The *Official* Asus A7N8X (Deluxe) Thread

[Shockwave]

Originally posted by: JSSheridan
New All in One drivers have been posted for the A7N8X Deluxe. This is version 2.82 for WinNT and 1.16 for all other OS's, and is just over 15MB. If you try them out, let us know how they work. Thanks. Peace.

**Edit**

Actually, I AM using the 1.16's with no problems yet. I did have 1 isolated incedint with sound, where in CS I suddenly had ALOT of static. Closed and restarted CS and havent ha d aproblem since, so cant point fingers anywhere yet.

 

[magomago]

As for the real temp, that might really be the real temp. Most mobo manufactorers (I read this somwhere on AT) won't report the real temps because people will go on a RMA spree like what happened with Epox who reported the real temperature. And that is why on the new epoxs the temp moniter isn't in the cpu core, but by it (which is a lot cheaper)







I gotta question btw. I want to stick a old 233mhz heatsink/fan on the mcp-t but how do i attack it since there is nothing there to make sure it sticks?

 

[tharef]

The following is copied from a previous unanswered post of mine:

Ok, I recently purchaced and installed the following upgrades to my ccomputer: 512MB Corsair XMS PC3200, Athlon XP 2400, and the A7N8X Deluxe. My problem is that even though my two 30GB IBM ATA100 HDs are noticed by the BIOS and by Windows XP, I am unable to enter the RAID configuration software at startup. I get a message like "DEVICE NOT FOUND" and Windows just starts up.

Basically I want to set up a RAID 0 array and reformat the drives.

My setup right now is as follows:

Primary Master: IBM drive 1
Primary Slave: Lite-on 52x24x52x
Secondary Master: IBM drive 2
Secondary Slave: Pioneer DVD drive

What gives? How can I get this controller to see my drives and load its setup software?

PS: My old mobo, Abit KT7-RAID, had 2 RAID and 2 regular IDE channels so I didnt have to put my optical drives as slaves, why the heck would Asus put only 2 channels on the mobo?

TIA
Confused,
Rob

 

[magomago]

Are you using a controller card or IDE2SATA cables?

Also try just the two Hds intially and see if it works. From there add the parts one by one. And maybe even swapping positions might make a difference.

Beyond that I'd be clueless. Any smart anandtecher wanna pick this up?

 

[Shockwave]

I read on one motherboard you had to have a drive on the SATA controller to set up RAID. Cant remember for sure if it was the Asus board or not though.

I *think* it was for the Asus A&N8X board though. You might try running a HD on the SATA and one on the PATA controllers and see if that does it.

 

[KidChaos]

Originally posted by: Shockwave
I read on one motherboard you had to have a drive on the SATA controller to set up RAID. Cant remember for sure if it was the Asus board or not though.

That would be the Chaintech 7NJS ZENITH motherboard.

You might try running a HD on the SATA and one on the PATA controllers and see if that does it.

For IDE RAID on a Asus A7N8X Deluxe, you would need two SATA-IDE converters. In that case, it would be better to get the Abit NF7-S, as it already includes one SATA-IDE converter.

 

[Shockwave]

Then it must be both the Chaintech and Asus.

Heres from amdmb.com

"Where the Asus A7N8X motherboard really shines, however, is in its Deluxe model version of the board. Here is where you get all of the added features that make the motherboard worth having: Firewire, Serial ATA, 6-channel audio with Dolby Digital, dual NIC and more. The motherboard is a quality piece of hardware that most users would be proud and happy to have. The standard version of the board drops a lot of these features, which is a shame, but more suitable for those looking for inexpensive solutions (which Asus is NOT known to cater to) or for those with the extras available in PCI cards already. I would have liked to have seen some IDE RAID available, but Serial ATA RAID is available to compensate."

Full review of the board here

 

[tharef]

Please forgive my ignorance but what is SATA and PATA?

My previous motherboard had a RAID controller built in, all I had to do was plug the drives in and set up the configuration. I assumed this board had RAID too?

Rob

 

[Shockwave]

PATA = Parallel ATA, what you normally see on the board
SATA = Serial ATA, the new thing.

You can still set it up, but you need to run at least 1 drive on the SATA controller. Think of the SATA controller exactly like all the other IDE controllers, its just shaped differently. Thus, you need to buy an adapter to use your current hard drives on them.
Newegg has them for around 30 bucks, Here is a pic of one.

 

[KidChaos]

Originally posted by: Shockwave
Then it must be both the Chaintech and Asus.

Heres from amdmb.com

"Where the Asus A7N8X motherboard really shines, however, is in its Deluxe model version of the board. Here is where you get all of the added features that make the motherboard worth having: Firewire, Serial ATA, 6-channel audio with Dolby Digital, dual NIC and more. The motherboard is a quality piece of hardware that most users would be proud and happy to have. The standard version of the board drops a lot of these features, which is a shame, but more suitable for those looking for inexpensive solutions (which Asus is NOT known to cater to) or for those with the extras available in PCI cards already. I would have liked to have seen some IDE RAID available, but Serial ATA RAID is available to compensate."

Full review of the board here

The Chaintech 7NJS ZENITH motherboard is an odd duck. In order to do IDE RAID, you would have to have one IDE drive on the IDE RAID channel and another IDE drive connected to SATA using a SATA-IDE converter. All nforce2 boards seem to be lacking to a certain degree in the IDE RAID department. Not sure what happened. But, if you're gonna do RAID 0, it would be best to pair up two Seagate Barracuda 8MB Cache SATA hard drives anyway, as reviews have shown.

