The Unofficial ASUS P5N-E SLI 650i Board Thread

[adder1971]

beats me. i'm stuck back in the day of hi-fi.......


just kidding. i'm just using the on board connected to some klipsch promedia 4.1. havent really done too much with the audio

can't imagine an onboard ever being better than an expensive add on card though.

 

[jkcheng122]

Originally posted by: SP8
It sounds like this board would work well with liquid cooling. I got to order a kit. I'm taking everones advice and doing a fresh OS install. I'll just buy another HD, and a new XP disk. I would feel like a ass telling MS support someone installed my XP on another computer, and changed the CD key without my permission.

if u want to feel like an ass, you should uninstall windows off your friend's computer. reinstall it on ur own, and call and tell M$ u upgraded ur system if it's even needed.

 

[idiotekniQues]

do you have to run two instances of super.pi for it to really test?

it only shows 50% cpu utilization but it feels like more

i ran one for half an hour and no errors but then i wanted to set up more proggies.

 

[adder1971]

Originally posted by: idiotekniQues
do you have to run two instances of super.pi for it to really test?

it only shows 50% cpu utilization but it feels like more

i ran one for half an hour and no errors but then i wanted to set up more proggies.

yes, basically i just run orthos instead. or prime95. if you want to test for super pi you have to make two shortcuts to the .exe file. and add -a1 to one of them and add -a2 to the other. that sets affinity to one core or the other. at least thats what i do.

 

[jkcheng122]

i think the best way really to test stability is just to do whatever u use ur computer for the most for a long period of time. you can pass every single benchmark with flying colors, but if ur favorite proggie wont run smoothly, it's not stable.

 

[idiotekniQues]

i think i ll just stick to orthos since it seems it is as reliable as super.pi run twice.

very true about just runnin what you normally run is the best end result,

but i just figure runnin orthos overnight to give myself some peace of mind so if im editing pics or my gf is workin on her website/graphics it doesnt crash. seems rock solid though

 

[adder1971]

Originally posted by: jkcheng122
i think the best way really to test stability is just to do whatever u use ur computer for the most for a long period of time. you can pass every single benchmark with flying colors, but if ur favorite proggie wont run smoothly, it's not stable.

yeah like 3dmark 2005 lol. even after everything seemed stable i had a hard time getting that to go through right. ok. maybe that isnt my favorit program. but it was toug to pass when all else would. go figure.

 

[Punchy01]

Hello to all, and sorry for jumping in and going sorta off-topic, but how is this board at stock speeds & stock configurations? I've read through as many of your posts as possible but alot of it is honestly over my head.
I've been planning a new build for about the last three months (C2D) and had all but decided on the Asus p5b-e until this 650i launched. Since both boards are roughly the same price, I guess I like the PATA support the 650i offers.
What I'm looking for are stability and ease of build -- I'm just not real technical.

Here's what I have so far:

Pny 7900gs
Corsair 520w PSU

Here's what I need:

Mobo
E6300 or 6400
Suitable memory

As you can see, this is a modest build at best, that probably will never be overclocked.
Would this board be a good choice for me, or maybe should I go with something more seasoned like the BadAxe2 ?

Thanks for any info in advance

 

[adder1971]

Originally posted by: Punchy01
Hello to all, and sorry for jumping in and going sorta off-topic, but how is this board at stock speeds & stock configurations? I've read through as many of your posts as possible but alot of it is honestly over my head.
I've been planning a new build for about the last three months (C2D) and had all but decided on the Asus p5b-e until this 650i launched. Since both boards are roughly the same price, I guess I like the PATA support the 650i offers.
What I'm looking for are stability and ease of build -- I'm just not real technical.

Here's what I have so far:

Pny 7900gs
Corsair 520w PSU

Here's what I need:

Mobo
E6300 or 6400
Suitable memory

As you can see, this is a modest build at best, that probably will never be overclocked.
Would this board be a good choice for me, or maybe should I go with something more seasoned like the BadAxe2 ?

