The Unofficial ASUS P5N-E SLI 650i Board Thread

[AMelbye]

my MB temp in PC probe is 39 at this precise moment. rarely goes above 42, and I don't even have an exhaust fan.

Sorry I didn't properly read your post

 

[Xdreamer]

so whats the news on BIOS 604

 

[Phrawst]

I could really use some help. Bought the P5NE-SLI a core 2 duo, 2 gigs of ram and a video card (specs in my sig) this past weekend. Had a nightmare getting it working and discovered the yellow ram slot issue. So tossed the ram into the black slots and all is well... kind of.

I'm getting horrible scores in 3dmark06 and through investigating the issue I've discovered that my PCI-E slot is only running at x1 and not x16. The bios as far as I know doesn't give you any specific control over this so I'm not sure what to do.

I'm not looking to do any crazy oc'ing of the system but would really appreciate some tips on key bios settings, what should be enabled / disabled. Once I have it all set then maybe I'll come back to get on the OC train. Right now I'd just like to get my video card running at the proper bus speed.

 

[Phrawst]

I set the bios settings to default: Still reported as x1

Set the PCI-E speed to 105mhz: Still reported as x1

Set the PCI-E Speed to 115mhz and upped the northbridge voltage to 1.6v (saw someone say they did this to solve the problem on a diff asus board): Still reported as x1

 

[Ardor]

Hi Phrawst,
I had the same problem and fixed it by going into add/remove programs, unstaling the nVidia chipset Drivers, then reinstalling them from the provided Asus CD.
Good luck.

 

[Phrawst]

Installing fear right now. I'll give that a shot after

 

[Phrawst]

ok i went to uninstall the drivers and used the vista uninstaller ot remove everything but display drivers. vista seemed to immediately detect the devices and install them back though. Rebooted and ran the asus cd.. the only item it seemed to install was media shield..

I'm obviously screwing something up here in the uninstall/reinstall process.. is there a safe mode i should be doing this in??

 

[ed6612]

Hi Guys,

Can someone recommend a good northbridge heatsink replacement for the POS that came with this board (my NB usually runs at 50-60C without any OC)?

What makes my case tricky is that I have a Tuniq Tower 120 CPU cooler that overhangs the 650i chip & heatsink by about 25% and there is vurtually no vertical clearance between the ASUS NB heatsink and the underside of the Tuniq, which means that my options are limited to something like Thermalright HR-05-SLI that doesn't need vertical clearance directly over the 650i, but not sure if this is a good replacement for the stock. Any thoughts?

BTW: Based on what I read guess I am one of the few ppl here running fine with RAM in yellow slots.

-Ed

E6600 & Tuniq Tower 120
eVGA 8800 GTS (640)




Thanks!

 

[AMelbye]

Phrawst: I don't really have a clue.. have you made sure you're using the most recent drivers for everything? The drivers that come with the hardware may contain bugs.

 

[Phrawst]

Originally posted by: AMelbye
Phrawst: I don't really have a clue.. have you made sure you're using the most recent drivers for everything? The drivers that come with the hardware may contain bugs.

Yup using the latest chipset and video card drivers from Nvidia. I discovered this problem while trying to figure out why I was getting low scores in 3dmark.

I got the low scores in both xp and vista so I'm not thinking vista is to blame. really dunno what to do here.

 

[DeadMan3000]

Does anyone know if my P5N-E SLI Gigabit NIC supports Jumbo Frames? I have no option for it in the advanced driver section and am getting no joy from either Nvidia or Asus support (In effect nobody is answering).

 

[garikfox]

Reply to: nicoMVD - Yes I always flash the latest BIOS(s), Very rarely they have a bug that makes them almost useless, But even when that happens ASUS takes the BIOS down and puts up a stable one within days.

 

[ElAguila]

I have been running my e6600 conroe for about 4 months stable now at 8x400(3.2GHz) with 1.41 vcore.I am thinking about trying 9x400 but to do that I would need around 1.45-1.48 vcore. Heat is not an issue. I have an ultra 120 in a very cool case and the room stays cool. My idles temps are 29C on each cpu at idle and 37C at load. Is that voltage okay to run through these cpu's?

 

[AMelbye]

ElAguila: You won't know until it breaks I think.. I've heard people say that you should stay under 1.5, but I don't know what that statement is based on.

The fact is that higher voltage means it breaks quicker. At stock volts this processor should last you 10+ years. With vcore at 1.5, maybe half of that?, maybe a quarter?

Only intel knows I think, and they're not gonna tell you.

Let's put it this way: when did you last hear of a processor breaking?

 

[ElAguila]

My average upgrade time is about every 2 years. I guess it is worth the risk in this case. I will let you know how it goes.

 

[rbendorf]

Originally posted by: ed6612
Hi Guys,

Can someone recommend a good northbridge heatsink replacement for the POS that came with this board (my NB usually runs at 50-60C without any OC)?

