The Unofficial ASUS P5N-E SLI 650i Board Thread

[Core2]

Originally posted by: aintitthelife98
ok update. I have put the ram into the black slots again. I ran through memtest86 with all settings to auto and it made 4 passes, no errors. Now I upped the settings to 4-4-4-12, 2T and am running again to see if any errors come out. I also upped my vdimm voltage to the setting thats just a bit over 2.2v becaues the ram's specs are for 2.2v. To get it dual channel performance does it need to run in 1T or is 2T dual channels as well but not as fast?

Not many of us can run in 1T so make sure your are 2T or else you can suffer instability Duel channel has nothing to do with 1T or 2T and 4-4-4-12 2T are good timings for now until you can find a good stable platform. Good Job! Thats the way to hang in there and explore different options.

 

[jkcheng122]

Originally posted by: acivick
For those building a completely new system with this board (and presumably other 650i's), one case I would recommend is the Enermax Chakra. Based on all these posts, it looks like cooling can become an issue on the NB/SB for those looking to make high OC's on air.

With the Chakra's 250mm side fan (and 2 120mm Enlobal fans I put in it), my NB hovers around 32C idle (or lower) and never really goes above 35-36C at full load, according to Asus Probe with stock cooling on the NB and a Zalman chipset cooler on the SB. I did have to do some creative bending on the SB cooler to get my GTX in there, but it works. Granted, I haven't upped my NB voltage from stock, but I haven't really pushed my proc or memory too far yet.

which slot did u put the 8800gtx in? if on the top slot, where it should be for single card solution, it shouldnt get in the way of SB at all. if u're running it on the bottom slot, i think u're only getting 8 lanes of bandwidth instead of 16x.

as far as case for this board is concerned, yeah any case with a big side panel fan to suck out the hot air should be pretty decent. the nb is imo by far the most troubling component heat-wise on this system. i've attached a 40mm fan on top of the heatsink now to reduce some of the heat. the heatsink itself still gets so hot i cannot keep my finger on it. the sb runs really cool now with a chipset fan sittin on it. my cpu oc'ed at 3.15ghz has never hit over 45C.

 

[aintitthelife98]

Originally posted by: Core2

Originally posted by: aintitthelife98
ok update. I have put the ram into the black slots again. I ran through memtest86 with all settings to auto and it made 4 passes, no errors. Now I upped the settings to 4-4-4-12, 2T and am running again to see if any errors come out. I also upped my vdimm voltage to the setting thats just a bit over 2.2v becaues the ram's specs are for 2.2v. To get it dual channel performance does it need to run in 1T or is 2T dual channels as well but not as fast?

Not many of us can run in 1T so make sure your are 2T or else you can suffer instability Duel channel has nothing to do with 1T or 2T and 4-4-4-12 2T are good timings for now until you can find a good stable platform. Good Job! Thats the way to hang in there and explore different options.

Thanks for the words of encouragement. This is the first system I'd built and tweaked since 2002 and things sure have changed a lot.

I'm in the black slots now with 4-4-4-12 2T with no stability issues. Ran memtest86 fine without errors and also superpi. The ram is running on the FSB of 430mhz so its at 860 which is pretty good for those timings I think. Any other suggestions you all can make.

Core, do you have a link to that fan again or know what page of the thread its on. Thanks!

 

[Core2]

Guy's
Heres an interesting thing I noticed this morning. Before I turned on my computer I happened to glance at the temp senors (they have a battery back up so there always on) and the NB temp was at 74f about room temp and the SB was 84f. I am assuming that there must be some communication activity going on while the machine is shut off (not completely powered off like when pull the plug) It must be LAN and USB activity going on with the SB.

 

[Punchy01]

ADDER & JKCHENG ,

Thanks for your responses. I think I'll narrow it to this board for sure. Really like the price compared to the BadAxe (and other 975's). Good to know I have the SLI option as well with the 7900gs starting to drop so low in price.
Maybe just one more question:

Can I get by with 1GB of memory with this board?

2GB seems to be becoming the standard, but 1GB would be much more in my price range. Down the line, would 1GB be enough for these milder overclocks?

 

[jkcheng122]

Originally posted by: Punchy01
ADDER & JKCHENG ,

Thanks for your responses. I think I'll narrow it to this board for sure. Really like the price compared to the BadAxe (and other 975's). Good to know I have the SLI option as well with the 7900gs starting to drop so low in price.
Maybe just one more question:

Can I get by with 1GB of memory with this board?

2GB seems to be becoming the standard, but 1GB would be much more in my price range. Down the line, would 1GB be enough for these milder overclocks?

i dont think the amount of memory will effect ur overclocking. but as u said, 2gb is becoming the standard and is the recommended amount for running vista. if u do decide to go with 1GB, i'd suggest going with 1 stick of 1GB so u still have the option to run dual channel 2gb when you realize 1gb doesnt cut it anymore. hopefully by then the same model 1gb stick is still available so you can run dual channel.

