*** Official ASUS P5W DH Thread ***

[yessir]

Originally posted by: yessir

Originally posted by: phile

Originally posted by: yessir
Hello again...

My memtest of the module ran for 9 hrs and found 3 errors on pass 11. I will be running removing one module and run with just 1 GB and also switch modules position and re-run. Are there any other things that I can do? Do I have to RMA this with OCZ?

My mem module is OCZ Platinum 2GB.

Thanks

3 errors after 9 hours is quite arguably an acceptable situation, especially if you don't have any problems in normal everyday use.

Can you summarize whatever problems you're having?

-phil

Thanks Phil...I am not having any specific problems. I have just eased into the operation of my build and was doing the memtest and orthos as recommended by you and others in forum(s). But I have consistently got ORTHOS & memtest provide errors when I run 1:1. I am going to do separate DIMM tests and get back.

Thanks

Just an update for the benefit for all. My set-up is very simple & runs stable on ORTHOS and MEMTEST (1 error after 20 hrs).

1. All AUTO on CPU config except manual clock & 380.
2. Disabled SPD, used 4-4-5-15 fro my OCZ Platinum, disabled DRAM Throtlling,
3. Since I have Zalman AT, it works better with Q-Fan turned on.

Core 2 6400 runs great at 3.05 GHz just fine with Zalman air cooling. Anytime I change vcore, or others, I get errors on ORTHOS or MEMTEST. So, I am concluding all tests for now and run with above forever I guess. BTW, using BIOS 1503.

Thanks to all and especially Phile...kudos to you!

 

[AlwaysFaithful]

Originally posted by: phile
I'll add to Skott's fine response with a suggested FSB 333 config:

Advanced / CPU config
-------------------------
C1E: Disabled
Speedstep: Disabled

Advanced / Jumperfree config:
-------------------------
AI Overclock: Manual
FSB: 333
DRAM: DDR2-666 (no mem divider) or DDR2-833 (uses 4:5 divider)
VCORE: 1.3v - 1.35v (start at 1.3 and bump one step at a time until machine is stable)
VDIMM: 2.1v

Advanced / Chipset config:
-------------------------
SPD: Disabled
TIMINGS: 4-4-4-12
HYPERPATH 3: Disabled

All other settings in the BIOS can be left at default.

To test your system's stability, run the Orthos Blended test for a couple of hours minimum.
http://sp2004.fre3.com/beta/beta2.htm

-phil

What kinda speeds do you forcast for this type of overclock?
On my setup, is the E6600 capable of hitting 3.75 do you think?

 

[adi55]

A new BIOS 1503 BETA released.
You can download it from:
http://support.asus.com/download/downlo...Language=en-us&model=P5W%20DH%20Deluxe
(Latest Tab)

Also on the presentation page of P5W DH apear a new logo with "Vista Premium Ready"
http://www.asus.com/products3.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=248&slname=Intel%20975X

Yours,

 

[AntiStatic]

1503 fixes the warm boot/reboot bug. also let me get a little higher on less vcore. 1503 ftw.

 

[imported_killerman]

this might seem like a dumb question but here goes:

if a chip takes 1.412 vcore to be stable at 400fsb.... is it possible that vcore could be lower if the temps of the chip were lower (if you lap it and the hs etc)
or will it always need that vcore to be stable at that speed?
thanks

 

[Butterbean]

Toms Hardware had a P5W that did great on tests - then they said "don't buy it".

"The P5WDH Deluxe had problems detecting our test hard drives (Western Digital WD1500ADFD-00NLR1, Firmware 20.07P20). Once in a while the system would not boot, reporting "No IDE Master H.D.D. Detected". A possible workaround is to turn off halt on errors, but this will also disable reporting of other, more severe issues...

The Asus P5W DH Deluxe comes with a long list of features that include virtually anything you can think of. From this point of view it is worth the $269, but since it suffered from teething problems during our tests and didn't overclock as smoothly as other Asus motherboards, we would rather not spend the money on this product."

The above is from article on Tom's Hardware: http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/10/11/four_975x_motherboards_for_core_2_duo/

I have been trying to think that a lot of people problems with this board were just standard stuff since a lot of people were building at once - but I don't think so anymore. I have had mine up and running for 3 weeks now and I still get random error mesages related to overclocking when I dont have it OC'ed and never did. Now I get red lights comming from my optical drives (I have 2 and I have had red lights on each. One drive is new and neither had an issue in another PC).

Maybe this is Intel's fault because they amped up their schedule and pretty much admitted they rushed their cpu's out because of AMD. Maybe Asus had to get ahead of themselves. Certainly the embarrassing bios fiasco (Asus: "Oops - sorry - we didnt test our board with retail chips") could seem more understandable against that situation.

I know Asus is good company but I don't know if I can have confidence in this board. Do you think more bios update fix this thing eventually? I could exchange mine still I think (Newegg) but I might just get a Bad Axe and say "bye" to Asus.

