ASUS P5B: New BIOS Adds Unlocking & Improved Overclocking
by Wesley Fink on August 24, 2006 3:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
E6700
The 0507 BIOS adds a new feature in the BIOS under the "Advanced", "CPU Configuration" tab. Where there was no means to adjust CPU ratios in earlier BIOS versions, with 0507 you now have an adjustment range from 6X to 10X.
Some Conroe chips also unlock at the top, allowing ranges to about 14x. None of our Conroe chips unlocked up, but you may be one of the lucky ones who have a Conroe that unlocks both down and up.
The E6700, which runs at 2.67GHz, is very interesting because of the large headroom we consistently find at stock voltage. Once again, on the P5B Deluxe at stock voltage, the combo could run day and night at 3.4GHz (340x10) with no issues at all. At the stock multiplier of 10x, at 1.4875V the highest stable speed was 360x10 or 3.6GHz, At a reduced 9x the highest speed was 400x9, which is also 3.6GHz. With the new BIOS unlocking multipliers down, we reached 440 at 8x, or 3.52Ghz, as you can see in this screen capture.
7x allowed a further increase to a FSB speed of 494, which is where the 6700/P5B maxed out. Even at a 6X multiplier 494 seems the limit of the FSB with this CPU and board. Comparing this to our highest FSB overclock of 362 with this board in the Conroe Buying Guide we would conclude that ASUS has significantly improved the overclocking of the P5B. The ability to choose and hold lower multipliers allowed the bus speed to increase from 360 to 494.
E6600
The E6600 unlocked down with the new BIOS and allowed a new range of FSB adjustments of 405x9 (stock), 460x8, 495x7, and 495x6. Below is a screen capture at 495x7 or 3.465GHz.
While the new BIOS on the P5B adds enormous flexibility to the 965P motherboard, it should still be pointed out that on average the 965 still does not overclock as well as the Intel 975X if you compare clock to clock. You might want to look back at the 975X overclocking results in Conroe Buying Guide: Feeding the Monster for a comparison.
The 0507 BIOS adds a new feature in the BIOS under the "Advanced", "CPU Configuration" tab. Where there was no means to adjust CPU ratios in earlier BIOS versions, with 0507 you now have an adjustment range from 6X to 10X.
Some Conroe chips also unlock at the top, allowing ranges to about 14x. None of our Conroe chips unlocked up, but you may be one of the lucky ones who have a Conroe that unlocks both down and up.
The E6700, which runs at 2.67GHz, is very interesting because of the large headroom we consistently find at stock voltage. Once again, on the P5B Deluxe at stock voltage, the combo could run day and night at 3.4GHz (340x10) with no issues at all. At the stock multiplier of 10x, at 1.4875V the highest stable speed was 360x10 or 3.6GHz, At a reduced 9x the highest speed was 400x9, which is also 3.6GHz. With the new BIOS unlocking multipliers down, we reached 440 at 8x, or 3.52Ghz, as you can see in this screen capture.
7x allowed a further increase to a FSB speed of 494, which is where the 6700/P5B maxed out. Even at a 6X multiplier 494 seems the limit of the FSB with this CPU and board. Comparing this to our highest FSB overclock of 362 with this board in the Conroe Buying Guide we would conclude that ASUS has significantly improved the overclocking of the P5B. The ability to choose and hold lower multipliers allowed the bus speed to increase from 360 to 494.
E6600
The E6600 unlocked down with the new BIOS and allowed a new range of FSB adjustments of 405x9 (stock), 460x8, 495x7, and 495x6. Below is a screen capture at 495x7 or 3.465GHz.
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| Click to enlarge |
While the new BIOS on the P5B adds enormous flexibility to the 965P motherboard, it should still be pointed out that on average the 965 still does not overclock as well as the Intel 975X if you compare clock to clock. You might want to look back at the 975X overclocking results in Conroe Buying Guide: Feeding the Monster for a comparison.
