Asus T3-p5g965

[krhainos]

Excellent news, thanks for that. I've ordered the Thermaltake Silent cooler and hope it makes some kind of change.

The Antec Enclosure is better than expected, performs better and looks better, HD is kept at 37-39c never seen 40c; that's a drop of 10-15c! I'm ordering another!

Speedfan loads up an finds some sensors but only shows temperatures and the fan adjustments remain useless. The only was to adjust the heat sink fan is through the Asus Probe 2 utility; am I right? I might just try having some small fan near the HDD's to get some air moving in there (they're still always above 50c after 30 mins or so after booting.

As for BIOS well still waiting for the proper version of that dodgy beta to come out, hope its soon.

I actually got ahold of what looks like the 0610 BIOS, that's labelled as the 0003 Beta BIOS -- I have another thread on the Asus forum I keep my eye on, that contains the url :

vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20070406201844730&SLanguage=en-us&page=3&board_id=8&model=T3-P5G965

[desdes]

I've installed that 0003 BIOS but can't see any changes, any idea what they are?

[krhainos]

I've installed that 0003 BIOS but can't see any changes, any idea what they are?

The big change for me and everyone else was that RAM speed is now selectable, for those that purchased DDR2-800 memory that fit the specs but had the motherboard detect it as DDR2-667 no matter what. Even those that purchased RAM sticks listed on the QVL as guarunteed DDR2-800 modules had the BIOS frustratingly detect the sticks as DDR2-667.

[45six]

I'm keen to use this barebones for a media center pc, running Windows Vista.

Was planning on getting the following bits to go inside...

- Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.8GHz S775
- Crucial CT2KIT12864AA667 2x1GB PC2-5300 NonECC CL5
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 160GB 7200RPM S300 8MB Cache
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB S300
- Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T 500 Dual digital DVB-T PCI TV card
- LiteOn 16x DVD+/-RW/RAM SATA beige drive & software

Am I going to need a graphics/sound card or are the onboard ones ok?
I would like to make use of the digital optical out but note early in the thread this was reported as bugged?

I have a Samsung plasma (won in a competition) which the PC mode states XGA 1026x768 at 60Hz.
I'm a bit confused how this works as currently I'm running an Xbox 360 to that with the official vga cable and it display in widescreen fine. In the manual it says it doesn't support 720p or 1080i in pc mode, but I'm pretty sure the 360 is running in 1080i. I was told by the xbox bloke (who delivered the prize) that I should invest in the vga cable and use that instead of component. I was intending to connect the 360 via component again to free up the vga input for the media center, but would appreciate any advise that's offered if there's a better way to do it. The screen does have an HDMI input, can you get pci-e cards that offer hdmi output? Any recommendations that'll fit in this case alongside the Hauppauge pci tv card please?

EDIT: just read in the screen manual that you can't connect the HDMI/DVI input to a PC graphics card.
I guess I'll have to wait for the Xbox 360 Elite as that has HDMI output and stick to connecting the media center via VGA.

[krhainos]

Am I going to need a graphics/sound card or are the onboard ones ok?
I would like to make use of the digital optical out but note early in the thread this was reported as bugged?

I have a Samsung plasma (won in a competition) which the PC mode states XGA 1026x768 at 60Hz.
I'm a bit confused how this works as currently I'm running an Xbox 360 to that with the official vga cable and it display in widescreen fine. In the manual it says it doesn't support 720p or 1080i in pc mode, but I'm pretty sure the 360 is running in 1080i. I was told by the xbox bloke (who delivered the prize) that I should invest in the vga cable and use that instead of component. I was intending to connect the 360 via component again to free up the vga input for the media center, but would appreciate any advise that's offered if there's a better way to do it. The screen does have an HDMI input, can you get pci-e cards that offer hdmi output? Any recommendations that'll fit in this case alongside the Hauppauge pci tv card please?

EDIT: just read in the screen manual that you can't connect the HDMI/DVI input to a PC graphics card.
I guess I'll have to wait for the Xbox 360 Elite as that has HDMI output and stick to connecting the media center via VGA.

I'd say the onboard audio is fine, but the graphics department, you'd want something a bit better. I currently use the TOSLink output and it seems fine.

Your Samsung panel may feature a VGA port, but as you can see all it will do is take a 1024x768 picture (which is 4:3 ratio; not widescreen) and stretch or letterbox it in this "PC Mode". Icky. Just stick with standard HD stuff -- 720p, 1080i, 1080p(may be out of reach) -- So what I recommend is a PCI Express card, either from ATI or nVidia variety -- whoever you prefer, that supports Component or HDMI output -- again, whichever output you prefer. The Radeon 9800 series-and up will at least do 1280x720 (720p) over component output using a proprietary ATI DVI-to-Component adapter. nVidia cards (such as the 7950GT I bought) ship with a dongle looking thing that outputs component. nVidias also seem to play well with a DVI-to-HDMI adapter as well. I think ... HISTech sells a Radeon X1650 with a HDMI port built right into the card -- it comes with a little jumper cable that connects from the audio-out of the soundcard so it can mux in the audio, and send it along it's way over the HDMI cable.

