My ghetto guide to overclocking the ASUS P5KPL-CM

Board link. http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=1&model=2068&l1=3&l2=11&l3=563&l4=0


There has been a lot of misconceptions and people saying this board sucks for overclocking. just google the name and all you get is people bitchin about it. well, the board does not suck, but the programmers who translate bios settings at asus do indeed, suck. They label bios settings all funky and non standard.

This board has most of the settings anyone could need to overclock.

the main problem with the bios, is the memory divisor. If you have a processor like mine which defaults to a stock fsb of 200, then the only settings you will see for memory divisor are 800 and 533. You won't get the normal 2:5 1:1 etc like most boards have. Why they did this? I do not know, but it is only a cosmetic problem with the bios. in fact, the 800mhz settings is 1:1. The 800mhz setting does not mean 800mhz(unless youdont overclock and are at 800mhz), it just means you're ram is set to the same speed as the fsb. This 800 and 533 settings will stay with the 200mhz processor no matter what you change the fsb to. My fsb is at 340, and i still get the 800mhz,533 setting. Checking in the operating system, as well as memtest86+ comfirms that the 800mhz setting is 1:1 no matter what i set the fsb to.

as an xample, if i set my cpu to 266fsb, the ram to 800mhz (1:1) and the multiplier to 10 and boot up memtest86, my ram is running at 1066mhz, my fsb is at 1066mhz, and the cpu is at 2.6ghz. but yet the bios shows the ram running at 800.... My best guess is they labeled the ram speed wrong. They should have labeled is 1:1 instead of 800mhz. that would be a lot more clear to most people. You could argue that at stock speeds the ram would be indeed running at 800mhz, but this board is advertised as overclocker friendly.

Does anyone get what I am saying now?

now, if you have a processor that defaults to 1066, then the bios would show an option of 533, 800 and 1066 for the ram. This is where the quirkyness comes into play. The 1066 setting for the ram now becomes 1:1. 800 becomes 533, and I do not know what 533 becomes because i do not have that cpu and that option.

quirky? yes. but totally viable once you work around the weird bios. This is a cheap board, about $50-$80. with this board i have yet to have one not overclock past 300mhz fsb with a 200fsb cpu.

the bios also has options for controlling the voltage of the cpu, ram, northbridge, etc. you can always paint the bottom of the cpu with conductive paint if the bios options are not enough (generally allows .2v increase) full multiplier and ram cas ras etc control. It has basically every option you need. they are all labeled wrong, but they are there.



This board also needs good fast ram to overclock the fsb. Not having a tonne of memory divisots means you need good fast ram to crank that fsb up. so count on using 1066mhz ram for a e5200 like mine.

With my current setup, ocz fatal1ty 4gm ram, e5200, I get 340fsb stable(1360mhz), 10x multiplier, 6-6-6-12 ram timing, using the 533 option for the ram in the bios which means my ram is running at roughly 1133mhz.
cpu +.3v, ram +.2v.

Windows xp, vista, 7 stable. also stable in u/kubuntu.

Bottom line is this is a budget overclockers board. it's not as nice as the $150-4200 boards out there, but for 1/4 the price you can still overclock pretty well. as long as you don't need a full atx board anyways.

Nice lil guide for P5K users !

im about to build a E5200 system for an HTPC. Ill use a P5Q ... cause i want a COMPLETE bios. But the P5K was my second choice. or a P5QL or P5Q-SE that is 20-30$ cheaper VS a P5Q or PRO and other version.

my spelling (typing) sucks but at least you got the idea.

800mhz ram setting for 200mhz fsb is 1:2, 1:1 would be DDR2-400.

200fsb quad pumped to 800, with bios setting of ram at 800, results in 800mhz fsb, and 800mhz ram, a 1:1 setting. verified with memtest86+, cpuz, etc.

this is what i dislike about ddr, ddr2, etc.

My motherboard has the same ram optionns, (P5KPL-AM) and does wind me up abit, one day i will do a fsb pad mod to get around this.

the board is advertised as being oc friendly too, but it did cost 40 pound, so i gues the price explains the quality of the options

CryptokiD said:

This board has most of the settings anyone could need to overclock.

Click to expand...

Nice writeup. What do you think about claims that there is no PCI lock on this board and overclocking the FSB is also overclocking the PCI bus? If this is true, this is a serious flaw that limits your overclocking...

