Unofficial ASUS K8N-E thread

[beflythis]

assuming you're talking to me, kador,

cpu-z results:

newcastle brand 4

family F
ext. fam. F
model C
ext. model C
stepping 0
revision DH7-CG

i'm using bios 1005 with OCZ premier pc3200 ram (2x512) 2.5-3-3-7 but my timings while trying to run 2.4 were 2.5-3-3-10-1T

remember, my chip is a 3000+ (2.0ghz stock)... while yours is a 3200+... (2.2ghz stock?)

-beflythis

p.s. why did you flash your vid card to XT? and is there anything similar for gf4 cards?

 

[gechu]

4o degrees @ idle is okey I guess. As long as your temp doesn+t rice above 55 @ full load, then its alright I think.

 

[LocutusX]

interesting aside... after installing a new ATI Silencer 1 on my 9800Pro, cpu temps for both idle and full load went down. full load (BOINC/Seti) went down from 51 to 47. Idling went down 3-4 degrees from 35ish to 31. neat.

 

[Orillian]

LocutusX: THose ATI Silencers are nice! dropped my case temps 5 degrees and my CPU temps 3 degrees idle. I was pretty happy about that! running a 3000+ @ 233x10 HT3 and my temps currently with that and my Zalman CNPS7000A-CU are 32 idle 43 full load. woot! gonna try pushing some voltage shortly and see what that brings!

 

[Fab1an]

Originally posted by: Orillian
LocutusX: THose ATI Silencers are nice! dropped my case temps 5 degrees and my CPU temps 3 degrees idle ...

Did you use any case fans before the ATI silencer?

 

[Ricericebaby]

Pardon my newbieness to AMD64 overclocking. I've overclocked before but this is the first time I'm seriously overclocking an AMD64. I'd just like to know what's a dangerous temp to be running at.

I'm running my 3200+ CH at 2.2ghz right now with 1.55v. It hit 52 deg C at load. Is that too dangerous and should i bother looking into better cooling? I'm not looking for ambitious overclocks, and currently i use a stock cooler.

Apart from that, I want to thank Locutus X for pointing out reducing mem timings to me.

I have 2 sticks of ballistix, and I was mad that I couldn't even hit 2.2ghz with aggressive ram timings. even though i moved the dimms to 1 and 3. Now with them in 1 and 2, I am rather stable at 2.2 ghz with 2.5 - 3 - 3 - 10 - 2T. I'll try to see if I can make them do 1T if i shift the slots 1 and 3.

Let me know if I can help with any overclocking info.

I"m pretty certain the 2.7v limit to vdimm is hurting this board. My ballistix are rated at 2.8v!
But after a bad experience with MSI, I've returned happily to the asus fold..

 

[LocutusX]

52 C at load? that sounds fine to me.

Before I got my ATI Silencer, running my 3000+ NC @ 2400mhz would give me 51 to 52 degrees C if I left BOINC (SETI) running overnight. After the Silencer, it`s 48-49 because the Silencer removes video card heat from the equation.

I also use the stock cooler. I`m sure you will be fine...

Yes, unfortunately to maximize your performance on this board, you need to hunt for DIMMs which are specced to handle high speeds with low voltage.

However, if you ever have to RMA this board... the new revision of K8N-E supports up to 2.8v. Not a big diff, but it might help people in some situations. It also allows the Ballistix to "officially" work.

If Asus makes a Revision 2 of the K8N-E using the NF4 chipset, I *may* go for it... but they would have to make a reasonable effort to fix all the issues people have with it.

 

[LocutusX]

Originally posted by: Fab1an

Originally posted by: Orillian
LocutusX: THose ATI Silencers are nice! dropped my case temps 5 degrees and my CPU temps 3 degrees idle ...

Did you use any case fans before the ATI silencer?

Yes, in fact my case is one of the coolest ones available.

ThermalTake Tsunami VA3000 with side window/fan.

Check the AnandTech case review for it... it`s the coolest of all the high-end cases they compared it to.

