ASUS A8n-e Premium NForce 4

[geogecko]

Hmm...If you look at some known pictures of the Premium board, and compare it's layout to the A8N-E board, you can see where there are places for extra chips on the A8N-E board, even 4 places for the additional SATA connectors. I'm guessing that the Premium board will be announced pretty soon, following the lower-end A8N-E.

My only concern at this point, is if ASUS decided to X the passive nForce4 cooler with that screaching thing they call a fan.

 

[ihill]

I am really puzzled! Are there two boards- A8N-e and A8N-E premium? If there are what is the difference? And do either of them have a passively cooled chipset? Has anyone got one with the fan and is it really noisy?

 

[geogecko]

Currently, there is only one version that we've heard recent news on, the A8N-E. This is a non-Ultra based board, which means that the native SATA support is 1.5GB/s, whereas the Ultra version has 3.0GB/s support. That is the main difference in the nForce4 chipset, at least I think. However, that's not all, there are things missing from the non-Ultra board, such as the second SATA controller, which means you only get a total of 4 drives on SATA with the non-Ultra, whereas you get 8 with the Ultra board.

I believe there are some other differences in the motherboards, but not sure what they are. I think part of it may be related to the on-board audio, but I could be wrong.

This thread is mainly concerned about the A8N-E Premium, which early pictures of, had a passive chipset cooler. The current A8N-E (non-Ultra) seems to have that loud chipset fan that we aren't really fond of.

Here is a link to the first pictures we saw of the Premium board. Note that this one has a WiFi connector built-in.

ASUS A8N-E Premium

 

[ihill]

Thank you for that reply. There seem to be so many variations! I shall have to be very careful - I would prefer a passively cooled chipset but........

 

[geogecko]

It shouldn't be too difficult if the new one ever shows up, as it should have the name "Premium" or something after the A8N-E to distinguish it from the lower-end board.

I found out that I have about 4 weeks before I need to make a decision, so I'll at least hold out until that point. This would be the perfect board for me, especially without wasting any money buying an SLI version. (That's my second choice, an A8N-SLI Deluxe, with the Zalman NB47J chipset cooler installed to make it silent.) My third choice would probably be the Ultra version of MSI's board, with again, the Zalman cooler. Until then, or this board comes out, I'm just in a waiting game.

I e-mailed ASUS again, with a very simple sentence that asks if they plan on having a motherboard that supports the nForce4 Ultra chip (the A8N-E PREMIUM). However, I doubt it will be answered, as about 90% of my other e-mails were. I only got one response from them, and that one is listed back a page or two...

Even if this board did come out with a chipset fan, at least you could install the Zalman without blocking ANY GPU slots, nor any PCI slots. The only issue would be if the 1xPCI-E cards turned out to be long cards. (I don't have any now, so I wouldn't really care all that much.)

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

The A8N-E is supposed to be based on the nForce4 Ultra chipset.
http://www.clubic.com/actualite-18561-d...s-cartes-meres-nforce-4-chez-asus.html

 

[geogecko]

For those that read English:

English Version

Okay, so all that means, as far as I know, is that the SATA is now 3.0GB/s instead of 1.5. However, it's still a very much stripped down version of the board we were seeing.

 

[ihill]

I have just read a post on quietpc.co.uk that someone tried to put a Zalman passive cooler on the chipset and the board refused to boot. any ideas on this?

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

It's possible that he damaged the board when replaced the chipset cooler.

 

[ihill]

Good thought! I will post to that forum and see! I have an interest in this as I think I will be getting the board and I want to add the zalman. do you have any details fo the cooler as I have not been able to find it immediately in the UK?

 

[geogecko]

Just a little comparison of the "supposed" ASUS boards to make things easier. I found this while surfing tonight.

Comparison Chart

 

[geogecko]

Duplicate post...

 

[GadgetBuilder]

Originally posted by: ChineseDemocracyGNR
The nForce4 chipset just can't be passively cooled. Chaintech tried it but they're having to change the cooling on their boards now.

I'd respectfully like to disagree here. I have a VNF4, similar to the one which the reviewer burned up, and it runs just fine. The chip temp is typically 36C and the CPU is 25C at idle with CnQ enabled, 35C at load using the stock AMD cooler.

