The Unofficial ASUS P5N-E SLI 650i Board Thread

[JustaGeek]

1 CAD almost = 1 USD.

I always believed in HP - they use quality components (like... ASUS motherboards), Seagate HD's, brand name memory etc. Best big name manufacturer, IMHO.

But... what fun is it to call HP support instead of coming here to give/get advise, huh...?

 

[Blieb]

Overnight I went to:

CPU VCore 1.34x --- read on intel site the max for this chip is 1.3525 (E6600)
FSB 1200 (easier for the math
Mem 960

Prime 95 with Orthos for almost 7 hours. Of course, as you know, that means absolutely nothing ...

----------------

Since I don't want to OC initially, I went back down to 1066/890 (888.9) ...

Who know whether or not to call it stable.

I'm seriously thinking about chucking this thing. Honestly, it shouldn't be this much work to get a stinkin' box stable before OC. Very disturbing.

I also read somewhere that a guy dropped is MEM down to 667 to get stable ...

 

[JustaGeek]

Great! Yes, the "memory hole" between 710 and 860MHz exists, so 667MHz works, too.

But if your memory is "comfortable" at 890, I would leave it there - it would give you that extra headroom for (future) overclocking with additional bandwidth.

Mine just failed to boot after changing LDT frequency back to 5x from 4x, and setting the Quick boot to Enable.

After hitting reset a few times, I entered the BIOS, changed Quick Boot to "Disabled", and it seems fine, with LDT at 5x. Quess it likes to "check memory" for 5 minutes, byte after byte...

I just hit Escape to go on, but maybe the "Quick boot" is an issue here, too.

Quite a puzzle this MB, huh...?

 

[Blieb]

This review from Newegg puts it best:

Pros: This feature packed motherboard has an excellent bios with settings you've never heard of giving you almost complete control of every important setting. This makes O'C ing a breeze and slight adjustments a pleasure.

Cons: If it worked this would be a fantastic board but a quick look at feedback here and in the forums will tell you otherwise. Buy this and be prepared to spend the next month trying to make it work correctly. If you have a job, life, mate or even enjoy a movie now and then look elsewhere. From the many comments I have read in ASUS's forums the company will leave you stranded to work out the problems with the other forum members. So if you want to get frustrated and meet folks online then buy this board!

Other Thoughts: No one should have to work this hard to make a modern computer work. I have spent countless hours trying to get this board to work trying every suggestion I have found including the extensive use of garlic and waving dead chickens over it but no go. Along with my recent purchase of replacement memory I have just ordered a CPU as a last ditch effort but if this fails it will be RMA'd. I have wanted a Conroe for some time now anyways. I read similar comments as this but thought the writers nobs. Not so.

 

[JustaGeek]

LOL

I know, we all feel like that...

But... we can always get a new MOBO! And this is an awesome performer... when it works LOL!

I think I'll take the challenge and tame this BEAST LOL

Hmmm... or move on...

 

[JustaGeek]

LDT frequency must be set to 4x if overclocking!

After a few failed boots, I've come to that conclusion... It was strongly suggested be AMelbye a few pages back...

It does seem to be the case... Slow down your Hyper Transport... 4x works... so far...

Honestly, this motherboard allowed me to learn SO MUCH about every single setting...

If you want to learn about computer hardware, you can take College courses...

Or buy P5N-E SLI instead!

UPDATE: Boot failures again! Checked VCore from previous Everest reports - 1.3V.
Reduced mine in BIOS from 1.325V to 1.3125V - will see what happens...

 

[tvdang7]

this board isnt as bad as this ds3 i just came from. prob just that single board but i had no ide no sound and not much overclocking stability. this board is great. im at 7 x 400 ~1.35 v the chipset voltage is 1.59 tho iono why i had to up it so much but i did to make it boot.

down side to this board is no overclocking software. and funky values to use in bios.

i have 1 question tho. how do i make 5.1 audio work? there are only 3 outputs on the board while other boards have 6.