And it well should be... 120mm & 92mm for intake, 120mm for exhaust... plus my Enermax PSU has 2 fans which aid in exhaust.

Just moving from a crappy Antec case to the Tsunami allowed me to increase my video card overclock - adding the Silencer increased it even more and reduced CPU temps

We`re off topic now, post a msg in Video or PM me for more info on the Silencer...

 

[gechu]

I´d recommend Antec Sonata. Very pleased with it. Also has a fan attached on the back which takes hot air away from the cpu.

Further on I´d like to mention a wounderful app named SpeedFan. WIth this correctly configured my system (3200+ @ 2440mhz Zalman 7000a) rarly goes above 40c when I surf the web or listen to music. And if it would, then it´s programmed to speed up the cpu fan until the temperature goes below 40 again (or whatever you set).

Dammit must be hungry my english isn´t working! I´ll write it like this instead:

40c > fastest RPM on fan
40c < 1400 rpm = almost no noise at all = ;D
_________________________________________________

Question: Is it possible to attach two fan cables to one fanmate? (fanmate = the little fan speed controller that is shipped with Zalman 7000x coolers)

Or take a luck at this pic:
(Not for sensitive viewers ;P ) http://www.kristinaslanthandel.se/gechu/davinci.jpg

 

[Ricericebaby]

I was wondering what's a good ram timing to aim for.

is 2.5 - 3 - 2 - 10 1T faster than 2.5 - 2 - 3 -10 1T?

Since I can't run my ballistix at 2-2-2-10 1T at 440mhz, I might as well go for the next best thing. Darn that 2.7v limit. Why is a hardware revision needed to increase the voltage available to vdimm...grr

 

[Ricericebaby]

Hey Kandor,

You might want to test your ram.
I have ballistix too and I never got any mem test errors at 2.7v 400mhz 2-2-2-10-1T.

Didn't get any at 2.7v 420Mhz 2-2-2-10 1T

Although it's spec'ced at 2.8v, it runs fine at 2.5v for stock speeds, but if you wanna hit anything above 440mhz with aggressive timings, I think it needs the full 2.8v. which sucks on this mb

 

[LocutusX]

2.5-3-2-10 should be better...

(i'm assuming that's the order it's handled in the K8N-E Bios config screen)

Ras Precharge is more relevant than Ras to Cas delay for A64 boards.... or so i've been told.

 

[Ricericebaby]

Thanks LocutusX!
I'll try out various settings and see how stable my rig gets.

 

[Ricericebaby]

1 error after 4 hrs of prime95 at 1.55v @2300mhz. Do you think a better hsf will help, my cpu went up to 56 deg during testing..

 

[LocutusX]

I'm switching heatsinks today, from stock to an XP-90. I'll let you know if any of my previous situations which caused Memtest86 errors had a decrease in their error count.

I'm hoping they will, because I've heard it said that the integrated memory controller on the die is more sensitive to heat than the "CPU proper".

 

[Ricericebaby]

that's cool! I'm thinking of running out to buy a thermaltake and some artic silver to try push this baby to it's limits.

 

[xmaxx]

i thought i would share my OC experiences with this board today.
i have gotten my AMD 3200+ C0 revision running at 2313.2Mhz with HTT at 257.0 Mhz. i have used a multiplier of 9x, Vcore is at 6.00volts.
my memory is running at 210.3Mhz which is CPU/11 at 2.0-3-3-7 settings.
i have tried a myriad of combinations so far with this rig, and i read somewhere that the C0 revision was not OC friendly, thus my seriously bad scores. i have messed with Mem Timings as well, and finally arrived at this setting as being stable. i prefer stability and lower load times over just some clock scores (as i think most people do.) i can get windows to boot on a CPU clock of 561 as opposed to the 557 i have it on currently, but as soon as i go into memory intensive games, i either get a BSOD or the comp reboots.
i figure my memory IS the bottleneck. i have a single stick of Transcend DDR400 512MB. i am seriously thinking of buying another stick for the DualChannel purpose that is given on this board. i dont like the fixed frequencies given by the bios for memory. i am currently running at 333mhz, if i slow it to 266mhz and up the CPU bus, i run into some weird BSODs on settings which usually run normal when the mem timings are on Auto. i figure its some prob in the bios (running beta 1006.008).
i wanted to know if there was anyway that we could get the mem bus to a setting between 266 and 333. i d/led AMDTweaker, and it does have a allowance for changing mem freq. but everytime i set it to something, my machine just freezes up. maybe i am doing something wrong. has anyone used this program? can anyone explain what newbie mistake i am making.
thanks

