** The Official ASUS P5N-E SLI & Ultra 650i Thread **

[OC_A64]

OK - If I put my 'best' settings down for the E6600, could you do the same for the E6300 and then I would be grateful if anyone else who buys the board could test these settings? One of the things that really helps sell the Gigabyte boards is there are lots of sets of instructions on how to overclock them. If we can get that for the ASUS then I'll feel a lot happier about recommending it over the equivalent Gigabyte board.

Sure, will test with my 6600 in the board too once I've got some more time - nice idea too btw

 

[Kaiju]

Sure, will test with my 6600 in the board too once I've got some more time - nice idea too btw

Sorry for the quick hijack, but do you guys think these figures are do-able? (apologies WJA96, getting confused with all the readin' i'm tryin to process )

E6600 @ 3.6GHz (400x9)
Crucial 10th Ann PC6400 @ 3-3-3-8 Sync 1T
Asus P5N-E

 

[WJA96]

E6600 @ 3.6GHz (400x9) - YES
Crucial 10th Ann PC6400 @ 3-3-3-8 Sync - NO (4-3-3-8 maybe)
Asus P5N-E

 

[OC_A64]

E6600 @ 3.6GHz (400x9) - YES
Crucial 10th Ann PC6400 @ 3-3-3-8 Sync - NO (4-3-3-8 maybe)
Asus P5N-E

Agreed. You might get the crucial to run those tighter timings, but you'd probs need 2.4v or so. Will test at somepoint though

 

[Kaiju]

E6600 @ 3.6GHz (400x9) - YES
Crucial 10th Ann PC6400 @ 3-3-3-8 Sync - NO (4-3-3-8 maybe)
Asus P5N-E

Great, ok. So without going round in circles and going outside the thread topic, would you say the benefit of these tight timings over the OCUK value RAM @ 5-5-5-12 is too small to warrant the extra £60 running the CPU @ 3.6GHz?

Man, I need to lie down.

 

[trojan698]

Timings aren't nearly as important with C2D's as they were with the A64 platform, so although 4-4-4 seems bad in comparison to 2-3-2 or w/e, it's not as bad as it seems.

 

[Kaiju]

Timings aren't nearly as important with C2D's as they were with the A64 platform, so although 4-4-4 seems bad in comparison to 2-3-2 or w/e, it's not as bad as it seems.

Well say you stuck in a pair of PC7200 (900MHz effectively) in with a E6600. Would 450FSB with a 9x multiple be possible? That would be just over 4GHz!

What would be holding you back then? Cooling perhaps?

 

[Jumping]

Guys,

Would it be better to get an e6300 and buy a cooler like Arctic Cooling Freezer than the e6400?

Not sure I will OC that much but it is tempting to run OC again havent done that for years

I'm set on getting the P5N-E sli for sure as it seems to be best board for the money no questions asked. Also with DAAMIT now the driver tweak to allow crossfire on the P965 etc would Crossfire work on the P5N-E sli? Would be great if it could, not that I have two x1900 but who knows what the future brings

 

[Kaiju]

Would it be better to get an e6300 and buy a cooler like Arctic Cooling Freezer than the e6400?

The E6400 has a multiplier of 8x, the E6300 has a 7x multiplier. Depending on batch model, i'd either get the E6300 as a budget and take your chances with a high FSB if you want to overclock, or go all out and get the E6600 with a 9x multiplier which will hit 3.0GHz easy.

Cooler wise, a Artic Cooler will suffice if your not going to overclock like crazy. In that case, a Tuniq Tower would be your best bet. It's also worth noting that whichever Conroe CPU you choose, the heat from each at the same speed will be roughly the same. If your going to go over 3GHz, i'd recommend the Tuniq Tower.

 

[Jumping]

I dont really want a super noisy computer as my walls aren't that thick

Just had a quick look round retailers and saw one of bigger ones now has it in the list on pre order for £89inc so maybe its a sign that the proper retail boards are coming to UK if its true that the current available stock is grey import.

There is no way I can afford the 6600 so its between the 6400 and the 6300 so guess I will have to make up my mind on which to get shortly

 

[Kaiju]

I dont really want a super noisy computer as my walls aren't that thick

On the contrary, the Tuniq Tower is regarded as quiet. The fan is also swappable. The only real problem is the £35 price tag.

Good luck on the CPU.

 

[ArchAnGeL]

I know the shop you are on about and they are usually pretty expensive

try searching for asus p5n in the uk
perhaps there are retailers with a better price

 

[Jumping]

Hmm £35 thats quite a lot for a cooler. Does it fit the P5N-E sli ok?

I guess I could change the cooler in a couple of months if I want, is the arctic cooler much better than Intels stock cooler?

The Arctic 64 Freezer been working really nice on my old 3500+ so was hoping the Intel version would too.

