*** Official ASUS P5W DH Thread ***

[Whirlwind]

OK. I hope I am in the right thread to ask this question. Sorry If I am not....I,m a noob here, lol.

Anyways, I am wondering if this board will allow me to run a X1900 Crossfire card by itself in the pci-x16 slot, without going crossfire right now.

I see that the specs on this card, that I have linked below, are the same as a X1900XT.

So i am hoping this card will work by itself in the orange slot at X16 by itself, then I could go crossfire later with another card.

I hope this question makes sense and I am sorry if it does not.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121001

 

[phile]

Yes, your single card should work without any problems.

-phil

 

[Whirlwind]

Can I use one Ide Hard drive for my operating system and one sata for my games and storage?

The only other IDE component that i have will be my dvd rom.

I will have one IDE Hard drive....one sata Hard drive and one IDE DVD rom

 

[phile]

Of course, you can setup your drives that way, if you wish. However, I would use the SATA for your OS and applications, including games, and the IDE/PATA drive for storage. Either way, connect the SATA drive to SATA1 (red SATA port). Your IDE/PATA HD and DVD drive should be attached to the blue IDE port, with the HD jumpered as master and the DVD drive jumpered as slave. By default, the SATA drive will be set as the primary (boot) HD, but this can be changed in the BIOS, if you wish to set the IDE/PATA HD as primary.

Note: the black IDE/PATA port is managed by a third-party controller, so any drives you attach to this port will not be listed on the main BIOS page. Devices connected to any ports managed by this controller will displayed on a different page.

-phil

 

[Whirlwind]

I would love to use my sata drive for my operating system, but it is 320 gb and my ide drive is only 80gb, that is why i was thinking of doing it that way. Just using the 80gb drive for windows only.

What bebefits do i get by usung my sata drive for windows? Alot faster?

 

[Skott]

Yeah, its going to be a faster unit.

 

[Yelf]

FIrst of all thanks to Phile for keeping this thread going and full of information.

I got my P5W DH and E6400 up and running this weekend. Updated Bios to 1503 and started XP install. The install would hang at 39 minutes remaining everytime. I must of went though 15 installs tryin to eliminate the problem. It turned out to be a serillel adapter I had put on my DVD burner to get it to SATA. After I got that off install went without a hitch.

I am only getting one CPU utilization window in XP under task manager, seems I remember I should see 2 there. Anyone confirm that?
Lastly, my CPU is being identified as an Allendale, I've seen some conflicting info on this. Isn't Allendale due out 1Q 2007 and isn't the E6400 a Conroe?

Thanks again to all who have contributed.

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: Yelf
FIrst of all thanks to Phile for keeping this thread going and full of information.

I got my P5W DH and E6400 up and running this weekend. Updated Bios to 1503 and started XP install. The install would hang at 39 minutes remaining everytime. I must of went though 15 installs tryin to eliminate the problem. It turned out to be a serillel adapter I had put on my DVD burner to get it to SATA. After I got that off install went without a hitch.

I am only getting one CPU utilization window in XP under task manager, seems I remember I should see 2 there. Anyone confirm that?
Lastly, my CPU is being identified as an Allendale, I've seen some conflicting info on this. Isn't Allendale due out 1Q 2007 and isn't the E6400 a Conroe?

Thanks again to all who have contributed.

re: dual CPU
You should definitely have two CPU Usage History graphs. Perhaps, it's just that you have it set to only show one graph. In the Windows Task Manager, pull down View menu and select CPU History. Is is set to One Graph, All CPUs or One Graph Per CPU?

re: Allendale
The E6300 and E6400 are, indeed, conroe cores. I assume that you are using CPU-Z. It's the only app that displays these two CPUs as allendale. The authors are in error.

-phil

 

[phile]

Regarding the dual core issue, something else to check:

Open up the Device Manager and expand the Computer section. It should read ACPI Multiprocessor PC. If it doesn't, try updating the driver.

Also, if you haven't done so, already, install the latest chipset drivers:

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts...ct_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2261&lang=eng

-phil

 

[Yelf]

CPU History is "One Graph Per CPU"

Here is a shot of my Device Manager, have no idea what the uknown is, it was there from the start.

Device Manager

Thanks!

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: Yelf
CPU History is "One Graph Per CPU"

Here is a shot of my Device Manager, have no idea what the uknown is, it was there from the start.

Device Manager

Thanks!

I had that same "unknown" issue, as well. Whatever device that is, it seems to come with PC Probe II, the monitoring application for ASUS boards. It's on the CD that came with the mobo.

As for the Computer info in your device manager, it doesn't seem right. Did you install those chipset drivers I linked? If not, do so and check Device Manager again.

