The Unofficial ASUS P5N-E SLI 650i Board Thread

[Core2]

Originally posted by: carey8
I have re-sat my heatisnk twice now. Both with AS5. Its dont its job, jsut gone crazy lately? Can't see how it can need re-seating again. Yes i have, i bought that fan and heatisnk that was suggested earlier. I still couldnt get any higher, so that was a waste of money.
I also put another fan on the side of my case, this was a high CFM fan as well. Yet nothing has helped.

I didnt run a 1:1 Ratio becuase it wouldnt boot with it at all. Not even a post.

i also ran memtest after i was stuck at 2.9Ghz, my ram had no errors what so ever, whyw ould they suddenly creep up now?

Don't you remember me saying there is FSB HOLES in the 400 - 424 area???? We have said that since the beginning. Try 425 or stay below 400. Re-test your ram again with Memtest. Chips can fail. Leave your FSB at default ( 1066MHz ) and overclock your ram to see how good they really are and Memtest them at there highest level.

 

[Core2]

If your CPU temps are climbing then it's your HSF that is mostly at fault.

 

[carey8]

Yes i do remember you saying that, im not that stupid. I tried jumping to 425, it would boot but was not stablethe volts it did need to get stable was obviously above 1.45 and i didnt feel safe going above that seeing as other people have gone over 3.0Ghz on the same chip with less volts.

 

[Punchy01]

Success Story! I think.
Hi to all, I've been setting up this board now for 2-3 weeks and I think I might finally be getting somewhere--woohoo! A bit of background: Like many of you I have had problems since day one. My DVD DL that was only a year old and worked fine in my last PC suffered an early dimise when I attempted my first boot whith this machine about 3 weeks ago. Now it doesn't work in the former machine either. Lights at startup, recognized in Windows XP, but no response otherwise. Updated the drive's firmware (after I got this system stable) - no response, shows up in BIOS as weird letters (CHC ? maybe-I forget). Fine, moving on. First harddrive I tried (Maxtor 100gb PATA/133) wouldn't work past the formatting stage--BSOD at the GUI portion of Windows setup. One of the biggest selling points of this board for me was the IDE support. I don't have any SATA yet, so this was a big draw for me, but to this point I've had quite a bit of conflict with IDE's. Fine, moving on. Fortunately I had enough old equipment lying around to swap some drives and get this thing up a running-somewhat. I'm only trying to run a stable system -- no overclocks.
What worked for me was the same stuff that's been repeated ad nauseum around here (thanks to Core2 & Adder!)
MEMORY IN BLACK SLOTS ONLY!
MANUALLY SET RAM TIMINGS AND VOLTAGES -- SEE SIG!
Everything else set to "Auto" for now

I repost these things just for any other newb like myself who may be considering or trying to set up this board for the first time

So far, everything seems stable. I still get a few reboots when windows comes up, but usually starts up the second time. I've checked the PSU, both in BIOS and manually with a volt meter-everything checks ok. I've checked the memory with MemTest-everything fine after switching to the black slots. No overclocking, day to day computing seems ok--not great, but ok.

Just to sum up, most of this post was just cathartic for me--AHHHHHHH, much better--but I do have a few questions:
Why is this board so difficult to deal with? My other ASUS A7n8x Deluxe was a dream compared to this.

Will future BIOS releases clear up some of these issues? I'm scared to try right now as I've got everything going ok, and I haven't read much good about newer releases.

My next harddrive will be a SATA drive. Does this board (and all the new generation boards) play nicer with that spec?

Should I stick with this board? Is it any better with any of the other C2D boards? I think they're all having similar issues right now, but I almost wish I had just built a 939 system-LOL.

Thanks in advance to anyone who actually reads this post-whew!

