The Asus P5LD2-VM How-To Guide

[consolation]

IIRC the reason the 950 benches higher is that it lacks hardware T&L. So when an instruction arrives it just ignores it, whereas a 7300 (which is of comparable speed) has to process the instruction and apply the transform. That makes it slower, but, it allows the card to provide a better image or a more immersive environment. That's why if you do a time demo in say Halo old cards often score higher; you get more frames per second -but it's more frames of {censored}.

 

X-Bench, the abortion that it is, is too dumb to detect that.

 

I find a huge performance advantage when using a 7600 or X1600 over a 950 when using aperture, not to mention that CIV & Quake look spiffy Note that these are not particularly high end cards. A 7600GT (a much better card then the gs or x1600) can be had for ~$100 US - your hacky will fly with one. IMHO, you need a 7300gt/7600gs to see the full benefit of core image and be able to keep the frame rate up.

Edited March 10, 2007 by consolation

[DiaboliK]

i'd like to jump in on the 950 bashing for a second.

 

i for one like the 950 i'm running a 2.13dual2 processor with 2gigs of ram and the video works great. i have yet to see any problems with it. if there is a card that works better under say $200 i would buy it but i'm not sure there is one at this time.

 

 

DiaboliK, do you think there is a better card i could go with. i think you even said that my bench test faired better then yours in the video.

 

i would however like to go to dual monitor and didn't know if i should go with the add2 route or complete dual card route.

 

 

btw:mad props for DiaboliK, my machine rocks thanks to him.

 

first, to everyone, id stick with consolation's reccomendations.

i have all of the cards he said and they all work wonderfully. (nvidia's are far better than the ati's, and have extended mode dual screens )

 

and to tell you from switching from the gma900 to the x1300pro 256mb pcie in my intel 915gux machine. its a whole heck of alot better.

 

you are better off getting off the onboard graphics, and upgrading.

I never use onboard most of the time.

 

Heres some proof:

Before:

 

After:

 

-DiaboliK

Edited March 10, 2007 by DiaboliK

[Krokus]

Thanks for this How to.

 

One question though.

 

I take it that "JaS.10.4.8.AMD.Intel.SSE2.SSE3.iso" is not the same as "JaS.10.4.8.SSe3.Intel.only.iso"

 

I'm having a hard time finding the later but have not given up.

 

Krokus

[DiaboliK]

Thanks for this How to.

 

One question though.

 

I take it that "JaS.10.4.8.AMD.Intel.SSE2.SSE3.iso" is not the same as "JaS.10.4.8.SSe3.Intel.only.iso"

 

I'm having a hard time finding the later but have not given up.

 

Krokus

 

almost the same, different kernels as the iso name states

Edited March 11, 2007 by DiaboliK

[Krokus]

almost the same, different kernels as the iso name states

 

Wow - Quick reply. Thanks

 

I just noticed in post 3 (blackturtleneck) used it. I see it on usenet and won't have to wait too long for it.

 

Krokus

[Litespeed]

Sorry guys, just want to jump in here.

 

I'm looking at following setup:

 

- ASUS P5LD2-VM mobo

- Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 CPU

- Corsair TWIN2X1024-5400C4 RAM

- Seagate Barracuda ST3250620AS 250GB SATA2 HDD

- ASUS 1608P3S DVD-RW

 

I'm going to stick with the GMA950 graphics for now because my wife has it in her Acer laptop and 10.4.7 runs very well on that. I have both the JaS 10.4.7 and the 10.4.8 ISOs. Which would be the better install?

[DiaboliK]

10.4.8 way better than 10.4.7.

[Litespeed]

10.4.8 way better than 10.4.7.

 

I've got the one described as "JaS 10.4.8 for AMD & Intel SSe2 Or SSe3 W/ Semthex's 8.8.1 kernel for sse2 and sse3".

 

Is this OK?

