*** Official ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe (nForce4) Thread ***

[iscsidude]

Me too. Especially competition on those 6800 vid cards!

Based on this article from the Anandtech home page today:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuch...ts/showdoc.aspx?i=2322

"the nForce4 Ultra is apparently just an nForce4 SLI with SLI turned off"

And, I can turn the Ultra into an SLI in about ten seconds.

Our wait may not be to long....

 

[user1234]

Yes, I saw this article but I think the conclusion above is an understatement - the Ultra chipset is not the SLI chipset with SLI capability turned off - it is identical to the SLI chipset with NOTHING TURNED OFF, the only difference is in its identifcation circuits, which tell other components if it's the Ultra or SLI model. So actually, Anandtech is wrong - NOTHING IS TURNED OFF in the ULTRA chipset itself, it has the same capabilites and functionality as the SLI chipset. But based on the identifying circuit, other components such as the video driver can decide wether they allow the video cards to fully function. So we have a case of a different product - the graphics card and driver - turning some of their functionality off based on identification of other system components, even though the dual graphics cards in SLI setup are compatible with both chipset models. Since all the components are sold separately, this is ILLEGAL. What I mean is that if your system with nforce4 Ultra chipset is capable of supporting SLI, and your rightfully owned graphics cards and driver are CAPABLE of working with this chipset, IT IS UNLAWFUL for the graphics driver, which is part of your rightfully owned grpahics cards, to limit the functionality of the cards without a reasonable and well defined technical reason (such as compatibility issues, etc), which we know there is none (since some versions of the driver allow this). NVIDIA cannot decide to turn off the SLI capabilites of the graphics driver on purpose, unless it was technically not compatible with the system.


anyone want to take up the class action suit ?

 

[michaeldorian]

Just wanted to let you guys know that base on GuitarDaddy's advice I lowered the times for my 3200XLPRO DDR to 2-3-2-5 from its stock 2-2-2-5 and it appears to run stable. Running the Sandra Burn in process and on pass 4 with no problems. The weird thing is I was able to pass Memtest86 with stock timing without errors. What type of performance hit would I be expecting by changing the ram time 2-3-2-5?

 

[AiponGkooja]

Originally posted by: user1234
Yes, I saw this article but I think the conclusion above is an understatement - the Ultra chipset is not the SLI chipset with SLI capability turned off - it is identical to the SLI chipset with NOTHING TURNED OFF, the only difference is in its identifcation circuits, which tell other components if it's the Ultra or SLI model. So actually, Anandtech is wrong - NOTHING IS TURNED OFF in the ULTRA chipset itself, it has the same capabilites and functionality as the SLI chipset. But based on the identifying circuit, other components such as the video driver can decide wether they allow the video cards to fully function. So we have a case of a different product - the graphics card and driver - turning some of their functionality off based on identification of other system components, even though the dual graphics cards in SLI setup are compatible with both chipset models. Since all the components are sold separately, this is ILLEGAL. What I mean is that if your system with nforce4 Ultra chipset is capable of supporting SLI, and your rightfully owned graphics cards and driver are CAPABLE of working with this chipset, IT IS UNLAWFUL for the graphics driver, which is part of your rightfully owned grpahics cards, to limit the functionality of the cards without a reasonable and well defined technical reason (such as compatibility issues, etc), which we know there is none (since some versions of the driver allow this). NVIDIA cannot decide to turn off the SLI capabilites of the graphics driver on purpose, unless it was technically not compatible with the system.


anyone want to take up the class action suit ?

I thought the only thing that the label of "ultra" or "sli" had to do with was the LATEST drivers, where it would disable the ability unless it was labeled "sli." Does the pencilling only affect that label? Or does it affect the functionality of the SLI component?

 

[user1234]

The "pencil mod" to the chipset is only required when using the newer graphics drivers - which disable SLI operation if they detect the Ultra chipset. But older grahics drivers allow running in SLI mode even with the Ultra chipset, which proves that Ultra chipset is capable of supporting SLI, and that the new drivers arbitrarily disable it, which is an illegal anti competitive and fraudulant business practice.

 

[sreams]

Since all the components are sold separately, this is ILLEGAL. What I mean is that if your system with nforce4 Ultra chipset is capable of supporting SLI, and your rightfully owned graphics cards and driver are CAPABLE of working with this chipset, IT IS UNLAWFUL for the graphics driver, which is part of your rightfully owned grpahics cards, to limit the functionality of the cards without a reasonable and well defined technical reason (such as compatibility issues, etc), which we know there is none (since some versions of the driver allow this). NVIDIA cannot decide to turn off the SLI capabilites of the graphics driver on purpose, unless it was technically not compatible with the system.


anyone want to take up the class action suit ?

