Asus A8N32-SLI initial impression....WOW!

[ben805]

I just received my Asus A8N32-SLI mobo from newegg today, I checked every single inch of this mobo for that rumor's "Rev 2.0 sticker" but it is no where to be found....I"d called Asus tech support and he denied such revision so I really don't know what that ebay seller is smoking but Rev 2.0 doesn't exist!! :lol: The package came with loads of cable, optional fan, SLI link and other stuff that I don't really care for :p: Alright, so let's get down to the business, for those who wonder what kind of heatsink is compatible with this mobo, well...let's just say it has plenty of room and clearance for the TT Big Typhoon!! I love the layout of this mobo, all cables are out of the way, installed was painless, and definitely can fit a soundcard perfectly on PCI slot# 2 and still leave plenty of room for the first video card to breath, though PCI slot #1 and 3 are kinda close to the gpu fan but nevertheless they still fit ok.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40049

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40050

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40051

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40052

to be continue.....

[ben805]

The aluminum mosfet heatsink looks kinda out of place, should of been copper to match the SB and NB heatpipe thing, and I was surprised that there were absolutely no thermal compound or sticky pad whatsoever to aid heat transfer either, so I popped off the mosfet sink and apply a thin layer of AS5 on all those little mosfets then slapped the aluminum sink back on.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40056

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40057




For those who couldn't get the vcore to over 1.58v, your mobo have to be either defective or it need bios update? I set the vcore to 1.40v and enable the v-core boost(200mv) and gets 1.61v instantly!! setting it to 1.5v with the vcore boost also gave me around 1.78v....not that I would ever use more than 1.70v but it's nice to know I can get close to 1.80v of vcore if ever needed.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40058

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40059


Moving my raid from DFI Ultra-D to this Asus A8N32 is painless, don't need to delete the array though Windows XP need to be wipe and reinstall, I'm doing it now as I type on my laptop :D how well does this mobo overclock? I'll find out soon enough and will post back result as soon as I'm done loading all my apps back on. :D

[Psyche911]

Looks great so far, keep us updated.

P.S. Is it really smart to have it on your carpet? lol

[trza2k]

What bios are you running? Also what version of motherboard is it.

[PuNiShEr]

Beautifull Indeed :cool:

Now let's go for the tests :D
Please, when you can, check out the maximum vcore and vdimm...
Did your board came with wifi card?
Which revision your board has written in the PCB?

Thanks :toast:

[ben805]

Looks great so far, keep us updated.

P.S. Is it really smart to have it on your carpet? lol


look closer...I'm using the DFI mobo's white color foam pad under the Asus mobo :D :D sometime I also use static bag ;) The bios is relatively easy to setup, memory timing tweak is comparible to my DFI Ultra-D and most of those value looks familiar except a few that I've never seen or heard, I'll have to play around with it and keep you guys updated. By the way, I'm using my 148 CABNE opty on this mobo and it has absolutely no problem picking up the stepping, the bios recognized it properly :D :D :D

[DAK1640]

Very nice indeed, nice pix too...I want that mobo

[Supertim0r]

that's a real nice board :toast:
waiting results :)

[Herbal]

You might want to check the mosfets are making good contact with the heatsink.

On my A8N32-SLI I've found the mosfets on the outer edge are slightly 'lower' than the others and thus make poor contact....I need try and sort that on my board.

[Major]

@Ben805

I'm glad to see someone that I know and trust with this board !! :toast:

I'm going with one after the first of the year, maybe sooner !! lol

Good to know that 1.7v is a go too, that was a major concern of mine. What memory bios settings are missing ? any ?

[chunkylover77]

It's too bad that this is not compatible with my LL v2000 or I would jump all over this. Maybe I will get it and just remove the heatpipe. Show us some good oc's Ben and I will have to. :toast: Would love to pair this with an Opty 175 and call it a day for a year. :D

[[XC] moddolicous]

Nice to see asus made a nice 939 mobo. Cant wait for the oc results. What was there under the copper pipe thing for the northbridge & southbridge?? Thermal tape or Thermal paste? Only 3.2 to the ddr?

[lowdog]

You must be using the bios 502 that shipped with the board, can you confirm this please.

Bios 703 and beta 805 WON'T give 1.77vcore using the overvolt cpu option. Max with these two bioses is 1.58vcore.

You can flash to these newer bioses and confirm that for all of us if you like. If correct it looks like only bios 502 gives 1.77vcore.

I'm running 805, 703 was ify for me. I don't want to flash back to 502 atm.

[trza2k]

Well after seeing this thread i decided to go try and get my a8n32 to give me more vcore(trying every combination of settings). Still doesnt give more then 1.58volt as per the other thread. Will be interesting to know what version of the motherboard and bios you are using.

[trza2k]

You must be using the bios 502 that shipped with the board, can you confirm this please.

Bios 703 and beta 805 WON'T give 1.77vcore using the overvolt cpu option. Max with these two bioses is 1.58vcore.

You can flash to these newer bioses and confirm that for all of us if you like. If correct it looks like only bios 502 gives 1.77vcore.

I'm running 805, 703 was ify for me. I don't want to flash back to 502 atm.

I tried 502 lowdog. Still no go... I think it might be something on the mobo stopping it.

[lowdog]

Yeah well I'll be phucked then because there's no way my board will go over 1.58vcore. Not that I'd use over that anyway but non the less tis a strange issue this one. :confused:

[ben805]

OMG....This motherboard overclock like dream :slobber: I have NOT encounter a single hiccup so far and you guys are going to be in for a very nice surprise when I finish running the SPI 32M!! more screenie coming in 20min....stay tune :D

by the way this motherboard is rev 1 and I'm using the default BIOS 0703 build date 10/27/05

[Supertim0r]

finally, there's no rev2 board ? :confused:

[trza2k]

OMG....This motherboard overclock like dream :slobber: I have NOT encounter a single hiccup so far and you guys are going to be in for a very nice surprise when I finish running the SPI 32M!! more screenie coming in 20min....stay tune :D

by the way this motherboard is rev 1 and I'm using the default BIOS 0703 build date 10/27/05

Is that 1.00 revision? Because mine is 1.01.

[Supertim0r]

man :eek: this board is my next purchase :fact:

[arctic-k20]

sweet

OMG....This motherboard overclock like dream :slobber: I have NOT encounter a single hiccup so far and you guys are going to be in for a very nice surprise when I finish running the SPI 32M!! more screenie coming in 20min....stay tune :D

by the way this motherboard is rev 1 and I'm using the default BIOS 0703 build date 10/27/05

[fareastgq]

It's been six minutes Ben, why haven't you updated us???? Hehe, anyway, that freaking rocks, I'm glad the v-core issue has been fixed, With the 8 phase power+ 1.7+ v-core, I think this board will smoke the ultra-d and SLI in sales now. Mine will be here monday, I'm SOOOO.... wanting it to get here, I was almost going to have it overnighted because I'm DYING to get my damn opty under a real board. Good to know it will be doing some real H2O clocks. Keep it coming :)

[cronic]

looks great so far. Can't wait to get mine.

[ben805]

This is the most painless mobo I've ever overclock, yes the print out on the board said rev 1.01 which is the same as everyone else, vcore 1.78v is a confirm as I test it out really quick but since I do not have my phase change hook up I do not want to keep it there for any more than 20 sec incase I fry my opty, I really do not understand why some of you can't get more than 1.6v as I and my colleague do not have any problem with our opty running it over 1.75v, maybe it's cpu related? I'll try to answer as many question as I can but let's get down to business for now, how well does it overclock??



here....
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40063

no problem hitting a rock solid 334 HTT, the anandtech's review of this mobo had theirs up to only 310 but I think they didn't push the board hard enough :D :D :D

It appears to have more memory tweaking options than my ultra-d as well, but I'm not familiar with some of them but I'll have to mess around with those values to see what kind of impact they have on performance and stability.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40064

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40065

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40066

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40067

[ben805]

Here's a few more bios screenie, I'll have to tweak more and run other benchmarks, will post more results later on, but so far I'm loving this mobo!! :D :D

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40068


http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40069

[brandinb]

nice getting your 2gb set of ram running 273 stable thats a nice board to be able to do that!!

[Supertim0r]

WOW
finally a good Asus 939 board :)

I only wish my VX will run 250fsb @ 3.2v (actually 260 3.26v 100% stable)

[fareastgq]

Question is, is 273 what u ran before on your ram? It needs to meet or exceed your previous board to be considered good/better. I'm planning to run 11x280 24/7, hehe. I could only do 10x280 on my 4400 with the ultra-d, Do u get a better/just as good clock out of the board cpu/ram wise?

[Supertim0r]

passive chipset cooling is all I wanted :cool:

[chunkylover77]

passive chipset cooling is all I wanted :cool:

Me too. I just wish that the heatpipe design could be used in the v2000.

[ben805]

trza2k and whomever couldn't get the vcore to over 1.58v, see if you can borrow a different cpu from your buddy and try it again, if still no go then obviously your mobo is defective, your only option is RMA it.

As for the SB and NB heatpipe/sink, they appears to have some type of thermal goo applied to them, the MB temperature stay at 31~32'C during SPI 32M and Toast, the heatpipe sink is only slightly warm so there's no need to yank them out, though as I mentioned the mosfet's sink is a joke....it doesn't has any thermal solution whatsoever.

[fareastgq]

Ben did your v-core flux at all? I noticed that on my dfi cf, the v-core was solid, it never moved an inch, I'm assuming the asus can do the same.

[trza2k]

trza2k and whomever couldn't get the vcore to over 1.58v, see if you can borrow a different cpu from your buddy and try it again, if still no go then obviously your mobo is defective, your only option is RMA it.

As for the SB and NB heatpipe/sink, they appears to have some type of thermal goo applied to them, the MB temperature stay at 31~32'C during SPI 32M and Toast, the heatpipe sink is only slightly warm so there's no need to yank them out, though as I mentioned the mosfet's sink is a joke....it doesn't has any thermal solution whatsoever.

Me and lowdogg are both running dualcores, although he has a x2 and i have an opty. You got a dualcore you can test? :P

I might see if i can get a opty 146 for testing.

