My Dual Harper - Asus Z7S WS living review *56K warning*

[jcool]

Long overdue edit:

Do NOT buy this motherboard. It's design (probably the VRM circuitery) is flawed in such a way that it will inevitably die if you stress it for a longer period of time (for example with crunching). NO amount of cooling, caution, etc will help you here. Not even running stock Vcore will prevent your system from experiencing an untimely death. Believe me, I have tried (3 or 4 times now).

Attention: If you bought this motherboard and it comes with 0116 bios, scroll down to the bios section of this post and update to the recommended bios before you do anything else! Use EZFlash and any USB Stick, works fine. If you do not update the Bios, you'll be suffering from incredibly bad performance. This is due to the "Snoop Filter" option, so make sure that after updating, you set "SF Bypass" to "enabled".

Also note: You NEED an EPS capable PSU, meaning you HAVE to connect both an 8pin and a 4pin 12V power connector to the mobo. If any one is missing, the Z7S will NOT post if populated with 2 CPUs. For 1 CPU, the 8 pin is enough.

Hello again fellow maniacs

As some might already know, I am expecting the Asus Z7S WS Workstation-Mobo to arrive at my house tomorrow.

Update: It’s here

Packaging front:



Back:



Lots of accessories:





However, the FBDimm ramcooling fan wasn’t in the retail package… and it’s not on the manual’s list either.It does say “optional” somewhere in the manual though, so you might be able to buy it somewhere 

Shots of the mobo:







Shots of Buffalo FBDimm installed:




Those heatspreaders are a bit wide I’m afraid, but it’s ok for now.


First run:



One word on the GFX, I couldn’t find my trusty Matrox PCI card, and the only spare PCIe I have is my broken X1900XTX. Use to love that card, when it just died one day while surfing the web 
It still works, just not in 3D mode. And it produces lots of coloured pixels.
So please just ignore the red dots in the following bios screens…



Features:

- Dual S771
- Intel "Seaburg" Chipset, FSB1600
- ATI Crossfire support w/ 3x PCIe x16 (two of them PCIe 2,0 contrary to Skulltrail)
- 6 Ramslots for up to 32GB of system memory, DDR2-800 support (FBDimms only)
- standard ATX form factor, passive heatpipe cooling with mounting holes to fit watercooling (I hope)
- more to come

Bios Options:








MCH, Vdimm and even SB Voltage as promised, but no VTT and no Vcore




FSB up to 500 in 1Mhz increments








NB and memory temperature, nice (even seems to be halfway accurate)




Even has Asus OC profile.

So, what’s missing:

1. Vcore!!! Probably only with new bios, or EE CPUs only <--- available with Bios 0401
2. VTT
3. Any and all memory-related settings, there are no timings, no divider, no nothing


Bios versions:

0116 - initial Bios, sucks performance-wise, can't d/l it anywhere for a reason

0201 - fixed performance issues by allowing to enable the "SF Bypass" option, now shows individual temps for every ram installed, download here
0302 - slightly improved performance, FSB spread spectrum removed, some other minor changes, download here
0401 - fixes issues with E0 step CPUs, adds Vcore setting for each CPU individually, range 0,44-1,6V in fairly small increments, current/recommended bios, download here
0501 - seems to improve the bios reset issues that most people are having with manually set Vcore, download here


Pics powered by www.highend-computer.de

[Movieman]

Best of luck!

[Bobsama]

Awesome.

[Gamekiller]

That's really awesome Jcool! Good luck with it!

[sierra_bound]

What form factor is that board? You might have trouble fitting those Thermalrights next to that NB heatsink.

[jcool]

Thanks @ all!

Originally Posted by jcool

- standard ATX form factor

Really SB, you need to start actually reading threads

I know it's gonna be tight, but it'll fit. If not, screw air - two EK Supreme will always fit

[sierra_bound]

Originally Posted by jcool

Thanks @ all!



Really SB, you need to start actually reading threads

I know it's gonna be tight, but it'll fit. If not, screw air - two EK Supreme will always fit

Sorry, I missed that. But I do not appreciate your sarcasm. Not very classy on your part. Fortunately, there is the Ignore function. Hasta la vista.

