ASUS P5N-E SLI 650i Thread

[Christiaan]

Originally Posted by Ravin

Yup. Personally, I'm happy with the result I got, 600MHz overclock on 0.125V undervolting is a happy result for me. Much longer chip life when it runs efficently and cool, although I would have liked to seen 3.4-3.6GHz like with most G0 owners are seeing with the P35 chipset.

What's the reason for this board not liking Quads?

Originally Posted by TriBeCa

is anyone doing any additional mosfet cooling on this board? i suspect mine or getting a tad hot. my previously stable OC suddenly rebooted on me twice despite weeks of stable operation, and it occured to me that one of my CPU fans (pull fan) was sitting almost on top of the mosfets, and they probably had s**t for airflow on them. I've pulled them off and hopefully this'll remain stable.

but it got me to thinking I might get a RAM heatspreader or something for them, but I thought I'd ask if anyone here is using anything that's worked for them.

edit: actually I just remembered I have a couple of small copper heatsinks I could slap on there. now to find some thermal tape....

Pook helped me with the location of the mosfets if you were wondering. I used Zalman VRAM sinkies.

Below is the quote.

Originally Posted by The Pook

Sure thing.


I'm using ram sinks (for GPU's) and one covers two mosfets...I "only" have 5 on the board instead of giving each their own.

[Asce]

I believe its to do with the voltage regulators on the board that limits Quad OC'ing as i believe EVGA sorted it out for the 680i A1.

[Ravin]

Originally Posted by TriBeCa

Perhaps I misunderstood, but it looked to me like you were running 1000MHz @ 4-4-4-12 2T. If you're stable at 4-3-3-6 at 1GHz, then I doubt you'd better performance out of a lower clock...but it looked to me like you were looser than that. Based on my own experience I was suspecting you might get better performance with a slightly lower clock that would allow tighter timings than 4-4-4-12. But I'm not sure you'd achieve much better than 4-3-3-6, if that's what you're at.

If your highest 3dMark score was with quad and RAM at 1:1...that's probably not something to ignore. Definately be aware that the score from a single benchmark has a variance that can easily take you within 100 points or so (at least when you're in the >1200 range), but if 1:1 really pushes your score by a lot more than that, I'd stick with it....

I did run 4-4-4-12 to try and push more MHz on the ram, but it just does not really do any good above 1000MHz with the CPU overclocked. The best I can get is just shy of 1100MHz which does not make a statistical difference with the benchmark scores. The sweet spot is 1000MHz 4-3-3-6 for me, 1066MHz at those timings is stable 1:1 but not running a divider.

Yea 3dmark was something like 400 points more running 1066MHz 1:1, but that is only one bench- Sandra, PCMark, and Aquamark3 all score better at my current settings (1333CPU/1000RAM)MHz- not to mention the real world performance difference. I'd say the 3Dmark "fluke" is more related to how well the RAM-VGA were paired together, rather than the RAM-CPU. Turns out that 66MHz more on the memory chanel @ my timings works out to be about a 2% bandwidth boost for the RAM, thus the better score in 3Dmark, which really tests the videocard and ram more than the CPU anyway.

[Christiaan]

Originally Posted by Asce

I believe its to do with the voltage regulators on the board that limits Quad OC'ing as i believe EVGA sorted it out for the 680i A1.

That sucks.

The reason I want the Q6600 is because it runs at 266 FSB (1066) stock. My RAM is DDR2 667 (333). So with the CPU at stock my RAM is underclocked, giving me headroom to OC the CPU. I know my RAM is stable at 700Mhz (350), the speed I have them at currently. The idea was to keep a 1:1 ratio and get the FSB up to 350 (1400), giving me DDR2 700 (350) RAM and 3150MHz on the Quad.

But if I had to go with a C2D instead, I can't. Because the prices of the older models running 1066FSB are more expensive than the new 1333FSB models. With that my RAM will already be running stock speed with a 1:1 ratio. So my OC will be limited even more by my RAM.