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/249235-29-asus-p5kpl-e5200-overclocking-problem

Ok, I picked up one of these boards and spent a few days trying to overclock it and here are some observations.

The board appears to have a FSB wall at 300. I put the memory at the slowest settings, cranked the CPU multiplier back to 6, and the highest I can get into windows with is 312, but it's not stable at all. 290 seems stable.

I think this lends some credibility to the theory that this board doesn't have proper PCI locks. Cranking up the FSB is also overclocking the PCI bus.

I tried the 1066 BSEL mod, which should trick the board into thinking the FSB is 266 instead of 200. It worked, and the board booted with the cpu at 3.3GHz (12.5 x 266), however it was HORRIBLY unstable. Even dropping the multiplier to 6 and lowering the memory speed didn't help. Keep in mind that the non-BSEL modded CPU works fine up to 290. I was hoping that it would open up some new memory settings or possibly tweak the timings or PCI locks in some way, but all it did was make the board crash repeatedly.

As for the FSB:memory ratio settings, there are only two offered other than the "AUTO" setting:

800MHz which is really 1:2
667MHz which is really 3:5

This means that when the FSB is 290...

1:2 setting - 290 FSB : 580 mem (YIKES!)
3:5 setting - 290 FSB : 483 mem

This means that you need to use DDR1066 (533MHz) memory and select the 3:5 option. It will be underclocked at 483, but that will proabably allow you to tighten up the timings a bit.

Incidentally, speaking of memory timings, they're hidden under the chipset-northbridge menu and the slowest settings available are 6-6-6-15, so keep that in mind when purchasing DDR1066 memory for this board.

When overclocking, the "AUTO" memory setting reads the SPD on the ram and sets the board FSB:mem ratio to the highest speeed it finds. Since most memory modules don't have SPD settings for DDR1066, you'll end up with the wrong timings and a 1:2 ratio every time. I don't recommend using AUTO unless you want to overclock the hell out of your memory.

Overall, it's not a bad little board for the price. With the right cheap CPU with a high multiplier like the E5200, and some name-brand DDR2-1066 memory, you can get about a 45% overclock out of it for about $180 total...

Newegg prices as of 6/22/09...
ASUS P5KPL-CM: $55
Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz: $70
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500): $55

i have seen screen shots of people who have more then just the 533 and 800 memory options, i believe they are using ddr2 1066 that is identified as 1066 and not just 800 like my crappy ocz fatal1ty ram. i have ocz ddr2 1066, but the bios and cpu-z identified it as 800mhz ram for some reason. (curse you ocz!)

it may also be from using a cpu that defaults to a higher fsb, like 266 etc. if you bsel mod a 200fsb cpu to 266 the bios still shows that it is a 200fsb cpu and treats it as such, except for not giving you more memory options.

hence why i mentioned you need GOOD ram to overclock this board. you need 1066 or better. i know there are people running this board over 400fsb (1600) with the right cpu and good ram.

CryptokiD said:

hence why i mentioned you need GOOD ram to overclock this board. you need 1066 or better. i know there are people running this board over 400fsb (1600) with the right cpu and good ram.

Click to expand...

I'm fairly certain that no memory on the planet, no matter how GOOD or FAST, will make this board magically go over 300 FSB with my CPU. There's something strange happening under the covers and I imagine that Asus did it deliberately to prevent people like us from doing what we're trying to do. They really don't want a $55 motherboard eating into their sales of enthusiast level $150+ motherboards.

Asus claims that it supports 1600(O.C.)/1333/1066/800 intel rated FSB, which is really 400/333/266/200 so the board HAS to be capable of going over 300 FSB somehow, but I think that the PCI bus ratio is somehow tied to the CPU detected and that is what is limiting our overclocking.

It's possible that running a CPU with native 266, 333, or 400 FSB that things will be different, though at that point you'd be spending a LOT more for the CPU which kinda defeats the purpose of buying this cheap board in the first place.

The board clearly has a wall at 300 FSB with my CPU. With both my CPU and RAM underclocked, I still can't get the FSB stable past 290, and even that's kinda iffy. Last night, I clocked it back to 280 FSB and ran a prime95 torture test for over 12 hours, so I'm pretty sure it's stable now.

CryptokiD said:

hence why i mentioned you need GOOD ram to overclock this board. you need 1066 or better. i know there are people running this board over 400fsb (1600) with the right cpu and good ram.

Click to expand...

