ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus: NVIDIA's 650i goes Dual x16
by Gary Key on April 2, 2007 3:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Overclocking - QX6700
Needless to say, quad core overclocking on this board is slightly better than most of the 680i platforms but is a disappointment when compared to the recent EVGA 680i LT SLI. Our board reached a final 360FSB at stock or lower multipliers. We were able to POST and enter XP at 372FSB but could not complete our benchmark testing. In comparison, the 680i LT SLI was able to reach 10x362 and 8x432 FSB speeds.
Just like the 680i LT SLI board we had to set our processor voltage to 1.4750 in order to maintain system stability at 360 FSB. Our processor normally will run in the 3600MHz range at 1.4125V. The reason for this is that Vdroop was just acceptable on this board with a quad core processor. We would see drops as high as .05V under load testing with the average drop being around .02V during game testing. Since our quad core results with the ASUS and MSI 650i/430 boards are very similar, we believe the 650i SPP is the limiting factor in overclocking this processor.
Test Setup
A 2GB memory configuration is standard in our XP test beds as most enthusiasts are currently purchasing this amount of memory. Our choice of mid-range OCZ Flex XLC PC-6400 memory represents an excellent balance of price and performance that offered a very wide range of memory settings during our stock and overclocked test runs. We also utilized our Corsair XMS2 Dominator (Twin2x2048-9136C5D) memory on this board to verify DDR2-1066 to DDR2-1200 compatibility with another memory type.
We are currently completing testing several other memory modules ranging from Transcend, TwinMOS, and WINTEC DDR2-800 down to A-DATA DDR2-533 for compatibility and performance benchmarks in our 680i roundup article. Our memory timings are set based upon determining the best memory bandwidth via MemTest 86 and test application results for each board. We only optimize the four main memory settings with sub-timings remaining at Auto settings.
We are utilizing an MSI 8800GTX video card to ensure our 1280x1024 resolutions are not completely GPU bound for our motherboard test results. We did find in testing that applying a 4xAA/8xAF setting in most of today's latest games at our standard resolution did not really change performance. Our video tests are run at 1280x1024 resolutions for this article at High Quality settings. We also tested at 1600x1200 and 1920x1200 4xAA/8xAF for our NVIDIA SLI results that will be presented in our MSI P6N Diamond article.
All of our tests are run in an enclosed case with a dual optical/hard drive setup to reflect a moderately loaded system platform. Windows XP SP2 is fully updated and we load a clean drive image for each system to ensure driver conflicts are kept to a minimum. We were able to run our memory test modules at 3-4-3-9 1T for our benchmark results.
| ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus Quad Core Overclocking |
|
| Processor: | Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Quad Core, 2.66GHz, 8MB Unified Cache 1066FSB, 10x Multiplier |
| CPU Voltage: | 1.4500V (default 1.3500V) |
| NB Voltage: | 1.35V |
| 1.2V HTT Voltage: | 1.30V |
| SB Voltage: | 1.50V |
| CPU VTT: | 1.40V |
| Cooling: | Tuniq 120 Air Cooling |
| Power Supply: | OCZ ProXStream 1000W |
| Memory: | OCZ Flex XLC PC2-6400 (2x1GB) |
| Video Cards: | 1 x MSI 8800GTX |
| Hard Drive: | Western Digital 150GB 10, 000RPM SATA 16MB Buffer |
| Case: | Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 |
| Maximum OC: | 360x10 (3-4-3-9 1T, 800MHz, 2.25V), CPU 1.4500V 3600MHz (+35%) |
| . | |
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Needless to say, quad core overclocking on this board is slightly better than most of the 680i platforms but is a disappointment when compared to the recent EVGA 680i LT SLI. Our board reached a final 360FSB at stock or lower multipliers. We were able to POST and enter XP at 372FSB but could not complete our benchmark testing. In comparison, the 680i LT SLI was able to reach 10x362 and 8x432 FSB speeds.
