ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus: NVIDIA's 650i goes Dual x16
by Gary Key on April 2, 2007 3:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Overclocking - E6300
We were able to reach a final benchmark stable setting of 7x495 FSB resulting in a clock speed of 3465MHz. We were able to run our OCZ Flex PC2-9200, OCZ Flex PC2-6400, and our Corsair PC2-8888 at the reported timings with a 1T Command Rate enabled with 2.250V. When overclocking we were able to run our standard OCZ Flex PC2-6400 at 1T command rates with very aggressive sub-timings. Vdroop was very good on this board during E6300 overclocking with an average drop of .02V during load testing with our E6300.
Testing with our new OCZ Flex PC2-6400 CAS3 (standard memory installed) and G.Skill F2-6400CL4D-2GBHK modules based on ProMOS IC chips resulted in great success on this board. The OCZ Flex PC2-6400 was able to run up to DDR2-850 speeds with timings at 3-4-3-9 1T at 2.250V and the G.Skill F2-6400CL4D at 4-3-3-9 1T at 2.20V. The remaining memory timings are set to Auto as is standard in our testing and manually adjusting these timings resulted in increased stability while overclocking while minimally decreasing performance in certain games and applications that are memory sensitive. We did notice in 4GB testing that we had to change our OCZ Flex PC2-6400 CAS3 memory timings to 3-4-4-10 2T at 2.275V for stable 24/7 operation in a variety of applications.
Overclocking - E6600
After trying numerous voltages and memory timings we discovered our 9x430 FSB setting was the limit for both our board and CPU. This resulted in a final clock speed of 3869MHz at 1.4750V which is the limit for our Tuniq 120 air cooler. We did find the typical FSB hole around 416FSB but did not notice the same issues we had with the 680i LT SLI having several FSB ranges that were unusable. We were able to post and complete benchmark testing at 435FSB but could not pass dual Prime95 at that setting. Vdroop was very acceptable but not great during overclocking with an average drop of .03V ~ .04V during load testing with our E6600. We generally found that without decent airflow around the CPU and memory locations that our maximum FSB was near 408 with this configuration.
We dropped the multiplier on our E6600 to seven and were able to reach the same 495 FSB level as with the E6300. We were able to enter XP at 7x515 but the board was not stable, and we could complete all benchmarks at 7x510 except for dual Prime95. At first we thought the board was locked at 500FSB but once again we found FSB holes but this time they ranged from 502 to 516. We noticed in overclock testing that we were able to extract an 1133 memory speed at 5-5-4-15 2T timings at 2.20V with our OCZ Flex PC2-6400. This matches the 680i LT SLI speeds at slightly better timings although performance differences were minimal with sub-timings set the same. We dropped in our OCZ Flex PC2-9200 and Corsair PC2-9136 modules with both being able to reach DDR2-1275 but at 5-5-5-18 timings compared to the 5-5-4-12 2T timings at 2.30V on the 680i LT SLI board. Memory performance and stability was superb once the board was dialed in.
| ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus Dual Core Overclocking |
|
| Processor: | Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Dual Core, 1.86GHz, 2MB Unified Cache 1066FSB, 7x Multiplier |
| CPU Voltage: | 1.4500V (default 1.3250V) |
| NB Voltage: | 1.45V |
| 1.2V HTT Voltage: | 1.40V |
| SB Voltage: | 1.50V |
| CPU VTT: | 1.25V |
| Cooling: | Tuniq 120 Air Cooling |
| Power Supply: | OCZ ProXStream 1000W |
| Memory: | OCZ Flex XLC PC2-6400 (2x1GB) |
| Video Cards: | 1 x MSI 8800GTX |
| Hard Drive: | Western Digital 150GB 10, 000RPM SATA 16MB Buffer |
| Case: | Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 |
| Maximum OC: | 495x7 (3-4-3-9 1T, 792MHz, 2.250V), CPU 1.4500V 3465MHz (+86% FSB/CPU) |
| . | |
 |
| Click to enlarge |
We were able to reach a final benchmark stable setting of 7x495 FSB resulting in a clock speed of 3465MHz. We were able to run our OCZ Flex PC2-9200, OCZ Flex PC2-6400, and our Corsair PC2-8888 at the reported timings with a 1T Command Rate enabled with 2.250V. When overclocking we were able to run our standard OCZ Flex PC2-6400 at 1T command rates with very aggressive sub-timings. Vdroop was very good on this board during E6300 overclocking with an average drop of .02V during load testing with our E6300.
Testing with our new OCZ Flex PC2-6400 CAS3 (standard memory installed) and G.Skill F2-6400CL4D-2GBHK modules based on ProMOS IC chips resulted in great success on this board. The OCZ Flex PC2-6400 was able to run up to DDR2-850 speeds with timings at 3-4-3-9 1T at 2.250V and the G.Skill F2-6400CL4D at 4-3-3-9 1T at 2.20V. The remaining memory timings are set to Auto as is standard in our testing and manually adjusting these timings resulted in increased stability while overclocking while minimally decreasing performance in certain games and applications that are memory sensitive. We did notice in 4GB testing that we had to change our OCZ Flex PC2-6400 CAS3 memory timings to 3-4-4-10 2T at 2.275V for stable 24/7 operation in a variety of applications.
