Is the Asus P5WD2-E Premium 975X out ?

Hows it working for you?

Also, anybody seen the -WS version for sale? I got a 36 gig 15k scsi and 2 more 146 gig 10K drives but only PCI-X SCSI cards for them.
 
It was in stock at Newegg Fri until today, but they're priced at $269.

ExcaliburPC had them last time I checked for $239!

$30 difference!!

So who has one of these? How are your results ?

I've seen lots of compaints about the second Raid controller, LAN & sound.

People complaining the Marvel Raid controller doesn't work period

The integrated 2 NIC's don't work, and the sound quality is crappy.

I actually wouldn't mind crappy onboard sound, as I have an Audigy.
And I only plan on using the Intel SATA controller.

So the only thing I'm really concerned about is whether at least ONE of the LAN's work.
 
I have this board and I would not recomend it all. I got all the hardware new 2 wd 250g h/d 2 plextor dvd burners x-fi sound card 7800gtx video. Nothing worked out of the box the manul is really no help at all, when I called asus support about these problem's they tried to blow it off, one even said that the h/d's were no good, I told him the I had installed in another puter and they worked fine, he said I didn't install the right driver's. To make short the driver's are to me any way beta's and the new bios are shakey at best. for the money I paid I should have class A number one product, in this case myself and many other's are unpaid tester's hope this help's
 
shit! I have one on the way, in fact I'll have it tomorrow.

I guess I better get my floppy ready, cause it sounds like this motherboard is going to need a few BIOS's to get it right.

:(
 
chrisf6969 said:
shit! I have one on the way, in fact I'll have it tomorrow.

I guess I better get my floppy ready, cause it sounds like this motherboard is going to need a few BIOS's to get it right.

:(
Click to expand...
Do not even try the marvell driver's, I spent four day's to make them work so far I or any one who owen;s this board has made it work. I use the intel drivers it's not what I wanted but I got two of them for my twin's. I order two abit board's just so all the hard ware that I ordered can be used. Go on the asus forum's and you will see that just to many of us are having the same crap. I hope this helps
 
Well, I only plan on using one SATA harddrive & one PATA DVD+R drive. So I was planning on just using the Intel controller. And no raid at all.

BTW, the boxes are all sitting on my desk next to me.

Wish me luck, I'm installing everything when I get home! :)
 
Edit: Ok fired it up, without a clean install (just did sysprep / reseal)

Anyway, here are some preliminary tests w/ temps topping out at 59C :

stresstest373.jpg


I kinda like it here at 266 FSB, DDR2 at 667, & CPU at 3.73Ghz...
Its nice & even numbers with everything with in specifications.

I can see how people are hitting 4Ghz easily as this is with default voltage and no tweaks or anything! :)

I didn't have any problems with anything, but then again, I disabled the Marvell Raid controller, onboard sound, and one of the onboard LANs.
The ASUS disk comes with an old LAN driver, there's a much newer one available that seemed to work a little better.

Here's the first benchmark at 3.73Ghz: http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=111260
 
I played with it a little more last night.

I got it up to 3.95Ghz with default voltage, and then I got errors on one of the instances of Prime (the one using more ram), so I'm not sure if I need to change ram ratio or loosen timings, or if I need more juice on the CPU. And it was late so I didn't feel like testing every little thing.

I backed it down to 3.8Ghz for a few benchmarks.
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8891289

I'm going to play with it some more tonight to see if I can get 4Ghz with out too much heat or effort.
 
I had this board and some aspect of it worked but their is a major problem with the chipset drivers on the board itself. I also called Asus and was told that I had a defective chipset driver on the board. It has already been sent for replacement. I wish I had spent more time online reviewing consumer thoughts on this board instead of looking at reviewers benches.

The problem I was having is that it would not detect any PCI device I installed in any of the 3 pci slots. All I wanted to do is install my X-Fi card, that's all. No matter which one I used it would not detect what was installed. However, it would tell me it "found a new PCI Device" it was not able to tell me what device was actually installed.

This is the light end of the problem. As it got worst this 1 conflict turn into 9 of the same pci conflicts.
 
sounds like user error problems.

you don't RMA something for a "driver" problem. You download different drivers and install them.