Thanks for any info in advance

welcome!! no worries about off topic, cause there really isn't one except talking about this board. this board is stable at stock config for sure, and then some. it's a really good board for the money and it's nice to know you can get some more performance when you need it. you don't need expensive mem as the memory speed and fsb can be set independant. reminds me of one of those infomercials. set it and forget it.

 

[aintitthelife98]

Well I finally got to update my sig with my current stats. Last night I was able to get up over 3ghz. Right now I'm at 3010 (7*430) at 1.275v. I'm currently stress testing it at 1 lower vcore to see if its stable there. Temps are maxing out at around 62C under 8 hours of 2 instances of Prime95.

I also messed around with my RAM last night. Stability goes right down the shitter when I try to use either just the yellow slots or the black slots. I changed all settings in the bios to Auto for the RAM timings to make sure those weren't messing anything up. The only way I can keep it stable is if I put the RAM in 1 black, 1 yellow. I'm not sure what the hell is going on with that but its annoying the crap out of me. Right now I'm working on getting the processor speed to where I want it and at temperatures I like and then I'm going to mess around more with the RAM.

 

[jkcheng122]

Originally posted by: aintitthelife98
Well I finally got to update my sig with my current stats. Last night I was able to get up over 3ghz. Right now I'm at 3010 (7*430) at 1.275v. I'm currently stress testing it at 1 lower vcore to see if its stable there. Temps are maxing out at around 62C under 8 hours of 2 instances of Prime95.

I also messed around with my RAM last night. Stability goes right down the shitter when I try to use either just the yellow slots or the black slots. I changed all settings in the bios to Auto for the RAM timings to make sure those weren't messing anything up. The only way I can keep it stable is if I put the RAM in 1 black, 1 yellow. I'm not sure what the hell is going on with that but its annoying the crap out of me. Right now I'm working on getting the processor speed to where I want it and at temperatures I like and then I'm going to mess around more with the RAM.

have u tried higher vdimm? also if u have other ram laying around, try those out in the black slots.

 

[Core2]

Originally posted by: jkcheng122

Originally posted by: Core2
SLI Man
Yea, I like that. Throw that sound card away and use the on board. If you use the coax output and set it to DTS in the setup and connect it to a DTS converter it sounds great. Don't touch that heatsink and buy one of those cheap fans or your going to be NO MOBO MAN. The thing is soooo quiet Cheap and easy to fasten

Its Friday night where we going and who's buying the first GB of ram????

okay, sound card is sitting outside atm with the coax hooked up from mobo to control pod on the speaker system. but when i run a test in Realtek HD Control Panel, only the front 2 channels have sound. i dont think this board features onboard encoding (dd live and dts connect).

correct me if i'm wrong, cuz if i can't have digital sound in anything other than movies, i must have the x-fi back in.

Sorry, I haven't figured it out yet. It does play on all 6 channels on mine but I can't tell you how to set it up with yours. My P5B Deluxe was easier and has coax and fiber outputs. I just used the fiber output on that one and enabled HD Audio and it worked like a charm. My P5N-E SLI has nothing to play I have to put a couple of songs and try a DVD and let you know. My son and I watched Talladega Nights last night funny flick.

 

[jkcheng122]

Originally posted by: Punchy01
Hello to all, and sorry for jumping in and going sorta off-topic, but how is this board at stock speeds & stock configurations? I've read through as many of your posts as possible but alot of it is honestly over my head.
I've been planning a new build for about the last three months (C2D) and had all but decided on the Asus p5b-e until this 650i launched. Since both boards are roughly the same price, I guess I like the PATA support the 650i offers.
What I'm looking for are stability and ease of build -- I'm just not real technical.

Here's what I have so far:

Pny 7900gs
Corsair 520w PSU

Here's what I need:

Mobo
E6300 or 6400
Suitable memory

As you can see, this is a modest build at best, that probably will never be overclocked.
Would this board be a good choice for me, or maybe should I go with something more seasoned like the BadAxe2 ?

