The Makiav3llian Enchantment…

My overclocking adventures hasn’t been the best experience right now, I personally feel that with Project-PC (Codename: Tempest) 90% complete, squeezing the extra juice is one, if not the most important objective of this entire design. Picking the parts one by one from a list that updates regularly and reading review sites has been been a lifesaver for me. I was actually having regrets of not waiting for the P5W DH Deluxe but after reading on and on (as well as BIOS improvements) I actually am proud of my acquisition of the P5B Deluxe AP/Wifi as well as mourn for the loss of my DQ6. However, there is a certain aspect of Project-PC that bummed out and it was not waiting when it came to the memory modules, thus, my overclocking woes.The i965 chipset and the OCZ 2GB PC26400 Platinum EL XTC Rev.1 didn’t make a likely pair. Apparently the Elpedia chipset in the OCZ Rev.1 was like giving a fork to a soup dish. By standards, my motherboard should be running 400FSB X 6M, all I can hit is stock (266FSB X 9M) or play with settings below 350FSB. I mean I don’t blame anybody but who would have thought that this would happen, but sometimes compatibility issues will give way to false advertising and it looks bad with how the Rev.1s were slamming the high end market for OCZ. Many complained including myself but a downfall of a product line will usually open up an area where one company will excel. Thankfully, OCZ rose to the occasion and their support staff (Marcus & Jimmy) brought their game on and tried to help me out. I am just glad that their support team helped me out and diagnosed my batch as "too low for my liking" as Marcus pointed out. Thankfully, they issued an RMA# and my Rev1s where shipped to the Netherlands for an additional 12USD. I guess I didn’t save at all, as Rev2s come with a tag of 279.99USD, bought mine for 280USD with shipping, so you do the math. This is the first time I owned OCZ mems and I am not about to let it go, whatever gave me an idea to post it on TBreak.com and Souq.com. Anyways, I better save my praises for later and wait for my RMA-ed RAMs to return. Till then, my thanks to Marcus and Jimmy as individuals.

I was actually planning to do a write up on visa change after my housemaid’s ordeal. Well good thing Gulf News made it easy for me and had written the entire thing down.

Here is their article:

Cost of Visa Change

"Welcome to beautiful, visa-free Kish Island": Signboard at the Airport.

A 14-day visit visa is stamped on your passport on arrival, by the ominous sounding Foreign Nationals Affairs Management, Department of Disciplinary Force. It can be extended for another six months within 10 days of arrival.

The island is 15 by 9 kilometres. It is flat and arid and very hot and humid in summer. Alcohol is not permitted. You can hire bikes for Dh5 an hour and tour parts of the island. There are special bike tracks.

UAE currency is accepted everywhere. One million Iranian tourists come to this island every year for duty-free shopping.

Ironically, one of the tourist highlights is a 7,000-tonne Greek ship which got marooned on the beach in 1996. It was never refloated as the salvage costs were too high.

Kish Airline return ticket:

Dh530, which includes one night stay at the Farabi Hotel and breakfast of tea, bread roll, butter and jam.

The hotel takes a Dh300 refundable deposit, Dh100 if you have a return reservation.

Accommodation is dormitory style. Take your own soap, towel and bed linen.

Every extra day at the hotel costs Dh35.

Food costs a minimum Dh25 per day.

Total: Dh555. However, most people stay an average of three days, at an average cost of Dh700.

Regional airlines run special flights daily from Dubai to destinations including Muscat, Doha and Bahrain.

Kish Airline nine flights daily to Kish Island from Dubai. It transports about 450 visa change passengers every day.

Qeshm Airlines seven flights daily from Dubai to Qeshm (another Iranian island): Return ticket: Dh510.

Qatar Airways two flights daily to Doha. Fare: Dh780.

Oman Air three flights daily to Muscat. Fare: Dh630.

This gives a sour taste in my mouth as the agency that I dealt with for the visa change, charged me the full rate, they didn’t even bother to give me a discount…

Ramadan is the Islamic month where Muslims all over the world religiously observe fasting, sacrifice, generosity and kindness. This year, Ramadan is observed from the 23rd of September till 23rd October, or when the moon feels like showing its head in the sky. Its a wonderful time where all Muslims share peace and love with everyone, not just during the time of fasting but during the entire 28 - 30 days. To non-Muslims, it is a time of shorter working hours, yes work hours are decreased, around 6 hours per day and this is basically what it is. In Saudi, it is observed in a stricter sense (believe me, the word strict doesn’t cut it), while tourists drink and eat in public in Dubai, everyone must respect the traditions celebrated by Muslims. We fall into their rules and as we respect our religion, let us respect theirs. To my Muslim friends and colleagues, Ramadam Kareem.

