ASUS P5N-E SLI 650i Thread

[marin8n]

I just ordered this board from Newegg and am looking for some good memory that will overclock down the road and at a decent price. I will be running a C2D E6400. I was looking at G-SKill and OCZ, leaning towards G-Skill right now due to lower timings and price. Anyone have experience overclocking either of these brands? This is my first PC build.

Thanks!

[dpawl31]

Sweet! BIOS update was released today!
Get it HERE

Supposedly fixes the memory issues!

**EDIT** Good luck with the bios update lol.
ASUS' GLOBAL, USA, and EUROPE servers are "busy" lol
I am downloading from CHINA @ 306bytes/sec. Yes, BYTES, not KILOBYTES. lol

[dpawl31]

Marin8n, what exact memory are you looking at? I have the OCZ Gold GX DDR2-800 and now with the bios update I am going to see how things go, but so far I have been running fine with a 5:8 divider, check my system specs.

[marin8n]

Originally Posted by dpawl31

Marin8n, what exact memory are you looking at? I have the OCZ Gold GX DDR2-800 and now with the bios update I am going to see how things go, but so far I have been running fine with a 5:8 divider, check my system specs.

Specifically the G-Skill - Model #: F2-6400CL4D-2GBPK
and the OCZ - Model #: OCZ2P8002GK

Newegg carries both models right now. Can anyone recommend one over the other for any particular reason/experience?

It's sounding like the BIOS update is helping with the memory problems.

Thanks!

[dpawl31]

It's sounding like the BIOS update is helping with the memory problems.

Have you seen it personally? I haven't had a chance to really look.

That OCZ is basically what I have, except little better timings and 2GB.
ZipZoomFly has your specific ram, with the same rebate, for $1 more, but free shipping. (NE is $5 shipping) So that is $4 less, which you can spend the $3 dollars and upgrade to 2 business day Fedex on ZZF.


My plan is to OC the RAM I have, and eventually get the same set to throw in the other two channels. I figure 2GB with four slots rather than 2GB on two slots means better access to the RAM, but I am probably horribly wrong!

[marin8n]

Originally Posted by dpawl31

Have you seen it personally? I haven't had a chance to really look.

That OCZ is basically what I have, except little better timings and 2GB.
ZipZoomFly has your specific ram, with the same rebate, for $1 more, but free shipping. (NE is $5 shipping) So that is $4 less, which you can spend the $3 dollars and upgrade to 2 business day Fedex on ZZF.


My plan is to OC the RAM I have, and eventually get the same set to throw in the other two channels. I figure 2GB with four slots rather than 2GB on two slots means better access to the RAM, but I am probably horribly wrong!

I havn't personally checked it out, but I have read lots of complaints on both NE and Nvidia forums about memory compatibility issues. Hopefully they actually respond to those documented customer issues!

As far as the RAM, I guess I really don't know how much difference the lower timings even make. From what I understand I may have to loosen them anyway to achieve a higher overclock. Being my first build, memory timings is not really something that I have experience with on my HP machines. I think I will give the G-skill a try due to lower timings at the same memory speeds for a lower price. Thanks for the help!

[dpawl31]

Hah HP!
Well, I would take an HP over a Dell any day.
GSkill and OCZ seem to be pretty much identical, so many people have both brands, and they seem to both be equally suited to the OC'er.

You should fill out your system specs, go to quick links, user CP, then edit system. Put in what you are getting set up with!

You can familiarize yourself with the REP+ next to my name too hehe.
REP+ to you for joining in this thread, welcome to the P5N-E team!

[dpawl31]

Originally Posted by gtboi604

wow, hey congrats!
but i got a few q's bout ur OC.
well, i got mine to 3.5Ghz also, cept i had to up the Vcore to 1.6v, and NB to 1.7~v...I have no idea why u didnt need to up ur voltage yet.
I have mine set to 3:2 FSBRAM...
could it be that my temps are much higher than yours? i find it weird.

anywho, would u happen to have Rainbow Six: Vegas?
Cuz when I go to 3.5Ghz, my game starts to artifact like mad!
But its fine when i go to 3.4Ghz...
Could u possible use that as a stress test to see how urs go? thx!

Nice OC' btw, this board Rox!!!
D~

Where you hidin man! Get that BIOS update, manually enter your timings, and get rockin! You have the same CPU as me! What are you running for a cooler, stock?

ZABACO! Where you hiding with your C2D rig! lol

Cmon people, updates! I got the bios flash, have yet to try upping my memory at all, if I can get it to 500Mhz (DDR2-1000) I could be running 1:1 @ 3.5Ghz! What do you guys recommend I do with my timings?
Currently @ 5-5-5-15. (stock for my ram)

[dpawl31]

Woah, look at marin8n... Mista Vista!
I think I might suggest putting a fresh copy of XP on there first... I think it is going to take quite a few months before they work out all those Vista driver issues. Good thing you are getting the 2GB RAM, I heard Vista eats ram like tic tacs


Have you already bought all that stuff? Is some of it old?
I would recommend a better PSU, I have never heard of it and it seems like a no-name brand? Correct me if I am wrong, it could be a great PSU lol.

[marin8n]

Originally Posted by dpawl31

Woah, look at marin8n... Mista Vista!
I think I might suggest putting a fresh copy of XP on there first... I think it is going to take quite a few months before they work out all those Vista driver issues. Good thing you are getting the 2GB RAM, I heard Vista eats ram like tic tacs


Have you already bought all that stuff? Is some of it old?
I would recommend a better PSU, I have never heard of it and it seems like a no-name brand? Correct me if I am wrong, it could be a great PSU lol.

Thanks for the welcome. Repped! Anyways, I thought I timed it well with the release of Vista. I just prefer to do a full install from the get-go rather than mess with XP with an upgrade on top of it. Plus, being a former HP guy, I don't have a copy of ANY operating system on disc (darn preloaded junk).

I am more of a dvdshrink, video editing, multi-media guy than a gamer, so I think the 2G of ram should handle vista ok. Wish I would have got in on a beta test so I could preview vista - but I guess most people will end up with it eventually - just like XP they all have their bugs from the beginning.

My PSU was bought mainly for the clear acrylic case to be honest with you. It got decent ratings and was reasonably priced, so I went with it. I did hear lots of horror stories from FAR power supplies so I at least tried to stay away from those.

I have been learning a LOT since I decided to build my own and began research in Nov 06. Hoping I can get some support and discuss my progress with some experienced guys on here. Especially on the board since I pulled the trigger on the 650i (after countless hours of debate and comparison). I liked the fact I have SLI as an option and the 4 IDE devices put me over the edge and could not justify $250 for an 680i with a $220 processor and $95 AR GPU!