nForce650 (Asus P5N-E SLI) compatibility

[pingouin]

thanks

Hello all, Hello Falko
Many thanks for your explanations.

As you propose, i want to ask you some more few questions :

As seen in the other post about p5ne-sli ( http://www.phoronix.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3005 ) from Thund, what memory do you run on this board ? Did you have some troubles with it ?
What about the 'heat' problems that some people talk ? Did that occur for you ?

Again, Many thanks for your previous answer.

Best.

[Michael]

We had used OCZ's Flex XLC for that motherboard and hadn't run into any issues.

We also didn't run into any cooling issues, BUT our systems are in the open-air and aren't inside of any case or anything like that.

[falko]

I put some WINTEC AMPO DDR2 800 memory in it. The memory has worked fine for me. I tried to overclock it and it wasn't stable, but I didn't buy the memory to overclock it. I was going for a price point.

I have not had any heat issues with my board. It has a fairly large heat sink over a section of the motherboard where I would expect the North and South bridges to be. Pulling the case cover off, the heat sink is only warm to the touch. I have an Antec SLK-3000 case with a 120 mm exhaust fan. The power supply fan doesn't really run very much (it is thermally controlled), so I am cooling it with one 120 mm fan.

[pingouin]

Working out of the box !!

Hello all,

I was looking for an core2duo board.
Reading phoronix review of asus p5n-E-sli, make me think i had found it to suit my need - several ide drive/burner.
I bought it today.Samsung ddr2 800 1go x 2.

I just moved my hard drives/burner, switched on.... and the Debian Etch kernel 2.6.18 make it perfectly. The sound is ok, ide = no problem.
(no sata hard drive....yet)

I build a new kernel 2.6.22.1 in smp mode to make the 2 cpu reconized, that's ok now. The sensors for temperature spit me a warning, but i got it.All the memory is also reconized perfectly.

The reseller can't have in time the graphic card i have ordered, so for now he borrows me an msi 8500 GT, that work fine once the nvidia drivers installed. Played 2 hours of Unreal Tournament 2004, no problems.

I still have to check for my usb stuff - scanner/printers - and the onboard firewire - got a dv camcorder.

But i still have few questions about the bios setting :

In the Advanced section of the bios there is the :
SPREAD SPECTRUM CONTROL
CPU spread spectrum control : Disable/auto
PCIE spread spectrum [Down spread] : Disabled/Down Spread
SATA spread spectrum : Disabled/auto
LDT spread spectrum : Disabled/auto
SLI Broadcast Aperture : Auto/disabled
LDT frequency : 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8 x

So what is this spread spectrum control and how i'm suppose to set those options ?
What is LDT ?
Which LDT frequency i'm suppose to set ?
I dont use the board in sli, so i guess i can leave the SLI Broadcast Aperture on disabled ?

The manual is only showing options not explain it :/

About the kernel configuration, i used to put the AGP in the kernel, to suit my AGP card, i guess now that there is no more AGP on the board, it not necessary to put AGP option on in the kernel ? I put the pcie option in the kernel is it enought ?

If you also have some tips to configure a kernel for core2duo i'll take them with pleasure.

Thanks phoronix for your reviews, the one with this mobo help me to make the good choise for my linux.

Best.
and sorry for my bad english....

[multics]

> So what is this spread spectrum control and how i'm
> suppose to set those options ?
I was asking this myself.
Found this:

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/spread-spectrum-vt40540.html

Keep this feature disabled.

> What is LDT ?
Don't know.
> The manual is only showing options not explain it :/
Yes. The manual is not really helpful for most
of the options you can set in the BIOS. I noticed this, too.



> About the kernel configuration, i used to put the
> AGP in the kernel, to suit my AGP card, i guess now
> that there is no more AGP on the board, it not
> necessary to put AGP option on in the kernel ? I put
> the pcie option in the kernel is it enought ?
AGP ist definitely not needed.

Btw: Apart from the south bridge that runs _very_ hot
this board just works nicely. I bought a small
heatsink for the SB after I hat a blister(!) on my
finger after touching it. Interestingly there
seem to be versions of this board that have a
heatsink (and that is without(!) OC).

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/13-131-142-11.jpg

Even a print on the PCB says heatsink!

Greetings from Germany
Multics.

[pingouin]

Hello,

Many thanks for you answer, comments, and links. Very usefull, i was clueless front of this options.

I've disable all the 'spectrum' stuffs in my bios.

Thanks.

Best.

[pingouin]

FSB/cup freq/multiplier and other bios stuffs

Hello,

I have another questions, about the bios configuration on the p5n-e sli.

In the 'Advanced' menu, FSB & Memory Config, i've leaved on 'auto' the options :
FSB - Memory Clock Mode
FSB - Memory Ratio

So the 'grey' informations that bios give me are ok - fsb 1333.33, got a core2duo E6750 @ 2.66GHz - also for the memory 800mhz.

But in the CPU Congiguration i got :

CPU Speed : 664 mhz
with a
CPU multiplier : [8] (was the default, did not touch it)

What is this 664 mhz ?!! Is it ok ? Also for the default multiplier setting, what about ?

When booting on Debian/Etch with a home build kernel 2.6.22.1, the dmesg tell me :

CPU0: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz stepping 0b
CPU1: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz stepping 0b

and a cat /proc/cpuinfo give also the 2 cpu at correct speed.

