Official DO's and DON'T for ASUS A8N-SLI (PREMIUM)

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
I have good news - I was able to overclock in a way superior to what I was trying to do. I can overclock to 225MHz 1:1 1T with both sticks of memory installed. I ran a few sets of Memtest86+ v. 1.65 and it passed with no errors! Here are the major settings I used:

Vcore = 1.5V (will try to lower if possible)
Vdimm = 2.85V
Vht = 1.25V
Vdd = 1.6V

2.5-3-3-8-1T

HTT = 220MHz
CPU Mult. = 11x
CPU : DRAM = 1:1

Initially I tried 250MHz but the system wouldn't POST. I'm very happy with this, it should keep me going until I get my 4400+.

I'd be happy with that too ! 220-225MHz on 200MHz rated RAM is pretty good.

:thumbsup:

 

[Megatomic]

Any ideas why the divider was causing me problems?

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
I have good news - I was able to overclock in a way superior to what I was trying to do. I can overclock to 225MHz 1:1 1T with both sticks of memory installed. I ran a few sets of Memtest86+ v. 1.65 and it passed with no errors! Here are the major settings I used:

Vcore = 1.5V (will try to lower if possible)
Vdimm = 2.85V
Vht = 1.25V
Vdd = 1.6V

2.5-3-3-8-1T

HTT = 220MHz
CPU Mult. = 11x
CPU : DRAM = 1:1

Initially I tried 250MHz but the system wouldn't POST. I'm very happy with this, it should keep me going until I get my 4400+.

Very nice. When I oc'd my 4400+ 250x10 with that board, I did:

Vcore = 1.4v
Vdimm = 2.65
Vht - 1.2v
Vdd = 1.5v

You shouldn't have to use such high voltages on the vcore, vht and vdd to get those results. Your memory, I'm unfamiliar with it.

 

[humanure]

 

[sothur]

Hello there! I' m planning to build a system next week with this mobo, but just noticed in this forum, that it's PCI 2.3 compliant! I've got a Creative Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro, which is (according to Creative) PCI 2.1 and also have an ancient TV-tuner, namely the miro PCTV, most probably PCI 2.1 as well. (I've purchased a Pinnacle Studio PCTV Pro a few years ago, but the picture of the VHF channels mysteriously went bad after 2 years, however the miro from '98 is still functioning, no comment.) I *need* these cards, so what do you say, should I try this mobo or not? Thanks for any help!

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: sothur
Hello there! I' m planning to build a system next week with this mobo, but just noticed in this forum, that it's PCI 2.3 compliant! I've got a Creative Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro, which is (according to Creative) PCI 2.1 and also have an ancient TV-tuner, namely the miro PCTV, most probably PCI 2.1 as well. (I've purchased a Pinnacle Studio PCTV Pro a few years ago, but the picture of the VHF channels mysteriously went bad after 2 years, however the miro from '98 is still functioning, no comment.) I *need* these cards, so what do you say, should I try this mobo or not? Thanks for any help!

I had trouble getting an old (~10yr) SBLive! card to work. I was getting close, but my wife came home with a new SBLive! 24 bit card, so I plugged that in an quit messing with it.

I may be mistaken, but I believe the SBLive! 24 bit is also a PCI 2.1, and it works fine. Actually, isn't the Audigy series even newer than the SBLive! 24 bit ? If so, I would expect that you shouldn't have any problems.

 

[Megatomic]

sothur, PCI 2.3 is backwards compatible, you will be able to use those card, 99.9% guaranteed.

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
Very nice. When I oc'd my 4400+ 250x10 with that board, I did:

Vcore = 1.4v
Vdimm = 2.65
Vht - 1.2v
Vdd = 1.5v

You shouldn't have to use such high voltages on the vcore, vht and vdd to get those results. Your memory, I'm unfamiliar with it.

Well, I plan to try to walk down voltages as far as possible - I like a cool and quiet system. As a matter of fact, I just turned off Prime95 where it ran for 12 hours with Vcore at 1.45V. I'll try lowering the Vht and Vdd next.

*crosses fingers*

 

[sothur]

Originally posted by: wanderer27
I may be mistaken, but I believe the SBLive! 24 bit is also a PCI 2.1, and it works fine. Actually, isn't the Audigy series even newer than the SBLive! 24 bit ? If so, I would expect that you shouldn't have any problems.

Thanks for the reply! Yes, the SBLive! 24 bit is older, than the Audigy series and it seems, that many people are using this motherboard with an Audigy soundcard, but it's still not clear whether they're just plain lucky or the soundcard really doesn't have any issues. However I'm almost 100% sure the miro PCTV should go... well, I can live with that maybe.

I've got another question: which CPU cooler is suitable for this mobo? I've heard that the Freezer 64 family and similar designs are not healthy for the heatpipe system and they can conflict with the RAM module in the first slot. What about the Big Typhoon?

 

[sothur]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
sothur, PCI 2.3 is backwards compatible, you will be able to use those card, 99.9% guaranteed.

Really? Some folks wrote PCI 2.3 gives only 3.3V, while older cards do need 5V, thus frying the motherboard.

 

[Megatomic]

I don't know much about either of those coolers, but the Thermaltake SilentBoost K8 and it's sibling the Venus 12+ are both nice coolers and they are positioned such that their exhaust blows over the chipset cooler. I'm using the SilentBoost K8 on my overclocked system and my cpu temp. is 39C and the mobo temp. is 36C. It's a pretty solid cooling setup.

 

[Megatomic]

I've never heard of of PCI slots frying cards. Can you give us a link?

