Penryn PC?

[python134r]

Bios 0504, I have the same board and cpu. You can run onboard raid0 on these boards with no problem with sata drives, I am with 2 raptors, however some wd 7200 rpm sataII drives have firmware issues with the ICH9R southbridge, Great board, great cpu...mmmmgood!

[+PeterUK MVC]

Bios 0504, I have the same board and cpu. You can run onboard raid0 on these boards with no problem with sata drives, I am with 2 raptors, however some wd 7200 rpm sataII drives have firmware issues with the ICH9R southbridge, Great board, great cpu...mmmmgood!

The problem is finding a board that has an old Bios to see if the 45nm CPU's work without the newest and 0504 is the newest Bios for the P5K Premium.

[alsheron]

The problem is finding a board that has an old Bios to see if the 45nm CPU's work without the newest and 0504 is the newest Bios for the P5K Premium.

I don't get it..... Wheres the benefit? Updating the BIOS on these mobos is made very easy so if the newer one works why bother with the old version?

[Keito]

I don't get it..... Wheres the benefit? Updating the BIOS on these mobos is made very easy so if the newer one works why bother with the old version?

Asus' site states that the P5K series support 45nm CPU's after a BIOS update... I made a topic about this a week ago but got no response on it :(

basically; will the 45nm chip work without the latest BIOS so you can flash to the latest BIOS and unleash it's full power. I didn't want to hijack your thread this much, so I didn't pose the question this directly, but well, it went in this direction so here it is.

[alsheron]

Asus' site states that the P5K series support 45nm CPU's after a BIOS update... I made a topic about this a week ago but got no response on it :(

basically; will the 45nm chip work without the latest BIOS so you can flash to the latest BIOS and unleash it's full power. I didn't want to hijack your thread this much, so I didn't pose the question this directly, but well, it went in this direction so here it is.

It flipping well better work because I bought this board specifically to work with a 45nm chip. For all my research, it's the best DDR2 motherboard available. I will not be impressed if it's hobbled or crippled in any way when I build my comp tomorrow (hopefully).

Is it likely that ASUS will release BIOS updates for this board (P5K Premium Wifi Black Pearl)? Anyone know when it was released?

[+PeterUK MVC]

Is it likely that ASUS will release BIOS updates for this board (P5K Premium Wifi Black Pearl)? Anyone know when it was released?

They have the new BIOS released for updating and that's the thing will an older BIOS work out the box with a 45nm CPU or must it have the newest BIOS to work with 45nm CPU's.

[alsheron]

I literally have everything except the case now!

Quick question: Are the motherboard mounting screws meant to be supplied with the case or the motherboard? I got none with the motherboard.... :(

[rajputwarrior]

they are with the case

[alsheron]

they are with the case

Thanks! Was getting a bit worried..... :)

[alsheron]

Yay! :D Running on my new system right now! The build took HOURS but was worth it in the end. For the folks wondering about the BIOS version stuff, I took a few photos and will update tomorrow with some of them and CPU-z screens. I have a couple of questions about the BIOS and memory and stuff.

One thing I'd like to know: I set up a RAID0 using the Intel Matrix Bios settings and installed Vista fine. It's all up and running perfectly, although I now have a HUGE 500GB system partition. I noticed in the Intel Matrix settings in the BIOS, you can choose different settings for the size of the set up. Is this where you set up multiple partitions or is is done with a partition manager separately AFTER using the Intex Matrix manager? I want to set a system partition of about 100gb and the other 400gb separately.... Anyone know how this is done using RAID0?? :) Oh, and which is better, the Intel Matrix Manager or the Jmicron one?

[RAID 0]

You have to partition the drives durning the Vista install.

[alsheron]

You have to partition the drives durning the Vista install.

Is there any way of doing this without re-installing Windows or destroying data?

[+PeterUK MVC]

Is there any way of doing this without re-installing Windows or destroying data?

Not sure if PartitionMagic (not free) can work on RAID...

[Ikshaar]

Thanks for the thread... i am on hold trying to choose which MB to go with an e8400. Tempted by Abit IP35Pro. Seems enough for me and uGuru seems cool to push a bit the speed.

As for your RAID0:

- Be sure you need the RAID0 considering you are doubling your chance of losing your system and data if any of the drives fail. FYI I usually prefer the setup of one system disk and one data disk (games included) - which allow you a quick reinstall of windows. Plus software raid are dependent on drivers - which makes switching OS more difficult.