 

[JustaGeek]

Originally posted by: tvdang7
this board isnt as bad as this ds3 i just came from. prob just that single board but i had no ide no sound and not much overclocking stability. this board is great. im at 7 x 400 ~1.35 v the chipset voltage is 1.59 tho iono why i had to up it so much but i did to make it boot.

down side to this board is no overclocking software. and funky values to use in bios.

i have 1 question tho. how do i make 5.1 audio work? there are only 3 outputs on the board while other boards have 6.

Well, you know, the grass is always greener on the other side... NOT.

You're right, I am getting performance numbers better than almost any other board - almost 8000 PCMark05 points with 7950GT. Not too many people get more than that with my Video Card.

For the Audio - I use only 2.1 with just a Green Jack in the center.

Manual page 1-29 shows as follows:

Light Blue - Surround
Lime - Front Speaker Out
Pink - Center/Bass

 

[JustaGeek]

New patch from Microsoft for Intel processors - A Microcode Reliability

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=936357#appliesto

 

[Shampoo]

Wow JustaGeek, I gotta thank you for all these updates I never would have heard of.

How do you find out about these updates?

Directly at microsoft's website or some third party site?

Also, about your boot failures. If you fail to boot or have bluescreens why are you lowering your core voltage?

Also, for these Intel boards, I don't believe the hypertransport multiplier does much at all for stability, of course unless you change it dramatically, but I'd say leave it be.

Your voltage should be at 1.35 for that cpu I believe, so I don't know why you're lowering it with an overclock.

Also, if you have good case airflow just leave your chipset voltage at 1.5 instead of 1.3.

I had cold boot issues before I updated to the 0608 bios while on 0602. 0505 was okay and so was 0401 as well.

Cold boot meaning powering on the system from an off state. Not a restart or reset.

 

[JustaGeek]

You can call it an "obsession with P5N-E SLI" LOL - I always come across different discussions on different forums.

Honestly, I have not had a blue screen on this MB related to hardware. It happened only once, when I disabled JMicron controller in Device Manager, and tried to re-install Virtual Drive. I think the Virtual Drive "took over" JMicron's IRQ, because when I re-enabled it (VD would not work at all!), I got a BSOD. On restart, all came back fine, with both showing active in Device manager. Both of them are located in RAID/SCSI part.

Now the voltage - after the update to 0608 I noticed the CPU temps 6-7C higher than before. Then I found out, comparing Everest reports from "before and after", that my VCore was 1.4V instead of 1.3V! The machine would fail to boot on reboot, but especially on cold boot, or a "real cold boot" in the morning after being off for the night.

Long story short - "the beast" finally seems stable, but look at my settings...

VCore: 1.3000 (reads 1.28V in Everest)
VDimm: 2.01..
NBCore: AUTO
VCore offset: AUTO

RAM 4-4-4-12-2T; Advanced ALL AUTO

LDT Frequency 5X
FSB 1300
MEM 800

Go figure...


I think the failed boots have something to do with the Core 1/2 Temp Sensors recalibration by Intel. The newer ones show temps lower than the CPU temps e.g. 35 - 28/28. Mine is 39 - 45/45. How can they update the microcode to cover both versions at once...?

No wonder my CPU is confused and "thinks" that it is overheating (it's only a theory) on boot, it expects the core temps to be 15C lower!

 

[tvdang7]

Originally posted by: JustaGeek

Originally posted by: tvdang7
this board isnt as bad as this ds3 i just came from. prob just that single board but i had no ide no sound and not much overclocking stability. this board is great. im at 7 x 400 ~1.35 v the chipset voltage is 1.59 tho iono why i had to up it so much but i did to make it boot.

down side to this board is no overclocking software. and funky values to use in bios.

i have 1 question tho. how do i make 5.1 audio work? there are only 3 outputs on the board while other boards have 6.

