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

[Jaco]

STEvil,

I'm trying to reply on your thread at the Asus forum.
So far haven't been able to login there ...

[angelshonnny]

STEvil,

I'm trying to reply on your thread at the Asus forum.
So far haven't been able to login there ...

Hey STEvil
I will also reply on your thread, just have to get my exams over today

[Madman666]

Hey STEvil
I will also reply on your thread, just have to get my exams over today

... and? did you pass

[STEvil]

STEvil,

I'm trying to reply on your thread at the Asus forum.
So far haven't been able to login there ...

Is Taymans from here or elsewhere?

[Jaco]

that's me (I wanted to choose another screenname )

[drewhemm]

Hi Guys,

My fanout SATA cable just arrived for my 2405 so I hurredly but carefully set it up. The problem is, I can't get the Adaptec to work at the same time as the onboard controller. Is it normal that they are mutually exclusive? When I go into the mobo BIOS, the primary boot device is 'Hard Drive', the RAID arrays on the Intel controller no longer show. If I try to boot (my boot array is still on the Intel) I cannot...

I have mine plugged into the white x16 mechanical slot.

I see some of you have Adaptec controllers - has anyone else had problems like this? I eventually want to install Windows on the Adaptec, but this has kind of thrown me out a little. Also, I thought Adaptec controllers run natively under Linux without special drivers, but this doesn't seem to be the case?

Regards

Andrew

[shanems3]

if you set the sata ports to IDE/achi, does it work then, or will it do the same thing??

[drewhemm]

IDE works, haven't tried AHCI yet. It's good to know I have a fallback, but it looks as though I'll have to put my other RAID array on the Adaptec as well, I had hoped to keep the other two ports free for more SSDs...

Will try AHCI in a few minutes, what are the main differences, pros & cons etc?

[spiro]

Hi all, I just got this motherboard and I can't seem to get it to boot. I am using 2 x E5430's but cannot seem to get my motherboard to boot. I get an F.F. code. I have all the electrical 3 electrical plugs in and am using a Thermaltake 850watt PS. These 2 chips were working fine on an Intel Skulltrail which I moved 2x QX9775's on. I am a little disappointed that I am stuck with using LGA 771 coolers, unlike the Skulltrails LGA 775's and to be honest had I known that I would have just gotten another Skulltrail. Somehow I was curious about Asus dual socket since I use Asus motherboards a lot.

Does anyone know what the FF code is?

Thanks in advance

[s0lid]

Well if your cpus are E0 stepping flash newest bios.
Otherwice dead mobo...

[angelshonnny]

... and? did you pass

And now I have 3 weeks holiday Just got this damn thing going again after I pulled the plug after the exams yetsterday( Vista didn't want to shut down, again). When I switched it on this evening, I got a message at post saying 'CPU changed remember to check out the settings' Haven't touched the damn CPU. Driving me Another strange thing. When I checked the stepping of the xeons on the net before I installed them, it showed E0 stepping, but CPU-Z shows C0. What's that all about, or was it just me that checked or read wrong?

and then the muliplier on processor #2 is 6? I have loaded defaults in BIOS. Maybe the CPU is ?

[spiro]

Well if your cpus are E0 stepping flash newest bios.
Otherwice dead mobo...

I am not sure what stepping E5430's are, but I just received the motherboard today from ANT and I am guessing it must have the very latest BIOS. The thing is I cannot even get a post to be able to upgrade the BIOS. Seems like an unbelievably stupid thing for Asus to ship a board in 2009 that can't support a processor that Skulltrail supported in early 2008.

Anyway will non Xeon dual core or quadcore processor work? Or does it have to be a Xeon processor?

Thanks

[s0lid]

I am not sure what stepping E5430's are, but I just received the motherboard today from ANT and I am guessing it must have the very latest BIOS. The thing is I cannot even get a post to be able to upgrade the BIOS. Seems like an unbelievably stupid thing for Asus to ship a board in 2009 that can't support a processor that Skulltrail supported in early 2008.

Anyway will non Xeon dual core or quadcore processor work? Or does it have to be a Xeon processor?

Thanks

Well you can't put LGA775 cpu into LGA771 socket, physically impossible.
You can always take the IHS off and check cpus stepping.

If it says:
SLANU = C0, mobo fckd up.
SLBBK = E0, It's time to update bios.

For an example:
http://xs330.xs.to/xs330/08351/dsc_0188771.jpg

Stepping code reads on the middle line :]

[angelshonnny]

I am not sure what stepping E5430's are, but I just received the motherboard today from ANT and I am guessing it must have the very latest BIOS. The thing is I cannot even get a post to be able to upgrade the BIOS. Seems like an unbelievably stupid thing for Asus to ship a board in 2009 that can't support a processor that Skulltrail supported in early 2008.

Anyway will non Xeon dual core or quadcore processor work? Or does it have to be a Xeon processor?

