Motherboard Troubles

[Dabombinable]

I bought a P5Q Turbo on Ebay, received it, had no problems overclocking and running my Core 2 Duo E8500, though as soon as the voltage went above 1.4V I had stability issues, and even then there was random BSOD at anything above stock (1.2) voltage. When I was overclockign the E8500 I did my usual temperature checks, and noticed that the VRM heatsink near the rear I/O was warm to hot, while the VRM next to the 8 pin was cold but thought nothing of it.

 

After trying my Xeon X5450 at 3.69GHz in the motherboard and experiencing a sudden BSOD which lead to my usual troubleshooting steps (CPU inserted correctly, RAM, PSU, HDD) and not having the computer start at all. I decided to leave sit over night without a CPU in it, unplugged, BIOS jumpers shorted and CMOS battery removed.

 

The next day I put my E8500 back onto it, with the 500W PSU that came with my case (4 pin) installed and had it post and boot to windows. This made me think that my VS650 was dead, but when plugged back in it worked just fine. I tried my X5450 again and had the same issues with no posting at all, this time even when I re-installed my E8500.

 

I decided to follow the same steps as after the first crash and as I was plugging the 500W PSU back in I noticed that the chokes next to the 8 pin connector were discoloured with a blueish tint that I've only seen on metal exposed to high temperatures, while the chokes behind the rear I/O where still the original black. I had a closer look and noticed that near the VRM the motherboard was burnt. The odd thing however, is that I never had the smell of burning electronics I had when I deliberately overloaded the VRM on my P5K VM.

 

What will be a good replacement for this POS? With an 8 phase cooled VRM or better being best for my X5450 (the Northbridge cooling doesn't matter, I have what would be the best NB active air cooler ever made).

[Speedyv]

Most likely explanation is that it was like that when you bought it...

[Dabombinable]

Most likely explanation is that it was like that when you bought it...

I know, but the stupid thing is that it was actually able to work at all, and overclock CPUs with a crippled VRM.

[Speedyv]

I know, but the stupid thing is that it was actually able to work at all, and overclock CPUs with a crippled VRM.

 

That sucks.

It was probably just able to run on less power phases, it is just a C2D. Did you contact the seller?

[Dabombinable]

That sucks.

It was probably just able to run on less power phases. Did you contact the seller?

Doing that now, and I'm especially annoyed as the motherboard was supposedly '100% working'. (If I get a refund its $120 back minus return postage, hence my current budget for a replacement).

[ProKoN]

dont waste money on this platform

 

save up for an upgrade is my best advice

 

2nd gen core series or higher should be your goal, buy 2nd hand if you need to.

 

only reason to be on 775 is for overclocking fun

 

dont get me wrong, i do appreciate quad core 775 chips and ddr2 memory. its good stuff even by todays standards

 

i made a good decision to not dump any more money into 775. things are faster ,cooler, quieter and less power hungry

 

pm me if you wanna ditch that 5450 i think harry wants me to own one.

 

i have a p5q pro turbo it came with very different looking vrm heatsinks. think you bought a hack job.

 

http://www.dosv.jp/mb_bb/2009/09/asustek_02.htm

[Speedyv]

Doing that now, and I'm especially annoyed as the motherboard was supposedly '100% working'. (If I get a refund its $120 back minus return postage, hence my current budget for a replacement).

 

Dude that's a waste... like @ProKoN said, I'd ditch the platform.

[Dabombinable]

dont waste money on this platform

 

save up for an upgrade is my best advice

 

2nd gen core series or higher should be your goal, buy 2nd hand if you need to.

 

only reason to be on 775 is for overclocking fun

 

dont get me wrong, i do appreciate quad core 775 chips and ddr2 memory. its good stuff even by todays standards

 

i made a good decision to not dump any more money into 775. things are faster ,cooler, quieter and less power hungry

 

pm me if you wanna ditch that 5450 i think harry wants me to own one.

I've got an i5 4440 rig currently thrown together (eg. nothing fixed to the case, running off an ancient 400W PSU-no PCIe power connectors and only 1 SATA), and the reason I bought the P5Q was for overclocking fun and to see how much I could reduce bottlenecks in games by overclocking.

[ProKoN]

I've got an i5 4440 rig currently thrown together (eg. nothing fixed to the case, running off an ancient 400W PSU-no PCIe power connectors and only 1 SATA), and the reason I bought the P5Q was for overclocking fun and to see how much I could reduce bottlenecks in games by overclocking.

 

i only paid 30 for the board it was brand new from a private local seller.

 

if you live in an urban area try throwing up a "wanted ad" . i did recently and have had a few good replies lately

 

heres my best suggestion for 775 OC fun. ddr2 bandwidth doesnt stand a chance vs ddr3 and fsb \ memory dividers is everything on this platform

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gigabyte-GA-EP45T-UD3R-V1-0-MotherBoard-Intel-P45-Express-LGA-775-DDR3-/271758502724?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f4611ab44

 

odd as F$%^ but they are listing them as parts\ not working.

 

i think thats a typo

[Dabombinable]

i only paid 30 for the board it was brand new from a private local seller.