Intel has the best chipset drivers, so I doubt its the chipset drivers.... Intel's drivers just work. Nearly any version on any board, and they work. You don't need to keep updating them like Via 4-in-1's, etc...

Maybe you have a bad "chipset".

Or you're having problems with the Marvell SATA chip / driver, that everyone else is having.

Here's my final set up with benches:
http://www.crowdcontrolusa.com/overclock/shizzy2.html
 
It's a chipset problem onboard, not a chipset driver on the cd or through download. Asus tech informed me of this as I too thought it was a problem with the drivers. He insisted that although the drivers were correct for that MB it was not using them correctly. He informed me that the chipsets do have drivers in them that are not functioning correctly. Personnally I don't know how true that is I am only repeating what I was told by someone who works for the company and suppose to know the product. Thus the replacement of the entire board as that cannot be repaired. Again, this is an issue inwhich Asus is clearly aware of.

But seeing that your Audigy does in fact work (as I tried mine with no positive stride) is refreshing to know. At least I know once the new board arrives chances are it should work.
 
maybe it was a problem with a first revision of the board. (bad chipset)

They might have corrected some problem with a new stepping of the 975 NB or board layout, etc..

I wonder if you have an older revision of the 975 chip. Mine is C0.

975.gif
 
^^^Thanks for the heads up on that. I will make sure I check that as soon as it comes in this week. I can tell you from memory that it was not C0. I don't know what it was....I only wrote down the model number and serial number. Could you check your box to see if C0 is written on the model number?
 
chrisf6969 said:
I played with it a little more last night.

I got it up to 3.95Ghz with default voltage, and then I got errors on one of the instances of Prime (the one using more ram), so I'm not sure if I need to change ram ratio or loosen timings, or if I need more juice on the CPU. And it was late so I didn't feel like testing every little thing.

I backed it down to 3.8Ghz for a few benchmarks.
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8891289

I'm going to play with it some more tonight to see if I can get 4Ghz with out too much heat or effort.
Click to expand...

Damn nice! Sorry if you posted it earlier, but what hsf are you using? And when you backed it back down to 3.8, what, if any, ram adjustments did you make? Thanks!
 
Check the forum on Asus website pertaining to this board. The "unknown PCI device" is likely the Marvell SATA controller. Make sure you also install the Intel INF driver stuff.

I installed Windows x64 and had a bitch of a time getting this thing working, however I even got the Marvell stuff working good. All I had to do is downgrade my bios to 0206, and download the Marvell 64 bit drivers from the WS version's site. Bios 03 doesn't work too well with them, but bios 02 does. They definately need a bios 04 to iron out some of this stuff, and Marvell needs to supply them with a driver that's less of a PITA.

One problem I am having, though, is ethernet port 1. It is listed in the bios (despite the fact that it doesnt' detect anything I plug into it) but it is not listed in Windows. Only ethernet port 2 works in Windows. Anyone have a similar issue? Or did something I enabled in the bios disable port 1 (the manual isn't much help in that regard).
 
I disabled just about everything on the board.
Marvell SATA, onboard sound, & onboard LAN #2.

The only onboard device I'm using is ethernet port # 1. I believe if you try using both, you get conflicts.

The board was SUPER slow in windows until I installed the Intel Chipset drivers. It definitely doesn't work well until you put those in.

For the Marvell LAN, I used the drivers on the CD at first to get me going but then downloaded newer ones from Windows Update.

I started out with BIOS 0206, but this weekend I downloaded 0304 and used the MyLogo thing to customize the boot image, and flashed it with that, and haven't had any problems, so far.

to JetUSA.... I'm using an XP-90c with a generic blue LED fan. (fairly quiet) I've been running it at 3.9Ghz the past week or so with out any problems. Ram is at 4-4-4-12 at 695Mhz. (its rated for DDR667 4-4-4-12) I tried other timings like 4-3-3-12, etc... and it failed to boot.
I get like 6500+mb/s so I'm happy with the memory scores.
 
