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

[JSSheridan]

Ok then, it looks like you can stick a fork in it. Have a look at the Abit NF7-S, that is a nice board. Peace.

 

[unbiased]

anybody used NVidia's new 4.24 platform drivers? Any comments?

 

[Jim123]

Hi, unbiased, I found this.

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=46967

Hope this helps

 

[tenten]

maybe this question was already asked + answered, and if it is im very sorry, but which slots do you put your RAM into if u want to utilize dual channel mode? i currently have it in the two slots that are next to each other, the single slot is empty at the moment and it says im using single channel, thanks for any help

 

[pelikan]

slot 1 and 3 or 2 and 3. slot 1 being the one closest to the cpu socket.

 

[unbiased]

oh that link was absolutely what the doc ordered. Thanks jim.

 

[squidjigger]

Has anyone had any common problems with this board??? Mine has been running fine overall, although for some reason it doesn't have any sound output anymore.

 

[biggestmuff]

Just bought an A7N8X Deluxe E today and set it up with 512MB ram and an XP 2100+. However, I am still using my Geforce 2 Ultra card with it. I've been reading about this motherboard having issues with the older video cards. something with the different voltages; 3.3v Vs. 1.5v Will the Geforce 2 Ultra be safe to use?

 

[oldman420]

Originally posted by: xobitx
I just recieved a newegg refurb A7N8X Deluxe and after getting it installed and setup everything works great. I just have one annoyance everytime the system boots I hear a Dr. Evil audio clip from Austin powers the spy who shagged me through my speakers using line out. It says the line about the sharks with freakin laserbeams the wierd part is it plays just slightly before the windows loading screen appears. So it seems its coming from the hardware not windows I have disabled all sound in windows but I still hear evil at boot up is this normal and is there any way to disable it?

go into bios and choose advanced startup options then disable post speach report

 

[oldman420]

Originally posted by: Hikari
Unfortunately for me, I can't run at 200mhz, even w/the latest bios on my 1.04 rev. 195 runs just fine, but I -still- have sound flake out on me sometimes. I guess I'm just out of luck....

What is the best CPU I'm most likely going to be able to use if I'm stuck w/195 as my top end? Sort of sucks since I have a gig of the 2-2-2-6 t1 corsair low latency ram...

yup that rev isnt the ultra 400 one so if you reach fsb of 190 thats darn good. get a mobile 2400 25 watt chip on there and you can go 12.5 x 190 = 2375 mhz all for about 50 bucks :shocked:
have fun and good luckhttp://www.centrix-intl.com/?source=froogle&directbuy=yes&itempartnumber=AXMS18

 

[imported_Twinsen]

Originally posted by: biggestmuff
Just bought an A7N8X Deluxe E today and set it up with 512MB ram and an XP 2100+. However, I am still using my Geforce 2 Ultra card with it. I've been reading about this motherboard having issues with the older video cards. something with the different voltages; 3.3v Vs. 1.5v Will the Geforce 2 Ultra be safe to use?

You should have no problem with the voltage. 3.3V boards fit in the AGP slot differently than 1.5V ones. The notch positioning has changed, so if your GeForce fits inside, everything is OK.

 

[biggestmuff]

thanks, twinsen :thumbsup:

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: oldman420

Originally posted by: Hikari
Unfortunately for me, I can't run at 200mhz, even w/the latest bios on my 1.04 rev. 195 runs just fine, but I -still- have sound flake out on me sometimes. I guess I'm just out of luck....

What is the best CPU I'm most likely going to be able to use if I'm stuck w/195 as my top end? Sort of sucks since I have a gig of the 2-2-2-6 t1 corsair low latency ram...

yup that rev isnt the ultra 400 one so if you reach fsb of 190 thats darn good. get a mobile 2400 25 watt chip on there and you can go 12.5 x 190 = 2375 mhz all for about 50 bucks :shocked:
have fun and good luckhttp://www.centrix-intl.com/?source=froogle&directbuy=yes&itempartnumber=AXMS18

I understand that the ½ steps do not do too well with this board. i.e. try 12 as the multiplier.

 

[dmcowen674]

Woa, you guys should've warned me about the -E Deluxe version of this board talks to you on boot up, freaked me out.

Looks like a great bump up from my plain X board. I don't have a SATA drive yet but the two Mem chips came up instantly in dual mode, very cool :thumbsup:

 

[Sikespa]

Just bought the Asus A7N8X-E myself and 3.3V AGP cards with not work with this MB.

 

[Sikespa]

I have purchased the Asus A7N8X-E MB and I have two SATA 74 Raptors that I want to install. I have never messed around with SATA or RAID before so I need to be schooled. I am trying to set up a RAID 0 with the drives and during the bootup process (I have not installed WinXP yet) I notice that the BIOS gives me the option of hitting F4 to get into the RAID Utility, but nothing happens when I do. The BIOS just keeps going till the little voice comes on and states the the POST is complete and that the OS is now loading. I could use a lesson in RAID setups. I figured the OS would go in after the RAID had been establied to allow the OS the be across the two drives. Maybe it's me or maybe I need the fix the BIOS.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Sikespa
I have purchased the Asus A7N8X-E MB and I have two SATA 74 Raptors that I want to install. I have never messed around with SATA or RAID before so I need to be schooled. I am trying to set up a RAID 0 with the drives and during the bootup process (I have not installed WinXP yet) I notice that the BIOS gives me the option of hitting F4 to get into the RAID Utility, but nothing happens when I do. The BIOS just keeps going till the little voice comes on and states the the POST is complete and that the OS is now loading. I could use a lesson in RAID setups. I figured the OS would go in after the RAID had been establied to allow the OS the be across the two drives. Maybe it's me or maybe I need the fix the BIOS.