Thanks

Hey spiro, where do you live? I know that one of the guys on this forum live in the USA, and he got Asus to overnight him a BIOS chip with the 0401 BIOS on it. If I can remember correctly, it cost him 25$. The chip is removable, if you didn't already know that. And no, mine didn't have the latest BIOS, it has only been released on 24.10.2008(0401 here:http://support.asus.com/download/dow...Language=en-us). So the most of the boards that are at the resellers at this moment, probbably still have the old BIOS, unless they sell many of these, wich I doubt.

[angelshonnny]

I live in the US... I was talking with tech support and they transferred me to the "BIOS" department. I had to pay $25 to have it overnighted.

I'm pretty frustrated with Asus too. If the first tech wouldn't have told me that the BIOS chip was not removable we could have avoided a lot of wasted time with the RMA.

Edit: Oh also everything is working great now... except I can't get my USB devices to show up. One of the devices is receiving power but not working.

Well you can't put LGA775 cpu into LGA771 socket, physically impossible.
You can always take the IHS off and check cpus stepping.

If it says:
SLANU = C0, mobo fckd up.
SLBBK = E0, It's time to update bios.

For an example:
http://xs330.xs.to/xs330/08351/dsc_0188771.jpg

Stepping code reads on the middle line :]

Just found it, it was komseh. Don't know if they would be that kind in other countries as well. They definately are NOT that kind in Scandinavia
Good luck dude

[jcool]

Hey spiro, where do you live? I know that one of the guys on this forum live in the USA, and he got Asus to overnight him a BIOS chip with the 0401 BIOS on it. If I can remember correctly, it cost him 25$. The chip is removable, if you didn't already know that. And no, mine didn't have the latest BIOS, it has only been released on 24.10.2008(0401 here:http://support.asus.com/download/dow...Language=en-us). So the most of the boards that are at the resellers at this moment, probbably still have the old BIOS, unless they sell many of these, wich I doubt.

Actually I am 99,9% sure there is not a single Z7S coming out of the factory that ships with 0401 bios. Asus NEVER ships mobos with the latest bios, this is a mass product company remember - not like DFI or Biostar, where you usually get your mobo with the latest beta bios installed

[STEvil]

Agree jcool.

I think we should be taking them to the cleaners..

[spiro]

Hey spiro, where do you live? I know that one of the guys on this forum live in the USA, and he got Asus to overnight him a BIOS chip with the 0401 BIOS on it. If I can remember correctly, it cost him 25$. The chip is removable, if you didn't already know that. And no, mine didn't have the latest BIOS, it has only been released on 24.10.2008(0401 here:http://support.asus.com/download/dow...Language=en-us). So the most of the boards that are at the resellers at this moment, probbably still have the old BIOS, unless they sell many of these, wich I doubt.

Thanks for the info. Although I am not in the US right now I do have a mailing address there so I can ship there and will be transferred to me. I find it incredible that shipping BIOS is not updated for a processor that was out almost a year ago. I will try to find someone here who has a similar motherboard as I have hotswapped BIOSes quite a few times with no problems. Or at least see if someone has an older Xeon 771 CPU. Otherwise I would appreciate the address where I can buy a BIOS chip that has 401. Has anyone tried to see what BIOS chip it is using, I am thinking maybe I can use an older motherboard with similar chip to hotswap the BIOS once booted and then use the opportunity to write a new BIOS on it. So long I get a post then at least I can do something, that should work in theory.

Also I would greatly appreciate help in trying to get good air or water coolers for these E5430's. On my Intel Skulltrail they were running very happily at 3.2Ghz with one notch up on voltage using Blue Orbs. I had bought 2 even better air coolers, but I laughed when I tried to fit them on. God I miss my Intel Skulltrail.

[Madman666]

I send a technical request to Asus:

Problem Description]
The BIOS is a pain. The 401 (latest BIOS) does accept the new Xeon's but is very UNstable. Meaning:
1. When put the Mobo to sleep (S3) it wakes up with a reset bios (having all default settings again).
2. When rebooting sometimes it thinks you had a bad overclock, and resets the BIOS to default settings.
3. No settings possible for VTT voltage?!
4. The bios freezes when you change any settings and THEN try to access the Hardware Monitor settings.
To avoid this you have to go to the HM settings FIRST and then do all other settings.

Asus is really not scoring points the way they are handling their support on this HIGH-END board !
It's a shame such a board has to do with such a pittyful BIOS. Hope this will change
soon....

Thnx in advance.

Their reply:

I have requested this to be tested and verified, I expect the results within 2 days. After this I can tell you more about wich BIOS features can be changed or not.

with kind regards,
TSD@Asus

Keep u posted
I urge everybody to send a technical request (or in other words: formal complaint).
SPAM THOSE LAZY BA....

[jcool]

Want another Asus horror story? Ok then, here it goes.