[lowdog]

Me and lowdogg are both running dualcores, although he has a x2 and i have an opty. You got a dualcore you can test? :P

I might see if i can get a opty 146 for testing.


This will be interesting. If somehow a dual core is limmiting the vcore to 1.58 with this board, though don't know if that's possible. :confused:

[ben805]

Ben did your v-core flux at all? I noticed that on my dfi cf, the v-core was solid, it never moved an inch, I'm assuming the asus can do the same.

sometime it does....though only +/- 0.01v, however... the MB temperature is rock solid so the heatpipe thing really work its magic. I also found some bugs on this 0703 bios....the TREF, Async Latency, Read Preamble and few other options have a mind of their own, they do not like me setting them manually, I have to use the Asus update(works like winflash) to flash the Bios to 0805, problem fixed now. :D I'm loading all my apps and games back to xp so as soon as I'm done I'll play with the bios again, the memory timing is very relax at the moment and still have more room to work on, but so far this motherboard has been rock solid, no problem using multiplier 8, 9, 10, and 11 for my Opty, as most of the time I can't even use 11x and 9x with my Ultra-D bios 704-2BTA. Though I wish this asus has the bios profile thing like the DFI so I can save a few custom settings.

[ben805]

Me and lowdogg are both running dualcores, although he has a x2 and i have an opty. You got a dualcore you can test? :P

I might see if i can get a opty 146 for testing.


unfortunately I sold my X2 last week and the only spare cpu I have now is an unopened 148 CABNE...which is not going to help testing it, if your motherboard is not defective then I suspect these A8N32 might have some type of cpu ID function that verify a certain code like maxtcase or whatever to determine the maximum vcore you can use, that's the main reason why I suggested you guys to try different cpu and see if it make any difference, I read somewhere that the new bios for A8N-SLI prevent people from clocking over 200 and that person said it automatically clocked it down to 166, when he called asus tech support he was being told that the new feature was there to prevent hardware damage from overclocking :confused:

[madpete]

Ben, thanks for preview. My board will be arriving this morning, and after seeing this I am really looking forward to firing it up and playing.

Has your overall OC improved from the DFI?

The reason I went for this board was I wanted stability, I'm fed up of the DFI's wobbliness :p:

[Capt_Caveman]

Great review and pics Ben! Thanks! Looks like I'll be ordering one soon.

[ben805]

@Ben805

I'm glad to see someone that I know and trust with this board !! :toast:

I'm going with one after the first of the year, maybe sooner !! lol

Good to know that 1.7v is a go too, that was a major concern of mine. What memory bios settings are missing ? any ?


hehe...you know you want one of these bad boy!! :D :D I believe the only memory setting missing is the TWTR, and there's only 3 values for TREF....3.9, 7.8, and 15.6. Dram and data strength are similar to DFI but you can disable the data strength on this, other than that there are a bunch of other settings that the DFI don't have and I still have no clue what they are....will have play with them later, for now I left them on default. All 4 nvidia SATA2 ports appear to be locked and I do not have any problem running my raid-0 array off of port 1 and 2 or 3 and 4 at high HTT. This mobo also loves the Ballistix, these ram are pretty much plug-n-play now and they run just fine to leave all memory settings on Auto though personally I prefer to set everything manually. I'd also noticed everything from DOS base utilities (ghost, partition magic, drive image, etc) to windows apps....everything are much more responsive and quicker. In a way I feel kinda weird that this board is running so darn smooth and stable, as I was always expecting and getting accustomed to the random problems I had with Ultra-D :D

As for the complaints...The PC Prope II is somewhat inferior and inaccurate, I do not see the vdimm meter anywhere in the bios or the PC Prope...that's a bummer, it would be nice to be able to check for vdimm fluctuation during benching. There is no nvraid drivers floppy came with the package either, you'll need it for XP installation if you're running raid. I had to use the provided CD to make one from another PC. :)

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40076

[lowdog]

I suspect these A8N32 might have some type of cpu ID function that verify a certain code like maxtcase or whatever to determine the maximum vcore you can use :confused:



This could quite possibly be it, only way to tell will be if one of us can test an x2 and a single core venice, sandiego etc. Hope someone can do this so this enigma can be cleared up.

[All_Star]

ben805,

How did you install the TT Big Typhoon? You have to install a custom backplate from TT? If yes, can you remove the backplate from this mobo easily?

AllSt4r

[All_Star]

This could quite possibly be it, only way to tell will be if one of us can test an x2 and a single core venice, sandiego etc. Hope someone can do this so this enigma can be cleared up.

I have an X2 3800+, and I might have this mobo this afternoon . . . :) :) I'll keep you informed :D ;)

[fareastgq]

I have a 3000, 4400,175, I'll see what happens with v-core. If I get the bug, hopefully I don't need more than 1.58 volts to max out my 175 or the board is going RMA. Dammit, I was so excited, now I'm all worried again, hahaha. Thx for the preview Ben, that board looks like loads of fun.

[mag|c]

Great review and pics ben thanks alot.

Looks like asus is back in the game?

[ben805]

Ben, thanks for preview. My board will be arriving this morning, and after seeing this I am really looking forward to firing it up and playing.

Has your overall OC improved from the DFI?

The reason I went for this board was I wanted stability, I'm fed up of the DFI's wobbliness :p:

I can now use slightly less vcore but nothing to write home about, though with the Ultra-D I'd always had to use the clockgen to hit above 330 HTT but now this Asus boot right into the windows and it's rock solid at 334 HTT, I haven't try anything higher yet but this 8-phase power thing is the real deal!! The board also runs much cooler than my Ultra-D, so my case temperature definitely take a dive which in turn help cool everything else as I noticed the PSU fan is quieter now, the 7800GT and my cpu underload is about 2~3'C cooler too...don't expect 15'C dropped like Asus claimed though :D :D In the mean time.....what I gain most is stability, and this board is fun to overclock!! lots of settings that you can play with or leave on Auto. ;)



I have a 3000, 4400,175, I'll see what happens with v-core. If I get the bug, hopefully I don't need more than 1.58 volts to max out my 175 or the board is going RMA. Dammit, I was so excited, now I'm all worried again, hahaha. Thx for the preview Ben, that board looks like loads of fun.

you'll definitely have fun with this board and hopefully there's no vcore problem either ;)

ben805,

How did you install the TT Big Typhoon? You have to install a custom backplate from TT? If yes, can you remove the backplate from this mobo easily?

AllSt4r

All you need to take off is the top bracket, the metal backplate can stay, there are two stand-offs through the backplate so you can use the Big Typhoon's short screws on them, though I'm using wing nuts instead so I can get even pressure on my naked opty when tighten down both nuts at the same time. With the Big Typhoon in place there's still plenty of room around it, definitely a good news for those who own some taller bling bling ram :D :D


Great review and pics ben thanks alot.

Looks like asus is back in the game?

no problem....and yes I'd say this time around Asus has gotten their stuff together to compete with the big dawg and they've done a marvelous job! :D I wonder when is Abit going to join the party? :p:

[lowdog]

Hey Ben,

how do you get a 3.3v of 3.55. Have you adjusted your psu somehow??

[ben805]

yes, my PCP&C 510 SLI has adjustable rails :D

[ben805]

Alrighty....let's push the envelop a bit further, man this thing just refused to back down :D I set the vcore to 1.36v and enable the overvolt(200mv), which is about 0.04v less than what I needed on Ultra-D, then a little of tweak here and there, but left the memory setting the way it was, well....lookie here.....


http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40084

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40085


Either the A64Tweaker didn't report some of the value properly, or the bios automatically relax the timing, I noticed the tref and MAL were changed by the mobo, as I had different setting in BIOS!! Though motherboard temperature is rock solid, kudo to the heatpipe and stack-cool II features, I'd also use the APC SmartUPS to monitor the system power consumption, underload it's about 38~45W less than the DFI Ultra-D, the 8-phase power really stretch it's muscle and show what it was made of. :yepp: I don't know why the cpuz and PC Probe II can't report the vcore properly though, and I have a feeling that 345 HTT isn't the max either.... :worship: :worship: So for those who has low multiplier chip (like 144 opty) then you're going to dig the high HTT, a major big plus without using clockgen as well. :yepp:

[Perc]

nice ben just nice!! i was eyeballing newegg now for over 2 weeks and the board never came back in stock so i gave in and grab the DFI expert and now reading this im thinking maybe i should send it back when it gets here and grab the asus. man this board looks sweet keep the info commin man looking good :toast:

peace perc,

[ben805]

nice ben just nice!! i was eyeballing newegg now for over 2 weeks and the board never came back in stock so i gave in and grab the DFI expert and now reading this im thinking maybe i should send it back when it gets here and grab the asus. man this board looks sweet keep the info commin man looking good :toast:

peace perc,


Thanks man.....I really didn't expected this kind of result as I was only wishing for slightly more stability than my ultra-D, but looks like this A8N32-SLI pack with a mega punch on BOTH stability and performance, I think newegg dropped the price down to $229 now....it kinda sucks that I'd paid an arm and leg for this beast, but it's definitely a worthwhile upgrade and replacement for me though, I'll have more benchmarks coming later..... :toast:

[Supertim0r]

really nice board :slobber:

you can't use the heatpipe system in a V2000 ?

[TEDY]

uf 230$ :(

so around 230€ here.....which makes it 300$ ...OMG = ROFL

[Blue078]

Nice review ben805 :clap: Nice board too, good to see Asus get serious with AMD for once.

[mdzcpa]

Have you tried putting 2 double slot vid cards in SLI in those PCIE slots yet? I ask cause you mention you love the layout and that there is plenty of room for a soundcard.

I dunno.

Here's a pic of my air cooled 7800GTX 512 cards on the Expert. I couldn't imagine sticking a PCI card in between them. The top card already runs hotter than the bottom due to blocked air flow.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40088&stc=1

I'll be moving to water on the cards soon, so it does not matter. But for those with air cooled double slot cards, they really need to consider the spacing.

I'm not poo-pooing the mobo. I'd like to get one. The spacing scares me though.