What makes my case tricky is that I have a Tuniq Tower 120 CPU cooler that overhangs the 650i chip & heatsink by about 25% and there is vurtually no vertical clearance between the ASUS NB heatsink and the underside of the Tuniq, which means that my options are limited to something like Thermalright HR-05-SLI that doesn't need vertical clearance directly over the 650i, but not sure if this is a good replacement for the stock. Any thoughts?

BTW: Based on what I read guess I am one of the few ppl here running fine with RAM in yellow slots.

-Ed

E6600 & Tuniq Tower 120
eVGA 8800 GTS (640)




Thanks!

ed6612...
I have been running the HR-05-SLI with the Tuniq Tower 120 on my rig for several months now. I have the system OCd to 3.2MHZ and have had no problems. My OS is Vista and it just humms along...I use it mostly for audio/video stuff and am enjoying the sytem. It was a bit tricky to get the HR-05 installed, but was not really a problem...it is heavy duty, big and does a heck of a job cooling...you will be pleased if you decide to put it on your NB.

 

[ElAguila]

I am using the blue ice pro. I picked it up at svc for $8. According to this it does just as well as the heatpipe ones.
http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&number=9&artpage=1980&articID=473

 

[nicoMVD]

>garikfox

Bios 0401 is the most reliable version.

Everything after that was useless,
it seems bios 0604 is doing better, but Intel has reported some bugs,
don't forget it is a BETA version, there must be a reason for that.


Check Asus official forum:
0604 BIOS ISSUE: P5N-E SLI Microcode Wrong According to Intel Customer Svc

 

[im2good4u]

i cant get to link "P5N-E SLI tips, tricks, recommendations, and basic OC guide (Pg. 92 of this thread)" i just need some basic OC guide.

 

[zyth3x]

Hey, new to AnandTech and OC'ing but have managed to get my e6600 to 3.37ghz 100% stable. I just want to push it over the edge to 3.4ghz or maybe higher :> but I've run into a wall, I just can't get it stable at 3.4ghz.

running a p5n-e-sli and an e6600 cooled by a zalman 9700 my temps at 3.37ghz are 34C Idle and around 40-43C load.

bios looks like this:

1.4000v Vcore
2.178v Mem
1.563v NB
+100mv

Unlinked
1500
800mhz

4-4-4-12 2T

E6600
Asus P5N-E-SLI
OCZ Platinum PC2-6400 800mhz DDR2 4-4-4-15

@ 3.37ghz Orthos ran for 8+ hours no problem
@ 3.40ghz Orthos ran for a few mins

I'm kind of new to this so do you think you guys can help me out?

 

[im2good4u]

i managed to do something with my E6320, i was able to OC it to 2.8Ghz with these settings
Vcore 1.29v
Vdimm 1.9v
mem is synced
FSB 1600
800Mhz

i just have stock cooling but my case has a very good airflow, i'm just wondering what kind of temps you guys have, mine is (used everest)..
CPU / Core1 / Core 2 : 45C / 51C / 51C
mobo: 52C

are those temps just fine? BTW my room temperature is 32-33C. thanks

 

[AMelbye]

nicoMVD: that guy on the asus forum is being a dick.

I'm using the same bios as he does, and my system is dead stable.

Asus already told him to RMA that board since it's obviously ******. That has nothing to do with the bios.

 

[Derik75]

I remember reading about this problem earlier but was unable to find any information about it. I am using BIOS 0401 and whenever I try to flash to a newer version in the BIOS I get this message saying something like "unable to upgrade to downgradable ROM". It's like it's thinking it's any earlier version or something. Solution?

 

[ed6612]

I have been running the HR-05-SLI with the Tuniq Tower 120 on my rig for several months now. I have the system OCd to 3.2MHZ and have had no problems. My OS is Vista and it just humms along...I use it mostly for audio/video stuff and am enjoying the sytem. It was a bit tricky to get the HR-05 installed, but was not really a problem...it is heavy duty, big and does a heck of a job cooling...you will be pleased if you decide to put it on your NB.

Thanks rbendorf, I really appreciate your feedback.

I have been researching HR-05-SLI and think that this is what I want to go with. My only concern was clearance space between the Tuniq and the video card but after looking at the HR-05 measurement spec on Thermalright site I believe it should fit.

In the mean time, just as a test I zip-tied an 80mm to the stock NB heatsink vertically on the side. The result is that my external probe attached to the heatsink show a 15C drop in temp (fan blows right over the probe so this is probably not accurate) while the MB sensor shows modest to no decrease, leading me to believe that the stock heatsink does not have good contact with the 650. Another problem with this approach is that the 80mm runs at 4800rpm and produces an enormous amount of noise (compared to all my other 120mm/1500rpm fans inside). So definatelly going with a passive solution here.

 

[AMelbye]

derik75: use the award flash dos utility
ed6612: To get around the space issue, I made a funnel for my 80mm fan, so that it blows straight on the nb heatsink, even though it's located away from it. Too bad my camera is broken.

btw, I don't think the motherboard temp sensor is located at the north bridge. I see it more like an indication of case temperature than anything else.