*** Official ASUS P5W DH Thread ***

[phile]

Originally posted by: Veger
Thanks Guys for all the help.

I am still perplexed about the 1066mhz memory problem.

If I just set the FSB to Default 266 and then choose my DDR Setting and set it to 1067mhz, put the voltage to 2.2v with timings of 5-5-5-15. It will post but as soon as i go into the booting of xp or vista it reboots.

Is it the limitation of the 975x chipset? Or is my ram defective. The highest i can run the ram was at DDR2-915mhz.

What is your FSB set to, when running the mem at DDR2-915? FSB 457?

Have you tried the following memory dividers?

1- FSB 266 - DDR2-1066 (1:2 FSB:MEM divider)
2- FSB 355 - DDR2-1066 (2:3 FSB:MEM divider)
2- FSB 400 - DDR2-1066 (3:4 FSB:MEM divider)
4- FSB 426 - DDR2-1066 (4:5 FSB:MEM divider)
5- FSB 533 - DDR2-1066 (1:1 FSB:MEM divider)

When you look at the FSB/MEM relationship, it becomes clear that buying 1066 memory really makes no sense for this board/CPU, unless you plan to run an extreme overclock. Assuming your mem would run stable at 1:1, that would requires a 100% overclock of a Core 2 Duo FSB.

Bottom line: all else being equal, running your mem at DDR2-915, as opposed to DDR2-1066, will result in an essentially imperceptible hit on performance. I base that opinion on the observed differences between running my PC2-6400 at both DDR2-800 and DDR2-667. With all other settings identical (FSB 333), my scores in all the 3DMARK benchmarks and PCMARK apps were almost identical.

-phil

 

[Veger]

Hi phil,

Thanks for the help man I appreciate it.

My CPU FSB is set to 266 for the test.

Where do you set the mem dividers? I think that is where I am having trouble understanding.

The only option I have in the bios is choosing the different DDR2 memory types. Here is where I choose the DDR2-1087.

When running the memory in DDR2-915 the CPU FSB is at 366.

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: Veger
Hi phil,

Thanks for the help man I appreciate it.

My CPU FSB is set to 266 for the test.

Where do you set the mem dividers? I think that is where I am having trouble understanding.

The only option I have in the bios is choosing the different DDR2 memory types. Here is where I choose the DDR2-1087.

When running the memory in DDR2-915 the CPU FSB is at 366.

You don't actually set the dividers. The divider is merely derived from the ratio of the FSB to the MEM. It's important to know that this ratio is between the real clocks, and not the effective clocks. The FSB that you set in the BIOS is the real clock, which quad-pumped to achieve the effective clock (266 X 4 = FSB 1066). For all DDR memory, the real clock is actually half the DDR2-XXX setting. So, when you memory is set to DDR2-1066, the real clock is actually 533MHz. The effective clock is 1066MHz Dual Data Rate. Knowing the above allows you to derive the divider used for the various FSB/MEM combinations you can try in the BIOS.

Oh, I forget to ask: have you disabled Hyperpath 3 and DRAM Throttling, in the BIOS? Those two settings can be found on the Advanced/Chipset page. Basically, at higher FSB you need to disable both of those, to ensure stability.

-phil

 

[Veger]

Yes Hyperpath3 has been disabled. I have not disabled DRAM Throttling. I will have to do that later when I get home.

I am still confused about the memory divider.

So running a Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.4 at its default speed of 266, i will have to run the memory at DDR2 533? That is actually slower than running DDR2 667 and 800.

I guess I should just return this memory and get some other ram how crucial ballistix?

Alright lets try a test if you go into the asus bios set your cpu fsb to 266 and then look at the list of the memory which one do I pick? Which is the best one for this ram?


I think the choices are:

Auto
DDR2-400
DDR2-533
DDR2-667
DDR2-800
DDR2-863 ?
DDR2-1067

???

Auto sets it to 667.

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: Veger
Yes Hyperpath3 has been disabled. I have not disabled DRAM Throttling. I will have to do that later when I get home.

I am still confused about the memory divider.

So running a Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.4 at its default speed of 266, i will have to run the memory at DDR2 533? That is actually slower than running DDR2 667 and 800.

Pardon my stupidity but I am really confused.

That would be 1:1?

I guess I should just return this memory and get some other ram how crucial ballistix?

No, no. Memeory dividers are not bad, and you are not obliged to run at 1:1, in order to achieve stability. This is actually one of the reasons you pay extra for a better board: memory divider support. (Cheap boards may indeed force you to run 1:1.) Support for memory dividers allows you to run your memory bus faster than the CPU bus. However, it is my understanding that the wider the gap, the higher the likelyhood of instability.

