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

[squonk]

Originally posted by: mikl
Need some advice.
I've ordered ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe and wonder which memmory I should buy. I'm thinking about Corsair CMX512-3200XL XMS3200 4x512Mb. Is this a good option? Or can anyone recommend any other good memmory?
Any thoughts on buying Zalman CNSP7700-CU or Thermalright XP-120?
I?ve hade a Zalman 7000-cu for my old system but I?ve heard that the XP-120 is a bit quieter.

OCZ Platnum Rev 2 if ya got the cash. Great stuff

 

[SPtheALIEN]

Has anyone been able to get the NVMixer to work with the ASUS board? I like the interface better than the Realtek solution. Everytime I try to run it, however, I do not get any sound (no sound through the digital port). Is there a trick that anyone has done?

Thanks.

Spencer

 

[JayN1]

actually tongiht I just tried an ATI TV Wonder Elite to replace the Evga tuner and I'm still getting the same crash problem. These are completely different drivesr.. i"m convinced now that it's the asus motherboard that's the problem.

I've submitted an RMA request to Zipzoomfly.com to try to replace this with a Gigabyte board..i'm through playing with this piece of junk

I think with new hardware there will always be problems. If you go to the Gigabyte forums Im sure youll find that there are people with as many problems with their new board as with the Asus Sli. Of course its supposed to work, but I dont think Asus is a particularly bad board-maker or that this board for that matter is faulty in general. There are many people out there whos satisfied with their Asus Sli Deluxe.

Good luck with your new board tho

 

[tmchow]

Originally posted by: JayN1

I think with new hardware there will always be problems. If you go to the Gigabyte forums Im sure youll find that there are people with as many problems with their new board as with the Asus Sli. Of course its supposed to work, but I dont think Asus is a particularly bad board-maker or that this board for that matter is faulty in general. There are many people out there whos satisfied with their Asus Sli Deluxe.

Good luck with your new board tho

While I agree that new products have problems, the sheer number and type of problems that people are reporting (including myself) is far too many. the bios and motherboard just aren't polished enough.

 

[mikl]

Will the OCZ Platinum Rev 2 and Corsair CMX512-3200XL work in dual mode with all 4 dimm sockets filled?

Or should I get 2 x 1024mb? Any recommendations here on memory that size?

 

[Thorsson]

Originally posted by: mikl
Any thoughts on buying Zalman CNSP7700-CU or Thermalright XP-120?
I?ve hade a Zalman 7000-cu for my old system but I?ve heard that the XP-120 is a bit quieter.

I have the Zalman and it is very quiet. For the XP-120 how quiet depends on the fan you buy. I chose the Zalman because it's cheaper, looks better, and is an all-in-one solution. You can get either slightly quieter or slightly cooler with the XP-120.

 

[AnimalAsteroid]

Thought I would put my 2 cents in here. I am a happy user of an A8N-SLI Deluxe v1.02. I had some problems with my system initially, but any problems I had were from mistakes I made. Some mistakes were obvious and some much more subtle. My system is rock solid and OC'd to the max. I use if 25% for gaming and the remaining 75% for work.

What I am going to say does not apply to everyone here. I am sure there are some legimitate RMA's on this board. produce enough of anything and there are bound to be a couple defective units. I helped several friends from work with their AN8's, seems that out of the 6 systems I helped with, all 6 had problems that were created by the person assembling their system. Everyone thought they had defective boards and wanted to RMA it.

I think that the A8N-SLI is definately not a beginners board. I read a lot of posts on this board and other boards that begin by saying something like this "This is the first system I'm building.....".

Granted building computers are pretty much "Plug-n-Play", but the A8N requires a bit more knowledge than other boards. This isn't solving any of the problems people are experiencing here, but maybe it will make those with problems look a litle closer at their build before they start blaming the MB.