[Perc]

holy crap! there isnt much room for air let alone a sound card! id have to say that the layout is flawed in that area for sure! probly have trouble getting water to fit deff a tight one for sure! wouldnt you think that when asus was designing this mb they would of stuck two video cards in and sit back and look at it? sometimes i wounder about these guys... oh well if thats the only thing wrong with this mb its still an awsome mb. keep the screenies commin man im liking this mb so far.

peace perc,

[Pyr0]

has anybody tested the vcore on a dual core yet?

[mdzcpa]

if thats the only thing wrong with this mb its still an awsome mb. keep the screenies commin man im liking this mb so far.


Agreed! I'm really interested in the board too. If I can figure out for sure that I can get everything to fit and play nice, and want to try the board.

Keep the information coming ben805...this is a great thread so far. :toast:

[ben805]

hehe....the PCI slot clearance is everyone's #1 concern, same as mine when I bought it so the first thing I did was to measured the spacing, I do not have the 2nd video card yet but as I said there is plenty of room for 1 PCI if you install it onto PCI slot# 2, now...just to show you what I'm talking about, I have an XFX 7800GT with stock heatsink on PIC-X 1, I put in SoundBlaster soundcard on PCI Slot#2 and you can clearly see there's more than enough room for the video card to breath, keep in mind that many pc case also have the side panel blow-hole but even if the case doesn't come with one, I still don't forsee any problem with that much room to spare, well...lookie here.....

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40090

the SLI bridge is longer than the DFI so this motherboard definitely do NOT have an issue with 1 PCI card :D :D IF...just IF...for whatever reason I need to install 2 PCI cards, all I need to do is beef up the side panel fan to blow cool air directly on top of all those cards, this motherboard generate less heat than DFI plus if you have a good case ventilation then you shouldn't worry about packing 2 PCI cards in there if needed. Keep in mind that most pc case already came with the side panel blow hole aiming at the video card so they'll be fine ;)


For the time being, here's more benchie :toast:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40091


http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40092

more to follow later...

[ben805]

holy crap! there isnt much room for air let alone a sound card! id have to say that the layout is flawed in that area for sure! probly have trouble getting water to fit deff a tight one for sure! wouldnt you think that when asus was designing this mb they would of stuck two video cards in and sit back and look at it? sometimes i wounder about these guys... oh well if thats the only thing wrong with this mb its still an awsome mb. keep the screenies commin man im liking this mb so far.

peace perc,


No sweat....plenty of room for 1 PCI card on slot# 2, the Asus SLI bridge is much longer than DFI's and there's plenty of room in between, it's definitely not like the picture shown by mdzcpa :D :D I highly doubt the Asus engineer would left out the slot clearance measurement ;)

[Supertim0r]

this is torture ! I want one :eek:

[gundamit]

After getting a chance to play with an Asus mobo on the Intel side (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=79554) and having a smooth ride on a 1ghz OC I can't say I'm surprised to see a mobo giant like Asus step up with a board like this. The only mystery is what took so long.

Ben, I'm looking forward to seeing your highest 32M stable HTT. Terrific work so far. :up:

[chew*]

" I wonder when is Abit going to join the party? :p"

Have you seen the new an8 32x? it looks just like the asus its uncanny however the power scheme looks to be different with a few other differences. However if bios/ram compatibility is anything like the an8/fatality/ultra/SLi it will suck donkey :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:
http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/products.php?categories=1&model=310

[mdzcpa]

No sweat....plenty of room for 1 PCI card on slot# 2, the Asus SLI bridge is much longer than DFI's

I don't think this is true.

The pic I am showing is of the DFI Expert. The SLI bridge is also much longer than the regular DFI NF4 boards. In fact, just for comparison, the SLI bridge is 2 3/4" long on the Expert in the Pic I showed. Let's take another closer look:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40097&stc=1

There are 2 slots in between PCIE #1 and #2 on Expert. Just like on the Asus layout. As you can see by the pic, the first slot is completely covered by the vid card in PCIE#1 (which cannot be seen), and the second one (which is visible) is pretty much useless unless you want the card literally butting up against the vid card in PCIE#1.

If I did not have the ability to put my sound card in the 3rd PCI slot below PCIE#2 I'd be out of luck. Basically, double slot vid cards kill the two PCI slots below it.

So, unless the SLI bridge on the Asus is significantly longer than 2 3/4" it won't cut it. No offense, but your pics don't do any justice to having 2 monsterous double slot vid cards in SLI.

Again, I'm not bashing the board. I'm just not sure its fair to say there is "plenty of room" for those with 2 dual slot vid cards in SLI.

Here's a pic of the old and new DFI Bridge for reference.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40098&stc=1

Just how long is that Asus SLI bridge?

[ben805]

Interesting, the Asus SLI bridge is 3 1/4" long so maybe it would work out just fine? it's slightly longer than the Expert nonetheless ;) unfortunately I do not have any monster size double sloted vid cards to test, if they do not fit then I guess for those who own the jumbo size SLI setup will just have to stick with the Expert or whatever else out there :D :D

[mdzcpa]

Interesting, the Asus SLI bridge is 3 1/4" long so maybe it would work out just fine? it's slightly longer than the Expert nonetheless ;) unfortunately I do not have any monster size double sloted vid cards to test, if they do not fit then I guess for those who own the jumbo size SLI setup will just have to stick with the Expert or whatever else out there :D :D

Well, if the Asus bridge is indeed 3 1/4" long that may very well be enough room. Especially for those of us water cooling. That 1/2" can make all the difference.

I think I may try the Asus board now. Thanks for the info ben805 :toast:

[pcdoc1]

If you wanted to run this board in an inverted case like v1000 or v2000, is there any reason you couldn't remove the heatpipe and replace it with a pair of Swifty MCX159's?

[Supertim0r]

if you have the money for SLI 512mb GTX you can buy both board ;)

[cronic]

man that board is awesome. I really don't see an issue at all on the pci spacing.

[ben805]

Well, if the Asus bridge is indeed 3 1/4" long that may very well be enough room. Especially for those of us water cooling. That 1/2" can make all the difference.

I think I may try the Asus board now. Thanks for the info ben805 :toast:

no problem, I just went to newegg to take a look at the double sloted 7800GTX, holy jumbo batman....that heatsink is humongous :shocked: if you can measure the thickness of your GTX from one end to the other (pcb to heatsink) then I certainly can try to simulate one and calculate how much room left between the GPU heatsink and the soundcard on PCI slot# 2


As for the Abit A8N 32X, man it looks like.....eerr....well....very odd!! I don't like the color and the floppy connector is at the bottom of the board right next to the last PCI slot, not sure how well it overclock but if it can clock anywhere close to DFI and Asus then I'd say it's another candidate worth consider for WC and Phase Change, amber room around the cpu socket!!!!! :slobber: Anybody got their hands on one to play around with yet?


:stick:
http://www.abit-usa.com/images/products/AN832x_lg.jpg

[Jailer]

If you wanted to run this board in an inverted case like v1000 or v2000, is there any reason you couldn't remove the heatpipe and replace it with a pair of Swifty MCX159's?


Exactly what I am considering, but I want a 7800GTX 512 and it looks like it won't fit with the swfity chipset cooler on the southbridge. I'm not giving up my case for this board.

Of course a water block on the gpu would solve that. :D

[madpete]

Guys, been playing with this board all day.

CPU voltage reg on this board is great, on the DFI I needed 1.61v to get 3ghz, on the Asus I need 1.52v....which is a big differance in my book.

Bios takes some getting used to as its an AMI bios, and some options are unfamiliar I'm just about getting to grips with it but still loads to explore.

Only issue I'm having is with T1 at high FSB, I can only get to about 285mhz at T1 (1:1) before I start getting errors in memtest. On the DFI my OCZ Plat Rev2 TCCD is good for around 310mhz T1 (1:1), and I've had the FX running more than that with no problems so I know CPU is good for it. I dropped an Opty 146 in there too, and that was the same. At 2T I can go 310mhz+ with no errors.


Maybe the board doesn't like TCCD or is not optimized for it? I have literally spent all day tweaking ram options but nothing seems to help.

What ram are you running Ben? I noticed it was a 2gb kit, is it Crucial Z503 by any chance?, I 'm planning on getting me some soon and would be interested to know how it does on this board.

[HKPolice]

Any problems with going over 1.58vcore? Must figure out why 2 ppl couldn't get past 1.58v whereas the rest could.

Guys, been playing with this board all day.

CPU voltage reg on this board is great, on the DFI I needed 1.61v to get 3ghz, on the Asus I need 1.52v....which is a big differance in my book.

Bios takes some getting used to as its an AMI bios, and some options are unfamiliar I'm just about getting to grips with it but still loads to explore.

Only issue I'm having is with T1 at high FSB, I can only get to about 285mhz at T1 (1:1) before I start getting errors in memtest. On the DFI my OCZ Plat Rev2 TCCD is good for around 310mhz T1 (1:1), and I've had the FX running more than that with no problems so I know CPU is good for it. I dropped an Opty 146 in there too, and that was the same. At 2T I can go 310mhz+ with no errors.


Maybe the board doesn't like TCCD or is not optimized for it? I have literally spent all day tweaking ram options but nothing seems to help.

What ram are you running Ben? I noticed it was a 2gb kit, is it Crucial Z503 by any chance?, I 'm planning on getting me some soon and would be interested to know how it does on this board.

[madpete]

Any problems with going over 1.58vcore? Must figure out why 2 ppl couldn't get past 1.58v whereas the rest could.

Nope, no problems with vcore here. Most I tried was 1.425 + overvolt which gave me 1.62v in the bios readout.

[situman]

anyone noticed the ABIT is a 3 phase? Its cheaper made than the Fatalities. Maybe they shouldnt have given him so much money to do nothing.

[HKPolice]

But you're on an FX.... wonder if it's true, that the X2's are limited to 1.58v....?

Nope, no problems with vcore here. Most I tried was 1.425 + overvolt which gave me 1.62v in the bios readout.

[Blue078]

Has any measured the voltages with a DMM or scope?

[lowdog]

Very nice results Ben, very nice indeed. :D


Yeah, traz2k and I both have dual core cpu's. Mines an X2 4800 and his is an Opt 175.