- Vista has a partition resize utility (which I DON'T recommend !!). Screwed my disk partitions last time I used it.

- Cleaner way is to restart from scratch - sorry.

[alsheron]

Oh well.... :(

I'm having MAJOR problems with my new set up. Major, as in just the one problem really (Vista installation problems are separate i think)

After I set up my two 250GB drives in a RAID0 using the utility in the BIOS (CTRL-I), I boot from the Vista DVD which picks up the new RAID0 volume fine..... perfect i think, and proceeded to install Vista.

It all goes well, and Vista boots fine and seems to be working fine and fast for a while, a few reboots.

Then BAM! I get an error message (this has happened about 4 times altogether now) saying "Offline Member" (or something very similar) and the system, as you would expect, will not boot. (Is there any way to get the drives back "online"? The Intel utility seems to miss this vital feature since it doesn't say "failed" like I saw once.

After a bit of investigation, it seems that the cause of this is NOT an error with the Intel Matrix set up, the RAID0 volume OR the Hard Drives. What's actually happening I found is that whenever the RAID0 has gone "offline", it's always after i've rebooted the system or shut down and turned back on.

A very interesting message on screen at this point is "Overclocking failed", which in turn seems to set the BIOS to default values for everything, which in turn BREAKS the RAID0 volume.

As far as I know, i'm not overclocking at all, although (and this is where i'll need a bit of advice from someone more skilled/experienced in this area) I have set my memory to run at DDR2-1066Mhz in the BIOS because that's what it's rated at. In fact, apart from this, I cannot think what else might be causing the problem other than a faulty mobo, memory or cpu etc, although this seems unlikely, because otherwise the system runs fine. It's only on a reboot or shutdown (maybe had one improper shutdown) where it re-sets the BIOS.

When this happened last night, I decided to leave ALL the BIOS settings at default, including the memory speed settings. I'm going to do some more testing with this setting left as it is, but what's annoying is that the BIOS defaults to DDR2-667 speed when it powers on with the RAM speed set to AUTO.

I'm hoping someone will confirm that this instability will improve with BIOS updates and that because i'm running a new CPU, this sort of thing goes with the territory until Asus get things properly stable?

I've even thought the Motherboard battery could be crappy and that's why it's losing all it's settings, but the message "Overclocking failed" seems to point squarely at the memory.

If I can stop the motherboard losing all it's settings, i can prevent losing the RAID0 set up. Thankfully, i keep entire partition backups using Acronis TrueImage, so it could be worse.

If I set the DDR2 speed to 1066 in the BIOS, is that classed as "overclocking"? And if i do set that, do I need to "increase the voltage" as i vaguely think i read somewhere. What settings should I set in the BIOS for memory speeds etc? I know that's quite a broad question but I paid a lot for this RAM (mistakenly - I should have stuck with DDR2-800) and I don't want to have to run it at 667Mhz.

By the way, i've got 4GB of this memory.... Probably a waste of money, i know, but you learn.....

Any help would be very much appreciated. :D

Once it's all stable and up and running, I'll be able to upload some pics (and BIOS info - I took a pic during the BIOS update)

Thanks!

Edited January 29, 2008 by alsheron

[alsheron]

UPDATE:

I've found out that the P5k series of boards has quite a lot of serious problems associated with it: Problems in Forum

The above link is only the tip of the iceberg. It seems to be memory related. i.e. the motherboard cannot reliably detect/run certain memory sticks (obviously mine included). I've also read of problems with it working with Samsung HDD's (of which i also run 3)

All in all, this has been a disaster. I always thought ASUS was a premium brand and an extremely reputable manufacturer, which it might well be with other boards/models. From what i've read though, these problems are surprisingly widespread and after eliminating other possibilities it seems that the motherboard is squarely to blame.

Which leaves me in the position of finding a new motherboard (i'm RMAing the ASUS)

I'm looking now, and am very tempted by Gigabyte boards because of good expereinces with them, also looked at Abit and Foxconn but there doesn't seem very much choice there. There's only the MARS of the Foxconn that looks any good and Abit seems a bit weak?

I'm looking for a P35 or X38 based mobo (is x38 necessarily better?) with RAID ability (Intel Matrix if poss) and eSATA if possible. My other components are listed above and include the OCZ 8500 reaper memory modules and E8400 CPU. Any suggestions? I'm looking to buy ASAP as i use my computer for work.

Currently looking at GA-X38-DS5???

