Vrykyl's 920 & Asus p5wdg2-ws Adventure

[Vrykyl]

Ok, so I originally sold off my x2 3800+ and dfi mobo after months of instability and headaches, in favour of my new 920d system. The cpu was purchased around xmas time if I remember, and is from the exact same batch as our very own Sentential's 920 chip. However, due to a distinct lack of funs the project has sat on hold until this month, when after buying one part at a time as money came in, I finally had all I need for a complete pc

So what do we have now? Well my 920 at the ready, iv backed it up with a 700w FSP psu, 2gb pqi pc5400, 256mb 7800gtx and an Asus p5wdg2-ws mobo... why? as here in the uk the WS was only £20 more expensive than the p5wd2-e, and the ws 8 phase power was supposed to be much better, so i figured id pay a little extra and get a bit more.... Wrong!!
That said, let the overclocking begin!

Cooling is a Storm g4 block, maze4 gpu, d5 pump and a thermochill pa120.2 rad with 2x silent fans..... idle temps at stock speed/volts was 28*c CPU and 27*c GPU
However stock load temps were more like 40*c CPU and 33*c GPU...

So...the mobo...where shall I start? the 8 phase power maybe? it seems to be a joke - the vcore on this mobo is rediculous...its all over the freakin place, and its a constant battle to get just the right setting to not overvolt at idle, but not drop to low at load! At stock speeds and stock 1.3v set in the bios I was reading 1.38v idle in windows, and a perfect 1.3 / 1.31v load (thats via software AND a multi meter...the software is pretty accurate at voltage reading!). Stock temps were MUCH better after i reduced the bios vcore to 1.275v...giving 1.272v load and 1.33v idle...
Also, the mobo wont restart (a common WS problem) - if you tell windows to restart it shuts down and turns off. If you go into the bios and hit 'save changes and reboot' it simply turns off - it saves the changes, but it doesnt restart. Noone knows why...Asus can probably fix it if they could be bothered.
Oh, the WS advertises the fact it has 8 sata ports, and that you can raid 4 of them - WRONG, you actually cant - there are NO raid drivers for the chip theyre using yet that I can find, and according to asus support they have no idea if there ever will actually be any. Also, the dual onboard lan can only be enabled using a new beta driver, which atm is causing me a ton of grief.
Bios updates also seem to be non existent, and oh boy does this board need some.

But enough of the moaning about the board...other than these problems at least it seems to be a stable board (compared to my 4 dead dfi mobos) once youve figured the oddities out.

Sooooo, time to OC the cpu I read a ton of guides, and threads on XS about the mobo - i figure out the bios settings I do and dont want, and thanks to an asus support forum thread written by a member of the public (as Asus support is RUBBISH) I find what the best stock settings are, and where to start overclocking. I also get a mate over who knows a thing or to about intel OC'ing to give me a hand as this is my first 775 setup.
Encouraged by everyone elses decent overclocks on air, let alone water we go for a modest 3.5ghz - 1.275v in bios, 250fsb 1:1 with ram (@1.8v 4-4-4-12)... its dual prime stable for as long as you like, 1.34v idle with vcore dropping to 1.264 load. Then try for 4ghz - i just couldnt help myself 290fsb and 1.4v set in bios (1.46v idle, 1.36v load)... run prime and one core fails imediately...the other will run for as long as you want. Same goes for 4.2 and 4.4ghz - one core will prime for hours...the 2nd fails straight away...even with higher volts the 2nd core wont seem to stablise. I can only theorise that 1.45v load might make it stable...but thatl be giving it 1.55v + idle...something I wont do given current temps and streak of bad luck.

I dont have the skills to vmod this board to stop this stupid droop, so Iv just got to make the most... ATM im running at 3.8ghz (270ish fsb) and 1.3v in bios (1.35v idle, 1.26v load) and both cores are dual fully prime95 stable... temps are 30*c idle and 45-47*c load gtx loads at 33/34*c in the same loop...
do those temps seem right? the fans on the rad are at full 12v and really quiet...supposedly 45ish cfm...they certainly push plenty of air thru the rad.

