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

[smurfmods]

6'C idle or underload? if it's idle then I'd say that's a bit warm for a Mach II unless your vcore is up in the wazoo, check your mounting again. mine is a custom PCICE unit and I don't have any contact problem with the naked core, my new 148 CABNE idle at -26'C and around -12'C during prime.

if the IHS is still on and if you feel comfortable removing it then by all mean do it, take your time and just be careful with the blade, though don't be surprise if you don't see any gain at all as I have had three X2 3800, two 4200 and two 4400 that can't clock worth a crap...their IHS were all removed, and they all hit the wall at 2.90Ghz and won't prime any higher...not even 1mhz more, my last X2 4200 was the only one that could break 3.0Ghz. stick with BIOS 703...it's the most stable BIOS to date especially under phase. And no I haven't try to boot from any USB device

Yup that's my idle temp. Volt core was a modest 1.425V. Must have something hooked up wrong. I think I'll leave the IHS on. May not be sticking with this cpu long anyways and I may need to sell it. I have another X2 3800 that I will try. (it didn't do as well on air but who knows on phase) Seems like there is no point in putting phase on a cpu if I can get 2.6gig on air and only 2.9gig on phase.

As soon as I get ahold of a floppy I will definatly go to the 703.

Why are these chips hitting the wall at 2.9 to 3 gig?

*update* Very weird. X2 3800 will boot at 2.99gig but not 3gig. 1 more mhz kills it. Runs all day long benching and gaming at 2.99. Has to be a engineered lock in some of the chips not to go any higher.

Also I got the USB Thumb drive to boot up an I'm running the 703 bios now. Don't notice a difference in stability but it's there just in case. If anyone wants to know how do make the thumb drive boot up let me know. ( I hate floppies I'll fight with a thumb drive or cd booting all day long before I'll hook up a floppy. )

ben805--Which drive strength do I need to adjust with phase?? What do I set it to?