What we need is someone who has both dual and single core cpu's to test vcore limits with the board.

If they can get over 1.58v with the single core but get stuck at 1.58 limit with the dual core then we will have a definitive answer that dual cores limit the vcore max to 1.58v with this board.

Hope someone can do this test for all of us here so we can finally get the whole picture clear. :)

[cronic]

Very nice results Ben, very nice indeed. :D


Yeah, traz2k and I both have dual core cpu's. Mines an X2 4800 and his is an Opt 175.

What we need is someone who has both dual and single core cpu's to test vcore limits with the board.

If they can get over 1.58v with the single core but get stuck at 1.58 limit with the dual core then we will have a definitive answer that dual cores limit the vcore max to 1.58v with this board.

Hope someone can do this test for all of us here so we can finally get the whole picture clear. :)


I will be able to do that with a 3800x2 and a 3700, but I won't have my board until tue or wed., but I will post results as soon as i get them.

[RADCOM]

Okay you guys are upsetting me now lol I just bought the An8 SLi premium because I thought the only diference was going to be the PCI-e speeds and that this wouldn't make much speed difference. Is it worth me upgrading so soon? Currently running AMD64 3500, I plan on buying AMD64 x 2 4200......rest of kit is storm waterblock 1/2 tubing,thermochill PA120 rad,1GB ballistix PC3200, 2 x ASUS EN 7800GTX,X-fi fatality 3x 36GB 15,000 rpm raid, seasonic S12 600W. Can I fit 2 PCI cards in?

[Perc]

No sweat....plenty of room for 1 PCI card on slot# 2, the Asus SLI bridge is much longer than DFI's and there's plenty of room in between, it's definitely not like the picture shown by mdzcpa :D :D I highly doubt the Asus engineer would left out the slot clearance measurement ;)


yeah man but your card seems to be skinnyer compared to the ones that guy posted. i think your two cards will allow room for the sound card... good review man keep it cooming...

peace perc,

[lowdog]

I will be able to do that with a 3800x2 and a 3700, but I won't have my board until tue or wed., but I will post results as soon as i get them.


Great and thanks, your a legend. :toast:

If you try the 3700 first and get over 1.6vcore then you'll know the board is fine. Then if the dual core won't go over 1.58vcore then we'll know the truth of the matter.

Thanks from me and I'm sure everyone else will greatly appreciate your efforts as well. :woot:

[trza2k]

Well i just realised i will be taking my rebuilt supra past a PC store that is open all weekend :P. Going to pickup the cheapest s939 single core i can find and see how it goes.

[cronic]

Great and thanks, your a legend. :toast:

If you try the 3700 first and get over 1.6vcore then you'll know the board is fine. Then if the dual core won't go over 1.58vcore then we'll know the truth of the matter.

Thanks from me and I'm sure everyone else will greatly appreciate your efforts as well. :woot:

No problem bud, I just wish I had the board now. Someone will probably have this figured out by the time mine gets here on tue-wed. but if not, I will.

[lowdog]

Well i just realised i will be taking my rebuilt supra past a PC store that is open all weekend :P. Going to pickup the cheapest s939 single core i can find and see how it goes.

Excellent.........now where's the results! :stick: (j/k)

Hurry up there I need to be assured my boards not defective and it's just a limitation imposed by bios for dual cores.

[trza2k]

Well i put in a 3200+ and i am able to give more then 1.58volts now. I tried 1.70volts and it worked fine.

[fareastgq]

Well i put in a 3200+ and i am able to give more then 1.58volts now. I tried 1.70volts and it worked fine.

hrm, that is NOT what I wanted to hear... oh well, let's see if the trend continues.

[trza2k]

hrm, that is NOT what I wanted to hear... oh well, let's see if the trend continues.

Well hopefully i bios update can fix this.

[ben805]

What ram are you running Ben? I noticed it was a 2gb kit, is it Crucial Z503 by any chance?, I 'm planning on getting me some soon and would be interested to know how it does on this board.


glad your board is up and running too man, and yea I have the Ballistix ;)


Well i put in a 3200+ and i am able to give more then 1.58volts now. I tried 1.70volts and it worked fine.

man I guess my theory was right and that really sucks, Asus probably thought the dual core must run much hotter than single core so they capped the vcore as soon as it detect it as dual core to prevent people from frying their chip, what about those dual core owner who has WC and Phase Change?? :slapass: but hey man can you do me a favor and check the maxtcase on your dual core whenever you have a chance? I would like lowdog to check it as well, we must find a way to get around it :lol:

[trza2k]

Well sorry guys looks like i was mistaken. This 3200+ cpu seems to be limited to 1.648v according to HW monitor. I was slowly testing to 1.70 and must of quickly and not even bothered to check the HW monitor correctly.

I'm going to try and downgrade the bios and try again.

[SamHughe]

... if you can measure the thickness of your GTX from one end to the other (pcb to heatsink) then I certainly can try to simulate one and calculate how much room left between the GPU heatsink and the soundcard on PCI slot# 2


The widest point of the video card with 2-slot cooler (NV Silencer in my case) is 2.1". There is about .5" space between two SLI cards and another .5" between the second vid card and the sound card. Could you measure how much room between the second PCI-e slot and the last PCI slot?

Here's a pic of my system to show how things are placed in the chasis.
http://img289.imageshack.us/img289/6126/mysystem005large8or.th.jpg (http://img289.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mysystem005large8or.jpg)

[trza2k]

Well sorry guys looks like i was mistaken. This 3200+ cpu seems to be limited to 1.648v according to HW monitor. I was slowly testing to 1.70 and must of quickly and not even bothered to check the HW monitor correctly.

I'm going to try and downgrade the bios and try again.

Dropped to 502 bios and can confirm the same deal. 3200+ is infact limited to 1.648volts. So i gather ASUS has inforced some limits on certain cpus.

[trza2k]

ben805/madpete can you confirm you actually see more then 1.648v in the hardware monitor. I'm geting a little frustrated with this board!

[lowdog]

Here you go.

X2 4800
CCBWE
0532UPMW

CPUID: 20F32
APICID: 0
Revision: JH9-E6
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ [Toledo]
Speed: 2407.30 [200.61 x 12]
Platform: Socket 939
VCore: 1.35v
MaxTCase: 59C
TDP: 85.0Watts

[brandinb]

anybody stuck a volt meter on the v-core caps to see what the v-core really is??
the hardware monitor may be wrong i think.

also what about a simple volt mod with a fixed resistor that would give .1 more at all times then all the volts you need would be available and you could fine tune it in the bios??

[lowdog]

I can't for the life of me remember where I read it, but I seem positive I recall reading something regarding AMD and possibly Asus and some sort of limitation/safeguard imposed on max vcore. Where if an unsafe/higher than AMD's max recomended vcore was set it would automatically be down volted to the max specified by AMD. this is where I recall the 1.58v limit in regards to an X2. And I think this all had to do with the 8 phase circuitry.

Who knows, perhaps I'm just dreaming. :confused:

[cronic]

I can't for the life of me remember where I read it, but I seem positive I recall reading something regarding AMD and possibly Asus and some sort of limitation/safeguard imposed on max vcore. Where if an unsafe/higher than AMD's max recomended vcore was set it would automatically be down volted to the max specified by AMD. this is where I recall the 1.58v limit in regards to an X2. And I think this all had to do with the 8 phase circuitry.

Who knows, perhaps I'm just dreaming. :confused:

GRRRRRRRRRRRR!

[situman]

who cares if you cant get it fully stable at 1.58vcore chances are u aint getn much more out of it, even if you watercool. Sure pumping 1.7vcore into a chip might max out another 50mhz, but do you really want to kill ur chip that way?

[trza2k]

who cares if you cant get it fully stable at 1.58vcore chances are u aint getn much more out of it, even if you watercool. Sure pumping 1.7vcore into a chip might max out another 50mhz, but do you really want to kill ur chip that way?

Well then you can ask the question of why bother with watercooling, why bother with ram that will give you 20mhz more. Why bother buying a $260 board when you get a $100 one that will do 1.58v. Hell why even bother overclocking at all? ;)

[lowdog]

Well at least you have proven we don't have defective boards traz2k. Just some sort of limitation imposed by cpuid/bios/Asus/AMD. :fact:

[ben805]

anybody stuck a volt meter on the v-core caps to see what the v-core really is??
the hardware monitor may be wrong i think.

also what about a simple volt mod with a fixed resistor that would give .1 more at all times then all the volts you need would be available and you could fine tune it in the bios??


only if I know which one to tap onto, have a DM here that I can check but knowing Asus I wouldn't completely rely on the sucky PC Probe for vcore reading...

who cares if you cant get it fully stable at 1.58vcore chances are u aint getn much more out of it, even if you watercool. Sure pumping 1.7vcore into a chip might max out another 50mhz, but do you really want to kill ur chip that way?

I guess the limitation is good in order to prevent newbie from frying their cpu left and right as nobody in their right mind should be running their cpu more than 1.65v 24/7 and if or when something get fried I suppose Asus didn't want to have fingers pointing at them and being blame for mistake made by users, it's pretty smart of them to do that but this feature could be annoyance to those who don't mind BBQ their hardwares though :D

[jiff]

Now all we need is a Vdimm mod, then Im sold.
DFI wont see my cash again :slapass:

[ben805]

Now another question arise.....how well does this motherboard perform under subzero?? I guess I'll have to answer that questions myself....hehe, I'm going to prep the motherboard for a single stage phase change now and see if this A8N32 allow me to push my opty to the next level, couple weeks ago with the DFI Ultra-D I was able to passed OCCT and SPI 32M @3.40Ghz, I'm curious to see if I can breach that wall with this Asus, more results to follow soon..... ;)

[situman]

Well then you can ask the question of why bother with watercooling, why bother with ram that will give you 20mhz more. Why bother buying a $260 board when you get a $100 one that will do 1.58v. Hell why even bother overclocking at all? ;)

-watercool so we can go beyong stock volts, but even watercooling has its limits

-ur right who the heck needs a 260 dollar motherboard anyways, then again the evil side of us wants the latest and newest, and it might not be the best.

