Stability on M2N-SLI Deluxe

Well, reformatted to clear OC failure garbage and was stable until I installed
AI Booster & AI Gear, then reboot looping, crashing- unstable even at
completely stock settings. Uninstalled these, used system restore point and now setting from
bios only. After 7 hrs. of running with many test reboots and shutdowns
now am very stable again!! PCI bus now locks properly and remains so. I'm
going to keep rig running all day and will report back in several hrs.(0307bios)
Temps. are 29*idle @2600 Mhz. Haven't run fully loaded much yet, still a
little tentative until lots more hrs. but hasn't gone over 40* load.

Stebly said:

Well, reformatted to clear OC failure garbage and was stable until I installed
AI Booster & AI Gear, then reboot looping, crashing- unstable even at
completely stock settings. Uninstalled these, used system restore point and now setting from
bios only. After 7 hrs. of running with many test reboots and shutdowns
now am very stable again!! PCI bus now locks properly and remains so. I'm
going to keep rig running all day and will report back in several hrs.(0307bios)
Temps. are 29*idle @2600 Mhz. Haven't run fully loaded much yet, still a
little tentative until lots more hrs. but hasn't gone over 40* load.

Click to expand...

I'm back! been running constantly since last post, had a couple very minor
issues, small mem freeze when i had about 6 different things running, small
volt adjustment fixed it. Now at 2640 Mhz. same 29*idle, STILL STABLE
I'm becoming a tad optimistic that I'm finally beginning to get a handle on
this board and cpu. Setting from bios only from now on. What a difference
in performance from trying to do this with Windoze Apps. NO MORE.

So far the most stable bios for me on this board is 0307 also. At 2.7ghz(245x11) stable for 37 hr. Only thing I hate about this board is the overvolt that Asus has on its boards. Would be nice if you could disable it. I have to set the mobo vcore for the cpu to 1.4875 to achieve this clock. Worried about goin any higher because of temps. Right now max is 56c under prime95 large ftt test. (cpuz reports vcore at 1.376)


Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 65w [email protected] 245x11 1.4875v
Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe
Corsair DDR2 XMS2 2x512mb pc2 5400@395mhz
Zalman CNPS9500 LED
Sapphire Radeon x1600 Pro 512mb@621/837

gmony01 said:

So far the most stable bios for me on this board is 0307 also. At 2.7ghz(245x11) stable for 37 hr. Only thing I hate about this board is the overvolt that Asus has on its boards. Would be nice if you could disable it. I have to set the mobo vcore for the cpu to 1.4875 to achieve this clock. Worried about goin any higher because of temps. Right now max is 56c under prime95 large ftt test. (cpuz reports vcore at 1.376)


Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 65w [email protected] 245x11 1.4875v
Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe
Corsair DDR2 XMS2 2x512mb pc2 5400@395mhz
Zalman CNPS9500 LED
Sapphire Radeon x1600 Pro 512mb@621/837

Click to expand...

Hi, I didn't think that there is an overvolt on this board. I've been running
at 2620 Mhz with 1.32vcore while keeping an eye on stability. While I have
ran stable @2740 it took 1.46v to achieve this. Still sorting out max ht and
max external freq. Anyone know of an accurate vcore tool? I get different
readings on all (cpuz,AI booster which i don't use anymore,pc wizard,asus
probe). Your 1.4875vcore and temps seem to be near dangerous levels for
air cooling. Any old-timers care to comment please? These 65watt cpu's
should keep away from 50*+ temps. I've started over on my OC'ing and
am using minimum vcore & vdimm for each bump, leaving 3-4 days between
1Mhz increase. Yes, the 0307 bios is the most stable for now, but Asus
really has to issue a better one, hopefully soon. My temps @[email protected]
(219x12) are 29*idle - 40*-42*load. After 2 months burnin, voltages for any
given speed have dropped. Not in such a hurry now, am raising speeds
slowly.

Yes i'm dissappointed with my temps also. I replace my stock heatsink with the Zalman 9500 and the temps went no where but minus 1 or 2 degrees C. I have the HSF facing forward so it will exhaust air back towards the rear exhaust fan. Any suggestions? Yeah the vcore thing is an issue. When set to auto the max clock I can achieve is 2450.

gmony01 said:

Yes i'm dissappointed with my temps also. I replace my stock heatsink with the Zalman 9500 and the temps went no where but minus 1 or 2 degrees C. I have the HSF facing forward so it will exhaust air back towards the rear exhaust fan. Any suggestions? Yeah the vcore thing is an issue. When set to auto the max clock I can achieve is 2450.