Thanks for this info mate..I guess I need to replace my ram to push my e5200 further.
The problem is, a price of a good ddr2-1066 ram at my place is equal to E7500 processor..

where you at? maybe someone could send you over some ram.

CryptokiD said:

where you at? maybe someone could send you over some ram.

Click to expand...

I'm from Malaysia, and the shipping cost from US,UK or Euro to my country must be very high.

hi PPL!
my friend bought new computer so he gave me his old one! its not so old but!
the system is
C2D E6300 1.8Ghz 1066mhz
ASUS P5KPL-CM
4GB Kindstone DDR2 800 KVR800D2N5/2G
sapphire 4830 512mb DDR3
160GB HDD

i want to OC the processor to 2.5Ghz. what will be the best setting for me?

thanks all!

oleguss said:

hi PPL!
my friend bought new computer so he gave me his old one! its not so old but!
the system is
C2D E6300 1.8Ghz 1066mhz
ASUS P5KPL-CM
4GB Kindstone DDR2 800 KVR800D2N5/2G
sapphire 4830 512mb DDR3
160GB HDD

i want to OC the processor to 2.5Ghz. what will be the best setting for me?

thanks all!

Click to expand...

I tried a E7300 2.66GHz 1066fsb chip in my board and hit a FSB wall around 340.

Your CPU has a x7 multiplier, so I'd think that you should be able to hit 2.33 GHz (7 x 333) without too much trouble.

When I tried my 1066fsb chip, it opened up new memory ratios:

667 = 4:5
800 = 2:3
1067 = 1:2

As mentioned earlier in this thread, when overclocking on this board, you should use fast memory and the lowest memory ratio.

Here's how the ratios work out with the FSB at 333...

4:5 = 333 fsb : 417 mem (pushing it, but possible with your memory)
2:3 = 333 fsb : 500 mem (very unlikely with your memory)
1:2 = 333 fsb : 666 mem (not gonna happen)

If you want to try to overclock with your DDR2 800 memory, you're gonna probably have to manually set the memory timings to the lowest settings (which I think are 6-6-6-15) and pray a little. The memory timings are hidden under the chipset-northbridge menu. You may also need to give your memory a little more voltage. The default is 1.8V. 1.9V or 2.0V might help, but I'd be careful.

So in summary...

1) set the memory speed to the 667 setting
2) set the FSB to 300 to start, then work your way up from there

If it's unstable, it's probably the memory and you can try lowering the memory timings to the minimum and/or increasing the memory voltage SLIGHTLY.

Ultimately, I think your memory will prevent you from getting a decent overclock on this board. I'd consider getting this memory instead...
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK - Retail

krick
thanks!
im getting the computer as is! and don want to invest money in to that rig.
so basicly what i will get is a processor runing on lets say 2.4ghz but memory on 667? its doesn't worth to OC it. i will get the same. now this rig is getting ~10400 in 3dmark06

oleguss said:

krick
thanks!
im getting the computer as is! and don want to invest money in to that rig.
so basicly what i will get is a processor runing on lets say 2.4ghz but memory on 667? its doesn't worth to OC it. i will get the same. now this rig is getting ~10400 in 3dmark06

Click to expand...

Don't be confused by the 667 memory setting. That's just how they label the memory ratios (a.k.a. dividers) in the BIOS. The result is the same as overclocking on other boards and leaving the memory ratio set to "AUTO".

Your CPU will be running at 2.33GHz (an approximately 30% overclock) and your memory will be running at 834MHz. That is worth it in my opinion.

There are also "automatic" overclocking settings in the BIOS that you might want to try. I think the options are 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%.

krick
thanks. as soon as i will get the rig i will run some tests and will try OC it by the automatic oc.

got the computer today!
and some updates!
its not E6300 but E5200
so the system is:
DC E5200
ASUS P5KPL-CM
4gb ddr2 800 kingston
160GB HDD
350W PSU
the mother bord givs 30% OC so i'm getting about 3.2GHZ, not bad!
now instaling the WIN 7 64bit and will run some tests!
the only thing thats bother me is PSU! but it was runing stable on win XP and got about 10500 in 3dmark06!

oleguss said:

got the computer today!

350W PSU

the only thing thats bother me is PSU!

Click to expand...

Don't believe the hype. Unless you're running dual video cards and/or lots of hard drives, you don't need a high wattage power supply. As long as it's a well made power supply from a decent brand, 350W is more than enough for most people.