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

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Originally Posted by Rangerdave

i read the first 20 pages and got impatient :). i just got a couple quick question to make up my decision between a8n32 sli deluxe and the sli-dr expert. i currentely have an a8n sli deluxe first rev and an a8n-e. both of which cannot do 1t ~ 240-245 fsb. and this is pissing me off. if read that some people are limited to 1t ~ 285-290 which i dont really worry about but is there any fix in later rev's or anything of this board or bios updates that fixes the 1t problem @ all? and is there any cases of people being limited to anything under ~ 270?. this is basically my only concern for this board but if someone could answer this question and maybe list what remaining problems there is with this board it would be most appreciated. thank you

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I have had no problems running 1T at all but have only taken it to 250MHz - if u fill all the dimms (four) slots then u wil be limited to 2T and if u use only 1GB (2x512) will will get tighter mem timings (rather than 2GB) but thats the same across all the mobos

the list the remaining problems is a bit of an unfair question, as I think the question should be what r the mobos limits - Mine wont do 3GHz at 1.3V (but I dont have the best stepping) the passive cooling of the mobo can lead to high temps, external exhausting the GPUs helps' the mobo from reviews does seem to draw more watts than others for the same CPU overclock even with the 8phase power.

I was gettting slow downs with the 1103 bios and did get a BSOD - but been fine when I went back to 1009 - have 'Q&C' enabled and works fine with an overclock - seach the thread - works a treat (thanks Marois again)

But generally I am very happy with the mobo but depends on how high u want your overclock and how stable u require your system - unless u want to play super PI

i got my self ocz enhanced latency platnum edition pc4200 512 sticks. i have gotten them to 2.5-3-3-8@ 285 on my a8n-e but as i said only 2t :(. i want a board that can do this @ 1t so i can actually get a good memory bandwidth and i know dfi is a for sure winner but i was thinking about trying asus one more time it can do this. both my a8n sli deluxe and a8n-e have been a huge disapointement for over 245 fsb ocing for memory. i will have a small oc for 24/7 use its just the hi end i want to do every once in a while for some benchmarking endevurs. so if people can post the highest they have done 1:1 @ 1t that would be great so i could possably see the avg that i am gonna have if i do choose the asus over dfi once again. i also heard someone say the asus is better for stapability and long use anyways.

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Originally Posted by Rangerdave

i got my self ocz enhanced latency platnum edition pc4200 512 sticks. i have gotten them to 2.5-3-3-8@ 285 on my a8n-e but as i said only 2t :(. i want a board that can do this @ 1t so i can actually get a good memory bandwidth and i know dfi is a for sure winner but i was thinking about trying asus one more time it can do this. both my a8n sli deluxe and a8n-e have been a huge disapointement for over 245 fsb ocing for memory. i will have a small oc for 24/7 use its just the hi end i want to do every once in a while for some benchmarking endevurs. so if people can post the highest they have done 1:1 @ 1t that would be great so i could possably see the avg that i am gonna have if i do choose the asus over dfi once again. i also heard someone say the asus is better for stapability and long use anyways.

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hey bud i ahve owned all of the boards you are discussing (several of some) and i have to say the the a8n32 is by far my favorite. i have had it 1:1(200) 1t @279 and my memory wouldn't do more, but that wasn't the boards fault, it was the memory. i am currently running with a 166 divider 1t @ 335 x9 with no issues at all. that puts the ram at approx 275. i love this board.

i too like this board its not a simplistic board but its not a lanparty either it has just enough tweeks to get me into trouble

cronic your opinion about my oc and the corsair ram

do you think that if i went with the same g skill as you i could increase the oc i have now?

thanks tom

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Originally Posted by tommrussell

i too like this board its not a simplistic board but its not a lanparty either it has just enough tweeks to get me into trouble

cronic your opinion about my oc and the corsair ram

do you think that if i went with the same g skill as you i could increase the oc i have now?

thanks tom

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probably gain 0-9Mhz on the memory speed. I have tested about 20 sets of this gskill and all but one set did at least 270. max was 278-279. the recent 0602 seemed to be pretty good. newegg was shipping them for the last few weeks, and with the price at 162.00 right now thay are an incredible value. if a few mhz matters to you then i would say go for it. gskill just released the hv series which will run at tigher timings if that is what you are after but they are alot more expensive .

