P5AD2 Premium Compatibility Issue

[frpe82]

Hi! I was surfing the web today and I discovered that there are other people that have discovered that the DDR-600 settings does not work. It seems to be a hardware testing/guide site. The website is in german, but you can take a look at it: [url]http://www.hardwareluxx.de/cms/artikel.php?action=show&id=15&seite=6[/url]

[frpe82]

Thanks to the new bios (1008) I can overclock my CPU permanently. The ratio of 2:3 does´nt work yet but the BIOS has a more relaxed attitude to overklocking now. I am running my CPU at 3500MHz with a FSB of 1000MHz and a memory speed of 667MHz without any problems now (notice that I have a 2.8GHz CPU). I also tried going higher, up to 3730MHz CPU, 1066MHz FSB and 710MHz memory speed. It is running as stable as the previous config, but I have not got my new heatsink and fan from Thermaltake yet, so it´s running a little bit hot at 3730MHz. You can look at my pictures and see for your selves, my combination of hardware in conjunction with the 1008 BIOS is very good for overclocking: I can not upload any pictures on this site today for some reason. As soon as it works I will do it.

[dpatch24]

Isn't that a bit aggresive with air cooling? I have my bus set to 220MHz and my CPU reaches 68 C at high load with an average room temp of ~21-22 C. I don't think I'd want to exceed ~70 C. Of course, I believe the P4 scales down when it overheats anyway...so I guess you don't have to worry about burning it up.

[Netrunner]

frpe82: It sounds cool that u got it working. could u please share some info on how u set up ur bios. Voltge and timings etc. Thanx Netrunner ---------------------------------------------------------------------

[frpe82]

On the 1008 BIOS, I use the following settings: On the jumperfree menu: AI Overclock [Manual] CPU Frequency [250] DRAM Frequency [667] The rest of the settings are set to auto, maybe you want to set the memory voltage to 1.9V if it doesn´t work. On the chipset menu: Configure DRAM Timing by SPD [Disabled] DRAM CAS# Latency [4 Clocks] DRAM RAS# Precharge [4 Clocks] DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay [4 Clocks] DRAM RAS# Activate to Precharge delay [12 Clocks] DRAM Write recovery time [4 Clocks] Hyper Path 2 [Enabled] The rest of the settings are set to auto. On the Hardware Monitor menu: CPU Q-Fan control [Enabled] CPU Q-Fan mode [PWM] CPU Fan ratio [Auto] CPU Target temperature [As low as possible] On my computer these settings give me 3500MHz CPU and 667MHz memory speed. The temperature reaches a maximum of 58-60 degrees Celsius under 100% load. I recommend using a high quality thermal grease. I should also mention that I have tried setting the FSB to 240 and 245MHz but that doesn´t work, 250MHz works though. Isn´t that strange? I have attached my pics from CPU-Z and my test results.

[dpatch24]

What are you using to read the temperature? I have noticed that the ASUS tool seems to be off temperature by ~-12 degrees C. I tested this by seeing what the average idle temp was through the BIOS hardware monitor after an hour of running. I also then loaded windows and the ASUS tool and let it sit for about 1 hour before I noted the temperature reading. Surely enough, the ASUS tool showed a temperature -12 degrees C below that of the value shown by the hardware monitor in the BIOS. I have also seen this temp difference with Sandra.

[frpe82]

When you have the BIOS monitor running, the CPU doesn´t stay on idle like it does in Windows. This is why you see the -12 degrees C difference. If you boot into Fail-safe mode you will see that the temp will have the same value as in the BIOS. This is because neither the BIOS nor Windows (under fail-safe mode) load the neccecary drivers to halt the CPU when idle. Don´t you notice that the fan speed is going up to cool your CPU down after running the BIOS monitor for a while? If you try, you will also see that it does this in Fail-safe mode too. This phenomena is due to the Speedstep function kicking in when booting Windows normally. This cools the CPU when not in use. ASUS Probe is showing you the correct values. I have tried to measure the temperature externally (on the base of the heatsink) to be sure.

[dpatch24]

Interesting, I was never aware of this.

[Noob_112]

Wow, I must be really stupid, I just now noticed that the p5ad2 motherboard has no vga connector. So im guessing you need a videocard in order to plug your monitor in? Im trying to hold off on the video card is there some sort of pci slot vga connector so I can plug in my monitor? I finally got all my parts for my computer hahahahaha and I cant even see anything bah!

[RAM GUY]

The P5AD2 D or P does not have on board Video. You will either have to use a PCI Rev 2.2 or PCI Express Video card with this MB. You can go too [url]www.pricewatch.com[/url] and search for resellers who might have a PCI express Video card!