Just like the 680i LT SLI board we had to set our processor voltage to 1.4750 in order to maintain system stability at 360 FSB. Our processor normally will run in the 3600MHz range at 1.4125V. The reason for this is that Vdroop was just acceptable on this board with a quad core processor. We would see drops as high as .05V under load testing with the average drop being around .02V during game testing. Since our quad core results with the ASUS and MSI 650i/430 boards are very similar, we believe the 650i SPP is the limiting factor in overclocking this processor.
Test Setup
| Standard Test Bed Performance Test Configuration |
|
| Processor: | Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4GHz, 4MB Unified Cache) |
| RAM: | OCZ Flex XLC PC2-6400 (2x1GB) 2.20V, 3-4-3-9 (1T where applicable) |
| Hard Drive: | Western Digital 150GB 10, 000RPM SATA 16MB Buffer |
| System Platform Drivers: | Intel - 8.1.1.1010 NVIDIA - 9.35, 8.43 ATI - 6.10 |
| Video Cards: | 1 x MSI 8800GTX , 2 x MSI 8800GTX for SLI |
| Video Drivers: | NVIDIA 97.92 |
| CPU Cooling: | Tuniq 120 |
| Power Supply: | OCZ ProXStream 1000W |
| Optical Drives: | Plextor PX-760A, Plextor PX-B900A |
| Case: | Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 |
| Motherboards: | ASUS Striker Extreme (NVIDIA 680i) - BIOS 1002 ASUS P5N-E SLI (NVIDIA 650i) - BIOS 0401 ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus (NVIDIA 650i - BIOS 0602) ABIT AB9 QuadGT (Intel P965) - BIOS 1.1 B06 DFI LANParty UT ICFX3200-T2R/G (AMD RD600) - BIOS 12/22 EVGA 680i LT SLI (680i LT) - BIOS Award 721N0P01 GIGABYTE GA-N680SLI-DQ6 - BIOS F4B Intel D975XBX2 (Intel 975X) - BIOS 2333 MSI P6N SLI Platinum (nForce 650i) - BIOS 1.22 |
| Operating System: | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
| . | |
A 2GB memory configuration is standard in our XP test beds as most enthusiasts are currently purchasing this amount of memory. Our choice of mid-range OCZ Flex XLC PC-6400 memory represents an excellent balance of price and performance that offered a very wide range of memory settings during our stock and overclocked test runs. We also utilized our Corsair XMS2 Dominator (Twin2x2048-9136C5D) memory on this board to verify DDR2-1066 to DDR2-1200 compatibility with another memory type.
We are currently completing testing several other memory modules ranging from Transcend, TwinMOS, and WINTEC DDR2-800 down to A-DATA DDR2-533 for compatibility and performance benchmarks in our 680i roundup article. Our memory timings are set based upon determining the best memory bandwidth via MemTest 86 and test application results for each board. We only optimize the four main memory settings with sub-timings remaining at Auto settings.
We are utilizing an MSI 8800GTX video card to ensure our 1280x1024 resolutions are not completely GPU bound for our motherboard test results. We did find in testing that applying a 4xAA/8xAF setting in most of today's latest games at our standard resolution did not really change performance. Our video tests are run at 1280x1024 resolutions for this article at High Quality settings. We also tested at 1600x1200 and 1920x1200 4xAA/8xAF for our NVIDIA SLI results that will be presented in our MSI P6N Diamond article.
All of our tests are run in an enclosed case with a dual optical/hard drive setup to reflect a moderately loaded system platform. Windows XP SP2 is fully updated and we load a clean drive image for each system to ensure driver conflicts are kept to a minimum. We were able to run our memory test modules at 3-4-3-9 1T for our benchmark results.
