Asus essentio CM5570 overclocking guide

[warpcrash]

Well I would like to give back to the community I've learned so much from over the years.

I replaced the bios that came with it with the retail one for the actual motherboard so I could overclock no easy task for me!

I recently bought a ASUS ESSENTIO CM5570 AP-006 for only $350 at best buy it was a refurb. (they sent me the wrong model first 2 lol but i finally got the right one)

And of course there are no overclocking options in the bios.

So I did some research and found the motherboard is the P5QL-VM-EPU

So steps to do this are:

Step 1: Download the newest bio for the motherboard here in the downloads section I believe it's 0601

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=wlBGtZNOPfeanWHH&templete=2

Step 2: You need to make a USB dos bootable disk here is an easy guide with picture I can't find the one I used

http://www.bay-wolf.com/usbmemstick.htm

Step 3: Get afudos engineering edition the regular one will not work. I found it here from another user on here

http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/8/19/174415/AFUDOS229ES.zip

Step 4: on your now bootable usb disk you need to put afudos and the bio rom file on it and rename the rom file so it is less than 8 letters long since most dos versions can't read over 8 letter words. example P5QLVM.ROM

Step 5: reboot and go into your bios setting and under boot devices go to hard disks and change it from your hard disk being first to the USB drive first. (took me awhile to find the right place it's NOT under boot order removable devices)

Step 6: when your reboot it should launch into dos and type this to run the afudos and to ignore all the bios checks.

afudos /iP5QLVM.ROM /pbnc /n

That's it now you have the proper retail bios for this machine! good luck also this mobo has a way to restore the bios if it gets corrupted i'm not sure on how to do it but back up your original bios first. It took me about 4 hours to figure all this out so hopefully it will save you guys some time.

 

[warpcrash]

are you using dos with in windows 98? I do not think that will work but it's been a awhile and try naming it the same name i used maybe

 

[cacoulte]

im doing exactly what the guide said to do ive gotten this error before, even when I named it the same way

 

[sKorcheD]

use a different dos util, DrDos is what I used, I even flashed mine using a CD-R.

http://www.biosflash.de/e/bios-boot-cd.htm

 

[sKorcheD]

Also I don't know if you've tried this already or not but, try re-downloading the rom as well, very well possible your download just got corrupted.

 

[mikeybumps]

hey warpcrash im the not so proud owner of a non overclockable asus cm5571 and was wondering if this will work with mine?
mine is a P5QL-M/EPU same as the P5QL-VM/EPU but with ddr3 instead of ddr2. i want to kinda get a rough estimate cause im kinda new to the pre-built systems and i think it might be my last so any help is greatly appreciated thanks in advance

 

[cacoulte]

Is the rom file unzipped and in the same folder as afudos? your getting close man

do you have to put afudos and the rom in a folder?
I just have it at the root of H:

 

[cacoulte]

use a different dos util, DrDos is what I used, I even flashed mine using a CD-R.

http://www.biosflash.de/e/bios-boot-cd.htm

I can still use usb right? I have disks but USB is easier

 

[warpcrash]

try different methods, redownload the rom, i think it would be ok if they were both on the root , as for the different motherboard you would likely need the corresponding rom file for that motherboard..... but i imagine the method would work. and again you have to use the engineering edition of afudos the regular one will not work.

 

[cacoulte]

finally got it to work

 

[warpcrash]

and how did you achieve success?

 

[mikeybumps]

Anybody know if this will work for the asus cm5571 p5ql-m/epu/cm5571 ???????

 

[warpcrash]

like i said i would assume the method would work. just gotta use the right bios.

 

[mikeybumps]

alright i didnt know that post was aimed at me but if i just need the right one do you have any suggestions as too which one will work and not brick the bios chip? i guess i could say i got bored and called asus and the replacment bios chip isnt covered under warrenty :-( but i have looked but the closest ones i can find only have 2 memory slots and my google search leeds me to believe that if i did and it worked it would knock-out every extra piece on the mobo that the one i used the bios file from didnt have. i like my excessories

 

[warpcrash]

look on the asus site for correct bios. and most of the new mobos have a way to flash even if u do brick it so you don't have buy a new chip.

 

[mikeybumps]

look on the asus site for correct bios. and most of the new mobos have a way to flash even if u do brick it so you don't have buy a new chip.

ive been there and the p5ql-vm/epu is the one ive got but mine has the ddr3 controllers hence the p5ql-m without the v same thing tho. and i know asus probably lied to me but they said this mobo doesnt have that nice and easy wipe clean method they said i have to buy a bios chip

 

[warpcrash]

i can't think of any P5 boards that run ddr 3 you may be misinformed on what you have.

the model should be on the motherboard somewhere.

did you open your case up and look inside and verify that is what you have? I don't see any drivers for that model.

if you are correct then sadly you may be stuck with an OEM mobo and will not be able to access retail features like overclocking.

 

[mikeybumps]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883220043&cm_re=cm5571-_-83-220-043-_-Product
there the link and sadly thats kinda what i was already thinking and i was going to buy the cm5570 but i figured the ddr3 ram was a better deal shoulda bought first and thought later

 

[warpcrash]

did you open up the case and see what the mobo is? i doubt they would have a designed a motherboard just for a small production run of these desktops. they might have just renamed the driver to detour people from knowing what is inside. don't be afraid open it up. the model number should be printed on the board.

 

[warpcrash]

try the Asus AI Suite you should be able to unlock the fsb and overclock that way

 

[mikeybumps]

alright im downloading it now and will try it that way mine didnt come with the suite just the manager
but im thinking about selling mine and getting the i7 920 version with 9gigs ddr3 and it comes out of the box overclockable with a gtx 260 core 216
not too bad for $689.99

 

[warpcrash]

yep that would be a nice rig. mine was a good deal b/c quad core. it smokes faster dual cores.

 

[mikeybumps]

ya mines not too bad right now ive got a q6600 in my cm5571 it was really good with high end games until i bought battlefield bad company 2 and max out the settings and cooked my 8800ultra and gaming on a gma x4500 really blows
but ive tried the ai suite but the ai booster only gives me access to the cpu frequency ? any suggestions
ive managed to get the freq. from 266.00 to 285.00 but i tried jumping to 300 and everything went star wars on me

 

[warpcrash]

1 mhz at a time... you prolly wont get much out of it but something better than nothing.

 

[mikeybumps]

ya i think i like bios overclocking better now it keeps freezing on me

you should check this one out tho its the one im ditching this one for i cant wait till payday

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883220051&cm_re=Asus_Essentio-_-83-220-051-_-Product

 

[warpcrash]

yea my nephews have that one.