*** Official ASUS P5W DH Thread ***

[jamman]

Hey guys.

Firstly, been looking for a decent forum to help overclock my p5w dh and this is by far the best thread Ive found, so cheers

First question for me, does Core Temp have any issues with Vista ?

Its just Im running at stock and its saying the core temp is 62 celcius!

I never ran it under XP but probe II only ever said 30-40 degrees,however cant get that working under vista so have no comparison at present.

Edit :

Ok Ive also installed Speedfan which correlates with Core Temp so that indicates the software is working ok ?

Speedfan shows CPU at 48 degrees C, and each core at 59 degrees ?

Am I meant to be monitoring the CPU, or each core?!

Edit Number 2:

Ok, Rebooted, reset bios to factory settings and am now seeing CPU 41c, core0 : 50c and core1: 51 C.

Seems too hot to me so am going to get a new heat sink fan as the one Im using is the stock intel.

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: jamman
Hey guys.

Firstly, been looking for a decent forum to help overclock my p5w dh and this is by far the best thread Ive found, so cheers

First question for me, does Core Temp have any issues with Vista ?

Its just Im running at stock and its saying the core temp is 62 celcius!

I never ran it under XP but probe II only ever said 30-40 degrees,however cant get that working under vista so have no comparison at present.

Edit :

Ok Ive also installed Speedfan which correlates with Core Temp so that indicates the software is working ok ?

Speedfan shows CPU at 48 degrees C, and each core at 59 degrees ?

Am I meant to be monitoring the CPU, or each core?!

Edit Number 2:

Ok, Rebooted, reset bios to factory settings and am now seeing CPU 41c, core0 : 50c and core1: 51 C.

Seems too hot to me so am going to get a new heat sink fan as the one Im using is the stock intel.

CoreTemp 0.94, and now 0.95, have worked perfectly for me, in Vista. You just need to run it as adminstrator. Judging by your core temps, you likely have a bad mating of the heatsink to the CPU heatspreader. If you're not planning anything more than a moderate overclock (20%, or so) you could probably do fine with the stock heatsink. You may want to use a better thermal paste, like Arctic Silver 5. And, ensure that the heatsink is well secured to the CPU. Also, you definitely need to have good airflow through the case, so that the heat can be dissipated from the heatsink. Usually, at least one intake fan at the front of the case, and one exhaust fan at the back. Also, you might want to disable QFAN, to allow the heatsink fan to run at max rpm. QFAN will hold back the fan until the temp is critical - utterly useless imo.

-phil

 

[jamman]

Think you diagnosis could be spot on, I remember slipping a bit when I fitted it so does sound very likely.

Ive ordered an arctic cooling freezer pro cooler anyway, as If Im going to be taking it off might as well kill two birds with one stone.

Once its on Ill overclock it up to 2.7 - 3ghz to see how it does.

Edit. I turned off QFAN and thats certainly helping a little. Core temps now down to 46c so thats a start until the heatsink etc turns up.

Thanks for your help.

 

[mikepaul]

My Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro was great when I first installed it last August, but lately I've seen the temps go from 38-39C idle and 46-47C under load to 43-44C idle and 56-57C under load. My room temperature isn't HOT but being in a sunroom there's a tendency to be cooler in Winter so that must have been keeping the computer more under control than I anticipated.

Due to an old case that BARELY accepts the 7 Pro I'm not looking for more (bigger) cooling yet, but if I see the temps slip more I'll have to at least disassemble and examine the cooler to see what went wrong.

And this thread isn't sticky anymore, again...

 

[guitarlp]

I can't get a RAID0 and RAID1 working.

First... it took me a long time to figure out how to get XP installed on this new MOBO. I created a boot disk for the RAID drivers but when I went to install XP it didn't even see the chipset 7R.. it only showed 8r. I had to manually edit one of the files on the boot disk to get windows installed.

So... moving on

I installed 2 Raptors on Raid 1 and Raid 3 and set them as RAID0. I installed Windows XP on that array.

The problem I have now is getting my next two hard drives in a raid 1 array. I did as I've read online and I set the jumpers to BIG, went through the bios to update with the new jumper settings, and re-booted. I have one drive connected on Raid 4 and one on EZ_Raid1. When I hit CTRL-l I'm showing something like this:

0 WDCRaptor Serial 69GB Member Disk (0)
1 ExternalDisk Serial 298GB Unkown Disk
2 WDCRaptor Serial 69GB Member Disk (0)
3 Seagate Serial 298GB Unkown Disk

The Matrix Storage Manager is showing the disks as unkown. If I try to create an array (raid1) a warning pops up saying there's not enough space.

If I leave everything as above but set the RAID jumpers to the default, the same information shows above except the 2nd line changes from unkown disk to Offline Member.

