* ASUS A8N-SLI experiences/results/issues

[bob661]

How did you get the 978 figure? Thanks.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

3 x 325.8 = 977.4 I rounded the wrong way

 

[bob661]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
3 x 325.8 = 977.4 I rounded the wrong way

Thanks. I've been wondering how to figure that out.

 

[jdogg707]

Originally posted by: 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!

So what procedure did you use to get these results?

With my new setup coming in tomorrow, I am interested in what to expect and how to get it there. Your system seems very similar to mine, so I most certainly appreciate all the help you have been!

Thanks.

 

[penelopeb]

what's your RAM voltage set to?

 

[Rebel Nugget]

Just got my board in the mail yesterday and after plugging it in and setting everything up I noticed a fairly loud humming noise. Turns out the chipset fan is unbalanced and is really loud. If I stop the fan, my machine goes from "darn that's loud" to "is this thing on?".

Two questions, anyone know if Asus will just send me a new fan without having to RMA the whole board? I don't really want to take it out of my computer again or wait another month for it.

If they don't, is the fan really all that important? Can I just go without it?

Thanks

 

[Kovie]

The chipset actually can get quite hot, so I wouldnt run it without one with the tiny heatsink on it.

I was planning on getting a quiet CPU hs/fan but after hearing the northbridge fan I figured it wouldnt matter.

 

[Rebel Nugget]

Thanks for that information, Kovie. In that case, I'm kind of a newb regarding cooling, but anyone know of a decent chipset fan they can direct me towards or if there are compatability issues between different chipsets?

 

[gobucks]

when i still had my board, i didn't recall the northbridge being very loud. I had a very loud 120mm case fan, but when i turned it off, i could barely hear anything else. Still, i've heard lots of people say it is pretty loud. Unfortunately, due to the placement of the northbridge, a small, active cooler had to be used to avoid interfering with an SLI setup. If you aren't planning on running 2 graphics cards, or want to use the secondary slot for a small X300 or something to drive an extra monitor, then you can throw on a taller passive heatsink. I've heard that Zalman makes some great northbridge coolers that are passive, i.e. totally silent, and i don't think they are very expensive.

BTW, has anyone used the Vantec Stealth 120mm case fan? I was looking at it, and I thought it might be just the ticket to quiet down my loud system, but i'm not sure how well it performs. I'm running 2 80mm fans in the front, a 120mm in the rear, and my 3 fan Vantec Stealth VAN-520A PSU also in the rear. I figured that 53CFM for the rear fan should provide enough airflow, but i'm not sure. Also, how quiet is it? I got some generic 120mm fan, and it sounds like a freakin jet taking off!

 

[Kovie]

Well, loud is a relative term. With everything else in the case silent I can hear it until the 6800GT fan kicks in. I sleep a few feet from the computer so everything loud tends to annoy me.

I can also agree that the zalman passive coolers are good. Id also suggest a fan controller over getting a different fan as then you can quiet down all the other case fans if needed as well.

 

[SkyBum]

I got my RMA'd A8N back from Monarch but I'm losing video during the Windows XP boot screen. It works fine in BIOS and also in safe mode. Loaded all my drivers from safe mode, video card is OK in device manager. Thread is HERE if anyone would care to help me troubleshoot this problem.

Originally posted by: Kovie
I was planning on getting a quiet CPU hs/fan but after hearing the northbridge fan I figured it wouldnt matter.

Makes me feel better about water cooling my northbridge. Never even got to hear that little ah heck.

 

[bob661]

Is anyone using the Antec 550W PS with their SLI board with two cards intalled? Thanks.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: jdogg707
[

So what procedure did you use to get these results?

With my new setup coming in tomorrow, I am interested in what to expect and how to get it there. Your system seems very similar to mine, so I most certainly appreciate all the help you have been!

Thanks.

I set the RAM clock to Auto and the HTT multi to 3x in the CPU configuration section
In the Jumper free section:
FSB 235
CPU multi 8x
CPU volts 1.6375
DDR volts 2.7
Then I booted to windows @ 1880mhz

I used AI booster to increase the FSB 5-10mhz at a time. Using Clockgen to increase the CPU volts (thanks Pudds) once I get to about 2.5mhz. .

