The Unofficial ASUS P5N-E SLI 650i Board Thread

[Core2]

Originally posted by: okc
FYI:
OCZ claims I have to run SLI-Ready Memory with a setting of CPU MAX;Auto settings; vdimm 2.1-2.3 of which I posted the 4-4-4-15-1T in the black slots, but I am not stable (random times on Orthos and BSOD). Set to Expert I can't even get into XP. OCZ sent me an RMA form. The tech mentioned that the 650i is not the chip to oc, that they have better results on the 680i boards...blah blah blah I would venture to guess it's Asus's mobo.

Ran 3DMARK06 build 1.1.0
11,080 was my best with the bottom sig...
11,050 4-4-4-15 2T

E6700 will not except 8 nor 9 multiplier

Nice FM 3Dmark score. That setup must fly when playing games

Try what sbinh said

Try this settings:

tCL (cas)= 4
tRCD= 4
tRP= 4
tRAS= 11
Command ratw= 1T
tRC= 11
Everything else= AUTO
..
vdimm= 2.08+v (or upto 2.17+v)

 

[ArtfulCodger]

Thanks...Core2...wel I could have got the G-Skill, Geil and Corsair C4 ram today but decided to wait to see what the members and yourself came back with....Have you heard of PQI or Patriot ram in the States? They're supposedly ok over here...maybe I'll just bite the bullet and get the SuperTalent from Perth....can't cost too much to send it to Sydney....

Graeme

 

[idiotekniQues]

Originally posted by: SystemHalt
I switched setup to E6400 as many have suggested that will just go over budget by 30 dollors then.

so this is what i have in all now:

-Viewsonic VG2230wm 22" lcd 5ms DVI Retail
-EVGA 8800GTS 640MB SuperClocked HDCP Retail
-Antec NeoPower NeoHe 550W Retail
-Super Talent 2x1gig DDR2 800 Dual Channel Kit T800UX2GC4 Retail
-Asus P5N-E SLI 650i Retail
-Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Retail

fyi i took a look at that monitor spec page http://ap.viewsonic.com/in/products/productspecs.php?id=293

and i dont see anything that says it is HDCP ready as an input mode. without that, if you use vista, you will not be able to see any high def content in high def, it will downgrade itself, even if you own it legally. so in a year or whenever you want to use high def video on your monitor, you will have to buy a new monitor - no way to upgrade such a thing.

 

[Core2]

Originally posted by: idiotekniQues

Originally posted by: SystemHalt
I switched setup to E6400 as many have suggested that will just go over budget by 30 dollors then.

so this is what i have in all now:

-Viewsonic VG2230wm 22" lcd 5ms DVI Retail
-EVGA 8800GTS 640MB SuperClocked HDCP Retail
-Antec NeoPower NeoHe 550W Retail
-Super Talent 2x1gig DDR2 800 Dual Channel Kit T800UX2GC4 Retail
-Asus P5N-E SLI 650i Retail
-Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Retail

fyi i took a look at that monitor spec page http://ap.viewsonic.com/in/products/productspecs.php?id=293

and i dont see anything that says it is HDCP ready as an input mode. without that, if you use vista, you will not be able to see any high def content in high def, it will downgrade itself, even if you own it legally. so in a year or whenever you want to use high def video on your monitor, you will have to buy a new monitor - no way to upgrade such a thing.

HDCP - High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection. Copy-protection scheme developed by Intel to be used in conjunction with DVI and HDMI connections.

It has nothing to do with HDTV or High Definition. Also you need a Video Card that supports HDCP and a Blu-ray DVD player if you have Blu-ray dvd. Thats only for watching those Blu-ray or HD-DVD?s on Vista. I'm sure someone will come out with a work around for that just like they did for DRM.

HDTV - High-definition television. High-resolution digital television broadcast and playback system composed of roughly a million or more pixels, 16:9 aspect-ratio screens, and AC3 digital audio. A subset of digital television, HDTV formats include 1080i and 720p resolution.

HDTV-ready - Used to describe any TV that can display high-definition formats when connected to a separate HDTV tuner or source. These TVs generally have built-in tuners for receiving regular NTSC broadcasts, but not ATSC digital broadcasts. The CEA's official term for an HDTV-ready TV is HDTV monitor.

 

[Core2]

Here's some good reading for you E4300 owners

E4300 at 4.4GHz on a Asus Commando

 

[SystemHalt]

Yeah i am aware that viewsonic monitor does not support hdcp but not worried about that as i will probably not start to run visit for at least 1 year maybe 2 and if i really want to watch a hd movie i will just use my 57" dlp with my hd-dvd player.