I also can't test my RAM's max speed, because my current PD 805 is maxed without running into heat issues.
In a review in a local mag of my RAM, they got it up to 950MHz (475). I have no idea if mine will be able to get that speed. Which is why I'm taking the safer route by having a lower FSB for lower RAM speed.

[TriBeCa]

Originally Posted by Christiaan

What's the reason for this board not liking Quads?



Pook helped me with the location of the mosfets if you were wondering. I used Zalman VRAM sinkies.

Below is the quote.

Awesome pic, I'm going to stick that in the guide so we can easily find it later. I'd found the mosfets, but I didn't realize there were two dedicated to the +100mV option...knowing about those gives a good explanation for why that BIOS option improves vdroop.


And while I don't really know, I thought there was something about the 600 series chipsets just not handling quads as well as the p35's, but I could be wrong.

Originally Posted by Christiaan

That sucks.

The reason I want the Q6600 is because it runs at 266 FSB (1066) stock. My RAM is DDR2 667 (333). So with the CPU at stock my RAM is underclocked, giving me headroom to OC the CPU. I know my RAM is stable at 700Mhz (350), the speed I have them at currently. The idea was to keep a 1:1 ratio and get the FSB up to 350 (1400), giving me DDR2 700 (350) RAM and 3150MHz on the Quad.

But if I had to go with a C2D instead, I can't. Because the prices of the older models running 1066FSB are more expensive than the new 1333FSB models. With that my RAM will already be running stock speed with a 1:1 ratio. So my OC will be limited even more by my RAM.

I also can't test my RAM's max speed, because my current PD 805 is maxed without running into heat issues.
In a review in a local mag of my RAM, they got it up to 950MHz (475). I have no idea if mine will be able to get that speed. Which is why I'm taking the safer route by having a lower FSB for lower RAM speed.

Why not just run a divider? Leave your RAM and stock and do w/e you want with the CPU.

But yeah, I wouldn't count on getting 350FSB on a quad...you might get 333 though.

[TriBeCa]

Someone just pointed this out, thought it might be useful to have. Pook posted a pic somewhere in the other thread of where the mosfets are on the board. Thought it might come in handy!

Originally Posted by The Pook

Sure thing.


I'm using ram sinks (for GPU's) and one covers two mosfets...I "only" have 5 on the board instead of giving each their own.

[yukmouth]

ok thanks guys, i was actually going to run orthos for the 8 hours i will take a look at your guide tribeca, and i will try to achieve my goal. if i have any problems ill come ask

[yukmouth]

ok, i cant post past 1200. however i did try at 1333 and it posted but froze shortly after. any recommendations?

[Dostoyevsky77]

I have these on my board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835108094 but it doesn't look like they will work too well on those oddly-positioned mosfets. Maybe these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835108071

Thanks for the info about quads. My QX6700 is B3 stepped which OCs so differently from those sexy Q6600s, so I think I'll be in unchartered territory there. The eVGA board you're probably thinking of is the A1/T1 (same board, different accessories), but I'm not too worried about the board's FSB wall since I get excellent performance with 320 FSB ATM (I can't get higher than 333 on my board, so won't expect that on hers).

+REP for the map of mosfets.

[Dostoyevsky77]

Hi, all! First-timer here, but I've been getting tips from TriBeCa on his thread.

My weekend project is to dramatically upgrade my wife's P5N-E. I bought an E6750 for her, but I'm dying to try it on my board (I've never tried a C2D on it), so I'm going to give her my QX6700. At the end of the day, it's going to look like this:

QX6700 (probably 333x10 because her case doesn't have much cooling)
eVGA 8800GTS 320
Antec 650w
Coolermaster Aquagate 120 (again, because her case doesn't have much active cooling)
Tt Spirit II on the NB
My P5N32-E stock SB HS on the SB

I'd greatly appreciate any tips, especially concerning the quad extreme! I'll probably be back in here to bother all of you as the weekend progresses.