Thanks for any info in advance

well punchy, if u've already got a nvidia video card, might as well go with this board instead of the p5b-e, somewhere down the line u may want to get anoter 7900gs for SLI, this board gives u that option if u should choose to do so. tho prob not a good idea with dx10 coming out.

if you dont plan on ever doing any overclocking, dont waste your money on high-end boards like the badaxe2, it'll be like buying a ferrari and never taking it past 70mph. also, this board is so easy to overclock with, it's a good time to start. i'd suggest u get some ddr2-800 memory, and just oc the board to your memory's speed, it will take ur 6300 to 2.8ghz and 6400 to 3.0 ghz, giving you performance equal to and above the x6800 which is 6, 7 times the price of the chips u were insterested in.

and the only thing u'd need to take the board to 400mhz is an aftermarket heatsink for the southbridge.

 

[adder1971]

Anyone interested in the absolute cheapest path to core 2 and 3.0ghz check into the Asrock 775dual-vsta I'm not a fan of via chipsets but for around $55 and the cost of an e4400 $160ish) you can use your DDR mem and AGP vid card and with an fsb of 300 and the 10x multi of the e4400 you've got x6800 performance for around $220. Pretty tough to beat.

 

[jkcheng122]

Originally posted by: Core2
Sorry, I haven't figured it out yet. It does play on all 6 channels on mine but I can't tell you how to set it up with yours. My P5B Deluxe was easier and has coax and fiber outputs. I just used the fiber output on that one and enabled HD Audio and it worked like a charm. My P5N-E SLI has nothing to play I have to put a couple of songs and try a DVD and let you know. My son and I watched Talladega Nights last night funny flick.

Playing a DVD won't be a good measure, since it is encoded in digital sound already and all the board has to do is pass the signal via coax/optical to the receiver for decoding and outputing to speakers.

Your P5B Deluxe does feature DTS Connect, that is why u are able to get surround sound for all audio you play. your board is encoding 2channel audio into dts format and passing that to ur receiver.

best way to check is playing mp3's or games to find out. i'm pretty certain i'm right on this one. i'm just as much a audio enthusiast as i am a pc enthusiast.

 

[Core2]

Originally posted by: aintitthelife98
Well I finally got to update my sig with my current stats. Last night I was able to get up over 3ghz. Right now I'm at 3010 (7*430) at 1.275v. I'm currently stress testing it at 1 lower vcore to see if its stable there. Temps are maxing out at around 62C under 8 hours of 2 instances of Prime95.

I also messed around with my RAM last night. Stability goes right down the shitter when I try to use either just the yellow slots or the black slots. I changed all settings in the bios to Auto for the RAM timings to make sure those weren't messing anything up. The only way I can keep it stable is if I put the RAM in 1 black, 1 yellow. I'm not sure what the hell is going on with that but its annoying the crap out of me. Right now I'm working on getting the processor speed to where I want it and at temperatures I like and then I'm going to mess around more with the RAM.

What kind of case cooling and chipset cooling are you using if any?
Your vcore is set to 1.275 in the bios? That is low for the overclocking speed of 7x430 1.32 - 1.35 would probably be a lot more stable. It is fine for default FSB speed 1066. Just remember to set your ram manually to spec's first (Voltage and timings and make sure its 2T) then try to adjust stability with the vcore and vdimm one at a time. Put the ram back in the black slot and go into the ram timing and set the Command per Clock to 2 leave everything else on auto and see what happens

 

[Core2]

Playing a DVD won't be a good measure, since it is encoded in digital sound already and all the board has to do is pass the signal via coax/optical to the receiver for decoding and outputing to speakers.

Your P5B Deluxe does feature DTS Connect, that is why u are able to get surround sound for all audio you play. your board is encoding 2channel audio into dts format and passing that to ur receiver.

best way to check is playing mp3's or games to find out. i'm pretty certain i'm right on this one. i'm just as much a audio enthusiast as i am a pc enthusiast

It does play on all my 6 speakers on the P5N-E SLI

 

[jkcheng122]

Originally posted by: Core2
Playing a DVD won't be a good measure, since it is encoded in digital sound already and all the board has to do is pass the signal via coax/optical to the receiver for decoding and outputing to speakers.