The monitor will be used for games and browsing the web mainly.

 

[acivick]

Originally posted by: okc
FYI:
OCZ claims I have to run SLI-Ready Memory with a setting of CPU MAX;Auto settings; vdimm 2.1-2.3 of which I posted the 4-4-4-15-1T in the black slots, but I am not stable (random times on Orthos and BSOD). Set to Expert I can't even get into XP. OCZ sent me an RMA form. The tech mentioned that the 650i is not the chip to oc, that they have better results on the 680i boards...blah blah blah I would venture to guess it's Asus's mobo.

Ran 3DMARK06 build 1.1.0
11,080 was my best with the bottom sig...
11,050 4-4-4-15 2T

E6700 will not except 8 nor 9 multiplier

Let me know if you RMA and how it works out for you. Though I'm sure it's the board that doesn't play well with the memory, not the other way around.

 

[sbinh]

For those of you who are willing to mod. this board .... here is the instruction:
http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4450&s=12


Below is what I achived after soldering a 50K for vdroop......


---BIOS set to 1.49375v--



Speedfan (4.32 Beta) idle shows 1.50v ---



DMM idle shows: 1.542v ---



Speedfan (4.32 Beta) loaded shows 1.44v ---


DMM loaded shows: 1.490v ---

 

[idiotekniQues]

Originally posted by: Core2

Originally posted by: idiotekniQues

Originally posted by: SystemHalt
I switched setup to E6400 as many have suggested that will just go over budget by 30 dollors then.

so this is what i have in all now:

-Viewsonic VG2230wm 22" lcd 5ms DVI Retail
-EVGA 8800GTS 640MB SuperClocked HDCP Retail
-Antec NeoPower NeoHe 550W Retail
-Super Talent 2x1gig DDR2 800 Dual Channel Kit T800UX2GC4 Retail
-Asus P5N-E SLI 650i Retail
-Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Retail

fyi i took a look at that monitor spec page http://ap.viewsonic.com/in/products/productspecs.php?id=293

and i dont see anything that says it is HDCP ready as an input mode. without that, if you use vista, you will not be able to see any high def content in high def, it will downgrade itself, even if you own it legally. so in a year or whenever you want to use high def video on your monitor, you will have to buy a new monitor - no way to upgrade such a thing.

HDCP - High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection. Copy-protection scheme developed by Intel to be used in conjunction with DVI and HDMI connections.

It has nothing to do with HDTV or High Definition. Also you need a Video Card that supports HDCP and a Blu-ray DVD player if you have Blu-ray dvd. Thats only for watching those Blu-ray or HD-DVD?s on Vista. I'm sure someone will come out with a work around for that just like they did for DRM.

are you kidding me? can you please stop passing along such terrible information and advice, especially taht they should have faith in a workaround against what is now a hardware DRM, to invest there money in non-compliant hardware now if they want a feature later? just wait and do it illegally! what kind of advice is that? and you speak of HIgh-Definition DVD's as if they are an afterthought to most people. wtf?


HDCP has nothing to do with HDTV or high def? get a clue. yes they are 'separate' technologies, but the message wasnt that they were one. the fact is they are two technologies that are very tied together and will be more so in the future.

go tell that to the HDTV owners that bought tv's prior to 1-2 years ago who will not be able to watch HD-dvd or Blu-ray videos in high def because there is no way around it right now if their tv is not hdcp compliant. ditto with people who bought large lcd monitors last year and are going to stick in a high def dvd drive and try to fire up a movie they bought and get it downsampled.

Blue-ray and hd-dvd ARE high definition capable standards as we all know. besides being able to get hd content via satellite or cable - people are going to want to watch HD content on their new HD-dvd & Blu-ray players, ps3's and xbox 360's and play them on their new shiny big monitors and vista.

as it stands now without HDCP when you upgrade to try to watch high def movies, you will receive a downgraded signal. and people should know this when picking up a new monitor. most tv's now that are HD are HDCP compliant, because, UNLIKE what core2 says - HDCP & HDTV do have something to do with each other.


even directv has stated they are going to move their signal to HDCP down the road, so even broadcast HD will be HDCP compliant. but that wont be for a few years yet. still, if you invest in expensive toys like a big tv and/or monitor, and expect them to last many years while working with the latest good stuff like HD picture - ignore core2.

and of course, for PC viewing, an hdcp capable graphics card is part of the equation. but if you intend on watching high def movies on your pc down the road, and are investing in a monitor now, it would just be the smarter thing to get an HDCP capable one - regardless of what core2 thinks. it is just one less piece of hardware down the road you will have to replace.

as anandtech says:

"If any one of your hardware or software components within this chain does not support HDCP, then your Blu-ray or HD-DVD movie will not play. Most of the time an error message will pop up and give you an idea of what is wrong; If the graphics card is not HDCP compatible, PowerDVD gave us an error message saying, "fail to enable HDCP. Please switch to analog output (VGA, D-Sub) and try again." If the graphics drivers were incompatible, we got an error message along the lines of "please make sure your graphics drivers support HDCP." These are both fairly straightforward error messages, and for the most part, we were able to tell where the chain was failing whenever we had problems."