So you got the wonderful combination of the P5B Deluxe, an E6600 and the OCZ Platinum EL DDRII 800 XTC Dual Channel… Rev.1… So why put so much emphasis on it, well its because a lot of people seem to have problems hitting the magic combination for this RAM with the Conroes. No its not a manufacturing defect but lets just say it was unexpected that they would not perform according to their standards on the new Intel chipset, the 965P. Regardless of the number of complaints, the modules will work, it just takes a little bit of patience. So today, I share what I have learned to get around this short coming.
Right now, I am running at 3.1Ghz and have achieved stability at it. You can probably go up to 3.3Ghz without issues, but you need the right combination. But before you start overclocking this, let us stick to these facts:

1. The OCZ Plat. Rev.1 modules cost around $215 with a rebate, cheaper than most DDRII 800 in this category. May people take advantage of this deal and then RMA it to revision 2 without even trying them on. Revision 2 of this module is at $255 after rebate, so getting a freebie at this rate is a bad thing for those who originally purchased before Rev. 2 was addressed. Those who deserve an RMA are screwed by this misuse.
2. Consult the OCZ website, they’ve got tips and tricks on how to make it work. Although it is not 100%, you got some idea on how to make it work. Work with the support guys from OCZ like Marcus and Ryder.
3. Patience is required.
4. This actually maybe a BIOS issue and not related to your modules.
5. When you overclock, you shorten the lifespan of your components, it may work or not and I will not bear responsibility for these. Try these at your own risk but one thing I can say is that they do work.

First, start of by getting the correct BIOS. You need the 0507 BIOS from Asus since they are one of the better overclocking BIOS. If this is what you have, start with it, if you don’t have it, get it and flash it. But what if my motherboard doesn’t boot with these RAM? So my tip is don’t have things set up in DC mode, work with one module and boot of that. With the 0507 BIOS, the only thing I noticed is that the Asus CPR does not work properly when the mems are in DC, so I would advise to work with one module. Then flash the BIOS and work with this single module the whole way. If completely, doesn’t boot of the old BIOSes, the only way is to an el cheapo or spare RAM module. Until you flash, this is the only option. The BIOS 0614 has the fix for the OCZ2P8002GK, that’s the Rev.1, but lets work on that later. You can download this OC profile to try and get things running once you have the 0507 BIOS, if you prefer to do manually here are the settings.

AI Tuning: Manual
CPU Frequency: 345
DRAM Frequency: DDR2-690 - This is 1:1 divider.
PCI Express Frequency: 101
PCI Clock  Sync: 33.33Mhz
Speed Spectrum: Disabled
Memory Volt: 2.15v
CPU Vcore: 1.40v
FSB Termination Voltage: Auto
Northbridge Vcore: Auto
Southbridge Vcore: Auto
ICH Chipset Voltage: Auto

Chipset Northbridge
Memory Remap: Disabled
Configure DRAM: Disabled
CAS: 5
RAS: 5
RAS Precharge: 5
RAS Activate: 15
Write Recovery: 6
DRAM TRFC: 42
TRRD: 10
Write to Read: 10
Read to Precharge: 10
Write to Precharge: 10

Advanced CPU Settings
CPU Settings: Disabled
C1E: Disabled

So these are the settings you can set manually if you don’t want the OC profile. Actually the OC profile is a bit different but these are just references you can use. Once you’ve booted with your single stick, load the second module and work you magic. You can play with these settings up up-ping the VDimm and lowering the Vcore. Once it all stable, then update to the 0614 BIOS and save this profile. The 0614 BIOS as mentioned has fixed the issues with our RAM. If you’ve got any Q’s just drop me a line.