Another problem I see with a lot of the problem systems is trying to pinch pennies. Probably none of us here are rich, if we were we most likely would buy a pre-built system and have access to costly support people. People here go out and buy the most high-tech board out there today, pay a premium price for it, then go with a cheap PS or cheap RAM or some other inexpensive component. This is really asking for problems, then they blame the MB.

I have even read posts where people are trying to diagnose what they presume are power problems and don't have a DVM or they call it a "power measurer thingy". I am sure that if they don't know what a DVM is they most likely don't have any idea how to use it. Then they say their PS is fine - DUHHH.

I follow some peoples trouble shooting methodology, it's obvious they have no idea how to trouble shoot. They kinda stumble around until they might luckily cure their problem.

Again, I'm not knocking anyone for trying, I just think it is irresponsible to immediately blame the MB. I would be willing to bet that 90% of the problems you read about are operator error. I'm just glad I don't own a MB company.

The A8N-SLI is not a beginners board

 

[tmchow]

.

 

[iscsidude]

Anybody tried out the new 1007.002 BIOS from the German FTP Site?

I'm thinking the 1006sd.zip is basically 1005-005 in final form. Not sure though.

ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/S...IA_Chipset/nForce4_SLI/A8N-SLI_Deluxe/

 

[squonk]

Originally posted by: mikl
Will the OCZ Platinum Rev 2 and Corsair CMX512-3200XL work in dual mode with all 4 dimm sockets filled?

Or should I get 2 x 1024mb? Any recommendations here on memory that size?

YES

 

[textman]

I am having issues with my lan connection. I have disabled the marvel and am using the NV lan. My connectionn will disconnect and then say it is reconnected, but I can not access the internet or email functions. Would this be a problem with the lan or my router?

I have USR dsl modem and router.

When I reactivate the marvel it will do the same thing, but give me a warning about reconnect, but with limited connectivity.

I have to reboot pc in order to get my connection back...

Any help for this newbie?????

 

[steamnputer]

Originally posted by: AnimalAsteroid
Thought I would put my 2 cents in here. I am a happy user of an A8N-SLI Deluxe v1.02. I had some problems with my system initially, but any problems I had were from mistakes I made. Some mistakes were obvious and some much more subtle. My system is rock solid and OC'd to the max. I use if 25% for gaming and the remaining 75% for work.

What I am going to say does not apply to everyone here. I am sure there are some legimitate RMA's on this board. produce enough of anything and there are bound to be a couple defective units. I helped several friends from work with their AN8's, seems that out of the 6 systems I helped with, all 6 had problems that were created by the person assembling their system. Everyone thought they had defective boards and wanted to RMA it.

I think that the A8N-SLI is definately not a beginners board. I read a lot of posts on this board and other boards that begin by saying something like this "This is the first system I'm building.....".

Granted building computers are pretty much "Plug-n-Play", but the A8N requires a bit more knowledge than other boards. This isn't solving any of the problems people are experiencing here, but maybe it will make those with problems look a litle closer at their build before they start blaming the MB.

Another problem I see with a lot of the problem systems is trying to pinch pennies. Probably none of us here are rich, if we were we most likely would buy a pre-built system and have access to costly support people. People here go out and buy the most high-tech board out there today, pay a premium price for it, then go with a cheap PS or cheap RAM or some other inexpensive component. This is really asking for problems, then they blame the MB.

I have even read posts where people are trying to diagnose what they presume are power problems and don't have a DVM or they call it a "power measurer thingy". I am sure that if they don't know what a DVM is they most likely don't have any idea how to use it. Then they say their PS is fine - DUHHH.

I follow some peoples trouble shooting methodology, it's obvious they have no idea how to trouble shoot. They kinda stumble around until they might luckily cure their problem.

Again, I'm not knocking anyone for trying, I just think it is irresponsible to immediately blame the MB. I would be willing to bet that 90% of the problems you read about are operator error. I'm just glad I don't own a MB company.

