* ASUS A8N-SLI experiences/results/issues

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: pudds
I can't get my volts over 1.45 , whatever setting i use its the same in cpu-z. Although i can lower it. Also the voltage keeps changing in cpu-z is this normal? Goes from 1.440 to 1.456 and back again continually. Im using latest beta bios . What bios are you using to change the voltages?

Yeah mine fluctuates between 1.504 and 1.52. Hummm? Is the board determining the max volts for each chip? Or is there something in the chip that will on take so many volts? Which CPU are you using?

I am using the 1003.04 beta

 

[jdogg707]

Thanks for the info, I guess I can live with 2.4GHZ until Asus fixes the voltages in a BIOS update. Is there any point to running one of the new beta BIOS' or will the one that comes with it work?

 

[jdogg707]

Sorry, double post.

 

[glorfy]

Yah that's me - inexperienced overclocker - don't know what I'm doing, can't possibly be the motherboard

For what its worth (nothing), here is the screenshot you requested.

Clockgen Picture

I don't know how to read a manual either

Please note I haven't applied the settings as if I did the system would instantly crash not allowing me to grap the screen.

Please because other people have problems with their boards, can you allow it may be that, and not the fact that we are stupid?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

My apologies there Glorfy "red faced" that really sucks!

So ASUS has repeated the A8V debacle. WTF? How can they make some with working locks and others that don't work? It's like they figure out somewhere in the production run that the locks aren't working. Fix the problem, but allow the faulty boards to be released anway because they know they will run at stock settings.

 

[pudds]

no pci lock on mine either. Im using a 3200+ winchester. Just tried 1003.3 bios (was using 1003.4) and voltages are higher but still all over the place.
setting them in ai booster (voltages are the ones that are shown in cpu-z (ai booster same voltages)

1.65v gives 1.424 and 1.408,
1.6375 gives 1.472 ,1.488,1.504 and 1.52
1.6250 gives 1.472 ,1.488 and 1.504
1.6125 gives same
1.6 gives same
1.5875 gives same
1.570 gives same
1.5625 gives 1.457 and 1.472 (down to 1.44 in ai booster for split second)
1.5500 gives 1.44 and 1.1.424

1.4375 drops to 1.2

Ive found a temporary fix.

Using clockgen when set to 1.6375 in ai shows 1.375 in clockgen but if i increase value in clockgen to 1.550v then clockgen shows 1.45 but cpu-z shows 1.536,1.552,1.568,1.584 or 1.6

Don't know how useful this info is to people

Im gonna reboot and check voltages when set in bios and using hw monitor.

btw if anyone wants to enable NCQ go to device manager and go to ide/atapi controllers. From there right click on any of the contollers and you can enable command queing on each drive.

 

[lorelevitt]

Originally posted by: billy

Originally posted by: lorelevitt
Thanks. I'll try those settings in a couple of days after I increase my Raid 0 array to 4 Raptors tomorrow.

Lore

System: AMD64 FX55, Asus A8N-SLI-Deluxe, 2 GB (4x512) Crucial Ballistix DDR400, 1 Gigabyte 6600 GT PCI-X graphics card, Thermalright XP-120 heatsink, Microcool North Pole heat sink, PCP&C Turbo Cool 510 Express PS, 2-74 GB SATA Raptors (NVidia SATA II Raid 0), 1 Maxtor 300GB SATA 16MB (Addonics SATA II PCI-X controller card), Pioneer A08 DVDRW, Sony floppy, Lian Li V1000 case, Samsung 243T monitor, Logitech MX1000 Laser mouse, Logitech Media keyboard, Contour Design Shuttlepro 2

Hey how did you place the xp120? I placed the heatpipes to the back of my pc and the 'overhanging coolblock' hangs over my memory..What about you?

Billy,

Since I was using a Lian Li V1000 case, I knew things were going to be tight and I should get the heatsink on both the CPU and Nforce4 chip (Microcool North Pole) before I put the MB in the box. The heatpipes had to face the RAM slots for it to fit. So I cheated and put the memory into the slots BEFORE I mounted the XP120. It clears the RAM fine but I don't think you can insert or remove it once the heatsink is in place. I hope that the memory doesn't go bad as I'll have to take the heatsink off to remove/replace the ram.

BTW-- I'm only planning to use 1 graphics card for now so I replaced the Asus crappy fan on the Nforce4 with the Microcool NP heatsink/fan. Temps have remained in the low 40's with that combination on the Nforce4.