Your P5B Deluxe does feature DTS Connect, that is why u are able to get surround sound for all audio you play. your board is encoding 2channel audio into dts format and passing that to ur receiver.

best way to check is playing mp3's or games to find out. i'm pretty certain i'm right on this one. i'm just as much a audio enthusiast as i am a pc enthusiast

It does play on all my 6 speakers on the P5N-E SLI

it is likely then ur receiver is set to convert all audio to 5.1 format. try hitting the test button in the Realtek HD Audio panel and see if all the channels play sound there. and if u mean it plays on all 6 spkrs in talladega nights, it should. how are your receivers set as far as signal detection is concerned?

also, having dts connect on will tax ur cpu quite a bit, as it is doing on-the-fly processing of your audio signals to dts format.

 

[aintitthelife98]

Originally posted by: Core2

Originally posted by: aintitthelife98
Well I finally got to update my sig with my current stats. Last night I was able to get up over 3ghz. Right now I'm at 3010 (7*430) at 1.275v. I'm currently stress testing it at 1 lower vcore to see if its stable there. Temps are maxing out at around 62C under 8 hours of 2 instances of Prime95.

I also messed around with my RAM last night. Stability goes right down the shitter when I try to use either just the yellow slots or the black slots. I changed all settings in the bios to Auto for the RAM timings to make sure those weren't messing anything up. The only way I can keep it stable is if I put the RAM in 1 black, 1 yellow. I'm not sure what the hell is going on with that but its annoying the crap out of me. Right now I'm working on getting the processor speed to where I want it and at temperatures I like and then I'm going to mess around more with the RAM.

What kind of case cooling and chipset cooling are you using if any?
Your vcore is set to 1.275 in the bios? That is low for the overclocking speed of 7x430 1.32 - 1.35 would probably be a lot more stable. It is fine for default FSB speed 1066. Just remember to set your ram manually to spec's first (Voltage and timings and make sure its 2T) then try to adjust stability with the vcore and vdimm one at a time. Put the ram back in the black slot and go into the ram timing and set the Command per Clock to 2 leave everything else on auto and see what happens

In terms of case cooling I have 2 80mm fans on the front blowing air in to the case over my Hard Drives. I also have 1 80mm fan on the rear blowing air in towards the heatsink/fan. My power supply also has a 120mm fan on the bottom of it and then a 80mm fan on the rear of it. Currently I am running with the side of the case off so its easier to get in and out. I don't have anything on the nb right now. I am going to see if I can find a 40mm or 50mm fan to put on it or something. I'm still working on that.

In terms of vcore its rock solid at 1.275 and 3010mhz. It ran prime95 all night last night and now is running orthos without issue. My chip seems to be ok with low voltage since I was able to run it stable at 2.8ghz at 1.2v.

I will mess around with the RAM either more tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Core2]

Originally posted by: aintitthelife98
[

In terms of case cooling I have 2 80mm fans on the front blowing air in to the case over my Hard Drives. I also have 1 80mm fan on the rear blowing air in towards the heatsink/fan. My power supply also has a 120mm fan on the bottom of it and then a 80mm fan on the rear of it. Currently I am running with the side of the case off so its easier to get in and out. I don't have anything on the nb right now. I am going to see if I can find a 40mm or 50mm fan to put on it or something. I'm still working on that.

In terms of vcore its rock solid at 1.275 and 3010mhz. It ran prime95 all night last night and now is running orthos without issue. My chip seems to be ok with low voltage since I was able to run it stable at 2.8ghz at 1.2v.

I will mess around with the RAM either more tonight or tomorrow.
[/quote]

Did you see those little chipset fans that I posted. They work great for the price and are so quiet you can't hear them at all, even if you were to sick it right beside your ear. We have to get you in duel channel mode. I 'll kept an eye out on new possibilities so hang in there

 

[adder1971]

Originally posted by: Core2

Originally posted by: aintitthelife98
[

In terms of case cooling I have 2 80mm fans on the front blowing air in to the case over my Hard Drives. I also have 1 80mm fan on the rear blowing air in towards the heatsink/fan. My power supply also has a 120mm fan on the bottom of it and then a 80mm fan on the rear of it. Currently I am running with the side of the case off so its easier to get in and out. I don't have anything on the nb right now. I am going to see if I can find a 40mm or 50mm fan to put on it or something. I'm still working on that.