The A8N-SLI is not a beginners board

Hi I am Steamnputer and I am a SLI addict,

Here is my two cents, i am a very happy user of the a8n-sli-dlx and this was my very first complete ground up(couple barebones non-OC able amds before that) build and it was a daunting task in several ways, the MOBO was actual one of the easier things to cope with. But with the help of this forum I was able to understand what I was in for long before FEDEX dropped off that big brown box with most of tax refund inclosed. Building anything is not easy and trying to advance into unkown waters is harder then following these trail blazers with a known design, so no not everyone will be lucky to have an easy build on there system. I have through this forum and others like it found that have been some physical defects in the a8n but nothing to right home about, the chipset fan being the worst that I can think of off the top of my head.
-- A true story on this build was that after spending many hours of assembling(the thermaltake daimer v5000 has a large amount of wiring for the cooling system), reading the manuals, and reading this forum(finding out that after I order all my parts I needed to have 3.5 floppy to make the RAID work) I plugged in my wall outlet for the UPS and pushed the go button to see nothing happen. In the end I had move about 30 wires(no joke) to find my power on switch was on the wrong terminal(oh no) after moving it over(45 minutes later) one spot I cranked her up and went to BIOS to find out I could not manipulate the menus in it. The least researched thing I bought was the keyboard, a logisys blue backlighted keyboard, after all a keyboard is a keyboard right? So after throughly screwing up the BIOS becuase several of my keys were not responding I went got an old keyboard and solved the problem. Later I researched the feedback on that keyboard to find out that it was a common problem and the company offered very little support. So now I have 25 dollar blue hutch light for my computer desk(RMA would have been 15 dollars). I figured most all of this out in a matter of hours with little outside help, but what i did do is not install everything I could right off the bat so I built the system up slowly with drivers and OS turning off all the bells and whistles untill I knew I could get the system up and running stable.

For those of you who don't know btw a DVM or more corectlly a DVOM is a digtial volt ohm meter, which becuase I was reading this forum and the manual found out what the power supply requirements were long before I even placed the order never needed to bust out. I read in the forums somewhere that you should not buy a porsche engine, racing transmission, and put it into a 81 fairmount held together with ducttape and bailing wire and 10 watt stero and expect it to work well. It is about as productive as putting racing gas in a lawnmower you have to think global if you really want a preformance machine. Maybe the point I am trying to make is slow down and read the manual(I know its hard to follow sometimes but most of the info you need is in it to get the system running) and put it together in pieces so if you have problem you can track it down by elmination. Trying to backwards engineer or trouble shoot is very hard and I do it for a living so it helps to start small and think big as the end product building slowly and trying things out to make sure they work as you go.

BTW also the thermaltake daimer tower is by no means a beginers case, but for those of you who may think otherwise it is very quiet, when running(my old athlon is a loud with 2 fans compared to this one). For those of you that have one and are running SLI I added the OEM heat sink fan with a twist tie to the blue swing out door to get better fresh air intake by the vga cards/chipset area and used my free channel on the hardcanno controler.

 

[lotus503]

Originally posted by: AnimalAsteroid
Thought I would put my 2 cents in here. I am a happy user of an A8N-SLI Deluxe v1.02. I had some problems with my system initially, but any problems I had were from mistakes I made. Some mistakes were obvious and some much more subtle. My system is rock solid and OC'd to the max. I use if 25% for gaming and the remaining 75% for work.

What I am going to say does not apply to everyone here. I am sure there are some legimitate RMA's on this board. produce enough of anything and there are bound to be a couple defective units. I helped several friends from work with their AN8's, seems that out of the 6 systems I helped with, all 6 had problems that were created by the person assembling their system. Everyone thought they had defective boards and wanted to RMA it.

I think that the A8N-SLI is definately not a beginners board. I read a lot of posts on this board and other boards that begin by saying something like this "This is the first system I'm building.....".

Granted building computers are pretty much "Plug-n-Play", but the A8N requires a bit more knowledge than other boards. This isn't solving any of the problems people are experiencing here, but maybe it will make those with problems look a litle closer at their build before they start blaming the MB.

