Hi All,
I have been working hard to get my P5W DH Deluxe ready and stable for my new Q9550 and RAM and this thread definitely helped me but I'd like to tell you what I did.
Here are the steps I took to get it working.
- Install latest BIOS from Asus.
- Unplug system and remove old CPU, remove all memory and remove the battery from the motherboard. Wait a minute or 2.
- Add your new CPU with great Thermal SIlver Arctic paste and a decent CPU fan (I personality didn't use the stock Intel one cause they shipped a defect although it works just fine)
- Add one chip in the slot closest to the CPU
- Turn the PC on, make sure you get BIOS to post and go in BIOS.
- Set clock or any other defaults like boot order, etc
- Under Chipset Configuration, enable system for 64 OSes. (3rd option down)
- Under JumperFree Configuration, change to Manual
- Increase MCH (NorthBridge) voltage from Auto to 1.55V min
- Make sure the memory voltage match your component, it should by default.
- Increase CPU Clock from 333 to 366 -> +/- 10% overclock for the CPU
- Make sure the RAM Speed is lower than what your RAM can take. I had PC6400 capable memory chips but the system is stable at PC5700 with 4 chips... There may be chips out there that are better quality but people are right that 4 chips is hard to setup on this MOBO.
- When I get more time, I'll try to squeeze in a bit more power out of there. I tried to run at 400 but system became very unstable...
- Install Asus PC Probe II
- Install Prime95 and run LONG stress test on your system to make sure it's stable and temps are fine. From my reading, Mobo should get about 45C and CPU should not be allowed to hit more than 70C under continuous heavy load.
Q9550; BIOS: 3001
OCZ PC6400 800Mhz 5-5-5 2X2GB and 2X1GB
Asus 9600GT
Win 2008 Server x64; Linux Ubuntu Ultimate x64
3 Seagate 320 GB SATA