?
Anyway, that is a minor problem as it is very trivial, LOL.

contol/alt/delete - performance tab - you should see 2 cpu's - if not you do not have HT enabled and you should see 100% under the performance tab or something is definately wrong with your settings.

 

[chanfo]

Originally posted by: jhites

contol/alt/delete - performance tab - you should see 2 cpu's - if not you do not have HT enabled and you should see 100% under the performance tab or something is definately wrong with your settings.[/quote]

I have 2 instances of prime95 running and I see 2 cpus in task manager and they both show 50%. HT is definately enabled on mine. Maybe we're running a newer version of prime ?

 

[laggerez]

ok quick question for the experts I am satisfied with my performance \ OC with 512 (2x 256mb)of ocz pc4000 gold dual if I add another set of the same will performance suffer ?? I ask as I know single sided and double sided modules can affect this when 4 are used as opposed to 2 sticks

TIA