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2874&p=2

 

[Core2]

Here's what I was talking about when I said a work around for DRM

The slow death of DRM

The same will happen with HDCP

Here's the last paragraph of the link to the article you posted

As we said before, these compatibility issues will defintely serve to frustrate and confuse PC users looking to upgrade their system in order to watch high definition movies. We aren't sure how those on the technology side may ultimately help alleviate some of this burden on consumers. The greatest irony is that where legitimate HDCP protected content won't work on some consumer's hardware, pirated videos should work without problems. We can only wonder if the money being poured out in a massive effort to crack down on movie piracy will ultimately be worth the hindrance this has caused the average PC user, or if it will simply drive more users to look for illegal video sources. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you...

 

[idiotekniQues]

believe me, i feel this drm is excessive and too intrusive and does more harm than good. in no way do i support what i feel are these over -implemented DRM methods. however, finding a workaround for the hackers will be much harder since this is built into the hardware. secondly, until the death of DRM becomes a reality, the major powers that be, including the FCC - are still fully behind it. until this battle is over, it would be wise, if one is interested in playing HD content that you purchase, to go the route of HDCP for all your display units that you wish to watch the content on.

also, that article is focusing on music DRM - which is a far different animal than the new hardware-based HDCP based DRM for HD video content.

 

[acivick]

This isn't the thread to debate HDCP. You can take it to Off Topic, Peripherals, or Video if you want to discuss it.

Let's try to keep posts at least relevant to the topic so that information remains positive for P5N-E owners.

 

[acivick]

I put a general hardware recommendation list on the first page, since that seems to be a fairly common question. If anyone thinks I should add to it, such as chipset or CPU coolers, let me know.

 

[ir0nw0lf]

I moved to this board from a Gigabyte DS3 mobo. I kept running into the cold boot issues with that DS3 board and BIOS updating didn't make it any better or go away. I just too fed up with it and got a P5N-E SLI board. The mobo was the only thing changed out hardware wise. So far, 3 days of hard use and a good dozen or two cold starts, not one issue yet. I'm not planning on OC'ing until I be sure that this platform is going to be stable.

My only small quibble is having to take the stupid CMOS battery out to reset the BIOS after flashing it to the latest version. Never had to do that before and it's rather frankly a bit 'tarded to have to do that. Is their any other humanly possible way to avoid having to do that in the future?

Other than that quibble, loving the board so far. Should be loving it a bit more after OC'ing a little. (Light/mild OC, not wanting to break any records or anything)

 

[DeadMan3000]

As stated on page 92. It's best to leave the battery out until you are happy with your settings. Especially when overclocking. There is an option in the BIOS to save your settings even with the battery out. Under profiles. I guess you could make some kind of modification using a cheap electrical switch that would switch between the jumper pins as well as disabling and enabling the battery at the same time (Using something to hold the battery and a couple of contact wires to where the battery currently resides. That would be a nice mod for a dedicated overclocker but a bit OTT I guess. Once you get it stable then you would probably not need it anyhow. Fun thought though

 

[Genuine Imitation]

I worked with my memory some more tonight and I got it up to 866 4-4-4-12 2T before it would fail to beep at me. That was with 2.259 vdimm. I also tried playing with the SLI memory settings but I didn't get much out of them in terms of stability. It would pass mem test but going into windows with SLI mem set to expert and my fsb set to 1560 yielded a freeze before superpi could finish. So I'm currently running at 1:1 which is like 780 or something with the 4-4-4-12 2T settings. Slightly disappointed, but still very happy its stable at 3.51ghz. Anyone else got their pc6400 ballistix stable with the SLI mem set or 1T?

 

[chrismr]

Decided to feel how hot NB and SB were getting last night - all I can say is ouch when touching the SB! NB warm, but have fan blowing on it.

After recently frying one of my 7900GS cards I have become a little paranoid about frying hardware, as its going cost me at least £100 to get back to previous graphics performance levels - lesson learned.