 

[hofan41]

Originally posted by: Butterbean
I know Asus is good company but I don't know if I can have confidence in this board. Do you think more bios update fix this thing eventually? I could exchange mine still I think (Newegg) but I might just get a Bad Axe and say "bye" to Asus.

i dont know about you, but i have nothing but good things to say about my P5W-DH, flawless install and recognition of all drives and easy, effortless overclock.

 

[gamefreakgcb]

Originally posted by: hofan41

Originally posted by: Butterbean
I know Asus is good company but I don't know if I can have confidence in this board. Do you think more bios update fix this thing eventually? I could exchange mine still I think (Newegg) but I might just get a Bad Axe and say "bye" to Asus.

i dont know about you, but i have nothing but good things to say about my P5W-DH, flawless install and recognition of all drives and easy, effortless overclock.

me too. My current specs leave my others system in the dust.

 

[Twitch22]

Originally posted by: Butterbean

Maybe this is Intel's fault because they amped up their schedule and pretty much admitted they rushed their cpu's out because of AMD. Maybe Asus had to get ahead of themselves. Certainly the embarrassing bios fiasco (Asus: "Oops - sorry - we didnt test our board with retail chips") could seem more understandable against that situation.

I know Asus is good company but I don't know if I can have confidence in this board. Do you think more bios update fix this thing eventually? I could exchange mine still I think (Newegg) but I might just get a Bad Axe and say "bye" to Asus.

Man, I don't know why you are having the troubles you are. Asus has such a vaunted reputation in the enthusiast community...a demographic that will abuse and test product like no other. For them to stay at the top, I have to believe that Asus does not release a product "before it's time", especially their flagship board. Perhaps a faulty board from the factory, but by no means a bad design or implementation.

My rig's been running trouble free for 6 weeks...super stable and very fast. Like you, I'm not OC'ing anything. In hind sight, I could have very easily lived with the Bad Axe since I was looking for maxximum stability and stock performance, but, at the time, I couldn't be sure I was getting the right revision of the Bad Axe for C2D operation.

All in all, I couldn't be happier with the P5W DH Deluxe. It is a definate flagship board both in performance and features. Like the C2D CPU's themselves, it's nice to know you don't settle for anything when you have this board...hope it all works out for you!

Twitch

 

[jhh979s]

The Afudos.exe file and the 1503 BIOS wont fit on my boot floppy. How am I supposed to be able to flash using afudos then?

 

[phile]

Use 2 floppies.

floppy #1: boot
floppy #2: afudos.exe + BIOS ROM

Once you have booted to the A: prompt, you can swap the floppies.

With floppy #2 in the drive, type: afudos /i*****.ROM

note: the 'i' in the above command line is NOT a typo.

-phil

 

[jhh979s]

Hmm, am I doing something wrong? It says unable to read ROM file when I try to flash. Does the rom have to have a certain name? I did this: boot from Floppy #1, insert Floppy #2, typed afudos /ip5wdh.rom.

 

[phile]

Strange. It should have worked. Try formatting floppy #2 and recopying the files. While you're at it, redownload the BIOS file, as well.

-phil

 

[Skott]

Originally posted by: Butterbean
Toms Hardware had a P5W that did great on tests - then they said "don't buy it".

"The P5WDH Deluxe had problems detecting our test hard drives (Western Digital WD1500ADFD-00NLR1, Firmware 20.07P20). Once in a while the system would not boot, reporting "No IDE Master H.D.D. Detected". A possible workaround is to turn off halt on errors, but this will also disable reporting of other, more severe issues...

The Asus P5W DH Deluxe comes with a long list of features that include virtually anything you can think of. From this point of view it is worth the $269, but since it suffered from teething problems during our tests and didn't overclock as smoothly as other Asus motherboards, we would rather not spend the money on this product."

The above is from article on Tom's Hardware: http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/10/11/four_975x_motherboards_for_core_2_duo/

I have been trying to think that a lot of people problems with this board were just standard stuff since a lot of people were building at once - but I don't think so anymore. I have had mine up and running for 3 weeks now and I still get random error mesages related to overclocking when I dont have it OC'ed and never did. Now I get red lights comming from my optical drives (I have 2 and I have had red lights on each. One drive is new and neither had an issue in another PC).

Maybe this is Intel's fault because they amped up their schedule and pretty much admitted they rushed their cpu's out because of AMD. Maybe Asus had to get ahead of themselves. Certainly the embarrassing bios fiasco (Asus: "Oops - sorry - we didnt test our board with retail chips") could seem more understandable against that situation.

I know Asus is good company but I don't know if I can have confidence in this board. Do you think more bios update fix this thing eventually? I could exchange mine still I think (Newegg) but I might just get a Bad Axe and say "bye" to Asus.

