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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mongo lloyd - Friday, August 25, 2006 - link
Thanks, it's good to know that you'll consider such an article. The buyer guide article was good for the time yes. My reasoning is that it kind of defeats the purpose to buy the cheapest Core 2 Duo when you have to buy the most expensive memory to fully utilize it. Makes sense, I hope.Wesley Fink - Thursday, August 24, 2006 - link
I suppose I could be glib and comment that Asus and Gigabyte will soon be the same company so our original reporting is correct. But I won't do that :) Several weeks ago it was announced that the two companies would merge, but brand identities will likely remain distinct - at least for a while.Gary and I did have a discussion about the Gigabyte board this afternoon, but there was a misunderstading between us about the unlock feature on the Gigabyte. Gary has explained this in detail in comments above, and he revised the article to reflect that the Gigabyte board also unlocks down, since not mentioning the Gigabyte was clearly an unintentional error that is now corrected. That will teach Gary to set me up :) Actually, Gary and I have been friends for years - long before I was with AT or Gary came on board with us. Gary is incredibly conscientious, and we are fortunate to have him on staff.
I just got off the phone with Asus Engineering (it's Friday morning in Taiwan) who will provide more information on the chips they claim work on the up unlock and more information on how it works. ALL of the chips we tested unlocked down. None of the chips at AT - "Cherry-Picked", retail, E6700, E6600, E6400, E6300 would unlock and clock up - as we reported CLEARLY. We will update the article with the additional info from Asus when we get it.
As for nothing new, I certainly consider the overclcoks we got pretty exciting. Gary owns the highest overclocks at 525 and 532 on several Forums since he unlocked the P5B. It is now clear the Gigabyte has the unlock down feature also, but I know for a fact the record overclocks didn't happen on the Gigabyte.
xsilver - Thursday, August 24, 2006 - link
asus and gigabyte merge?this is news to me.. link?
this would cause some serious monopolization of the market, which cant be a good thing?
Wesley Fink - Thursday, August 24, 2006 - link
The news is on the Gigabyte website at http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/News/Company/News_List....">http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/News/Company/News_List..... You find the Asus news on the Asus site at http://www.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=3900">http://www.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=3900.The "merger" was announced a few weeks ago in the Taiwan technical trade press.
xsilver - Friday, August 25, 2006 - link
oh, not exactly a "merger"more like a partnership
they will be producing a new set of boards together ala asrock type boards?
any news if this partnership will be producing budget boards or enthusiast type boards, the press release doesnt mention that.
has a name been decided yet?
giga-sus ? lol
as-byte? double lol
I suspect this will be more a asrock type venture, where cheap mass produced boards can be made without affecting the parent brand name if questions of quality arise
the benefits though as with asrock, have been the company being able to be more adventurous on designs and configurations?
JaredExtreme - Thursday, August 24, 2006 - link
When I first saw the title of this article I was extremely excited.I was thinking to myself: "Asus adds unlocking? Awesome! I'll finally be able unlock those multipliers upwards on some cheap Conroes!" I have a feeling a lot of other people had the same initial enthusiasm when they saw the title.Of course then I got to the point where it's mentioned that none of the Conroes unlocked upwards. Given that the technology mentioned in this article has existed for some time, I'm not sure why the article was even put on Anandtech.
AdamK47 3DS - Thursday, August 24, 2006 - link
I believe Anandtech needs to edit the article to aknowledge that Gigabyte was the first with the feature.Madellga - Thursday, August 24, 2006 - link
Wesley, you probably know this (at least Gary should know it, as he has threads on the CPU Forum).This is not an ASUS feature - at least on the P965 boards. Gigabyte was there before.
I have a DQ6 and the shipping BIOS F2 had it already.
With so many people on the forum using Gigabyte (including Gary), I wonder why do we have an article based on the Asus.....
ZachSaw - Thursday, August 24, 2006 - link
Exactly. The whole article has been singing in ASUS tune when in fact they've just copied someone else's feature! Shame shame.It's such an old feature to exploit EIST for multiplier adjustment that Gigabyte didn't even talked about it any more. Perhaps Wesley is excited ASUS has finally implemented that feature? :) ASUS fan-boy.
Gary Key - Thursday, August 24, 2006 - link
This is my fault. I had a miscommunication with Wes about the unlock features on the Gigabyte boards. Asus had figured out a way to go up and down which (we are trying to find the proper lot number to test) Gigabyte and others had not at this time. In my conversations with Wes I relayed the wrong statement about Gigabyte's capability in this area or my words were confusing about the EIST exploit. Asus will also implement this capability on the 975X chipset in the near future. If the tables were turned on the manufacturer then Wes would be a Gigabyte Fan-Boy I guess......