Edited March 11, 2007 by Litespeed

[DiaboliK]

I've got the one described as "JaS 10.4.8 for AMD & Intel SSe2 Or SSe3 W/ Semthex's 8.8.1 kernel for sse2 and sse3".

 

Is this OK?

 

thats the one i use all the time nowadays

 

-DiaboliK

[postaldave]

thats the one i tried first and had trouble booting after install.

 

check my sig for the iso that worked for me if that one doesn't work.

 

good luck with your build, it's a great mobo for your project.

[Litespeed]

thats the one i use all the time nowadays

 

-DiaboliK

 

Awesome, thanks for the help DiaboliK.

[kle500]

I have tested most of the 10.4.8 install dvd's, and i was unable to find some difference.

But i had a strange problem with the "Tutorial's image".

My machine after a cold boot, was staying forever in the blue screen with the spinning apple wheel (not the rainbow wheel).

If i did a hard reset, everything was good, it booted perfect, but if i shut down the machine and after 1-2 minutes power up, same stuck!!

So, i formated and used the latest JAS (February), did all the Apple updates, and have no problem up to now!

[morbidangel]

The USB chipset and/or the actual bios in relationship with the 10.4.8 usb driver of this ASUS board seems to produce stutter/noise problems with my toneport usb audio (sync problems). I tried all stuff from kernels over fsb-settings different USB drivers, different Toneport drivers and so on.

 

ALL other USB devices work and even the Toneport was working in Jas 10.4.6.

 

Im currently trying an USB addon card with a VIA-Chipset and the toneport does not behave the same. So I hope this problems will be fixed with another USB AddonCard until a software solution was found (a future version of the Generic USB driver)

 

I think this problem does not only relate to this board. Perhaps someone could point me to 100% working USB chipset ?

[kernalzero]

is anyone else having trouble with PCI cards in the p5ld2-vm??? I just bought a belkin wifi pci card and the damn thing doesn't even power on in either of the open pci slots. I'm yet to test another pci card because i'm not at home right now but it's pissing me off! any suggestions?? i played with the bios and couldn't come up with anything, I might install windows on a spare drive and see what happens if it recognizes the pci slots??!?! help?

[kle500]

is anyone else having trouble with PCI cards in the p5ld2-vm??? I just bought a belkin wifi pci card and the damn thing doesn't even power on in either of the open pci slots. I'm yet to test another pci card because i'm not at home right now but it's pissing me off! any suggestions?? i played with the bios and couldn't come up with anything, I might install windows on a spare drive and see what happens if it recognizes the pci slots??!?! help?

I have 2 PCI cards in the PCI slots and they work fine.

Although 1 of them is only available in windows HD.

But they work fine

1 Firewire card

1 Mpeg2 Decoder (XP)

[morbidangel]

I also have a belkin wifi pci card and its working fine all the time

 

Does anybody know if there is a way to change the irg for the onboard usb or the vga irg for my x1800gto pci-e because im very sure that my usb audio problems have to do with that or the ati driver

[postaldave]

no problems here, i have firewire installed on a PCI.

 

here is what i would do.

 

1.update the bios

2.set bios to default

 

if that doesn't work try a liveCD linux like pclinuxos and see if it works or shows up in the hardware. wifi might not work but thats a linux thing right now, it still should show up in hardware.

 

or go with the xp route. i would still try 1 and 2 first.

 

 

 

 

is anyone else having trouble with PCI cards in the p5ld2-vm??? I just bought a belkin wifi pci card and the damn thing doesn't even power on in either of the open pci slots. I'm yet to test another pci card because i'm not at home right now but it's pissing me off! any suggestions?? i played with the bios and couldn't come up with anything, I might install windows on a spare drive and see what happens if it recognizes the pci slots??!?! help?

[kernalzero]

no problems here, i have firewire installed on a PCI.

 

here is what i would do.