 

[Core2]

I'm in the black slots now with 4-4-4-12 2T with no stability issues. Ran memtest86 fine without errors and also superpi. The ram is running on the FSB of 430mhz so its at 860 which is pretty good for those timings I think. Any other suggestions you all can make.

Core, do you have a link to that fan again or know what page of the thread its on. Thanks

I believe your problem was lack of vdimm voltage for your ram. I would still recommend keeping them in the black slots. Remember as you clock higher you may have to loosen up on your timing or up the voltage on the vdimm, vcore or NB voltage.

Here the link to those fans Scythe SY124010L Fans

 

[Core2]

Originally posted by: Punchy01
ADDER & JKCHENG ,

Thanks for your responses. I think I'll narrow it to this board for sure. Really like the price compared to the BadAxe (and other 975's). Good to know I have the SLI option as well with the 7900gs starting to drop so low in price.
Maybe just one more question:

Can I get by with 1GB of memory with this board?

2GB seems to be becoming the standard, but 1GB would be much more in my price range. Down the line, would 1GB be enough for these milder overclocks?

1GB is fine as long as you buy it in a matched pair 512x2 for duel channel performance and if you add more buy the exact same ram

 

[aintitthelife98]

Originally posted by: Core2
I'm in the black slots now with 4-4-4-12 2T with no stability issues. Ran memtest86 fine without errors and also superpi. The ram is running on the FSB of 430mhz so its at 860 which is pretty good for those timings I think. Any other suggestions you all can make.

Core, do you have a link to that fan again or know what page of the thread its on. Thanks

I believe your problem was lack of vdimm voltage for your ram. I would still recommend keeping them in the black slots. Remember as you clock higher you may have to loosen up on your timing or up the voltage on the vdimm, vcore or NB voltage.

Here the link to those fans Scythe SY124010L Fans

Thanks a lot for the link. Time for another update:

4-4-4-12 1T is now up and running and appears to be stable at 430FSB (860) and vdimm of 2.259v. Ran through memtest86 with no issues and calculated various sizes of superpi with no issues.

For those fans, how would you go about attaching it to the massiveness that is the NB heatsink.

 

[jkcheng122]

any 40mm case/chipset fan should do the trick. it takes a bit of "modding" to secure the fan onto the heatsink tho. i bent a few fins on the chipset and used them to lock the fan with screws in. a couple of shakes to the case will prob loosen it, but if that were to happen i'd have bigger problems i think.

 

[Core2]

For Vista 2GB of ram is going to be the min and 4 - 8 GB will be the default

 

[jkcheng122]

Originally posted by: aintitthelife98
4-4-4-12 1T is now up and running and appears to be stable at 430FSB (860) and vdimm of 2.259v. Ran through memtest86 with no issues and calculated various sizes of superpi with no issues.

impressive. seems for me 1T at any timing stability goes to hell. i was getting crashes playing WoW with mem timigns at 4-4-4-12 and 450fsb, relaxing the timings to 5-5-5-15 seems to solved the problem as i had no crashes in WoW with those settings. 3dmark06 scores showed 4-4-4-12 @ 430 gives the same performance as 5-5-5-15 @ 450.

 

[jkcheng122]

Originally posted by: Core2
For Vista 2GB of ram is going to be the min and 4 - 8 GB will be the default

i think it's 1gb min and 2gb default, where as xp was 512 min and 1gb default, 2gb enthusiast.

from what i've read and if my memory doesnt fail me, vista 32bit is still unable to recognize/utilize 4gb and above. only 64bit versions can.

i havent started using vista b/c of video card driver issues. there are currently no vista drivers to support running SLI on vista. if i were to switch to single card solution i'd get a 8800gts, which also does not have a vista driver.

 

[Core2]

For those fans, how would you go about attaching it to the massiveness that is the NB heatsink

The fan is small 1.5x1.5 inches with 4 holes I just used some zip ties and put one in each hole and tighten them till there was an half inch circle left and then I creased the circle to make a point and wedge the four ties between the fins and pushed the fan in till it was snug against the NB

 

[Core2]

runs like a dog on 1GB I was helping someone over at the Asus forum with 1GB at default speed with our board super pi of 28.90 and a 3Dmark 06 1800 with a E6400 and a 6800gt they said it crawled. Its like when I ungraded to XP with 128 mb of ram and now 2GB in the norm

 

[Punchy01]

Thanks for the quick responses guys, you've given me plenty to get me on my way
Hopefully I won't run into too many issues with my build, but I'll check back here if I do. Plenty of helpful folks around this forum for sure.
Thanks again

 

[Core2]

I was reading over at the Asus forum that someone had taken there board into an asus service center (bad beta flash) and they fixed it now he's running with bios ver 308 so a release can't be far away.

 

[christoph83]

I'm running into some odd problems with this board. I have an e6400.

I have to set the NB to 1.55v to get up around 1600 FSB. The strange thing is....