-ram and cpu two different thing can't compare really.

-we overclock to get the most bang, dollar wise, not having the chip explode cause we pumped too much volts into it. Besides these days who really "overclocks" anymore? All I hear about is people buying GTX, XT this, Platinum that. Ain't much of a value there. Some are willing to buy 1k dollar cpus. You're right why the hell do we even overclock when a lot of us always go for the highest price item there is or mucho dinero items? This place needs to be changed to extremespenders.com forums. Then again, this phenomenon seems to happen mostly on the videocard and AMD side. Intel guys still go for the lowest model and overclock the heck out of it while we purchase 400 dollar dualcore AMD cpus.

[situman]

Now another question arise.....how well does this motherboard perform under subzero?? I guess I'll have to answer that questions myself....hehe, I'm going to prep the motherboard for a single stage phase change now and see if this A8N32 allow me to push my opty to the next level, couple weeks ago with the DFI Ultra-D I was able to passed OCCT and SPI 32M @3.40Ghz, I'm curious to see if I can breach that wall with this Asus, more results to follow soon..... ;)

arent u limited on volts? or does it need less volts the colder it is?

[ben805]

arent u limited on volts? or does it need less volts the colder it is?


my 148 opty is not bound by the vcore limation and I do not have any problem with getting 1.75+v, I would never ever put more than 1.65v through any cpu so the 1.7~1.77v is pretty much useless to me and I don't really care for. As I said before I think somehow the Asus detected certain code from the cpu to determine where to put a cap on certain chips, so far lowdog and trza2k had found their dually to capped at 1.58, and his 3200 was capped at around 1.64v, so this limitation varies. Will lower temperature being able to shift the cap? that I don't know unless I have a dual core or 3200 to test just for the hell of it, but for now I'm only interested in finding out how well it perform under subzero.....be back with results later. :D

[ben805]

here's some screenie of the seal string in place, I also took out the metal backplate and have to grease and seal the back to prevent condensation as well, will fire up the phase change soon...

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40149


http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40148

[Psyche911]

ben, did you happen to check if the copper mosfet heatsink has thermal paste under it, since the other one doesn't?

[ben805]

ben, did you happen to check if the copper mosfet heatsink has thermal paste under it, since the other one doesn't?


yes I had already checked the copper heatpipe, they have thermal goo on SB, NB and under that chunk of copper fins so I don't see any benefit to mess with them :D the aluminum mosfet sink is the only one that doesn't has anything on.

[mag|c]

here's some screenie of the seal string in place, I also took out the metal backplate and have to grease and seal the back to prevent condensation as well, will fire up the phase change soon...

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40149


http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40148

lookin' good, lookin' good, show us some resaults already! :D :) :slobber:

[ben805]

I think I found a damn cold bug on this mobo....can't confirm yet but I'm working on it now, the vcore overvolt is giving me a hard time :slapass: so far I only get it up to 3.30 @1.50v, will keep trying and see what happen next...

update2: Under subzero so far the only bios that work well for me is 703, bios 804 and 805 do not like the cold, they might work for you so try them out and see what happen. Bios 502 is very problematic, if my overclock is unstable and can't get a POST, power cycling the PC with the insert or delete key pressed WILL NOT force the bios back to default setting, I had to removed the battery and disconnected the power for about 5min for the cmos to reset, took me a good 30min just to get the sucker to boot again, stay away from this version at all cost as I do not see any cmos reset jumper on this mobo! :eek: version 703 and up allow me to force the default setting with insert key.

I do not know if this is a bios issue or not but I've found that the vcore display on bios and PC Probe are very inaccurate...or I should say it's rather useless, the vcore sensor always show 1.48~1.50v whenever I set it from anywhere around 1.45 to 1.56v. The cpu temperature display on PC Probe is a joke, the BIOS shows the cpu temperature at -21'C but PC Probe reports it at +21'C, it's funny to see it went from +21'C down to +17'C when I started Prime, probably have the same bug as the Smartguardian and can't report subzero properly.

Overclocking under the phase change was not as smooth as I'd expected and part of the reason is that my expectation was a bit unrealistic, I was wishing for 3.50Ghz :D but 3.40 is pretty much the limit of this chip on single stage...as far as max clock goes it makes no difference on this board or the Ultra-D.

The windows version of Asus Update only allow you to upgrade the version, for downgrade you'll have to use the dos utility, after flashing the bios from DOS make sure you do a cold boot then load the default setting, and put all your settings back afterward, otherwise the power management and few other settings in the bios will get all whacky and windows might not load up anymore. In the mean time...I kinda missed the DFI's CMOS reloaded, it could come in handy from time to time. :D

[lowdog]

Well don't know what to think about this....but a guy just mentioned to me that a friend of his that works at Asus said the A8N32 had been recalled because it was frying cpu's with certain types of PSU's and there were other things still unknown. :confused:

Now I'm not saying this is a fact, I just don't know what the hell is the truth regarding this matter any more. :confused:

[Perc]

damm mb keeps sellin out at newegg arrrgg! whats with asus why cant they freakin send enough mbs for them to stay in stock longer then 3hrs!

peace perc,

[situman]

Perhaps the limited availability is due to Asus rigorously testing the available boards in stock and only ship those that passes the test. Might be a good thing since there's only been one case of someone killing their cpu.

[jw0rd]

I just received my Asus A8N32-SLI mobo from newegg today, I checked every single inch of this mobo for that rumor's "Rev 2.0 sticker" but it is no where to be found....
Well the Ebay rumor was that they won't ship to vendors for a few more days...but we'll see.

[cronic]

damm mb keeps sellin out at newegg arrrgg! whats with asus why cant they freakin send enough mbs for them to stay in stock longer then 3hrs!

peace perc,


Are you referring to today, as I don't see that they have had any since Thurs, and I show a 11/22 eta.

[cronic]

Well don't know what to think about this....but a guy just mentioned to me that a friend of his that works at Asus said the A8N32 had been recalled because it was frying cpu's with certain types of PSU's and there were other things still unknown. :confused:

Now I'm not saying this is a fact, I just don't know what the hell is the truth regarding this matter any more. :confused:


This has got to be one of the strangest product launch I have ever seen. I am totally confused at this point. The auction on ebay that started this whole rumor was pulled, then relisted and said it was pulled due to a prize giveaway. I have tried contacting him twice as to the rev. 2.0 deal and still no response.

[ben805]

uhmmm....yea, my brother's best friend's sister's fiance's cousin's ex-husband's uncle also said that Asus is going to secretely mail out a US$500 check to those who registered this product with them, they also said there's a huge overclocking contest schedule on December 17th 2005 at 12pm that is sponsor by Asus, the competition will be held in California at the Sparkomatic stadium, the top overclocker award is a brand spanking new 2006 SVT Mustang, 2nd place is Geo Metro and 3rd place will be half a dozen of FX-57 so make sure you sign up for this jaw-dropping contest, they said even the worst overclockers will get a free special t-shirt that has the signature of the world famous champion gamer named Mrknow Itall.

But wait, I also heard from somewhere that Asus just bought out Abit but they're working around the clock on their newest chipset that is suppose to have 4 trillion transistors, watch out nvidia!! :rolleyes:

[cronic]

uhmmm....yea, my brother's best friend's sister's fiance's cousin's ex-husband's uncle also said that Asus is going to secretely mail out a US$500 check to those who registered this product with them, they also said there's a huge overclocking contest schedule on December 17th 2005 at 12pm that is sponsor by Asus, the competition will be held in California at the Sparkomatic stadium, the top overclocker award is a brand spanking new 2006 SVT Mustang, 2nd place is Geo Metro and 3rd place will be half a dozen of FX-57 so make sure you sign up for this jaw-dropping contest, they said even the worst overclockers will get a free special t-shirt that has the signature of the world famous champion gamer named Mrknow Itall.

But wait, I also heard from somewhere that Asus just bought out Abit but they're working around the clock on their newest chipset that is suppose to have 4 trillion transistors, watch out nvidia!! :rolleyes:


hehehehe

[pcdoc1]

LOL :toast:

[chunkylover77]

Holy cow I've gotta book the flight. A free T shirt is sweet.

[Supertim0r]

lol :cheer:

[gundamit]

@ Ben - Sorry if this is slightly OT - but I just wanted to ask about the prep work you did on the CPU for phase testing. It took me a while to figure out what I was looking at because I've never seen this technique before. It looks like you applied the seal string directly to the IHS-less (a.k.a. naked) CPU, leaving only the core exposed. I can make out the "bumpers" you put on the CPU to prevent crushing or chipping. What the heck is the the rectangular shape directly below the core? Can you post a shot of the evap head attached. Thanks.

[cronic]

what is the difference between neophrene and "seal string" all i have ever used for phase is neophrene.

[craig588]

Neoprene foam comes in sheets like cloth (I can't think of a better way to describe it, but it's still a bad description)

Steal String is like putty. Seal String is incredibly overpriced and should be avoided. For 10$ you can get about 20 times as much as is included in a roll of seal string from Home Depot, it's called cork tape.

[ben805]

@ Ben - Sorry if this is slightly OT - but I just wanted to ask about the prep work you did on the CPU for phase testing. It took me a while to figure out what I was looking at because I've never seen this technique before. It looks like you applied the seal string directly to the IHS-less (a.k.a. naked) CPU, leaving only the core exposed. I can make out the "bumpers" you put on the CPU to prevent crushing or chipping. What the heck is the the rectangular shape directly below the core? Can you post a shot of the evap head attached. Thanks.

hehe....that's worn out black electrical tape on the cpu that you're looking at, I do this to all naked chips to protect those little ICS around the core, they also provide cushion whenever I mount heatsink or evap head on them to prevent chipped core...pretty much a double edged sword, there's no bumpers or feets...two layers of the tape is all you need. ;) as you can see there are quite a few ICs have the print out showing on the tape, those ICs would of been crushed without the tape.

[ben805]

The widest point of the video card with 2-slot cooler (NV Silencer in my case) is 2.1". There is about .5" space between two SLI cards and another .5" between the second vid card and the sound card. Could you measure how much room between the second PCI-e slot and the last PCI slot?