 

[Jumping]

Yeah I know about the Froogle search seems there is only two companies left.

Most likely I will use the cheapest one that has it in stock as the other site is on preorder and as shown in the Abit 680 thread preorder can be a bit iffy and a bit of a stab in *** dark.

 

[OC_A64]

Reet, here are some initial results. Firstly, the pi times aren't tweaked etc OS was a clean install ~ 2 hours ago.
System setup:
P5N-E SLI (bios 0202 - came with board)
Core 2 E6300 "L628B" stock Intel cooling
2GB Crucial Anniversary 5300
OZC Powerstream 520w
ATI X300 SE

Additional cooling - 1 *120mm over ram/NB, 80mm over NB.
NB runs quite warm on this board, especially when cranking up the chipset voltage.

First test was to find the chipset strap change point. At 425/426 FSB, 1.438v was enough to pass 32m. At 423 FSB 1.748v was required. This + pi times suggest that the strap change is 423/424 FSB on this board. (see below shots)

Bottom 2 shots after strap change, first shot shows before. I'll run some 32m @ 424 FSB at somepoint to verify, along with Sandra tests.
What does this mean? Well it means above 425 FSB you're going to loose a little performance due to the loosened chipset latencies etc. This is similar to whats seen on the 965 boards at 400 FSB. Good news for E6600 runners though, gives you a little more headroom to play with!

Async clocking on this board seems to work fine. Haven't had any issues with memory clocking at all so far. Saying that, haven't really pushed for anything above 500 FSB - that's a job for tomorrow!

Here's the money shot. This was pretty much set and go, nothing special required.

32m is running now, will update once (if) its complete.

 

[Kaiju]

Here's the money shot. This was pretty much set and go, nothing special required.

That is indeed beautiful! Well done that man.

Just wanna reiterate my question in the last page.

"Say you stuck in a pair of PC7200 (900MHz effectively) in with a E6600. Would 450FSB with a 9x multiple be possible? That would be just over 4GHz!

What would be holding you back? Cooling perhaps?"

 

[WJA96]

Here's the money shot. This was pretty much set and go, nothing special required.

32m is running now, will update once (if) its complete.

I can only confirm what I was thinking yesterday. This guy will get a far better overclock out of this board than I could! That is so sweet. Congratulations! You must be REALLY pleased.

Right, well I think that pretty much conclusively proves that there's a new Sherriff in town

Did you know - you can actually buy the MSI 680i board with the change left over from the saving you make from buying the P5N-E SLI rather than the Abit 680i board? That's worth thinking about.

 

[WJA96]

That is indeed beautiful! Well done that man.

Yes, I don't think he can be congratulated enough - that's a stonking overclock on a brand-new board.

Just wanna reiterate my question in the last page.

"Say you stuck in a pair of PC7200 (900MHz effectively) in with a E6600. Would 450FSB with a 9x multiple be possible? That would be just over 4GHz!

What would be holding you back? Cooling perhaps?"

Sorry to be blunt, but the RAM speed is irrelevant to the overclock on the CPU. The RAM clocks completely independently of the CPU. Buy the fastest RAM you feel comfortable buying and stick it in. MOre RAM speed=more overall performance, but above PC6400 speeds you tend to be paying lots more money for less and less increase in performance. Think E6600 vs. E6700 as a good example. No-one buys the E6700 because it's a lot more expensive and not much faster.

In terms of is 450MHz FSB possible with an E6600. Maybe. All the chips seem to top out in the region of 3.6GHz on air. With this board you can build the ultimate cheapo performance rig;

1. E6300 OEM
2. Your choice of CPU cooler (but I like the AC Freezer 7 Pro for cheapo rigs)
3. OcUK PC6400 Value RAM
4. P5N-E SLi

So for £360 you have the core of a 3.5GHz SLi rig that would not disgrace a pair of 7900GTO's and will run almost any game at medium-high resolutions with almost all the eye-candy turned on. That's a really good deal.

 

[OC_A64]

I can only confirm what I was thinking yesterday. This guy will get a far better overclock out of this board than I could! That is so sweet. Congratulations! You must be REALLY pleased.

Right, well I think that pretty much conclusively proves that there's a new Sherriff in town

Did you know - you can actually buy the MSI 680i board with the change left over from the saving you make from buying the P5N-E SLI rather than the Abit 680i board? That's worth thinking about.

It's down to the CPU more than anything. Drop the multi on yours to 7 and I wager you'll see 500 FSB from it

In terms of clocking yea, this board aint bad. In terms of features (ie USB, audio ports etc) then the board is somewhat lacking. Guess thats what your expect from a sub 100 (or sub 70) quid board!

 

[easyrider]

Wonder how these clock with the quad cores?

wonder wether they have the FSB limitation of the 680i.

Might have to buy one to find out.

Unless WJA96 lets me test his