The Unofficial ASUS P5N-E SLI 650i Board Thread

[Ilikepiedoyou]

Is it best then to just buy pc2 6400 with decent times and hope for the best?

 

[Xcom1Cheetah]

Originally posted by: Gary Key

Originally posted by: Xcom1Cheetah
So when should we expect the comprehensive board review.? i hope its before x-mas. i have still not been able to finalize the board for my next system build with E6600 in January '07... So far MSI 965 platinum is winning the race.

I will have a three page preview up tomorrow, just to answer the basic questions in about 1200 emails I have received on the board since Monday.

i was just wandering which one you will recommend MSI P965 Platinum or ASUS 650i SLI... after all P965 is seems like a lot more stable and a great performer... I am not going to use SLI...

 

[Ilikepiedoyou]

memory??

 

[Xcom1Cheetah]

2 x 1GB Corsair... i think its 5 - 5 - 5 - 15..

 

[acivick]

Unless you plan on doing some serious overclocking, PC2-6400 with tighter timings will be just as fast as memory running at a faster frequency with more lax timings. One of the good things about this platform is that you don't need to run memory at the same frequency as the FSB. I would recommend tighter timings over faster frequency though, assuming ASUS can fix the problems with modules getting 1T command rates.

 

[Ilikepiedoyou]

I bought ocZ pc6400 4-4-4-15 and I will see what I can get out of it the next few days. Is 1T vs. 2T comand speed adjustable from the BIOS?

 

[MaxisOne]

I have the same memory ... 1t is there in the bios but you WONT be getting it. At least not without a bios update

 

[Ilikepiedoyou]

when does that BIOS update come out?

 

[MaxisOne]

Originally posted by: Ilikepiedoyou
when does that BIOS update come out?

Have no Idea

 

[Sukhoi]

Is anybody else having huge problems running dual channel RAM on this board?

 

[acivick]

What sorts of problems? I can run dual channel, but not at very tight timings.

 

[jkcheng122]

i'm also having issues with memory on this board, i have ocz2p800r22gk platinum revision 2 memory (pc2-6400 / ddr2-800).

i've ran memtest86 and no errors were found.

problems include:
1. system highly unstable at 1T timings, sometimes system would idle at start up and not even bring up screen to enter bios or windows.
2. bios settings not carrying over to o/s, after changing the timings to 2T, load screen and windows would still show 1T and system behave as if on 1T so i know it's not cpu-z or bootup screen reporting wrong.

settings that won't carry over include mem timings, mem ratio, and fsb and mem speeds. the system is stuck on 2:3 memory ratio with 266 fsb speed and 400 memory speed.

i couldnt overclock through bios at all, and ntune would only allow up to around 412ish memory speed b4 it would crash.

 

[Sukhoi]

I'm using this A-DATA 2x512 MB DDR2-800 set. It will not work in dual channel with the RAM in the yellow slots. I get BSODs and Memtest86 dies in the 3rd or 4th test. It doesn't matter which stick is in which yellow slot. Both sticks of RAM are fine when run individually in the first yellow slot. Strangely I just found that it also works fine in dual channel if I use the black slots. So it seems that either something is screwed up with the BIOS, or the second yellow slot is actually bad.

BTW acivick you have some very small memory sticks.

 

[acivick]

Originally posted by: Sukhoi
I'm using this A-DATA 2x512 MB DDR2-800 set. It will not work in dual channel with the RAM in the yellow slots. I get BSODs and Memtest86 dies in the 3rd or 4th test. It doesn't matter which stick is in which yellow slot. Both sticks of RAM are fine when run individually in the first yellow slot. Strangely I just found that it also works fine in dual channel if I use the black slots. So it seems that either something is screwed up with the BIOS, or the second yellow slot is actually bad.

BTW acivick you have some very small memory sticks.

Hehe, good catch.

Anyway, I think I have mine in the yellow slots and they seem to be working fine. Did you try putting one stick in the second yellow slot to see if it works? You may want to RMA it if it is.

 

[Sukhoi]

Originally posted by: acivick

Originally posted by: Sukhoi
I'm using this A-DATA 2x512 MB DDR2-800 set. It will not work in dual channel with the RAM in the yellow slots. I get BSODs and Memtest86 dies in the 3rd or 4th test. It doesn't matter which stick is in which yellow slot. Both sticks of RAM are fine when run individually in the first yellow slot. Strangely I just found that it also works fine in dual channel if I use the black slots. So it seems that either something is screwed up with the BIOS, or the second yellow slot is actually bad.