I tried kicking the FSB up to 266 (1066) just for fun, but windows wouldn't load. I'll try doing a repair install at 1066 to see if that will work, since I know how particular Windows is sometimes :p

I've got both LAN ports enabled, but only 1 shows in Windows... and the built in cable tester in the bios doesn't detect what I have plugged into port 1. I dunno, it's weird. I don't want to RMA the thing because it probably isn't bad hardware... and because I've spent tons of time customzing my case.

I also have one more issue. It seems that the board overclocks itself, even if you set it to manually keep certain settings. I'm finding the FSB at 802mhz, and the CPU speed at 3010 mhz in CPU-Z, and the voltage is a bit higher than the 1.3 setting in the BIOS. It seems that this thing is giving itself a 5% overclock, which I don't want it to do! lol

Other than that, it is running stable at 3.0ghz, but I want to run it at 4, since I installed a nice TT Blu Orb II that pushes 75cfm of air past the CPU :)
 
Some motherboard makers tend to make the 200FSB setting = 201 FSB or 200.5 FSB that way they get an ever so slight edge in side by side benchmark comparisons of motherboards. Its their dirty little secret.

The voltage varies.. if you set it to 1.3v it probably shows 1.31v idle and maybe 1.27 under load. No biggie.

Good luck with the 4Ghz. I'm a little aggrivated that I didn't acheive the magic 4Ghz #. It sounds SO MUCH better than 3.9Ghz! :(

The 920 I have might do it if I put the Vantec Tornado on it, and maybe enable the speed fan control. I just hate the loud noise of that fan. And I like the blue LED of the one I'm using now.

I might even buy another 920 to try for 4Ghz, and sell it to someone who doesn't plan on overclocking or who is happy with 3.9Ghz overclock.
 
I've got a nice cooler, so I'm not sure why I'm not breaking the 4ghz barrier...
I'm running the 930 machine at 250 x 4 (1000FSB, 3.75 ghz) and it runs fine. As soon as I push it to 3.9ghz, Windows loads but doesn't finish loading... and if I kick the FSB up to 266 x 4, Windows doesn't even want to start! The thing is, at 1000fsb, the CPU is idling at 40-43 degrees, which is NOTHING for a P4... so why can't I push it to 1066? I obviously can keep the chip cool enough, so I dont' really understand why it doesn't go higher.

I've got the PCI locked at 33mhz, the memory voltage at 1.8, CPU voltage at 1.3, and my DDR2-667 5-5-5-12 clocked at DDR2-667 5-5-5-12... So I'm not sure why Windows doesn't want to load at 4ghz, and I really want it to! hehehe... As you can tell, I'm pretty new to this OCing thing :p
 
b/c underload you have 2 cores pumping out heat, and you're probably jumping up 20C, so thats 63C which isn't horribly for a dual core cpu. But I think its just the limit for most 900's with out extra voltage.

I actually think its more of a motherboard struggling to provide enough power at around 4Ghz, thats why you need to increase the vcore.

Have you tried running dual instances of Prime95 and then using the Asus Booster (windows based) overclocking tool? Take and gradually raise the FSB and let Prime 95 run for 10 minutes, then go up another 1Mhz FSB. Until you start getting errors. Then you can try to increase the voltage to see if that gives you stability.

Good luck

Speaking of.... I decided to try to crank it up....

I was noticing underload that my voltage was dropping down as low as 1.26v. So I bumped it up from 1.3125 to 1.3625 and now under load its 1.30-1.34v
and its stable at 4Ghz! :)

So its about 2-3C hotter. at 100Mhz faster and .05v higher. I also let Prime95x2 run longer than usual to more thoroughly test it.

stresstest40.jpg
 
Ahh... so that's how this OCing thing works... in order for me to throw an even higher FSB, I have to kick up the voltage to the CPU a bit... :)

I managed to get a stable 258fsb with a 1.325v setting...but I still haven't managed to get a stable 266fsb... how much can I crank the voltage up to? I really don't want to come close to damaging my new CPU, but I'm not sure how far I can go with this thing. Thanks for your help... this is fun :D
 
I was running some benchmarks at 4Ghz last night and I was getting lower benchmarks than I did at 3.9Ghz.