In terms of vcore its rock solid at 1.275 and 3010mhz. It ran prime95 all night last night and now is running orthos without issue. My chip seems to be ok with low voltage since I was able to run it stable at 2.8ghz at 1.2v.

I will mess around with the RAM either more tonight or tomorrow.

Did you see those little chipset fans that I posted. They work great for the price and are so quiet you can't hear them at all, even if you were to sick it right beside your ear. We have to get you in duel channel mode. I 'll kept an eye out on new possibilities so hang in there[/quote]

that dual channel issue is totally bizarre. i think you may have a borked board. the only suggestions i have is to run each one individually with the manu timings. run some memmtest86 and make sure you dont have a possible bad one. if that goes through fine. install em with dual channel at recommended volts and timings. if it doesnt work you need to rma that board.

 

[jkcheng122]

Originally posted by: aintitthelife98
In terms of case cooling I have 2 80mm fans on the front blowing air in to the case over my Hard Drives. I also have 1 80mm fan on the rear blowing air in towards the heatsink/fan. My power supply also has a 120mm fan on the bottom of it and then a 80mm fan on the rear of it. Currently I am running with the side of the case off so its easier to get in and out. I don't have anything on the nb right now. I am going to see if I can find a 40mm or 50mm fan to put on it or something. I'm still working on that.

In terms of vcore its rock solid at 1.275 and 3010mhz. It ran prime95 all night last night and now is running orthos without issue. My chip seems to be ok with low voltage since I was able to run it stable at 2.8ghz at 1.2v.

I will mess around with the RAM either more tonight or tomorrow.

the 80mm fan u have on the rear should be blowing out rather than in. with ur front fans sucking in cool air to cool ur parts, and the rear fan exhausting the hot air once the cool air passes ur components and get warm. with fans on front and rear blowing in u are trapping the warm air inside ur case.

the 120mm psu fan blows warm air downward, ur cpu fan blows warm air from cpu upward (in respect to cpu location), all this warm air being trapped by ur front and rear case fans both blowing toward the insides of the case, there's no circulation to push hot air out other than the 80mm fan on ur psu. try flipping the rear case fan and see if ur temperatures improve, i'd also suggest, if it fits, that u put a 120mm fan at the rear of ur case.

 

[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?

 

[aintitthelife98]

Originally posted by: jkcheng122

Originally posted by: aintitthelife98
In terms of case cooling I have 2 80mm fans on the front blowing air in to the case over my Hard Drives. I also have 1 80mm fan on the rear blowing air in towards the heatsink/fan. My power supply also has a 120mm fan on the bottom of it and then a 80mm fan on the rear of it. Currently I am running with the side of the case off so its easier to get in and out. I don't have anything on the nb right now. I am going to see if I can find a 40mm or 50mm fan to put on it or something. I'm still working on that.

In terms of vcore its rock solid at 1.275 and 3010mhz. It ran prime95 all night last night and now is running orthos without issue. My chip seems to be ok with low voltage since I was able to run it stable at 2.8ghz at 1.2v.

I will mess around with the RAM either more tonight or tomorrow.

the 80mm fan u have on the rear should be blowing out rather than in. with ur front fans sucking in cool air to cool ur parts, and the rear fan exhausting the hot air once the cool air passes ur components and get warm. with fans on front and rear blowing in u are trapping the warm air inside ur case.

the 120mm psu fan blows warm air downward, ur cpu fan blows warm air from cpu upward (in respect to cpu location), all this warm air being trapped by ur front and rear case fans both blowing toward the insides of the case, there's no circulation to push hot air out other than the 80mm fan on ur psu. try flipping the rear case fan and see if ur temperatures improve, i'd also suggest, if it fits, that u put a 120mm fan at the rear of ur case.

Thanks for the tip. I had thought the 120 on the bottom of my PSU was sucking warm air out of the case to be then pushed out of the back of it but I might be wrong. I will try switching the direction of my 80mm on the rear to see what that does for my temperatures.

 

[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.