 

[Adn4n]

If SATA is a problem and you're using XP, then you need SP1. I just read this in the manual, and I've been getting better stability.

 

[gechu]

correct me if I+m wrong, but this board does NOT support dualchannel mem?

My first mem was 2x256MB Corsair PC4000 XMS series, but after poor performance I decided to change to one stick instead. And now I can use it @ 250Mhz mem ratio 1:1

 

[Ricericebaby]

I hit 2300mhz at 230fsb 4x HT with ram timings 2.5-2-2-10-1T.
Using a claw cg stepping 3200+, crucial ballistix and running at 1.55vcore

I realised that shifting dimms from 1 &amp; 2 to 1 &amp; 3 doesn't work for all ram. My ram works better in positions 1 and 2.

I threw on a TT volcano and artic silver 5 yesterday. Makes all the difference. Now I'm at 235 fsb, running prime95 in the background to test for stability.

Can't seem to hit the magic 240 fsb though..ah well...2350 is almost at 3700+ speeds anyways..

 

[beflythis]

try lowing your HTT to 3 and your setting your ram frequency to 333 instead of 400, as well as upping your vcore voltage to 1.65 or higher... with these settings, you might be able to hit 240 fsb. (i was able to.. but i didn't find stability unlessi was at 1.675 or higher)

and yes, my thermaltake venus 12 does make all the diff (still don't have AS5 )

-beflythis

 

[Ricericebaby]

Thanks beflythis,

but I'm not too keen to up my voltage past 1.6 just for a small difference in mhz. I don't like the idea of frying my cpu that much. I might try it and see how it goes.

Actually would 4HT at 235 be faster than 3HT with lower ram frequency?? Currently my ram is at 460mhz, which from what I hear is important because that increases my memory bandwidth. I might be wrong of course.

 

[imported_jeff]

ricericebaby,

i've been running my 3200+ CG 512K at 2500MHz (crucial ballistix at 2.5-2-2-10-2T, 3HT, 250HTT with 10x multiplier, 1.55 vcore) easy. have you tried lowering to 3HT yet? i think that would help.

i haven't even tried moving my DIMMS from the 1-2 slots to 1-3. i wonder if that would help. i haven't really pushed the RAM and CPU to it's limit. and, oddly enough, my CPU runs cooler than if i ran it at stock - probably due to the lower multiplier? it seems odd to me.

 

[LocutusX]

hi folks...

good news... got the XP-90 + AS5 installed and CPU temps are already down 7 degrees (Prime95 NOW is 40 deg C, Prime95 BEFORE was 47-48 deg C). and the AS5 hasn't even broken-in yet!

bad news... i broke my ATI Silencer 1 while mucking about inside my case. let me tell you... that thing is quite fragile, especially the 2 pins that go to the back! And the fact that it broke had something to do with the front part not fitting my 9800pro properly due to some raised capacitors... so i'm going to just say screw it, and get a VGA Silencer rev.3 instead. already ordered it, and will be installing it on Tuesday.

for now, i'm not recommending the new ATI Silencer 1 anymore for people with BBA Rad98Pro's.

 

[Ricericebaby]

Hey Jeff,

Your 3200+ is an NC right? I guess we're getting about the same overclocks then, because mine is a claw and I can get it up to 2300mhz.

I'm pretty sure my cpu can't hit 2500mhz, because no 754 CH cpu is even rated 2500mhz, highest would be the 3700+ which clocks in at 2400mhz..

Thanks for the advice though, but I think my cpu is hitting it's limit..I'll give some various config's a shot once my AS5 breaks in