Asus a8n-e..

[Madness101]

I have a quick question. I'm going to swap out the Asus HSF with a Zalman NB47J as others have. I've not really seen much info about the results. If I don't overclock, is this HS going to be enough, or should I really be thinking about active cooling? The airflow in my box is pretty good, so I should be ok, but I'd like to hear from someone running with just the Zalman HS and no active cooling for peace of mind.

Cheers!

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Madness101
I have a quick question. I'm going to swap out the Asus HSF with a Zalman NB47J as others have. I've not really seen much info about the results. If I don't overclock, is this HS going to be enough, or should I really be thinking about active cooling? The airflow in my box is pretty good, so I should be ok, but I'd like to hear from someone running with just the Zalman HS and no active cooling for peace of mind.

Cheers!

I use the Zalman NB47J, and while it is uncomfortably hot to the touch, my system hasn't been unstable in the least. I will, however, be adding some active cooling in the form of a silet 40mm fan to the side of the NB47J for peace of mind.

 

[Madness101]

I've noticed that a lot of people are adding 40mm fans to their NB47J. I'll see how mine goes without for a while. My case is pretty big and I have 180mm fans at front and back, so hopefully I'll not need another fan. Hate the damn things. One day I will pull the pin and go water cooled. Maybe a winter project...

 

[Amaroque]

Originally posted by: ProviaFan

Originally posted by: Amaroque
I'm using beta 1006-002. Overclocking with an X2 on 1005 is dismal. 1006-002 overclocks great. (see sig)

Does 1006-002 have a working HT multiplier? (on my system, 1005 and 1006-001 seem to be stuck at 5x no matter what I set in the BIOS, lending to easy SATA corruption).

BTW, I noticed earlier that 1006-003 just came out, but haven't gotten around to trying it since I'm busy with a project at the moment.

That's strange. 1005 had a working HT for me. So does 1006-002. I'm not joining the beta BIOS of the month club though (not enough time for that). I just couldn't stand 1005.

 

[SpanishFry]

Will the XP-120 fit on this board? Thermalright's site lists the A8N-SLI's but not the -E.

 

[scrawnypaleguy]

Originally posted by: kmr1212
Will the XP-120 fit on this board? Thermalright's site lists the A8N-SLI's but not the -E.

The A8N-E is nothing more than a stripped-down version of the Sli, so if they say that it will fit that, then it should fit the -E. I have the xp-90, and that thing is HUGE, but it looks like there would be room for the 120.

 

[amheck]

Man, do you guys ever find that making the PC quiet can be addicting? I've always been fairly happy with my PC. I can hear it, but its' not screaming or anything. Well, tonite, after reading this thread, I went in and starting stopping fans to see what was making the noise. And then I start thinking.....well, the x800xl is definitely the loudest, maybe I need a zalman cooler for that. I think the Antec rear case fan could be quieter, maybe I need to buy a Nexus to replace it. Well, maybe that northbridge fan (I have the new one) could be a little quieter.....and on and on. Funny stuff. Not cheap, unfortunately.

 

[ProviaFan]

My PC used to be fairly noisy, but not in a terribly obnoxious way... However, thinking about going to college this fall and having to sleep within a few feet of it (not to mention having a roommate that may not be used to leaving one's PCs on 24/7) has made me more conscious of noise levels during my latest upgrade. I've already got a passively cooled video card (gigabyte 6600 PCI-E), a Zalman CNPS CPU cooler and passive NB cooler, and a Seasonic S12 series PSU, but my case fans are still contributing to a bit of racket that I'd like to reduce. Unfortunately, Nexus or Panaflo seems to be the only solution, and by the time I get done with this latest phase of the project, my wallet will be another $60 or so thinner.

 

[bishop98]

Hi this is my first post but I've been surfing the forums for a while, I've just put together my first rig and it powered up fine but after I made a change in the bios things have gone downhill. In the BOIS I had changed the boot order to CD first, harddrive second and removed the floppy since I have non so that I could install an OS and once the system rebooted itself the POST would give me Long Beep 3sec Pause Long Beep in a repeating cycle. I've tried taking out the CMOS battery and did the pin switch to erase any changes to the BOIS but nothing changed and nothing is being displayed. I've even tried taking each component out and tried the POST but its come down to the mobo and CPU with no success. While I was in the BIOS I confirmed that all the components were recognized so its kind of baffling what the problem could be ... did I fry something ?

Any helps appreciated.