Edited January 29, 2008 by alsheron

[+PeterUK MVC]

Did you increase the RAM voltage when a set the memory to run at DDR2-1066Mhz in the BIOS? It needs to be set to 2.1 ? 2.3V.

[gwai lo]

You did realize that jumping to 533 MHz on your FSB is something most people can't do? Your real FSB is only 333 MHz and with DDR2 we don't have the same problems we had with DDR where RAM was barely rated for the stock FSB of the chips. DDR2 chips can run *much* higher frequencies so they're rated for higher frequencies, it doesn't mean you need to run them at their stock speeds though...most people don't. So in this case by setting the FSB to 533 MHz, unless you ran a divider, you attempted to boot at 4797 MHz. You said that the BIOS was annoying when it would set the RAM to run at DDR2-667 or 333 MHz, when you set it to auto. This makes perfect sense, RAM *always* runs at the speed of the lowest common denominator, in this case your FSB, and it's not going to overclock unless it's told to do so.

Anyway, leave the FSB at 333 MHz until you know what you're doing else you're going to keep getting funny errors and messages. There are stickies everywhere and all over google.

If you're that set on changing boards, Abit and Gigabyte boards are fine. How do the Abit boards seem weak? IP35-E's ( their budget boards ) overclock massively and can play with the big kids in the FSB arena.

I've said many many times that the X38's are overpriced for what they offer, look in the other build threads. X38's offer PCI-E 2.0, DDR3, and full x16 bandwidth on both of the PCI-E slots. These may seem cool, but PCI-E 2.0 just offers extra theoretical bandwidth ( that isn't realized yet, PCI-E 1.1 slots aren't even saturated ), DDR3 isn't not a standard yet and still costs too much for what little performance you get out of them over DDR2, and the last one is useful for Crossfire if Crossfire scaled as well and had better support than it is now.

Rumors of X38's overclock better have not been confirmed and people continuing buying P35's...X38's might make a difference with overclocking a quad, but you don't have one. P35's are easily taking the Wolfdale's to the 4 - 4.5 GHz.

[sesdave]

You did realize that jumping to 533 MHz on your FSB is something most people can't do? Your real FSB is only 333 MHz and with DDR2 we don't have the same problems we had with DDR where RAM was barely rated for the stock FSB of the chips. DDR2 chips can run *much* higher frequencies so they're rated for higher frequencies, it doesn't mean you need to run them at their stock speeds though...most people don't. So in this case by setting the FSB to 533 MHz, unless you ran a divider, you attempted to boot at 4797 MHz. You said that the BIOS was annoying when it would set the RAM to run at DDR2-667 or 333 MHz, when you set it to auto. This makes perfect sense, RAM *always* runs at the speed of the lowest common denominator, in this case your FSB, and it's not going to overclock unless it's told to do so.

Anyway, leave the FSB at 333 MHz until you know what you're doing else you're going to keep getting funny errors and messages. There are stickies everywhere and all over google.

If you're that set on changing boards, Abit and Gigabyte boards are fine. How do the Abit boards seem weak? IP35-E's ( their budget boards ) overclock massively and can play with the big kids in the FSB arena.

I've said many many times that the X38's are overpriced for what they offer, look in the other build threads. X38's offer PCI-E 2.0, DDR3, and full x16 bandwidth on both of the PCI-E slots. These may seem cool, but PCI-E 2.0 just offers extra theoretical bandwidth ( that isn't realized yet, PCI-E 1.1 slots aren't even saturated ), DDR3 isn't not a standard yet and still costs too much for what little performance you get out of them over DDR2, and the last one is useful for Crossfire if Crossfire scaled as well and had better support than it is now.

Rumors of X38's overclock better have not been confirmed and people continuing buying P35's...X38's might make a difference with overclocking a quad, but you don't have one. P35's are easily taking the Wolfdale's to the 4 - 4.5 GHz.

Yes - got to agree. the x38 seem a lot to pay for unless you want to run Crossfire and the x48s are just cherry picked x38s-lol!. You wont get the best from either unless u get a DDR3 MB. I too wouldnt be so hasty to get rid of the MB - the asus P5K premium is an excellent MB - it has had some bad press re spurious SATA II problems with the ICH9R but latest BIOS seems to be solving that. I never had any problems with it - u just need to know what you are doing in the BIOS. This is a good guide if you havent done much o/c on the P5K http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overclockin...rs-p5k-add.html If you want to make you disks fly using RAID setup under intel MAtrix manager check this out http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=467848.