[jcool]

Erm... that was purely meant to be a joke. (How would you have taken it if MM would have written that exact same sentence? ) Sorry if it came across the wrong way, as it wasn't my intention.

[[XC] riptide]

LOL. C'mon guys. Relaaax

[jcool]

I guess some people get pissed off real easy
Nothing I can do here, I apologized and stated it wasn't meant to be an attack or something, just a lame joke.

Now if SB choooses to ignore me, I can't do anything against that. Just makes me sad

Anyway, I'm off to bed now, since it's already 2:30 AM here.

[SiGfever]

Originally Posted by jcool

Erm... that was purely meant to be a joke. (How would you have taken it if MM would have written that exact same sentence? ) Sorry if it came across the wrong way, as it wasn't my intention.

Movieman and myself go at each other in jest but it is always a fine line to walk. If we did not know each other so well I would never try it. S-B is the "Class" part of our team and he works very hard for us. I know that you did not mean ill.

Edit: My apologies to jcool for responding, it was not my place to do so. Consider this a formal apology.
John

[Blauhung]

I believe the Seaburg chipset does not have the chipset registers needed to choose memory dividers in BIOS. It's not that it's limited to 1:1, just limited to the ratios dictated by the SPD settings of the RAM you are useing. For those here that would be using this though, you are most likely going to BSEL mod anything you put in it to the 1600FSB which makes the high performance 800MHz memory work at 1:1.

I haven't read up enough on it to draw conclusions, but I believe we are currently chipset limited to around 425, and not memory limited, but correct me if i'm wrong.

And Sierra, give him another chance. I know I personally have unintentionally offended people all the time while trying to be clever and funny

[jcool]

Mornin' guys... "Good" news for you: I seem to have caught the flu overnight, which means I am not a work. And I also think the mobo just arrived, so I'm gonna crawl down there real quick... lol

Oh and Sigfever... don't worry. You are right, no need for you to apologize (enough apologizing done in this thread anyway).

[[XC] gomeler]

Woohoo! Looking forward to seeing what you wrangle out of this guy.

[karl_eller]

You thought your motherboard had arrived, so rather than running to the door like a kid at Christmas (like I do when I get a package ), you decided to finish your post? What kind of person are you?

Eller

[Origin_Unknown]

/me = jealous

i'm not supprised that Movieman was the first to reply... i think he has a dual harper thread sniffing nose

[karl_eller]

Originally Posted by Origin_Unknown

/me = jealous

i'm not supprised that Movieman was the first to reply... i think he has a dual harper thread sniffing nose

Nah, he just has nothing better to do then sit here on the WCG forum and hit F5 every 10 seconds

Eller

[fungry]

wow man. how much did those xeon processors cost?
me > staring at the horizon for good 45nm quadcores!

having said that... are reasonable oc socket 771 mobos expensive?

[jcool]

Originally Posted by karl_eller

You thought your motherboard had arrived, so rather than running to the door like a kid at Christmas (like I do when I get a package ), you decided to finish your post? What kind of person are you?

Eller

Naw... I'm sick here, remember
I must've slept for 10 to 11 hours or so... GF picked up the package earlier this morning

Anyway, just uploading pics and rewriting thread - will need a while though so be patient, I'm working as fast as I can (while drinking herbal tea, uah)

[karl_eller]

Exactly, you're sick, not dead I know if I had something like that board waiting for me at the door it'd take nothing short of a broken leg to keep me from running there

Eller

[Movieman]

Originally Posted by Origin_Unknown

/me = jealous

i'm not supprised that Movieman was the first to reply... i think he has a dual harper thread sniffing nose

yup.. can smell them from a continent away!

Originally Posted by karl_eller

Nah, he just has nothing better to do then sit here on the WCG forum and hit F5 every 10 seconds

Eller

You been peeking again?

[2fink]

"servus" jcool. the next german member in the crunching section. very nice stuff you got there. cant wait to see some numbers.

are you posting it on tualatin?

greetings from reutlingen!

[jcool]

There you go folks... pics are UP, all you could possibly want for now

[fungry]

DUDE THAT IS SO HAWT AND SEXEH!!!!! hahahaha

[ownage]

I knew it had overclock settings , to bad it lacks some options
Nice pictures, but i see lots of artifacts in the bios