Asus A7N266-VM AA

[QuestionsandAnsweres]

Im going to build a system for my uncle. He doesnt play games and just wanted a computer to type and do other things. I was thinking of getting him the Asus A7N266-VM AA motherboard. Is this board stable? Thats the most important thing to me.

 

[natopotato]

quite stable provided you use an NT based OS. It's also ok with ME but some people have had minor problems. the board also works with most linux distros as well.

 

[AnandtechViolator]

doubt if the uncle wants NT, but XP runs pretty well on it.

 

[Athlon4all]

doubt if the uncle wants NT, but XP runs pretty well on it.

Yep, I do think natopotato meant 2000 or XP (bvoth are based on Win NT 4). Anyways, about the mobo, I'd say its a solid board and you'd be safe with it.

 

[mechBgon]

I have 19 of them under my care, running Win2000. They're stable.

I would recommend getting a pretty beefy power supply from a known name-brand company like Antec, Enermax or Sparkle Power, at least 300W. There's a good buy on an Antec case/PSU here and that 300W PSU has 220W of combined 3.3V + 5V power, making it more powerful than some "400W" units. Throw in a couple of $2.50 fans and at least one 3-to-4-pin adapter and you're off to a good start. I've been using Crucial PC2100 RAM with good results. With Win2000, 256Mb of RAM is just right for running an office system.

edit: I'm conservative on PSU load, so I would stick with about an AthlonXP 1600+ to 1800+ on the 300W PSU to leave some reserve power to iron out voltage sags in utility power. Just my crazy, crazy 2¢ worth

 

[thirtythree]

Does anyone know if the onboard sound for this motherboard has EAX?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Just ordered the AA version to build a system for one of my nieces this x-mas and the non-AA I had before was a super-stable board which had a definite preference for XP over win98se. I'll post some 3Dmark benchies using single and dual channel DDR to see if the DC-DDR does indeed boost the on-board G2mx's performance.(something I failed to do with my last one :disgust: ) BTW, yes it does have EAX support and listen to mechBgon as he has more experience with this board than anyone else I've seen on Anandtech

 

[nergee]

Yep, just finished building up a system with one of these boards with a XP2000+.
Running Win98SE and everythings been rock solid so far although I must say the
driver installation was kind of funky.

Also, a quick question. What are the common settings for the VGA shared memory size
and the Graphics aperture size in the BIOS? I've got them set at default right now.

Thanks

nerg

 

[mechBgon]

Thanks for the props DAPUNISHER Now, being a 220D chipset, this board should not benefit from dual memory modules, or am I ""? It's the 400-series (415 and 420) that have two memory controllers and the TwinBank enhancements. Where TwinBank makes a lot of difference is in boosting the performance of the onboard video, but if we want high-performance 3D acceleration, even a $80 add-in card will outperform the TwinBank-boosted GF2MX core built into the northbridge.

So TwinBank's claim to fame with nForce1 is sort of a Catch-22. With nForce2 it appears to have some serious benefits in some circumstances (SPECview is one of them, judging by AnandTech's tests).

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Hey mechBgon you must be right because the PDF says it's a 64bit controller, I could've sworn when I had it that it stated it had 128bit controller with 2 sticks, maybe I was lookin' at Sandra which we all know is wrong more often than not. nergee, I set it to 32mb and 128mb for the aperture and on lower res and settings it ran UT2K3 fine hth

 

[nergee]

Has anyone upgraded to the latest NVIDIA drivers? I think they are
version 2.00.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: nergee
Has anyone upgraded to the latest NVIDIA drivers? I think they are
version 2.00.

I know one user here upgraded to them and said it fixed his problems with warcraft III so I would bet they're a nice improvement and worth the time to install.