Another problem I see with a lot of the problem systems is trying to pinch pennies. Probably none of us here are rich, if we were we most likely would buy a pre-built system and have access to costly support people. People here go out and buy the most high-tech board out there today, pay a premium price for it, then go with a cheap PS or cheap RAM or some other inexpensive component. This is really asking for problems, then they blame the MB.

I have even read posts where people are trying to diagnose what they presume are power problems and don't have a DVM or they call it a "power measurer thingy". I am sure that if they don't know what a DVM is they most likely don't have any idea how to use it. Then they say their PS is fine - DUHHH.

I follow some peoples trouble shooting methodology, it's obvious they have no idea how to trouble shoot. They kinda stumble around until they might luckily cure their problem.

Again, I'm not knocking anyone for trying, I just think it is irresponsible to immediately blame the MB. I would be willing to bet that 90% of the problems you read about are operator error. I'm just glad I don't own a MB company.

The A8N-SLI is not a beginners board

While I agree with you on some points, i'd say 90% is a bit high maybe more around 50/50. I have built more systems than I can count. While getting this monster setup stock was a daunting task due to the fact My Maxtor HD has firmaware problems with the board.

I am fairly happy with it. Saying its not a beginners board is obvious no brand new technology is for beginers unless they have some serious patience.

I am rock solid with a 20% overclock. I do think this board was rushed to market a bit to fast. it shipped with a crappy bios, and it DOES have hardware/firmware compatability issues.

I suggest anyone looking inot this board first read this entire thread, believe it or not it will save you time in the long run

 

[mlc]

regarding the last few "my 2 cents" posts ....

I couldn't agree with you guys more on the majority of these issues being more along the lines of user related issues.... Thinking about the most common issues associated with this board .. and in no particular order...

1) PSU Issues.. folks choosing to use "case supplied" PSUs that simply can't deliver what is required on the 12v rail(s) or others... or using a PSU because it was "awesome" in their older non-SLI rig.. SLI is the biggest offender here, but you now use more and more drives, USB devices, etc.. all of which have raised the demand on the psu.. Asus has outlined in its manual some general rules of thumb regarding what you'll need depending on the SLI config, # of drives, etc.. but most people just zip over it and wonder why they have issues posting, or with recycling, etc..

2) inability to overclock beyond 245-250fsb using 1T.... we all hate this limitation.. and hopefully it wil be addresses with a bios fix in the upcoming weeks as others have noted.. But the bottom line is that this is an overclocking issue.. and there are no guarantees when overclocking ... anything beyond 20-25% is pushing the envelope... but technically the board is working as advertised..

3) SLI Issues... these tend to be more graphics driver related with .... Once again, this is bleeding edge stuff.. with little widespread usage to date.. so as more folks start exploting, I'm sure you'll see more driver fixes upcoming...

4) corrupted data w/NCQ ... I believe these also proved to be an nforce4 driver issue as well, rather than one with the board.. and they were addressed with the 6.39 drivers...

5) problem with dissappearing drives? seems to be related to the drive manufacturers firmware... (or am I confusing this with another issue?).. In anycase.. firmware is the drive manufacturers issue.. not the mobo...

6) chipset fan... ? I've seen a small handful of posts on failures with this fan.. but I am not sure how frequent this is occurring.... It would seem ASUS may have done better to go with a passive heatsink type design.. time will tell..

7) Inability to post... this is a biggie with many folks.. This is one of those that I gather is in many cases user related.. though I don't doubt that a fair number of failures are also mobo related... I suspect most of the user problems relate to incorrect memory choices, inadequate PSU's, incorrect bios config choices, or just plain installation/assembly erroes, etc...

.. there are others.. but these are the ones I've reeled off the top of my head.. Bottom line, as others have stated is that you need to do your homework.. The PSU and memory choices are very important with this board.. with SLI comes a whole new set of requirements on your psu, and ASUS boards (particularly the nforce chipsets) have always been finicky when it comes to memory sticks (dual channel doesnt help!) not to mention their issues in the past to delivery sufficient voltages to all parts of the board for overclocking (which have caused the OCers much frustration) Bios fixes often correct or improve these issues... but we've also seen the need for new board revisions as well, indicating design issues..

