Asus A8r-mvp

[LowRun]

I'm not expecting much from Asus but eventualy someone will come up with a modded bios that will unleash the true potential of this board if there is any.

[Astennu]

My A8R-MVP is dead. It cant't find my raid array's any more. So i'm gonna get a replacement to backup the data then i'll sell it and rebuy a Ultra D for the time being. The RD580 will me released @ the 24e of januari. Asus already has a A8R32 board ready. But i don't whant Asus anymore its DFI or Abit / Epox for me.

[Mean Machine]

I and many other from the AT board have noticed the lack of voltage options and/or 1T command rate issue. I really pity Asus and their inability to listen to their customers. Almost all the issue outlined in this thread and other threads at other sites have been mentioned in the Asus forums but Asus has not replied to any of the customers' pleas. I personally have my new rig postponed until further notice until Asus can solve the issues with this board. Does anyone know when the RD580 boards are going to be available? I only know one individual who was able to get the AT 325htt and that was someone on the AT forums using a E4 stepping Venice w/a multiplier of 6 or 7. There is great potential in this board if only Asus weren't stupid s.

I'll just tell you this once: my board runs perfectly fine at 340HTT, I haven't tried any more. The only thing I still need, is the voltage options. Some Vmodding won't be too hard to do anyway.

[althes]

is it possible to use grabbers for the vcore mod. I would like to give it a go

[Otaking71]

it is..but it's not very reliable...you're far better off soldering..i actually did it with grabbers..but it kept coming off when i moved the chassis too hard.

[computergeek22]

I'd suggest staying away from the A8R-MVP for the mere fact that Asus is going to be releasing a new RD580 mobo as someone stated previously. Though it might be expensive, it'll cause price drops for the A8R-MVP and hopefully by then Asus has a bios fix for the vcore issues. If not, then the A8r32 it is. How much do you think Asus will price the new mobo considering it looks pretty mainstream and considering the fact that m2 is just around the corner.

[computergeek22]

Some guy on the ASUS help forum posted that he edited the 0402 bios that was released by Asus and changed the bios to allow him 1.8 vcore voltage. I guess this board is capable of 1.65v but Asus is being a . This guy might just be bluffing but there has been an outcry of the lack of voltage options on almost every forum so I think Asus, if they're smart, should release a bios fix. I don't know about the voltage fluctuations, though, that might be a reason Asus might not want to change the bios.

[csimon]

I agree cg22 but why should we think that the A8R32 will have any better vcore? I'd like to think it would but I'm staying clear until it's been proven ...there will be other companies with the same chipset.

I asked that guy in the asus thread for the registers this afternoon but I doubt he'll release them. Editing the bios isn't very difficult.

[althes]

ok if he really edited the bios and it works I want proof
thanks otaking71 about the grabbers.
I really want a new bios to unlock some stuff.
Heard that the reviewers board is different from the retail board asus is really a piece of work.

[csimon]

...asus is really a piece of work.

I want to believe that but like you I want proof as well.

[computergeek22]

Yeah proof would be helpful. Csimon, could u post on the Asus forum and tell the guy to show some proof. I've just been reading about these boards on there as I am or was planning to get this board for my new build. I haven't registered yet so i can't post. It doesn't matter, however, because I'm dependent on Asus for a new bios as I don't have the know-how to edit a bios anyway.

As for the A8R32 which will probably be Asus top of the line ati chipset mobo, why wouldn't they allow voltage control? They'd want to price the a8r32 around the a8n32 and they'd be looking to produce a high end board capable of overclocking. I don't believe tha a8n32 has vcore limitation like the a8r-mvp so I'm guessing the A8r32 won't either. By that time, I hope they fix the voltage issues as imo the A8R32 will be around the price of an a8n32, which is too expensive for me anyway considering my build is already a few hundred over budget.

[dnihilist]

Moral of the story:

Take motherboard reviews with a huge pinch of salt...even AT's.

[csimon]

Yeah proof would be helpful. Csimon, could u post on the Asus forum and tell the guy to show some proof.

I asked but don't hold your breath on an answer ...the guy has only made one post and hasn't replied to anything today.

[SkunK]

Well, call me a noob if you want but I just wanted to post the results of my first experience as an overclocker. After reading many threads about the 1:1 1T issue and trying to get memtest ro run error free for one day, i decided to give up on 1:1 1T and try to go with the maximum bandwidth memtest would show me.
I don't think my Opteron would be able to go much higher than 2.8 Ghz. It seems to dislike higher voltages. At that speed, using a 133 Mhz divider with 2-2-2-7 timings gave me the best mem bandwidth (2385 Mb/s).
One remark, though. people are pissed off because the cheapest Asus board doesn't do what AT said it did. Big deal. The board still has better sound than the NVidia equivalent (which are usually more expensive) and it has multiple SATA2 ports.
Results:

[-n7-]

Can i get some clarification on the RAM issue?!

Am i correct in understanding that 1T works fine 1:1 up till about 240 HTT?

Is it still working at 1T with a divider though?

I just want to be able to run my RAM @ 1T with a divider...that should still work, no?

[Blacklash]

THis is really wierd everyone having issues but mine is running flawlessly after beating it over the head for a couple hours.
Well lets see how things go when saaya gets his and the x1600pro cards.

Althes,

How do those X1600XTs do with 10x Crossfire AA and 16x HQ AF at 1280x res in games like HL2? Can they handle it?