There's a lot more to all of this than I have been able to properly wrap my brain around, but that's the skinny of it. Did you try each of those 5 scenarios I listed earlier? It would not surprise me in the least if #4 were doable. Although, at FSB 426 you're probably going to have to run a very high vCORE, and tweak a lot of the board's other voltage settings (vFSB, vICH, vMCH, etc.). All those extra volts translates into much heat.

Ultimately, if you can still return that kit, go with a really good kit of PC2-6400 (CL4).

-phil

 

[Veger]

Thanks phil, I finally understand.

Do you think i should either a) try a 680i board for the 1066 memory, or b) return the memory and get something cheaper at CL4?

thanks bro

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: Veger
Thanks phil, I finally understand.

Do you think i should either a) try a 680i board for the 1066 memory, or b) return the memory and get something cheaper at CL4?

thanks bro

Assuming that the 680i board could run your mem at 1066, it is my opinion that you would not be able to notice any real improvement in performance. In your situation, I'd return the mem and get a solid kit of PC2-6400 CL4.

-phil

 

[CRChickadee]

Phil:

On the ASUS web update page, it shows the most recent bios verions as 1901.

On the ASUS product ordering page, all of the updates begin with 10... and the most recent seems to be 1019. So the numbers do not match.

Can you tell me if those bios' are the same?

Tried to flash to 1901 from floppy, and half way during erasure of bios, system locked. Bios is toast.

Thank you,

Maria

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: CRChickadee
Phil:

On the ASUS web update page, it shows the most recent bios verions as 1901.

On the ASUS product ordering page, all of the updates begin with 10... and the most recent seems to be 1019. So the numbers do not match.

Can you tell me if those bios' are the same?

Tried to flash to 1901 from floppy, and half way during erasure of bios, system locked. Bios is toast.

Thank you,

Maria

I'm not familiar with the ASUS product ordering page, but you can find all the official BIOS releases for the P5WDH right here:

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/socket775/P5W%20DH%20Deluxe/">ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/socket775/P5W%20DH%20Deluxe/</a>

Page 4-9 of the P5WDH manual describes the procedure for recovering from a failed flash, using the ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 ultility. This may or may not work, depending on how badly corrupt your BIOS has become. Give it a shot.

-phil

 

[VivienM]

Is anybody successfully running Vista and the JMicron drivers on the P5W DH?

*sigh*

 

[CRChickadee]

Originally posted by: VivienM
Is anybody successfully running Vista and the JMicron drivers on the P5W DH?

*sigh*

I am. Using them as IDE for now.

Phil:

Yes, thank you. I have tried the crash free process. but it requires some type of boot, and the PC no longer boots at all.

Here is the order page. It allows for entering an motherboard version, non specific to P5W DH, then all of the bios options seem the same, no matter the motherboard revision entered!

http://helpdesk.asus.com/BIOSORDER/store/aci_viewItem.asp?idProduct=66

If one were to look, all of the bios's start with 10 and then the last two number increase. To me it seems the most recent bios is 1019, but those numbers do not correspond to any bios numbers on the ASUS update sites, including the German site you listed, which I've been using for an while, and which also lists the same as the main ASUS site, when it finally updates..... later than the German site.

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: CRChickadee

Originally posted by: VivienM
Is anybody successfully running Vista and the JMicron drivers on the P5W DH?

*sigh*

I am. Using them as IDE for now.

Phil:

Yes, thank you. I have tried the crash free process. but it requires some type of boot, and the PC no longer boots at all.

Here is the order page. It allows for entering an motherboard version, non specific to P5W DH, then all of the bios options seem the same, no matter the motherboard revision entered!

http://helpdesk.asus.com/BIOSORDER/store/aci_viewItem.asp?idProduct=66

If one were to look, all of the bios's start with 10 and then the last two number increase. To mee it seems the most recent bios is 1019, but those numbers do not correspond to any bios numbers on the ASUS update sites, including the German site you listed, which I've been using for an while, and which also lists the same as the main ASUS site, when it finally updates..... later than the German site.

Those lists do not make any sense to me. If you need to replace the chip, best to call ASUS and ask for the BIOS department. See if they'll send it to you at no cost. In the meantime, try resetting the CMOS by moving the appropriate jumper. See if that helps at all.

-phil

 

[Butterbean]

Wow - even after returning bios to defauts the crazy stuff I mentioned earlier continued. After an hour of being booted things like content in browser windows, files in folders etc would bounce or flicker. Typed letters would go into caps randomly. Toolbars in browsers would collapse to full view.

After a couple episodes of this I realized that when these things happened the needle on the AI Booster temp gauge was stuck on max even though other utilties (Core Temp, Everest would show CPU temp as 35 and 20ish respectively).

I removed AI Booster and Probe (the one time I opened that tonight an alarm went off like a submarine was getting set to dive). It's been a couple hours now and no wierdness yet.