If I boot at 8x400 the cpu will fail prime95 within 1 minute.
If I boot at 7x470 = 3290mhz it will run prime95 24/7
This is with around 1.4v to vcore. Same voltage.

Also I cannot run my memory over 700. My pc will freeze up when using 800. This is with auto memory settings,also tried 4-4-4-12 2T and 5-5-5-15-2T.

I'm using this memory here.

Something appears to be happening at 8x400 to cause this cpu to fail that im not aware of. Haven't seen anyone with this problem in this thread. I'm happy with 7x470 but then again my ram will not run 800, which with 2.1v it should run. This is with the memory in the black slots.

 

[adder1971]

Originally posted by: Core2
runs like a dog on 1GB I was helping someone over at the Asus forum with 1GB at default speed with our board super pi of 28.90 and a 3Dmark 06 1800 with a E6400 and a 6800gt they said it crawled. Its like when I ungraded to XP with 128 mb of ram and now 2GB in the norm

i haven't put vista back on my pc since the new build. looking forward to seeing what kind of difference double th ram and 4x the cpu power do for it. will post some info when i get it done.

 

[adder1971]

Originally posted by: Core2
I was reading over at the Asus forum that someone had taken there board into an asus service center (bad beta flash) and they fixed it now he's running with bios ver 308 so a release can't be far away.

cool, hopefully this will fix some of the memory holes. and get us some lower timings.

 

[adder1971]

Originally posted by: christoph83
I'm running into some odd problems with this board. I have an e6400.

I have to set the NB to 1.55v to get up around 1600 FSB. The strange thing is....

If I boot at 8x400 the cpu will fail prime95 within 1 minute.
If I boot at 7x470 = 3290mhz it will run prime95 24/7
This is with around 1.4v to vcore. Same voltage.

Also I cannot run my memory over 700. My pc will freeze up when using 800. This is with auto memory settings,also tried 4-4-4-12 2T and 5-5-5-15-2T.

I'm using this memory here.

Something appears to be happening at 8x400 to cause this cpu to fail that im not aware of. Haven't seen anyone with this problem in this thread. I'm happy with 7x470 but then again my ram will not run 800, which with 2.1v it should run. This is with the memory in the black slots.

are you setting the memory as 800 unlinked or going synch with the fsb? i usually get the best results using unlinked and manually setting the mem freq to 800. also you shouldn't need the nb to be 1.59 until about the 480fsb range or so. probably not the cause of your problem but see if you can run it at 1.3 and save some heat.

 

[Nevets Drassel]

I am also new to OC'ing an Intel MB and Chip. I am currently at 3.2 GHz (1.32 VCore, 1.5 VChip, 2.2 VDIMM) @ 8 X 400 (4-4-4-12T @2T).

How do I increase the FSB? Is it just adjusting the DDR Speed in BIOS to 810? (This would give a FSB of 202.5 if I am correct - which is usually not the case).

If I do increase the FSB, then do I also have to increase the HT to 1620? or do I leave it alone?

TIA

 

[christoph83]

Yeah its set to unlinked. I'll try 8x400 at 1.4 nb one more time and see what happens. I was under the impression it wouldnt post or froze up. Still, I find it very odd it will run 7x470 completely fine and 8x400 not.

Edit: 8x400 with 1.4 NB will not post.

 

[acivick]

Originally posted by: jkcheng122
which slot did u put the 8800gtx in? if on the top slot, where it should be for single card solution, it shouldnt get in the way of SB at all. if u're running it on the bottom slot, i think u're only getting 8 lanes of bandwidth instead of 16x.

as far as case for this board is concerned, yeah any case with a big side panel fan to suck out the hot air should be pretty decent. the nb is imo by far the most troubling component heat-wise on this system. i've attached a 40mm fan on top of the heatsink now to reduce some of the heat. the heatsink itself still gets so hot i cannot keep my finger on it. the sb runs really cool now with a chipset fan sittin on it. my cpu oc'ed at 3.15ghz has never hit over 45C.

The GTX is in the top slot. It's really just the cooling solution that nudges the heat sink fins on the SB cooler as it takes up at least another whole slot below the card.

I also have the side panel fan pushing cool air in as I find it keeps the temps cooler that way. Because of its size, it's able to blow air directly onto the CPU cooler, NB, SB and I think even the RAM.

 

[Core2]

Originally posted by: adder1971

Originally posted by: Core2
runs like a dog on 1GB I was helping someone over at the Asus forum with 1GB at default speed with our board super pi of 28.90 and a 3Dmark 06 1800 with a E6400 and a 6800gt they said it crawled. Its like when I ungraded to XP with 128 mb of ram and now 2GB in the norm

i haven't put vista back on my pc since the new build. looking forward to seeing what kind of difference double th ram and 4x the cpu power do for it. will post some info when i get it done.

Yes, I'd be interested your results. What I've been hearing is not to good. Ram hungry. Why did you choose a Xeon over a Conroe. I have seen a lot of good results with them