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JarredWalton - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
Sorry - just an errant typo correction. If you look at the image, you can see it's 1T. Gary had "TT" in there and I corrected that to 2T when it should have been 1T.yacoub - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
oh awesome :)mostlyprudent - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
I think it's time for a comprehensive article to pick the best boards for Intel CPUs (P965 vs. 680i vs. 650i vs. 680i LT vs. 975X vs. RD600, etc.). I know some of this has been done in pieces, but it would sure be nice to have it all in one article. Please :)Gary Key - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
After I finally complete the opus known as uATX or "How to kill the reviewer", we will have a performance roundup that might even include a new spin of the P35. ;-)yacoub - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
It'd be awesome to see a round-up in time for the April 22nd Intel price drop and 6320/6420 release.I want to know simply: "The Best 650 SLI and 680 SLI NVidia-based Boards For 6320/6420 OverClocking" and NOT with any of that ridiculously over-priced Dominator or Flex XLC RAM. Just test with realistic RAM that actual people would buy like Corsair XMS2 or OCZ Platinum series and similar. High-end RAM but not retarded over-priced stuff with gigantic cooling mechanisms. Test RAM that's around $250 (or less) for 2GB matched pairs.
That's what I'd like to see. An actual overclocker 650/680 board round-up for the 6320/6420 c2d chips with RAM people who are looking for the best bang-for-the-buck would actually buy.
People who spend around $200-250 for the motherboard, $200-250 for quality, low-latency RAM, and $200 for the CPU.
There's a lot of us and we'd love to know which board to buy and which RAM works best with it when oc'ing.
sWORDs - Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - link
The OCZ2N1066SR2GK only costs €208 here, that's SLI ready, 1066 MHz, 5-5-5-15, 2x 1GB.The OCZ2N900SR2GK only costs €192 here, that's SLI ready, 900 MHz, 4-4-3-15, 2x 1GB.
yacoub - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
This image link on page4 is different than the actual image:http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/motherboards/a...">http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/mot...sus/p5n3...
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/motherboards/a...">http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/mot...sus/p5n3...
(I think one of the sample images is duplicated.)
JarredWalton - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
Did someone fix this? They are definitely different images for me, although only minor differences.Marlowe - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
Very nice review - looks like a good board! After reading the article I have some questions:Isn't the 'Plus' moniker ment to mean some kind of functionality with Vista? I think I remember when some previous Asus board got a new revision and the got the Plus moniker, it also got a small PCB riser board attached below the IO area.. ReadyBoost or something? Does this board have that? It's not that copper square behind the LAN/USB connections? Or maby it's just a new name for their mid-range boards.
Isn't that a 6-phase power circuit in the pics? I know the Asus site claims 8-phase, but they also have a wrong power circuit pic. The site also says "With the highest speed up to 800MHz," about the memory speed and doesn't mention support for EPP at all, so that must be wrong as well according to your article?
In the expansion slot area you write "two PCI Express x1" but that's not so? Isn't the top slot for the "SupremeFX" audio riser board?
In the Dual Core OC page, the E6300 has 2MB L2 not 4MB :)
And a question: I have the Tuniq120 as well, and the fan is placed ~7 cm over the board and placed in an angle so I guess there aren't much airflow going to those heatpipe sinks. Did you have to use an additional fan over the cpu area while using the Tuniq120 heatsink and overclocking? So if overclocking you *have* to hang some fan with zip ties or something over that area? Thats a bit of a hassle isn't it :P
Anyways very nice performing board :D Looks physically totally identical to the Asus P5N32-E SLI tho :D But
sWORDs - Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - link
The E Plus is ment as an upgrade to the E, it has all solid caps just as the Striker.The E, E Plus and Striker all use the same PCB (just look under the white sticker) and all have a 8 phase power design.
All three have EPP and SLI Ready support up the 1200 (and the 1250 works as well).
The top one can only be used for the riser.
True.
The Northbridge does get very hot, however using the heatpipes should be enough to reach 450. Any busspeed above 400 isn't recommended anyway because of the reduction of timing from the strap selection.
True, they share the same PCB, this one has the same caps as the Striker.