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

[Speaker4theDead]

Hi there

I'm just seeking some help in the setup of this board.

I am running it with a opty 144, so far it is running at 9x300 but not prime stable. It runs fine for 3dmark05, loops no end but cannot get sp2004 to last 30secs. running vcore at anything from 1.425-1.550 with only slight difference in sp2004 stablility. HSF is thermaltake Venus 12, PSU is thermaltake 680W, OCZ EB3500 ram. I have to run the ram through dividers obviously.

I am not sure about alot of ram timings on this board, do most people leave it at auto and change it though A64Tweaker? or do you set it via bios?

I cant get clockgen to work either, is the new chipset not being supported yet?

I want to know how I can get it prime stable at this speed. I know getting higher isn't very realistic on air (highest suicide windows bootup is 3ghz) but would be happy if I could get it fully stable at this speed. Currently I am burning in the CPU using cpuburn on K7 mode. Not sure it is helping, have run through 2 sessions with no improvements.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

Edit: cpu temp reported by pcprobe is 39-43C, i'm sure its not accurate but seems to run cool enough to touch the HSF near the base without too much discomfort.

[jinu117]

HoHoHo... just found out my bios was 0502... lol.
Time to grab new one and flash it in. Maybe it reduces some problem with v-core issues I am having... if not I will report back with full detail.

[jinu117]

HoHoHo... just found out my bios was 0502... lol.
Time to grab new one and flash it in. Maybe it reduces some problem with v-core issues I am having... if not I will report back with full detail.

Well bios is now 703 or 702 or whatever.
Voltage reading on bios is improved significantly. I can semi-trust that voltage now.
However, there is still issue of extra voltage not being applied to boot up sequence (so even if you have 100% stable overclock with extra voltage option enabled... if you can't boot with set v-core without that extra voltage... tough luck booting it up). Not only that in case of opty 175 I have, I am basically limited to 1.4v + the additional voltage. Which basically leaves me with only option as v-core mod. So far looking good other than this as I did expect having to do v-core mod anyway. Only bad thing might be I might only end up using only 4 phase of all 8 phase power by circumventing this. If I can find happy medium, this will be very nice. Once I am done testing with my cpu on air by tomorrow, next comes asus CF board to see how that one does. I have enough reference data on current opty 175 I have it should be easy comparison really. Board is not ground taking but seems stable once the voltage issue is cleared up though.

[Marios]

901 Bios feels the same as the 703 in every single way.... bugs are still present.

For ballistix users: you HAVE to disable dynamic idle cycle, and leave DDR skew at AUTO.

Update: 901 seems to have MORE bugs, I tried turning down the HTT from 280 and the keyboard stopped responding. Rebooted and tried again, same thing. I can go press + and go higher, but pressing - will cause the crash.

Flashed back to 703, bug is gone.

I have the Ballistix Z503 kit 1gx2 and I don't see why to dissable Dynamic Idle cycle.
My memory works OK with Dynamic Idle cycle enabled.
Any more info on this?

I also think that L1 and L2 cache ECC should be enabled since this cache supports ECC.
This enables detecting and correcting errors on L1 and L2 cache.
The question is what are the default values?
On the contrary most DIMMs do not support ECC and ECC should be dissabled.

[HKPolice]

I have the Ballistix Z503 kit 1gx2 and I don't see why to dissable Dynamic Idle cycle.
My memory works OK with Dynamic Idle cycle enabled.
Any more info on this?

I also think that L1 and L2 cache ECC should be enabled since this cache supports ECC.
This enables detecting and correcting errors on L1 and L2 cache.
The question is what are the default values?
On the contrary most DIMMs do not support ECC and ECC should be dissabled.

Mine doesn't even run memtest86 without disabling and leaving the idle cycle at 16. Running 280Mhz 3-3-3-8, what are your timings etc?

Ya, we need an answer from a tech about the ECC cache values.

[Marios]

Mine doesn't even run memtest86 without disabling and leaving the idle cycle at 16. Running 280Mhz 3-3-3-8, what are your timings etc?

Ya, we need an answer from a tech about the ECC cache values.

I haven't checked yet how far may dimms can go.

I just set them at 250, 3-3-3-8, 1T, checked them overnight with memtest86+ and that's all. I have got screens for the rest of my DIMM settings (everything is manually set) that I can post here, in case that they might be of any good.