* ASUS A8N-SLI experiences/results/issues

[GuitarDaddy]

Thanks Bap! I think some of these guys take this stuff a little to seriously.

Some of these guys make me laugh. 1000000 posts and they joined 6 months ago!

I guess you can rack up the post's if there all 2 liners, saying WTF? OMG? this sucks! that sucks!everybodys a noob! Wa! Wa!

 

[ShoNuff]

GD, let me take a moment to say I appreciate the time you have taken to respond to my posts. Being new to the "Dark Side" (former Intel zealot) this thread has helped me steer clear of some issues.

Keep on doin' whatcha doin brother!

 

[glorfy]

To explain my own reasons for buying this board: I went in eyes wide open. I knew that the chances are there would be issues, after al I owned an A8V rev 1.03, so know Asus' track record, but if you are serious about doing something new, testing something that very few people have experience of, then you have to get in early, and suffer any consequences. If the board turns out to be fubar, well Asus has sold it as an overclockers board, I will push for an RMA. To criticize someone for posting his results on a new board could be considered churlish. I for one want to hear them. Its the only way to gather new information. Jsu for information, who says that this board cannot achieve high 1:1 overclocks? I have booted at 266FSB 1:1. The motherboard has issues, which hopefully Asus will address with new bios releases, until then I'm happy to be 'on the edge' so to speak. Heres a screen shot for you. link.

I'm not claiming its prime stable :lol:, I just show it too illustrate that this board will do high 1:1 on the memory, and with the right CPU (not mine!) :lol: should be capable of some great overclocks. If you want it I have another screenshot at 300FSB, but its confusing because the board wont let you go above 290FSB currently, so AI booster thinks its at 290, and clockgen 300 - I haven't tested which one is right yet. (yes that IS for testing purposes, no way will my memory do that!)

As for posting non prime stable results, go on to a thread where they are dry ice cooling, and tell them that their overclocks arn't prime stable for 24hrs, see where it getsyou (not unless they have a lot of dry ice )

BTW are personal flames really necessary? Cannot the argument be stated without them?

 

[gobucks]

well, as an ex-A8N-SLI owner, i have to say i was impressed with many aspects of the board, but it fell short in some important areas. It did run pretty well, had a nice layout, great features and extras, and at $201 (my price from novapcs) i thought it was a pretty reasonable board. But a lot of things pissed me off. The SATA-II controller dying was the biggest, which is why i am an EX owner. Other stuff includes the discrepency about PCI locks (not sure if it works or not), no settings for NCQ, or dual channel, or memory dividers, so i had no idea if any of those things were coming into play. Also, the LAN gave me trouble, and i had to use the backup LAN rather than the integrated primary. And tech support was atrocious. I had to call a local number (no toll-free) and they kept me on hold for like 20 minutes, which i was paying for, only to tell me they would give me a call back at home later, which they never did, so i had to go through the process again. When i wanted to RMA the board, they estimated 3 weeks till i'd get a new one. So i said screw it, and ordered a Chaintech VNF4/Ultra from newegg. At $119, almost half the price of the Asus, i got everything i was actually using from the Asus anyway. While i don't have the board yet (it's supposed to be delivered tomorrow) i can say that if it turns out to have some minor problems, i can live with that, since i can just replace the board in 6 months and use the old board for a non-enthusiast computer or something, and not have to relegate a $200 board to the back burner. And from the experiences i've read, the board seems pretty good, and a reasonable overclocker, with the only gripes i've seen being the capacitors so near the socket and the bios needing an update.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Sorry to sound like a noob, but I don't think I could read through all the pages in this thread, so I ask you people who have this board.

Would it be reasonable for me to think that I could get 2.5Ghz on this board using my HyperX DDR500 at a 1:1 ratio on a 3000+? If thats not unrealistic, how about getting 2.7 on air?

I really like all the features this board has, but I kinda don't want to end up doing what I did with my current system. I bought the K8N-E Deluxe early on but it turned out to be not a good overclocker (probably at least partially my fault though) so I got the DFI board and it of course is great.

 

[mattdbrown]

I have a system set up with the A8N-SLI and 2 HP NVidia Quadro 3400s. Everything appears to be working fine hardware wise: each time I boot into Windows, I am even prompted to activate the SLI multi-gpu mode. The weird problem is this: whenever I attempt to activate multi-gpu mode, the setting change doesn't stick. The computer doesn't restart, and if I go back into the menu, it looks as if I had never changed the setting. I have tried it with every version of NVidia drivers that I could find... and still no luck. Has anyone else had this problem and been able to resolve it? Can anyone suggest something else to try? I'm really stuck here. Thanks a lot.