Still in this CPU configuration menu i got the options :

Limit CPUID MaxVal [Disabled]
What is it ? Enable or leave Disabled ?

Execute Disabled Bit : [Disabled]
The same, what is it ? Enable or leave Disabled.

The bios is 0505 - i tried to update it from usb device with the last 0608 on it, throught the Menu Asus EZ flash 2 in the bios, Usb stick is seen, but when it time to load the bios 0608.BIN it fails, telling that there is no boot signature.


Any explanations, help, advices, welcome.

Many thanks.

Best.

[multics]

Hello,

I have another questions, about the bios configuration on the p5n-e sli.

In the 'Advanced' menu, FSB & Memory Config, i've leaved on 'auto' the options :
FSB - Memory Clock Mode
FSB - Memory Ratio

So the 'grey' informations that bios give me are ok - fsb 1333.33, got a core2duo E6750 @ 2.66GHz - also for the memory 800mhz.

But in the CPU Congiguration i got :

CPU Speed : 664 mhz
with a
CPU multiplier : [8] (was the default, did not touch it)

What is this 664 mhz ?!! Is it ok ? Also for the default multiplier setting, what about ?

When booting on Debian/Etch with a home build kernel 2.6.22.1, the dmesg tell me :

CPU0: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz stepping 0b
CPU1: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz stepping 0b

and a cat /proc/cpuinfo give also the 2 cpu at correct speed.

Still in this CPU configuration menu i got the options :

Limit CPUID MaxVal [Disabled]
What is it ? Enable or leave Disabled ?

Execute Disabled Bit : [Disabled]
The same, what is it ? Enable or leave Disabled.

The bios is 0505 - i tried to update it from usb device with the last 0608 on it, throught the Menu Asus EZ flash 2 in the bios, Usb stick is seen, but when it time to load the bios 0608.BIN it fails, telling that there is no boot signature.


Any explanations, help, advices, welcome.

Many thanks.

Best.

If you have 800Mhz RAM you should clock it with
800Mhz. I have Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2 DDR2-SDRAM. The
BIOS allows different settings for CPU and FSB/memory clocks.
In my case the board set the memory clock
to 800Mhz automatically (using SPD). I increased
the voltage for the RAM from 1.9x to 2.0xV for
tighter timings.

I use the "linked" setting. You may play around
with the setting. Since this board will always
boot because it restores fail save settings.

Linux dmesg and /proc/cpuinfo tell you that your
processor is running at the correct speed. So, just
change your memory setting. I am at work,
so I can not see how it looks like right now, but
it's easy. Also, I have a C2D 6420 running @ 2.133Ghz.
My multiplier is also 8. So it is suprising to me
that you have the same. Intel uses 266.66Mhz steps
by the way, and 266.66 * 8 = 2133Mhz.

Your CPU speed is not 664Mhz. It is 2.66Ghz.

You may have to increase the memory voltage
setting a little when going from 664 to 800Mhz.
Make sure your memory is capable of 800Mhz. Otherwise
it will not work even with higher voltage.

Limit CPUID MaxVal [Disabled]
Set to disabled if you want to overclock.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPUID

"By using the CPUID opcode, software can determine
processor type and the presence of features (like
MMX/SSE).
"

Execute Disabled Bit : [Disabled]
Intel calls this XD.

"However, Intel's XD bit and AMD's NX bit perform the
same function and are different only in name.
"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NX_Bit

Greetings
Multics

[multics]

The bios is 0505 - i tried to update it from usb device with the last 0608 on it, throught the Menu Asus EZ flash 2 in the bios, Usb stick is seen, but when it time to load the bios 0608.BIN it fails, telling that there is no boot signature.

Btw, I would not recommend to update your BIOS. Esp. since the board is new. If there is no compelling
reason do not flash the BIOS.

*Personally* I follow the "golden admin rule": Never
touch a running system. ;-)

Greetings
Multics.

[pingouin]

Hello everybody,
Hello multics, many thanks for your advices and answer.

I've read, on http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx...Language=en-us
that some people had troubles after updating bios....so i gonna repect the "golden admin rule".

For the others stuffs :
When entering the bios,it give me some feedback information :
i got the QDR FSB at 1333 (perfect this IS the fsb of my cpu)
i got the QDR MHZ memory at 800 mhz, so that also ok, this is some pc800.

I dont want to overclock so, i'm happy with that.

But in the advanced menu/Cpu configuration the bios send me information about the cpu speed at 664, with a multiplier of 8. So i guess it's the way this Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz stepping 0b works. ( (664*8)/2=2656) )

Also, i've read that LDT is Lighting Data Transfert , is about the speed transfert beetween bus. It on 5 by detected bios, i've tried to make it at maximum, 8. The card refused to boot. I had to remove the battery onboard, and make a clearrtc to make it booting again. I've set it up back to the default LDT 5. That's fine.

I expect to buy a SATA hard drive. And i dont see any options in the bios to tell the 1st boot device should be the SATA1 - instead of Master hd1 ide1 port.Maybe is because, there is no SATA plugged.
Do i have to unplug all my IDE drive while installing the system on SATA, then replug them ?

Anyway, thanks for your time.
Have a nice day.
Best.