Overclocking - E6600
| ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus Dual Core Overclocking |
|
| Processor: | Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Dual Core, 2.4GHz, 4MB Unified Cache 1066FSB, 9x Multiplier |
| CPU Voltage: | 1.4750V / 1.4500 (default 1.3250V) |
| NB Voltage: | 1.45V |
| 1.2V HTT Voltage: | 1.45V |
| SB Voltage: | 1.50V |
| CPU VTT: | 1.35V / 1.30V |
| Cooling: | Tuniq 120 Air Cooling |
| Power Supply: | OCZ ProXStream 1000W |
| Memory: | OCZ Flex XLC PC2-6400 (2x1GB) |
| Video Cards: | 1 x MSI 8800GTX |
| Hard Drive: | Western Digital 150GB 10, 000RPM SATA 16MB Buffer |
| Case: | Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 |
| Maximum CPU OC: | 430x9 (3-4-3-9 1T, 799MHz, 2.25V), CPU 1.4750V 3869MHz (+61%) |
| Maximum FSB OC: | 495x7 (3-4-3-9 1T, 792MHz, 2.25V), CPU 1.4500V 3465MHz (+86% FSB) |
| . | |
 |
| Click to enlarge |
After trying numerous voltages and memory timings we discovered our 9x430 FSB setting was the limit for both our board and CPU. This resulted in a final clock speed of 3869MHz at 1.4750V which is the limit for our Tuniq 120 air cooler. We did find the typical FSB hole around 416FSB but did not notice the same issues we had with the 680i LT SLI having several FSB ranges that were unusable. We were able to post and complete benchmark testing at 435FSB but could not pass dual Prime95 at that setting. Vdroop was very acceptable but not great during overclocking with an average drop of .03V ~ .04V during load testing with our E6600. We generally found that without decent airflow around the CPU and memory locations that our maximum FSB was near 408 with this configuration.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
We dropped the multiplier on our E6600 to seven and were able to reach the same 495 FSB level as with the E6300. We were able to enter XP at 7x515 but the board was not stable, and we could complete all benchmarks at 7x510 except for dual Prime95. At first we thought the board was locked at 500FSB but once again we found FSB holes but this time they ranged from 502 to 516. We noticed in overclock testing that we were able to extract an 1133 memory speed at 5-5-4-15 2T timings at 2.20V with our OCZ Flex PC2-6400. This matches the 680i LT SLI speeds at slightly better timings although performance differences were minimal with sub-timings set the same. We dropped in our OCZ Flex PC2-9200 and Corsair PC2-9136 modules with both being able to reach DDR2-1275 but at 5-5-5-18 timings compared to the 5-5-4-12 2T timings at 2.30V on the 680i LT SLI board. Memory performance and stability was superb once the board was dialed in.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
37 Comments
View All Comments
R3MF - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
this mish-mash of different chipsets probably works fine under windows, because asus will provided a tailored nVidia driver to ensure it works.but they have always been rubbish at providing a linux variant of the proprietary systems design.
can i use the standard release nVidia linux chipset drivers to use this board under linux?
if the answer is 'no' then this board is garbage.
Gary Key - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
This board uses the standard NVIDIA 680i driver set in XP and Vista. I had no issues loading SUSE 10.2 on the board but did not test it extensively with RAID or other options. The ADI audio worked but not as well as the Realtek offerings on other boards.yacoub - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
but only for you and the other handful of folks in that situation...yyrkoon - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
Yes, and no. Because users are fed up with MS/WIndows/Vista, a lot of users are making the plunge into Linux.Anyhow, it is the softwares responcability to comply with the hardware, not vice versa(to a point that is, obviously the hardware does need to comply with each specification, IE SATA, IDE, x86, etc.), if Linux is to be taken seriously, the Linux dev teams NEED to write a module for every possible chipset out there . . . if not, then well, you will have what you currently have right now, an OS, that does not support near as many hardware configurations, as Windows does.
Linux is a fun OS, and great for certain situations, but when you have problems like those caused by udev, and whatever else, you can not help but feel like it is not complete. Granted, the Linux dev teams for each distro, is usually much smaller than the teams that write code for Windows. End results however, tend to make this user feel as though Linux is a toy OS, with lots of work still needed. Ubuntu, is good for some situations, and a cutting edge Distro such as SabayonLinux, is also not without its quirks(but 'feels' very simular to Windows Vista.).
The end result is: what do *you* expect from a free OS ? Personaly, I like each, for different reasons, but still consider Windows to be the only real serious OS, mainly because of support for many, if not nearly all forms of hardware. Look and feel also are a consideration, but Linux has been closing the gap here, for a long time now.
Anyhow, that 'handful of users' is growing day by day, and is not really a 'handful' any more.
MrWizard6600 - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
I could really use to see one. I don't see the differances between this board and a regualar 680i chipset, aside from the northbridges being different (which you would think would impact total PCI-e lanes but... apparently not..).so can you put together a map?
sWORDs - Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - link
Check this post, it's a dutch forum, but the first second and third table are english, and those are the ones you need.http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/...">http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/...
Gary Key - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
Let me see what we can create tomorrow.