DO NOT BUY THE ASUS P5B!

[GreenJelly]

I currently own a wonderfull door step. Its my Great Asus P5B.

I must hand it to Asus, this board is wonderfull.

1) the 309 Bios (current) doesnt support Multiplier OC on the X6800!
2) the 309 Bios (and maybe the board) doesnt support Memory Voltages of 2.2v (Corsairs 8500C5 requires 2.2v), This leads me to underclock my memory! The only other choice is to change the timings. But because of the unreliablity, I have had issues.
3) Asus Support is virtually Non Existant or impossible to use. I have YET been able to log onto their website 2 times in a row without requesting a NEW password... Then after 50 questions and 20 minutes typing up a detailed problem discription, they state my Serial Number isnt Valid... Well guess what, it is valid, and it was valid when I REGISTERED my product.
4) Asus Website Sucks. Sure, Product info, and the front pages load fast. But try to access the forums at certain times, or Download the updated drivers. BTW, the Current Updated Bios Version on the Download page seems to change daily. It flops between 211 and 309!
5) My Machine Shuts down for no reason... Slowly I have been eliminating issues, common with a build of my size. But I now have a machine that crashes programs and runs irregular.
6) When I called Asus about the X6800 not beign unlocked (well not upwords) the tech support rep says Asus doesnt support OverClocking
7) Asus Tech support Number is available from 9am to 12pm... 3 HOURS!
8) Asus Default Auto settings seem to create allot of the problems, I fear they underpower the memory, and then set the machine up in a way that causes problems. I only started to have a reliable machine when I went through each setting and manually set it to my machine.

I have had SOME good luck with this board. It has provided me with 20% increase on OCing running, Cinema Craft Encoder (Multi-processor Enabled). But the Chip reached and stayed at 60c. I have since lowered the voltage down abit, and havent gotten it nearly as hot. BTW, Intel Core 2 Duo Specs states a 60c temp maximum. Of course I am running Water Cooled.

Thanks
Mike

 

[ZOldDude]

I moved on from Asus after 10 years of useing them.
I needed to build new systems for eveyone in the house and was tierd of the caps on the Asus dieing between 2 1/2-3 years (for me) so I looked around for a company that used better parts.

DFI uses the best caps and also OC alot better. I will never go back to Asus!

 

[woolyback]

Im still waiting for my replacement chipset fan (since last christmas 8O ) \o/
go Asus! all they do is play email tennis with you :/

 

[INeedCache]

You're not likely to make too many friends here in Asus fanboy-land with this stuff. Sorry about your plight. When I see so many Asus fanboys in one place, like Tom's forum, I cannot help but wonder how many of them have ever even tried boards from other manufacturers. I think a lot start out here and buy Asus from the start, and if the board works, then Asus is the greatest. If not, it's merely one of a few freakishly bad boards from them. However, if they get a bad board from, say Biostar, then all Biostar stuff is garbage. That, in itself, is garbage. A nice double standard. Speaking of Biostar, I've noticed they are fairly well maligned around here, and that hasn't been our experience with their boards, or their service, which have both been quite good. Go figure.

 

[GreenJelly]

Well I have tried overclocking my machine. And have had mixed results...

I kept getting random crashes and wondered why

First I Voltaged My CPU (X6800) to 1.40v (I water cool, so dont try this at home kids) then I dropped the DDR2 to 8XX (the one higher then the 800) I upped the FSB to 300 and I ran CCE (http://www.cinemacraft.com/eng/sp.html) all night long. No problem but the CPU ran at a constant 60c. I dropped the voltages and the temps went down. I didnt test the 1.400v on any games, and probably wont.

I use Corsair 8500c5 and figured it could handle anything I threw at it. One problem, Asus P5B bios, self setting maximum is 2.1v and not the 2.2v said to be the corsairs way of life... I tried a few lower voltages on my cpu, and though my vcore never went above 1.30 I kept a few for spare change... Problem was, any game would crash the game in 1-2 minutes... I ran a bunch of Benchmarks and many hard core programs and couldnt get it to crash... HOURS of punding and not one crash... hell the new CPU temps didnt get above 125f (sorry I for the imperial standard).

I have made the following assumptions
A) that the motherboard can handle the memory - do to my tests at stock speed and 1067mhz DDR2.
B) that the motherboard cannot handle high increases in FSB (34 seems too much for it)
C) that the duo core chip is NOT the problem, since it ticks no matter what.

Now when/if Asus unlocks the X6800, I hope to just increase the Multiplier, not touching the FSB.

I ***assume*** that the north bridge aluminum heat sink and the increases on the FSB doesnt mix. I would also assume that the P5B-Deluxe which uses a copper heat sink/heat pipe, might not experiance the issue. The problem seems to be that the P5B Deluxe is that it depends on the CPU fan blow off to cool the Northside bus and voltage regulators. Also most, if not all Asus Mobos seem to have pin based heatsinks, making watercooling these boards almost impossible (one solution is to use thermal Epoxy to perminately glue the waterblock onto the Northbridge.)

I finally dropped the board back to the default 266fsb and turned the DDR2 up to 1067 with AUTO Memory voltage (YIKES), and havent had a game crash in 5 hours of playing (I just got Riddick).

I must say that the P5B is exactly what it is suppose to be, a cheap motherboard from a bad company. I purchased this board cause it is CHEAP! I know that in the future their will be Crossfire versions and other cool products, so I can always ditch this thing when my machine becomes more mainstream.

