The Unofficial ASUS P5N-E SLI 650i Board Thread

[acivick]

EDIT:
P5N-E SLI tips, tricks, recommendations, and basic OC guide (Pg. 92 of this thread)
Special thanks to Core2, Adder1971, et al for the help you guys have given everyone

Hardware Recommendation for P5N-E:
Processor, maximum OC: E4xx series or E6300/E6400
Processor, best stock performance with mild OC: E6600 or greater
Memory: Any Micron D9xxx memory (a good list can be found HERE or HERE)
Graphics: Any Nvidia 7x00 or better; while ATI/AMD boards will work, probably better to pair with an Nvidia
CPU Coolers (verified to fit): Zalman CNPS9700LED, Arctic Cooling 7 Freezer Pro (with modification), more to be added
Southbridge chipset coolers: Any low profile passive heatsink for the southbridge (larger ones may need to be bent/modified to fit larger video cards, e.g. 8800GTX)
Northbridge chipset coolers: Same as above, or stock, but may need active cooling (fan) at higher OCs


For those who were eagerly awaiting it...

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=247123

 

[EKTELESTES]

any reviews yet?....

it seems from next week it's going to be available worldwide...

and is Intel going to make quad cores at 1333 fsb???


I was about to buy Gigabyte 965P S3, but Asus 650i seems to be a better choice, so i'm thinking of waiting a week or so...


oh, ok...found a VERY INTERESTING ARTICLE...that answers my questions about the 1333fsb... ^^

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_2

 

[imported_KING]

does this support core 2 duo, or only core 2 quad...?

 

[cdalgard]

Both Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad. Here is the feature overview for the 600i series lineup, courtesy of AT:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2869&p=2

 

[imported_KING]

i dont understand then, on the ASUS site and ZZF it only mentions the Core 2 Quad

 

[Jaepheth]

Any word yet on 650i Ultra?

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

price gauge, it should be 110,- within some weeks.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

The $400 Striker Extreme got a pretty lousy review at HardOCP
Not everyone seems impressed with it - which is strange because it is the flagship.

I certainly hope this is a good board - for people who need SLI as well as others. The DS3 needs competition!

 

[moosey]

I need a board for a C2D and I'll do some o/c on it. I do not need any SLI or crossfire. I want something stable and reliable though. I was going to get a badaxe2, but would you guys think that waiting for a 650i ultra would be a better bet? Or would I just be better sticking with the Intel board?

650i performance should match 680i...right?

 

[lopri]

I'm very intrigued by this board although I swore that I wouldn't buy any more board for the next 12 months. In theory, this board should overclock better than a 680i board. Single chip > Two chips.

 

[lopri]

The performance should also be better (in theory) due to less communication overhead.

 

[Newf]

Originally posted by: moosey
I need a board for a C2D and I'll do some o/c on it. I do not need any SLI or crossfire. I want something stable and reliable though. I was going to get a badaxe2, but would you guys think that waiting for a 650i ultra would be a better bet? Or would I just be better sticking with the Intel board?

650i performance should match 680i...right?

Well, not exactly. The 680i supports 1333fsb.
Why not stick with a Gigabyte S3/DS3. It seems to fit your needs well at a good price.

 

[moosey]

at stock speeds though, a 680i should be on par with the 650i?

Also, for the 680i owners, how stable have your boards been?

 

[lopri]

680i is very stable once you find the magic spot/combination. But overall the most mature, trouble-free chipset for Core 2 Duo is definitely 975X.

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: Newf

650i performance should match 680i...right?

Well, not exactly. The 680i supports 1333fsb.

But 680i does 1600FSB easily.. (and often times 2000FSB for E6300/E6400)

Unless NV intentionally cripple 650i (which is very likely, IMO), 650i should perform/overclock better than 680i. On 680i, data needs to be sync'ed between NB and SB, but on 650i there is no such need. I'm not saying 650i is overall better than 680i, though.

 

[Conky]

Dang it, I have a DS3 on the way and now this! :roll:

I could care less about SLI but I like the 2 IDE connectors and the idea that it might overclock like the 680i chipset.

I need a review of this board like yesterday, lol.

 

[Conky]

Just looked at the specs for this motherboard from the Asus page... ACK!!!

FSB tuning from 200MHz up to 412.5MHz at 1MHz increment

This is not encouraging.

I'm only hoping for a reasonable overclock of 400FSB with the DS3 but this board seems a bit limited from the git-go. :thumbsdown:

 

[EKTELESTES]

ooppss...only up to 412...???

In ASUS website it says that


/ 650i supports 1333fsb too

The article here in AT speaks only of 1066fsb though.

The official page of Asus 650i Sli


http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=473&model=1474&modelmenu=2

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: EKTELESTES
ooppss...only up to 412...???

In ASUS website it says that


/ 650i supports 1333fsb too

The article here in AT speaks only of 1066fsb though.