I'm thinking its the BIOS change from 0206 to 0304. (that I did this weekend)

Or maybe at 4Ghz with the extra voltage its throttling, but I was using the throttle monitor program and it was showing 0% throttling.

I'm going to back it down to 3.9Ghz to see if benchmarks go back to normal, if not I might flash back to 0206, since it was running fine, I just assumed the newer BIOS was better.... but that might not always be the case. Either way hopefully, tonight I'll have the answer.
 
What should be the maximum voltage I can crank this CPU to get a 266FSB stable? I don't want to fry my chip, even if it does have really good air cooling.

Another thing... my Blu Orb II fan is supposed to operate at 1700 +- RPM but it always shows running at 1100RPM. Does the speed only kick up if the CPU gets over 60c or something?
 
steviep said:
What should be the maximum voltage I can crank this CPU to get a 266FSB stable? I don't want to fry my chip, even if it does have really good air cooling.

Another thing... my Blu Orb II fan is supposed to operate at 1700 +- RPM but it always shows running at 1100RPM. Does the speed only kick up if the CPU gets over 60c or something?
Click to expand...

I stopped at 1.3625, b/c that was a good voltage where the load voltage was still basically the default voltage as you can see from the screenshot. When the load increases the chip draw more amps and it drops the voltage, so increasing the vcore a little bit just helps offset the serious load at overclocked speeds. (IE: its just as safe as the default voltage.)

There are people pumping these chips with 1.45-1.5v but who knows how long these chips will run at those speeds.

Personally I would only put about 1.36 volts just b/c I'm always conservative on my voltages. But you could probably go as high as 1.4v safely.
 
UPDATE: I flashed back to the 0206 BIOS (via DOS afudos.exe b/c Winflash won't let you go backwards).

Benchmarks are back up to where they were before + A LITTLE bit higher for the extra 100Mhz from 3.9Ghz to 4.0Ghz.

So be forwarned don't flash to 0304 unless there's a specific thing you need from it. The 0206 BIOS is much faster.

I need to re-run all of my benchmarks and update them.

Did some so far: http://www.crowdcontrolusa.com/overclock/shizzy2.html

I don't think the slight increase in benchmarks is worth the extra voltage & heat required for it. So I'll probably put it back down to 3.9Ghz just b/c its runs about 3C cooler and does it at default voltage.
 
I had the same problems that you had. The Marvell SATA controller wouldn't work properly under BIOS 0304 in WinXP64 so I had to downgrade to 0206 in DOS. Booting to XP takes a few seconds longer this way, unfortunately, but at least my Marvell controller works. I still can't figure out why my 1st ethernet port doesn't work at all... I'm not used to this many quirks from an Asus board.

I figured out that in order to run at 4ghz (266 FSB) stable, I have to bump the voltage to 1.4 (anything less will give me prime95 errors after 1 hour of testing). I'm kinda nervous at leaving the voltage at 1.4, even if my temps hover around 55c, and despite you telling me its safe. At the default 1.3v, I can get to 3.75ghz (250fsb) stable so I wonder where I should stay. The 4ghz barrier sounds really good, though :p

2 questions, though... how do I run 2 instances of Prime95? I can't seem to do it, even with the affinity option, so I let the 1 copy use both cores (if I double click it again, it just goes to the already-open instance). Second, what's a good memory:FSB ratio? Should I run my DDR2-667 at DDR2-667 (4:5 ratio with my 266fsb overclock) or should I run it at DDR2-533 with tighter timings (how tight can 5-5-5-10 go at a lower speed?) at 1:1? I'm not sure what's better in reality. Thanks for all your help! My first REAL experience with OCing (i.e. not just dabbling here and there) has been fun :)
 
steviep said:
2 questions, though... how do I run 2 instances of Prime95? I can't seem to do it, even with the affinity option, so I let the 1 copy use both cores (if I double click it again, it just goes to the already-open instance). Second, what's a good memory:FSB ratio? Should I run my DDR2-667 at DDR2-667 (4:5 ratio with my 266fsb overclock) or should I run it at DDR2-533 with tighter timings (how tight can 5-5-5-10 go at a lower speed?) at 1:1? I'm not sure what's better in reality.
Click to expand...