 

[Core2]

Originally posted by: Punchy01
Success Story! I think.
Hi to all, I've been setting up this board now for 2-3 weeks and I think I might finally be getting somewhere--woohoo! A bit of background: Like many of you I have had problems since day one. My DVD DL that was only a year old and worked fine in my last PC suffered an early dimise when I attempted my first boot whith this machine about 3 weeks ago. Now it doesn't work in the former machine either. Lights at startup, recognized in Windows XP, but no response otherwise. Updated the drive's firmware (after I got this system stable) - no response, shows up in BIOS as weird letters (CHC ? maybe-I forget). Fine, moving on. First harddrive I tried (Maxtor 100gb PATA/133) wouldn't work past the formatting stage--BSOD at the GUI portion of Windows setup. One of the biggest selling points of this board for me was the IDE support. I don't have any SATA yet, so this was a big draw for me, but to this point I've had quite a bit of conflict with IDE's. Fine, moving on. Fortunately I had enough old equipment lying around to swap some drives and get this thing up a running-somewhat. I'm only trying to run a stable system -- no overclocks.
What worked for me was the same stuff that's been repeated ad nauseum around here (thanks to Core2 & Adder!)
MEMORY IN BLACK SLOTS ONLY!
MANUALLY SET RAM TIMINGS AND VOLTAGES -- SEE SIG!
Everything else set to "Auto" for now

I repost these things just for any other newb like myself who may be considering or trying to set up this board for the first time

So far, everything seems stable. I still get a few reboots when windows comes up, but usually starts up the second time. I've checked the PSU, both in BIOS and manually with a volt meter-everything checks ok. I've checked the memory with MemTest-everything fine after switching to the black slots. No overclocking, day to day computing seems ok--not great, but ok.

Just to sum up, most of this post was just cathartic for me--AHHHHHHH, much better--but I do have a few questions:
Why is this board so difficult to deal with? My other ASUS A7n8x Deluxe was a dream compared to this.

Will future BIOS releases clear up some of these issues? I'm scared to try right now as I've got everything going ok, and I haven't read much good about newer releases.

My next harddrive will be a SATA drive. Does this board (and all the new generation boards) play nicer with that spec?

Should I stick with this board? Is it any better with any of the other C2D boards? I think they're all having similar issues right now, but I almost wish I had just built a 939 system-LOL.

Thanks in advance to anyone who actually reads this post-whew!

Good to hear from you Punchy01
Sorry that it's been a tough time
A few things I can recommend. First upgrade your bios to 0401. For memory and stability it has helped me. Second update to the latest Nvidia chipset drivers the link is on page 92 of this thread or go to Nvidia's web site. Make sure to Clear The CMOS if you do flash. After flashing you'll have to re-set your setting to the way they were. I would try both ram slots again and see which ones perform best. Still kept your settings the same. Auto for everything except ram works great and set the timings to what has worked best. Let me know what happens and what you decide. There could always be a chance you have a defective board. The Intel boards are probably the most reliable and stable boards for stock speeds. If you decide to go to another let me know maybe I can help in your decision

 

[Core2]

Originally posted by: carey8
Yes i do remember you saying that, im not that stupid. I tried jumping to 425, it would boot but was not stablethe volts it did need to get stable was obviously above 1.45 and i didnt feel safe going above that seeing as other people have gone over 3.0Ghz on the same chip with less volts.

I don't know what to tell you. Did you try Auto settings for everything except for the ram? That would give you an idea of how much vcore the bios feels it needs to set to boot at that speed. Then write it down and experiment with manual settings. Some processors don't clock as well as others. I don't have the board in front of me to make an honest evaluation. RMA the board and try again if you feel it's the board. All I have been saying is to look at all the possibilities first and then make your decision on what the cause is. Read through the thread for information that may apply to you. I can only evaluate what information and testing that you provide me with.

 

[darkshippo]

Runnings Orthos Small FFTs -stress CPU. Just got over 4Hours. Temperature according to core temp around 55C.

My system:
Asus P5N-E SLI (Bios 0401)
OCZ Gold XTC 2GB PC6400 5-5-5-1-2T
Vcore: 1.42V
Vdimm: 2.097
NB: 1.372V

 

[Punchy01]

Thanks Core,
I'm actually not inclined to change boards at this time since I kinda feel like I've been to war with this one -- not gonna give up on it just yet. I'm hoping future BIOS revisions will clear up some more issues and make this the kind of stable board I've come to expect from Asus. I know I should try that 0401, but I just can't pull the trigger right now--taken to long to get here. Maybe in a few weeks.