 

[DB27]

gobucks: I would take a look at some of the Chaintech threads around the various boards. People are having a LOT of trouble getting them over 220 FSB.

For the record, I set up my system last night, and have had essentially zero problems so far. I'm not OC'ed yet, but both onboard LAN controllers, both SATA controllers, fit for the XP-90, etc. have worked perfectly, first time I turned the system on. I'm going to OC it soon, and I'll let people know how it goes. It could be that the newest shipments have fixed some of the problems with the earliest batch?

Antec BQE case
A64 3200+
OCZ 3200 plat rev. 2
Chaintech 6600GT (single mode)
Samsung 120GB HDD
Thermalright XP-90

 

[imported_billy]

for all msi freaks: go read the msi forums about how many ppl problems had with their superb overclockers boards: k8n neo platinum and k8n neo 2 platinum.....
I for one, had a msi k8n neo platinum... overclocking was MESSED, bios was messed, temperature readings where messed...I think I tried 25 different bios versions, beta's etc... and so a lot more guys tried with similair problems. It all sucked ass, and I put the msi away as fast as I could. I got the dfi lanparty ut250gb afterwards...and it was a hell of a nice board... Not I have this a8n-sli as 2nd rig. my overclock is not superb, but thats cause I dont have a great cpu yet. BUT I got the G.skill ddr550 modules, running at ddr 500 at the moment, i'm still tweaking... I am thinking of returning or selling the asus a8n, when the DFI becomes availble. but behind DFI, 2nd place...is Asus for me.


I dont like most of the fsb settings over 250 because you have to set your HTT x 3... and that results in 750-900 htt bus. I dont know, but it seems to me that its also important to have a fast connection between cpu and rest of your components, so if you can get 50mhz more cpu, or 100-200mhz more htt, it seems to me you better have a higher htt than a higher cpu... How about that? Is that true, or just bullshit and it doesnt matter if you have 800 or 1000 htt? (only if you go around 325htt(x3) you have a nice htt bus of around 975+)

 

[DB27]

I'm not sure, but I get the feeling that the HTT is rarely 100% utilized anyway at current technology (like SATA-II). Anyone else know for sure?

 

[pudds]

"no settings for NCQ"

Just to clarify as ive seen quite a few people post this question you enable NCQ in device manager on the ide/sata contollers.

"The PCI Lock doesn't work"

It does work just set fsb to 201 and then boot into windows. Then reboot and you can adjust with a locked pci bus.

Overall im fairly happy with the board, its solid as a rock which is the main thing i look for in a board. Only dissapointing things are lack of memory divider, voltage options (currently its either 1.45 or 1.57), and the faxt that my memory wont go higher than 240 using 1t, hits 290 using 2.5,4,10,3 using 2t.

As for the post about guitardaddy its obviusly just a bit of the green eyed monster. Reading his posts have been very helpfull as i have nearly the same rig a64 3200+,audigy 2 zs, 1gb ocz plat rev2.

 

[lorelevitt]

Originally posted by: 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!

I tried the Vantec Stealth and it was NOT doing the job on my XP-120 heatsink. Temps were climbing into the 60s. I switched it out for a Panaflo M1A which is doing alot better job cooling my FX55. Unfortunately the Panaflo's don't have RPM sensors so I had to give that up.

Lore

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: darkswordsman17
Sorry to sound like a noob, but I don't think I could read through all the pages in this thread, so I ask you people who have this board.

Would it be reasonable for me to think that I could get 2.5Ghz on this board using my HyperX DDR500 at a 1:1 ratio on a 3000+? If thats not unrealistic, how about getting 2.7 on air?

I really like all the features this board has, but I kinda don't want to end up doing what I did with my current system. I bought the K8N-E Deluxe early on but it turned out to be not a good overclocker (probably at least partially my fault though) so I got the DFI board and it of course is great.

I think it will depend on the 3000+ chip that you get if you can run 2.5ghz 1:1. IMO its not very likely, from what I've read it seems a small % of these chips seem to be able to run 2.5-2.6, the majority seem to top out around 2.4 (And most of the people reporting 2.5-2.6 aren't running 1:1. My 3200 won't run 2.5 with ram 1:1.