So I have on order a Tuniq Tower 120 for CPU, a Noctua NC-U6 for the NB, and a small active zalman sink for the SB.

£70 bleeding on cooling. Hopefully I will get some great clocks on my e4300 with tall this - while, keeping everything cool of course.

Have to say, I am loving the stability of the Asus p5n-e and the e4300 in comparison to my foxconn nf4 board and x2 3800.

Question, do I invalidate warranty by changing NB heat sink?

 

[chrismr]

Edit: Double post - sorry

Edit 2: Where can I find a moderator?

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Originally posted by: ffallic
Edit 2: Where can I find a moderator?

Add "AnandTech Moderator" to your buddy list then click on the link to send them a PM

 

[chrismr]

Originally posted by: MmmSkyscraper

Originally posted by: ffallic
Edit 2: Where can I find a moderator?

Add "AnandTech Moderator" to your buddy list then click on the link to send them a PM

Thanks you

 

[Core2]

Originally posted by: ffallic

Originally posted by: MmmSkyscraper

Originally posted by: ffallic
Edit 2: Where can I find a moderator?

Add "AnandTech Moderator" to your buddy list then click on the link to send them a PM

Thanks you

Click on your private messages in the upper left hand corner. They want you to reply

 

[dlxmax]

I'm laughing that the name "ffalic" is unacceptable. A blatantly American regulation.

Anyway, I've got my E4300 stable at 3.3ghz with a .01v nudge up from before. But during my stability testing something odd happened: I now have to set my NB core at 1.208v or else I'm totally unstable. I couldn't even boot at 1.208v before!

I'm not sure what caused this change to my motherboard. It might have been plugging in a USB drive (now unplugged). It could have been messing around with the cables inside the box. Perhaps bumping the HR-05 heatsink on the NB. Who knows. But I'm happy to have stabilized my system again. I'll keep pushing on!

As for my southbridge with the Zalman flower heat sink, it just feels a little warm. Perhaps I don't even need it, or maybe it's just working that well.

 

[jkcheng122]

Originally posted by: dlxmax
I'm laughing that the name "ffalic" is unacceptable. A blatantly American regulation.

Anyway, I've got my E4300 stable at 3.3ghz with a .01v nudge up from before. But during my stability testing something odd happened: I now have to set my NB core at 1.208v or else I'm totally unstable. I couldn't even boot at 1.208v before!

I'm not sure what caused this change to my motherboard. It might have been plugging in a USB drive (now unplugged). It could have been messing around with the cables inside the box. Perhaps bumping the HR-05 heatsink on the NB. Who knows. But I'm happy to have stabilized my system again. I'll keep pushing on!

As for my southbridge with the Zalman flower heat sink, it just feels a little warm. Perhaps I don't even need it, or maybe it's just working that well.

keep the zalman on there, that sb with no heatsink gets very hot.

 

[Ajay]

Originally posted by: chrismr
£70 bleeding on cooling. Hopefully I will get some great clocks on my e4300 with tall this - while, keeping everything cool of course.

Have to say, I am loving the stability of the Asus p5n-e and the e4300 in comparison to my foxconn nf4 board and x2 3800.

Question, do I invalidate warranty by changing NB heat sink?

Yeah, as the summer approaches I'll definitely need to throw some more $$s into cooling, but things are ok now. Tough part may be finding a passive sink for the MCP - it can only be around 8-10mm high if I want to be able to add another 7600GT later on down the road.

As far as the warranty, I'd think that technically you may void it, but keep the old one around and put it back on if you need to do an RMA. I think that's what most folks do. It's probably a matter of conscience than anything else...

 

[Core2]

Originally posted by: Genuine Imitation
I worked with my memory some more tonight and I got it up to 866 4-4-4-12 2T before it would fail to beep at me. That was with 2.259 vdimm. I also tried playing with the SLI memory settings but I didn't get much out of them in terms of stability. It would pass mem test but going into windows with SLI mem set to expert and my fsb set to 1560 yielded a freeze before superpi could finish. So I'm currently running at 1:1 which is like 780 or something with the 4-4-4-12 2T settings. Slightly disappointed, but still very happy its stable at 3.51ghz. Anyone else got their pc6400 ballistix stable with the SLI mem set or 1T?

What slots are you in. If I were you I'd try flip flopping them around. You should get to 1000MHz with those ram sticks. Maybe to much voltage too. Try 1.92 - 2.17 or even auto. Set the FSB to default and just up the memory. What's your Vchip voltage? Set it to auto. I have had good success with Auto Vcore, Vchip to about 475x8, if I'm in the right slots.