thanks for the info but i can up the vcore and get about 2.9 was hoping to not have to do that but oh well
thanks again
tom

thats cool. thanx for the info. i was really gonna get the sli-dr expert but its hard to find where as i can get the a8n32 sli deluxe right now if i wanted to. damn canadian stores :) itsj ust ive been able to get my memory to 285 but only @ 2t on my other boards and im killing to take em to there max @ 1t which i was hoping this board will do. people have hit ~ 285-290 so thats good but theres the few people that scare me saying they cant do 250 or anything :(. anyways thanx for the info and please more people post there highest clock @ 1:1 1t to please and thank you :)

My A8N32-SLI has given me 120mhz over my DFI Ultra-D same mem and CPU! I'm still tweaking my timings I'm pretty sure I can get it to 150. Great board! not perfect but theres still lots of headroom for BIOS maturity so this board has lots of potential of getting the overclockers performance crown this season.

I just got my A8N32 board back from RMA...when booting up I can never see the BIOS post screen, all I get is a black screen up until the XP loading bar comes on...anyone else experiencing this or know of a way to fix it?

*to get into the BIOS I now just blindly hit the DEL key when I see the black screen and I'm able to enter the BIOS but I want to see the full load screen

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Originally Posted by Titus

I just got my A8N32 board back from RMA...when booting up I can never see the BIOS bootup screens, all I get is a black screen up until the XP loading bar comes on...anyone else experiencing this or know of a way to fix it?

*to get into the BIOS I now just blindly hit the DEL key when I see the black screen and I'm able to enter the BIOS but I want to see the full load screen

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load bios defaults in bios should sort it

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Originally Posted by Zeus...

load bios defaults in bios should sort it

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tried that...still the same issue

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Originally Posted by Titus

tried that...still the same issue

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Oh :eek: reflashed the bios!

I tried a couple of BIOS versions and they all have the same problem...when I disabled fast boot in the BIOS I am able to see the very end of the extended BIOS post...the part where it says "Press ESC to boot" and it gives you a 10 second timer...but still not able to see the memory check part, the part where it says to hit the DEL key to enter the BIOS, the BIOS version or any other part of the "non-extended" BIOS post

Fellow A8N32-SLI owners,

I'm having a really mysterious problem with getting the X1900XT to work with the board. Below is the URL for my problem--will you be kind enough to help?

Basically, I got two X1900XTs in two (or more) different setups, and none of them can get the card to work. It's hard to believe I received 2 DOAs in a row, so I'm suspecting I'm doing something really, really stupid but I can't think of any. The symptoms point to power issues but I tried it with just powering the GPU and still won't work. Seasonic 500 should certainly be giving enough power to the GPU.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messagev...&enterthread=y


Thanks.

The manual is no help on identifying which chip drives "LAN 1" and "LAN 2"...the A8N32 manual says that both LAN 1 and LAN 2 are Marvell LAN's

"Supported by Marvell Gigabit LAN controller, this port allows Gigabit connection to a Local Area Network (LAN) through a network hub."

but I believe that Nvidia is LAN 1 and Marvell is LAN 2...can anyone confirm this?...also which one is best to use the Nvidia or Marvell LAN?...I have heard that the Marvell LAN has much higher CPU utilization...true?

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Originally Posted by CODE 4

Found a work around for CnQ and using a lower Multi then your chips Max!!!!!

Use this Program: CrystalCPUID 4.7.0.291 CrystalCPUID D/L The one you need is located under the LATEST SOURCE CODE Icon

Install your CnQ AMD Driver I used the on on Asus's A8N32 Page Version: 1.2.2.2 and Reboot

IMPORTANT: Make sure you Disable CnQ in your BIOS, if you do not system will lock up when you launch CrystalCPUID.

Run the CrystalCPUID Application, set it all up under:
File--Multilplier Management Setting
Below are My Settings:
http://members.cox.net/amk/CUID1.jpg

You then go under Function and check Multiplier Management....Now set your Power Management to Minimal just like you would do with CnQ....That is it. Mine has been working perfect, games, apps, prime, OCCT, and so on for over 3 hours without a hiccup.

If you want it to start up minimized with your system do this:

Open the folder that you extracted CrystalCPUID to and right click on the Blue CPUID icon. Select “Create Shortcut”. Right click on the newly created shortcut and select “Properties”. To the text following the words “Target:” add to the end of the displayed text a space, then /HIDE then another space, then /CQ. It will look something like this “...CrystalCPUID.exe” /HIDE /CQ
You then put this in your Startup folder. I just drag and dropped it in my START Button, ALL PROGRAMS, STARTUP section.

