*Official* ASUS P5Q Deluxe Intel P45 Board Thread

[tr1kstanc3]

Originally posted by: ZedHash
I have a few problems and questions and I'd appreciate it if someone could help me out.

1.

My current bios is 0603 if I'm not mistaken. I tried to use to upgrade using EZ Flash 2, but the screen was not the same as described in the manual. I couldn't choose a path and at the bottom where it says "note" there is nothing. I put the usb drive before booting my PC. Also is it safe to upgrade the bios in windows using the Asus program?

I used Winflash although many users will not recommend this. It worked for me though.

2.

When I use Q fan in the bios to control my 2 Scythe 80mm fans (pmw) I installed at the front the rpm drops from about 2500 to about 700. This is great because the fans don't make any noise any more. But it doesn't matter which setting I use (silent, standard or turbo) the rpm will always be about 700. Is this a bios issue or will the fans run higher when they need to?

The fans will run faster when they need to. Unfortunately they do not let you define an exact temperature threshold. I keep mine on standard.

3.

Some setting in the bios can't be changed from auto. For example cpu ratio and other tweaking settings can't be modified.

I keep my cpu ratio on auto, sorry can't help you here. What are the other tweak settings you are trying to change?

4.

This is the most important one. Earlier today I succesfully installed XP on a 200GB ATA drive (not SATA). Afterwards I installed a SATA drive for storage purposes and then something weird happend. After restarting booting XP from the ATA drive didn't work any more. It tried to boot from the SATA disk... I went in the bios to indicate that I wanted to use the ATA drive and I noticed that some settings were changed.

From that point on I kept having problems. When booting I get a black screen when it's supposed to start windows. Just before the black screen there is the initialization of the onboard ATA controller followed by a screen with stuff that dissapears really fast. I think it says checking or clearing NVRAM on the last line.

So I tried installing windows again but then accessing my SATA DVD drive didn't work. After a while I found out that it took about 10 to 15 minutes before I could access the DVD for the windows setup. I tried reinstalling XP, but accessing the ATA HDD also takes 10 to 15 minutes.

I probably did something wrong in the bios. What could be the cause of this ? Everything works but accessing the drives is taking ages... At the moment windows xp is installed but every time I boot up it takes about 10 to 15 minutes to get into windows...

Are you running SATA in IDE mode? AHCI? What SATA ports are you using on the physical board itself. I am running SATA hds and dvd-rom and am kind of wary about using an ATA hd because the ICH10R does not have a native implementation of IDE on the board itself. I believe ASUS is using a Marvell ATA controller. You might want to look into this.

5.

When I successfully managed to install XP earlier I had the following problems. It kept saying it found new hardware even though I installed the LAN and sound drivers. And every time I started up, a DOS screen appeared for about 20 seconds saying the USB drivers will be installed. I'm using XP Professional.

Are you using xp sp3? I am running sp3 x86 edition and do not have the problem you mentioned.

Thanks in advance for any help. I would really appreciate it if someone could help me out with 4. as fast as possible. I'm probably just overlooking something.

 

[ZedHash]

Thank you for your reply tr1kstanc3.

3.

I'll look into it later when I'm home to see which other settings can't be changed. But I'm sure there are several.

4. The 200GB drive is connected on the onboard ATA controller, Samsung DVDRW on SATA1, 2 SATA 500GB drives on SATA 2 and 3 which I added after the windows xp installation. Currently I'm running in IDE mode (enhanced). Tried AHCI but didn't have any effect.

5. I'm using SP1. I didn't have a chance to update to SP3.

Again thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Howie]

Are there any benefits to going with the Deluxe for overclocking and crossfire purposes?

 

[ZedHash]

I have just now found out why the OS takes ages to boot up. I forgot to mention I have a Promise Ultra133 TX2 installled as well. The moment I attach a HDD to the controller the system goes into slow motion mode.

I've tried looking for a solution but nothing so far. Any help would be welcome. Maybe I'll have to buy an external drive for backup purposes instead. Or maybe I'll get some IDE to SATA adapters. In the end the best way to solve this might be to just buy a 1TB SATA HDD. I'll see what'll do.

 

[ZedHash]

I've been able to solve all my problems.

1. Flahed my bios using a usb to ps2 adapter to get EZ Flash 2 working.
2. The fans work great with Q fan control.
3. I don't mind about not being able to control every function.
4. I bought 2 750GB SATA drives and sold the ATA drives.
5. No USB problems any more after installing SP3.

Other questions I still have:

1. I tried to install Windows XP using AHCI but I always got a BSOD during the setup. Do I need Vista to use AHCI? For now I installed XP using the IDE settings.

2. Bios and Windows say that my E8400 is running at 3GHz, but when I use CPU-Z I'm told the CPU is running at 2GHz (multiplier x6 instead of x9). Anyone any idea?

 

[tr1kstanc3]

Originally posted by: ZedHash
I've been able to solve all my problems.