The question of me shifting sides like a politician was a surprise. Many would think I had actually given up on what I originally wanted to accomplish, to create a kick @$$ rig with a reasonable high budget. With the video card the only missing piece and prices of the XTX and 7900 series, I should hit everything right on the buzzer. Unfortunately, I made some costly errors along the way though not the fault of my own or the manufacturers, being unable to get an insight on the matter cost me dearly. The memory modules was actually one of the components holding me back. The OCZ Plat. Rev.1 modules just made it difficult to overclock. Buying these pieces late in the game would have had a different story. As of right now I am still working with OCZ techs to get my modules to boot at 400FSB and be stable enough. I’ve booted at 450FSB with stability issues but as of we speak, I finally broke through with a magic combination of 345FSB X 9multi.
I spoken with Marcus (from OCZ) and well, he has decided that an RMA maybe in order, well I do hope it pushes through. I am partly satisfied with the speed I have achieved, a 3.1Ghz boost but of course I am not satisfied since I have not hit a stable 400FSB. I actually believe that I could hit 500FSB with my P5B Deluxe but how can I reach this figure when I can’t even get past 400FSB? Anyways, Mr. Woody of Japan has helped me tremendously with his advise and OC setup, and now I share to the world the information he shared getting around this problem. So kiddies listen up, if you’ve got the P5B Deluxe, a Conroe E6600 and OCZ Plat. Rev.1 memory modules, check my next posting…

So I did the unthinkable and deviated from my so called “spending money wisely” mentality. After my overclocking woes with the GA-965P-DQ6, I decided to sell off the motherboard and get back to my original project, getting Asus back in the picture. Despite the board performing to what it was expected to, I did the stupidest thing, ditch the board instead of the memory modules which were causing the problems. After going through OC hell just to get around 3.3Ghz, I still did not hit 400FSB and this was such a frustrating thing for me since the OCZ modules were looking great. One good thing was that I was able to sell off the motherboard for 800Dhs, I’ve removed the (???) mask and I was actually able to get the DQ6 for 875Dhs. The price is not bad considering that it is still cheaper here than in Manila. So it’s a two week old board and fortunately, a T-Break member has expressed interest in buying it. So he sent the money over and I finally had the opportunity to buy another motherboard, same chipset but different brand and different price.

I introduce to you the DQ6 beta replacement, the Asus P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP Edition. Why beta, well I don’t know either, most of my peers know that I am suppose to get a P5W DH Deluxe for my Conroe setup but because I have failed so many times, I will end up changing the motherboard instead of the RAM. If I have to try every single chipset to work properly with the OCZ Platinum EL DDRII-800 XTC, I will do so. If it has to be the 975X or the NF570 or 590, I’ll jump. I now truly feel how helpless it is when you live in Dubai and your vendor located half way around the world but you have to support the products you buy. I thought like could RMA this and it is not a question of when I will get it back but will I actually get it back. So I swallowed the bitter pill and decided to try and sell my RAM or get something temporary. Anyways, I did not want to wait and since the P5B Deluxe and the P5W DH Deluxe are practically the same, I decided to get the P5B Deluxe Wifi-AP Edition, it just differs on the added features like the P5W has a remote and can play even when turned off. As for the P5B Deluxe, I’ve got an improved ICH8 chip, whatever that is and a mic array for my gaming needs. My noob-ness is actually showing and I can’t afford to stumble, anyways the good thing is that the P5B Deluxe has been able to perform as expected and I am just glad that I have hit the mark on the overclocks and even got up to 450FSB. Now its time to get the temperature stabilized. I will have the OC results posted soon but for now, let me bask in the glory of the P5B Deluxe Wifi-AP.
And if you are asking what the hell does Kuwait have to do with all of this, Kuwait’s international country code is (965) the same chipset identification (P965) used on my motherboard.

Every now and then pieces here and there come into a geek’s life. Just like real life relationship, an enthusiast develops a bond with his hardware. Unfortunately, my relationship with my DQ6 was just like having a relationship with a very pretty lady but just couldn’t keep up with the lifestyle I live. She is a beauty no doubt, better than most and I will re-iterate in my previous entry, having the DQ6 around made you feel really special. From the all-solid capacitors to heatpipes and 12-phase power, you just couldn’t stop talking about it, like a typical male Pinoy yapping about his "impossible" blond girlfriend. Sad to admit, geeks don’t get the girls (there are a lot who will object) but sometimes we tend to be more particular with our stuff.
Anyways, to cut the long story short, after a 2-week whirlwind romance, I have decided to sell the DQ6 since I couldn’t squeeze enough juice out of my OC. The funny thing is that I am not even running on OC extreme all the time but when an enthusiast feels it is not enough, you need to go to the next level or dispatch and start testing again. Basically, I am taking a very different road from where I started and this will cost me extras, though it will be minimal. I am still contemplating on a P5W DH Deluxe or a P5B Deluxe. Whatever, it maybe, it still another twist in the plot which some will enjoy, except for my back pocket.
To Mr. Terrence of T-Break, who will be buying my motherboard, thanks. So with love, take care of my ex.