Well, you know, the grass is always greener on the other side... NOT.

You're right, I am getting performance numbers better than almost any other board - almost 8000 PCMark05 points with 7950GT. Not too many people get more than that with my Video Card.

For the Audio - I use only 2.1 with just a Green Jack in the center.

Manual page 1-29 shows as follows:

Light Blue - Surround
Lime - Front Speaker Out
Pink - Center/Bass

then what about mic? not cool if i have surround sound with no mic. i dont know why they didnt give give us 6 outputs like other boards. also the audio options are lacking. where is the voice masking stuff and how come i dont have a "what you hear"option in mic. i even had that on every s939 board i owned. owell i guess im just asking for too much

 

[JustaGeek]

tvdang7,

Manual page 1-28 shows mic as the "pink" connection in 4-channel configuration only.

In 6 channel, the pink jack is for the center/bass.

If you need a microphone, get a PCI Audio Card like my Audigy 4. The sound, even with 2 channels, is amazing with the dedicated Audio processor.

http://www.staples.com/webapp/...d=180351&cmArea=SEARCH

I don't know X-Fi, but if you don't like it you can always take it back.

 

[AMelbye]

tvdang7: the 'what you hear' thing is probably a software thing rather than anything else. If I were you I'd stop expacting onboard audio to be great. Even if you'd have all the ins and outs you want, the sound quality will never be close to a good aftermarket sound card.

 

[JustaGeek]

For all those who could not RESUME FROM STANDBY/HIBERNATION S1/S3 using a USB or PS/2 keyboard or mouse, see Manual page 1-27 in the "Jumpers" chapter for the jumper settings.

 

[iamajai]

For those of you stuck at 1500fsb with this mb as I was for months and months...I solved my problem or so it seems...

For a long time now I was stuck at 1500fsb as my highest stable overclock. I could boot and run fine up to 1750fsb (highest I tried), but always after an hour or so at full load (folding) the computer would lock up. The screen might show a sign of corruption (very minor) but no messages, no warnings, just locked up. So I backed off.

Well, I'm using Mushkin HP-6400 RAM and came across some timing on the Mushkin support forums recommended for a guy running that particular memory with a P5N-E.

tCL 5
tRCD 4
tRP 4
tRAS 12
CMD 2 Clocks

tRRD 3
tRC 28
tWR 6
tWTR 11
tREF auto
tRD 5
tRFC 42 to 62
async latency auto
and memory voltage of just greater than 2.1V

I followed the suggestions and lo and behold I am now running at 1600fsb solidly for more than a day with no lockups...no problems. So you can give those settings a try and see if it helps you out.

 

[AMelbye]

iamajai: that's the exact same crash that I get... I'll give it a try

 

[Tuvoc]

iamajai,
What speed is the memory running at ?

 

[iamajai]

I've been running at 800MHz. However, I see you have 4 x 1GB so beware of the memory hole that others have been reporting a few posts back. I think the conclusion that I have come to is that it is not the NB and not the CPU that are holding me back. I had tried high voltage on both NB and Vcore and that did not give me a stable system, only the same unstable, but now hotter system.

I would work on the RAM settings...either loosen timings or in your case with 4 x 1GB avoid the memory holes.

Good luck...this is the next day and it's still alive and kicking which is a first for me.

 

[Tuvoc]

Originally posted by: iamajai
I've been running at 800MHz. However, I see you have 4 x 1GB so beware of the memory hole that others have been reporting a few posts back. I think the conclusion that I have come to is that it is not the NB and not the CPU that are holding me back. I had tried high voltage on both NB and Vcore and that did not give me a stable system, only the same unstable, but now hotter system.

I would work on the RAM settings...either loosen timings or in your case with 4 x 1GB avoid the memory holes.

Good luck...this is the next day and it's still alive and kicking which is a first for me.

Yes I'm certainly aware of the memory holes, no doubt about that !!