BTW acivick you have some very small memory sticks.

Hehe, good catch.

Anyway, I think I have mine in the yellow slots and they seem to be working fine. Did you try putting one stick in the second yellow slot to see if it works? You may want to RMA it if it is.

Haven't tried that, suppose I will once I confirm it's stable in the black slots. I don't really want to RMA it though. I already put a heatsink on the southbridge and I'd rather not have to redo all the thermal paste on my processor. Might just have to live with it, and hope a BIOS update somehow fixes the problem.

 

[Sukhoi]

This is so weird. Having just one stick in the 2nd yellow slot works fine. But again I tried running dual channel in the yellow slots and got all sorts of errors. I'm going to let the Memtest on the black dual channel run all night long to make sure it's actually stable. But I guess that means the second yellow slot itself works. So maybe there is hope of a BIOS fix for this.

 

[MaxisOne]

Jkcheng122

If you have the OCZ revision 2 2gig dual channel that can do 4-4-4-15 default then you cannot do 1t Timings as yet (we are all waiting for a bios update) .. You also are required to manually set the memory to 4-4-4-12 and leave the rest at auto as these OCZ sticks have a looser default spd for autodetect.... something like 5-5-5-15 (not the motherboards fault). You are also required to provide at minimum 2.08 (as seen on the P5N-E SLI)volts or as close to 2.1 volts as you can get in order to have the memory be stable as stated on the requirements.

I have the same memory and i have no probs running 4-4-4-12 2T @2.08 volts
You will run into problems getting 1T. It will post but it is HIGHLY unstable and you risk currupting windows startup files if you keep trying to make it work. Wait for the bios update and see how it pans out.

As for the 2:3 ratio .. you will have to make your overclock manually in the bios and then UNLINK the Ratio lock to get the CPU to overclock independently of the ram. I believe its found in the FSB section of the overclock menus

Scrap the initial Ntune comments .. I think i misread 5.5 for 5.05 because i cannot find the source anymore. But the comments regarding Ntune not recognizing a whole bunch of variables still stands. Maybe the bios needs an update to be fully compatible with Ntune ??

The following comments have been based on my experience with the mainboard for the last week or 2 with it .

Hope it helps somewhat

Cheers

 

[sparklemotion]

Hey guys,
I was wondering if anyone had any HSF recommendations for this board. I am currently running an E6600 on it in a Lian Li PC V1200b. I have my old XP-90 on there and it idles at 53C. Not good of course. I bought a Zalman 9700CNPS but it doesn't fit in my case. I would like a nice heatsink/fan that will get these temps down. Thanks!

 

[Sukhoi]

The Freezer 7 Pro will fit if you have it blow upwards. It will not fit blowing to the back of the case unless you cut off some of the fan housing (interference with NB heatsink). No clue how it'll fit in that case, but the F7P is HUGE.

 

[MaxisOne]

Originally posted by: sparklemotion
Hey guys,
I was wondering if anyone had any HSF recommendations for this board. I am currently running an E6600 on it in a Lian Li PC V1200b. I have my old XP-90 on there and it idles at 53C. Not good of course. I bought a Zalman 9700CNPS but it doesn't fit in my case. I would like a nice heatsink/fan that will get these temps down. Thanks!

DAAAAYUM !!

Have you enabled Speedstep, EIST and The Thermal Temp Control settings in the bios ??
and have you opened the case to see if its partially the case's fault ? I highly doubt it since you have a Lian Li V1200 but it doesnt hurt to check.
Using Core temp .. my system idles at 39-43 with the stock HSF and some artic silver 5
The stock HSF was a "B--CH!" to install though .. had to do it 4 times to get the temps right.

Cheers

 

[jkcheng122]

Originally posted by: MaxisOne
Jkcheng122

If you have the OCZ revision 2 2gig dual channel that can do 4-4-4-15 default then you cannot do 1t Timings as yet (we are all waiting for a bios update) .. You also are required to manually set the memory to 4-4-4-12 and leave the rest at auto as these OCZ sticks have a looser default spd for autodetect.... something like 5-5-5-15 (not the motherboards fault). You are also required to provide at minimum 2.08 (as seen on the P5N-E SLI)volts or as close to 2.1 volts as you can get in order to have the memory be stable as stated on the requirements.