1. Flahed my bios using a usb to ps2 adapter to get EZ Flash 2 working.
2. The fans work great with Q fan control.
3. I don't mind about not being able to control every function.
4. I bought 2 750GB SATA drives and sold the ATA drives.
5. No USB problems any more after installing SP3.

Other questions I still have:

1. I tried to install Windows XP using AHCI but I always got a BSOD during the setup. Do I need Vista to use AHCI? For now I installed XP using the IDE settings.

2. Bios and Windows say that my E8400 is running at 3GHz, but when I use CPU-Z I'm told the CPU is running at 2GHz (multiplier x6 instead of x9). Anyone any idea?

1) read a few posts up. i posted a link that will get you started on AHCI in XP.

2) sounds like intel speedstep is enabled. try running orthos to load the cpu and see if the clockspeed and multiplier change. if it does then that is normal behavior. i have mine setup to do the same thing.

 

[ZedHash]

Originally posted by: tr1kstanc3

1) read a few posts up. i posted a link that will get you started on AHCI in XP.

2) sounds like intel speedstep is enabled. try running orthos to load the cpu and see if the clockspeed and multiplier change. if it does then that is normal behavior. i have mine setup to do the same thing.

Thank you very much for your replies! I'll give AHCI under XP a try soon. And running Orthos did force the CPU to run at 3GHz in CPU-Z so it must be Intel Speedstep.

Edit:

Seems like disabling Intel Speedstep in the BIOS didn't have any effect. Any other setting that I should know about? I'll use the Intel Speedstep feature, but I want to make sure I can lock the CPU speed.

 

[n7]

If you are not overclocking i recommend leaving Intel's power saving features on.

C1E needs to be disabled as well to prevent the CPU from dropping to a lower multiplier when idle.

 

[lebe0024]

Originally posted by: n7
If you are not overclocking i recommend leaving Intel's power saving features on.

C1E needs to be disabled as well to prevent the CPU from dropping to a lower multiplier when idle.

Are you saying to disable C1E if I'm not overclocking? I'm not overclocking, so should I keep speedstep and c1e enabled?

 

[n7]

No no.

Keep 'em enabled if you don't OC...no reason to waste power if you don't have to

 

[Ronstang]

What a bummer. I was doing some research to pick a new motherboard and the P5Q Pro sounds like the one I would want....except I have two kits of Corsair TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX for a total of 8 gigs of memory that do not seem to be compatible with this board. What a let down. I cannot afford to replace memory I just bought recently.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Anyone get the Atheros gigabit eithernet (the LAN on the pro) working in a popular linux distro yet? If so... how?

Update, figured it out, instructions here:
http://forums.opensuse.org/ins...q-pro.html#post1851816

 

[ZedHash]

Originally posted by: n7
If you are not overclocking i recommend leaving Intel's power saving features on.

C1E needs to be disabled as well to prevent the CPU from dropping to a lower multiplier when idle.

Thanks! This did the job. But in the end I left the power saving features on.

 

[GundamF91]

Originally posted by: Ronstang
What a bummer. I was doing some research to pick a new motherboard and the P5Q Pro sounds like the one I would want....except I have two kits of Corsair TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX for a total of 8 gigs of memory that do not seem to be compatible with this board. What a let down. I cannot afford to replace memory I just bought recently.

Are you sure that they're not compatible? My Mushkin are not listed by model on P5Q Deluxe compatible chart, but they work great on it.

 

[Ronstang]

Originally posted by: GundamF91

Originally posted by: Ronstang
What a bummer. I was doing some research to pick a new motherboard and the P5Q Pro sounds like the one I would want....except I have two kits of Corsair TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX for a total of 8 gigs of memory that do not seem to be compatible with this board. What a let down. I cannot afford to replace memory I just bought recently.

Are you sure that they're not compatible? My Mushkin are not listed by model on P5Q Deluxe compatible chart, but they work great on it.

Someone earlier in the thread had problems with the exact same RAM. I ordered myself an MSI P45 Neo2-FR today instead. I don't have the time to wait I need a board this week.

 

[pvrbulls]

I notice on the Asus site that the QVL for the P5Q deluxe is substantially longer than for the P5Q-E. Is this indicative of the deluxe being somehow less picky.... or just an indication that the lists are not accurate?

Also, I don't see G.Skill DDR2 1000 (F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ) listed... but quite a few here seem to have been successful with it. Is there a reason this ram(or any other DDR2 1000 ram) is not listed? I am currently debating whether to get the G.Skill DDR@ 1000 or DDR2 800(F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ)... which is listed. I would like to do some modest overclocking with a Q9450 or a Q9550(which has just dropped about $200 at Newegg. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Zane

 

[cjconrad]

I have a P5Q Deluxe with four Seagate 1TB SATA drives (SATA1-4) plus a SATA DVD Writer (SATA6). In the BIOS, the SATA is set to "IDE" (I had problems installing the OS using the AHCI setting). I now have installed Windows Server 2003, and want to setup RAID 1 (mirror) on SATA drives 1 & 2. SATA1 is my current boot, and SATA2 is the same drive model, empty (new drive, just formatted).