 

[CRChickadee]

Those lists do not make any sense to me. If you need to replace the chip, best to call ASUS and ask for the BIOS department. See if they'll send it to you at no cost. In the meantime, try resetting the CMOS by moving the appropriate jumper. See if that helps at all.

-phil
[/quote]

Phil:

Yes, thank you. I followed that process once the PC would not boot/post. ASUS's bios person was out of the office all day yesterday, did not return phone calls (to me anyway). or return emails. She's in the Kentuicky office, not the Calif office, and calls to the Calif office are routed back to her. Maybe she'll be in today.

Maybe ASUS will put on an extrta bios backup chip in the future, or some other type of better bad flash recovery.

Locally, being in the second world, there is no one with a chip flasher, and no one who sells ASUS motherboards.

Thanks for your always thoughtful and kind help.

 

[dajeepster]

Originally posted by: CRChickadee
Phil:

On the ASUS web update page, it shows the most recent bios verions as 1901.

On the ASUS product ordering page, all of the updates begin with 10... and the most recent seems to be 1019. So the numbers do not match.

Can you tell me if those bios' are the same?

Tried to flash to 1901 from floppy, and half way during erasure of bios, system locked. Bios is toast.

Thank you,

Maria

I just had the same thing happen to mine... so many years with asus motherboards and this is the first time its happened to me. I was using asusupdate from within windows xp64

 

[DutchBBQ]

February 2007 driver releases:
* Marvell Yukon LAN WHQL compliant drivers for all XP and VISTA flavours
* DirectX for XP ONLY: Febr.2, 2007
* Realtek WLAN driver for XP/VISTA: Febr.5, 2007
* Realtek Audio driver for XP: Febr.8, 2007
* JMicron for XP/VISTA: Febr. 8, 2007
* BIOS 1901: Febr. 9, 2007
* Realtek Audio driver for VISTA: Febr. 13, 2007
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=...l=P5W+DH+Deluxe&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

 

[bpatters69]

Sorry to semi-hijack.....

If any of you successful builders have a mintue, please see my post on this motherboard at:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=29&threadid=2008334&enterthread=y

Thanks

 

[mkln]

hi, recently i've noticed that my mobe temps are higher than they usually are. usually they are high 30s-40; now, they are in the low to mid 40s. i've just recently removed the plastic off the north and southbridge heatsinks as well as the ez-raid thing...that didn't seem to help motherboard temps at all. infact. it seems as if temps rose about 1-2 degrees, however, it also seems as if my cpu temps have dropped a few degrees which i found quite odd. i am currently idling at 44C on the mobo temp (as reported using both Asus ProbeII as well as everest). btw, room temp is about 22C and vCore is auto w/ stock HS on a E6600 at stock speeds. so, i am wondering if the temps i am experiencing are anything to worry about, and if they are, what can i do to lower the temps?

Thanks in advance for any helpful advice

 

[cpl edge]

the temps of my house have more effect on my computer temps than anything i do to it.

 

[Butterbean]

Originally posted by: mkln
hi, recently i've noticed that my mobe temps are higher than they usually are. usually they are high 30s-40; now, they are in the low to mid 40s. i've just recently removed the plastic off the north and southbridge heatsinks as well as the ez-raid thing...that didn't seem to help motherboard temps at all. infact. it seems as if temps rose about 1-2 degrees, however, it also seems as if my cpu temps have dropped a few degrees which i found quite odd. i am currently idling at 44C on the mobo temp (as reported using both Asus ProbeII as well as everest). btw, room temp is about 22C and vCore is auto w/ stock HS on a E6600 at stock speeds. so, i am wondering if the temps i am experiencing are anything to worry about, and if they are, what can i do to lower the temps?

Thanks in advance for any helpful advice

I don't think you have much to worry about. Asus says this board will register high on readings and even 65C is mentioned as an OK range. I see this question all the time with this board - scares hell outta people. From Asus site:

http://support.asus.com/faq/faq.aspx?no...E665-58CE-CB2AC36794D9&SLanguage=en-us

Question:

"The motherboard temperature reading from P5W DH Deluxe is significantly higher (by almost 10 degrees) than most other motherboards.
Is that normal? If so, what is a safe temperature range on this motheboard?

Answer:

It should be normal if the motherboard temperature is within the range of 40~65 degrees Celsius.

The motherboard temperature sensor has been placed between ICH7R Silicon Image 4723.

This is the second hottest place on the motherboard apart from the CPU, also at the airway of chassis fan, to ensure Q'Fan2 is capable of managing chassis fans in the most efficient manner.

Hence, it means the motherboard temperature reading on this board may be quite hot as compared to other motherboards when its overall temperature is not really that much hotter.