If I put my 7800GT in 2nd PCI-E slot, there's very little breathing room between the GPU heatsink and the last PCI slot at the bottom, if you have a double slots GTX with jumbo heatsink on 2nd PCI-E slot there's no way you can squeeze anything onto the last PCI.

[RyderOCZ]

@Ben805,

Super Job here.....I really applaud your attention to detail and answering all the questions :)

Bravo !!! :toast: :banana: :woot:

[situman]

when will the ocz boys get to testing one of these? Doesn't seem fair they only test DFI products.

[chunkylover77]

Situman I think they are testing it out. I remember one of the OCZ guys hinting there was something real nice about this board. He did not elaborate on it though.

[situman]

i know thats why i am asking. hope they would give us results soon.

[ben805]

@Ben805,

Super Job here.....I really applaud your attention to detail and answering all the questions :)

Bravo !!! :toast: :banana: :woot:


thanks for the kind words....I'll try my best to post my finding ;) this board is fun to play with and I would love to see how it performs with some OCZ sticks as well. :toast:

[jw0rd]

Yes, please keep us updated!

[CyberOps]

power cycling the PC with the insert or delete key pressed WILL NOT force the bios back to default setting, I had to removed the battery and disconnected the power for about 5min for the cmos to reset, took me a good 30min just to get the sucker to boot again, stay away from this version at all cost as I do not see any cmos reset jumper on this mobo! :eek: version 703 and up allow me to force the default setting with insert key.

doesnt your board have de jumper placed on top right of the batery?? i'm seeing it on the manual that i download from asus website, page46 section 2.6.

[RyderOCZ]

Situman I think they are testing it out. I remember one of the OCZ guys hinting there was something real nice about this board. He did not elaborate on it though.I hinted at that based on "early info" that I heard through the grapevine about its performance.

I do believe they have one at HQ for testing puposes and so far I have heard good results. I do not know what ram they have used in it yet, etc. But I guess things are very positive.

To my knowledge, non of the forum staff have this board......Yet ;)

@Situman.....If Asus would send out boards like DFI does....you can bet we would have results for you :D

[Tony]

I got one on the way, should have it in a few days im told ;)

If you think this is good Wesley as AT has the new RD480 Asus mobo at 325fsb 1:1 fully stable for a new record with his OCZ TCCD 3-4-3- timings...Im hoping to get one of these boards also ;)

[ben805]

doesnt your board have de jumper placed on top right of the batery?? i'm seeing it on the manual that i download from asus website, page46 section 2.6.

thanks for the info....I was looking for jumper labeling like 'CMOS' but I guess I should of read the dang user manual :lol: they refer it as RTC RAM...wouldn't of suspect that was the one to reset when I took out the battery :p: at the bottom of section 2.6 on the manual it said:
"• You do not need to clear the RTC when the system hangs due to overclocking. For system failure due to overclocking, use the C.P.R. (CPU Parameter Recall) feature. Shut down and reboot the system so the BIOS can automatically reset parameter settings to default values."

9 out of 10 times this C.P.R feature doesn't work for me when i was using 703 version and was trying to boot up at 3.45Ghz+ :lol:

[ben805]

I hinted at that based on "early info" that I heard through the grapevine about its performance.

I do believe they have one at HQ for testing puposes and so far I have heard good results. I do not know what ram they have used in it yet, etc. But I guess things are very positive.

To my knowledge, non of the forum staff have this board......Yet ;)

@Situman.....If Asus would send out boards like DFI does....you can bet we would have results for you :D

Tweaking the memory timing on this board is much easier IMO, and it is very forgiving as well, micron chips are practically plug-n-play now...which is not possible before. :D

I got one on the way, should have it in a few days im told ;)

If you think this is good Wesley as AT has the new RD480 Asus mobo at 325fsb 1:1 fully stable for a new record with his OCZ TCCD 3-4-3- timings...Im hoping to get one of these boards also ;)


That's great news....I'm looking forward to some great results as you guys have more experiences on all these timing deal, and I hope before long someone is willing to come up with a mod bios to further enhance this very fine piece of hardware ;) Speaking of running 1:1....I'll have to try my ballistix tonight when i got home from work :yepp:

[situman]

I got one on the way, should have it in a few days im told ;)

If you think this is good Wesley as AT has the new RD480 Asus mobo at 325fsb 1:1 fully stable for a new record with his OCZ TCCD 3-4-3- timings...Im hoping to get one of these boards also ;)

thats good to hear, we need experts like you guys to test various mobos and not just one brand.

[Supertim0r]

I got one on the way, should have it in a few days im told ;)

If you think this is good Wesley as AT has the new RD480 Asus mobo at 325fsb 1:1 fully stable for a new record with his OCZ TCCD 3-4-3- timings...Im hoping to get one of these boards also ;)

maybe an A8N32 modded bios ? :D

[amrgb]

Tweaking the memory timing on this board is much easier IMO, and it is very forgiving as well, micron chips are practically plug-n-play now...which is not possible before. :D

Well, in my DFI NF4 Ultra-D it was plug n play. I even pulled out 290 at the first attempt :p:

It seems that this is a nice board. It's a shame the vcore issue (and the price). But I'm sure that it's nothing a modded bios can't solve.

Congrats for your awesome review.

PS: I have a 3500 winnie on air @1.75v for 9 months (no IHS). Still working as in day 1 ;)

[trza2k]

when will the ocz boys get to testing one of these? Doesn't seem fair they only test DFI products.

i've got some OCZ EB 2GB that i might test out tonight if i can get over the voltage limit on the cpus :mad:

[ben805]

I've been hammering the ballistix for the last hour and still trying to stabilize them at 300 1:1, while trying different combinations of unfamiliar settings I'm getting BSOD and corrupted startup files left and right.....good thing I made an image of the hard drive to restore from :D :D Only if I knew what the heck is DDR clock Skew and DDR Input Strobe Skew.....ai yai yai!

[SamHughe]

If I put my 7800GT in 2nd PCI-E slot, there's very little breathing room between the GPU heatsink and the last PCI slot at the bottom, if you have a double slots GTX with jumbo heatsink on 2nd PCI-E slot there's no way you can squeeze anything onto the last PCI.

Thanks! It's good to know.

[Psyche911]

P.S. New review up:
http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q4/asus-a8n32-sli/index.x?pg=1

[madpete]

I've been hammering the ballistix for the last hour and still trying to stabilize them at 300 1:1, while trying different combinations of unfamiliar settings I'm getting BSOD and corrupted startup files left and right.....good thing I made an image of the hard drive to restore from :D :D Only if I knew what the heck is DDR clock Skew and DDR Input Strobe Skew.....ai yai yai!


Ben, whats the best stable speed you've got out of the Ballistix so far on this board? :toast:

[OgreX]

here's some screenie of the seal string in place, I also took out the metal backplate and have to grease and seal the back to prevent condensation as well, will fire up the phase change soon...

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40149


http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40148
Thank you for posting those pics.
you just brought my butchered opteron 146 back from the dead with that
electrical tape idea..
link (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=80620)

[Lazar]

I got one on the way, should have it in a few days im told ;)

If you think this is good Wesley as AT has the new RD480 Asus mobo at 325fsb 1:1 fully stable for a new record with his OCZ TCCD 3-4-3- timings...Im hoping to get one of these boards also ;)
Nice to hear that as I already (pre-)ordered the Asus A8R-MVP... did you get the info directly from him or is it somwhere on AT's forums bcs the review isn't out yet?

[Blue078]

P.S. New review up:
http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q4/asus-a8n32-sli/index.x?pg=1


The reviewer botched the overclocking results...he used a "8.5 multi"

[jw0rd]

The reviewer botched the overclocking results...he used a "8.5 multi"
He botched it somehow, doesn't seem right at all.

[ben805]

Thank you for posting those pics.
you just brought my butchered opteron 146 back from the dead with that
electrical tape idea..
link (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=80620)

glad your opty is alive again, I think with the tape prevent those exposed copper traces from getting short circuit with heatsink, you probably can apply a thin layer of nail polish on the damaged surface then put the tape back on to further protect them.

[ben805]

Ben, whats the best stable speed you've got out of the Ballistix so far on this board? :toast:

I didn't play with it long enough last night and went to bed instead, the big typhoon is back in the case and I'd jumped straight from 282 to 300 last night so the best stable speed was at 282 from the previous 3.10Ghz run. I really wish this asus has the CMOS Reloaded option and I think this board is begging for a BIOS update, the TREF only has 3 options so I didn't have much to try there, from experience TREF play a major role in overclocking these Ballistix so it would be helpful if I could get more values to play with. I'd also noticed if the timing and overclock speed was instable then the BIOS would either automatically relax the TREF, TWR, MAL and READ Preamble, or it would not work at all. I suppose the board is doing its job to prevent me from frying these sticks when I was hammering them at 300, though it could be annoying at time. :p: we really need some skillful memory tweaker such as Tony or the OCZ folks who know what their doing to exploit all these timing, for me it's pretty much trial and error shooting in the dark. :D

[madpete]

I didn't play with it long enough last night and went to bed instead, the big typhoon is back in the case and I'd jumped straight from 282 to 300 last night so the best stable speed was at 282 from the previous 3.10Ghz run. I really wish this asus has the CMOS Reloaded option and I think this board is begging for a BIOS update, the TREF only has 3 options so I didn't have much to try there, from experience TREF play a major role in overclocking these Ballistix so it would be helpful if I could get more values to play with. I'd also noticed if the timing and overclock speed was instable then the BIOS would either automatically relax the TREF, TWR, MAL and READ Preamble, or it would not work at all. I suppose the board is doing its job to prevent me from frying these sticks when I was hammering them at 300, though it could be annoying at time. :p: we really need some skillful memory tweaker such as Tony or the OCZ folks who know what their doing to exploit all these timing, for me it's pretty much trial and error shooting in the dark. :D

Agreed yeah, looking forward to Tony's results.

Can I just ask you one more thing? Are these results at T1?

I can't get my board and ram to do over 285mhz at T1 (1:1), and the ram is capable 300mhz+ T1 on the DFI.

Cheers Ben.

