*** Official ASUS P5W DH Thread ***

[phile]

Originally posted by: yessir
Thanks for the reply Phil.

I am using the PSU that comes with Sonata II...which is 450Watt SmartPower 2.0 ATX 12V V2.0 . Yes, I sure have both 20+4 (near floppy cable) and 4 pin near CPU hooked up.

I did try booting it with 1stick which is 1GB OCZon all slots (each time I had to bleed the power out - took out power cables, etc...). BTW, all items in my specs. were mostly from newegg/mwave.

I am right now at wits end so to speak...so any tips would help. I really hope it is the PSU or RAM and not the CPU (very unlikely). Getting two MOBOs received in random not POSTING is very very unusual and enervating right now....

Thanks again

This may be a problem with the PSU. Try booting with nothing but the 20+4-pin, 4-pin and HD power connected - no case fans connected. If this doesn't get you anywhere, I would strongly suggest running out and buying a new PSU from a store with a good return policy (Best Buy), just to see if the Antec is faulty.

-phil

 

[yessir]

Thanks mikepaul.

I dont have any slot fan hooked up at all other than the original Sonata II Case fan and the fan that is in the PSU 450W. I will however check this out...

regds.

 

[yessir]

Thanks Phil.

I will try that. Was iffy to try without case fans and will give it a shot. PSUs are damn expensive in brick & mortar than via newegg or others.

Regds

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: yessir
Thanks Phil.

I will try that. Was iffy to try without case fans and will give it a shot. PSUs are damn expensive in brick & mortar than via newegg or others.

Regds

That's why you buy it at Best Buy. You just return it for a refund. You're just getting it to test whether or not your PSU is the problem. Much quicker than sending it back for RMA, when you don't even know if it's faulty.

-phil

 

[srs]

I have two unknown devices showing up in device manager:

1) PCI Device - PCI bus 2, device 0, function 0
2) Unknown Device - on Intel(R) 82801GB/GR (ICH7 Family) LPC Interface Controller - 27B8

any idea what these two might be?

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: srs
I have two unknown devices showing up in device manager:

1) PCI Device - PCI bus 2, device 0, function 0
2) Unknown Device - on Intel(R) 82801GB/GR (ICH7 Family) LPC Interface Controller - 27B8

any idea what these two might be?

IIRC, installing PC PRobe II will take care of the PCI device. As for the second, I'm not sure. Did you install the 975X chipset drivers? Whether or not you have, you can get the most recent 975X chipset drivers from Intel's site, here:

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

-phil

 

[srs]

thanks! installing pc probe II took care of the second device (I think maybe it has something to do with the fan speed sensors.... I can now read the fan speed from the Chasis fan 2 in Speed Fan, where before I couldn't).

That first device is still there though (and I've installed the chipset drivers..)

btw: here is the link to PC Probe II for anybody else searching-> ftp://ftp.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/utils/ProbeII10305.zip Seems to be impossible to find on Asus's website.

 

[The111]

Progress report and a few q's. I spend FIVE HOURS tonight replacing my HSF and doing the mobo mod (I am slow I guess).

1) Zalman 9500

I installed this without too much issue. I did notice that the fan is mounted slightly off axis such that a fairly small force applied to the center can flex the support enough to allow the fan blades to contact the radiator blades in one region (due to the off axis tilt). After hooking everything up I crossed my fingers and powered on to hear a loud RATATAT. Thought I was screwed, but turns out I was just stupid and had a cable touching the fan blades. The crookedness of the fan still bothers me a bit, but there is no interference now, and if it ever does make contact I'm fairly sure I could fix the problem with a washer or a small bend to the mounting hardware.

I specifically got the LED model because it has the 3-pin fan power, and even though the 4-pin (on the non-LED) was made for 775 boards, I was reading a lot of people didn't like having the fan auto controlled. I did not install the "Fanmate" knob-controller because I was hoping to find some software (like Speedfan) which I could control it with, but I'm not having any luck here. I'm guessing the fan is on full blast since it's a bit loud, which makes the next point even more disappointing:

At idle, there is only a ~6 degree drop in temps (53 to 47). At load it is more pronounced (70+ to 60)... I say 70+ because I aborted the test when it reached that value (old HSF setup). These are core temps... the "CPU temp" reported by Everest remains a good 15 lower.

From the reviews I read I was predicting I'd be able to have the fan on medium (much quieter) and still beat my old temps by 10-15 deg. Instead I'm seeing a 6-10 drop (from temps that were very high) with fan on what I think is high.