 

1.update the bios

2.set bios to default

 

if that doesn't work try a liveCD linux like pclinuxos and see if it works or shows up in the hardware. wifi might not work but thats a linux thing right now, it still should show up in hardware.

 

or go with the xp route. i would still try 1 and 2 first.

 

 

Good call with the linux liveCD, I should have thought about that but i'll give that a shot. I never installed a floppy drive so i'll have to dust one off to update the bios which I was planning on doing anyway. thanks for the suggestion postaldave

[kernalzero]

per postaldave's suggestion I tossed in a copy of DSL 3.2 livecd and got this back in hardware:PCI

 

 

0000:01:0a.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation: Unknown device 4318 (rev 02)

 

so the board is working and it can see the PCI card is in place but I'm still at a loss for what to do so my plan is to download another copy of jas 10.4.8 and hope this one installs. I've had trouble with 3 different versions of his 10.4.8 disc and was only able to update to 10.4.8 from a 10.4.5 install dvd which might be the problem...otherwise any other suggestions? i've heard of a airport 'hack' involving the apple airport software but know nothing more about it, can anyone shed any light?

[kernalzero]

problem corrected...i now have wireless. followed this http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=44114 with some edited steps that I thought were left out.

[Litespeed]

hi all!

 

im running almost the same system tha diabolik, and i did something like he said on his first post, everything is working, before that i tryed an amd 64 sse2 and works verty bad, with asus mobo no sound, video only vesa 3 (agp) but since i was investigate what hard combination will work the p5ld2-vm with core duo seems to be the best and i was right! there are things to upgrade but works all!. i connected a digital camera to usb and aperture opened, its just fantastic, and mi xbench result 127 points! now i want 2 things, some good games and a good logo for bios screen, here are my specs

 

p5ld2-vm se (core duo support)

intel c2d 2.13 ghz

2 x 512 mb (1 gb) and no slowdown performance

1 x 120 gb windows sata2

1x 160 gb windows sata2

1x 80 gb osx! sata2

asus 7300GT 256 mb with natit 1280x1024 working

asus dvd rw 1608p

mtek power supply 480 watt very stable

common keyboard and optical mouse

 

good luck all!

 

Can someone please tell me/us the differences between the "P5LD2-VM" and the "P5LD2-VM SE"? And if the differences are a problem?

[consolation]

Can someone please tell me/us the differences between the "P5LD2-VM" and the "P5LD2-VM SE"? And if the differences are a problem?

 

SE has 2 ram slots not 4, no raid (no problem as raid does not work on hacks anyhow), the Gigabit LAN works native and there's no Firewire onboard. It's really easy to install on as all you need to patch is the sound. Only 2 RAM slots is a bit of an arse....

[Litespeed]

SE has 2 ram slots not 4, no raid (no problem as raid does not work on hacks anyhow), the Gigabit LAN works native and there's no Firewire card. It's really easy to install on as all you need to patch is the sound. Only 2 RAM slots is a bit of an arse....

 

Thanks man. The P5LD2-VM SE is easier to get down here.

[Allsop]

It's an easy update to 10.4.9 with Loki updater + latest kernel from IRC.

Remeber to not restart after the loki updater before you've replaced the kernel.

 

This board just rocks, have been using it for about 4 months now and everything just works!

[Diz]

I received an error when trying to install from the JaS.10.4.8.AMD.Intel.SSE2.SSE3.iso DVD that said:

 

"local root halt. halted by root syncing disks . . ."

 

and the system shuts off.

 

 

This happened just prior to the disk utility step. This is my first build and I've been trying to follow this guide closely.

 

Initially I partitioned the drive and put XP on there to ensure all the hardware worked, and it did. I installed Acronis Boot Selector on a partition as well, and attempted to get a dual boot system going and had problems. I decided I would forego a dual boot system and after formatting I've been getting the same errors listed above every time. Now I'm using Boot and Nuke to ensure my drive is securely wiped in case there is something weird going on w/ the Acronis partition.

 

Any ideas?