I can't boot at 800, but I can boot at about 860. However I fail memtest at that speed, so timing needs to be adjusted if I wanted to maintain it. But I notice no performance diference bwteen 711 and 860, so there is little point

At the moment I'm manually set at 4-4-4-12 2T with 2.0875v. All subtimings on auto. I can see that the board does adjust the subtimings at various speeds, to values that may not always be suitable for the particular ram you are running. So I think in many cases it may be worthwhile altering sub-timings, but of course to what, is the question. You've given some settings that work and may be worth trying. But I'm happy at the moment with what I have

 

[Shampoo]

Hey guys remember that your system's stability is dependent on the cpu and ram and they're not independent of each other.

You have to find a certain ratio for the ram and cpu to work well together.

So change your cpu clockspeed accordingly with your ram speeds.

Yes it is a bit of work and will take some time, but this board is very basic compared to previous boards I've had in the past, so be happy.

I had a DFI Lanparty Ultra-D 939 before and it was quite the beast when it came to bios options.

Everything and anything you could think of was there to be manipulated by the user.

I'm sure you guys having trouble passing the 1500MHz FSB point are being held back, not by your hardware, but by your specific settings.

You may feel like you've tried every setting possible, but that's probably either your ram or cpu independent of each other.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[iamajai]

Still using the memory setting quoted above and it's been rock solid all this week, three days straight folding with no issues...that's a first for me at 1600 fsb. I'll wait for it to cool down a bit here before pushing it further...but very happy for now.

All along I didn't suspect the memory as it seemed stable at 1500 fsb with the old settings..but what do you know?

AMelbye: Had any luck with the new memory settings?

 

[AMelbye]

I haven't gotten around to trying them yet. As I'm homeless atm (living with friends) I don't really have the time to fine tune my computer. I'll get back into it when my living situation is sorted, though. I'm also going to norway for a bit soon, so you'll probably not hear a lot from me in the next few weeks I will post back when I've found out though.

 

[Tuvoc]

Finally got around to testing am overclock

What I had was:
CPU stock 266 x 10
Mem 711 (4-4-4-12)
= memtest OK

Then this:
CPU 266 x 11
Mem 711 (4-4-4-12)
= memtest FAILS test #6 (very odd, but there you go)

So I tried:
CPU 266 x 11
Mem 533 (4-4-4-12)
= memtest passed
but my Deep Fritz 10 4CPU enginemark took a huge hit !! Despite the 10% increase in CPU speed, benchmark was 15% SLOWER !! The decrease in memory speed has an enormous impact. Totally amazing

So then I figured I'd have to either give the memory or northtbridge more volts, which I don't want to do. So I relaxed the memory and tried:

CPU 266 x 11
Mem 860 (5-5-5-15)
= memtest PASS
= currently running 4 instances of Prime95, 2 hrs so far and all is well
And the Deep Fritz 10 4CPU enginemark shows the expected 9-10% improvement

So, this is good for now. 2.93GHz is nice for the CPU but 3.0Ghz would be nicer. I should be able to get that with a slight increase in FSB and memory, but I'm not going to try just now. For summer this is already pushing it on air, Core 0 and 1 are hitting 70C now coretemp under Prime, and before you fall off your chairs, believe me this is pretty normal for quad cores, they are hot running chips. There is at least another 10C headrom before they start to throttle, but I'd hate to get that high. 70 is scary enough

 

[JustaGeek]

Tuvoc,

If you still have a problem with the memory (I understand that now all is going OK so far) try to increase the voltage, even if you have to go slightly above the maximum rating.

I had a problem with boot failures, and when I increased my voltage to 2.17..V (specifications call for 2.0V - 2.1 V), the problem seemed to have disappeared.

It has only been 2 days, but my impression is that my computer is working a little bit smoother, too, so I really hope that the memory voltage being too low was the "culprit" in my boot failures.