vcore fluctuating - bad?

[thelawnet]

I have a Asus P5B-E Plus, Radeon X1650 Pro, Antec TruPower 380w, plus 2 SATA drives and 1 IDE drive.

I've loaded the Asus Probe programme, and it's giving alarms about VCore dropping:

[03/17/2007 at 11:44 am] Vcore Voltage Abnormal, 1.11 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:44 am] Vcore Voltage become normal, 1.26 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:44 am] Vcore Voltage Abnormal, 1.11 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:45 am] Vcore Voltage become normal, 1.26 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:45 am] Vcore Voltage Abnormal, 1.11 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:45 am] Vcore Voltage become normal, 1.22 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:45 am] Vcore Voltage Abnormal, 1.10 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:46 am] Vcore Voltage become normal, 1.19 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:46 am] Vcore Voltage Abnormal, 1.11 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:46 am] Vcore Voltage become normal, 1.26 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:47 am] Vcore Voltage Abnormal, 1.11 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:47 am] Vcore Voltage become normal, 1.26 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:47 am] Vcore Voltage Abnormal, 1.11 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:47 am] Vcore Voltage become normal, 1.22 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:47 am] Vcore Voltage Abnormal, 1.11 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:48 am] Vcore Voltage become normal, 1.18 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:48 am] Vcore Voltage Abnormal, 1.11 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:48 am] Vcore Voltage become normal, 1.26 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:48 am] Vcore Voltage Abnormal, 1.11 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:48 am] Vcore Voltage become normal, 1.21 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:49 am] Vcore Voltage Abnormal, 1.11 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:49 am] Vcore Voltage become normal, 1.21 V
[03/17/2007 at 11:49 am] Vcore Voltage become normal, 1.21 V


Is this bad?

 

[khurios2000]

did you overclock your cpu?

 

[thelawnet]

nope

 

[imported_Husky55]

@thelwnet

I have been looking for the P5B-E PLUS but I could not find it anywhere is the US. I would assume you did not get it in the US. Let me know where you get it.

I have a couple of P5B-Es, old version C1, hardware 1.01 G.

Your VDroop is nothing to worry about. P5B-E are notorious for VDroop.

Since you did not OC your CPU I would suggest setting your Vcore at 1.325V in windows which is the default for your CPU. To achieve that, you have to set manually in BIOS about 1.425V VCore. This will account for the VDroop and will give you much more stability.

I OC my CPU and my Vcore are set much higher.

 

[wgoldfarb]

thelawnet:

What CPU do you have?

The fluctuations between 1.11 and 1.26 are most probably caused by C1E or EIST. These BIOS options allow your CPU to lower its multiplier and power consumption when it is idle, resulting in lower temps. So, the 1.11V readings you are getting are probably when the CPU is idle: EIST or C1E kick in and lower the CPU speed and voltage to keep it cooler. Asus probe does not "know" this is happening so it issues an alarm. I had this "problem" and simply turned Asus probe off (by the way, Asus probe uses a LOT of resources, I ended up using CPU-Z and Speed fan instead).

You can get rid of this by turning off EIST and C1E in your BIOS, setting your CPU's voltage (Vcore) to manual, and setting the CPU multiplier manually instead of to auto. As Kusky said, however, Asus Boards (and the P5B models) have a lot of vdroop, so whatever manual Vcore you set in your BIOS, the actual VCore readings will certainly be lower. This is normal for Asus boards.

Finally, if you set your voltage manually to a constant level, it is also normal to see slight voltage drops when the CPU is under load.

Having said all this, however, if you do not overclock, I think that usually there is no advantage to turning C1E and EIST off. If you plan to use your system at stock settings, leaving everything as is, will allow your system to run cooler and consume less power.