 

if you live in an urban area try throwing up a "wanted ad" . i did recently and have had a few good replies lately

 

heres my best suggestion for 775 OC fun. ddr2 bandwidth doesnt stand a chance vs ddr3 and fsb \ memory dividers is everything on this platform

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gigabyte-GA-EP45T-UD3R-V1-0-MotherBoard-Intel-P45-Express-LGA-775-DDR3-/271758502724?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f4611ab44

 

odd as F$%^ but they are listing them as parts\ not working.

 

i think thats a typo

Looking at the specs, its actually a DDR2 motherboard: http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3013#ov

[ProKoN]

Looking at the specs, its actually a DDR2 motherboard: http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3013#ov

forgot the T

 

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2937#ov

 

i didnt check the qvl but keep in mind many boards on 775 that support ddr3 are limited to 1gb and 2gb \ stick...for the most part

 

 your gaming rig is decent. i dont like hidden sigs i rarely look inside those things

[Dabombinable]

forgot the T

 

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2937#ov

 

i didnt check the qvl but keep in mind many boards on 775 that support ddr3 are limited to 1gb and 2gb \ stick...for the most part

 

 your gaming rig is decent. i dont like hidden sigs i rarely look inside those things

Yeah... I thought the 'T' was a typo as it didn't show on Gigabyte's website for me. And if it only runs with 8GB of RAM its no big deal, I only bought the extra 8GB for my main rig because it was so damn cheap at the time (2x4GB modules shouldn't be an issue if previous experiences hold true). It looks like a brilliant motherboard going through the specs.

[Dabombinable]

@ProKoN

Thanks for the suggestion. Once the P5Q is returned I'm going to look around for one.

[ProKoN]

 im really interested in that board.

 

it only has 6 phase power design, but power phase count is irrelevant in some circumstances

 

the 2nd highest r15 score for q9650 was done using the ddr2 version of the board which also has the same 6 phase design

 

its no slouch

 

http://hwbot.org/submission/2595791_darkgregor_cinebench_r15_core_2_q9650_%283ghz%29_515_cb

[Dabombinable]

 im really interested in that board.

 

it only has 6 phase power design, but power phase count is irrelevant in some circumstances

 

the 2nd highest r15 score for q9650 was done using the ddr2 version of the board which also has the same 6 phase design

 

its no slouch

 

http://hwbot.org/submission/2595791_darkgregor_cinebench_r15_core_2_q9650_%283ghz%29_515_cb

Well as it happens I've got 3 kits of overclocking DDR2 RAM, 2x1GB Team Xtreem Dark 800MHz, Kingston HyperX 800MHz and Corsair XMS2 1066MHz. So the DDR2 version isn't out of the question. And I already have the water cooling sorted as I bought one specifically for my X5450.

Edit: @ProKoN, damn just look at this overclock on the DDR3 version-http://hwbot.org/submission/2384240_morteza.p_cpu_frequency_core_2_q9650_(3ghz)_5344.56_mhz

 

Edit 2: BTW, mine is the plain P5Q Turbo, not the Pro Turbo (its confusing I know, I almost bought the standard P5Q as it took a bit of research to get the differences spec-wise).

[ProKoN]

Well as it happens I've got 3 kits of overclocking DDR2 RAM, 2x1GB Team Xtreem Dark 800MHz, Kingston HyperX 800MHz and Corsair XMS2 1066MHz. So the DDR2 version isn't out of the question. And I already have the water cooling sorted as I bought one specifically for my X5450.

1066 sticks are pretty nice

 

you should be good up to 550 -600 fsb

 

i havent hit that type of fsb...yet

 

just stick with p45 and you cant go wrong unless you buy a low end garbage thingy

[Dabombinable]

1066 sticks are pretty nice

 

you should be good up to 550 -600 fsb

 

i havent hit that type of fsb...yet

 

just stick with p45 and you cant go wrong unless you buy a low end garbage thingy

Yeah... that's what my P5K-VM was like, so I'm being a bit more careful with the motherboard choices (and before the P5Q died it was able to get both 800MHz kits running at 1066MHz with no problems, so I've got no doubts about possible overclocks)..

[ProKoN]

thats a cpuz validation on ln2 lol.  so it doesnt even really load up the cpu. cinebench is one of the more difficult cpu benchmarks to run so i think its a bit more indicative of straight up power delivery.

 

at any rate that board did really good and was the preferred weapon of an extreme ln2 overclocker, that speaks volumes.

 

1 and 2 gb ddr3 modules are cheap as dirt and you dont need anything fancy at all. 

 

im hitting high scores with 2gb

[harrynowl]

pm me if you wanna ditch that 5450 i think harry wants me to own one.

I have one, it's the better E0 stepping and it hasn't killed VRMs yet

[Dabombinable]

I have one, it's the better E0 stepping and it hasn't killed VRMs yet

C0 stepping, used to be somewhat common but now rare and over $60 easily. E0 stepping-haven't seen a single one online, Ebay US, AU or UK. I"m pissed too because at idle the X5450 has lower temps than my E0 stepping E8500-as in only 3-4 degrees above ambient instead of 10+.

[ApolloX75]

From my latest batch of over clocking fun with LGA 775 most of the later generation ddr3 boards that say they only handle 2GB sticks can handle 4GB sticks fine. My 790i and P45T included.

Also modern 1.5V ram works really well in these older boards, especially the more finicky nvidia chipsets like the 790i.