Benchmark wise this chip is embaressing, pulling in much lower superpi / sisoft sandra / 3dmrk (all versions) / pcmrk / aquamark scores than my old x2 at 2.8ghz... even tho my gpu is now clocked much higher than it used to be. Hell, this chip at 3.8ghz has yet to beat anything my old x2 ever scored...

I can get a conroe ES chip if I want, but my mobo doesnt support it and my source for the cpu couldnt get me a compatible mobo very easily...plus this setup and endless bad luck has broken the bank completely.

So what do you folks suggest? any hints/tips/pointers or general advice? or just any comments youd like to make?

cheers!

 

[Ross]

the WS was only £20 more expensive than the p5wd2-e, and the ws 8 phase power was supposed to be much better

Should've just asked here and we could've saved you the headache Asus 975 boards aren't the greatest for a lot of things it seems and there's a lot of the same complaints you are making about them around. The Vc over-volt at idle is SOP on all Asus boards, so don't feel too bad about that, but there is definitely a more substantial droop on that WS at load than the 955 boards though. Unfortunately, a droop mod is the only way to fix both the over/under volt.

Your idle temps look good. I am a little surprised there's that much delta for the load temps on water at that clock/Vc if your idle temps are that low, but I wouldn't say they are out of the ballpark. I might expect more like a 10-12C increase between idle/load there, but it's been a while since I ran on WC, so I don't remember my exact numbers. Let me ask: when you applied the thermal paste, how did you do it? A little dab in the middle doesn't work as well since the cores are physically separated on the Presler (side-by-side, not on one chip dead center). I draw a little + in the middle and set the HSF, WB, evap, DI tube, etc. and then torque it down.

Intel dual cores are worse at SPi than single cores (which still aren't as good as AMDs) and 3.8GHz is pretty slow to be comparing to any AMD, LOL. I can't catch Maxi's 3.7GHz FX-57 even at 5.7GHz on a single core. Keep in mind that the handling of mem is much different than your x2. Benches won't be really improve until you can OC and get the FSB higher. Pretty much everything (most importantly mem), goes through the FSB so high FSB is crucial to performance on Intels.

It's like everyone and their mama has access to Conroe already, LOL. I passed on one last week precisely because of no mobo availability

 

[proth]

@VK. It pretty clever that you isolated it down to 1 core that seems to be the slacker. The whole Presler line has been very inconsistant for OC performance and similar batch codes mean nothing. My 930 was 5GHz AIR stable and I wasn't satisfied and my noobness forced me to rip the IHS off in order to get better performance, and killed the chip. Ross bought his 1st 930 hours after mine, from the same vendor and it was a dog, same lot, same batch code. I've been through 4 of them and never found one that could hit 4.7GHz stable. I hate to say it, but the luck of the draw has worked against you.

Asus really screwed up with the crap power system on the the entire P5WD2 series, including the 'E' and especially the 'WS' with claims of 8 phase power. There have been no positive comments on the WS and you're droop seems to be inline with others. A droop mod will help stability, but probably will not get you to 4GHz.

Really sorry about your problems, especially after coming over from AMD. My recommendation would be to cut your losses and eBay, or sell on the forum and wait for Conroe. The setup you have is rock solid for someone that isn't an OC freak and will make someone very happy. Keep in mind that Presler prices will drop soon, making the resale value of what you have now even lower..

 

[Vrykyl]

Yeah, Asus have been pretty sucky this time round I see...one of the main reasons that I went with the WS, aside from '8 phase power', was that my conroe source said that conroe was going to be compatible with i975...so I figured the mobo was future proof (with pci-x/raid/8phase etc) and that the cheap 920 would tide me over...turns out i975 WILL support conroe, but only revison2...boards coming june time - so my WS isnt gonna work. Seems only good thing iv got is the ram!