Look at the specs of their test board. They are using a 0901 BIOS. It wasnt until 1001 that the mobo became stable and decently workable. Granted ASUS shouldnt have released a buggy mobo to begin with but like all the Conroe mobos the P5W DH was rushed out before the BIOSes were fully matured.

 

[jhh979s]

I figured it out, I did not name the rom properly. Now running on BIOS 1503 with zero problems. The multiplier is unlocked up and down now? I've been running on 1201 BIOS since I got the board. I'll probably never mess with the multi anyway. I just wish they would fix the SPD problem, I would like to be able to boot with manual timings.

 

[mkln]

*warning: stupid question below*

Hi, i was just wondering, as i just got my now mobo, to update the bios i would flash using ASUS update after i download the bios file right? (instead of using a boot disk or some other method?). i mainly want to get rid of the funny restarts, and i read that it is fixed in 1503. Thanks in advance.

 

[phile]

Yes, with ASUS Update you just point the application to the BIOS file, which you have downloaded.

-phil

 

[Accreta]

I'm considering buying a P5W DH system. Thanks to everyone for their input on this forum, because it is extremely helpful! Two questions...

1) Do we expect the prices of C2D to drop after the new quad core processors are released in the next month or two? I would assume yes, so I'm waiting to purchase, I think.

2) I was looking at buying OCZ memory for this board. I know nothing about timings (and what they means), but I've read these sticks are some of the best.

OCZ Titanium Alpha VX2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820227138

Also, does someone have a link to an article about memory timings?

My future rig:
https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wi...tle=Anandtech%27s+Ultra+Gaming+Machine

THANKS!

 

[mikepaul]

Originally posted by: AccretaAlso, does someone have a link to an article about memory timings?

http://www.corsairmicro.com/memory_basics/153707/index.html

 

[Skott]

1) Do we expect the prices of C2D to drop after the new quad core processors are released in the next month or two? I would assume yes, so I'm waiting to purchase, I think.

A)Yes, if past experiences hold true it'll drop. When and how much are the big unknown.

2) I was looking at buying OCZ memory for this board. I know nothing about timings (and what they means), but I've read these sticks are some of the best.

A)People been having problems with the OCZ Gold Series RAM and this mobo. I suggest staying away from it. People have been using the OCZ Platinum series just fine. I reccomend staying with PC6400 (800) modules for best stable results.

 

[phile]

A clarification is in order. The problems with OCZ XTC Gold DDR2 was exclusive to P965 chipset based boards, like the P5B Deluxe. Those early problems were related to insufficient memory voltage, and have been resolved in BIOS revisions. There was never any issue with OCZ memory and the P5WDH.

-phil

 

[Butterbean]

Skott wrote (concerning Tom Hardware article):

"Look at the specs of their test board. They are using a 0901 BIOS. It wasnt until 1001 that the mobo became stable and decently workable. Granted ASUS shouldnt have released a buggy mobo to begin with but like all the Conroe mobos the P5W DH was rushed out before the BIOSes were fully matured. "

Thanks yes that's good to know. I did read that Asus said it released boards based on engineering samples of conroe chips and didn't anticipate the issues with retail chips. As I said above I wouldn't be surprised if Intel rushing things (and it was their people who admitted rushing after Dell went with AMD) had something to do with this mess.

I am on the P5W now and it works most times. It's just the random quirk like OC warnings when I am nor OC'ed. or random red lights on optical drives. Yesterday I saw that my single video card is "detected" twice in Device mangager. If I delete the phantom card listed as secondary it gets "redetected" on next boot-up. So another mystery to chase lol

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: Butterbean
Yesterday I saw that my single video card is "detected" twice in Device mangager. If I delete the phantom card listed as secondary it gets "redetected" on next boot-up. So another mystery to chase lol

Hehe. This is perfectly normal if your single videocard has two heads (i.e. dual DVI or VGA/DVI).

-phil

 

[MacAttack]

Thanks for all the good info on this thread. I am still trying to finalize my build. I only have a week or so to purchase my memory. The memory I have now to get it running is about due. I am trying to future-proof this system as much as possible. I won't be able to build a new one for about 4-5 years.

Here are my options that I am considering:
1. Crucial Ballistix PC6400 2x1GB: $259 @ ZZF
2. Crucial Ballistix PC8000 2x512MB: $165 @ ZZF (add another set in 2 months)
3. OCZ Titanium Alpha VX2 PC8000 2x1GB: $431 @ Newegg
4. Crucial Ballistix PC8000 2x1GB: $449 @ Newegg

3 & 4 may cause a divorce (just kidding). I am honestly leaning towards #1, but want to be sure that is the best way to go.

 

[Butterbean]

phile wrote:

"Hehe. This is perfectly normal if your single videocard has two heads (i.e. dual DVI or VGA/DVI)".

Thanks - I do have two heads (VGA/DVI). Does that mean if I used 2 cards I would show 4?