[Noob_112]

Thank you for the quick reply, I would want a normal pci card with vga support for now, nothing too fancy. Even if its not pci express, can I still connect a vga connector too it? I want to wait for the videocard I dont want to purchase it right away. I just want it to be able to display so I can install all the necessary software. Thanks. P.S. you have any recommendations for a normal pci vga card?

[dpatch24]

The following article suggests that the TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO modules work with the ASUS DDR2-600 STOCK setting. [URL=http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/memory/corsair/DDR2/twx5400pro/]Article Link[/URL] Now...I thought the only difference between those modules and the NON-PRO modules was the pretty lights? Why do all these sites insist on using the PRO modules?!!! Why the heck wont they use/report on the non-pro modules? Is it because ASUS doesn't want anyone to know that their little mobo feature wont work? Yeah yeah..they are enthusiasts. However, enthusiast doesn't have to mean fool that wastes money on pretty little lights.

[frpe82]

Funny that they got the native support to work with the pro modules. Hmmm... I thought that only the lights were separating them from the regular ones. Well, something they did not succeed with was overclocking the FSB to more than 253MHz. I have had my board up to 267MHz and it would probably go higher if I had another CPU capable of handling such speeds, like the 550-580 series with an unlocked multiplier. And the rest of my gear (graphics card etc.) is hangin´ in there, even though I´ve used 267MHz occationally. And [B][U]Netrunner[/U][/B]: I would like to know if the overclock worked out for you?

[RAM GUY]

I think you missed this part, taken from the link you posted! [QUOTE]We proceeded with overclocking, and tested the ram via the memory tests on the R.S.T. Pro2 until we got a failure. At DDR-2 533 and 600 (200MHz, 225MHz memory respectively), [/QUOTE]

[frpe82]

Well, well... Once again I´ve read it wrong. So they did not succeed either.

[dpatch24]

Quote: "We proceeded with [B]overclocking[/B], and tested the ram via the memory tests on the R.S.T. Pro2 until we got a failure. [B]At DDR-2 533 and 600 (200MHz, 225MHz memory respectively), the Waterchill Antarctica cooled ASUS P5AD2 handled the TWIN2X1024 without any problems, so we're off to a good start.[/B] In order to hit the higher FSBs, we lowered the multiplier on our P4 560 ES to 14x200 (2.8GHz) and retested the stock speeds, which were again met with success." As they are are refering to overclocking, it doesn't contradict my earlier comment. The DDR2 600 option is a setting that should require no overclock! The FSB can (should) run at 200 MHz stock and still provide 600 MHz (300Mhz) DDR2 stock by setting the suitable ratio. Quotes: "DDR-2 533 is the highest stock speed setting of all 915/925 motherboards. [B]DDR-2 600 is the highest "stock" allowable by the ASUS board.[/B] DDR-2 662 is the highest, stable DDR2 overclock we were able to manage. Except for the DDR-2 533 timings of 3-3-3-10, at the other speeds, 4-4-4-12 will be used. All motherboard timings were optimized for performance, while maintaining stability." "Based on our tests today, there are tangible jumps in performance as DDR-2 gets faster. [B]While not all motherboards offer DDR-2 600 as an option, the Corsair TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO will be ready for boards that do support these speeds... and more.[/B] As with past Corsair modules we've reviewed, the ram performed flawlessly, and even at speeds out of Intel's specs, the ram passed all our RST Pro2's tests." Now maybe this is an interpretation thing. By the statements above, I take "DDR-2 600 as an option" meaning the non-overclock ratio feature. This issue doesn't mean as much to me anymore since I just oc'ed my system to get DDR2 600 anyway. It just bothers me that they (ASUS) are advertising a stock setting feature that does not work for what I perceive to be popular memory module(s).

[RAM GUY]

I would take the reviewer's statements as optimistic and hopeful this setting would work. In addition, this setting is beyond Intel’s Specification and may or may not be stable. However, for best performance the settings you have set currently will yield the best performance!

[frpe82]

A guy at work bought pretty much the same setup as I own, but with a 3.0GHz CPU and EAX600 PRO Graphics. And he is running on the same settings as me, exept that his CPU is at 3750MHz. He is as happy as me and is strongly recommending the P5AD2-P even though the native support of 600MHz mem doesn´t work. Hwo needs it anyway when the 3500/1000/667 or 3750/1000/667 works really fine. Did any of these settings work out for anybody else, except for us two? Netrunner...? dpatch24...?