Hmmm... I wouldn't be so sure this is "illegal". Is it also illegal for AMD to disable higher multipliers on "lower-end" Athlon64 chips? Is it illegal for NVidia to disable Quadro features on GeForceFX chips? The truth is... the law probably allows them to do what they are doing, because they -are- delivering exactly what was advertised (a non-SLI system). Such a case would most likely be thrown out immediately.

-S

 

[squonk]

Hey, who brought in the Lawyer, Nuff said .

Ok, I built two A8N SLI Deluxe machines this weekend and I am very impressed with these boards. They are stable and feature rich and i didnt run across too many problems. I decided to post about the experience since I did run across a few things mentioned in this thread over the last few months but was able to elimate any issues easily. Specs for each machine are listed below and they are identical in every way.

The first build was started with 2 gforce 6600gts in place (duaghter card set to 1 video card on mobo) and the motherboard bios at 1002 and pretty much the way it came out of the box whith the exception of Cool N Quiet disabled. I also set DDR 400 instead of Auto for ram timing from reading that in this forum. 2 Seagate Sata 2 drives, a Plextor 16xaf burner and an Audigy ZS2 were the only other hardware installed and i purposley left off all usb devices aside from keyboard and mouse. XP with SP2 loaded properly and I had a number of devices with yellow warnings in device manager that needed drivers loaded. I began the installation of drivers from the Asus cd and pretty much followed the order of drivers but skipped over any raid settings. I did attemp to begin install the SIL driver but when i saw the question about raid 5 or 10 I sensed something was up and bailed out of that install. I remebered there was a SIL Windows update driver for my older Gigabyte boards and decided to go that rout given the issue with single drives on that controller posted in these boards Then I loaded Utilites from Asus but none of the other crap on the cd.

1st error was the, "You must disable CoolnQuiet in order to run AI Booster. When i installed the Cool N Quiet Software it enabled Cool N Quiet in the Bios so i Turned that off and error disappeared. I also removed the run line command in the registry for AI booster so it wouldnt start on startup and rebooted.
At this point the SIL driver, Nvidia Drivers and Audigy drivers are the only thing left needing drivers. I decided at this point i was going to load the video but was concerned about two cards being in and decided to remove one of the 6600 gt's and reboot. Loaded Nvidia drivers, rebooted, shut machine down, turned daughter card to 2 video card selection and added second card. On Boot it informed me i needed to enable SLI which i did and rebooted and two video cards loaded properly. Loaded Audigy Card drivers from stock CD with no issues and all apps and then updated at creative both drivers and apps (I had no issues with this on 1st machine but see second machine build for issues with this). At this point I ran Windows Update and downloaded a bunch a stuff including the SIL and Marvel Drivers offered and rebooted numerouse times and all was up and running fine. I shut the machine down and added a Maxtor Ultra 16 Sata 250 16Meg Cache drive to the Sill controller just to see if it would see a single drive and it did. I like the nvidia controller with its increased throughput so i rebooted one more time and moved the maxtor over to that controller with the Seagates and there are no issues. Machine Flys and runs great.

The second build started off the same way but i made a critical mistake. I forgot to have the video daughter card changed to 1 video card. All went fine until I got to the Audigy portion and when i installed Audigy drivers and rebooted I got, NO OS DISK FOUND on boot. After a few hours of trouble shooting sound card, hard drives etc.. I discovered I had done the build with two cards in but the daughter card set to dual instaead of 1 video card and this was definatley creating my issue. It wasnt enough to just turn off SLI take a card out and turn the daughter card arround to fix the issue. When i got the NO OS DISK FOUND Please insert system disk, through playing arround i discovered i could boot no problem as long as i had a cd in the drive ( no not to the cd, to the drive partition on disk 1) but if i didnt have a cd in cdrom drive i got the OS error. At this point i determined i was going to reset the bios per the Asus manual (remove battery, change jumper for 5 seconds and then replace) Upon next boot I went into the bios and all looked pretty normal but I changed the things i wanted to change and Walla, BOOT message disappeard, XP sees 1 video card and then i turned off added the second and switched the daughter board back to dual vcard, enabled sli and rebooted and the machine is running flawlessly now.

In a nut shell, AI Booster and Cool N Quiet cant run together per Asus in the manual so whoever postes a while back about this error its not an error, its normal.