I am on BIOS 605, which came with the board. When I encountered problems installing W2K3, I tried to upgrade the BIOS, but my problems persisted and I would end up with the BIOS back to 605 (I didn't overtly reinstall or revert 605, but somehow it was back). In retrospect, I believe that the only real problem I had was the SATA setting, as I had been trying to use AHCI.

In any case, I want to get the RAID working, but I am a bit scared for a few reasons:
(1) I don't want to lose my current drive content (so I want to be sure that I can control which drive is the "master copy"); As the P5Q manual does not give a walk-thru of setting up the RAID 1, I want to ensure that I will be able to specify just the two drives involved without putting anything else at risk.
(2) Given the problems with my AHCI attempts, I am not confident that the SATA support is mature (and hence, the RAID support)
(3) As the BIOS mysteriously reverted itself to earlier version at least twice, I am concerned that anything requiring a BIOS upgrade might not be reliable.

Thanks to all in advance ...

 

[tr1kstanc3]

Originally posted by: pvrbulls
I notice on the Asus site that the QVL for the P5Q deluxe is substantially longer than for the P5Q-E. Is this indicative of the deluxe being somehow less picky.... or just an indication that the lists are not accurate?

Also, I don't see G.Skill DDR2 1000 (F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ) listed... but quite a few here seem to have been successful with it. Is there a reason this ram(or any other DDR2 1000 ram) is not listed? I am currently debating whether to get the G.Skill DDR@ 1000 or DDR2 800(F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ)... which is listed. I would like to do some modest overclocking with a Q9450 or a Q9550(which has just dropped about $200 at Newegg. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Zane

The G.Skill ram will work great. I am using that exact model in my system with no problems. Running factory specs at 1.9v.

 

[pengo]

Hey guys, I've got 2gb corsair xms2 DDR2-667 ram. Just wondering what setting in the bios do I need to set to keep the ram locked at 333? I want to run my ram at 1:1 with my cpu fsb.

Also I'm running my ram at 1.9v and 4-4-4-12 (rated by corsair to run at that at stock). I saw it mentioned in this thread someone running their ram with looser timings and got better results, with some sort of other RAM feature enabled. Should I do the same?

 

[tr1kstanc3]

i would stick with stock timings and change your fsb strap. changing your fsb strap (which is default at AUTO) changes the timings of the chipset which gives you overall better performance. the lowest strap which i believe is 266 gives the best performance but you will need to see if it provides the memory divder for your ram speed.

 

[HIO]

Can someone please recommend the best proven *Ram* to purchase for the Asus P5Q Deluxe and the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield. I want two gigs for XP and will be eventually overclocking somewhat. I am lost in this arena as everything seems cryptic to me and I have studied this topic to some degree.

I downloaded the manual from Asus and have referred to their recommendations of supported memory but I cannot make heads or tails of which brand and type would be the best purchase.

I need a brand with Mhz capability or better yet a part number.

 

[pengo]

My Corsair XMS2 "value" RAM works fine. I'm ussing DDR2-667 with a E6300 overclocked to 2.3Ghz (333Mhz FSB, RAM @ 333mhz). Friends are using Crucial Ballistix in theirs.

I'd say if you go Corsair or Crucial ram you should do alright. Stay away from OCZ and maybe Kingston.

 

[ZedHash]

I have an E8400 CPU with a Xigmatek HDT-S1283 cooler. I mounted a Noctua NF-P12 fan on the cooler because it's almost silent when I use the silent connector.

I've installed some temperature monitoring software recently and I have a couple of questions.

1. In Everest CPU and CPU Core1/Core2 are mentioned, but in Real Temp only the Core Temperature is mentioned. And in the BIOS only CPU temperature is shown. What is the difference and which is more important?

2. I read somewhere that a temperature above 60 degrees is not good. Is this CPU temperature or CPU Core temperature? By the way CPU temperature is about 40 degrees under full load.

3. CPU Core temperatures in Everest are close to 60 degrees when not idle, while they are around 50 degrees in Real Temp. Which is more accurate?

Room temperature is between 20 and 30 degrees most of the time. I use the latets BIOS for my P5Q Deluxe board and my system is almost silent. But if necessary I will let my fans run faster to keep my system cool in the summer.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[secretanchitman]

zedhash:

1 - use realtemp and coretemp. they will give you the "real" temperatures of all individual cores.
2 - cpu core temperatures (AFAIK).
3 - real temp is more accurate.

HIO:

Use my ram...the g.skill 2x2GB DDR2-1000 kit (5-5-5-15). i got mine for $80 or $85 (cant remember), and its taken my Q9450 to 450FSB (2.66Ghz to 3.6Ghz) without any issue.


also, im thinking if i should upgrade my bios from 803 to 1102/1201 whatever it is..wait a second what the hell? it was on asus' site like 10 minutes ago and now its gone! it only has up to 803..

 

[tr1kstanc3]

G.Skill DDR2 1000 F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ

they sell it on newegg. i know its not a 2gb kit but alot of users here are getting good results with it including myself.