The voltage settings and readings are very odd. After booting up using the 1.6375 setting in bios, CPU-Z and AI booster report 1.50, and clockgen reports 1.375? If you use clockgen to increase the voltage to the clockgen max of 1.45, CPU-Z and AI booster show 1.57-1.59 and clockgen shows 1.45? And when you use AI booster to increase the FSB it will drop the voltage back to showing 1.50 in AI booster and 1.375 in clockgen! So I would increase FSB using AI and the voltage drops, I would increase it using clockgen and keep repeating this process until I got the FSB I was shooting for.

Since my last post, I have found that when you reboot, the bios resets the voltage and it shows 1.50 in AI and 1.375 in clockgen. Therefore, although I can run stable at 2606mhz by setting the voltage with clockgen, I can't boot up to 2606mhz. The highest I have been able to boot up to is 2528mhz 315 x 8 with the voltage showing 1.50 in AI and 1.375 in clockgen. I hope they fix these crazy voltage issues with a bios revision! As currently I haven't a clue what voltage my CPU is really running at?

 

[TheGeek]

Originally posted by: SRoode

Originally posted by: DEMO24

Originally posted by: SRoode
(Bump)

I know some members have gotten theirs already... Mine doesn't come till Monday.

So how is the board performing?!?!?

that has to be a AGONIZING wait


I dont think ill get my nforce4 board till january

Hi Demo,

The wait is sort of agonizing because I spent months researching and buying new parts piece by piece for my new "dream" machine (and my 1st AMD). I've been taking my time over the last 3 months and still will not finish the machine for about another 6 weeks or so. Since I will be watercooling, I'm to the point now where I needed the motherboard so I can cut the remaining tubes to the correct lengths.

So far I've gotten:
Dell 2001FP 20.1 Inch LCD Monitor (1600x1200, 16ms response)
Lian-Li V2000B case with side window
OCZ Powerstream 470W power supply (I took it apart and sleeved every power cable)
Asetek Water Cooling System (CPU, Chipset, and 2 video cooling blocks. Hydor L30 Pump. 2 Radiators)
Matrix Orbital MX432 4 line LCD (White lettering on blue background)
and Misc internals (pax-mate, cold cathodes, etc.)

I've tried to get the stuff that doesn't change much over time 1st. The last pieces that I buy will be the Processor and the Video Cards. I will probably go with the FX-53 for the CPU, and two 6800GTs. So far the only PCI-Express 6800GT I have seen that is available is the XFX at newegg, but they want $495!!! I'm hoping it drops to about $375 or so in January.

So, although I can't "use" the Motherboard on Monday, I can continue on with my build (finish routing the watercooling and leak test the system).

chumbo.com has a BFG 6800GT for $400. they said they'll have it in stock the first week of jan.

 

[user1234]

Peoples, all of Guitar "Daddy" postings about overclocks are suspect - they do not qualify as true overclocks, only experimental and temporary settings. It's worthless to say you got to 2.6GHz, if it's not a prime stable overclock, and in your case, it's not even bootable. Most wichester chips get to 2.6 GHz without any problems, but in your case, the messed up mobo is screwing up your overclocking, but in any case even after tweaking like mad I doubt that you have even produced one stable overlcock at any thing even close to what you can get on nforce3 boards. The asus sli board has inferior design, with the northbridge looking dangerously close to the video cards, and as we hear, you can't use a tall heatsink on the chipset. Also the video cards are pretty close to the RAM slots making it hard to change the RAM without touching the video card. And most large heatsinks like XP-120 don't fit very well on the crowded and poorly desgined CPU socket area. Unfortunately most reviewers get caught up in the novelty and cutting edge of sli, and forget about the basics which are stability and good design, that were unfortunetly missed with this board, which is understandable given the fact it's the first sli mobo. So if you really need sli now, you may have no other choice, but if you want a good mobo which has an sli upgrade path, then this doesn't qualify, especially if you consider that it's wildly overpriced, taking away from any future savings you could relaize due to it's upgradability. You have been warned.

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: Rebel Nugget
Just got my board in the mail yesterday and after plugging it in and setting everything up I noticed a fairly loud humming noise. Turns out the chipset fan is unbalanced and is really loud. If I stop the fan, my machine goes from "darn that's loud" to "is this thing on?".