[Friends4U]

Same problem here P5AD2 Premium latest bios (1.8) Corsair memory TWIN2X512-5400C4 * 2 My latensy should be 4-4-4-12 but it is 4-5-5-12 :sigh!: In the bios set it to manual and the memory at 600Mhz, after reboot it sees my memory (befor it said it was pc4300 :sigh!: ) pc5300 (it is pc5400) but in cpu-z it still 267.5 at ratio 3:4

[frpe82]

Try out the settings I described a couple of posts ago. That will surely work. But if you don´t want to overclock as much as me you can change the CPU Frequency [250] and DRAM Frequency [667] to 225 and 600 respectively and apply the rest of the described settings.

[dpatch24]

Friends4U, I ran into that latency issue as well and was able to solve it. It occurs when you have the latency set to AUTO. For some reason, the ASUS board does not read the correct timings. Follow frpe82's, RAM GUY's advice and set them manually to 4-4-4-12. Don't bother with the DDR2 600 option as it is crap and doesn't work correctly. Set it to 533 and overclock the bus to 225. You will also notice that the post will update to PC 5300 when you oc the bus to 225 and get an effective DDR2 600. I have noticed an issue that has forced me to stop using the AI Booster program. If I have my memory timings manually set to 4-4-4-12, the AI Booster will actually freeze my computer at oc levels above 217 MHz and I have to reboot. However, if I oc the bus within the BIOS, restart, load windows..everything is cool. The system runs stable. In my opinion, AI Booster sucks. Has anyone noticed that the latest AI Booster installer actually just installs the previous revision? I told ASUS about this and it doesn't look like they've fixed it. frpe82, I still haven't tried running the bus as high as you. I am still kind of worried about it. I suspect that I will do it one day.

[frpe82]

Yes, I have seen both the problem with the 4-5-5-12 latency and the AI Booster. Actually, my board put 4-5-5-15 timings on my memory unless I set it to manual. In my opinion, the AI Booster program sucks pretty bad too. This is probably due to the issues with some frequency ranges not liked by the CPU. Both of us has run in to this before when manually overclocking. Like we said in these posts: dpatch24 09-23-2004 07:45 PM My system actually freezes at 218MHz. I haven't been able to figure out what is causing it to happen. I made sure to set the PCI bus to run at a fixed 33.3 MHz. I have also tried fixing the PCI Express Bus at 100 MHz as well. What's funny is that my system actually freezes at less than 218 MHz if I have the PCI Express bus fixed at the native 100 MHz . This made no sense to me at all. frpe82 09-23-2004 10:47 PM I can´t set my system to 217 or 222 either. But under 217MHz and 223MHz+ are no problem. I think the problem is showing it self even when AI Booster is changing the values automaticly.

[ARCSolo]

I am also having issues with the P5AD2 and the settings for the memory and such. P5AD2 Premium rev 1.02 1008 BIOS Intel 3.4 HT Corsair DDR2 5400pro pair of matched 512MB PCI-e X800 Enermax 660W Seagate 80GB Barracuda SATA 74GB Raptors x 2 (not configured until I get the thing to stop rebooting!) Windows XP SP2 I have tried just about any combination of settings I can think of. The symptoms are that the system will randomly reboot after loading windows. Sometimes 10 minutes sometimes 30 minutes. Case temp is about 40 while the CPU temp stays at 50. I tried the Microsoft Crash Anlysis memory test and it will sometimes fail on the WMATS+ test or the WINVC test. Actually the system reboots shortly after the failures start showing up. Memtest won't finish either, after it fails once the system reboots and will no longer load memtest. The events log is clean, an occasional service failed here or there but not directly before a failure. I will try Sandra, I haven't done that yet. I'm also going to try these settings that RAM Guy posted and see where that gets me. I also noticed further instability when I connected my new Sony DVD\CD ROM as a slave device. I double checked jumpers and cable positions, all are as they should be. This board also seems to overclock whether you like it or not. I disabled all OC items in the BIOS and ran the intel freq ID proggy and it detected the CPU and the FSB were still slightly OC'd. ARC

[ARCSolo]

I just tried the BIOS settings as posted earlier with CPU at 225 and the memory at 667 (mine showed 666 <<bad sign!) and manually setting timing to 4-4-4-12. The system still reboots randomly. Sandra tests will follow as soon as I can get the thing stable enough to download the software! But here is my question to Ram Guy, since the memory failed the Microsoft test and rebotts during the memtest, is that a solid indication of bad memory or does that only make it a strong possibility. I have them in separate banks and they load as dual channel interleaved PC2 5300 based on the settings described above. ARC

[frpe82]

Have you tried pushing your computer with prime95 or some other program that use a lot of CPU power (90%+), and a program that use a lot of graphics power. Just to see what maximum temperatures you get at full load (for about 5-10 minutes), and to see what makes your computer reboot. If it is not the temp of your CPU or GPU that makes your computer reboot, then you have that ruled out and there is two less things to worry about.