[Ballistix27]

hey guys its been a couple of years since I posted on this forum.

Just recently built a new system (check sig) but decided after several weeks of tweaking that I dont really like the P5n32-E SLi due to its lack luster OCing performance.

So I went and bought the P5K premium black pearl edition. I havent installed it yet cause I am wondering whether or not I should remove the heatsink system and install my northbridge water cooler in place of the stock one or remove the NB water block from my loop and just use the passive heat pipe system in place and just water cool my processor and GFX card.

if I decide to do water cooling I will probably have to cut the heat pipe system and replace the stock heatsink on the south bridge and if i do that I will void the warranty on the board like my last one

I guess my real question is, you think I will get a OC performance boost by water cooling the NB or not. Every little bit helps right?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, ive included pics of the p5k premium and of my current system.

Current rig



new motherboard

[Evilsizer]

no you wont see a boost in wcing the nb. i would just stick with whats on the mobo, cool the cpu only in the loop. the NB blocks add to much restriction, can affect the cooling of the cpu.

[jmorgan]

A NB block can allow you to run more voltage to the NB safely which can allow a higher overclock, it may not help though or you might get 10fsb more stable. It is not going to be a huge benefit and with the added restriction in your watercooling loop may hurt the overclockability of your cpu

[jason4207]

I agree w/ Evilsizer. Make sure to use the PWM fans that came w/ the MoBo for added cooling of the PWM's and NB. Throw a small fan on the NB if you want a little more cooling as well, since you're running 4 DIMMs. Water isn't necessary, though.

What's the pack date on that B3? If it's recent you might be looking at 3.6GHz out of that quad.

[Ballistix27]

The pack date on the CPU box is july 21, 2007

thanks for your help its greatly appreciated, but if i decide to keep the heat pipe system should I replace the thermal paste on the NB and SB with AC5 or is the stock paste good enough?

Also my ram timings are pretty good but I can only maintain 2T with 4 gigs with a voltage of 2.2v while with only 2 gigs i can get it to 1T same voltage. any suggestion on how to get my 4 gigs down to 1T? If not should I just run them with loose timings and high frequency?

[jason4207]

With that pack date you may get lucky and be able to OC pretty high.

I'd just leave the heatpipe system alone. Too much risk of bending the pipes all up when trying to get it off. The Intel NB doesn't run nearly as hot as the nVidia one you are used to.

Don't worry about 1T. It doesn't improve performance much if at all. I can't get 1T to work w/ 2GB on my system. I run my RAM 1:1 w/ the tightest timings possible. I like it this way better than higher frequencies w/ looser timings. I suggest you experiment and use what benches/works better.

[SiGfever]

I run my P5K Premium at 3.61Ghz @ 1.32v real. I only watercool my Q6600 GO. I used to watercool my NB with a MCW30 but this board does not seem to need it. I hung a fan off the two bottom cpu waterblock bolts to cool the NB.

[ALiEN2953]

runs fine in the rig i have in sig with stock cooling

[OnDborder]

Welcome to the Forum! http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=491697
I took all that heatpipe off. Used a couple of fans over the mosets and a modded nb cooler on the nb.
I didn't like all that gummy stuff on the mosets. I tried putting as5 on there but it wasn't making good contact.

[Ballistix27]

Well have the system up and running steady at 3.2ghz.

The only problem i am having is gettin my 2x500gig seagate Sata2 drives in a raid 0 config. I slipstreamed the latest drivers into my windows xp 64 install disk, as I do that have a floppy drive. But after it has transferred over the install files during installation and goes to start windows I get BSOD. now I know this is an issue with this board but i went with the assumption that it was only a western digital issue and had been taken care of in bios0402. i really like this board so far but I am missing the performance from my raid 0

Any help would be appreciated

[smudged]

Originally Posted by Ballistix27

Well have the system up and running steady at 3.2ghz.

The only problem i am having is gettin my 2x500gig seagate Sata2 drives in a raid 0 config. I slipstreamed the latest drivers into my windows xp 64 install disk, as I do that have a floppy drive. But after it has transferred over the install files during installation and goes to start windows I get BSOD. now I know this is an issue with this board but i went with the assumption that it was only a western digital issue and had been taken care of in bios0402. i really like this board so far but I am missing the performance from my raid 0

Any help would be appreciated

I could not get my Samsung drive to work in any configuration with the sata issue and ended up RMAing the board. Now just making my mind up between an ABIT i35 Pro and an ASUS x38 P5E.

[Ballistix27]

Well after a litle investigating it turns out I slipstreamed the wrong drivers

Got the latest 'proper' drivers from intel and have managed to get my raid 0 up and running, I should just get a floppy drive.....

Anyways when I have everything ready ill get back to you guys about OCing, can anyone link a OCing guide for this particular board just to help get me started. Thanks.

[Ballistix27]

Well i can t seem to find a guide anywhere using google anyone have a link?

[Evilsizer]

where are you at now? as far as guides you might look at www.xtremesystems.org for one in the intel section.

[Mustanley]

You can use a guide for just about any of the P5K series of boards.
Here are couple of good articles/guides.
http://xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboa...5k-deluxe.html
http://xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboa...overclock.html

[Ballistix27]

Sorry for not posting sooner i had a problem with my motherboard the other day I went to resit my processor and ended up crushing some pins on the socket so needless to say had to RMA it and went and bought anew one, while i was there i also picked up another q6600 G0 Slacr.

So far I must say Im really pleased with the performance, and would appear this CPU has alot of promise. Currently i have it running at 3.2 gigahertz at stock voltage and havent really had to touch any of the voltage options.










The only concern I have are the temps, given the fact its a quad core I realize they run really hot under load but is 50C ok? idle temps are 30 30 24 25. Which raises another question is it normal for CPU 1 and 2 to run warmer then teh last 2? here is a pic of my current water cooling set up.

[Evilsizer]

50c is better then what i have seen other quads running on water. they though were clocked higher then yours. with quads you want to keep the temp to a max of 72-74 imo, others may tell you just 70c.

[Ballistix27]

Well I intend to take it as far as I can go, Ill report back later, am going to try 3.4 at stock and see how it goes.

[Evilsizer]

Originally Posted by Ballistix27

Well I intend to take it as far as I can go, Ill report back later, am going to try 3.4 at stock and see how it goes.

then just oc till you see a max load temp of 72c in coretemp in orthos or prime95 testing.

[MadMan007]

Ballisitx - you're usin 'AUTO' vcore which isn't exaclty the same as stock vcore. Asus boards will increase the voltage as needed when set to auto. This can be seen in your CPU-Z screenshot (if it's correct) that the CPU is at ~1.304V. Try manually setting the vcore to whatever the boards defaults to at stock speed for a more realistic stovk vcore. You might not be able to do 3.2GHz with that though.