.... look at it this way .... if it was easy.. it wouldn't be much fun or or as rewarding!!

 

[Shaga]

mlc: agreed.

 

[rockstar]

I actually did read this entire thread before buying my A8N-SLI. I expected some issues, but my experience has been great. I avoided some problems by reading ahead. I think many people jump on the "grass is always greener" bandwagon when it comes to DFI. I can't blame them too much after another stellar AT review. But! ASUS has a solid reputation to uphold and I believe the bios will be enhanced and fixed. I also understand that overclocking is not a guaranteed/supported feature. I came from a DFI Lan Party UT250GB. I was frustrated with their bios support. Every bios released for that board was beta. The latest official bios for that board is from 8/27/03, the initial release (still)! Its not a perfect bios either. Luckily, there were tons of helpful DFI users and there were some beta bioses that actually worked ok. Anyway, I don't mean to bash DFI, but I choose not to buy their products anymore. I think ASUS will deliver. They have already released several updated bioses since I purchased. So sit tight people! (and let us know as soon as you find a bios that will get over the 1T barrier!)
Thanks for reading

 

[obald1]

Question regarding the A8N-SLI Dlx Mobo and a TT Venus HSF:

I have 2 issues I need some help on:
(1) I am trying to get the AMD Cool n Quiet to work. The TT Venus HSF has 3 connectors (a) 3 pin for the CPU Fan cnctr on the mobo, (b) 2 pin for an external speed (RPM) control knob, and (c) 2 pin for an external temp probe. I connected the 3-pin from the TT to the 3-pin connector on the mobo labeled "CPU Fan", but the connector coming from the TT only has 1 wire (i.e. 2 out of the 3 pins on the TT connector are not used). So - my question is - do I need to use all 3 pins from the CPU Fan mobo connector? i.e. I would need to use the 2 wires from the manual speed controller and insert them into the 3 pin connector - or, can the mobo control via 1 wire?

(2) My CPU (AMD 64 FX-55) runs around 40' C at 5000 RPM on the Venus TT. Sounds like a jet taking off. I have had people recommend the Zalman and the Thermalright as a replacement - can you get away with not using a fan with the XP-90? I have applied plenty of thermal compound to no avail...

Thanks - sorry for being long winded.?.

 

[ThomasE66]

Applying 'plenty of thermal compound' might just be your problem. You want as thin a layer as possible. More than that and it makes a good heat insulator.

 

[tmchow]

Looks like ZipZoomFly isn't going to be able to take this motherboard back, but they are willing to send me a replacement for me to try.. I guess I'd go that route and try this again with a replacement board.

I'm only getting crashing (blue screen with "MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION" stop message) when i return from Suspend -- unlike others who seem to be getting blue screens (or other crashes) at random times (not just suspend).

Since this only occurs when TV tuner cards in present, would this be at all a RAM problem? When the TV tuner cards aren't in the machine, the machine works flawlessly and is able to return from suspend without trouble. As soon as the TV tuners are in the machine, it crashes.

I have been able to repro this with 2 different Evga Tuner cards and a set of ATI TV Wonder Elites -- so It's not a specific driver problem.

Btw -- I upgraded the bios from 1002-->1003-->1004 and finally to 1005-003 (Beta). All have the same problem.

Can this be RAM related? I"m skeptical since this only occurs when there are tuner cards installed. I've even tried moving the tuner cards to different slots with no change in behavior.


UPDATE: I just got off the phone with the Asus Tier 2 tech support and they didn't really have anything meaningful to tell me other than that it's "probably driver related". The tech also suggested that my PSU must be 28A to support PCI-express graphics card (I'm only using a single PCIe card, not SLI). I'm using a seasonic super tornado 400W, which is rated for 28A @ 3.3V, 30A @ 5.0V and 22A @ 12V. Is this amperage insufficient? Based on my configuration and accoridng to my read of the manual, 400W with 22A @ 12V should be plenty.