[ben805]

Agreed yeah, looking forward to Tony's results.

Can I just ask you one more thing? Are these results at T1?

I can't get my board and ram to do over 285mhz at T1 (1:1), and the ram is capable 300mhz+ T1 on the DFI.

Cheers Ben.

no problem at all....feel free ask, yes I only use 1T and definitely will stay away from 2T unless I'm running 4 x1GB, which I'll try as soon as I received my RMA pair back from newegg. set 11ns for Async Latency, 9.5ns for Read Preamble, and 24clk for TRFC,TRC in Auto, once you dial in those values then leave them for now, there is only three settings for TREF so play with it one at a time and see what happen.

[stone_cold_Jimi]

Super-cool ben - i have 2GB Ballistix too and my mobo is being delivered tomorrow. :woot:

I can see myself sparking up my untried VapoChill Ls for the first time with this. Thanks for the luxurious amount of info you've provided here. :cool:

[ben805]

i've got some OCZ EB 2GB that i might test out tonight if i can get over the voltage limit on the cpus :mad:


Try leaving the vcore at 1.40v, and enable the overvolt and see what happen, do not rely on the POS vcore reading from BIOS....it's useless, if it still reads 1.58v but in reality you might be pumping 1.62v so don't get too crazy on the voltage just because the meter report it at 1.58. When I set mine to 1.450v the bios vcore reads 1.50v, when I turned it up to 1.56v the bios vcore still stuck at 1.50v :stick:

[cronic]

i finally got a response from the guy that started the whole rumor about the rev 2. He stated that the boards he is selling are rev 1.01. SO THERE IS NO REV 2.0!! Which I think we probably already figured out, but I just wanted to add my findings.

[ben805]

Super-cool ben - i have 2GB Ballistix too and my mobo is being delivered tomorrow. :woot:

I can see myself sparking up my untried VapoChill Ls for the first time with this. Thanks for the luxurious amount of info you've provided here. :cool:

no problem ;) when you take out the backplate for your LS install, take your time to do it...the backplate has some sticky stuff on it, if you're going to use screw driver to pry it out just becareful not to scratch the crap out of the pcb :lol: use the provided heatpipe fan anyway eventhough I didn't find any significant gain from it, use the cpu fan header otherwise the BIOS will throw a cpu fan error during POST.

i finally got a response from the guy that started the whole rumor about the rev 2. He stated that the boards he is selling are rev 1.01. SO THERE IS NO REV 2.0!! Which I think we probably already figured out, but I just wanted to add my findings.

I'd figured...thanks for letting us know though :D :D

[fareastgq]

Guys, I got my board this morning, I popped in my 3000 to setup the install, played with cpu volts first, I got 1.68 with the overvolt option, one thing I notcied is that the vcore reading is off, set at 1.4 in bios gets u 1.45 (IN the BIOS). I think the bios needs to be updated, I managed 1.68 BUT, if the overvolt (the overvolt that in in ADDITION to the optional overvolt) is not being read, it would actually be correct even though the cpu reading is incorrect, anyone got a fluke/multi meter so we can verify this? Also, Ben, did u notice that there is a thin layer of shin etsu on your mostfet sink? it's covered in plastic to protect the joint in shipping, I peeled it off, then removed the junk and put some ceramic on there, I advise everyone else to do the same. Well, more testing when I get home, I'll pop in my duallys when I get a fresh install in :) MORE TO COME....

[Ic3man]

Got my board coming tommorow with a 165 opty. Wont be able to do much tho as I aint got my 512GTx coming till the end of the week...I will be keeping a very cloe eye on this thread :slobber: ..gr8 work Ben :clap:

[cronic]

in stock at mwave. better hurry

[ben805]

Guys, I got my board this morning, I popped in my 3000 to setup the install, played with cpu volts first, I got 1.68 with the overvolt option, one thing I notcied is that the vcore reading is off, set at 1.4 in bios gets u 1.45 (IN the BIOS). I think the bios needs to be updated, I managed 1.68 BUT, if the overvolt (the overvolt that in in ADDITION to the optional overvolt) is not being read, it would actually be correct even though the cpu reading is incorrect, anyone got a fluke/multi meter so we can verify this? Also, Ben, did u notice that there is a thin layer of shin etsu on your mostfet sink? it's covered in plastic to protect the joint in shipping, I peeled it off, then removed the junk and put some ceramic on there, I advise everyone else to do the same. Well, more testing when I get home, I'll pop in my duallys when I get a fresh install in :) MORE TO COME....

Glad to hear, awaiting results.....hehe. I'd mentioned this before but as a reminder....do not rely on the vcore reading, it's extremely inaccurate! :stick: if you set the vcore to 1.56 and enable the overvolt...you are more than likely pumping 1.76~1.77v to your cpu even if the reading stuck at 1.68v, and yes this motherboard is begging for a bios update to correct a few bugs. I just found out that if you need a vdimm reading you'll have to install the Ai-Booster on your windows, the bios and pc probe don't have any vdimm. For now I'm going to stick with BIOS 703 which is the one that shipped with the board, I do not have much confidence in using the beta 804 and 805 after messing around with them in the past couple days, if I remember correctly I believe those bios date are as follow: 703 - 10/27/05, 804 - 11/6/05, and 805 - 11/8/05. What shin are you refering to? got any picture? I didn't see any on mine....I just put some AS5 on all those mosfets then put the aluminum sink back on.

I'm still at work but when I get home I'll see if I can use my DMM to measure the vcore, alright...someone pointed out the vcore can be measure from one of the mosfet or coil, will have to hunt for it then :D

[jw0rd]

i finally got a response from the guy that started the whole rumor about the rev 2. He stated that the boards he is selling are rev 1.01. SO THERE IS NO REV 2.0!! Which I think we probably already figured out, but I just wanted to add my findings.
Very interesting, my board comes sometime around Friday I'll take a look. Gotta love how the price immediately drops tho... :mad:

[Ozan Baseski]

First of all thanks for your patience and your nice review of this card. You gave us very useful information. I also wonder if there's a chance of giving more than 3.2 volts to ram sticks other than vmodding? I'd love to use some bh5 on this mobo

[cronic]

Very interesting, my board comes sometime around Friday I'll take a look. Gotta love how the price immediately drops tho... :mad:

yea in 2 weeks they will be 200.00, but thats the price you pay for being on the bleeding edge.

[fareastgq]

if u take your mosfet sink off ben, look closely, u will see it, it's almost the same color as the sink itself and u almost can't tell that it's there. Unless they missed yours, guess it could happen. There is a plastic layer, then TIM, then the sink itself. it's the same crap amd uses which is made by shin etsu.

[ben805]

First of all thanks for your patience and your nice review of this card. You gave us very useful information. I also wonder if there's a chance of giving more than 3.2 volts to ram sticks other than vmodding? I'd love to use some bh5 on this mobo

3.2v is the most you can get out of the vdimm on this board, you'll need to either vmod it, or get the OCZ booster.


if u take your mosfet sink off ben, look closely, u will see it, it's almost the same color as the sink itself and u almost can't tell that it's there. Unless they missed yours, guess it could happen. There is a plastic layer, then TIM, then the sink itself. it's the same crap amd uses which is made by shin etsu.

hmm....I don't recall seeing any thing like that, here is the picture of the mosfet sink, I yank it off the minute I took the mobo out of the package....no TIM whatsoever can be found on the sink :confused: lookie here...

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40056

I guess they probably missed it....in a way I'm glad they did because I'll more than likely scrap it off and use AS5 anyway :D

[fareastgq]

yeah, they didn't do it to yours, I wish they didn't waste it on mine too, wasted 10 mins of my time, heh.

[cronic]

alright got my ship confirmation on both boards. I will have them tommorow. I will post results as soon as possible. I CAN'T WAIT!~!!!!!!!!!

[situman]

wat kind of caps does this board use? They look like rubycons, but then again they don't. I hope they are high quality, especially the "RIO" thing they slapped on top of it.

[ben805]

bad news.....I'd RMA my first pair of Ballistix a week or two ago and while I'm still waiting for them, guess what? my current pair is dying on me ALREADY!!! highest vdimm I tried for the 300 run was 2.9v, no wonder I can't get it to run properly and kept getting those BSOD and corrupted files, put the sticks in Ultra-D and get the same type of deal.....and I only have this pair for 3 weeks :lol: I need to find a 2GB replacement quick and going to stay the h3ll away from these dang ballistix....geewiz, I guess all those horror stories I heard about these ballistix degrading then died are for real. :stick: I'm looking for OCZ as replacement so can someone recommend which 2GB to get?

[cronic]

I WOULD TRY THE OCZ5002048EBPE-K or the mushkin Model 991492 (991493 dual)
1GB XP4000 Redline . That would be my reccomendation.

[cronic]

Well Fed ex just dropped off the motherboards. time to make raid drivers and install this sucka

[Ic3man]

I got the Corsair 2 gig of XMS3500LL as corsair designed the ram around the board apparently (could be wrong). I have always gone with corsair and never had a problem with them at all. Dying to try out this new setup tbh.

Can't comment on OCz although I always assumed they worked better with DFI boards.

[fareastgq]

Well guys, I got good news and bad news, good news is, this board is rock solid, v-core doesn't budge, it's just as fast as the dfi. bad news, stuck in a 3000, max vcore I got was 1.68, stuck in my opty, max vcore I got was 1.6. I have no idea if those are the real volts, what I do know is, since I couldn't tell from voltage readings, I went off the temp gauge. Setting anything to try to get past these "maxes" set by the board, apparently really does nothing, my temps didn't climb at all so I can only conclude that the volts are not changing, trust me, I tried to dump 1.8 volts into my opty so I could see a temp change. from 1.45 to 1.6, there is about 2c diff., so I should have seen another 2c's or so if the volts actually went up, You may not want to let this discourage you though if you have an opty, I'm at 2.9 and climbing atm :) If you turn on ECC setting for ram, you will not get past a certian point, the system will just not boot into windows. For me it was 2.8gigs. Also, I had to save the bios settings a couple times because for some reason it wouldn't read 260, it booted up at 250 once, then after I saved again, it finally showed 260, I blame a flakey bios. Writing this on a diff comp, so no screenies yet, I'll post them when I run benches and all that for u guys :) Might as well keep this thread going.. Btw, putting the heatpipe fan on netted a difference of about 8-10c, damn it works good. For 250 bux they should have given you another fan though for the mosfet sink. I haven't gotten to my 4400 yet, so I'll post that when I pop it in, might as well see what volts I get with that. I have to remount a few times anyway, I have a feeling my chip is not making good contact with the g5.