Make sure ya build with one video card and the daughter card pointing to 1 video card

Use Microsoft Update Driver for Sil if ya want single drives on Sil without Raid

I am replacing the 6600GT's with Ultras as my cards will finaly be in today so i will edit and post any information I get about uninstalling 2 cards, turning off sli and putting two different ones back in and re-enabling sli.

All in all I think the technology is way over the top awesome and I had a great time building these machines. I updated the Bios to 1003-006 beta to solve a crashing Problem in the EQ2 client but other than that they have been rock solid.

(Per machine)
Lian-Li Warrior (Xoxide) Black Aluminum case, blue led lighting (6 fans= 120mm blow hole exhaust top, 2 front 80mm intake, 2 side 80mm intake, 1 rear 80mm exhaust, dual blue cold cathode lights, 2 front usb 2 ports)
Asus A8n SLI Deluxe motherboard
Audigy 2 ZS THX soundcard
2 gig OCZ Platnum Rev 2 low latency 2-2-2-5 DDR 400 ram
Athlon 64 bit Clawhammer processor (FX 55) @2600
2 Geforce 6600GT PCI Express cards (per machine in sli mode)(soon to be 6800 Ultras)
2 Seagate Sata 2 160 gig hard drives
1 Maxtor Sata 2 250 gig hard drive 16mb Cache
Plextor 16x dvd burner with 4x double layer recording
Samsung 16x DVD ROM ripper
Pc Power and Cooling 510 Turbo deluxe SLI power supply
Gigabyte Rocket 3d Pro CPU fan heat sink
Arctic Silver 5

CPU idle 36C
load 46 C (6 Hours of grinding in EQ2)

Unbelievably SMOKIN and thats without any OC

 

[Shaga]

I don't know how this mobo will eat kingston 433DDR hyperx, but gonna try because compatibility-list(QVL) ain't update correctly. I'm using now Kingston 1gb value ram kit and there's compatibility for that ram, but not for this cl2.5 version and this works. So I think I'll be successful. And that's best ram around here in finland, what do you think about Kingston HyperX DDR433(PC3500) 1gig dual channel kit?

 

[Shaga]

And by the way, no problems for me either if I'm not overclocking. *noted for squank and for others*

 

[iscsidude]

Originally posted by: michaeldorian
Just wanted to let you guys know that base on GuitarDaddy's advice I lowered the times for my 3200XLPRO DDR to 2-3-2-5 from its stock 2-2-2-5 and it appears to run stable. Running the Sandra Burn in process and on pass 4 with no problems. The weird thing is I was able to pass Memtest86 with stock timing without errors. What type of performance hit would I be expecting by changing the ram time 2-3-2-5?

Thanks for the update. Glad to hear these stability problems are being resolved before I order one of these.

Just curious if you are still using the Powerstream 600 or the PCP&C 510 Power Supply?

 

[Dijital]

i probably could try another monitor, but the funny thing this is my newest monitor. maybe it could be because i'm using my the dvi-analog connector for my vid card? beats me.

its just damn weird that after i try to install the chipset drivers on the asus cd, that i reboot and this happens.

having lan trouble as well. neither of my lan ports work with my cable internet. i plugged in the netgear network card i was using in my previous system and it runs fine.

whoever would've thought this mobo would be so much trouble?

 

[dworley]

squonk - nice rigs!

Where did you find the Ultra's?

 

[squonk]

zipzoomfly asus retail w/webcams and evga retail

mwave asus oem

 

[bdoubledee]

PLEASE HELP!!!

I am a newbie trying to get my system up and running. I have a new A8N-Deluxe SLI, Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester, Zalman 7000CU, Gigabyte 6600 Video card and Anantec case w/420W PS. I put all the pieces together and powered up and the machine has power, but I see nothing on my monitor and I hear nothing but my fans. What do I do now? Is it a bad video card? Do I RMA the board? Please help!

 

[Dijital]

Originally posted by: bdoubledee
PLEASE HELP!!!

I am a newbie trying to get my system up and running. I have a new A8N-Deluxe SLI, Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester, Zalman 7000CU, Gigabyte 6600 Video card and Anantec case w/420W PS. I put all the pieces together and powered up and the machine has power, but I see nothing on my monitor and I hear nothing but my fans. What do I do now? Is it a bad video card? Do I RMA the board? Please help!

did you check the SLI adaptor on the motherboard to see if its placed right? just a check, but your video card is placed in the 1st SLI slot right?

