*** Official ASUS A7N8X/Deluxe (nForce2) Thread ***

[pcmax]

FWIW I upgraded my drivers to the 3.13 and it didn't kill my Windows XP. I did uninstall the old ones through add/remove programs but thats it.

 

[n7]

Okay...
Hope you don't mind my n00b questions.

I'm in the process of determining what parts i'm going to get for builing a new PC, & after some research, have decided the A7N8X Deluxe may be the best mobo i can get for what i need.
Just a couple questions regarding Firewire & SATA...will the Firewire on this board do the same job as a PCI card will, or is it better/worse than having the separate card, & can the slot for it be positioned in the front of the case (as this would be ideal)?
Also, will it be too difficult to run a SATA drive as well as my old WD drive, or is use of both okay?
The other thing i liked about this mobo is the sound, but i was wondering if for video/audio editting, would it be better to just get a sound card anyway?

My rough idea of what will be in the new system:
Barton 2500+ (or better, depending on how much $$$ i can part with)
512 DDR400 (will double that when $$$ permits)
120+ SATA & 160 ATA WD Drive
ATI AIW 9600 Pro
DVD+/- RW (not sure which model yet)

I don't have any plans on overclocking this, but i just need a reliable fast system with IEEE1394, & SATA, with upgrade potential.

If there is a good mobo that will do what i require for less, suggestions are welcome!

 

[Suppafly]

I was thinking of getting one of these, but i was also looking at an abit NF7-S V2, which is better?

 

[dnoyeb]

1. im done with abit. i think asus has them beat in quality, and i like the few jumpers that asus holds onto. i think it prevents some of the bios based deaths.

2. a pci firewire depending on the card can remove load from the cpu. the onboard peripherials all use the cpu for the bulk of their work. fine if the drivers are tight, but when they are not it can slow down your speed.
also note that most pci cards will also try to rely heavily on the cpu. only top of the line pci cards try to use their own power. I doubt if you will find one, so i would suggest using the on board peripherals.

 

[raystorm]

I have a question about this mobo. Here's my current pc's cpu/mobo/ram:

Epox 8K7A
Athlon 1.4 ghz (T-bird)
512mb PC 2100 (crucial)

Unfortunately, my most of the capacitors on my epox board is either bulging or leaking and its time for a new mobo. The problem is that I cannot afford to get a new mobo, cpu AND ram. I am current eyeing the asus a7n8x-E along with a 2500+ Barton and whichever ram is recommended (corsair, kingston..whatever).

I was wondering if I was to just get the new motherboard (which I REALLY need to get soon), would I be able to use my t-bird and pc 2100 ram on it?? It would be temporary of course until I come up with the funds required to get the rest of what I need.

Right now my primary ide doesnt even work anymore and I actually pictured one of the capacitors poping right next to my 9800. So I am ready to buy the new board once I know I can do this temporary solution. Can I?

 

[pcmax]

Originally posted by: raystorm
I have a question about this mobo. Here's my current pc's cpu/mobo/ram:

Epox 8K7A
Athlon 1.4 ghz (T-bird)
512mb PC 2100 (crucial)

Unfortunately, my most of the capacitors on my epox board is either bulging or leaking and its time for a new mobo. The problem is that I cannot afford to get a new mobo, cpu AND ram. I am current eyeing the asus a7n8x-E along with a 2500+ Barton and whichever ram is recommended (corsair, kingston..whatever).

I was wondering if I was to just get the new motherboard (which I REALLY need to get soon), would I be able to use my t-bird and pc 2100 ram on it?? It would be temporary of course until I come up with the funds required to get the rest of what I need.

Right now my primary ide doesnt even work anymore and I actually pictured one of the capacitors poping right next to my 9800. So I am ready to buy the new board once I know I can do this temporary solution. Can I?

Yes, your ram and cpu would work perfectly fine on an A7N8X board and still have the upgrade opportunity for the 2500 when your ready.

 

[TrECeNTeRs]

A7N8X Deluxe

Sissoftware Sandra said it was... REV 1017

What bios can I update to???


1.)Description A7N8X BIOS 1007 for PCB revision 1.03, 1.04, and 1.06 only.

or

2.)Description A7N8X BIOS C1007 for PCB revision 2.0 and later only.