The serial number for the 2nd disk (says external above) connected on EZ_Raid1 is all messed up. It's not like the other serials. It's something like M__-_______329. Odd.

Also... when I first connected all 4 drives to the mobo and before I installed windows, I was able to connect all 4 as arrays (2 as RAID0 and 2 as RAID1). However, I had trouble installing Windows so I decided to only have 2 drives in RAID0 connected to simplify my trouble shooting. Now that windows is installed, I want to connect the RAID1 again.

If it matters, I'm on the latest 1901 BIOS.

I'm lost on what I need to do to get this working.

Oh... and this is my first post here... so hello everyone

 

[guitarlp]

Ok... so I got it working... but I'm confused as to why.

I tried a bunch of different SATA cables. 3 cables made the drives say "Unknown Disk." But I finally found 2 cables that worked and now the drives show correctly. Why would this happen? Aren't all SATA cables the same?

Also... I had to change the EZ_Raid jumpers from BIG to the default RAID1 with my drive installed on EZ_RAID1 port to get this working (EZ_Raid1 and RAID4 combined to make a RAID1 array). Everything I read (here) says that the jumpers need to be set to BIG if you want to use EZ_RAID1 as the missing SATA2 port. But with those settings the MOBO wouldn't even see a drive connected to EZ_Raid1.

Ideas?

 

[jamman]

Originally posted by: jamman
Think you diagnosis could be spot on, I remember slipping a bit when I fitted it so does sound very likely.

Ive ordered an arctic cooling freezer pro cooler anyway, as If Im going to be taking it off might as well kill two birds with one stone.

Once its on Ill overclock it up to 2.7 - 3ghz to see how it does.

Edit. I turned off QFAN and thats certainly helping a little. Core temps now down to 46c so thats a start until the heatsink etc turns up.

Thanks for your help.

Hi,

As confirmation, diagnosis was spot on.

Today fitted an arctic 7 pro, first time getting even hotter speeds using the thermal pad that came standard. Got some arctic 5 silver applied that and fitted the HSF properly and now running 35 degrees and under stress maxes out at 50ish so thats a massive improvement!

 

[gsuburban]

Those 550 Intel's run that hot not the E series which run much cooler.

 

[Twitch22]

Okay...so I ditched my stock Intel cooler and got a Noctua NH-U12F to keep my E6600 on the chilly side. Current temps using Intel's TAT are 33 at idle, 51 at full load at 10+ minutes. So, I think it's time to OC a little bit more!

I had already achieved an easy OC to 3.0GHz by using the following settings:

- AI Overclock: Manual
- FSB: 333
- DRAM: DDR2-666
- VCore: 1.3 V
- VDIMM: 2.1 V
- RAM Timings: 4-4-4-12
- C1E, Speedstep, SPD and Hyperpath3 settings all DISABLED

My question is simply...now what? IOW, with my new cooling solution, what can/should I be shooting for interms of OC'ing on air and what's a good strategy on how to get there?

I'm not really into benchmarking and such, but would like to match what other fellow enthusiasts are doing with there 6600's in terms of optomizing performance.

Thanks for nay help or suggestions...cheers! :beer:

Twitch

 

[myx]

Evenin'everyone. I seem to have some problems with my p5w dh deluxe mobo. It's not running stable with 4gb ram installed no matter what settings i make. To be honest I didnt get to read though all the topic, but if you say the information is there I'll have to take it post by post.
Can anybody suggest anything?
The system is running with an 6600 @ 2,70ghz, 4x1gb ram sticks Transcend pc6400, windows vista business. Tell me what other info you need to know and I'll provide asap.
The problem, in detail, is like this. It doesnt happen at certain times but the system just freezez when all the 4 ram sticks are installed. Even if its listening to winamp or doing a 3dmark the system just freezez. When its only 2 sticks nothing happens and it runs no matter what test i do.
I ran memtest86 v1.70 for aprox 14h with no erros, prime95 for about 10h, no errors when running 3dmark. The ram has been tested on other platforms aswell, no errors. As I said before, it can freeze after 2 days of uptime, or even after 20 minutes. Its not a predefined amount of time. And Ive check everything in the system and dont know what else could be except the mobo. The psu is a sirtec 500w certified, no problems with overheating (antec nine hundred case). Someone give me a hint or something couse I'm going desperate. This mobo is great but what do I do with this "little" problem.

