a8n-sli "premium" edition

[Capt Caveman]

Looks like the first review is at tbreak:
T-Break

 

[geogecko]

Originally posted by: teamride
should i be worried about my voltages displayed from ASUS Probe on my NeoPower 480

v12 - v11.584
v5 - v4.919
v3.3 - v3.264

No, you shouldn't. Those voltages are all within the spec of 5%. No power supply will be perfect. Some PSU's spec 3%, but not many.

The low side of the 12V rail is 11.4V, which is exactly -5%. So, you are above that.

 

[geogecko]

New BETA BIOS is now available. Version 1006.001, dated 6/15.

 

[rise]

Originally posted by: teamride
should i be worried about my voltages displayed from ASUS Probe on my NeoPower 480

v12 - v11.584
v5 - v4.919
v3.3 - v3.264

team, i'd check with a dmm, software doesn't mean anything. but those would be low for my liking, especially as antec is supposed to be +/-3%, at least mine is rated that.

after reading through the manual a bit, i'm curious how the max mem clock works. when you set it to 400 is that 1:1 with your fsb or will it keep the ram at 200mhz? does auto run it 1:1 with any htt? if so, whats the reasoning for the 500, 550, 600 options i saw?

 

[geogecko]

You are right, the Antec does have 3% rails. So, your 12V does look a little low, but I probably wouldn't worry about it. I've noticed that almost all PSU 12V rails seem a little on the low side.

 

[anotherbrianm]

For you neweggers out there this motherboard is available today for $195.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131540

Thanks,

B

 

[Azagthoth]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
Looks like the first review is at tbreak:
T-Break

Thanx for the link. I'd like to use a huge HIS X800XL as videocard, but I'm afraid the memory socket handles might slightly interfere with the videocard, as stated in this review. Or is the risk the same when using a smaller Leadtek 6600GT PCI-E? I'd like a silent pc, but don't want any hassle ...

The NB cooling seems to be sufficient at first sight. I think the Abit AN8 v2.0 has an even beter NB cooling solution, but that one's still hard to get in my home country (Holland), so my hopes are high on this mobo.

 

[milleron]

Originally posted by: Xenvu
I'll try and measure it tonight. Its really small and doesn't cover the whole chipset. I installed an xp-90c with a panflo fan. Temps are around 36-44c idle, haven't tested the load yet. I might have screwed up the heatsink mounting. Chipset temps were around 48-51c idle. The board itself is awesome, I had no problems installing it and getting it to boot the first time. My only problem is that my motherboard isn't detecting my cpu fan but the fan itself is spinning. Its not a big problem right now but I can't adjust the speed of the fan. I'm sure I could get it cooler if I could up the rpms on the fan. Can anyone post their temps so I can compare? Also, does anyone know how hot the chipset on the deluxe is? Asus says this mobo is 10c cooler than the other nf4 boards. It still seems a bit hot to me.

Thanks.

Panaflo fans are the best, but they do NOT have RPM monitoring. I had to go with a different brand on my XP120 for that reason.

 

[milleron]

Originally posted by: anotherbrianm
For you neweggers out there this motherboard is available today for $195.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131540

Thanks,

B

Remarkable. I searched Newegg high and low and couldn't find it. I ordered one from Monarch about an hour before seeing your post. It was $2 less, but I'd certainly rather have ordered it from Newegg along with the rest of my kit.

 

[Waylay00]

What blows my mind is that there are still people buying the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe. ASUS needs to push their product out their more, so people will know about it. I haven't seen one thing about the Premium anywhere, besides these forums and a couple of review sites.

 

[milleron]

Originally posted by: Waylay00
What blows my mind is that there are still people buying the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe. ASUS needs to push their product out their more, so people will know about it. I haven't seen one thing about the Premium anywhere, besides these forums and a couple of review sites.