Also, I'm getting a BIOS warning about no fan attached to the 775 fan connection. Need to figure out how to disable that.

2) Mobo mod (HS covers, TIM)

Seemed to go off without a hitch. But I am only seeing a 3 degree temp drop. Before the mod I saw 56 at idle or load. Now I see 53.

The small drops on both components disappoint me. I can only guess two things (1) the paste needs to go through a few cycles and get "broken in" or (2) I didn't use enough paste. I spread it very thin as I read to do, as thin as possible without actually leaving any area uncovered. This is good, right?

Any other ideas about my small drops in temp?

Another note. My room is very hot, probably over 80 degrees F. So maybe that is somewhat responsible for my high temps. But does not help explain why I didn't see a bigger drop.

 

[MXtra]

thanks for the tip phile. my 6600 conroe is stable at 1.225 and the temps have dropped several degrees. i also plugged in the front fan on my p180 case which I'm sure helped. i'm now down to 31-32 degrees idle and 38-40 degrees load. awesome!

 

[Hikari]

Anyone running 3GB on the board? 2x1GB DDR2-800, and 2x512MB DDR2-800. Just curious, wasn't sure if the memory speed had to be dropped down if you went over 2GB or anything. Also, no retailers should have the -old- stock that needs a BIOS update to work with a Conroe, right? I have a coupon, so buy.com is the cheapest for me by far.

 

[groovegsus]

For people who don't want to use the raid function on the Sata ports , i asked to the asus support how to connect Sata non raid disk to the ez-backup and the Jmicron ports.

This was the answer from Asus :

Dear sir/madam,

Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.
My name is Penny. It's my pleasure to help you with your problem.

There is a RAID_SEL connector on the motherboard. Please configure it as Big mode(refer to Page 5-50 in the user manual), then you can use the SATA HDD connecting to 2 EZ-Backup ports as DATA disk.
Enter BIOS, Advanced -> Onboard Devices Configuration,
JMicron SATA/PATA Controller -> Enabled
JMicron Controller Mode -> Basic
Then you can use SATA HDD connecting to JMicron controller as DATA disk.

If you have any problem, please refer FAQ(Frequently Asked Questions) or contact us again. We will try our best to help you.
http://support.asus.com/faq/faq.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

Sincerely,
!
Penny
ASUS Customer Service Center(China)

 

[SteveOCZ]

.

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: SteveOCZ
I have the latest beta bios for this board. On the 1402 bios I was maxing out at 405FSB stable. After flashing to the 1405 bios I was able to overclock to 450FSB stable

You can get the bios here. Use at your own risk
http://www.spec3.net/asus/P5W-DH-ASUS-Deluxe-1405.rar

Much thanks, Steve.

For those of you overclocking with a week 24 E6600 and the 1.65 MCH version of the P5WDH, please see this thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=29&threadid=1931363&enterthread=y

-phil

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: The111

2) Mobo mod (HS covers, TIM)

Seemed to go off without a hitch. But I am only seeing a 3 degree temp drop. Before the mod I saw 56 at idle or load. Now I see 53.

The small drops on both components disappoint me. I can only guess two things (1) the paste needs to go through a few cycles and get "broken in" or (2) I didn't use enough paste. I spread it very thin as I read to do, as thin as possible without actually leaving any area uncovered. This is good, right?

Any other ideas about my small drops in temp?

Another note. My room is very hot, probably over 80 degrees F. So maybe that is somewhat responsible for my high temps. But does not help explain why I didn't see a bigger drop.

Removing the heatsink caps and replacing the stock thermal gunk with AS5 will yield only a slight improvement in temps. You are correct to assume that high ambient room temp plays a significant role in your temps. My mobo temp is ~40C in a case with excellent airflow, and an ambient room temp of ~70F (21C). In any case, an idle mobo temp of 53C is nothing to worry about.

-phil

 

[nrs251]

On the topic of the long post times:

1) make sure you do not have a external USB HD or hub connected, this will add 2-5 minutes, thats right minutes to the post time. If there is an external HD attached to the hub then this will be attempted to be detected by the MB.

2) the Q-fan control should be turned off

Now for my question:

I am booting off the Intel RAID ICH7R, it works great. I want to add a RAID array (running RAID 0) to the EZ-Backup connectors. Can I do this without having to mirror another drive. I just want another RAID array on the system for video editing. Do I have to use Backup Manager (I think thats what Asus calls it) or can I set the jumpers to RAID, boot of the ICH-7R controller and then simply "see" the EZ-BAckup RAID set in Winblows.