 

[Richard98]

Originally posted by: TrECeNTeRs
A7N8X Deluxe

Sissoftware Sandra said it was... REV 1017

What bios can I update to???


1.)Description A7N8X BIOS 1007 for PCB revision 1.03, 1.04, and 1.06 only.

or

2.)Description A7N8X BIOS C1007 for PCB revision 2.0 and later only.

The PCB revision # is silkscreened on the MB. Look between the PCI slots for the silkscreened "A7N8X - Deluxe" logo- The PCB revision will be next to this logo in a much smaller font.

 

[slaves123]

how much would the asus a7n8x deluxe let you increase the bus? not with succesfull overclocking, but what is the teorically maximum?

 

[slaves123]

how much can you raise the FSB?

 

[dmcowen674]

Hey guys, Mech.

I gave my trusty ASUS A7A266 to my wife Donna yesterday, I threw a A7N8X-X in my machine. It has Bios Rev 1006.

Both our machines have XP1600's. The A7A266 board runs the FSB at 284. I haven't been able to get over 274 on the new 8X. I have a PC3200 512 meg stick in my 8X. How do I overclock this puppy?

Edit: Ok figured out this Memory timing percentage thing they threw in here, got it back to 284, that's as far as I can take the stock 1600. This board is snappier that the old 266, hopefully it will be as stable and can't wait till be able to pop a 2500 Barton 333 in it.

 

[TrECeNTeRs]

ok I updated my bios had alot of trouble with the system afterwards but it finnaly reset bios so ... thats all good but I have a couple questions....

I have the same config as the guy that just posted XP1600 except 2 sticks of 256MB DDR 3200 "One In each side" so its dual..

Ok he says he got it up to 284fsb while I only get up to 152fsb "but does that mean 152x2? because I got 2 sticks of memory?"Probably not.. just guessing..

when @ 152fsb my mhz is 1600mhz.. so if I boost the fsb anymore theres no video and there I go having to reset bios once again...

Can someone that has kinda the same setup tell me exactly what I need to set everything in advanced as? Thanks

 

[pcmax]

Originally posted by: TrECeNTeRs
ok I updated my bios had alot of trouble with the system afterwards but it finnaly reset bios so ... thats all good but I have a couple questions....

I have the same config as the guy that just posted XP1600 except 2 sticks of 256MB DDR 3200 "One In each side" so its dual..

Ok he says he got it up to 284fsb while I only get up to 152fsb "but does that mean 152x2? because I got 2 sticks of memory?"Probably not.. just guessing..

when @ 152fsb my mhz is 1600mhz.. so if I boost the fsb anymore theres no video and there I go having to reset bios once again...

Can someone that has kinda the same setup tell me exactly what I need to set everything in advanced as? Thanks

When he says 284 he means 142x2 (that or he has the greatest overclocking xp1600 in existence and so yes your 152 is x2 for the cpu bus and your ddr bus. As far as going higher you probably will have to increase your cpu voltage to do so.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: pcmax

Originally posted by: TrECeNTeRs
ok I updated my bios had alot of trouble with the system afterwards but it finnaly reset bios so ... thats all good but I have a couple questions....

I have the same config as the guy that just posted XP1600 except 2 sticks of 256MB DDR 3200 "One In each side" so its dual..

Ok he says he got it up to 284fsb while I only get up to 152fsb "but does that mean 152x2? because I got 2 sticks of memory?"Probably not.. just guessing..

when @ 152fsb my mhz is 1600mhz.. so if I boost the fsb anymore theres no video and there I go having to reset bios once again...

Can someone that has kinda the same setup tell me exactly what I need to set everything in advanced as? Thanks

When he says 284 he means 142x2 (that or he has the greatest overclocking xp1600 in existence and so yes your 152 is x2 for the cpu bus and your ddr bus. As far as going higher you probably will have to increase your cpu voltage to do so.

You are indeed right Max. That Nvidia Windows utility is wild. I'm able to run at 290 stable by using that utility. It won't boot up with the BIOS set at that speed but it will run at that speed once Windows is up using the utility.

A 24 Mhz jump on a stock part is pretty substantial. It's nearly running between a 266 and 333 part now.