Your system should be OK if it is within this temperature range "

 

[mkln]

cool, thanks so much for the reply Butterbean

 

[FoeHammer]

Hi all, I had a quick question about the 2 'Ez Raid' Sata Ports. I haven't put everything together yet as I await my cpu and other components, but I was curious to know if those 'Ez Raid' ports at the bottom of the board can be used in non-raid mode? I'm hoping so only becuase I would like to use 4 sata HDD's in non-raid mode and one sata optical drive.

Basically are those ports set to RAID mode as default in the BIOS or can u manually set them? Thanks.

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: FoeHammer
Hi all, I had a quick question about the 2 'Ez Raid' Sata Ports. I haven't put everything together yet as I await my cpu and other components, but I was curious to know if those 'Ez Raid' ports at the bottom of the board can be used in non-raid mode? I'm hoping so only becuase I would like to use 4 sata HDD's in non-raid mode and one sata optical drive.

Basically are those ports set to RAID mode as default in the BIOS or can u manually set them? Thanks.

Have a look at page 2-27 of the manual. Set the Ez-Raid (RAID_SEL) jumper to BIG mode. That should allow you to use one of the Ez-Raid ports with a single SATA drive.

-phil

 

[FoeHammer]

Fantastic, thank you for the help...I dont have leave 2 raptors behind with the new rig

 

[DualMonitors]

Hello All! being a total newbie doing my first build, i ordered everything from new egg and it will arrive in a couple of days. while i'm very excited i'm also very concerned as i have no idea how to "set" any of these motherboard settings. i've read quite a few of the posts here, incl those of Mr. Phile and butterbean...etc and my situation is similar to many.

The one BIG difference is: i'm not interested in overclocking, not interested in the ultimate performance in any games, this is more of a higher end home office machine. THE GOAL is for as stable and trouble free a machine as i can make this. Hence, i chose the parts with an eye towards solid performance, not their abilities to out perform or overclock. with that state goal said, may i please tell you what i ordered and please ask for the MOST STABLE/reliable settings for this motherboard / CPU/memory combination? Thank you so much in advance. This part really concerns me but it is great that there are so many good folks here who are exceptionally well informed, etc.

Asus P5W DH Deluxe / Intel 6600 core 2 duo 4mb cache / Crucial Ballistix 2gb (2x1gb) DDR 2 800/PC2 6400 dual channel kit / evga 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640mb 320-bit GDDR3 / Lite-On 20x dvd...IDE / 2 X Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3500630AS 500gb / Thermaltake Armor VA8003SWA Silver ATX Full Tower / Vista 32-bit Ultimate

I had the same concerns as Mr. Butterbeans re: Corsair xms2 twin 2x1gb's issues on BOTH newegg's reviews as well as Corsair's own forums so i am going for the Crucial Ballistix 2x1gb ddr 2 800 due to them owning/owned by Micron - thought this would be a safer bet and i hope to not have a half-built machine sitting here for 2 weeks waiting for RMA exchanges.

besides that, the reason for the 8800GTS 640mb is that among my "design goals/criteria" for this machine, besides the VERY STABLE/reliable top goal, is to use FULL AERO interface on a upcoming 30" dell, and my existing 2405 dell for dual monitor use. after i get this system stablized and running, say hopefully in a couple of weeks, i'm hoping that the 8600 selections will come out and i'll get a lower end one in order to use as my 2nd video card, that way, the 8600 can run my 3rd monitor, an exisitng 21.3" Samsung 4:3 model 213T for CNN-type cable tv news watching during the day at the computer (home office here). i'll also have to find a TV card (only interested in using the lower 125 channels which are non-premium: don't want yet another rental cable box just for my pc tv news watching!). i'm thinking that to get the 30" and 24" dells running in FULL AERO, over the time span of the next couple or more years, it might be wise to over spend a bit on the 8800 GTS and KNOW that it can handle the 4,000,000+ pixels of JUST the 30" alone, not yet even counting the 24". i think the AERO interface, as well as any occasional games that i may play (VERY rare and not at all important to me, though i DO want DX 10 support due to the upcoming Photoshop CS3's announced use of DX10 in their CS3 version), may demand a good amount of "power" from the video card.

So there, those are my newbie's effort in researching and trying to understand what i should buy, what i want to buy, vis-a-vis my goals and intentions. hope i made it somewhat clear and sorry for being so verbose.

with all that background, may i please ask for assistance in knowing what SETTINGS on this motherboard would be MOST stable/reliable, while taking proper advantage of my components? i'd like to be properly conservative, but certainly not to under use my equipment. i wanted to sort of build a pc that's like a great bmw workhorse that's also a great performer, NOT to build a temperamental Ferrari.

thank you all, gents and ladies, in advance for your assistance. i've read a number of how to assemble type of tutorials but i know NOTHING about how to set this motherboard baby up! zilch. i thought i've learned so much from all the good folks here in terms of component selection, that i need to move forward now to learn about how to set it all up! everything should arrive in roughly 2 days!

thx!