ASUS P5N-E SLI 650i Thread

[TriBeCa]

Originally Posted by Betrivent

Err.. the e6420s have issues going over 60* Celcius.

what about the e6400s? ...see my system specs....

[TriBeCa]

Originally Posted by willhub

Hi, well I'm pulling my hair out with this mobo.

I thought my CPU was doing 3.2Ghz at 1.45V, but coz of ther Vdropp its 1.38V, and load temp is 58 degrees and idle is 30, or on a cool day 28 idle and 55 load.

Also I'm getting silly low transfer rates here, 4.0MB/Sec whilst trying to transfer large files, I've tried everything, I only have one SATA II HDD now, and I am running Windows Vista Ultimate, the HDD is Western Digital Caviar 320GB SE16.

I dont know if the mobo is faulty though, has it got some problems with HD2900XT's aswell?

does speedfan or w/e report 1.38 all the time, or only under load? Cause you shouldn't be seeing vdroop when idling.... I remember when I was getting my OC going I was having stability issues (well, orthos error after 4-6hours) when I vdroop'd to 1.38. But once I pushed the vcore up to 1.45 the vdroop never went below 1.41, and I was rock solid.

Don't know what to tell you about those transfer rates. That's *definately* not normal for the board....

[willhub]

Originally Posted by TriBeCa

does speedfan or w/e report 1.38 all the time, or only under load? Cause you shouldn't be seeing vdroop when idling.... I remember when I was getting my OC going I was having stability issues (well, orthos error after 4-6hours) when I vdroop'd to 1.38. But once I pushed the vcore up to 1.45 the vdroop never went below 1.41, and I was rock solid.

Don't know what to tell you about those transfer rates. That's *definately* not normal for the board....

Hi.

Its only when its at load, I am sure I've got 8 hours orthos stable, I tried 3.4Ghz at 1.55V, but it still was not stable, I think it actually needs 1.55V and not whatever it was at Vdroop, was not aware it was like this as bad.

I think I may need to RMA the mobo, I dunno, I also saved my Bios using the Asus O.C Profile, and I loaded defaults, and the Bios went crazy, I am using the latestet Bios, and I was scrolling down, and then it was as if the down arrow got stuck, but was not, then the Bios crashed on me, had to either load my Overclock, but in the end was so unstable the Bios, it would not boot properly, had to reset Cmos using jumpers.

[TriBeCa]

the BIOS is not totally protected. when I was in the process of discovering that my OCZ platinum's weren't compatible with the board I experienced dozens of system hangs while trying to edit BIOS settings.

are you saying you can't get it to work under default BIOS settings?

also, what's your northbridge voltage at? I had to max mine out to get stable at 375 FSB and over (iirc, might've been more like 387.5). i seriously doubt your chip needs 1.55V to be stable at 377.7 FSB.

also, i seem to recall someone here (like 2000 posts ago or so), i think it was pook, saying they experienced much better vdroop when they manually decreased the vdimm to close to min spec. i believe they were saying the board was oversupplying the ram, so reducing it improved situation everywhere else.

[willhub]

Originally Posted by TriBeCa

the BIOS is not totally protected. when I was in the process of discovering that my OCZ platinum's weren't compatible with the board I experienced dozens of system hangs while trying to edit BIOS settings.

are you saying you can't get it to work under default BIOS settings?

also, what's your northbridge voltage at? I had to max mine out to get stable at 375 FSB and over (iirc, might've been more like 387.5). i seriously doubt your chip needs 1.55V to be stable at 377.7 FSB.

also, i seem to recall someone here (like 2000 posts ago or so), i think it was pook, saying they experienced much better vdroop when they manually decreased the vdimm to close to min spec. i believe they were saying the board was oversupplying the ram, so reducing it improved situation everywhere else.

It seems like I need the NB at 1.7V to get my ram stable at 2.35V 4-4-4-15 1000Mhz, 3.2Ghz 1.45V on the CPU, so what do I need to do on the Vdimm? lower the voltage?

Well yea the bios was crashing at default, had to load by oc bios, but once I reset the Cmos by the jumper on the mobo the Bios was fine.

Tbh, my main problem is low transfer rates on the HDD, I wont be doing much untill it is solved, wontplay games, so I need to solve this or maybe RMA my mobo and get a better more stable one. Dunno if there is something in Windows Vista I need to enable/disable to get propor speed on my HDD, or even install some more drivers?

[TriBeCa]

yeah, sorry i can't help with the HDD transfer rates. never encountered anything like that before, and haven't used vista....

1.7V on the NB is in line with my experience. 2.35V is crazy high on the vdimm though...did you set that, or is that with the BIOS setting on auto? if you can lower that and stay stable, I would for sure.... nice OC on the RAM though.

[willhub]

2.25V is stock for the ram, 2.35V was needed, 2.25V and I got crashing all the time.