Are there any other voltages/timings I should adjust manually for now? I think I got the big ones.

Anybody know what happened to my DVD burner? I really liked it. I have an el cheapo replacement waiting to go in, but I'm kinda afraid to fry that one too.

SATA instead of Ultra ATA?

 

[Ajay]

Quick note on the latest nForce i650 drivers(8.43_nforce_650i_winxp32_english). Install was a biatch! The installer would ask if it was ok to remove the existing ethernet drivers, and then would reboot. Upon reboot a screen would popup saying it was waiting for Windows hardware wizards to finish, then when it was ready to run it would ask to uninstall the current ethernet drivers - blah. So I updated the ethernet drivers manually (instead of using nVidia's setup). I rebooted and ran the setup and it went fine.

The VAM wasn't install, so I went to the ethernet driver folder to install it, it said it wouldn't work with this version of the drivers!!! So I went to the old install, those installed and seem to be working, except the web interface is slow and cause a reboot when changing one of the settings. So nVidia needs to work on it's ethernet install and straighten things out.

Overall, everything seems to be running more smoothly than b/4 with no additional errors. I didn't do any benchmarking before or after - so I don't have anything to say there.

 

[carey8]

Originally posted by: Core2

Originally posted by: carey8
Yes i do remember you saying that, im not that stupid. I tried jumping to 425, it would boot but was not stablethe volts it did need to get stable was obviously above 1.45 and i didnt feel safe going above that seeing as other people have gone over 3.0Ghz on the same chip with less volts.

I don't know what to tell you. Did you try Auto settings for everything except for the ram? That would give you an idea of how much vcore the bios feels it needs to set to boot at that speed. Then write it down and experiment with manual settings. Some processors don't clock as well as others. I don't have the board in front of me to make an honest evaluation. RMA the board and try again if you feel it's the board. All I have been saying is to look at all the possibilities first and then make your decision on what the cause is. Read through the thread for information that may apply to you. I can only evaluate what information and testing that you provide me with.

Yes i know, i appreciate you for trying to help me.
Thank you very much.

 

[ElAguila]

Did you cancel the windows hardware wizard? When I did that instead of letting it find drivers the install went fine for me.

 

[rbendorf]

 

[rbendorf]

Good Morning All...
I have been watching this thread for quite awhile and am now breadboarding my new ASUS P5N-E SLI. I have it on a piece of cardboard and it has been running ORTHO (no OC) for about a week with no problems. The following is what I now have in the system:

Bios: 0401
Core2 Duo E6400
Zalman CNPS9500LED Cooler
2-1GB OCZ2P800R22GK sticks, 4-4-4-15
2-XFX GeForce 7600GS Video Boards (SLI)
Ultra XFinity 500w PSU
Keyboard and mouse are USB
OS: WinXP Pro

I read the OC primer by Core2 and found it very helpful for a relative nooby to the OC world. (I have been in this field going back to thyratron switching tubes). I have also built 100s of computers over the years.

The new chipsets and peripherals are not only much fast and more efficient, but much trickier to setup.

At present I have CPU-Z and CrystalCPUID running with Speedfan also on. I have all the latest versions of the utilities. Crystal is telling me that I have an Allendale processor and CPU-Z says it is (correctly) a Conroe. Which on do I rely on?

The following are the CPU-Z readings:
Core Speed: 1950 MHZ
Multiplier: x6.0 (I made sure this was set at X8 in the bios)
Bus Speed: 325.0 MHZ
Rated FSB 1300 MHZ

Any suggestions?

I will do some gaming with this machine, but mainly want it for video editing and output to my 42" LCD.

Will I need coolers on the NB and SB?

Thanks peeps...I appreciate and insights, suggestions, and comments that you can give. This is a great and enjoyable forum...keep up the great work.