Well, the Deluxe is $20-30 less expensive, but I agree with you that there's no other reason to buy the Deluxe version right now. The Premium boards have just found their way into retail channels in the last few days or weeks (just yesterday at Newegg), so I imagine that they will now start to become popular rapidly. It would help Asus, though, if they'd bother to update their US site so that it even acknowledges its existence. As it is, you have to go to the global Asus site to find that there is a product called A8N-SLI Premium.

 

[akugami]

One major question is why no 1394b? Why use Firewire 400 on a so called premium board when Firewire 800 is available? Other Asus motherboards have Firewire 800 so it's not like it's something new to Asus. Another disapointment was the fact that it only provides up to 1.55v for the CPU max. Other boards have up to 1.6v. Heck, it's not like I will ever put it to 1.6v but for a premium board, it should have that option.

Glad to see the ram timing issues fixed but testing has shown that while it was an issue for those with very expensive memory, the price/performance ratio of obtaining and running memory at such tight timings was not worth it. Also glad to see the jumperless setting for switching between SLI and regular modes. Not that I'd buy two video cards at this point. Heck, I have an ATI card.

Better audio chip would have been nice but it's ok with what it has. Most people don't have a fancy enough audio rig to take full advantage of better audio anyways.

 

[anotherbrianm]

The release for the premium board has been very soft. I would guess the delays were due to the problems with the deluxe (chipset fan + HT Issue + relatively poor OC). I think an extra $20-$30 for the premium board is a deal since it is still cheaper than putting one of those swifttech NB coolers on the deluxe and you don't void your warranty to boot. The other thing I have noticed with Newegg is they offer newer products a bit later than other vendors possibly because they want to reduce their stock of the older itmes. I noticed this with the Venice and SanDeigo chips and now with the a8n Premium. Although that is about the only somewhat negative thing I can say about them.

B

 

[jcniest5]

HI guys, just got my Premium earlier and set it up but there is an issue. My SuperPI score is very low, 45sec for the 1MB, which I used to get like 34sec on my former Asus A8N SLI Deluxe and my DFI LP NF4 SLI-DR, but on my Premium, the score is unbelieveably low. I don't know what I could have done wrong. Central Brain Identifier correctly identify my system as 10x200 (=2Ghz), and the memory is 2-3-3-6. I flashed back and forth between 1005 Final and 1006-002 beta, but the score doesn't change/improve.

 

[Fiat1]

 

[rise]

so whats up with this board? looking good? hows the chipset cooling work, temps?

 

[kman79]

My board is in the mail from newegg, comes in friday. Damnit, i work that night, actually work all weekend so I won't even get to touch it till Sunday. The rest of the stuff comes in Friday too.

Question guys, this is going to be my first build, and so it's going to be the first time I OC also. I'm not going to start of trying to hit max OC just yet though. I was wondering, which sata controller to use? I know if I use the Nvidia one, I don't have to instal any special drivers, but which of the Nvidia Sata connections do I use that have locks, so I can OC pretty well? Does that question make sense? I could have sworn I read somehwere on these forums that Sata has to lock to get a good OC, which ones are they on the Premium board?

 

[geogecko]

OCing normally has nothing to do with the SATA, or any for that matter, hard drives. They were probably talking about PCI-E locks, so you can lock your video card at a certain speed, but still increase the CPU speed. Not sure. I haven't really gotten into OCing, mainly because I haven't seen the need. If gaming though, I guess I could see where it would be nice.

As for which controller to use, I'd go with the nVidia one, as it's got the 3Gb/s SATA rate, along with NCQ support, as long as your drive supports this. Most HD's won't get anywhere near 3Gb/s though, but at least the capacity on the interface is there.

 

[milleron]

Originally posted by: geogecko

Originally posted by: bookman
Will Monarch carry this board?

Yes. (A bit on the expensive side...$218 when I checked.)

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant...=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=110704

Now $193. Mine's being delivered from Monarch today.

Ron

 

[geogecko]

Originally posted by: milleron

Originally posted by: geogecko

Originally posted by: bookman
Will Monarch carry this board?