 

[scrawnypaleguy]

what are these Nexus and Panaflo fans you guys keep mentioning? I have a couple of Vantec Stealth fans in my case (one pushing exhaust, the other on top of my xp-90), but are those other ones quieter? I too want to find out what's making all the racket.

 

[MJGunn]

Well, this is the Nexus I've got, 92mm, also comes in 80mm and 120mm.

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/nexus92mm.html

 

[MJGunn]

Originally posted by: bishop98
Hi this is my first post but I've been surfing the forums for a while, I've just put together my first rig and it powered up fine but after I made a change in the bios things have gone downhill. In the BOIS I had changed the boot order to CD first, harddrive second and removed the floppy since I have non so that I could install an OS and once the system rebooted itself the POST would give me Long Beep 3sec Pause Long Beep in a repeating cycle. I've tried taking out the CMOS battery and did the pin switch to erase any changes to the BOIS but nothing changed and nothing is being displayed. I've even tried taking each component out and tried the POST but its come down to the mobo and CPU with no success. While I was in the BIOS I confirmed that all the components were recognized so its kind of baffling what the problem could be ... did I fry something ?

Any helps appreciated.

Hmm, I had what sounds like the same error the first time I tried botting mine up. My problem was I had the ram in the wrong slots (had them both in the two slots closest to the CPU, they had to be 1 close to the cpu, skip a slot, and then the other stick). Might want to try messing around with the ram.

 

[Bobberrific]

http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/7715/mvc233s2wo.jpg

That's a picture of the old NBFan (right)
And the new NBFan they sent me when I called tech support (left)

 

[bishop98]

I had the Ram in the A1 and B1 slots (blue) took them out and tinkered with just the B1 slot turns out that one of my sticks of ram is causing the error but strangely enough it was working the first time I booted. So is that stick of RAM dead and how can I prevent something like this from happening again when I RMA the ram ?

 

[dev0lution]

How accurate are the voltage readings people are getting in AsusProbe? I just finished this build and it's showing some low voltage readings. I'm using an Antec Truepower 430 and when I was using the same PSU on my intel mobo/CPU setup all the readings were pretty close to what they should have been. Now I'm getting:

12V - 11.7
3.3V - 3.248
5V - 4.89

No stability problems so far, but one of the fans on the fan only line isn't spinning. Just wondering if the PSU might be damaged/dieing.

 

[ProviaFan]

I'm showing 11.776, 4.838, and 3.232, respectively, with a Seasonic S12-500 PSU (supposedly a fine PSU). I'm not sure if it's the PSU (would hope not, 500W should be enough!), or not-quite-right voltage readings.

 

[Viperoni]

Mine's under by roughly the same amount.

 

[Gerbil333]

My computer is still running great, but one thing is starting to bother me. Since I built the computer, each time I start Windows, the Peak Commit Charge shows 1812604 or thereabout. That's roughly 1.8GBs! I have no startup applications--there's no way I'm using 1.8GBs, especially when the computer starts up in under 30 seconds. I have 2 GBs of RAM, but I didn't see this oddity with my Abit NF7-S 2.0. Everything works perfectly. It must be some sort of bug, but I can't think what would be causing it.

Could a few of you reboot and tell me your Peak Commit Charge, along with how much RAM you have? It's in Task Manager under Performance if you've never looked before.

Edit: Curiosity got to me. I disconnected my Raptor and attached an extra 40GB PATA drive to isolate the bug. I installed Windows XP Pro. On the fresh install before touching or installing anything, the Peak Commit Charge was correct (under 75MBs). I installed the nF4 6.53 chipset drivers and rebooted. The Peak Commit Charge was still correct.

Next, I installed the ATI Catalyst 5.6 drivers. When I rebooted, the Peak Commit Charge bug reappeared: 1.79GBs!

I restored WinXP and installed the chipset drivers that came on the Asus A8N-E CD and then installed the ATI 5.6 drivers. Same thing. I tried installing the ATI 4.12 drivers over the 5.6 drivers. Oddly, the bug was still there, but with this version, it only started up with a Peak Commit Charge of about 500MBs!

I didn't have this bug with my 9800 Pro and the same hardware on my nF2 boards. So, I can conclude that it's some sort of strange bug with the X800 XL and ATI's drivers. Whatever...the computer runs fine.

 

[Fisher999]

Originally posted by: cornholio2
Hello fellow owners of Asus A8N-E, post your recommendations/solutions/problems here for easy browsing. "MAY THE FORCE BE WITH US!" to help solve the problems to those who own this mobo...