I have my machine running Minimum of 2156mhz@1.4V, Middle 2772mhz @1.53V and Max 3080mhz@1.65V. My multis go 7X, 9X and 10X. The program has a realtime clock checker under the Function Tab and it is pretty cool watching how fast it adapts.

Good luck and let me know if it works for anyone else :toast:

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Finally had somw time and tried out your find

Couldn't get the 'CrystalCPUID 4.7.0.291' to work from the source you gave it didn't have the CrystalCPUID.exe file in the zip file :(

So did a search and got the CrystalCPUID 4.7.2.293 and very impressed so far

set it in the bios to CPUx10 and htt250 and the Vcore to 1.3V with the overvolt option =0.2V

then had the full range of multiplers availble X4 to X11 ( had the higher ones too but dont think these will work somehow)

so set the multi to

Min x4 0.9V
Mid x7 1.2V
Max x11 1.4V

plus the overvolt of 0.2V is still active

So far working a dream no slowdowns and do like the little Icon tray where u can set it to min/mid /max and presently dual priming at 1000MHz

the overclock can easy be raised or dropped on the fly with a couple of clicks no need to go into the bios to try out a new voltage.

So when I frag it gets hot but when I stop the temp really drops:cool:

Yep Running 1103 here on the same board as well, and had the same problem with the Temps. wiped all Nvedia drivers and reloaded them, works like a charm.
Only one gripe with this board for me, The reset jumper is almost imposable to get to. have to remove one of my vid cards to get to it, and then its behind one of the Pci-e release tabs. other than that, its like a Cadillac, big and roomy with plenty of toys and speed to boot.

I realized I screwed up by saying d/l the source code...oops. it is here: LINK and click on the picture of Crystal CPUID. Mine has been working fine and I really like how fast it responds and how cool it is when Idle. 1.3 volts most of the time when not loaded has to be better on your cpu :D I am glad it is working for you and G/L

What is the best bios for this board, i have one and my Gskill HZ doesnt pass the 265 stable and if i put dividers it doesnt pass 277:confused: , if a put a multi of 12, 13 the board does not boot( i have a FX60).

Any help?

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Originally Posted by CODE 4

I realized I screwed up by saying d/l the source code...oops.

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I spent about 2hrs trying to make it work this morning, I was thinking WTF am I doing wrong (the beers I had last night didn't help either)

But after seeing your post feel better LOL - never mind np

system isnt too sluggish with CPU at 1000MHz (and thats with double prime) fine for web browsing and running my media to the Roku southbridge in the kitchen

running flat out and the CPU temp at 22 degrees same as the mobo temp :cool:

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Originally Posted by Radeon Force

Whai is the best bios for this board, i have one and my Gskill HZ doenst pass the 265 stable and if i put dividers it doenst pass 277:confused: , if a put a multi of 12, 13 the board does not boot( i have a FX60).

Any help?

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most of use r using 1009 ATM

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Originally Posted by Silverdoc

Only one gripe with this board for me, The reset jumper is almost imposable to get to. have to remove one of my vid cards to get to it, and then its behind one of the Pci-e release tabs.

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It a pig - I made a jumper from the PWRSW and RESET cables for the 'system panel connectors' from an old PC case and a simple block connector and a bit of wire - so if its needed just need to swtch the wire over to reset CMOS saves alot of time

I've been tweaking with my new CPU (X2 3800 now) and now have been able to enable CnQ @ 2.9GHZ (IDLE and LOAD)! I haven't had any issues, not even the soft reset problems that has plagued my systems in the past. THe only oddities stem from SPrime tripping out what exact CPU SPeed Im using during the start, otherwise it's been rock solid! This board has certainly grown on me now! :)

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Originally Posted by Radeon Force

What is the best bios for this board, i have one and my Gskill HZ doesnt pass the 265 stable and if i put dividers it doesnt pass 277:confused: , if a put a multi of 12, 13 the board does not boot( i have a FX60).

Any help?

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maybe 265 is the max your hz can do. is your drive strength set to normal? if so try weak.

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Originally Posted by Zeus...

It a pig - I made a jumper from the PWRSW and RESET cables for the 'system panel connectors' from an old PC case and a simple block connector and a bit of wire - so if its needed just need to swtch the wire over to reset CMOS saves alot of time

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Good Idea, Ill try that. Thanks.