The official page of Asus 650i Sli


http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=473&model=1474&modelmenu=2

Yep, 412.5MHz FSB kills it for me. I did like the idea of 2 IDE channels but I have a Promise RAID card so I really don't need more than the 1 IDE the DS3 will give me.

Looks like Nvidia wants to cripple their lesser boards to make you buy their $120 a chipset 680i series. Nvidia is about to price themselves out of the market.

 

[EKTELESTES]

.....grrr...and I was thinking of getting this Asus instead of the Gigabyte P965-S3 but that 412 fsb is too low. I don't know what should I do now..... ( I also liked the e-sata + firewire of the 650i and that 1333fsb support )

You're right about the prices though...680i is so expensive it drives you crazy.....

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: EKTELESTES
.....grrr...and I was thinking of getting this Asus instead of the Gigabyte P965-S3 but that 412 fsb is too low. I don't know what should I do now..... ( I also liked the e-sata + firewire of the 650i and that 1333fsb support )

You're right about the prices though...680i is so expensive it drives you crazy.....

I agree... get the S3 or the DS3. You can always add a firewire PCI card.

I have the DS3 on the way but it sure is like riding on a roller coaster waiting for it to show up with all these new cards being announced. I still haven't seen a new motherboard in the same price-range as the DS3 that has made me want to cancel my order yet though.

 

[irrationalJohn]

Originally posted by: EKTELESTES
.....grrr...and I was thinking of getting this Asus instead of the Gigabyte P965-S3 but that 412 fsb is too low. I don't know what should I do now.....

A 412.5MHz FSB and an E6400 with an 8 multiplier works out to 3.3GHz. With an E6600 with a 9 multiplier it's just a tad over 3.7GHz. So, yes, if you have your heart set on either an E6300 (or "less") or overclocking beyond 3.3/3.7GHz with an E6400/E6600 then this is definitely a deal breaker for you.

My take on it is like this. Like everyone else who's posted so far, I sure as hell don't care one bit for this "Let's cut the chipset off at the knees" BS. It's really stupid and makes little sense to me. But I suppose I can live with it and maybe will if the board seems otherwise attractive to me.

I'm interested in the 650i primarily because IMO it's a chipset that is designed to overclock. To me that means more than just that it is possible to overclock it. It means the chipset and thus the board should be more stable, especially at stock speeds.

Perhaps I'm deluding myself about that, but so far it seems a plausible assumption to me. And I definitely feel more comfortable with a 650i which is rated at being capable of 412MHz than I do with an Intel chipset where (I'm assuming) the chipset manufacturer won't guarantee anything above 266MHz.

I know that after waiting this long and with things still so very much "up in the air", I'm waiting to see at least one review of a demo board before I jump on anything. There are a lot of things you can't get a good feel for from just the released specs and a few pics.

Also I'm looking slightly beyond Asus, I'm wondering how the motherboards released by MSI and Gigabyte will compare. (Anyone know if DFI has a 650i board in the pipeline?) Is this 412.5 BS a chipset limitation, which seems likely, or an Asus BIOS limit?

-john, the redundant legacy dinosaur

 

[mrjminer]

It doesn't matter if something is designed to overclock or not. It is proven that the 965P, as well as the 975X, are "capable" of overclocking extremely well and extremely stable. I'd wait for benches to see how these 650i's perform, considering their overclocking potential is comparatively poor at 412 to hitting 450-500 on 965P boards, prior to rendering a decision.

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: mrjminer
It doesn't matter if something is designed to overclock or not. It is proven that the 965P, as well as the 975X, are "capable" of overclocking extremely well and extremely stable. I'd wait for benches to see how these 650i's perform, considering their overclocking potential is comparatively poor at 412 to hitting 450-500 on 965P boards, prior to rendering a decision.

Another thing to remember is that just because you can change the settings to 412.5Mhz doesn't mean they will work at that setting.

My current motherboard supposedly goes up to 340FSB but good luck on getting it to run 300 and that's if you're lucky.

 

[irrationalJohn]

Originally posted by: Beachboy
Another thing to remember is that just because you can change the settings to 412.5Mhz doesn't mean they will work at that setting.

And, again, the difference as I understand it is that Intel has never said you're supposed to be able to do anything above 266 with their current chipsets, so if it does work you're "lucky". If it doesn't, you're only getting what you were supposed to expect to get.

I'm not sure what Nvidia's official stance on the capabilities of the 650i chipset is. But the Asus specs claim it supports a 1333 FSB so at a minimum you know the board is supposed to do 333. And frankly if they cap it at 412.5 I'd be pretty surprised if it doesn't do at least that much. Reliably.

Of course, you'll always come back to there being no guarantee's when you overclock the processor. But given what a crapshoot overclocking is in general, I'll take comfort in any performance guarantees I can get wherever I can get them.

What it actually means I don't think we'll know until some test results show up. But I'm certainly interested enough to wait around and see what shows up from the tests.

-john