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: myx
Evenin'everyone. I seem to have some problems with my p5w dh deluxe mobo. It's not running stable with 4gb ram installed no matter what settings i make. To be honest I didnt get to read though all the topic, but if you say the information is there I'll have to take it post by post.
Can anybody suggest anything?
The system is running with an 6600 @ 2,70ghz, 4x1gb ram sticks Transcend pc6400, windows vista business. Tell me what other info you need to know and I'll provide asap.
The problem, in detail, is like this. It doesnt happen at certain times but the system just freezez when all the 4 ram sticks are installed. Even if its listening to winamp or doing a 3dmark the system just freezez. When its only 2 sticks nothing happens and it runs no matter what test i do.
I ran memtest86 v1.70 for aprox 14h with no erros, prime95 for about 10h, no errors when running 3dmark. The ram has been tested on other platforms aswell, no errors. As I said before, it can freeze after 2 days of uptime, or even after 20 minutes. Its not a predefined amount of time. And Ive check everything in the system and dont know what else could be except the mobo. The psu is a sirtec 500w certified, no problems with overheating (antec nine hundred case). Someone give me a hint or something couse I'm going desperate. This mobo is great but what do I do with this "little" problem.

Interesting problem. Are you absolutely sure that these problems only occur when running with 4GB? From what you wrote, your problems seem to only occur when doing video or audio intensive activities, while CPU/MEM intensive activities cause no problems. I'm not sure what that suggests, but I hesitate to blame the RAM, based on that alone.

3Dmark always runs to completion with just 2GB installed? Winamp will run indefinitely with just 2GB installed? Both of these scenarios *always* present problems when running with 4GB? Unless you can reproduce the problem on demand, it's hard to conclude exactly what is wrong.

Perhaps, you should run your rig for a solid week with just 2GB, to see if these problems are truly related to the memory.

Note: If you're running Vista 32-bit, it won't be able to use all of the 4GB of RAM, anyway. 32-bit operating systems have a maximum memory address space of 4GB, some of which is allotted to your hardware (PCI bus, videocard, etc.). Thus, not all of the 4GB of RAM can be addressed.

-phil

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: Twitch22
Okay...so I ditched my stock Intel cooler and got a Noctua NH-U12F to keep my E6600 on the chilly side. Current temps using Intel's TAT are 33 at idle, 51 at full load at 10+ minutes. So, I think it's time to OC a little bit more!

I had already achieved an easy OC to 3.0GHz by using the following settings:

- AI Overclock: Manual
- FSB: 333
- DRAM: DDR2-666
- VCore: 1.3 V
- VDIMM: 2.1 V
- RAM Timings: 4-4-4-12
- C1E, Speedstep, SPD and Hyperpath3 settings all DISABLED

My question is simply...now what? IOW, with my new cooling solution, what can/should I be shooting for interms of OC'ing on air and what's a good strategy on how to get there?

I'm not really into benchmarking and such, but would like to match what other fellow enthusiasts are doing with there 6600's in terms of optomizing performance.

Thanks for nay help or suggestions...cheers! :beer:

Twitch

Glad the rig is running smoothly. If you wish to further overclock, I'm afraid it's all trial an error. You can certainly search around for complete BIOS configs for certain overclocks, but there's no guarantee that they will work. We may both have the same CPU, but each of them will likely require a slightly different voltage at any given frequency. Also, this board has some peculiaritites, like having to set memory SPD to enabled after a certain FSB - 360, iirc.

The following thread at Xtremesystems is a great resource for overclocking on this board:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=110193

Check it out.

-phil

 

[myx]

I know about the 32bit system issue and thats not the problem. 3dmark runs with 4gb and 2gb and even 3gb ram installed. Just with 4gb sometimes it freezez the system. Winamp problem, basicly it...hangs up everything. But im not talking about only winamp. Other apps do the same. They just hang up the system with no definite scenario running. I mean I'm as puzzled as you prolly are. But no problems apear when running with 2 or 3 or 1 gb. Just when all the 4 sticks are inserted. I even tested with different memory slots, all posible permutations. Running games - like stalker or fear or lineage2 that use the computer a lot - or even by running plain apps like winamp or wathing a dvd can hang the computer. The image on the screen freezez, , the usb ports stop working though. Couse I see the mouse and usb modem not working anymore (leds are off). I repeat, only when running with all the 4 sticks installed I get this problem. Now i have an uptime of almost 3 days with no problems (running with 2 sticks of ram). Bios version is 1901.

Later edit : To reproduce the problem, just put all the 4 sticks of ram and run a memtest. (in windows memtest) It will freez after aprox 15 minutes of running (without any errors)

 

[phile]

Can you provide a complete list of all your hardware?

-phil

 

[myx]

Asus p5w dh deluxe bios version 1901
C2D e6600@ 2,7 ghz
4x1GB ram sticks Transcend Pc6400 JM388Q643A-8
Sapphire Radeon x1950xtx
2hdd : Maxtor 80GB sataI / Seagate 250GB sataII
Pioneer dvd-rw dvr-111D
Chicony keyboard (on ps2 not usb)
Microsoft usb intellimouse optical
Scientific Atlanta Webstar 2000 series cable modem
and a Samsung 740bf lcd
Nothing more.
Ah, the psu is Sirtec, model hpc-500-a12s

 

[phile]

I don't know, I'm quite stumped on this one. Just out of curiosity, what are the memory timings set to in the BIOS? Is SPD enabled, or did you disable it and manually set the timings? If it's the latter, try running with SPD timings. Perhaps, you should also try running at stock CPU settings - no overclock.