Thanks
Mike

PS. Please clarrify -- since the north bridge and the main chip are seperate on Intel chips, the Duo Core 2 will communicate with the north bridge at the advertised 1066 speed. When I increase the FSB (the 266 number) I also increase this 1066 speed. Therefore the bottleneck is probably this 1066 speed. Is this logic correct?

 

[INeedCache]

Hmmm. Almost 36000 posts in the Asus forum under motherbaords, with next closest being Gigabyte under 7000. I think the facts are straight.

 

[bazza]

my first(TP4XE) 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th - (A8NSLI) motherboards are all Asus so call me a FANBOY

a few of them have been quirky but never died on me

Asus Boards were really reliable up to the Slot 1 Era

Things started going downhill after that

I been working around Asus mobos for a decade and the truth is, the majority of them suck...(esp SIS VIA ULI ATI...and the budget ones)

Saying all that my 8th 9th 10th .... motherboards wil probably be Asus because

1: They have never failed on me
2: We can repair any Asus MB unless the chipsets have died
3: I get them almost at cost

 

[GreenJelly]

One last thing to note about the Asus p5b. It doesnt support or have any features to set shutdown values for CPU temp or CPU FAN SPEED

I run a flow meter, which reports a 10,000 RPM (translates to 10 l/min). Asus DOES recognize and excepts this high range. But if it drops to 0 it doesnt shut off the system. Some people may want to disable this, but I got to say that a low cpu fan speed and an unexpected shutdown is worth the potential for lost data.

I have to admit that I was stupid, and this came into importance. I have a drivebay device that I customed made. It has 2 switches and a wonderfull water temp reader. The switches control my lights (red front panel lights behind the grill, and Black lights in the case). It also contains my pump power supply (which use to take up a PCI slot)... I must brag cause the job came out wonderfully... Anyhoot, I found that the temperature reading wasnt working, so I went to pull out the drive and plug in the connector (while it was on)... Yank: I see two bare wires (green and brown) pointing out at me. My eyes shifted to the screen where the CPU temperature was FLYING upwords and I imediately started to the switch in the back of the case to shut it off. I couldnt beleive how fast the temperature went up.

I wish the Mobo would of shut of the PC due to the high temp and the complete drop in fan speed.

I know MBM can do this, if I can ever find that damn shutoff utility (it seemed to disapeer and all the links go to this generic search page). But if MBM is the first program to fail on the system, then what good is it. BIOS shutdown is the only way to be 100% that the system will shut down.

Thanks Asus,
Mike

 

[GreenJelly]

ASus P5B and I suspect the P5B Deluxe has problems with running 2 ATA based DVD-RW... Mine run on and off... I have a Plextor and an NEC, both work fine together on my old AMD 3200XP, but now the Plextor on the ASUS P5B stops responding occassionally

Mike

 

[GreenJelly]

Dont you think there is a slight problem when you have a chipset that doesnt support IDE optical drives, and that there are only 2 SATA optical drives available on the market, and both of them are VERY expensive, and both have had major problems of there own?

 

[conroe]

You should rename this thread to:

"Don't buy a low end mobo for high-end CPU and memory"

Most people don't need to read this junk.

 

[GreenJelly]

Asus just sent me a RMA, and I am going to have to send it back to them... I expect a long time without my computer... Im not happy

Wish they would build a quality MoBo...

BTW, a $160 MoBo isnt low end... its just not High end... I looked at the specs for the p5B and the deluxe and it seemed that the deluxe had allot of items on it that I didnt want. Plus the heat pipe to the voltage regulator is built for a CPU fan (which I dont have). In addition, I wasnt expecting to have to overclock the FSB much, since I had an X6800, so a "nice" coper heat sink wouldnt of helped much. I was even considering Thermal Epoxy on these parts with a water block. This is not something I would do to a 220+ Mobo, since I think Asus would have a problem with a large amount of unremovable Epoxy on their product.

The only way for me to get a water block on the north bridge... for any of the 965 mobo's I have seen was to Epoxy it on... They default North Bridge heatsinks are all held on by a clip (looks like a paper clip, bent to hold the thing on). I live near FrozenCPU (like 6 minutes from them) and had them look at every MoBo on the market with the p5b chipset (at the time of my purchase). Each MoBo had problems placing a block on the machine.

I dont see the need to spend more money on features that I dont need, and dont expect to need. When and if I need one of these features, a new and much more mature MoBo will be out (probably supporting Crossfire) and I will be blissfully on my way to gaming heaven!

Lastly, the P5B, P5B Deluxe, and P5B Deluxe Wi-Fi are all the same chipsets, and mostlikely share the same voltage regulators... They share the same sound, same HD controller, and almost every other feature. The difference is the difference in SATA controllers, The Added Wi-Fi, another PCI Express X16 (which is not Crossfire nor SLI compatable) and a few other things.

If you look at my complaint, most of the problems are with features that are related to all of their P5B series. The one thing that isnt, is the BIOS features (which uses a different copy). If someone told me that the Asus P5B used a BIOS that didnt support Higher Multipliers on the X6800 I would have bought a different product.

Anyways, I will not be overclocking this machine for a few months (after Asus returns my defective MoBo) because I want a reliable machine that I can have confidence in, BEFORE I start adding additional areas of unreliability.

...next time you speak, know what your talking about before you make assumptions. I should of named this forum, DONT BUY ASUS PRODUCTS!