2.7 on air? I don't think so! You "MAY" be able to boot at that speed long enough to take a screenshot to show your buddies. But running this kind of speed stable is most likely out of the question with a 3000+. I know the 3000+ is a great overclocker, but 50% over rated speed? I have seen posts from people reporting to get in the neighborhood of 2.7 with a 3000+ but I have to question the stability.

 

[Kovie]

Id still like to thank GuitarDaddy for his posts, as they tend to be actually useful.

The board has been fine with me. I still had my high speed memory from my P4C system so 1:1 isnt a problem to me. The northbridge was annoying me so I just put a speed limiter on it and its fine now, and hopefully will last a bit longer. All in all its quite nice.

 

[darkswordsman17]

You know in all honesty, I don't know why I am wanting to upgrade, as I'll only end up with about a 10% increase in performance total. I'd be going from a 754 @2.4 with 6800Ulta speeds to a 939 @2.5 with dual channel and the extra couple percent that PCI-Express offers over AGP.

I agree, your information has been very helpful.

 

[user1234]

I agree that this thread has been very useful in understanding what a nightmare this board could be. This warning is a public service anouncement to anyone that is still considering spending $300 on this problematic hardware.

 

[century child]

Originally posted by: user1234
I agree that this thread has been very useful in understanding what a nightmare this board could be. This warning is a public service anouncement to anyone that is still considering spending $300 on this problematic hardware.

I think the same could be said for just about any other board on the market, new or not. If you search around in forums, any board that is worth it's salt has many nightmare stories from many people. I went into this expecting a lot more problems than I actually encountered seeing as this is brand new technology that hasn't even been available on the open market for a month yet. It turned out to be one of the most painless installs I've done yet.

 

[user1234]

oh really, show me another board which retails (or ever was selling) for more than $300

 

[Kovie]

What were the other options again? From reading these boards you would think nothing. Neo2 has problems, A8V has problems, AV8 has problems, and the K8NSNXP certainly has problems.

The A8N only essentially has 1:1 and 2:3 dividers, tends to undervolt if you use the AI program, actually requires you to read the manual (*gasp*), and I found the northbridge fan annoying at stock speeds. Other than that I seem to have missed the problematic part of this "problematic" hardware. I do agree however that spending $300 on it isnt wise, considering places like chumbo have them listed at $201 and should get more in next week.

DFI's board will be nice when it comes out, and almost certainly better than the A8N, since DFI has already stated it'll be another two months before its out and will have more time to work things out. Then again it'll come out and you'll bitch and moan on that one too.

 

[bap4201]

Originally posted by: user1234
I agree that this thread has been very useful in understanding what a nightmare this board could be. This warning is a public service anouncement to anyone that is still considering spending $300 on this problematic hardware.

oh please, if you want a good rock solid, stable board, go w/ asus a8n-sli. Custom makers like Falcon Northwest and Alienware choose Asus boards time and time again because of their stability. They would damage their own reputation if they built unreliable machines. If you are an EXTREME overclocker, then go w/ dfi or msi. Asus is not know for their overclocking, but rather for their stability and quality.

 

[davidwiz]

Originally posted by: bap4201

Originally posted by: user1234
I agree that this thread has been very useful in understanding what a nightmare this board could be. This warning is a public service anouncement to anyone that is still considering spending $300 on this problematic hardware.

oh please, if you want a good rock solid, stable board, go w/ asus a8n-sli. Custom makers like Falcon Northwest and Alienware choose Asus boards time and time again because of their stability. They would damage their own reputation if they built unreliable machines. If you are an EXTREME overclocker, then go w/ dfi or msi. Asus is not know for their overclocking, but rather for their stability and quality.

Agreed, Its been a week now for me with this board and Ive had zero problems with setup or stability.

 

[glorfy]

I agree, but Asus have sold this one as an overclcokers board! Even in the UK te price is no where near $300.

 

[glorfy]

Anyone had problems with low benchmark scores. Specifically PCNark04. Its scoring 10% lower than my old A8V w/3500+ (130nm), 4029 vs 4438 - or do you think its an early bios issue, that will be sorted? Cheers!

 

[century child]

User1234 - Although there have been several in somewhat recent times, here at least (the Abit IC7-Max and AT7-Max were both in this price range when they were first released), I wasn't referring to price, I was referring to the 'problematic hardware' statement.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Good reports GuitarDaddy! Thxs!

Now if only someone would answer my questions...

 

[SRoode]

New Beta bios is up at ASUS site (1003.005)... Anyone try it yet? It may fix some issues.