Two questions, anyone know if Asus will just send me a new fan without having to RMA the whole board? I don't really want to take it out of my computer again or wait another month for it.

If they don't, is the fan really all that important? Can I just go without it?

Thanks

Since its still within the 30 day thing, you'd want to return it to the retailer and get a replacement that way. Much faster.
You really should have a fan on the chipset with the more modern motherboards. It gets quite hot. I just putgether a nforce2 with the built in nforce2mx graphics. The chipset with no fan got much hotter than the CPU did (which was a sempron), even under load!! I was surprised they didn't put a fan on it.
If you dont want to return, I'd reccomend seeing if you could buy a fan for it.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: user1234
Peoples, all of Guitar "Daddy" postings about overclocks are suspect - they do not qualify as true overclocks, only experimental and temporary settings. It's worthless to say you got to 2.6GHz, if it's not a prime stable overclock, and in your case, it's not even bootable. Most wichester chips get to 2.6 GHz without any problems, but in your case, the messed up mobo is screwing up your overclocking, but in any case even after tweaking like mad I doubt that you have even produced one stable overlcock at any thing even close to what you can get on nforce3 boards. The asus sli board has inferior design, with the northbridge looking dangerously close to the video cards, and as we hear, you can't use a tall heatsink on the chipset. Also the video cards are pretty close to the RAM slots making it hard to change the RAM without touching the video card. And most large heatsinks like XP-120 don't fit very well on the crowded and poorly desgined CPU socket area. Unfortunately most reviewers get caught up in the novelty and cutting edge of sli, and forget about the basics which are stability and good design, that were unfortunetly missed with this board, which is understandable given the fact it's the first sli mobo. So if you really need sli now, you may have no other choice, but if you want a good mobo which has an sli upgrade path, then this doesn't qualify, especially if you consider that it's wildly overpriced, taking away from any future savings you could relaize due to it's upgradability. You have been warned.

All of the O/C settings I have posted here have been Prime95 tested with no errors for 2-6 hours and some 12hrs before I post them to this forum. And in the case of this board it "can" be Prime95 stable and not bootable, because of the bios voltage issues. And to call my testing methods suspect without even asking me what my methods are is irresponsible and childish, and shows that you have no interest in anything but bashing this board. I think everyone here understands that any results acheived on this board are experimental as the board has only been out a couple of weeks.

To come to the irrational conclusions that you have about this board, with obviously no first hand experience, only tells me that you are bitter that other people are taking the next technological step, and you somehow feel left behind.

I will be the first to say, that this board is on the cutting edge. And there will be problems and challenges, and this board is probabally not the best to pick for a first build, or someone not willing to deal with theses challanges. And I will even go so far as to say these early boards may not perform as well as an A8N-SLI purchased in a couple of months after all the issues have been addressed. But for you to make the blanket statement that this is a bad board is just wrong, as are most of the observations you listed above.

I guess the fact I was able to get 2.6mhz rubs you the wrong way because its contrary to your irrational dislike for this board. And by the way even with the voltage limitation I can boot my machine at 2528 and it ran 12hrs Prime95 last night with no error. That's a 26%+ overclock, pretty good in my book. But I guess your nforce3 will stomp that right!!

Go home and kick your dog or something, and try and ignore the fact some of us are having fun with our new toys!

 

[user1234]

"Guitar" Daddy (?!) - when you can't run your ram above 217 MHz, unless it's 1:1, then you are looking at poor overclocking performance, especially for cpu with locked multipliers. I guess the 4:5 and 3:4 dividers are too much to ask of them, or that they simply forgot, or they don't care. One can always hope that someday, somehow they will deliver a fix, but people that want a good over clocking board now should look elsewhere.