Rich

 

[SystemHalt]

to get rid of the multiplier switching to 6x as i was having the same problem. In the bios i had to do the following:

under cpu configuration area
disable the Enhanced C1 (CE1) option

this solved my problem with the multi switching to 6x from 8x not sure why some can run it and some can't see if that helps you though.

 

[rbendorf]

SystemHalt...

Thanks I will check the setting...I am not sure what I set it at, but will check. Do you have any additional coolers running on your system?

 

[Core2]

The Enhanced C1 (CE1) Option preforms a throttle back during idle periods. I find it helpful. If you put a load on the system it will throttle up to default speed. It will help to keep your system running cooler and has no effect IMHO with overclocking. Some people my disagree.

Welcome Aboard rbendorf

 

[rbendorf]

Thanks Core2...

I just started ORTHO and it is stable at 2600MHZ, so it did throttle up...good learning point for me!

Also I have observed the following temps during ORTHO test:
temp1:50c
temp2:42c
temp3:25c
HD0:39c
temp1:40c
core0:68c
core1:67c

I have the board out of the case with the Zalman 9500 on high...it is just sitting on the CPU. Are these temps excessive? For some gaming (not heavy) do you think I need SB and NB coolers?

Thanks for all you great input.

Rich

 

[Core2]

I would recommend a small fan on the NB a low profile heatsink on the SB, very low if running in SLI mode make sure the second card will clear the heatsink before you put it on for good. Page 92 has some cheap and effect solutions or if you have spare parts that will work too

Edit: Do you have any fans blowing fresh air on the board the way you have it setup? I think once you get it in a case with decent airflow your temps will drop some.

 

[rbendorf]

At present I have no fans blowing on the board other than the air movement of the Zalman. I have an Antec P180 case and will have 4 internal fans in the case, which should provide all the cooling I need. One of the fans will blow directly on the video boards. I am not an extreme OCer so air cooling should suffice. I printed out your Page 92 info and will additionally put fans on the SB and NB when it finally goes into the case. Any difference between the Arctic and the Zalman...I notice that you have the Arctic?

 

[DeadMan3000]

I am having some issues with this board and an IDE hard drive. Power keeps cutting out on it. I had it on the same power connector as the SATA drive but the SATA never pooped out (I don't think). Now put the IDE on it's own connector. Wondering if it's the hard drive, PSU (580w Hiper modular SLI certified), motherboard (Bent some caps accidentally) or driver issue. The drive literally vanishes during writing data and XP has a hissy fit about it. Ran Maxtor basic test from floppy and it passes that test. Will try a longer test if it does it again overnight when in bed.

Most odd.

 

[SystemHalt]

I currently am just running on air with the stock intel cooler but i do have 3x 120mm fans custome mounted at top of case sucking air out and i have 3x 80mm fans at bottom blowing air in to case. so have very nice air flow thru the case and for temps at cpu speed below i get 38C idle and 47C about full load.

 

[rbendorf]

I got up to 3.2 GHZ stable, with only a zalman cooler sitting on the cpu, but ORTHO would shut down at 3.4GHZ, So I will be looking to button it up and put in in the case with 4 fans...maybe it will hit 3.4 or 3.6GHZ. My temps are running high (60C) so I think it is a thermal shutdown. Thanks for sharing your info.

 

[DeadMan3000]

Off topic:

Now this looks sechsy.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Mot...uctID=2460&ProductName=GA-N680SLI-DQ6#

 

[ElAguila]

You mentioned that the zalman is just sitting on the cpu. Do you have it clamped on or is it just sitting on the cpu without the fastener attached? If it is just sitting without the fastener then these temps are about right and they are a little high to be running on.

 

[rbendorf]

Yeah...I think you are right...it is just sitting on the processor (with some arctic silver 5). I have run it up to 3.4GHZ and then shut it down after about 20 min. in ORTHO...the temps were rising...will put it in the case with fans and lock down the cooler and the system should run A-OK. Thanks