[ben805]

Thanks for the recommendation....wanted to get the OCZ EB but they're out of stock everywhere, and since someone said the Mushkin Redline have the same IC so I'd placed my order just now to have them overnight to me, can't wait for some Infenion action! :D :D.


Well guys, I got good news and bad news, good news is, this board is rock solid, v-core doesn't budge, it's just as fast as the dfi. bad news, stuck in a 3000, max vcore I got was 1.68, stuck in my opty, max vcore I got was 1.6. I have no idea if those are the real volts, what I do know is, since I couldn't tell from voltage readings, I went off the temp gauge. Setting anything to try to get past these "maxes" set by the board, apparently really does nothing, my temps didn't climb at all so I can only conclude that the volts are not changing, trust me, I tried to dump 1.8 volts into my opty so I could see a temp change. from 1.45 to 1.6, there is about 2c diff., so I should have seen another 2c's or so if the volts actually went up, You may not want to let this discourage you though if you have an opty, I'm at 2.9 and climbing atm :) If you turn on ECC setting for ram, you will not get past a certian point, the system will just not boot into windows. For me it was 2.8gigs. Also, I had to save the bios settings a couple times because for some reason it wouldn't read 260, it booted up at 250 once, then after I saved again, it finally showed 260, I blame a flakey bios. Writing this on a diff comp, so no screenies yet, I'll post them when I run benches and all that for u guys :) Might as well keep this thread going.. Btw, putting the heatpipe fan on netted a difference of about 8-10c, damn it works good. For 250 bux they should have given you another fan though for the mosfet sink. I haven't gotten to my 4400 yet, so I'll post that when I pop it in, might as well see what volts I get with that. I have to remount a few times anyway, I have a feeling my chip is not making good contact with the g5.


Glad yours is up and running, and yes always disable the ECC option :D When I was using phase change I didn't see much gain from that little heatpipe fan, maybe my 80mm ram fan was able to cool it along already :D

[stone_cold_Jimi]

I got the Corsair 2 gig of XMS3500LL as corsair designed the ram around the board apparently (could be wrong).

That's what it says on the box - "Corsair XMS-3500LL Ready".

I'm going to be terrifically peeved if my Ballistix turns out to be sh1te. K, to business...

[jsriolo]

Does anyone have an xp-120 they could fit on this thing? I would love to see how much clearance that gets and how it is best oriented.

[uOpt]

If you turn on ECC setting for ram, you will not get past a certian point, the system will just not boot into windows.

Sorry, did you try that while you had ECC memory in there?

[fareastgq]

Sorry, did you try that while you had ECC memory in there?

Nope, ballistix

[bobov]

Does anyone have an xp-120 they could fit on this thing? I would love to see how much clearance that gets and how it is best oriented.

I've installed xp-120 on my A8N32 without problem, however dimm1 cannot be used.

[lowdog]

I've installed xp-120 on my A8N32 without problem, however dimm1 cannot be used.


Dimm 1 can be used, you just have to slide the stick in under the heatsink then it will fit in fine.

I've had the XP-120 and the XP-90 on the board. Best results were with the XP-90 and the fan on the heatpipe radiator. This combo droped mobo temps by 8C.

[jsriolo]

Thank you for answering my question. I had a DFI NF4 SLI-DR but had to RMA it and I think it may have been lost in the mail. If it doesn't come back then that wouldn't break my heart, I'd just go pick up my insurance and take a serious look at one of these. It's good to hear that the xp-120 works. I had to slide my ram under it for the DFI also.

[fareastgq]

ok, max clock I got with that limited v-core which claims to be 1.6vcore is 2933mhz ,stupid limit, anyone want this board? I'm gonna go back to somthing that I can fry my hardware with.

[trza2k]

ok, max clock I got with that limited v-core which claims to be 1.6vcore is 2933mhz ,stupid limit, anyone want this board? I'm gonna go back to somthing that I can fry my hardware with.

Likewise. You dont buy a ferrari to get limited to 100mph. I raised 2 cases with ASUS and the only response i got back was to fill out a form to replace my motherboard fan wtf???. No support and was not told about fixing this issue so will probably sell off this board cheap and not bother with asus again.

[situman]

ok, max clock I got with that limited v-core which claims to be 1.6vcore is 2933mhz ,stupid limit, anyone want this board? I'm gonna go back to somthing that I can fry my hardware with.

So that means you want a DFI. 2.933ghz with 1.6vcore is impressive. Not really sure what the problem is. Sounds solid and overclocks extremely well. You should have said something a week ago. I would have picked it up from u in a heartbeat. If you like frying hardwares, you got issues buddy.

[situman]

Likewise. You dont buy a ferrari to get limited to 100mph. I raised 2 cases with ASUS and the only response i got back was to fill out a form to replace my motherboard fan wtf???. No support and was not told about fixing this issue so will probably sell off this board cheap and not bother with asus again.

You buy a ferrari to race on the weekends, not drive it to work. Depending on what you are going to do with ur rig, you are not really limited. If you want to set benching records, yes you are limited. 24/7 thats more than sufficient. Besides, who drives over 100mph to work anyways?

[ben805]

Likewise. You dont buy a ferrari to get limited to 100mph. I raised 2 cases with ASUS and the only response i got back was to fill out a form to replace my motherboard fan wtf???. No support and was not told about fixing this issue so will probably sell off this board cheap and not bother with asus again.

That's the major drawback of owning any other brand other than the DFI in this overclocking community, with the Lanparty or Expert atleast we can get some type of communication, help, and advice from Tony, Oskar Wu, the DFI-street forum, and a bunch of other technical folks. Otherwise we're pretty much on our own, I understand a solid product should not need much support (if any), but sh1t man...I can't believe Asus going to give you a replacement fan to 'fix' it. :stick: But Situman is definitely right though, if you only care about setting WR and don't mind the risk of frying more hardware....this board ain't gonna cut it for you.

[fareastgq]

I like to push the hardware, I know it's got alot more clocks, I'm wasting my money not getting the clocks I could have. ;) Asus is cheating me out of more mhz, heh. If I push it and fry it, it's ok, I'll get more. Driving a ferarri 25mph, just not exciting.

[trza2k]

You buy a ferrari to race on the weekends, not drive it to work. Depending on what you are going to do with ur rig, you are not really limited. If you want to set benching records, yes you are limited. 24/7 thats more than sufficient. Besides, who drives over 100mph to work anyways?

Race on weekends?? Tell that to my bosses lol. Either way taking your ferrari to the racetrack and only being limited is still very annoying for such an expensive product.

All i want is 1.65ish volts for my x2 and yes it may only give me a slightly better overclock then @1.58 but i paid so much for the board i expect to get that little bit more otherwise what is the point of even owning this board?

[Major]

Guys the board only been available for a week now :D

Give it some time, I've got one coming and I'm welcoming the change from the DFI. Not that the DFI NF4's I've had were anything less than great but I'm ready to play with something new. IMO the Vcore is limited by the power requiremnts of the cpu type, this is done in the bios and as such there should be a bios available at some point that will allow full Vcore (even if its a modded bios and not an Asus release)

This board has tremendous potential, be patient and it may be realized

[situman]

mine coming tomorrow. I hope they wont be stupid and deliver at like 11am.

[cronic]

well i'm up and runnin, but it is having a fit at 1t ddr600. i have been pullin my hair out all day. as it stands i am having to run 2t which sucks. gotta be something i am missing in the bios. looks like no sleep tonight. also my board came loaded with the suck ass 502 bios that won't let you install an os. That was alot of fun. now i on 703. anybody tried the beta bios with any luck in improving oc? welp, back to the bios.

[bigjohns97]

ok, max clock I got with that limited v-core which claims to be 1.6vcore is 2933mhz ,stupid limit, anyone want this board? I'm gonna go back to somthing that I can fry my hardware with.

You seriously want to sell it?

[fareastgq]

be nice if they just turned OFF that annoying feature with the next bios. I need to drive this thing 24/7 at the highest possible clocks it will go. I don't care about benches or world records, going for top 24/7 clocks. yes, I want to sell it, hehe. It's no prob if your chip has the option to go to 1.7 volts, but mine just didn't put that in asus bios. when modded one comes out, I'll just grab another one, no big deal at all.

[ben805]

Guys the board only been available for a week now :D

Give it some time, I've got one coming and I'm welcoming the change from the DFI. Not that the DFI NF4's I've had were anything less than great but I'm ready to play with something new. IMO the Vcore is limited by the power requiremnts of the cpu type, this is done in the bios and as such there should be a bios available at some point that will allow full Vcore (even if its a modded bios and not an Asus release)

This board has tremendous potential, be patient and it may be realized

hehe....Major nailed it! eventually we'll get more people to report their finding and exploits, remember back in the day we'd volt modded the crap out of the A7N8X-Deluxe rev 2.0 to push those little barton....it was mucho fun :D


As far as vcore concern, I still have yet to find the mosfet or coil to measure the correct reading so even if the vcore reads 1.68v in the bios....it's very possible that you're actually getting 1.7v+.

[fareastgq]

Board is up for grabs in the FS section, sorry Ben and everyone else, I just really really really want this opty to be at 3 gigs prime or this thing in the back of my head will be bugging me forever. I....can't.. make it stop......must get diff...ernt... board to kill hardware...

EDIT : I will however pop my 4400 in there quick just to see what vcore pops out and let u guys know about it (before it's gone) :)

[Capt_Caveman]

That's the major drawback of owning any other brand other than the DFI in this overclocking community, with the Lanparty or Expert atleast we can get some type of communication, help, and advice from Tony, Oskar Wu, the DFI-street forum, and a bunch of other technical folks. Otherwi