Lore

System: AMD64 FX55, Asus A8N-SLI-Deluxe, 2 GB (4x512) Crucial Ballistix DDR400, 1 Gigabyte 6600 GT PCI-X graphics card, Thermalright XP-120 heatsink w. 120mm Panaflo M1A Fan, Microcool North Pole heat sink, PCP&C Turbo Cool 510 Express PS, 2-74 GB SATA Raptors (NVidia SATA II Raid 0), 1 Maxtor 300GB SATA 16MB (Addonics SATA II PCI-X controller card), Pioneer A08 DVDRW, Sony floppy, Lian Li V1000 case, Samsung 243T monitor, Logitech MX1000 Laser mouse, Logitech Media keyboard, Contour Design Shuttlepro 2

 

[lorelevitt]

Originally posted by: atom519
Long time lurker, first time poster here.

I just recieved my A8n today, and am still waiting on my cpu and video cards (plural, i love that to come in. I'm about to buy 1gb of Crucial's Ballistix pc4000 memory, and was wondering if anyone knew if this would work or not on the Asus board. I know it's not on the mem list, but this doens't mean it neccesarily woudln't work.

The board looks great, and can't wait to fire it up! Thanks in advance.

Hi,

I'm using 4 x 512MB of Crucial Ballistix DDR400 on the A8N-SLI-D with no problems.

Lore


System: AMD64 FX55, Asus A8N-SLI-Deluxe, 2 GB (4x512) Crucial Ballistix DDR400, 1 Gigabyte 6600 GT PCI-X graphics card, Thermalright XP-120 heatsink w. 120mm Panaflo M1A Fan, Microcool North Pole heat sink, PCP&C Turbo Cool 510 Express PS, 2-74 GB SATA Raptors (NVidia SATA II Raid 0), 1 Maxtor 300GB SATA 16MB (Addonics SATA II PCI-X controller card), Pioneer A08 DVDRW, Sony floppy, Lian Li V1000 case, Samsung 243T monitor, Logitech MX1000 Laser mouse, Logitech Media keyboard, Contour Design Shuttlepro 2

 

[glorfy]

NP GD. I wouldn't take that screenshot as proof that I'm not doing something wrong though! Just for the record my serial numbers are 4czg016790 and 4czg017755.

Just as a slight aside, how are people doing overclocking 6800 GTs and ultras? I have two 6800GTs, and cannot overclock them with an OCZ 520. Just to prove a point, I wired up an Antec Neopower 480 as well (to give me 1000w - yay!)and was able to OC to 420/1140 on stock volts, no additonal cooling etc. I really wouldn't have thought that 34a on the +12v rail would have been holding me back!

Complete system.

AMD64 3500 winchester, Asus A8B SLI-delucxe, 2X512 OCZ 3700 gold rev 3, 2XLeadtek 6800GTs, Coolermaster Aquagate WC for CPU, 2XMaxtor Diamondmax 9 (not raid), Liteon 1633 DVD RW, Asus DVD, OCZ 520w PSU, Savrow SR71 case.

 

[glorfy]

Heres a better screenshot of the locks not working
here.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Heres a screen shot of the locks working on my board

Screenshot of my desktop


I feel bad for you folks with non-working locks. Here I've been posting up a storm complaining about no manual memory dividers! And I am one of the lucky ones!

I certainly think those of you with non working locks, have a basis to RMA them. The overclocking features of this board were highly advertized! If the product won't perform the features/functions advertized sellers should RMA them.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Here's a screenshot showing my volts

My volts

This shows some of the inconsistencies noted by Pudds

Whats up with the Clockgen cpu volts. Surely this must be wrong, don't think I could be running 2.4mhz with 1.375 cpu volts

 

[century child]

So far, I'm only experiencing one minor problem with the board. I get random lockups when attempting system shutdown. Sometimes, the system freezes at the "Windows is shutting down" stage of the process and I have to power off with the power button. Anyone else experiencing anything similar? I'm using the latest official BIOS, 1002 I believe it is, and running everything at stock.

 

[DB27]

Originally posted by: glorfy
Heres a better screenshot of the locks not working
here.

Hmm, I thought a Hypertransport setting over 1,050 or so was unstable. The screenshot shows yours is set at over 1,100. Have you noticed the same problems if you lower the HTT multi to 4x? (sorry if this was mentioned at one point. This topic is a bit long.)