As you know, I RMAed my Z7S around 7 weeks ago with my distributor, who had to send it in to Asus (obviously, since it has a blown PWM).
Today I got it back, saying "Warranty replacement done by the manufacturer".
So I took a good look at it and was quite sure that this was exactly the one I sent them. "Well, they might have fixed the blown PWM or something" were my initial thoughts on this. While checking out the board, I noticed scratches and dents that weren't there before. Also some thermal grease was on the mobo and a few solid states were bent badly to the side.

So I quickly set it up on the table with one of my E5420's, one stick of ram and sure enough.. straight FF, as well as the same coils still emiting their strange whining noises. So - same board, nothing fixed, more broken than ever before. ANd that's what I get for a 7 week wait

I am calling my distributor tomorrow and give em hell, especially since I got a 2nd Z7S in the RMA pipe (Jaco's). If they screw me over on both accounts I lose 800 €. Needless to say I will threaten to change my supplier if they don't get me a new board or a refund - interested to see if they are willing to risk the 100000€ turnover I made with them in 2008 over this issue

[drewhemm]

Also I would greatly appreciate help in trying to get good air or water coolers for these E5430's. On my Intel Skulltrail they were running very happily at 3.2Ghz with one notch up on voltage using Blue Orbs. I had bought 2 even better air coolers, but I laughed when I tried to fit them on. God I miss my Intel Skulltrail.

I'm running L5420s with a pair of these:

http://www.dtekcustoms.com/index.asp...ROD&ProdID=210

They come with the universal bracket for socket 771, I just had to get them angle ground to fit around the stock chipset cooler, any decent metal workshop can do that for a trivial amount of money. I did take some photos of my setup but I can't find them now, I'll have to take some more and upload them...

I'm running 30c +/- 3c at idle and I think the temps can go up to the high 30's under full load (i.e. all cores loaded), I don't recall seeing them hit 40 unless I'm gaming, in which case my overclocked 3870 is also dumping a lot of heat into the loop. My CPUs are overclocked to 3.1GHz - 414FSB x 7.5.

[Madman666]

Want another Asus horror story? Ok then, here it goes.

As you know, I RMAed my Z7S around 7 weeks ago with my distributor, who had to send it in to Asus (obviously, since it has a blown PWM).
Today I got it back, saying "Warranty replacement done by the manufacturer".
So I took a good look at it and was quite sure that this was exactly the one I sent them. "Well, they might have fixed the blown PWM or something" were my initial thoughts on this. While checking out the board, I noticed scratches and dents that weren't there before. Also some thermal grease was on the mobo and a few solid states were bent badly to the side.

So I quickly set it up on the table with one of my E5420's, one stick of ram and sure enough.. straight FF, as well as the same coils still emiting their strange whining noises. So - same board, nothing fixed, more broken than ever before. ANd that's what I get for a 7 week wait

I am calling my distributor tomorrow and give em hell, especially since I got a 2nd Z7S in the RMA pipe (Jaco's). If they screw me over on both accounts I lose 800 €. Needless to say I will threaten to change my supplier if they don't get me a new board or a refund - interested to see if they are willing to risk the 100000€ turnover I made with them in 2008 over this issue

Sorry to hear, I too would be really PIS...OFF !
If I ever need to return my board I will secretly mark mine

[Madman666]

Want another Asus horror story? Ok then, here it goes.

As you know, I RMAed my Z7S around 7 weeks ago with my distributor, who had to send it in to Asus (obviously, since it has a blown PWM).
Today I got it back, saying "Warranty replacement done by the manufacturer".
So I took a good look at it and was quite sure that this was exactly the one I sent them. "Well, they might have fixed the blown PWM or something" were my initial thoughts on this. While checking out the board, I noticed scratches and dents that weren't there before. Also some thermal grease was on the mobo and a few solid states were bent badly to the side.

So I quickly set it up on the table with one of my E5420's, one stick of ram and sure enough.. straight FF, as well as the same coils still emiting their strange whining noises. So - same board, nothing fixed, more broken than ever before. ANd that's what I get for a 7 week wait

I am calling my distributor tomorrow and give em hell, especially since I got a 2nd Z7S in the RMA pipe (Jaco's). If they screw me over on both accounts I lose 800 €. Needless to say I will threaten to change my supplier if they don't get me a new board or a refund - interested to see if they are willing to risk the 100000€ turnover I made with them in 2008 over this issue

Sorry to hear, I too would be really PIS...OFF !
If I ever need to return my board I will surely note down my serial number, did you check that or did you not note your serialnumber?
Maybe you have it on photo (used to make your review)?

[jcool]

I didn't have to mark it.. one PWM coil makes very specific noises when turned on, so what I got back is my dead mobo without a doubt.

[drewhemm]

Here's the shots of my LCS, the close up shot shows where I had the waterblock brackets cut & ground to fit.