Here's a direct link for XP Pro (32-bit version only):
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts...&ProductID=2261&DwnldID=11454&lang=eng

-phil

 

[Yelf]

I had installed the Intel drivers you linked right after Xp installed. I went ahead and installed them again, and now I get a red graph on top of the green one in task manager. Now under CPU history "one graph per CPU" is grayed out. Device manager looks the same as in the picture.

Thanks!

 

[phile]

Something is definitely not right with your machine. Which version of XP are you running? 32-bit or 64-bit? Which service pack? Also, did you make any changes in the BIOS, or are you running with default settings?

Update: I just opened Task Manager and see that the red graph overlay is the Kernel time. You must have enabled that (also in the view menu).

-phil

 

[Yelf]

I'm running the 32 bit version of XP Pro SP2. I have made changes to the BIOS but nothing that I think would affect the # of processors detected by XP.
When powering on the bios screen show 2 processors @ 2.13 ghz.
I have an image of my previous install so I went ahead an tried a reinstall and it is showing the same things in XP. I guess I will try bios defaults and another reinstall.
What a PIA!

Thanks!

 

[phile]

Yelf, is your current installation a clean install, or an image created on a different system?

-phil

 

[Yelf]

Clean install, as was the one that I have an image of.
Thanks

 

[phile]

Well, I suppose it's time to try another clean install. You may want to re-flash your BIOS, as well. Make sure to reset the CMOS (see manual for descripton of which jumper to move) after flash.

-phil

 

[Austin2k]

Hi Phil,
I'm getting quite an education reading 60+ pages of posts. Thanks for all your great answers. In reading the manual and posts it seems that SATA1 and SATA3 are part of controller ICHR7. If I want to add more drives to a RAID 0 then I have to use the SATA2 and SATA4 ports. Per the Manual (pg 156/212 of e2557_p5w_dh_dlx.pdf) it appears that the Intel Matrix Manager will configure the SATA2/4 drives in the RAID array.

Is this really so? Is the IMM able to integrate/manage the drives under the Sil4723? Is there a noticeable performance hit if I stripe beyond the two drives in SATA1 and SATA3? Or is the manual just wrong?

Is it necesary to install one piece of DDR2, config BIOS then add the rest of the RAM? Is this related to specific brands of RAM?

PSU, Video and RAM are due election day. I'm using 4 sticks of 1Gig Crucial Ballistix w/ 4-4-4-12 timing. Hopefully I'll have XP64 running before all the election results are in!

 

[Yelf]

OK finally got dual processors to show up in XP. It was one of two things, I set the bios to load default settings and deleted the partitions and recreated them. I suspect it was XP setup was seeing some part of a previous XP install even though I was formating the drive before the actual installation, but after booting from the XP disk. XP was still examining the drive for a previous install of XP and was finding one.
I found that if you hit F7 at the same time you hit F6 to load external drivers it will bypass the search for dual processors. I think I may have accidentally hit F7 while loading the SATA drivers which started a chain reaction and was only resolved after deleting the partitions rebooting, recreating them, then doing the install.

Anyway the result is positive. Thanks again to Phile for you tireless efforts, you are definitely the go to guy for this board, if for nothing else than to give a different perspective on issues that come up.

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: Austin2k
Hi Phil,
I'm getting quite an education reading 60+ pages of posts. Thanks for all your great answers. In reading the manual and posts it seems that SATA1 and SATA3 are part of controller ICHR7. If I want to add more drives to a RAID 0 then I have to use the SATA2 and SATA4 ports. Per the Manual (pg 156/212 of e2557_p5w_dh_dlx.pdf) it appears that the Intel Matrix Manager will configure the SATA2/4 drives in the RAID array.

Is this really so? Is the IMM able to integrate/manage the drives under the Sil4723? Is there a noticeable performance hit if I stripe beyond the two drives in SATA1 and SATA3? Or is the manual just wrong?

Is it necesary to install one piece of DDR2, config BIOS then add the rest of the RAM? Is this related to specific brands of RAM?

PSU, Video and RAM are due election day. I'm using 4 sticks of 1Gig Crucial Ballistix w/ 4-4-4-12 timing. Hopefully I'll have XP64 running before all the election results are in!

I'm really quite the noob when it comes to RAID. However, you should have no problem building a 4-drive RAID array on the ICH7R chipset. You will notice, however, that there is no SATA2. What would have been SATA2 was split into the two orange EzRaid/EzBackup ports. If my understanding is correct, if you wish to connect 4 SATA drives to the ICH7R, you may use one of the orange slots. If you use both orange slots, they will be automatically configured as a RAID1 array.

re: RAM
No, it is not necessary to boot with only one DIMM. However, I'm not sure how your system will respond to 4 1GB DIMMS. If the machine won't boot with all 4, then try the one DIMM method. Also, it is my understanding that loosening the timings is advised when running 4 DIMMS.