 

[flexy]

>>>
I will be the first to say, that this board is on the cutting edge. And there will be problems and challenges, and this board is probabally not the best to pick for a first build, or someone not willing to deal with theses challanges. And I will even go so far as to say these early boards may not perform as well as an A8N-SLI purchased in a couple of months after all the issues have been addressed. But for you to make the blanket statement that this is a bad board is just wrong, as are most of the observations you listed above.
>>>

"problems and challenges", "not the best to pick for a first build"...."deal with these challenges"
"May not perform as well"

read your own sentences...i have a reason to go with the MSI Neo4 and wont touch this Asus board with a 12ft pole..in addition to the above said...well it looks like SOME people have a pci-lock, others dont. Overclocking you can totally forget, looks like it doesnt like FSB/HTT over 220...and running memory manually kills the memory divider
I dont know..can it get even WORSE ?

I think Asus took a bit **** with this board. I read about it for some time already on various forums....and believe me, once the other ultra and sli boards go outr in the mainstream people will realize what a POS this board is. At least for enthusiasts and tweakers.
I wouldnt use those harsh words if i could point you to positive and great reviews of the A8N, with high overclocks/strability and that there are no problems setting up SLI - but i cant..it looks like everyone is complaining

 

[user1234]

yeah - my condolences to "guitarDaddio" (?!?) for paying $350 for a piece of junk, and being the last one to realize it.

Contrary to what "guitar doodoo" says most people get these boards to get the best performance, and not for the goal of spending countless hours tweaking it and debugging problems which should have been fixed by the manufacturer prior to releasing the product.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I agree completely that "Overclocking Enthusists" should steer clear of the ASUS. But thats not exactly news. I think the people who fall into that category already know if your a serious overclocker, buy a DFI/ MSI ect... Those are the makers who cater to Enthusists and will always make the best overclocking boards.

I bought the ASUS because like many others here I have been accumulating parts for my new rig for months and holding off on mobo & gpu waiting for nforce4 and PCI-E. And have had good luck with several ASUS boards in the past, and like their customer support. And I lucked out on the NovaPC deal @$201.

I have dabbled w/ overclocking in the past (no hardware mods or anyting) but am by no means a serious overclocker.(maybe when I grow up!) I've built quite a few mainstream PC's usually for other people. I built this one as my toy and am having fun playing with the quasi enthusist features. (you gotta admit 325fsb is pretty cool for a mainstream board)

I am a beta tester by nature, I love new stuff that doesn't work quite right. And I hope I've help highlight the limitations and posibilities of this mainstream board masqurading as an enthusist's board.

You guys will get your Lanboys and Neo's soon enough and blow us all away! So let us overclocking wannabe's have our day in the sun!

p.s.

I just checked the clock, Prime95 has been running for just over 22hours no errors (mixed testing mode)

315.7x8=2526mhz ram=210.5 I wan't my divider's back!!

I quess I should sell my OCZ and get some cheap stuff and a second 6600GT

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: user1234
yeah - my condolences to "guitarDaddio" (?!?) for paying $350 for a piece of junk, and being the last one to realize it.

Contrary to what "guitar doodoo" says most people get these boards to get the best performance, and not for the goal of spending countless hours tweaking it and debugging problems which should have been fixed by the manufacturer prior to releasing the product.

ROFL!!! OOOOOOh!! Name calling now are yea! I'm mad now! ROLF!!
Useless1234 ROFL!!!

Mad that you coundn't sell you bicycle to buy one!

 

[bap4201]

I for one appreciate all your postings and help in oc'ng the A8N guitardaddy! I think your testing and postings have been a great help to many of us! KUDOS!!

 

[bap4201]

Originally posted by: user1234
yeah - my condolences to "guitarDaddio" (?!?) for paying $350 for a piece of junk, and being the last one to realize it.

Contrary to what "guitar doodoo" says most people get these boards to get the best performance, and not for the goal of spending countless hours tweaking it and debugging problems which should have been fixed by the manufacturer prior to releasing the product.

So what is it that your recommend to be the best of the sli bunch?

 

[jdogg707]

Originally posted by: user1234
yeah - my condolences to "guitarDaddio" (?!?) for paying $350 for a piece of junk, and being the last one to realize it.

Contrary to what "guitar doodoo" says most people get these boards to get the best performance, and not for the goal of spending countless hours tweaking it and debugging problems which should have been fixed by the manufacturer prior to releasing the product.

Somebody's cranky because they got coal under the tree instead of an A8N. If you have nothing positive to contribute, please refrain from posting.

Troll.