[SkunK]

Can i get some clarification on the RAM issue?!

Am i correct in understanding that 1T works fine 1:1 up till about 240 HTT?

Is it still working at 1T with a divider though?

I just want to be able to run my RAM @ 1T with a divider...that should still work, no?

I didn't try 240 1:1 1T. My mind was set on starting with 250 (and it didn't work).

The memory I use does 2-2-2-5 1T on this board with a divider.

[GMX]

"...cheapest Asus board doesn't do what AT said...."

That's exactly the problem. Motherboard reviews, especially from anandtech are full of crap. What you are saying is people are being pissed off because they are mislead by reviews that that have a special one from the manufacturer. I beleive this is totally valid and a "bait" tactic. Anandtech has reviewed other boards that turned out to be duds to the public.

And i totally agree with this post, "The moral of the story is to take motherboard reviews with a huge pinch of salt..."

[Super Nade]

I got the ASUS A8V-Deluxe (Rev 2.00) a while back and totally dissected it (In terms of troubleshooting help rendered ). It was a good learning experience, not just about hardware, but about how ASUS as a company treats its customers.

While the board was a good solid mid-range offering, BIOS support was non-existent. The beta's and newer versions released were just crap. Who can forget the fiasco with Winchester support. That is all you can expect from ASUS. Good solid mid-range boards (with zero support ofcourse)

These guys are such idiots that they could care less although they are sitting on a potential goldmine.

As for the Anandtech review, looks like the lads on their forums are not having much luck either. I'm not sure one can fault Anandtech as they might have recieved a hand-picked board. Is it possible to obtain the BIOS for this board from their reviewers?

[csimon]

Yeah proof would be helpful. Csimon, could u post on the Asus forum and tell the guy to show some proof.

Alas ...he did respond and this is what he had to say.

"There"s nothing to prove. Virtually all socket 939 Mobos offer higher Vcore voltage options than the A8R-MVP which has intentionally been limited so the Mobo power supply circuitry doesn''t self-destruct when you fully load it with two PCIe Vid cards.

From a pragmatic standpoint there is NO reason whatsoever to limit Vcore voltage on the A8R-MVP Mobo other than the fact the Mobo can NOT handle the current load requirements. If that were not the case then Asus would have offered the correct Vcore voltage options when the Mobo was shipped and certainly in the last two BIOS updates. Raising the Vcore voltage can only cause damage to two main PC hardware components: The CPU and the Mobo. Since Asus is only responsible for the Mobo it should be pretty obvious why they castrated the Vcore voltage options to unacceptably low levels compared to other socket 939 Mobos"

If the mobo can't handle the 1.4v current ...then how does it manage when it has to run the procs that require more current? I think he's bluffing and didn't edit crap.

[csimon]

Is it possible to obtain the BIOS for this board from their reviewers?

Sure it's linked in the anandtech thread somewhere ...but it does absolutely no better than any of the other bios' as far as vcore and 1t. Most of that bios was out in the 0309 asus release and there's been an 0402 release since then.

[Super Nade]

Sure it's linked in the anandtech thread somewhere ...but it does absolutely no better than any of the other bios' as far as vcore and 1t. Most of that bios was out in the 0309 asus release and there's been an 0402 release since then.

Well,that leaves us with only two options. Either the board they obtained was completely different from the one in the market, or it was a cooked-up review. I would go with the former conjecture, i.e a different/special board. It really doesn't make sense for a popular and big site like Anandtech to cook up stuff and get called out for it.

What is troubling is that two boards in a row, that AT have given glowing reviews, have turned out to be dogs. The ASROCK and this ASUS A8R-MVP. If ASUS are playing a game here, they have succeeded in large measure.Either way, if you are looking to get any support or positive response from ASUS, forget it. Their hardware is good for the mid-range, but their support infrastructure (if it even exists!) sucks.

[shimmishim]

i'm wondering if Wes over at AT still has this board.

it'd be neat to get our hands on it... just to see what the difference between that board and the boards we have is...

[LowRun]

Well,that leaves us with only two options. Either the board they obtained was completely different from the one in the market, or it was a cooked-up review. I would go with the former conjecture, i.e a different/special board. It really doesn't make sense for a popular and big site like Anandtech to cook up stuff and get called out for it.

What is troubling is that two boards in a row, that AT have given glowing reviews, have turned out to be dogs. The ASROCK and this ASUS A8R-MVP. If ASUS are playing a game here, they have succeeded in large measure.Either way, if you are looking to get any support or positive response from ASUS, forget it. Their hardware is good for the mid-range, but their support infrastructure (if it even exists!) sucks.

What is even more troubling is that six weeks later knowing that nobody even came close to their results as they have a thread going on their own forum and they prolly saw this one, they didn't change a bit to their review, title still says "Mainstream rocket" and the final words... They are just too much
AT what a nice piece of unbiased rewiewing.

[csimon]

Lately I've been wondering about all of this.
Apparantly the mushkin redline I have isn't overclocking like the first run batch that was reviewed when it first came out. All of a sudden customers are complaining that their pc4000xp won't oc past 257 or sometimes 237.
Same with the two asus boards ...inital board does well and then oops ...customers end up with pos boards.

Perhaps this is occuring at the pre-assembly stage? Like lets make sure this thing will sell and then we'll put the sub-par components and save money or something.

Heck something similar sorta happened with the opterons ...maybe there's a pattern forming?