 

[tharef]

I see so basically my hard drives use old technology, if I want to configure RAID on my board without buying any adapters I would need Serial ATA HDDs?

 

[mechBgon]

Either SATA drives, or else SATA-to-PATA adapters. Or get an add-in PCI IDE RAID card to use with your existing drives (around $27 at newegg.com I think). Or forgo RAID and use the drives normally. Another alternative is to software-RAID them in Windows2000 or WinXP.

 

[order]

Sorry to re-ask this but can anyone tell me where I could read up on voltage info on overclocking this board? hasn't anyone done it here? I'm looking for the multiplyers. It's a little ridiculous. you can't run the RAM at 200 Mhz to allow it to DDR up to 400, you have to run it at 133 which gives you 266 speeds. I don't know what to set the voltages at when I change the multiplyers and so it's not going to be stable. I can't be the only one asking these questions, but I can't find any posts about this. Does anyone know of any places to find info on this?

 

[Shockwave]

Order, why cant you? My board is out of box new (Minus a BIOS flash) and I've already set my RAM up to 166 for Sh1ts n giggles. May run up to 200 this morning just cause it will.


Anyways, about the temp differences. Anyone knwo anything yet? Saw this thread in which someone flashed BIOS and had temps displayed change. Old news for some perhaps but I want an answer!!

 

[KidChaos]

Originally posted by: tharef
I see so basically my hard drives use old technology, if I want to configure RAID on my board without buying any adapters I would need Serial ATA HDDs?

Yes. mechBgon is correct.

 

[KidChaos]

Originally posted by: order
Sorry to re-ask this but can anyone tell me where I could read up on voltage info on overclocking this board? hasn't anyone done it here? I'm looking for the multiplyers. It's a little ridiculous. you can't run the RAM at 200 Mhz to allow it to DDR up to 400, you have to run it at 133 which gives you 266 speeds. I don't know what to set the voltages at when I change the multiplyers and so it's not going to be stable. I can't be the only one asking these questions, but I can't find any posts about this. Does anyone know of any places to find info on this?

Ya may be able to use the Nforce website as a resource. Their forum contains an Asus A7N8X FAQ thread that is very informative.

As a side note, there is a New ASUS A7N8X Deluxe BIOS, manual and PCProbe. Enjoy.

 

[niggles]

For the record, the Bios manual is thoroughly useless, it has information like:
"FSB spread spectrum: changes the spread spectrum on the front side bus."
I mean how useless is that. It tells me nothing.

 

[niggles]

Originally posted by: Shockwave
Order, why cant you? My board is out of box new (Minus a BIOS flash) and I've already set my RAM up to 166 for Sh1ts n giggles. May run up to 200 this morning just cause it will.

I have set the FSB to 166 and it's unstable as all hell when I run 3DMark.

Check out this thread and look at Chizow's post regarding memory speed and FSB.

Link

I got from that that there would be problems and sure enough there were. I need more info to figure this out but can't find any that really addresses the issue of Voltages. quoting the Bios manual as a place to find info isn't really helpful as it is so basic that it doesn't give any real info. The Memory settings at 166 range just keeps crashing if I'm running 3D Mark. I'm going to look further into the Nvidia forum page and if I find anything I'll post back. In the interim if anyone has any real info on voltage settings it would be great. Thanks for the info so far, it has been extremely helpful as a source for related issues.

 

[ciscobee]

 

[ciscobee]

Here is my setup:
====================
Antec Soho File Server Case with 2 exhaust fans for airflow, 1 exhaust for Powersupply, and a case fan in the front ... same as rear exhaust (antec smart power fan).
AMD 1700+ retail CPU
A7N8K Deluxe Mobo ... (dual nics etc ... and p.s. a Maxell battery) Purchased on JAN 15th
2 x 256 MB DDR (2100) Crucial Micron
60 GB Maxtor IDE
64 MB DDR AGP ASUS VGA with TV-out
1001G Bios
====================
====================
Here is my question:
I am new to the Ocing ... Tweaking ... arena so bare with me.

---###---###---###---###
What is a safe temp to run at? for the CPU and the MOBO?
---###---###---###---###

I have not put any strain on the system yet.
The current multiplier is 11 and the 133 for the frequency.
--------<Current Temps as reported by ASUS Probe>---------
CPU 33* C
MOBO 22 *C
--------<Current Temps as reported by the 1001G BIOS>--------
CPU 44*- 45* C
MOBO 28* - 32* C

I am concerned that I am "missing the bus" on this heat issue and I want to eak the performance on the system without causing a $150 Meltdown.

 

[Shockwave]

BAH! I definately get static on the audio. So far its only been intermittently in Counter Strike, but something needs a changin.

 

[Oric]

I have updated my nvidia drivers with the new ones now my OS (related with this update or not) reports a non-working IEEE1394 (firewire) device.

Anyone else experiencing this problem ?

 

[magomago]

Replace the 1001G bios which sucks with this one - and it displays the CORRECT temperature

http://ammarm.web1000.com/1002.001


As for ocing just pick the middle one since the temps are always higher than reported. don't worry too much though


Btw, if anyone needs files mirrored don't hesitate to ask

 

[SFang]

The latest 1002 BIOS from AT forum.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=953292

 

[magomago]

Originally posted by: Shockwave
BAH! I definately get static on the audio. So far its only been intermittently in Counter Strike, but something needs a changin.

Are you using the new 2.03 Nforce drivers that are supposed to specifically address the mcp-t problems? Try that

I heard nvidia is taking a beating now, so i'll grab them later (and if they are under 5 megs I'll upload them...storage is not my problem - it is my 56k modem)