Hey guys, I bought a Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus motherboard for around 90 pounds, and have had to RMA it due to it not posting, for an unknown reason. I've got a E8500 processor and the tech support at the RMA told me they need to flash the bios (probably to the latest 1403 i'm assuming) to allow it to run the newer 45nm processors. After reading up about this i've found that this bios is not good for overclocking and so im considering phoning the RMA people and asking for a refund instead of a replacement, and getting a different board. It needs to run my E8500 and overclock as well as possible, preferably up to around 4Ghz with no problems... and it also needs to be SLI. I'm considering scrapping the SLI idea, selling one of my 8800GT cards and getting a better board, without SLI (there doesnt seem to be many good value options for sli motherboards). So basically, should I get a replacement p5n32-e, does anyone have experience using and overclocking E8500's on them? Or should i get a refund, and if so can anyone recommend a better board for under 150 pounds? Thanks! edit: this looks like a good alternative: EVGA 750i Cheesecake any thoughts?
Do you really need an Nvidia chipset if you don't want SLI? We can't link to the EVGA 750i F-T-W review in the forums because F-T-W converts to Cheesecake.
Well i do want SLI...was considering getting rid of one of the cards but i would much prefer using SLI with my cards. Just read a few forum posts about overclocking the 1404 BIOS after searching on google and there seems to be a few people who have got it working well....has anyone here overclocked using this bios before?
Heres the card i've been recommended to change to on SLI Zone forums: http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=801000 EVGA NF750i forthewin I think these newer 750i chips work with my processor much better, and its only around 30 pounds more for this board so I can change if itll make overclocking possible! Any one know of any issues with this board, any reasons I shouldnt change from my P5N32-E motherboard?
Got the evga board now and its great. Northbridge runs pretty hot but much better in my new case, and overclocking seems good so far - im running @ 4Ghz with 1.3V (was around 1.345v in bios, but in cpu-z shows 1.3) and its stable so far after 4 hours of prime.
Wait. They added "F-T-W" at the end of their product name? What a load of legends! And I have a 680i Chipset which despite sometimes running a bit warm, and the rare, but easily fixable failure to boot, I reckon its awesome. Beautiful layout, awesome BIOS and it overclocks like a *******. MGT