[dpawl31]

Originally Posted by TriBeCa

does speedfan or w/e report 1.38 all the time, or only under load? Cause you shouldn't be seeing vdroop when idling.... I remember when I was getting my OC going I was having stability issues (well, orthos error after 4-6hours) when I vdroop'd to 1.38. But once I pushed the vcore up to 1.45 the vdroop never went below 1.41, and I was rock solid.

Don't know what to tell you about those transfer rates. That's *definately* not normal for the board....

Yes, you should see some vdroop from BIOS voltage when in XP.
If you set to 1.45 in BIOS, you should expect to see something along the lines of 1.41v when idle in XP, and 1.38v under load is normal. This board has pretty rough vdroop, there is a mod for it... but in any case - droop is normal, and expected. If you use the +100mv option, it can reduce droop (ie set vcore to 1.35v and use +100mv to bring you to 1.45v)

Originally Posted by willhub

Hi.

Its only when its at load, I am sure I've got 8 hours orthos stable, I tried 3.4Ghz at 1.55V, but it still was not stable, I think it actually needs 1.55V and not whatever it was at Vdroop, was not aware it was like this as bad.

I think I may need to RMA the mobo, I dunno, I also saved my Bios using the Asus O.C Profile, and I loaded defaults, and the Bios went crazy, I am using the latestet Bios, and I was scrolling down, and then it was as if the down arrow got stuck, but was not, then the Bios crashed on me, had to either load my Overclock, but in the end was so unstable the Bios, it would not boot properly, had to reset Cmos using jumpers.

I don't believe you should be needing that high a vcore for that overclock, what are your motherboard temps like, how is your NB/SB cooled, and have you tried lowering your LDT frequency? Also - what BIOS are you on?

Originally Posted by willhub

It seems like I need the NB at 1.7V to get my ram stable at 2.35V 4-4-4-15 1000Mhz, 3.2Ghz 1.45V on the CPU, so what do I need to do on the Vdimm? lower the voltage?
Well yea the bios was crashing at default, had to load by oc bios, but once I reset the Cmos by the jumper on the mobo the Bios was fine.

Tbh, my main problem is low transfer rates on the HDD, I wont be doing much untill it is solved, wontplay games, so I need to solve this or maybe RMA my mobo and get a better more stable one. Dunno if there is something in Windows Vista I need to enable/disable to get propor speed on my HDD, or even install some more drivers?

Your RAM, from what I can tell - is 2.2v stock, not 2.25. And why in gods name are you at 1000Mhz? Running in 1:1 (for stability) you don't need your ram that high for sure, unless you are @ 500FSB...
I can not give you any advice on the speeds from your hard drive, but, I am sure someone around here is a hard drive techy. Try PMing USlatin, he's got a wicked Hard drive array, constantly benching them, and has a 6x0i board.

Originally Posted by TriBeCa

yeah, sorry i can't help with the HDD transfer rates. never encountered anything like that before, and haven't used vista....

1.7V on the NB is in line with my experience. 2.35V is crazy high on the vdimm though...did you set that, or is that with the BIOS setting on auto? if you can lower that and stay stable, I would for sure.... nice OC on the RAM though.

2.35v is nothing really, for a 2.2v RAM set, but, he shouldn't need to be running them @ 1000Mhz either... 2.35v for 1000Mhz from 667 RAM is not too bad.

Originally Posted by willhub

2.25V is stock for the ram, 2.35V was needed, 2.25V and I got crashing all the time.

I think you need to try this:
Before I go giving you recommendations on where to go from here, I need to know what your cooling situation is, and the answers to the other questions above

[willhub]

Ok, well I am at 1000Mhz coz its obviously faster than 667Mhz, I have it set to unlinked, I did not think I needed to use linked.

On the NB I am cooling it with the stock Heatsink and a 60mm fan on it aswell. I know it is 2.2V stock, but since there is no 2.2V in bios I refer to it at 2.25V stock on this mobo.

I think the mobo temp is 37 atm.

For my CPU, my cooling is an OCZ Vindicator with a Hiper 120mm fan on, on a decent day it is 55 load, 28 idle at 3.2Ghz 1.45V in bios, so 1.38V.

[dpawl31]

Use the 2.178v option, not the 2.259v option. It's much closer to 2.2v than the other one.

Is your SB bare?

As far as your memory - 1000mhz is obviously faster - but it doesn't mean it's your best bet.
You should attain your highest overclock with 1:1, then after finding your MAX CPU OC, push your RAM further.
With your 9x multi, 3.2ghz you are running 356Mhz FSB (effectively 1424 in BIOS) and your RAM should be @ 712 in BIOS (1424/4 or 356*2)
Try this:
Drop LDT to 4x
vcore 1.35v and turn +100mv ON.
Set RAM to stock timings, vdimm of 2.259v (because we are going to overclock it a little)
Set FSB to 1500Mhz
Set RAM to 750Mhz

If you post- which I think you will- you will be @ 3.375Ghz,
and running 1:1 (375Mhz FSB x4=QDR1500, 375Mhz RAM x2 = DDR2-750)

Hope it works