Cornholio2:

Is this thread ONLY for those with the "E" version of the Asus A8N-XXX ??? I own the A8N-SLI but won't be using it for SLI but may have other problems in common with the A8N-E users. Do we "SLI" version owners have to start our own thread or are we welcome here ???

Greg

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Fisher999
Is this thread ONLY for those with the "E" version of the Asus A8N-XXX ??? I own the A8N-SLI but won't be using it for SLI but may have other problems in common with the A8N-E users. Do we "SLI" version owners have to start our own thread or are we welcome here ???

Greg

You already have a much bigger thread for your board, IIRC. This one is great because it gives us a place to discuss our (seemingly) much less popular board.

 

[Amaroque]

Just an update. I updated from 1006-002 to 1006-003. It seems identical to 1006-002. I can't tell any difference, in options, or overclocking performance.

 

[Viperoni]

I'm using BIOS 1005, and I think I have an issue with my drive's spinning down and then not spinning up when they're supposed to. I was getting freezing like symptoms after I'd leave the computer for a little while (much more time than the HD spin down time I set), and then not being able to open IE windows, My Computer, etc. MSN would still work, but eventually the whole thing would freeze and even if I tried to power down, the HD light came on and flickered a bit, but it wouldn't shutdown.

Ran chkdsk /r on both drives (WD 200 and 250gb 8mb SATA's) as well.
The windows install is 2 days old, with the latest NForce drivers from Asus's website.

Also, I have a super low +12v rail it seems.

I adjusted my PS so that it puts out 11.80 and 5.06, at the BIOS post I get 11.56 and 4.85, however SiSoft Sandra tells me 11.29 and 4.85.
Measuring at a Molex connector with a Digital VOM shows taht +12v never drops below 11.77v under any amoutn of load, and +5 never goes below 5.04.

As I understand, the voltage monitor is after the MB's voltage regulator, so it's possible that the board's voltage regulators are just not putting out the power?

 

[samio]

I just setup a x2 4200+ with this board last week. I like the lay out of this board.

The only problem I have is the Vcore voltage adjustment. The BIOS don't retain any setting between v1.375 ~ v1.4625. It will reset to v1.34 if select any of the setting. The only setting works is v1.475. Again any thing above v1.475 will also default to v1.475. I replaced the first one thought it was defect. The second one running now is also have same problem. I flashed to 1005, 1006-002 and 1006-003 still don't work.

Please let us know if you also have any of the problem with the Vcore.

 

[Amaroque]

Originally posted by: Viperoni
I'm using BIOS 1005, and I think I have an issue with my drive's spinning down and then not spinning up when they're supposed to. I was getting freezing like symptoms after I'd leave the computer for a little while (much more time than the HD spin down time I set), and then not being able to open IE windows, My Computer, etc. MSN would still work, but eventually the whole thing would freeze and even if I tried to power down, the HD light came on and flickered a bit, but it wouldn't shutdown.

Ran chkdsk /r on both drives (WD 200 and 250gb 8mb SATA's) as well.
The windows install is 2 days old, with the latest NForce drivers from Asus's website.

Also, I have a super low +12v rail it seems.

I adjusted my PS so that it puts out 11.80 and 5.06, at the BIOS post I get 11.56 and 4.85, however SiSoft Sandra tells me 11.29 and 4.85.
Measuring at a Molex connector with a Digital VOM shows taht +12v never drops below 11.77v under any amoutn of load, and +5 never goes below 5.04.

As I understand, the voltage monitor is after the MB's voltage regulator, so it's possible that the board's voltage regulators are just not putting out the power?

ASUS has been known to use the highest quality voltage regulators, so I wouldn't immediately suspect that. Hard drives randomly spinning up and down is most likely your 12v rail. I had this problem with an A7N8X-E board. After I replaced the PSU, the problem never came back.

 

[Amaroque]

Originally posted by: samio
I just setup a x2 4200+ with this board last week. I like the lay out of this board.

The only problem I have is the Vcore voltage adjustment. The BIOS don't retain any setting between v1.375 ~ v1.4625. It will reset to v1.34 if select any of the setting. The only setting works is v1.475. Again any thing above v1.475 will also default to v1.475. I replaced the first one thought it was defect. The second one running now is also have same problem. I flashed to 1005, 1006-002 and 1006-003 still don't work.

Please let us know if you also have any of the problem with the Vcore.

Welcome to the board.

I suspect that many of the problems you and other people are experiencing is due to the technology being so new. My Vcore adjustments jump a little bit, but not like what you're describing. Hopefully ASUS will have it sorted with their next official (non beta) BIOS.

If I find any answers, or workarounds, I'll post them here.