 

[touchstone1]

I have a USB hub connected to USB3/4, which itself has another hub connected (via my monitor). There's no HDD connected to either hub, but there is a DVD writer. System boots in a few seconds.

Not to disagree with nrs251, just to provide some info.

 

[The111]

Originally posted by: phile

Removing the heatsink caps and replacing the stock thermal gunk with AS5 will yield only a slight improvement in temps. You are correct to assume that high ambient room temp plays a significant role in your temps. My mobo temp is ~40C in a case with excellent airflow, and an ambient room temp of ~70F (21C). In any case, an idle mobo temp of 53C is nothing to worry about.

-phil

Thanks as always for the good info Phil. I guess I was expecting a larger drop because in this very thread you said you saw a 10 degree drop after doing the mobo mod.

Do you have any insight into the other half of my post? The small CPU temp drops (after Zalman HSF), how I can get POST to stop erroring because of no 4-pin CPU-fan present, and how I can control the Zalman 3-pin fan without Fanmate (by software)?

Thanks again.

 

[bmad]

Phil, sorry to be so greedy with so many questions - spent hours/days/months researching heatsink issue for this MB

1.What setting is Zalman CNPS9500 fan set to?
2.Do you use the Fan Mate Controller?
3. Would the 9500 work by plugging it directly into the PW5's CPU fan connector, i.e. not using the Y conector/Fan Mate?
The fan has a bit of a whine at high speed... I would prefer to have it ramp up when necessary, go back down when not needed.

4.Why use SpeedFan, not BIOS controlls?

I selected the CNPS9500 for it's alleged ability to cool down the MB components better then, say, the Scythe Ninja. However, after trolling though many forums about PW5 "MB" (Southbridge) temp, appears that I needn't worry about "MB" temp.
5. Think that is true? Would rather use heatsink with a quiter 120mm fan. I am using the Antec P180 case.

6. Since you do not like Asus Probe II, what software do you think will give an accurate MB temp reading?

I did remove the North and South Bridge heat sinks, replace thermal paste with Artic Silver - surprisingly easy for those wondering)

I had assumed heat wouldn't be such an issue - All reviews said i Conroe generated much less heat... Have regretted the amount of time spent trying to cool my P4 3.0 and Intel MB. I could put the Zalman 9500 into my P4 3.6 system - The Intel Hardware Monitor often claims that Zone 2 senor still over the limit - after I drilled a hole in the side of Lian Li case, intalled a Nexus fan blowing at the Sensor 2 loacation...

Thanks very much, your comments much appreciated.

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: The111

Originally posted by: phile

Removing the heatsink caps and replacing the stock thermal gunk with AS5 will yield only a slight improvement in temps. You are correct to assume that high ambient room temp plays a significant role in your temps. My mobo temp is ~40C in a case with excellent airflow, and an ambient room temp of ~70F (21C). In any case, an idle mobo temp of 53C is nothing to worry about.

-phil

Thanks as always for the good info Phil. I guess I was expecting a larger drop because in this very thread you said you saw a 10 degree drop after doing the mobo mod.

Do you have any insight into the other half of my post? The small CPU temp drops (after Zalman HSF), how I can get POST to stop erroring because of no 4-pin CPU-fan present, and how I can control the Zalman 3-pin fan without Fanmate (by software)?

Thanks again.

A 6C to 10C drop in CPU core temps is right about what I would expect. switching to the Zalman from the stock cooler. From what I gathered, your cores are idling ~47C, while your BIOS CPU temp is ~32C. Those are good temps, especially with an ambient room temp of 26C. With a 25% o/c on my FSB and 1.35 vcore, my idle temps are almost identical, and that's with an ambient room temp of ~21C.

If you want to avoid that CPU fan warning, you need to go into the Hardware Monitoring area of the BIOS and choose to ignore whichever fans you do not want the BIOS to check. Click the RPM value and you will get an option to ignore.

-phil

 

[The111]

Yeh, I also will admit I have poor airflow through my case, I am going to have to do something about that. Only the Antec 120mm on the rear, running on low... nice because it is (was) silent (the Zalman is now louder than my stock HSF was since I can't figure out how to turn it down with software).

