Testing P5N32-E SLI Plus, E6600 & Ballistix

I stuck this in the Intel section, even though I'm testing all three components listed. To say I'm unimpressed is an understatement.

I spent about 5-6 hours yesterday tweaking and it's led me nowhere. Here is my stable overclock and I'm hoping someone can give me some pointers. This CPU has been tested in my AB9-Quad GT and my P5W DH motherboards to hit 3.6ghz on air cooling at 1.475v. For some reason, it is not stable at all at 3.6ghz on here. So, I settled for 437.5x8 because I am not willing to run below 400mhz fsb with the 9x multi. Not happy. Also, this board has one HELL of a time running 1T on memory, even at like ddr2-700. I guess I'll give it more time tonight, but as of now...mediocre results at best. I've come to expect more from a near "flagship" board.



-Collin-

Reserved....

Tonight I'll try testing again with the 9x multi.

the board will limit you. I'd be suprised if you could get the processor to the same clocks as with the p965 boards. For the ram, i wouldn't be running it 1:1, and those ballistix should be able to get closer to 500mhz if not above, from what i've seen (iirc they are D9's, but you might want to double check that)

First, have you actually tried to increase the volts on the mobo? I have run it up to 400 FSB with stock volts but the Nvidia chips are known for needing more volts than Intel chips. They also run hotter, so good cooling will help a lot.

Second, I have tested my OCZ DDR2-800 RAM up to 950MHz, 4-4-4-12 (1T) so I don't see any "inability" or instability with 1T. Your RAM is probably not stable to begin with and has nothing to do with 1T. In fact in unlinked if my RAM is stable it doesn't matter what the rest of the hardware is doing, it has always been 100% rock solid for me.

Last, the Nvidia mobos are not as straight forward as Intel and they require more tweaking and fine tuning but they also give you more power over what you can do. You can't pop it in and expect to get the same results as other boards. You are going to have to play with it a lot more (I sure did).

GTengineer said:

First, have you actually tried to increase the volts on the mobo? I have run it up to 400 FSB with stock volts but the Nvidia chips are known for needing more volts than Intel chips. They also run hotter, so good cooling will help a lot.

Second, I have tested my OCZ DDR2-800 RAM up to 950MHz, 4-4-4-12 (1T) so I don't see any "inability" or instability with 1T. Your RAM is probably not stable to begin with and has nothing to do with 1T. In fact in unlinked if my RAM is stable it doesn't matter what the rest of the hardware is doing, it has always been 100% rock solid for me.

Last, the Nvidia mobos are not as straight forward as Intel and they require more tweaking and fine tuning but they also give you more power over what you can do. You can't pop it in and expect to get the same results as other boards. You are going to have to play with it a lot more (I sure did).

Click to expand...

re: Voltages...

Vcore is set to 1.475 (This might be the problem, I had NO idea that this board undervolted so much. Eva2000 on XS recommended using 1.525v set in bios for just 1.4v actual. I may need to increase this!)
All other voltages have been bumped .1v, then .2v. That did nothing. Ram is at 2.3v.

I've tried two sets of ram. My ballistix pc2-8000 and my teamgroup pc2-5300. Both of which are D9GMH and I've had excellent results before.

I'm not calling this board/chipset garbage, I just really wish I could figure out what is holding me back. Setting unlinked mode and 1000mhz for ram gets me no post. I know for a fact my ram can run that; both sets can. That's at 2t of course. I'm really scratching my head here trying to figure this out.

What voltage would be needed for 800mhz 1t at 3-3-3-8?

-Collin-

Ninja, my vcore undervolts a little but not nearly as much as that mentioned to you. (EDIT: I just searched through my old posts and found my vdroop in the BIOS is 0.02V)

Here is a sample OC on the board and E6600 with some results and volts:
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2104&page=5

I have seen others but I will have to go back and find them.

I will say this though, the 650i typically has a tougher time reaching the higher FSBs that the Intel chips reach however you should still be able to do 450 FSB for 8x450 just fine.

I would try leaving the RAM stock speeds (unlinked) first and focus on getting the CPU stable and later work on the RAM. Also since you are above 400 FSB, you may want to try changing the HT multiplier to 4, this is called "LDT Frequency" in the BIOS.

OK, I'll focus on CPU first. I think that's a good idea.

I already set the LDT multi to 3x. Is that not necessary? 4x will be ok at 450fsb?

-Collin-

One more thing, have you flashed to the latest BIOS.... (602) I think....?