 

[sothur]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
I've never heard of of PCI slots frying cards. Can you give us a link?

http://www.dvbviewer.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=7761&st=0

I've found this link in this topic!

 

[Megatomic]

I don't know anything about those cards. But the user reviews at NewEgg and the ones done by sites like AnandTech etc. have never mentioned such a thing as far as I've read. I don't know what to say about what I read at the link you provided...

 

[daniel1113]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
If you have that many SATA drives, you can either update the bios of the SI Controller as I mentioned before, get a pci SATA card or get adapter to run them thru the IDE controllers. And yes, I've used other boards where there was a non-raid SI Controller.

...or run the disks through the SI controller as individual JBOD "arrays". I am running two SATA disks this way without any problems.

 

[Megatomic]

Another update - I've been doing a blended Prime95 run for over an hour now with Vcore = 1.40V. Now the only voltage I have above stock is Vdimm which is at 2.85V.

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Another update - I've been doing a blended Prime95 run for over an hour now with Vcore = 1.40V. Now the only voltage I have above stock is Vdimm which is at 2.85V.

Yeah, once this MB is set up I've found it to be extremely stable.

I'm running sub-spec voltages on all my stuff too (don't ask what they - been too long) and I haven't issue one

 

[Fallen3dict]

I've recently set up my new system. I've picked up some Corsair XMS TwinX2048-3200C2 Ram. I'm new to the system 'tweaking' world and was wondering if anyone could suggest anything i could do to maximize my system performance. I currently have everything set up on my board as Auto. I was reading up on the ram is it runs at 2-3-3-6 @ 2.75V, is it recommended to change the setting on my board to these numbers ?

 

[AristoCompasso]

hey

Listen I was just wondering if anybody ever got in the same situation:

I want to upgrade the memory, thinking about installing these sticks MUSHKIN 2GB HP3200 2-3-2 running dual channel. This particular brand does not appear in the manual list. ok, so if it's possible I'd like to put 4 sticks of 1GB each running in pairs. With some memories the board only lets you install up to 2GB in dual channel (like with the corsair), does anybody know if I can do this at all? Is anybody here running 4GB in dual channel mode, whatever your brand may be?

Thanks in advance.

Stay cool.

 

[smut]

Originally posted by: Fallen3dict
I've recently set up my new system. I've picked up some Corsair XMS TwinX2048-3200C2 Ram. I'm new to the system 'tweaking' world and was wondering if anyone could suggest anything i could do to maximize my system performance. I currently have everything set up on my board as Auto. I was reading up on the ram is it runs at 2-3-3-6 @ 2.75V, is it recommended to change the setting on my board to these numbers ?

hey bro, welcome to the boards. Yes, change it to auto and input the specs yourself. The auto setting has been known to not be the best thing. Sometimes it doesnt set the right settings or it sets them to low/high.

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

Runs stable at 304*8.5 (2600MHz, 3x HTT) @ 1.4V DDR266 divider. Occasionally hangs while posting though (11 hours prime stable once it's into Windows, so not a CPU issue).

Got tired of manually (read: push reset button on case) rebooting it 2 or 3 times for it to successfully finish POSTing, so I set it back to 245x9 (2200MHz, 4xHTT) @ 1.35V DDR333 Divider. No problems booting.

BIOS 1011.001 ... Ideas?

Rig

 

[Megatomic]

JustAnAverageGuy, at least you can use your dividers. I'm not even able to do that. Let me ask you about the BIOS version you have: is that an official release, an ASUS released beta, or a custom user-modded BIOS? What did it fix for you that the latest official BIOS didn't?

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
JustAnAverageGuy, at least you can use your dividers. I'm not even able to do that. Let me ask you about the BIOS version you have: is that an official release, an ASUS released beta, or a custom user-modded BIOS? What did it fix for you that the latest official BIOS didn't?

Bios 1011.001 is the latest official beta BIOS from Asus. It resolved a problem I had earliar in the thread (see: several weeks ago) where my nvidia ethernet NIC wouldn't work properly with any HTT over 260 or so.

 

[smut]

I have mine running at 2528mhz with htt at 280, memory (tccd) at 280 as well. Dont even have to use the divider woot. Its running awesome right now. CPU multi is at 9 btw. I just stopped at 280 earlier so it probably will go even higher. I am not sure how much this RAM is going to go further though. its at 280 right now at 2.5-4-4-8 1T. pretty damn sweet to me though. This g.skill tccd rocks though

 

[Megatomic]

Ok, I rebuilt my system again. Here are the updated specs:

Mobo: ASUS A8N-SLI Premium BIOS = 1009 Official
CPU: AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+
HSF: ThermalTake SilentBoost K8
Memory: 2x1GB Corsair XMS PC3200 C2PT in DIMM slots A1/B1
Case: Antec SLK3700BQE
PSU: Antec True380 II
Hard drive: WD Caviar 160GB SATA 3Gbs on SATA1
NAS: Netgear Storage Center SC101 w/ 160GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 ATA133
Optical drives: TDK CD-R/W and Lite-On DVD-R/W on IDE2
Video card: EVGA GeForce 6800GT in the top PCI-e slot
Sound card: SB Audigy 2ZS in bottom PCI slot
Keyboard/mouse: Logitech MX3000 Laser
Monitor: Samsung 930B on DVI
Speakers: Logitech X-230

No overclocking so far, I feel no need at this point. I can't believe how much faster windows and any application opens. And watching Step Into Liquid in HD 1080p never sees CPU usage exceed 40%. :heart: This is the system I've been waiting a long time for.