The reviewer who burned up the chip did so by overclocking above 300 with no extra fan while ignoring the chip temperature -- I'd call that bad headwork on the reviewer's part.
The reviewer noted temps over 60C and raised the overclock - were he working for me, I'd fire him for incompetence.

My take on Chaintech shifting to active cooling is that it is a response to the Xbit reviewer's lack of common sense. Chaintech realized that most readers would note the failure without considering what led up to it and would avoid the board. So, they added active cooling more as a public relations thing than because the board needs it for normal use.

I don't overclock and love the quiet operation of my VNF4; if I were to overclock, I'd add active cooling to the chipset. I feel adequate cooling is the responsibility of the overclocker, where cooling often sets the limits of overclocking.

A further problem with the Xbit review is that at the bottom of page 7 where he burned up the chip, the reviewer states that the VNF4 "has no means to control the CPU cooler" -- it is true BIOS doesn't control the fan speed but SpeedFan controls the CPU fan nicely and reduces the noise to inaudible.

 

[ihill]

I am a bit puzzled by gadget builder. What review are you talking about?

 

[ihill]

The Zalman NB47J appears to be a Northbridge cooler needing mounting screws. Does it really work on the A8N-E chipset?

 

[geogecko]

I assume he's talking of this review:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/chaintech-nforce4.html

The Zalman NB47J uses screws to attach the mounting arms to the cooler itself, it uses plugs with springs to attach to the motherboard.
All the information you could possibly need is here:
http://www.zalmanusa.com/usa/product/view.asp?idx=71&code=014
Even the manual in PDF format. There are several ways to mount the cooler.

 

[ihill]

Thanks for that - I do like the way Zalman put a movie on the website for installation! I thought that the Northbridge was something different from the chipset. Is that wrong? Can anyone give me an idea of how much noise comes from the chipset fan? I have seen reviews of the board but none have really given an idea of the noise level.

 

[geogecko]

Not sure of the noise generated by the fan, but it's running around 8000 RPM, and is a rather small fan (I think about a 40mm), which means that it's probably going to be somewhat loud.

nVidia uses an all included chip now as their chipset for AMD solutions. Intel systems still use (if I'm not mistaken) a Northbridge chip, and a Southbridge chip. The Northbridge chip was the hotter chip, and thus is why the Zalman is named a Northbridge cooler. That's the main difference. The nVidia chip can be looked at as a "Northbridge," as it's about the same size, and is also a fairly hot chip.

 

[ihill]

Thank you - that is very clear!

 

[Mari0Br0s]

Hi guys, I would like to known, if there will be the SoundStorm 2 on the board. Thanks!

 

[marky9074]

I have been reading this thread for some months now waiting to see what happened! I too want a passive chipset, though have thought of the idea of a Zalman on the SLI instead.

Today I read in a magazine that there is another Asus board, also not shown on their web site.

Asus A8NE-FM NForce4

Looking at the manual it does not say if it is Ultra or not, but it is definately not a SLI board. I cannot find any pictures on this though it is quite easy to find the Asus manual for it so it is obviously in production....

Mark

...and man is it hard or what to find the registration pages on this forum....

 

[geogecko]

As far as I know, nForce4 does not support SoundStorm. And if I remember correctly, it was an nVidia thing. There was a hope that it would be brought back, but again, no luck.

marky9074. Could you let us know what mag that was in? Also, where are you finding the manual. I haven't looked yet, but if you had a link, it would be much easier.

I know, it took me a while to find out how to register as well...

 

[geogecko]

Ah, while in 3 languages I don't speak, I was still able to determine more information about this A8NE-FM board. Basically, it looks like an older nForce4 board (one of the first ones out). It's not an Ultra board (you can tell from the chipset specification). It is the older A02 revision of silicone (current I believe is A04), and the FSB is only 800MHz versus the new 1000MHz of the newer revisions of the chipset.

I should have thought that if it was in a mag that it would have been a board that's been out for a while.

 

[marky9074]

It was actually in an advert for Mesh computers labelled as their top end (and only) 939 system. I have not seen it before and I usually keep an eye on Mesh (as they are the only really competition to my self builds for people...)

As I said its not on the Asus web site (no surprise there then!), and I got the manual off a fujitsu siemens site (probably not spelt correctly!).

Where did you see the mobo picture?

Mark

 

[marky9074]

http://www3.fujitsu-siemens.com/services/homepc/board/asus/a8ne-fm/handbuch.zip