[plug] a heads-up regards ASUS P5K motherboard

[Denis Brown]

Hello PLUG list members,

This may interest users of the ASUS P5K motherboard, especially if equipped 
with the version 0302 BIOS.

During some testing I noted that reported CPU core temperatures were 
jumping from 35 to 40-ish at "idle" to 59 or 60 when running 
glxgears.   Stopping glxgears would restore the temps to "normal."   This 
box has an nVidia 8500GT card so I found it odd that CPU temps would go up 
(dramatically) for graphic intensive tasks.

I also experienced significant stability problems with software RAID5 - the 
system would freeze during high volume transfers into the RAID array or 
during DVD writing from the array.   No keyboard, no mouse, display static, 
could not SSH into the box.

Updating the BIOS to version 0704 immediately "cured" the CPU temperature 
mischief - now running glxgears makes nary a scrap of temperature 
difference.   Stability also seems to have improved but as that remains an 
issue I'll follow this with a relevant post.

*Beware:* the BIOS settings are different - some different options between 
0302 and 0704 - so maybe do as I did and make a hard copy of settings 
before an upgrade.   I also backed up the original 0302 BIOS to floppy 
*however* I subsequently found that it *will not revert* due to the 
original BIOS having an earlier revision number :-(

HTH,
Denis