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HammerD - Wednesday, September 6, 2006 - link
Well as others have said this is an interesting article, but it is far from complete. As an owner of a P5B Deluxe, Conroe 6300, and that "expensive" OCZ ram myself, I am not able to overclock anywhere NEAR what this article claims with my "retail" B2 stepping Conroe.You should definately post full system specs including what power supply was used, what video card, all bios settings, hard drive, voltages, tweaks, exact brand/type/config of memory, etc etc. Most AT articles have a "Test Setup" page that describes this, but this article does not.
Also I don't think "SuperPI" is a good indicator of 100% system stablity. I can overclock pretty high like 400MHz FSB too, to get my 6300 upto 2.8GHz, boot into Windows XP, and SuperPI passes, but Prime95 fails.
The highest completely stable overclock I can get on my P5B Deluxe system is 325x7 = 2.275 GHz with the 6300 Conroe. That is hours and hours of Prime95 passing.
This is a good article, just needs to be completed.
isvaljek - Sunday, September 3, 2006 - link
Does this mean E6300 can run at 3.5GHz with FSB:RAM 1:1 with plain 533MHz PC4200 RAM?LordX2 - Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - link
Hey all, this is probably the wrong place to post this, but is the 975X chipset going to be upgraded to allow multiplier unlocking?Most importantly though, does anyone know if the 7950 G
X2 video card will work with the P5W-DH Deluxe? I called asus and they said they dont know lol... does anyone here have HANDS on experience with a 7950 gx2 working with a P5W-DH Deluxe?
Any info or links would be greatly appreciated!
JyriT - Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - link
I've got the P5B, E6400 and DDR2 800. Does it sound like a good idea to set the memory/FSB for 400 MHz and processor for 6x400 MHz?KHysiek - Sunday, August 27, 2006 - link
Why tehere is no info about what memory modules were used and at what parameters.I've read here thst i t was some superxpensive OCZ mem.
If it's true what sense is buying mainstream mobo, cheaper model of CPU and Superexpensive memory?
gilahacker - Saturday, August 26, 2006 - link
Anandtech has done an excellent job showing what is possible with standard cooling solutions, but I'm curious as to how high these chips could really be cranked (i.e. with water cooling). Perhaps only the EE could really benefit from this?Provided the price keeps tumbling on these little beauties and their associated parts (mobo/ram/etc.), I think I'll be putting together a new high-end desktop with an E6600 (or higher, depends on the price) and I'd like to do some water cooling for a few reasons, mainly:
1.) noise level
2.) stability/overclockability (did I just make up a word?)
3.) it's f-ing cool (no pun intended)
If I'm understanding correctly, lowering the multiplier and increasing the bus speed should produce a much faster system overall compared to just increasing the multiplier as you're also increasing your memory speed right? So a system overclocked to say 3ghz (for number's sake) using a lower multiplier and higher bus speed would be faster than a system overclocked to 3ghz using only a higher multiplier?
And on chips that unlock "up" for the multiplier, you could still increase the bus speed for even greater performance right?
Thanks for any info. Keep up the good work Anandtech!
yyrkoon - Saturday, August 26, 2006 - link
Yeah, but going from old school thought. higher FSBs can also mean parts wear out faster (namely the motherboard), I dont know if with memory dividers etc, if this is still the case. Anyhow, this is why I would like to see a detailed overclocking article, these little 'how-to's' all over web, and forums are in-complete, and dont offer really any insight on how this all plays a factor. However, to answer your question, YES, using a lower multiplier, with a higher front side bus, should increase performance, and I can especially see how this could play a factor if you were able to run a 1:1 memory divider.yyrkoon - Saturday, August 26, 2006 - link
err sorry, meant to say lower multiplier with a higher FSB should improve performance, as long as the CPU speed remains the same.zemane - Saturday, August 26, 2006 - link
Next year's BIOS (seen on page 1)Gary Key - Saturday, August 26, 2006 - link
That is why the bios is so special, it is a year ahead of its time. LOL... I will get that changed and actually the 0605 bios is out now.