I have the same memory and i have no probs running 4-4-4-12 2T @2.08 volts
You will run into problems getting 1T. It will post but it is HIGHLY unstable and you risk currupting windows startup files if you keep trying to make it work. Wait for the bios update and see how it pans out.

As for the 2:3 ratio .. you will have to make your overclock manually in the bios and then UNLINK the Ratio lock to get the CPU to overclock independently of the ram. I believe its found in the FSB section of the overclock menus

As for NTUNE.. unless you have a copy of NTUNE version 5.5 and a bios that supports it then i would suggest you not bother with it. For NTUNE to work properly you need
A: the Correct version .. Which i belive would be 5.5 for the 600 series Boards
B: A bios that is compatible with Ntune.

I checked Nvidia yesterday and they only had version 5.0xx. Being that my OS is Windows XP64 im not sure if they just skipped my OS but i havent seen verison 5.5 anywhere .. its probably not released as yet. Also since we dont have the correct version of NTUNE avail to test .. we also dont know if the realeased bios is compatible with NTUNE 5.5 either or if it would require an update as well.
I have tried the 5.0xx and frankly .. it sucks .. It doesnt have all the features enabled and essentially it serves no useful purpose as it will not detect all the variables of this mainboard.

The following comments have been based on my experience with the mainboard for the last week or 2 with it .

Hope it helps somewhat

Cheers

That is a lot of help, thanks a lot man. i will try unlinking the fsb/memory to see if that works out. thanks again.

 

[jkcheng122]

well, i went ahead and set mem volt to 2.08, and i left memory timings on auto, since setting them to 5-5-5-15 2t the bios seems to revert it back to 1t and system would hang at start up.

i set fsb to 1600 and memory at 800 unlinked for a 1:1 ratio, but after boot up (still doesnt not always boot straight up), and bus speed is at 350 with rated speed at 1400 and memory running at 400mhz with a 7:8 ratio.

not sure why the bios can't simply set the stuff to where we told it to set it to.

i will prob have to just left everything on default and wait for a new bios.

funny thing is, when i go to asus website, they have the phoenix bios from september listed on the site for p5n-e sli, wonder if i should try that one.

 

[Core2]

Originally posted by: jkcheng122
well, i went ahead and set mem volt to 2.08, and i left memory timings on auto, since setting them to 5-5-5-15 2t the bios seems to revert it back to 1t and system would hang at start up.

i set fsb to 1600 and memory at 800 unlinked for a 1:1 ratio, but after boot up (still doesnt not always boot straight up), and bus speed is at 350 with rated speed at 1400 and memory running at 400mhz with a 7:8 ratio.

not sure why the bios can't simply set the stuff to where we told it to set it to.

i will prob have to just left everything on default and wait for a new bios.

funny thing is, when i go to asus website, they have the phoenix bios from september listed on the site for p5n-e sli, wonder if i should try that one.

Clear the CMOS and re-enter your setting. Ram timmgs for this board work best at 4-4-4-12 2T

 

[Core2]

Originally posted by: sparklemotion
Hey guys,
I was wondering if anyone had any HSF recommendations for this board. I am currently running an E6600 on it in a Lian Li PC V1200b. I have my old XP-90 on there and it idles at 53C. Not good of course. I bought a Zalman 9700CNPS but it doesn't fit in my case. I would like a nice heatsink/fan that will get these temps down. Thanks!

Originally posted by: Sukhoi
The Freezer 7 Pro will fit if you have it blow upwards. It will not fit blowing to the back of the case unless you cut off some of the fan housing (interference with NB heatsink). No clue how it'll fit in that case, but the F7P is HUGE.

The Freezer 7 Pro is a good choice and I have them on 3 of them on my computers. Just like Sukhoi said, you only have to trim a small portion of the fan shroud and bend up slightly the bottom fin on the freezer pro to to fit over the NB HS to blow out the back of the case. My temps with a E6400 (which run cooler than the E6600) are 30c at idle. Another good choice is the vapochill MICRO in which I have in two other computers socket 775 core 2 E6300 30c idle and a 478 socket P4 2800 36c idle. This HSF has to point to the top of the case to run effectively and is a little smaller than the Freezer7 Pro. I also have a ZALMAN ZM-NB47J Aluminum Heatsink which works great for the SB for anybody interested.

 

[Core2]

Thought this was a good deal Scythe TM02-WH KAMA THERMO Thermometer and ordered a couple I 'll report back with some NB and SB temps at different OC when I get them