Click to expand...

I've stopped using auto but I could reach 2500-2520 stock vcore. Also, not
using any apps. for OC'ing only BIOS. Ht is an issue on my board, if I exceed
about 1050 I crash. Have set ht x4. As well, at 11x multi cannot boot or reboot above 338 Mhz. which is too bad as the performance at higher freq. at
slightly slower external clock is better. After a heads up from experts here on
the forums about high vcore settings and temperatures I started over and
decided to discover absolute minimum voltages needed for any OC above 2500.
Surprised to find that I'd been setting vcore & vdimm higher than needed.
How long have you been running this chip & memory? (wish I knew precise
vcore- need accurate tool) At least CoreTemp helps me keep track of where
temps. go with each slight increase in speed or volts. You might have to
back everything off and start over now that you've been running awhile.
Above 1.4 vcore those temps really takeoff. The temps alone may cause
small errors leading to freezes and crashes, or the voltage might kill something. The only way to get your temps down with your Zalman cooling
being good quality, is drop vcore and try different settings. When I started
to use bios and no other OC'ing apps that's when I started to see some
stability. Still new at this, need some old-timer's advice. Keep us posted.
edit; when I got up and running I asked what would be safe vcore for 24/7
with AIR cooling and was advised that ><1.45v probably was max.
My SLK3000B case has great ventilation with rear 120mm fan, still room for front 120 as well,
do you have room for more fans? How's the board temp doing?
I've left all pci, pci-e, ldt volts stock.

I see what you sayin Stebly. But theres one thing that isn't takin heavily into consideration. We need more comparison for OC'ed Windors that are 65w on the forum. Most info you find if any on dual cores are are analysis of 939 dual cores. Also I checked sumthin out with the vcore settings. If I set the bios vcore to 1.35 the Hardware Monitor and AI Booster detects it at 1.41. Cpuz detects it at 1.256. Very weird. All said and done, at default vcore cpuz is at 1.25, but for me to be stable at 2.7ghz CPUZ detects it at 1.32-1.37. A problems here is to find a safe vcore which do you follow? Do you say to yourself "OK CPUZ is right, the MOBO is wrong, I still have space to go higher" or "Bios monitor and AI Booster are correct and you're getting close to the edge". I've asked this question before around here and I never get a definite answer, or no one know. Also I was told by many experienced ppl that ASUS has a tendency to overvolt there board for performance.

gmony01 said:

I see what you sayin Stebly. But theres one thing that isn't takin heavily into consideration. We need more comparison for OC'ed Windors that are 65w on the forum. Most info you find if any on dual cores are are analysis of 939 dual cores. Also I checked sumthin out with the vcore settings. If I set the bios vcore to 1.35 the Hardware Monitor and AI Booster detects it at 1.41. Cpuz detects it at 1.256. Very weird. All said and done, at default vcore cpuz is at 1.25, but for me to be stable at 2.7ghz CPUZ detects it at 1.32-1.37. A problems here is to find a safe vcore which do you follow? Do you say to yourself "OK CPUZ is right, the MOBO is wrong, I still have space to go higher" or "Bios monitor and AI Booster are correct and you're getting close to the edge". I've asked this question before around here and I never get a definite answer, or no one know. Also I was told by many experienced ppl that ASUS has a tendency to overvolt there board for performance.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I never knew about Asus' overvolting. But yes, I too still have not heard
a damn thing about how to tell which volt reading is accurate! Do we have to
learn to use a multimeter and read from contacts on the board??? How about
it you veterans, I'm sure SOMEONE must know. I'd like to OC safely and not
fry my chip in the process. BTW that's a nice clock on your chip, just like
to see same clock at safer settings, we're trying our best with limited knowhow.
I've used the same programs as you and have the same DIFFERENT readings
between all of them. Not enough info on 65watters yet, agreed 100% !!!
If someone could at least tell us an averaged # from say, cpuz and Asus
Probe or board monitor it would help big time.
I believe AlabamaCajun may have a Windsor thread.
Yeah, just checked-under AMD cpu's... Windsor stepping thread, might start from there, he's good guy
Quite knowledgeable.(page 3, I think)