 

i have the a7nx8 deluxe and two 120gb SATA drives......is there anyway i can use the drives without them being RAID?
I'm a newbie when it comes to raid and SATA...i'm having major problems keeping this system running

 

[TexRanger]

 

[Wigwam]

i would be grateful clarification on:
#1 currently running at 166FSB;when i o/c the fsb higher, how can i lock the AGP/PCI to 66MHZ: do i just set it to 66 or is their a "locked" setting that i havent noticed?

#2 in the bios it lists the "Primary display bios" as "PCI card bios" - it works fine but is ther any benefit to settign it to "AGP card bios" since i have an agp card?

Thanks

 

[Pilsnerpete]

Originally posted by: Wigwam
i would be grateful clarification on:
#1 currently running at 166FSB;when i o/c the fsb higher, how can i lock the AGP/PCI to 66MHZ: do i just set it to 66 or is their a "locked" setting that i havent noticed?

#2 in the bios it lists the "Primary display bios" as "PCI card bios" - it works fine but is ther any benefit to settign it to "AGP card bios" since i have an agp card?

Thanks

#1. They're both locked unless you want to oc the AGP (there's a setting in the chipset page, I believe)

#2. If you set "Primary display bios" to AGP, I'm pretty sure all you would see is a tiny bit faster bootup. Tiny as in milliseconds. You could time both with your trusty stopwatch...or you could set it to AGP and not give it a second thought.

 

[lucky9]

BIOS settings for boot drive?

I always low level format after backing up to CD/R. Solves all probs.

 

[JamesHighwest]

I do not know what information everyone needs so here's all I'm using on the system right now in an attempt to get it to boot:

Asus A7N8X-UAY
CPU - AMD Athlon "Barton" 2600+
Memory - 1GB 128Mx64 PC2700 184-pin DDRam (True-333Mhz)
Video - PNY GeForce 4
A keyboard

The best I've been able to get out of it is a POST beep and a memory check. After the memory check it locks up; I cannot get into the BIOS at all. Any help with this is greatly appreciated.

 

[pelikan]

Originally posted by: JamesHighwest
I do not know what information everyone needs so here's all I'm using on the system right now in an attempt to get it to boot:

Asus A7N8X-UAY
CPU - AMD Athlon "Barton" 2600+
Memory - 1GB 128Mx64 PC2700 184-pin DDRam (True-333Mhz)
Video - PNY GeForce 4
A keyboard

The best I've been able to get out of it is a POST beep and a memory check. After the memory check it locks up; I cannot get into the BIOS at all. Any help with this is greatly appreciated.

I bet that's generic ram and it won't work with this motherboard.

 

[JamesHighwest]

Originally posted by: pelikan

Originally posted by: JamesHighwest
I do not know what information everyone needs so here's all I'm using on the system right now in an attempt to get it to boot:

Asus A7N8X-UAY
CPU - AMD Athlon "Barton" 2600+
Memory - 1GB 128Mx64 PC2700 184-pin DDRam (True-333Mhz)
Video - PNY GeForce 4
A keyboard

The best I've been able to get out of it is a POST beep and a memory check. After the memory check it locks up; I cannot get into the BIOS at all. Any help with this is greatly appreciated.

I bet that's generic ram and it won't work with this motherboard.

Why not? I don't remember any specifics about RAM requirements beyond the type(PC2700). I looked!

 

[JamesHighwest]

[edited out double post]

 

[saechaka]

answer was right up thur.

 

[pelikan]

Originally posted by: JamesHighwest

Originally posted by: pelikan

Originally posted by: JamesHighwest
I do not know what information everyone needs so here's all I'm using on the system right now in an attempt to get it to boot:

Asus A7N8X-UAY
CPU - AMD Athlon "Barton" 2600+
Memory - 1GB 128Mx64 PC2700 184-pin DDRam (True-333Mhz)
Video - PNY GeForce 4
A keyboard

The best I've been able to get out of it is a POST beep and a memory check. After the memory check it locks up; I cannot get into the BIOS at all. Any help with this is greatly appreciated.

I bet that's generic ram and it won't work with this motherboard.

Why not? I don't remember any specifics about RAM requirements beyond the type(PC2700). I looked!

These nforce2 boards are very picky about ram. If it turns out that your ram is not compatible, I'd recommend using some that other people here have had good luck with or looking at the compatible ram list on the Asus site.