Ross - yeah the world and his wife seems to be able to get conroe...i can get a 4mb ES chip now, or iv been told in a few weeks i can get a 6mb ES... lol, but no mobo!

Proth - took me a few days but yup, one core is definately bad...the other clocks just how id hoped it would, but the 2nd is just rubbish.

Seems my board will have to stay as it is for the mo, as whilst selling it would be nice, iv got work to do this month and would need a pc to use whilst this ones down...iv waited 4 months to put this together - and tbh its a bit lame. I cant wait another 2 months with no pc to get a conroe mobo.
I dont have the skill to vdroop mod this board, or the cash to replace it if i screw up..
and I REALLY wish these intel chips had a downward unlocked multi...x14 is killing my fsb atm...even with the ram clocked up on a divider its not making any real benchmark difference, so im stuck at 270fsb 1:1 - a nice big waste of pc5400

Can anyone confirm whether my temps are right? I applied as5 evenly over the entire ihs...applied the storm block then checked contact - a perfect ihs square...so the block is mounted correct. D5 is at max speed, and the storm is the first thing in the loop - given that my gtx is vmodded (not by me, I bought it like that) and its getting hot water from the storm, my gtx is loading at 34*c...so maybe my IHS was stuck on by the trainee?

 

[xTrEmEoVrClOcKr]

You could possibly sell your P5WDG2-WD and just buy a P5WD2 Premium, since the P5WD2 is an insanely good board. 0 Flaws so far for me.

 

[Stratus_ss]

I totally agree with xtreme
the P5WD2 is a fantastic board and with some decent ram coming (thanks xtreme ) I expect to get to 4.1 ghz on my 820

I have had 0 complaints with Asus over the last several years on both amd and intel systems. But I guess everyone can make mistakes eh?

 

[xTrEmEoVrClOcKr]

Well thank you Stratus . But like I said, that 920 will give you fantastic results on a Premium. You might as well take the plunge .

 

[batboy]

If I were in your situation, I'd probably wash my disappointment down with a favorite beverage and wait until the mobos that support Conroe become available.

 

[Vrykyl]

cheers batboy
can you confirm what sort of temps your getting on your WC system?

It really does seem iv got one bad core...guess it serves me right at the end of the day, shouldnt have craved more! Anyone know where I can get a conroe mobo from

 

[Ross]

Anyone know where I can get a conroe mobo from

If I knew that, I'd have one Some reference G965s are floating around, but I am waiting for P965 (no integrated graphics) or a real honest-to-goodness 975 Conroe board. I know the updated Intel BadAxe boards will be out soon, but they're not exactly near the top of my list for boards I'd use. I really don't know when other brands will be available in retail...probably not within the next month and maybe not even until closer to when Conroe will be released.

 

[thegreek]

If I knew that, I'd have one Some reference G965s are floating around, but I am waiting for P965 (no integrated graphics) or a real honest-to-goodness 975 Conroe board. I know the updated Intel BadAxe boards will be out soon, but they're not exactly near the top of my list for boards I'd use. I really don't know when other brands will be available in retail...probably not within the next month and maybe not even until closer to when Conroe will be released.

do you know if the 985 boards will be released at the same time conroe is released?

 

[Ross]

Very, very doubtful. *Maybe* sometime around October at the earliest. They are only needed for the Conroe XE and Kentsfield which won't be released til the end of the year in the case of XE and Q1 '07 for Kentsfield. Since we haven't heard a peep about them at all other than being in roadmaps, there's no reason to believe they will be out at initial Conroe release or very soon after.

 

[batboy]

can you confirm what sort of temps your getting on your WC system?

I get about 42 degrees full load CPU temp with my rig at 4.5 gig. But, I'm using an Abit AW8 mobo which I think has less than accurate temps.

 

[Vrykyl]

So my temps seem about right then, even if idle/load differences are quite high...
can anyone let me know what kinda benchmark scores theyre getting at 4ghz?

and does anyone have any links to good vdroop mod pics/guides for the p5wdg2-ws? as I cant find any....