 

[obald1]

Originally posted by: ThomasE66
Applying 'plenty of thermal compound' might just be your problem. You want as thin a layer as possible. More than that and it makes a good heat insulator.

Not sure - I started out with a drop, then added a little more, then wiped away and started over - almost no difference in temp.?.

 

[iscsidude]

Originally posted by: tmchow

I have been able to repro this with 2 different Evga Tuner cards and a set of ATI TV Wonder Elites -- so It's not a specific driver problem.

Have you considered the Plextor PX-TV402U?
It's external and is DivX certified.
Most important, it is USB 2.0 (with it's own power cord) and therefore works flawlessly with my A8N-SLI.

Recording "The Rock" as we type with SageTV.

 

[iscsidude]

Originally posted by: obald1
Question regarding the A8N-SLI Dlx Mobo and a TT Venus HSF:

(2) My CPU (AMD 64 FX-55) runs around 40' C at 5000 RPM on the Venus TT. Sounds like a jet taking off. I have had people recommend the Zalman and the Thermalright as a replacement - can you get away with not using a fan with the XP-90? I have applied plenty of thermal compound to no avail..

Regarding Q2, I don't think I'd consider using the FX-55 with the XP-90 and no fan. Google the CNPS7700-Cu and XP-120. You'll see plenty of reviews on both. I went with the Zalman and it runs at around 1900 RPM with the CPU temp at around 30-40 depending on whether or not I'm Dooming. I can't hear it over my case fans which I control with a Nexus controller. My heatsink fan is also inaudible. Unlike others, I've had no issues with the 8kRPM fan. I unplugged it and my sound level did not go down at all. Roughly 55Db 12 inches from the case.

The XP-120 also gets rave reviews, so I'm sure it would do the job. As long as you buy a fan.

 

[mlc]

Question regarding the A8N-SLI Dlx Mobo and a TT Venus HSF:

regarding your first question:
I'm not familiar with that particular fan... but I do have another older TT model on a machine I built a few years back.. so I think you have a few options on the connections...
1) option 1 would be to connect the 3pin connector directly to the CPU FAN header as it sounds like you did.. This allows the fan to run full blast @ 5000 rpms, etc. Using this scenario, you'd want to probably enable QFAN via the bios to allow the mobo/QFAN to control your rpms based on the boards CPU temp readings.
2) Option 2 .. you can connect a controller to manually select your speed.. fairly straightforward , but requires manual intervention
3) option 3.. you can connect the provide cpu temp probe.. and let the fan monitor/control its rpms based on temp readings.. This option probably makes use of the 3pin (1wire) connector you referred to , with the 1 wire doing nothing more than sending the rpm reading to your board via the cpu fan header... for monitoring by ASUS probe or whatever else you use...

There is probably another variation to option 1 that comes with some sort of 4pin molex to 3pin adapter to allow you to use the molex connectors off your PSU rather than have to use the header on the board. Some prefer not using the mobo headers to power the fan.. as it takes some load off the board... especially if using higher rpm fans such as this one ...

In any case... I would check their website for clarification on the connections as my memory is vague on this... You can certainly buy another heatsink/fan option.. but I would hold off until you have this one working probably so you can better judge the noise .. and cooling capabilities at lower rpms... I would try option 1 first, and enable QFAN and see how that suits you

 

[cavallino]

hi guys...no one in here got a a8n-sli with two 6800gto in sli ?
let me know...thanks.

 

[cronic]

Originally posted by: cavallino
hi guys...no one in here got a a8n-sli with two 6800gto in sli ?
let me know...thanks.

I would search the threads. I remember seeing a thread on the gto several months back. As I understand it the dell gto is a stock 6800, or a detuned 6800gt can't remember exactly. Or run a search on goggle. Sorry I'm not more help, as I only have 1 6800 ultra