I'll post any other suggestions, if/when they come to me.

-phil

 

[myx]

I tried running with no OC and it does the same. And everything else is on auto or how they were by default. Just the cpu is up at 300x9 and the dram frequency is manually set to pc-6400. If i set them to auto and the cpu to stock frequency the memory jumps down to pc5300. Never tried running with it like that though. Whats the point of having pc6400 ram if its running at lower frequency- thats why i put it at pc6400? Am I missing something?

 

[phile]

Yeah, leave the RAM at DDR2-800. I was only suggesting no o/c on the CPU, but it seems you have already tried that. Beyond that, I'm at a complete loss for ideas, here.

You should try posting your issues to this thread:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=110193

See if they can offer any suggestions.

-phil

 

[Twitch22]

Thanks, Phil!

Once again, you are definately the man for having helped so many of us around here...cheers, buddy! :beer:

Twitch

 

[myx]

I've done more testing last night and again akward results.
Basicly its like this. banks 1-3 filled (dual channel interleaved) = no problem
banks 1 -2 -3 (dual channel asymetric) = no problem
banks 1 -3 - 4 (dual channel asymetric) = no problem
banks 2 -4 (dual channel interleaved) = freeze
i've also tried testing with just 1 memory bank filled at 1 time and no crash. also tried all the modules in different memory slots, no problem there also.
didnt have time to test more combinations of memory banks.

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: myx
I've done more testing last night and again akward results.
Basicly its like this. banks 1-3 filled (dual channel interleaved) = no problem
banks 1 -2 -3 (dual channel asymetric) = no problem
banks 1 -3 - 4 (dual channel asymetric) = no problem
banks 2 -4 (dual channel interleaved) = freeze
i've also tried testing with just 1 memory bank filled at 1 time and no crash. also tried all the modules in different memory slots, no problem there also.
didnt have time to test more combinations of memory banks.

Well, that is interesting, and suggests the possibility of your board being faulty. Consider an RMA replacement.

-phil

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: Twitch22
Thanks, Phil!

Once again, you are definately the man for having helped so many of us around here...cheers, buddy! :beer:

Twitch

 

[myx]

So basicly there is no known problem with this mobo and that amount of ram , right? Like better bios version or something?
If so guess I'll take it back to the store.

Could it be something software? Like chipset drivers, other programs, dont know. Im saying because its a very strange situation. In windows XP I dont remember having these problems (I had windows xp installed only for 2 days on this rig so I didnt test it as much) Now I'm running vista business x86. Should I try installing vista x64 to see how it works?
When I had all the 4 memory sticks in, I also tried with memory remap enabled in the bios - still crashed.

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: myx
So basicly there is no known problem with this mobo and that amount of ram , right? Like better bios version or something?

If so guess I'll take it back to the store.

Could it be something software? Like chipset drivers, other programs, dont know. Im saying because its a very strange situation. In windows XP I dont remember having these problems (I had windows xp installed only for 2 days on this rig so I didnt test it as much) Now I'm running vista business x86. Should I try installing vista x64 to see how it works?
When I had all the 4 memory sticks in, I also tried with memory remap enabled in the bios - still crashed.

For starters, the memory remap option should only be enabled when using a 64 bit OS. As for this board supporting 4GB of memory: whether using 4 x 1GB or 2 x 2GB, it should be just fine.

Since, you're only having issues when using slots 2 and 4 together, I don't see how it could be OS related. It can't hurt to try installing the latest chipset drivers, though. You can find them here:

975X Chipset drivers for Vista x86:
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts...&ProductID=2261&DwnldID=12150&lang=eng

-phil

 

[myx]

Ok, I've been doing some more testing and with random memory sticks (any 2 of all 4), and the memtest in windows gives some errors. None of these apear when booting memtest from a cd and running it. Can it be from the board and it can also be from the memories? On other board I didnt have these type of problems with the exact same memory modules.

In memory banks 2 - 4 it still hangs the system and in banks 1 and 3 it gets 16 errors.

Memtest is taken from here http://hcidesign.com/windows/ (for in-windows testing)
And I also have a bootable cd with memtest86 v 1.70 (no errors reported with all 4 memory sticks inserted and walltime of aprox 27 hours)

Ok let me bold it up once more. If I run boot in memtest and test the memory , all 4 sticks, on the mobo, it gives no errors. Absolutely NO error, no crash, no freeze (walltime aprox. 27 hours). What are the odds that there is no hardware problem and it is strictly software?