Yes. (A bit on the expensive side...$218 when I checked.)

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant...=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=110704

Now $193. Mine's being delivered from Monarch today.

Ron

Cool, you're going to like it. Lots of extras in the box too.

 

[milleron]

Originally posted by: geogecko
What about the manual that comes with it. The E1952 version on ASUS download site is dated back in March, and if I remember correctly, had no information about the cool-pipe technology in it.

Has the printed manual been updated?

The version of the manual that came with my A8N-SLI Premium today is E2128. It's up-to-date.

 

[milleron]

Originally posted by: bobov

Originally posted by: bookman
Will an XP-120 fit on this board?

Yes, XP-120 does fit on A8N-Sli Premium.

Correct. I had to install the DIMM in A1 before the XP120 because I didn't think I'd be able to get it in afterwards. With that DIMM in place, it was not fun getting the XP120 installed. I haven't built many computers, but the CPU heatsink is always the most difficult part. This was no exception, but it turned out not to be quite as difficult as I thought it would be when test-fitting it before the CPU was in the socket. After it's in place, there's plenty of clearance between the XP120 and the video card, the RAM, all caps, and the southbridge's heatsink. The latter is really cool (literally and figuratively). It doesn't appear to need any air blowing on it, but it's cooling is enhanced by the nearby XP120. A Zalman 7000 or 7700 would blow more air on it, however.

 

[milleron]

Originally posted by: Azagthoth
Thanx for the link. I'd like to use a huge HIS X800XL as videocard, but I'm afraid the memory socket handles might slightly interfere with the videocard, as stated in this review. Or is the risk the same when using a smaller Leadtek 6600GT PCI-E? I'd like a silent pc, but don't want any hassle ...

The NB cooling seems to be sufficient at first sight. I think the Abit AN8 v2.0 has an even beter NB cooling solution, but that one's still hard to get in my home country (Holland), so my hopes are high on this mobo.

I just installed the A8N-SLI Premium with a big Thermalright XP120 HSF and a big Gigabyte Radeon X800XL. The video card is "big" because it's fanless; it has large heatsinks on the front and back of the card, but it clears the DIMM sockets easily. Everything fits nieley.

Ron

 

[milleron]

Originally posted by: Xenvu
I'll try and measure it tonight. Its really small and doesn't cover the whole chipset. I installed an xp-90c with a panflo fan. Temps are around 36-44c idle, haven't tested the load yet. I might have screwed up the heatsink mounting. Chipset temps were around 48-51c idle. The board itself is awesome, I had no problems installing it and getting it to boot the first time. My only problem is that my motherboard isn't detecting my cpu fan but the fan itself is spinning. Its not a big problem right now but I can't adjust the speed of the fan. I'm sure I could get it cooler if I could up the rpms on the fan. Can anyone post their temps so I can compare? Also, does anyone know how hot the chipset on the deluxe is? Asus says this mobo is 10c cooler than the other nf4 boards. It still seems a bit hot to me.

Thanks.

1 -- Your mobo isn't reporting a speed on the CPU fan because Panaflos don't have rpm monitoring, but I think it is at least detecting the fan. Otherwise, it wouldn't POST would it?
2 -- I don't know about the heat of the chipset on the Deluxe. I just got the Premium set up on my benchtop -- i.e., it's not installed in the case yet. The BIOS Hardware monitor reports my CPU with NO load at all to be 23°C while it reports the motherboard to be 29°. My question is where the "motherboard temperature is measured on the A8N-SLI boards? I believe that the CPU with an XP120 might actually be cooler than the motherboard, but the 29° seems pretty warm for a motherboard sitting on a benchtop. If the "motherboard temp" is the southbridge temp, then it all makes sense. Anyone know?

 

[milleron]

An interim report on the A8N-SLI Premium's heatpipe:
Sitting on the bench with no load on CPU or southbridge, the southbridge is just barely warm to the touch. The heatpipe and the heatsink are literally cool to the touch.

So far, pretty neat.

Ron