I just picked up 2 80 GB SATA drives and will be messing with SATA drives for the first time too. I'm going for the Raid 1 configuration though.

I'll post on how it goes.

 

[Captante]

No.... slot 1 (the black one) is channel 1 & either of the two blue slots is the second channel on this board...I use slot 1 & slot 3 for dual-channel simply because it leave more space for air to flow between the DIMMS.

 

[Captante]

I too have the A7N8X-E & whoever said it isn't the Ultra 400 should pop off the Northbridge chipset cooler
& take a look... if you have the "E" then it should be the Ultra 400 because mine is & is running an unlocked XP 2800+ @ 2200mhz on a 400mz FSB with two sticks of Mushkin black PC3200 @ 2-2-2-6, however here is the bad news... this is the last Asus motherboard I will ever buy due to their disgraceful
tech & driver/BIOS support.... I had a bad SATA controller on my original board, attempted to RMA it & had Asus send me back what looked like the original NF2 reference board...it took 3 tries & 3 phone calls
on my dime to get the board I sent in replaced, also this is the 5th ASUS board I've had major problems with in the last three months *(2 Intel 875's & 3 NForce 2's including this one)... their quality control seems to have gone off a cliff & I can no longer recommend their products at all, you would be much better served by Abit or MSI, both of which are companys that still care about their customers.
Also don't attempt to update the BIOS beyond v1007, or you may find that all advanced memory & CPU settings have greyed out in your BIOS... in other words you won't be able to change them.
As for setting up the SATA RAID, I'm using two Seagate Barricuda 160gb drives in RAID 0 & setup was actually very straitforward... just create the RAID array in the BIOS utility & press F6 during setup to load
the Silicon Image RAID controller driver *(Hint: Have the driver on a floppy before you start)... if you fail to load the driver, windows setup will fail because it won't be able to see your drives.

 

[OLtimrNewbie]

I have just installed a new A7N8X-E DX with 2X512mb OCZ P3200 DDR as Dual Chan. along with 2 Seagate 7200.7 -120Gb as Raid 1. No problems getting it to Post and get into the Bios to set things up. The initial screen shows Bios 1009; which when I look at the ASUS site for this board; 1009 doesn't exist ! I hope their web site is just late in getting updated. It does recognize the AMD XP 2800+ OK but shows FSB as 166; which I think is okay. Memory is confusing. In BIOS I've set it as auto; when I tried it by SPD it displayed 200Mhz and the next start up the "voice" warned me I was overclocked!
I guess I'll just leave it as AUTO.
"Captante" how do you get the drivers for the Sil Raid onto a floppy? When I examine the contents of the Driver Disc. the files are bigger than the floppy can hold. Is there just one part of the file that can be used? OR at the F6 can you pull out the WIN XP O/S disc; insert the Driver CD-ROM; then go back to the WIN XP disc after the driver is loaded?
Any suggestions; hints; or answers.... Please

PS I have had no problems with ASUS MB's. I also have a A7N8X DX with XP2800+ and 2X512Mb OCZ PC2700 and 2X Seagate 80Gb in Raid 1. I had to RMA a bad ASUS T4800 VGA card and had great turnaround time from them. I have had nothing but problems with 3 MSI MB's (2 were RMA'd and still had problems when they came back) and I won't ever try them again. Maybe it is just the luck of the draw; but so far I'd recommend ASUS over MSI.

 

[OLtimrNewbie]

Sikespa ....(06/04/2004) You have to be quick to hit the F4. It flashes past too fast for me at times. Same as getting into Bios Setup.. I have to hold "DEL" as I power it on; or it gets into the post screen, then won't accept "DEL" to go to BIOS Setup.:frown:

 

[biggestmuff]

New BIOS 1011 is out.

 

[unitee311]

what is the difference between A7N8X and A7N8X-X?

 

[unbiased]

Go to asus site. It is given in detail.
Anyway, the most significant difference between a7n8x a7n8x-x is that a7n8x supports dual channel memory while a7n8x-x supports single channel.

 

[imported_Bunter]

I set up a RAID 1 on the A7N8X-E Deluxe a couple of weeks ago, on my wife's business machine. Pretty simple stuff. You do have to be quick on the draw to hit the F4 key before the thing boots past that. Have the SATA driver disk handy (you will have to make one with the Windows driver, there are instructions in one of the text files) to get Windows installed.

For RAID 1, I generally only connect up one drive when I install the OS, various drivers and utilities and anti-virus software. Then I hook up the second drive and build the RAID. Probably paranoia on my part, but I've had enough bad OS installation experiences in the past. I like to start with a known-good configuration.

I used Windows 2000 Pro on hers. I don't know if Windows XP will through a fit if you activate it with only one drive in place and then install the second drive and set up the RAID. If it is smart enough to see the RAID and components, it will probably complain that it is not on the machine it was installed on. That will necessitate a call to Microsoft (about a 5 minute process). It may not see that deeply into the machine, though.