[alsheron]

Did you increase the RAM voltage when a set the memory to run at DDR2-1066Mhz in the BIOS? It needs to be set to 2.1 ? 2.3V.

Well, after loads of googling/investigation, i found this out too. Apparently, the memory should be set to 2.3v, even 2.35v accoring to one site..... I tried this but alas it didn't work, after i power off, i got the error again..... but gwai lo has something to say about that:

You did realize that jumping to 533 MHz on your FSB is something most people can't do? Your real FSB is only 333 MHz and with DDR2 we don't have the same problems we had with DDR where RAM was barely rated for the stock FSB of the chips. DDR2 chips can run *much* higher frequencies so they're rated for higher frequencies, it doesn't mean you need to run them at their stock speeds though...most people don't. So in this case by setting the FSB to 533 MHz, unless you ran a divider, you attempted to boot at 4797 MHz. You said that the BIOS was annoying when it would set the RAM to run at DDR2-667 or 333 MHz, when you set it to auto. This makes perfect sense, RAM *always* runs at the speed of the lowest common denominator, in this case your FSB, and it's not going to overclock unless it's told to do so.

It's all been a learning curve for me. This is my first build and i've definitely learned some good lessons. I've set the voltage to 2.3v, but after your succinct advice i think i'll set it all to it's default values. I'd like it to run at at least DDR2-800 though as although i learned a harsh lesson wasting money on this souped up 1066mhz memory, i'd still like to be "on a par" with what i could have bought much cheaper..... The voltage will come back down, for sure, but should I just set everything to AUTO and leave it at that? I don't think I could bear to see 667mhz every time i booted up, knowing that it was "capable" of 1066mhz - I'd settle for DDR2-800mhz (which it's at now), but does it need the 2.3v specified at this speed?

@sesdave: Thanks for the links, i'll read up on that!

@everyone so far: Thanks for the feedback/help. I do want to keep this board, i like it, and now that i've figured some stuff out (like how NOT to lose the RAID0 volume when the mobo re-sets the BIOS) it's much easier to live with......:D:D

Here are some CPU-z screens:

Anything obvious stand out that's not optimal (i don't mean overclocked - just optimal!)???

The core speed at 2000.2Mhz - is that right? Anything else?

Edited January 29, 2008 by alsheron

[sesdave]

This is a good thread on the P5K premium and a lot of good overclocking/settings advice. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=151965 Another good forum to join - the more you read the more you learn-lol!. If you havent flashed BIOS I would hold on 0504(beta) 0404 seems more stable at present . As others may have said - do not use Asus Update - its not worth the risk. Lots of dead boards cos it erazed EEPROM then fails to verify BIOS flash. Use USB stick and EZFLASH from BIOS. A little patience and you will have fun -its worth the effort.

What do you mean by optimal - default stock running? You can get a lot more more with a little effort. Post your BIOS settings - what cooler have you got.? What are u using to monitor CPU/Coretemp - try this http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php its neat when minimised. May not be setup for E8400 though - let me know. -

Edited January 29, 2008 by sesdave

[gwai lo]

The E8400 runs at 3.0 GHz or 333?9, you have Speedstep or E1ST/C1E state enabled, so the multiplier is being dropped..but everything looks fine.

[+PeterUK MVC]

If you havent flashed BIOS I would hold on 0504(beta) 0404 seems more stable at present .

The 0504 BIOS is not listed as beta?

http://support.asus.com/download/download....Premium/WiFi-AP

What BIOS do you have alsheron?

[alsheron]

The 0504 BIOS is not listed as beta?

http://support.asus.com/download/download....Premium/WiFi-AP

What BIOS do you have alsheron?

I upgraded the BIOS to 0504 as soon as I booted for the first time. Reason being of course that I'm using the E8400. I didn't think it was beta either.... In any case, can't wait for a new version, which is hopefully more stable with the memory i stupidly chose....

@sesdave: I'll post my BIOS settings here but at the moment, i've set everything to AUTO in the Jumper Free section so that I don't have problems with the "Overclock failed" message. Seems to be working ok for now actually. I might try setting DDR2 speed to DDR2-800mhz and see how that goes.

The voltage on the memory at the mo, according to CPU-z is 1.8v? Should i set this to 2.3v as specified (i read it makes the RAM more stable) on the OCZ website or do i only need that if i'm trying to run at 1066mhz?

[gwai lo]

Don't raise the voltage if the system is stable, extra voltage just adds heat and increases deterioration. What the RAM is rated for and what it actually can do or needs are usually different numbers.