-phil

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: Yelf
OK finally got dual processors to show up in XP. It was one of two things, I set the bios to load default settings and deleted the partitions and recreated them. I suspect it was XP setup was seeing some part of a previous XP install even though I was formating the drive before the actual installation, but after booting from the XP disk. XP was still examining the drive for a previous install of XP and was finding one.
I found that if you hit F7 at the same time you hit F6 to load external drivers it will bypass the search for dual processors. I think I may have accidentally hit F7 while loading the SATA drivers which started a chain reaction and was only resolved after deleting the partitions rebooting, recreating them, then doing the install.

Anyway the result is positive. Thanks again to Phile for you tireless efforts, you are definitely the go to guy for this board, if for nothing else than to give a different perspective on issues that come up.

Glad to hear that. Congrats. I began to suspect that it was something to do with a previous install, from another system. That F7 business is news to me. I'll have to look into that.

Enjoy the new rig.

-phil

 

[silverghost]

Are there any guides to overclocking the P5W DH Deluxe out there? I can hit 3200mhz with no sweat, but once I go over 405 on the FSB and do a stress test I lock my system up.

Specs:
E6400 Core 2 Duo
2Gb Corsair XMS DDR2-800 Memory
Koolance Exos-LT with Koolance Waterblock for CPU
535W Enermax PS

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: silverghost
Are there any guides to overclocking the P5W DH Deluxe out there? I can hit 3200mhz with no sweat, but once I go over 405 on the FSB and do a stress test I lock my system up.

Specs:
E6400 Core 2 Duo
2Gb Corsair XMS DDR2-800 Memory
Koolance Exos-LT with Koolance Waterblock for CPU
535W Enermax PS

Being that every CPU and mobo have somewhat unique overclocking characteristics, no guide is going to guarantee you any particular results. You're already close to a 50% overclock, which is quite good. If your particular components are capable of more, the only way to find-out is by trial and error. With such high FSB, you're probably going to need to boost vMCH, vFSB, and maybe more vCORE. Also, it's advisable to disable both Hyperpath 3 and DRAM Throttling, when extreme overclocking.

For tips, there are a few good threads at the XtremeSystems forums.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=110193
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=106321

Good luck!

-phil

 

[silverghost]

Originally posted by: phile

Originally posted by: silverghost
Are there any guides to overclocking the P5W DH Deluxe out there? I can hit 3200mhz with no sweat, but once I go over 405 on the FSB and do a stress test I lock my system up.

Specs:
E6400 Core 2 Duo
2Gb Corsair XMS DDR2-800 Memory
Koolance Exos-LT with Koolance Waterblock for CPU
535W Enermax PS

Being that every CPU and mobo have somewhat unique overclocking characteristics, no guide is going to guarantee you any particular results. You're already close to a 50% overclock, which is quite good. If your particular components are capable of more, the only way to find-out is by trial and error. With such high FSB, you're probably going to need to boost vMCH, vFSB, and maybe more vCORE. Also, it's advisable to disable both Hyperpath 3 and DRAM Throttling, when extreme overclocking.

For tips, there are a few good threads at the XtremeSystems forums.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=110193
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=106321

Good luck!

-phil

Thanks for the links...I understand about the tinkering thing, just this is my first Intel system in about 8 years I had a Celeron300A@450mhz back then

 

[Aquiel]

I´m receiving this parts in order to
assemble a litle system, but I have
a litle to no knowledge in this matter

C2D E6600 Conroe 2.4 Ghz / Zalman CNPS 9500 LED
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
1GB OCZ Platinum EL XTC PC2 6400
MSI X1900XT/Accelero X2 Cooler
Barracuda 320 GB Sata2

chasis fan Foxcon 120 mm
¿? 2X 100 mm

my question is if my PSU, (PR switching power supply, model LCK550W, dual fan)
(cheap, came with my case, a MPC, cheap too, but well ventilated)

will work fine under load. I´m planning to overclock a litle, let´s say a 25%,
to get the 3 Ghz , like phile options, (in fact I expect he could give me a hand once I get all the stuff working) in order to do some gaming but renderizing and editing photos also
I live in Cuba, so the weather its hot and wet , big percent of humidity,
my room isn´t too hot , in the other hand

I have some Internet conection problems, so forgive me if you already answer this question, but I can´t
get , even I want and I need, the complete thread of the asus P5W DH.

sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for your help, any advice will be highly appreciated in this or
other matter (temps, compatibility issues, etc)

ah and sorry for my bad english and Hi all, this is my first post