 

[squonk]

quote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by: bdoubledee
PLEASE HELP!!!

I am a newbie trying to get my system up and running. I have a new A8N-Deluxe SLI, Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester, Zalman 7000CU, Gigabyte 6600 Video card and Anantec case w/420W PS. I put all the pieces together and powered up and the machine has power, but I see nothing on my monitor and I hear nothing but my fans. What do I do now? Is it a bad video card? Do I RMA the board? Please help!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also check the 12 volt is powered into the 4 pin plug directly on the MOBO

 

[JMag]

Originally posted by: squonk


Make sure ya build with one video card and the daughter card pointing to 1 video card

Actually that doesn't matter AT ALL. I can run one video card with the EZ-Selector in SLI mode no problem.
There is a minor performance hit, but it works. My guess for your reasoning behind this is because you didn't have the EZ-Selector seated properly. I know that it cause probs for me cause i didn't put it inall the way,once.

 

[bdoubledee]

Originally posted by: squonk
quote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by: bdoubledee
PLEASE HELP!!!

I am a newbie trying to get my system up and running. I have a new A8N-Deluxe SLI, Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester, Zalman 7000CU, Gigabyte 6600 Video card and Anantec case w/420W PS. I put all the pieces together and powered up and the machine has power, but I see nothing on my monitor and I hear nothing but my fans. What do I do now? Is it a bad video card? Do I RMA the board? Please help!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also check the 12 volt is powered into the 4 pin plug directly on the MOBO

What 4pin plug? The one at the top back when in the case (square)? What do I plug into it?

 

[squonk]

Plastic 4 pin plug right next to the first video card slot near back of the machine, plug in a 12 volt Male counterpart from the power supply, much like hooking up power supply 4 pin male to hard Drive.

The other 4 pin that you may be refering (top back next to printer port) defianatly neads a square 4 pin plug from the power supply. If the supply doesnt have one go get a new power supply and that should fix it.

 

[century child]

Originally posted by: Shaga
I don't know how this mobo will eat kingston 433DDR hyperx, but gonna try because compatibility-list(QVL) ain't update correctly. I'm using now Kingston 1gb value ram kit and there's compatibility for that ram, but not for this cl2.5 version and this works. So I think I'll be successful. And that's best ram around here in finland, what do you think about Kingston HyperX DDR433(PC3500) 1gig dual channel kit?

You mean you guys can't get Corsair over there? There is a thread around here somewhere with an unofficial list of supported RAM as reported by other users. I'm too lazy to look if yours is in there though. You may have already looked. Anyway, I wish you luck with the RAM and I hope it works out well for you. Be sure to post your results for prosperity

 

[JimKiler]

What 4pin plug? The one at the top back when in the case (square)? What do I plug into it?

see Tom's

 

[Shaga]

No Corsair over here available. I'll look for an unofficial list of supported rams. If any of you got url, share it with us. I'll start looking..

 

[Shaga]

Unofficial memory compatibility-list

Found it, I think it has been linked in this thread somewhere in the middle as well, but it's easier to just tell again if someone else is looking for it. Thanks Century Child.

 

[evilmrroboto]

I need some help with my A8N-SLI. After running the computer for about a wek I put the Enermax EG495P power supply in which I thought would be great but it wouldn't boot up. The chipset fan spun for about a half of a second then stopped. I tested the power supply in my older computer and the heatsink fan spun for the same half second. No post errors or anything after that, just nothing. So I RMAed that power supply hoping there was a problem with it and not anything of mine.

But now I am trying to get the computer running with my older Allied 400watt power supply that I had working for a week. I have read about people saying that the CMOS goes bad after you remove the power from the wall so I thought maybe thats my problem but I tried taking the batter out for an hour and it didn't help the computer boot. I removed every piece of hardware from the mobo and it gave the no CPU installed error over my speakers but after installing the CPU (Athlon 64 3500+) it didn't give any more errors. I thought it should be giving a memory error or something because I hadn't installed those yet. To me it just sounds like the mobo is dead or something, I dont really know because I don't have the parts to test everything like the CPU, and PCI-E video card. The ram does work in my other computer so I know its not that.

Does anyone have an ideas for me to try? The only other thing I can think of is to RMA the mobo back to Asus and try this all over again. When I get the parts back should I wait for the replaced Enermax power supply before I power on the system with the replacement mobo?

 

[bdoubledee]

Sqonk and Jim thanks! I will get a new PS tonight with a 4pin PS for the board.