 

[Wiz]

I have had a serious set of troubles with this mobo / WinXP / Office 2K combination.
I updated to the latest mobo drivers and the latest detonator driver (I have a GF2 64meg card instead of the onboard on this system) and the problem with Office went away completely.
THe symptoms were when ever I would close Outlook 2K or Windows Help the system would slow to a crawl for 2 or 3 minutes.
The mouse would still move around but when you click on a desktop icon it would take about 10 seconds to change focus. Trying to switch applications would wait until the slowdown was done then all the clicks you made would all happen at once.
Installing the new detonator driver solved a problem another TeAm Anandtech member had with a program called SetiQ so I thought what the heck and installed it, and my problem with Office & Help went away completely!

Now if I could get this thing to stop hanging randomly for no apparent reason my shiny new 2400+ would be so very grateful

Anybody got a link to a good 400+ Watt PSU I can get for a great price?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I just built my niece's system the other night and put the new version 2 drivers on right off and it runs like a champ! It didn't install the audio driver though so I did that with the one of the CD, anyone else have this happen? BTW, the new AA version comes with the same manual with the BSEL jumpers backwards, showing a non-existant CLRTC jumper, and the AApanel diagram still oriented wrong

 

[elwood03]

Mine had a insert page in the manual showing the correct jumper layout.

 

[nergee]

Jeeez. I'm getting 1600 3d marks with the on-board graphics. That seems
kind of low. Anybody here getting any better?

XP2000+
Crucial 256MB

Nerg

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: nergee
Jeeez. I'm getting 1600 3d marks with the on-board graphics. That seems
kind of low. Anybody here getting any better?

XP2000+
Crucial 256MB

Nerg

Have the newwest drivers for video and Pci?
Also what is your ram set at.

 

[nergee]

I have not tried the new driver package yet, that should help.
Ram is set by SPD. Thanks for the reply

Nerg

 

[DAPUNISHER]

With the ram by SPD that score is exactly what my neice's system is getting with 2 128mb sticks of Crucial 2100DDR and 1600+, and with CAS2 Turbo it scores 1900's. EDIT: that's with the new version2 drivers.

 

[CompKidRRO]

MB-ASUS A7N266-VM
HD-WD 7200RPM 80gig SE EDition 8mb Cache
Nvidia 2.00 Drivers
350Watt Antec PS
Windows 98SE
Direct X 8.1b


A month ago I bought an A7N266-VM MB and installed the drivers correctly "I hope". But all my 3D games went supperly fast and the beeping, verticle line of when you are tying beeps really fast. Also, my mouse sometime will not be able to double click. I sent it back to Newegg for a new one thinking that it was the MB, but when I got the MB it had the same problem so I installed Win 2000 and the games worked good and the mouse was able to double click.
What am I doing wrong???? Any help would be welcome.

 

[mechBgon]

I'm thinking some kind of software problem, either a bad Win98 installation or some kind of driver glitch. All mine are running Win2000 so I don't have any first-hand experience with the Win98/A7N266-VM combo. Do you prefer 2000 or 98?

Oh, one other tip: you might try installing the latest Detonator video drivers over the top of the nForce 2.0 package, if you're using the onboard video like it appears you are.

 

[nergee]

I'm running 98se and when I try to install the 2.00 driver package
I get a set-up install error. Would you have to do a manual install
of these drivers like I had to do initially?

 

[RossGr]

To get the new drivers to install in Win 98 rename the videodrivers folder in the Nvidial directiory to anything else, then run the driver instalation. You will also need to install Microsofts WDM patch. Finally with the new drivers and the WDM patch we able to run WCIII with DD sound! You can then install the vid dirvers indepentdently.

I have a A7n266e, which has the 420 chipset, I saw a ~12% boost in the SISoft Memory bench when I installed a second stick of DDR. I ahve not rund 3dMark ont this system.

 

[RanDum72]

Nforce chipsets are recommended only for Win98SE and above but even with Win98SE/ME, it has certain quirks. Win2000/XP runs superbly with it.

 

[nergee]

RossGr,

I tried but couldn't find the WDM patch. If you could provide a link,
it would be much appreciated.

Thanks