Asus P5W-DH 1403 Bios

[bradmax57]

Again another beta bios so sorry no readme or update list, however I can confirm that I have downwards cpu multi adjustment with my e6600 from what ive read elsewhere a lot more stable that 1402 bios

[keithwalton]

I shall give it a whirl and see how fast of a fsb i can get out of my mobo

[keithwalton]

Well the multiplier unlock yields no performance gain for me, it appears im already near the max fsb i can handle.

Oddly the system required alot of voltage just to boot even at slow speeds. Which would imply it starts off at the 10x then quickly kicks down.

Highest fsb was 405mhz and that was usable at 6,7 and 8x mult's
giving a max speed of 3240mhz.

moving upto 9x mult the max bootable fsb was 404mhz leaving a clockspeed of 3636mhz.

All of these speeds required 1.65v just to post but was stable at these speeds.

at 10x (default mult) it would post at a max fsb of 402mhz (4020mhz) with 1.6675v but windows would not load, increasing volts would not allow it to post any faster or get any further during boot.

Highest bootable speed is still 3.95GHz using 1.675v i doubt it will be stable though.

So i have rolled back to my previously stable settings of 373mhz fsb giving the clock speed of 3.73GHz

Still a nice feature to add.

Another feature i have noticed in the bios is 'digial home' mode. which appears to be an extension of AI Quiet, which controls fan and clock speed as well as voltage automatically for a quiet running machine.

Looks like any clock speed ramp is going to wait until my freezer mod (if i ever do it!) also seems that i need to add a northbridge cooler into the loop if heat is holding that back (i max'd out mch at 1.65v at all times, 1.6v may actually yield a higher fsb but trying that can wait!)

[Gizmo]

It is also posted in AOAFiles, here

[z3speed4me]

im still stuck at 380 fsb, no matter what i do, or any bios...definately think thats my wall in my system, but its def acceptable to me

just wish i could hit 400 like a lot of others, but o well...

[keithwalton]

The only advice i've recieved over time about getting more fsb out of the system is to reseat the northbridge heatsink using your favourite thermal compound as the stock asus thermal pad isnt brilliant.

Also remove the copper cap on the heat sink and direct some airflow at the exposed fins. Since im water cooling mine i have to use the supplied centrifugal cooler on the radiator part of the northbridge cooling.

[z3speed4me]

i put arctic silver on everything i could on this board...the cpu, the north and south, and my graphics card


taking the little cap out will help???

i might try it, my side vent fan MIGHT just nip it, if not ima rig something up with a small fan like a 40mm or something over it and see if it helps...

[bradmax57]

i can manage about 435fsb

[z3speed4me]

well i think you have what many would consider better ram as well.... but mine should at least get me to 400, bc it gets amazing reviews

and a lot of people use the same stuff i do and get to the 400 mark

so i really dont know, either way ill accept what i have, and save up for a quad core

[bradmax57]

Originally Posted by z3speed4me

well i think you have what many would consider better ram as well.... but mine should at least get me to 400, bc it gets amazing reviews

and a lot of people use the same stuff i do and get to the 400 mark

so i really dont know, either way ill accept what i have, and save up for a quad core

yes but there is always the dividers when u use/have ram that doesnt oc well

[cadaveca]

Please do not be afraid to increase MCH voltage! When overclocking, if you drop the multi, you end up overclocking the Northbridge. The northbridge frequncy is set by the default cpu multi, regardless of what multi you select in bios...

SO, NB clock = cpu multi/bios multi...

=10/10.

But lower bios multi, you get 10/9....=1.1

or change multi to 8....10/8...=1.25


As you can see, lowering multi overclocks the chipset. There are certain FSB speeds that ASUS automatically changes the FSB timings to deal with this issue, but when these timings are engages is still a bit of a problem, as this changes from bios to bios.

[keithwalton]

i didnt know that, i wonder why mine hit the wall at ~405mhz then regardless of which of the low end mults i used. My ram can run upto around 950mhz i think. By hit the wall i mean it wouldnt even post any faster than that. I used max mch voltage avaliable to me. If its anything like my cpu though there will be an optimal speed within its thermal envelope.

My cpu can run stable at a max voltage of 1.6675v anymore and it just runs to hot even at slower clock speeds.

Highest stable at 1.7v is 3.5GHz, yet 1.65 is good for 3.9GHz, its much happier using 1.6125 @ 3.73GHz though

However there is an issue in the bios with changing voltage and core speed at the same time. You cant do both of them at the same time so i found that it would hang frequently trying to boot speeds that had previously worked!

If you overclock to far and it doesnt post if you imediatly reset it will boot again at defaults so no need to clear cmos. However it drops fsb to 266 and vcore to 1.3v, you have to go in the bios set the fsb fairly low, restart so it picks up the 1.7v vcore, then go back in and give it more fsb.

It was nice to run my ram in sync with the fsb at its native speed (800mhz) i hit some 7.5GB/s in sandra test

[z3speed4me]

i dont get why if i keep my cpu stock, my ram will be stable up to 850mhz or a little more

but with my cpu at 3.0, my ram makes my windows crap out if i even put it near 700mhz....

shoulndt it still be able to oc as much??? or does the ratio mess that up somehow??

[Gizmo]

As you crank up the CPU speed (by increasing the FSB), you are also changing the bus timings between the CPU and memory. Even though you may not be changing the actual speed that the memory is running at, there are synchronization delays that are incurred as you go from one clock domain to the other. It may be that you are hitting a timing window that is throwing you out of whack.

At least, that's my best guess, until I've had a chance to think about it a bit more.

[cadaveca]

Gizmo's hit it right on the head. Couple it with the NBClock...it makes Intel overclcoking quite interesting.


The newest boards out there feature a new revision of the 965 chipset. This chipset supports the 1333(and maybe more) memstrap, as really, dividers are a set of bus timings that support the advertized speed. This is leading to better clocking. Not quite sure yet if this is the bios really, or the new chipset tho. Not really too concerned tho, considering who's made the chipset.