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

[Zeus...]

agreed. 901 went haywire when running 3dmark05, scores were all over the place. 703 is the best way to go at the moment.

wont bother testing

[Ic3man]

Thanks to Ic3man's advice, I have my system running SuperPi stable at 2.62 Ghz. I hav all the Overvolts enabled, VCore at 1.325 (+.2), VDIMM at 1.75 (+.1), FSB at 238 X 11, K8 to NB at 600 MHz, memory divider at 166 MHz, memory timings at 2.5-2-3-6 1T. AI Booster shows my VCore at 1.54 and my VDIMM at 2.80, but I am not sure that these readings are trustworthy.

I tried upping the FSB to 245, but the system was unstable. I then tried to loosen the memory timings to 2.5-3-3-6, and it wouldn't boot. I then reverted back to the above settings, and she's running rock stable. CPU temps are 41-43 C at idle, 45-46 C under load.

Originally, I told myself that 2.62 GHz was my goal, but with hearing reports of X2 3800's running at over 2.8 GHz, I feel I can do better. I apologize for my noobness, but I have never overclocked a system before, and I am not sure how to proceed. Is it simply a matter of trial and error? Or is there a logical progression of adjustments? Should I increase my FSB, see if the system boots, and if it does not boost VCore a notch or 2, and if that doesn't work, loosen the memory timings?

Thanks again,
Mark

It really is upto you how far you want to go m8. Just bear in mind that the further you go the higher the risk of you killing a cpu/memory/motherboard. I wouldn't put more than 2.9v through the memory and I wouldn't go any higher than 1.55 vcore (just my opinion) others have gone higher and been successful...some have damaged hardware as a result, its just how much of a risk you're willing to take. There are a few other options left you can try :


Use a 133mhz memory divider
Memory to 3-3-3-8
'Burn-in' the cpu

...and a whole host of other bios options that are unchartered territory with this board. Just remember to write down what settings you had for the board to be stable because if you do go too far and need to reset the cmos it will be easier to get back to a decent overclock.

With every overclock check to see how affected your system stability is and whther the changes you have made have improved the system or not. A lower divider isn't so much of a problem aslong as you get a decent FSB increase to compensate...how much that is, can really only be defined by benchmarking.

Oh and btw...I wouldn't just rely on superPI for stability, imo thats more for benchmarking. Try Prime95 (remember to set affinity and use 2 instances i.e cpu 0 in 1 instance and cpu1 in 2nd instance) and OCCT instead. I have found AIbooster to reflect the settings in the bios quite well although again they may not be 'true' readings and should only be used as a guide.

I aint by any means an 'expert', just passing on info I have tried by trial and error and other info I have read on this great forum and others across the net.

[Zeus...]

Oh and btw...I wouldn't just rely on superPI for stability, imo thats more for benchmarking. Try Prime95 (remember to set affinity and use 2 instances i.e cpu 0 in 1 instance and cpu1 in 2nd instance) and OCCT instead. I have found AIbooster to reflect the settings in the bios quite well although again they may not be 'true' readings and should only be used as a guide.

Agre totally with your post except use SP2004 by Johnny Lee its prime modded for the time its been running

[ELEM04]

Im also interested in getting this board im using a lian-li 1100 case as well. please keep us updated with your results from your overclocking. ill be using it with either a 170 or 175.

Thanks
Robert

[specofdust]

I'm about to order one from CPUCityStore, they're aparently getting them in in the next few days, if anyone in the UK is intrested.

[safan80]

is there anyone running dual bfg 7800GTXs with this board. I just got my second bfg 7800 gtx and would like to compare results. in crappy 3dmark05 I got 11484 with stock settings. at 1600x1200 4xAA and 16AF I 9003 in both cases I was using drivers 81.95

edit: my GTXs are the 256MB version

[mhorgel]

Oh and btw...I wouldn't just rely on superPI for stability, imo thats more for benchmarking. Try Prime95 (remember to set affinity and use 2 instances i.e cpu 0 in 1 instance and cpu1 in 2nd instance) and OCCT instead. I have found AIbooster to reflect the settings in the bios quite well although again they may not be 'true' readings and should only be used as a guide.

How do I set the affinity? I heard something about right-clicking the entry for the process in the task manager, is this correct? So I want 2 separate copies of Prime95 (or whatever torture test program i use), one for each core?

I lowered my VCore a bit, my CPU was 43 C at idle, and I felt this was too warm.

One approach I read was to back the memory divider to 100, raise the CPU clock as far as possible, then move the divider back up.

Thanks again for all the help, Ic3man.

Mark

[mackanz]

I have 2 7800 gtx 512's waiting to get tortured as soon as Asus decides to get Raid working on this board :/

[Cisco]

How do I set the affinity? I heard something about right-clicking the entry for the process in the task manager, is this correct? So I want 2 separate copies of Prime95 (or whatever torture test program i use), one for each core?
Mark

Install prime95, copy the directory and rename it. Run it from the first directory, find the process in taskmanager, right-click, choose affinity and remove the check mark from CPU 1.
Do the same for the other directory except this time remove the checkmark from CPU 0.
Select the "Torture test" for each prime95 instance...that's all there is to it. If you look in the performance tab of task manager, you should see both cores at 100% utilization.

[Cisco]

Couple of questions about OC stability:

When changing the K8 to NB multiplier down to 3X (600) or whatever...

1... is there a need to also adjust the SB to NB frequency or should that remain @ 1000? (I think I read the "leave @ 1000" somewhere but I forget where now )

2. How about the link mode: Auto? 16/16, or 8/8..or does this matter?

[phadeout]

Couple of questions about OC stability:

When changing the K8 to NB multiplier down to 3X (600) or whatever...