For computing, I will recommend against 1080i, since you'll see flicker -- but 720p is more than ample for couch computing. By using the videocard's built-in HD-output capabiltiies, this leaves you with moreh ardware choice should you replace the display, since your output hardware is already standard HD stuff. You won't be stuck looking for another HD panel with a VGA D-Sub, since those are pretty rare.

[snedger]

Am I going to need a graphics/sound card or are the onboard ones ok?

I don't get access to my gf's PC very often, but following on from installing the beta T&L enabled G965 driver, I installed Rome Total War yesterday and was astonished as to how well it ran - better than other machines that I've tried with graphics cards and that was without patching it. The game must be very CPU heavy.
However, the CPU fan did do its brief 2 seconds hairdryer impersonation a few times and the PC did crash hard once - CPU temp was 59C after reboot - the patch might help things, but I ran out of time to try.

[adamg]

I just bought one of these, all in all its a good case but I was dissappointed with no overclocking in the bios, I managed to do some overclocking in windows. Im using an e4300 @1.8ghz clocked to 2.1ghz I know the cpu is capable of much more, anybody had any better joy?

[adamg]

Forgot to add system halts after 2.1ghz, seen this cpu at 3.6ghz on some rigs.

[45six]

thanks very much for the info.

looking at this photo - matbe.com/images/biblio/divers/000000040316.jpg (had to leave the www dot off as I'm a new forum user)
am I correct in saying the PCI express socket is below the PCI socket ?

Will installing a pci tv tuner card cause any problems with adding a PCI express graphics card?
Can you get passively cooled PCI-e GPUs with the heatsink on the bottom?

[krhainos]

thanks very much for the info.

looking at this photo - matbe.com/images/biblio/divers/000000040316.jpg (had to leave the www dot off as I'm a new forum user)
am I correct in saying the PCI express socket is below the PCI socket ?

Will installing a pci tv tuner card cause any problems with adding a PCI express graphics card?
Can you get passively cooled PCI-e GPUs with the heatsink on the bottom?

The answer is somewhere between "depends" and "I don't know" -- typical PCI-Express graphics cards have the normal fan that's intake and exhausts hot air out the sides, which seems sort of backwards in this case-- but is fine, since the hot air is ejected out of the side of the case. Had the reverse been implemeneted, it would be drawing in hotair from the top of the case and circulating that downward in a futile battle with already rising hot air. Some cards use a two-slot design to pipe hot air out the back; this isn't an option in the Asus, since there's no room for that.

BTX was supposed to be a standard where one of the seeming advantages were that the graphics card was no longer battling the hot air rising back into itself, but Asus seems to have taken BTX and oriented it in a mirrored-ATX fashion.

That said, some passive-heatsink kits for the higher-end cards rely on the fact that the graphics card is the top most card so they rely on the natural vertical convection cooling there. However in the Asus box, not only woudl you be running into the power supply, it's the bottom-most card. The heat is likely to stew there since the top of the heatsink where air circulation is needed as at the bottom. -- Which leaves the hottest end of the heatsink at the top -- where it's glued to the GPU. not good. There are some kits that use a heatpipe and let you put the heatsink anywhere you want -- here you'd, be blocking your one and only PCI slot. Some self-contained water cooling kits let you put the radiator wherever you desire, and the Asus has two open slots at the top if you can manage to squeeze it in there. However, water and compters never seemd like a good idea to me, and even worse at the top -- in case springs a leak, it'll pee all over your valuable silicon innards.

If a graphics card comes with a heatsink without a fan to begin with; it's likely the card will never get hot enough to even come close to damaging, since the existing minimal airflow from the PSU will be sufficient.

Get my drift?

[nickp8]

If you look at the picture I posted previously (http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r...c/IMG_1345.jpg) you can see that the heatsinks on the passively cooled cards are on the backside. They do block the PCI slot above.

Regarding the heat issue above the PCI slot there are another two blanking plates on the case. I have removed the top one and installed an Akasa PCI system blower to expel the hot air rising from the graphics card heatsink. (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=130268)

Nickp.

[adamg]

Regarding the heat issue above the PCI slot there are another two blanking plates on the case. I have removed the top one and installed an Akasa PCI system blower to expel the hot air rising from the graphics card heatsink.

Do those fans make alot of noise and do they make much of a difference? Would be intrested in getting one myself maybe.

[nickp8]

They make a difference in my setup as they extract the hot air from the graphics card heatsink and make no more noise than the cpu cooler.

Nickp.

[adamg]

Im intrested in getting a q6600 now for the system does anybody know whether it would be able to run this cpu,

.. I already have a Nvidia GeForce 7300GT installed as well.

[nickp8]

Im intrested in getting a q6600 now for the system does anybody know whether it would be able to run this cpu,

.. I already have a Nvidia GeForce 7300GT installed as well.

Yes it will. See http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/c...odel=T3-P5G965

Nickp.

[Superstar]

Yes it will. See support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=T3-P5G965

I don't see any 1333 FSB CPUs in that list. Is it because they are not supported or becasue the list is not updated?
The latest BIOS update (0703) states "Support new CPUs" but does not specify which ones...

BTW. What's the difference between the T3-P5G965 and the T3-P5G965A?