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P5B deluxe. A few things I would like to know

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mkorpal

Member
Joined
May 8, 2006
Location
Denver
There are a few things I would like to know before I get my new P5B deluxe. How easy is it to flash new bios on this board. I have never flashed bios ever so I am pretty new to it. Second, how well does the heatpipe nb cooler work. And if I decide to replace it, how would I do that with a heatpipe going to the mosfet cooler. And will the mosfet cooler work properly after I take the heatpipe off. I'm planning of running this with a 6400 and teamgroup ddr2 667 3-3-3-8 memory and a 7900 GT Ko.
 
mkorpal said:
There are a few things I would like to know before I get my new P5B deluxe. How easy is it to flash new bios on this board. I have never flashed bios ever so I am pretty new to it. Second, how well does the heatpipe nb cooler work. And if I decide to replace it, how would I do that with a heatpipe going to the mosfet cooler. And will the mosfet cooler work properly after I take the heatpipe off. I'm planning of running this with a 6400 and teamgroup ddr2 667 3-3-3-8 memory and a 7900 GT Ko.

Flashing the bios on this board is easy. There are several methods but what I prefer is the Asus tools in bios and using a USB flash drive. The flash drive needs to be formatted FAT32 but flashing this way is the simpliest and fastest method I have ever used.

The NB cooler seems OK, it is lighter than what is on the P5W but is decent. I am replacing mine with a Thermalright unit mainly because I don't trust that it maintains consistently good contact. I don't believe the other end does much for the mosfets or other components, I think the sink is mainly there as additional surface area for NB cooling. I don't plan on doing any addtional cooling for the mosfets once I replace the NB sink but will keep an eye on them and sink them later if needed.

One caveat about the P5B Deluxe, the bios is still immature. Fortunately, Asus seems to be working pretty hard to fix issues and bios releases have been plentiful lately. Newer releases have brought new usable features but there seems to be some memory issues, some more annoying than others. Asus will work it work it out eventually but if you get this board you will have to be patient as you will probably get plenty of practice flashing the bios.

Good Luck!
 
Thanks. Another quick question. I couldn't find any warrenty info on the boards, so I was wondering if overclocking will void any warrenty. Usually it would, but since they provide programs that overclock, I'm not sure. Also, would replacingthe TIM void any warrenty.
 
mkorpal said:
Thanks. Another quick question. I couldn't find any warrenty info on the boards, so I was wondering if overclocking will void any warrenty. Usually it would, but since they provide programs that overclock, I'm not sure. Also, would replacingthe TIM void any warrenty.

As a rule, yes, overclocking and physical mods will void the warranty. Attempting an RMA with such items becomes a matter of ethics.

With that said, I went through all the documentation that came with the board and there is nothing about warranties, just who to call. On the Asus website the only info I could find related to length of warranty but at the bottom of the page is what could be a catch all phrase, "Warranty invalid if damage/dysfunction caused by improper handling/usage, destruction." Doesn't specifically say overclocking or tim replacement but could be interpreted many ways.

http://support.asus.com/repair/repair.aspx?no=201&SLanguage=en-us
 
I did the same improvement to my p5b-d as i did to the p5w dh ... pretty simple to improve the cooling ... and do the southbidge too ... they get a bit warm.

Here is a nice little guide for the p5w dh ... p5b-d is almost exactly the same.

-> http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=106563

Of course, no need to replace the bios chip on the p5b-d since it is ready for conroe. Haven't tried out the latest bios yet, but 0405 has been working fine for me.

The sink on the p5b-d over the mosfets does seem to get a bit warmer than the one one the p5w-dh ... maybe since it is smaller?
 
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I'm sorry, but another question. Which way does the heat flow through the heat pipe. Is it from the NB to the Mosfets or the other way. Or does it reverse depending on temperatures. Or does it do anything. I ask because I would like to know which Heatsink deserves a fan.
 
mkorpal said:
I'm sorry, but another question. Which way does the heat flow through the heat pipe. Is it from the NB to the Mosfets or the other way. Or does it reverse depending on temperatures. Or does it do anything. I ask because I would like to know which Heatsink deserves a fan.

No need to be sorry, ask all the questions you want. :)

In theory I believe heat flows from the NB to the mosfets but the sinks equalize. I used the fan that Asus included that snaps on over the mosfet sink and they seem to stay close to the same temp. If the fan is off they both heat up but if the fan is on they both cool off.
 
Thanks. I didn't even see the fan they included. Another question. I have yet to see any results with Teamgroup ddr2667 3-3-3-8 memory. Have you seen anything regarding how the board and this memory like eachother. What are you runing anyway. And have you tried to oc it yet.
 
mkorpal said:
Thanks. I didn't even see the fan they included. Another question. I have yet to see any results with Teamgroup ddr2667 3-3-3-8 memory. Have you seen anything regarding how the board and this memory like eachother. What are you runing anyway. And have you tried to oc it yet.

I use the G Skill DDR2-800 (HZ), this stuff here. I have not seen anything about teamgroup but I am sure there are results out there somewhere. The G Skill works pretty nice, I also used it in a P5W DH before the board died.

For me, what works best right now is the 0502 bios but the mem timings will not be right once you get into Windows. If you set 3-3-3-8 in bios you will get 3-7-7-23 in Windows. So I use Memset 2.2 to adjust the timings once in Windows. Read about Memset here and download Memset 2.2 here.

I used Memset and SuperPI to find my best settings which seem to be;

1. Set 3-4-4-10 in bios
2. Set timings at 4-4-4-10 with Memset in Windows.

At the same clockspeed and FSB this gave me SupePI times comparable to my P5W DH at 3-3-3-8. Using tighter timings on the P5B DLX seems to slow things down a bit for some reason but I am sure this will be fixed at some point.

Other bioses are available but they seem to limit what parts of the FSB range are useable, like 360-399 are not useable. 0502 Allows all the FSB to be used but you have to adjust memory timings.

Hopefully the quirks will be fixed soon but this is all part of the experience, the experience of early adoption and immature parts. :)
 
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