There was a thread on xtremesystems and apparently there are/were some holes in the BIOS volts. Basically there are dead spots on the FSB where changes in volts has no effect.

NinjaZX6R said:

OK, I'll focus on CPU first. I think that's a good idea.

I already set the LDT multi to 3x. Is that not necessary? 4x will be ok at 450fsb?

-Collin-

Click to expand...

I was told to set it at 4 past 400 FSB, that is all I can tell you.

GT.....yes, I flashed to 0602. Was this not a good idea?

I hate being stuck at work! I want to go home and tame this beast of a motherboard!!!

What do you use to cool your northbridge? And what voltage do you use into the chipset?

My E6400 L629B just arrived, so I'm going to pull the E6600 and try my other CPU. It's going to be used in it anyway so I'd rather start with that.

-Collin-

I have my crucials running at ddr-1200 right now easy. So its not your ram. Im pretty sure you know that, but at 1200 speeds I use 2.29v.

NinjaZX6R said:

GT.....yes, I flashed to 0602. Was this not a good idea?

I hate being stuck at work! I want to go home and tame this beast of a motherboard!!!

What do you use to cool your northbridge? And what voltage do you use into the chipset?

My E6400 L629B just arrived, so I'm going to pull the E6600 and try my other CPU. It's going to be used in it anyway so I'd rather start with that.

-Collin-

Click to expand...

yes, you should be using BIOS (602)

My settings are useless to you because my E4300 seems to be temperature limited and it cannot go over 378 FSB without getting really hot. I has booted at 8x400 but not stable. But I have all my mobo volts set to the lowest voltages (not auto).

BTW I would just set the RAM unlinked to whatever speed you want it to. I have had trouble with the linked option setting the RAM to the wrong speeds.

for example if you want it 1:1 with FSB = 1600 (4x400) then set RAM unlinked to 800MHz.

If you do linked 1:1 it will set the RAM to 1600. I don't understand yet why this is but I truly think threre is a problem in the BIOS.

GTengineer said:

BTW I would just set the RAM unlinked to whatever speed you want it to. I have had trouble with the linked option setting the RAM to the wrong speeds.

for example if you want it 1:1 with FSB = 1600 (4x400) then set RAM unlinked to 800MHz.

If you do linked 1:1 it will set the RAM to 1600. I don't understand yet why this is but I truly think threre is a problem in the BIOS.

Click to expand...

I noticed the same things! What a pain.

To remedy that weird setting, set it to linked, and then instead of 1:1, set it to "sync" mode. Then 1600mhz fsb will result in 800mhz ram frequency and that'll work fine. Very strange.

-Collin-

Still having major issues even after installing my E6400. Both CPU's are known to do 3.6ghz just fine. So I tried all last night to run 450x8 and all of this morning before work as well. I set ram locked at 800mhz 3-3-3-10 and that was totally stable, passed memtest and 32m pi. So then I started going up with the FSB.

1600mhz (400) fsb is a no go. It must be a FSB hole. It doesnt get past the splash screen. So I upped it to 1700mhz fsb and that was fine...totally stable. Went to 1800mhz (450) and it almost made it to windows, but not stable.

I started upping voltages....

Went to 1.55v on vcore
Went to 2.4v on ram (shouldn't have any effect)
Went to 1.55v on HTT voltage
Went to 1.5v on NB
Went to 1.7v on SB
Went to 1.55 on CPU VTT

I increased these gradually and none had any effect. I then dropped the multiplier to 7x, and the board still was not stable at all. So this has to be the motherboard here, not the CPU.

What now? At least it's Friday and I can have a few beers to deal with my pain

-Collin-

hmmm

I have seen reviews where they hit 450 or more, and some guys at extremesys have reached 500. The only other thing I can think off is that maybe the NB is running too hot? These boards are known to run on the hotter side. Do you have the stock heat pipes or are you using any aftermarket?

From: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=131452&page=24
which I saw you posted on...

Referring to the NB:

it gets hot REALLY fast even with 1.5 volts.

if you want to do more than 450, i'd replace the stock NB with something better.

Click to expand...

I am currently water cooling on the NB but like I said my CPU is stopping me right now so unfortunately I cannot tell you if better cooling would actually help. At the very least you could remove the heat pipes from the NB and SB and clear off the crappy thermal pads or whatever they are called and reset them with arctic silver.

Hmm.....

It was FREEZING in my apartment this morning and I had a huge desk fan blowin into the case. My NB temp was at 32c, so I don't think that's the problem. I agree that better cooling is needed, but this really seems like I just got a bad motherboard.

-Collin-