You need to make a copy of the whole Prime 95 folder and use the Prime95 program in each folder. (so you have the program & files all in 2 seperate folders).

As for ram ratios it just depends on what the trade offs are. The best option is fast speed at low timings. But sometimes your ram will do only one. Either faster speed with higher cas timings or lower speed with tighter timings. In that case you need to benchmark both and see what is actually better.

And often there's not a clear cut winner. Some apps / games / benchmarks prefer lower latency (lower cas timings) and some prefer more bandwidth.

I doubt it really matters.... just shoot for a speed where your ram is near spec (or slightly faster) and still works. You can try to tighten up the timings from 5-5-5-10 to like 5-4-4-10 or 4-4-4-12, etc...

BTW, once you get 2 instances of Prime95 running, you're going to see your temps much higher!! Running only one, gives you a 50% load, you need 2 instances running to give you a 100% load which is going to put out twice as much heat and might decrease your overclock.

edit: something else I just noticed, by default the USB is set to legacy 1.1 mode, you need to make sure you set it to "High Speed" in the BIOS to support USB 2.0.
 
For you guys that are uping your V on the CPU. Look at were your setting it . Than go into bios and please tell what your actual V reading is. Thanks
 
the voltage is almost exactly what I set it in the BIOS. For example if I set 1.3125, it reads that in windows (at idle). BUT when put under load it drops about 0.05 to about 1.27 (+ or - .01)

So like when I upped it to 4Ghz I set it to 1.3625, and idle it stayed there, but under load it was dropping to 1.31. I have never even tried more than 4Ghz. It might have more left in it.

I've set it back to 1.31 and just left it clocked at 3.9Ghz. B/c it runs nice & cool there, and I can have all my fans on low speed.
 
Why is the Marvell connector so fucked up on this board? I have 4 PATA devices in my computer. 1 200gb HD, 1 DVD-rom, and 2 burners (CD and DVD).

Originally, I had the 2 burners on the Intel PATA connector. I tried connecting the HD and the dvd-rom to the marvell connector, but no matter how I jumpered them, they wouldn't detect properly. When I switched the connectors (burners on the marvell, rom+hd on the Intel), the rom+hd detected perfectly in the bios and in Windows. Also, the 2 burners were detected properly in the Marvell boot rom and bios, and they DO show up in Windows. However, they won't read anything. No matter what disc I put in them, nothing shows up in My Computer, and discs don't get accessed when I put them in. Running XP x64, latest bios, latest Marvell drivers (which re-install everytime I reboot Windows, damnit). I've tried e-mailing Asus but still no response. Any ideas?
 
Thats why I disabled the Marvel controller for now.

When they get it working with a BIOS or Driver fix, I might try enabling it. Luckily I don't need it at all in the foreseeable future.

Or maybe they will recall the board, and I can get a later revision, that will definitely support Conroe. As right now it seems to be up in the air.
 
I can burn onto the primary master on the marvell connector (the cdrw), however CDs still aren't recognized. I can burn, though, so it does what I need

However, I still can't burn to the slave (DVDRW). It writes the lead in (I can verify this on the disc), then locks up there and doesn't continue. WTF is wrong with this thing. lol
 
Unfortunately not. I have 1 PATA hard drive that I need (that doesn't get recognized by the Marvell controller at all, no matter how it's plugged in or jumpered)... I also have 3 optical drives. 1 is a DVD-rom (which I need) that I have plugged in with the PATA drive on the Intel controller - this would be my CD boot drive, as well as CD reader. It works on the Marvell, but very slowly... or it freezes Windows bootup sometimes on the Marvell as well.

On the Marvell, I have my 2 burners. My CDRW for my work, and the DVDRW obviously for burning DVDs. So yes, unfortunately I do need the Marvell to work. I thought about putting in an IDE controller PCI card, unfortunately however they are phasing out PCI and I have only 3 slots to work with, all of which are full. So many PCIex slots that just can't be used for shit right now. This freaking sucks.
 
Why do you need so many DVD/CD's?

All you should need is 1 good DVD burner... you can use that to boot install Win, burn your CD's or DVD's ? At most 2, which will work on one IDE channel.
 
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