 

[glorfy]

Originally posted by: DB27

Originally posted by: glorfy
Heres a better screenshot of the locks not working
here.

Hmm, I thought a Hypertransport setting over 1,050 or so was unstable. The screenshot shows yours is set at over 1,100. Have you noticed the same problems if you lower the HTT multi to 4x? (sorry if this was mentioned at one point. This topic is a bit long.)

Hehe I'm glad you've mentioned that! A lot of people who are having trouble OCing are also having trouble setting a X4 HTT. This is fixed for me with bios 1003.003 (but not 1003.004 go figure), so when I initiallt Oced I had to do so with the multiplier set to X5, and found that I had no problem at 235X5 HTT! I have now tried X4 HTT with the same issues.

Another problem I have is that in ntune, if I just bang the FSB up to 235 the system will hang. If I adjust it in 10mhz increments it won't! I have an RMA going with one of my A8N SLI boards

 

[DB27]

Just curious. When did you get your board? Was it from the recent shipments (last week, when several distributors finally got boards) or from the very early, limited supply batch at the beginning of the month?

 

[glorfy]

Board 1 - 12/18, board 2 - 12/20

 

[glorfy]

Mcklain over at extreme has solved part of my issue with PCI locks!

The thread is here.

Locks working

 

[glorfy]

Premature of me - sorry I was excited! I don't think the locks are working. At 10X240 everything gets very crashy Mozilla bugs out, programs exit, bsods etc. This is a classic of what happens with no locks. - I've had this CPU at 2600, I've had the memory over 270 (on another board), so would have to come to the conclusion that the lock isn't working properly.

Damn!

 

[Mcklain]

Hi,

I found that if you set you HTT to 4x or 3x in the bios it doesnt save youre settings in windows.

I use Ntune to modify the HTT in windows to 3 or 4 x.

Try that if you havnt already.

LMK

Mcklain

 

[DB27]

Originally posted by: glorfy
Board 1 - 12/18, board 2 - 12/20

It'll be interesting to see if the people getting boards this week have as many issues, or if there was a bad batch somewhere early on. There was a noticable dearth of boards between when your boards got to the distributers and then the boards that arrived last week to distributers. Perhaps a hold to make quick changes for the new batches?

 

[Mcklain]

HI,

Well I just tried the beta bios 1003-0003 and it partially corrected the LTD problem.

I really dont understand the crappy Asus bios. Now with this beta, the HTT works, but when I try to boot at lets say 12x208 I save and exit bios and on the post it says that my ram clock is 202?? Whats up with that. When I arrive into windows, everything is ok and my cpu is at 12x208.

I am really fed-up with this boards bios.

I think I wont try any more overcloking until Asus makes available a completly working bios.

Mcklain

 

[glorfy]

I've posted this at extreme already, but I suppose it doesn't hurt to do it here as well. Something strange has happened! Since following Mcklains' recommendation on how to get the locks to work, I can now set whatever I want in the bios and it doesn't crash. I've posted a link to a screenshot which contains a CPUZ shot and a clockgen shot, one of them is lying - but which one? Somehow I think they are both right! Setting in bios is 7X320.

Screenshot

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: glorfy
I've posted this at extreme already, but I suppose it doesn't hurt to do it here as well. Something strange has happened! Since following Mcklains' recommendation on how to get the locks to work, I can now set whatever I want in the bios and it doesn't crash. I've posted a link to a screenshot which contains a CPUZ shot and a clockgen shot, one of them is lying - but which one? Somehow I think they are both right! Setting in bios is 7X320.

Screenshot

My gut feel is that Clockgen is correct, and that CPU-Z and AI booster are incorrect. I say this because Clockgen is the newest of these utilities and was developed for Nforce4(and it agrees with the bios). Evidently CPU-Z and AI booster are limited in the max FSB they can report.

Wow! I thought the max FSB this board would run was 290.6! It looks like that was just the limit of the utilities I was using. Thanks again for pointing me towards Clockgen NF4. Hmmm more testing to do!!!

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Alrighty Now! Now we are getting somewhere!!! This is what I've been looking for!!! And I think I might even push it a little farther.

Check this out!
325.8 x 8 = 2606.8mhz ram=217.2 2-3-3-5 htt3x = 978fsb

Aquamark3 GFX 8418
Aquamark3 CPU 11705
Aquamark3 Total 61918

2.6 ghz ! Woot!