 

[bmad]

Originally posted by: The111

Do you have any insight into the other half of my post? The small CPU temp drops (after Zalman HSF), how I can get POST to stop erroring because of no 4-pin CPU-fan present, and how I can control the Zalman 3-pin fan without Fanmate (by software)?
Thanks again.

I plugged the 3 pin end of the Zalman Fan Mate Y connector into the PW5's 4 pin CPU fan connector, making sure to match ground wire to ground pin on CPU Fan connector. BIOS senses the fan - I assume fan cannot be controlled because connector has only 3 pins. I did not realize the non LED version had a 4 pin connector...

Must be a way for me to not use the Fan Mate, attach a connector/converter?

 

[The111]

I can help with some of these.

Originally posted by: bmad

2.Do you use the Fan Mate Controller?
3. Would the 9500 work by plugging it directly into the PW5's CPU fan connector, i.e. not using the Y conector/Fan Mate?
The fan has a bit of a whine at high speed... I would prefer to have it ramp up when necessary, go back down when not needed.

From what I gathered reading reviews on NewEgg... the 9500LED has a 3-pin connector for standard mobo fan headers, and it comes with the FanMate. The 9500(nonLED) has a 4-pin connector for the newer 775 boards and is supposed to be autocontrolled. Even though I have the PW5 with the 4-pin header, I opted for the 9500LED so I could use a standard 3-pin header, hoping this would allow me to use software to manually control the fan. Doesn't seem to be working yet with Speedfan... if I can't figure it out I'll just have to hook up that stupid Fanmate/knob.

Phil how is your 9500LED hooked up and controlled?

6. Since you do not like Asus Probe II, what software do you think will give an accurate MB temp reading?

Phil recommended Everest Ultimate to me, and I am happy with it.

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: bmad
Phil, sorry to be so greedy with so many questions - spent hours/days/months researching heatsink issue for this MB

1.What setting is Zalman CNPS9500 fan set to?
2.Do you use the Fan Mate Controller?
3. Would the 9500 work by plugging it directly into the PW5's CPU fan connector, i.e. not using the Y conector/Fan Mate?
The fan has a bit of a whine at high speed... I would prefer to have it ramp up when necessary, go back down when not needed.

4.Why use SpeedFan, not BIOS controlls?

I selected the CNPS9500 for it's alleged ability to cool down the MB components better then, say, the Scythe Ninja. However, after trolling though many forums about PW5 "MB" (Southbridge) temp, appears that I needn't worry about "MB" temp.
5. Think that is true? Would rather use heatsink with a quiter 120mm fan. I am using the Antec P180 case.

6. Since you do not like Asus Probe II, what software do you think will give an accurate MB temp reading?

I did remove the North and South Bridge heat sinks, replace thermal paste with Artic Silver - surprisingly easy for those wondering)

I had assumed heat wouldn't be such an issue - All reviews said i Conroe generated much less heat... Have regretted the amount of time spent trying to cool my P4 3.0 and Intel MB. I could put the Zalman 9500 into my P4 3.6 system - The Intel Hardware Monitor often claims that Zone 2 senor still over the limit - after I drilled a hole in the side of Lian Li case, intalled a Nexus fan blowing at the Sensor 2 loacation...

Thanks very much, your comments much appreciated.

re: CPU fan
I have QFAN disabled and use the Fan Mate controller. I prefer to have control over the fan. Not sure how the fan will work with QFAN, as it does not have the 4-pin PWM connector. You'll have to try that and see. To date, I run the fan at 100% and don't find it makes all that much noise.

re: Probe 2
Instead of Probe 2, I use Everest Ultimate to monitor all temps, fan speeds, and voltages. It does everything. Great app.

re: mobo temp
An idle temp of ~50 is normal for this board.

-phil

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: The111
Yeh, I also will admit I have poor airflow through my case, I am going to have to do something about that. Only the Antec 120mm on the rear, running on low... nice because it is (was) silent (the Zalman is now louder than my stock HSF was since I can't figure out how to turn it down with software).

You definitely want to have at least one 80mm intake fan at the front of the case, pulling in cool air. Any reasn why you're not using the manual fan controller, with your Zalman?

-phil

 

[The111]

Originally posted by: phile

You definitely want to have at least one 80mm intake fan at the front of the case, pulling in cool air. Any reasn why you're not using the manual fan controller, with your Zalman?

Not really, just stubborn resistance to change I guess. Never had a fan knob on my case before.

I will install the FanMate inside the case I guess, don't want it outside.

Still curious why I can't control the fan with SpeedFan or the like, any idea?