1... is there a need to also adjust the SB to NB frequency or should that remain @ 1000? (I think I read the "leave @ 1000" somewhere but I forget where now )

2. How about the link mode: Auto? 16/16, or 8/8..or does this matter?

1. DO NOT change this, if I run anything lower than 1000 for SB to NB, 3d becomes totally unstable (I think this is a SLI thing). 3dmark05 will run, but FEAR will crash.

2. Link mode at Auto or 16/16

[cronic]

I have 2 7800 gtx 512's waiting to get tortured as soon as Asus decides to get Raid working on this board :/

raid 0 works fine with the nforce4. not sure what you mean.

[mhorgel]

Install prime95, copy the directory and rename it. Run it from the first directory, find the process in taskmanager, right-click, choose affinity and remove the check mark from CPU 1.
Do the same for the other directory except this time remove the checkmark from CPU 0.
Select the "Torture test" for each prime95 instance...that's all there is to it. If you look in the performance tab of task manager, you should see both cores at 100% utilization.

OK. I tried this, and CPU 0 flunks within a few seconds, CPU 1 runs fine. I am a little bumfuzzled at how one core can pass and the other fail with the conditions the same for both cores. Is this common? Did I destroy my CPU? Assuming I did not fry my chip, what is the likely fix? Increase VCore? this gets more confusing all the time.

Thanks again,

Mark

[mackanz]

raid 0 works fine with the nforce4. not sure what you mean.

As soon as i enable raid in bios, the drives won't get detected. No detection means no OS can be installed cause there are no drives to be found.

Wanna share your secret on how you made it working?

[cronic]

As soon as i enable raid in bios, the drives won't get detected. No detection means no OS can be installed cause there are no drives to be found.

Wanna share your secret on how you made it working?

asuming you are using the nforce raid you have to enable raid and assuming you are hooked into sata1 and sata2 you have to enable sata1 which is directly below where you enable raid. once you do that select you raid stripe under boot priority and you are good to go. i have set 2 of these boards up and it worked fine on both with 703, 901, 805 bios. if this is not specific enough let me know . thanks and good luck.

[mackanz]

That's exactly how i have done. The funny thing is that the raid array is in the boot order list, but not found by post or ide list in the bios. It's really weird.

[cronic]

well i don't know if my drives show at post as it goes to fast to see. and under the main page in bios that are not shown either, but i don;t think they did on my sli-dr either. if the stripe shows up under the boot settings hard disc drives you sghould be fine as long as you set the drives up in the nv raid configuration.

[safan80]

As soon as i enable raid in bios, the drives won't get detected. No detection means no OS can be installed cause there are no drives to be found.

Wanna share your secret on how you made it working?

on the ports you have enabled for RAID the drives will not be detected in the post screen, but once you go into the Nvraid bios they will be there. after the array is setup the array not the drives will show up in the nvbios screen not in the post screen. the only drives that show up in the POST screen are the drives not configured for raid.

it's F10 to get into the RAID util.

[Marios]

Have a look at the vcore and the vdimm
Any explanation?
DDR Skew mode off gave me a boost.
You were right.

[mackanz]

on the ports you have enabled for RAID the drives will not be detected in the post screen, but once you go into the Nvraid bios they will be there. after the array is setup the array not the drives will show up in the nvbios screen not in the post screen. the only drives that show up in the POST screen are the drives not configured for raid.

it's F10 to get into the RAID util.

That's perfectly fine. I have done that and created the array. Otherwise the bootorder wouldn't show an existing array. The problem is that when i'm trying to install XP, it doesn't find any drives to install it on. Catch 22.

[Ic3man]

That's perfectly fine. I have done that and created the array. Otherwise the bootorder wouldn't show an existing array. The problem is that when i'm trying to install XP, it doesn't find any drives to install it on. Catch 22.

Dumb question but did you install the NV raid drivers (floppy) 'press F6 to install Raid configuration' when the operating system is first installing? i.e before it tells you it couldn't find a drive to install on?

[mackanz]

Yes, that part went fine. Installed from floppy without problems. I can install the raid on other NF4 boards without issue so this one is weird.

[Ic3man]

OK. I tried this, and CPU 0 flunks within a few seconds, CPU 1 runs fine. I am a little bumfuzzled at how one core can pass and the other fail with the conditions the same for both cores. Is this common? Did I destroy my CPU? Assuming I did not fry my chip, what is the likely fix? Increase VCore? this gets more confusing all the time.

Thanks again,

Mark

Very doubtful you have damaged ur cpu. It is very common to find one core is 'stronger' than the other. My core 0 is the weaker of the 2 aswell. Cpuburn(k7) is helping some people achieve a little more stabilty with a weaker core, others havn't had such luck. The best thing to do is to lower your clock speed back to where BOTH cores were stable and then burn them in using dual instances of prime or CPUburnk7/toast etc and see if that helps stabalise the weaker core.

[Marios]

That's perfectly fine. I have done that and created the array. Otherwise the bootorder wouldn't show an existing array. The problem is that when i'm trying to install XP, it doesn't find any drives to install it on. Catch 22.

After you pressed F10 to create the array did you choose both hard disks?
Did you check that this array is bootable?
Did you remove any USB drives?
USB drives come first in order and you should either remove them or change the hard disk boot order in BIOS.
You should check the boot order in your BIOS also.
Did you load the default settings, restart and then load your settings?
Did you enable the correct raid controller and SATA ports in BIOS.
Did you check that you have connected your Hard disks on SATA 1 and SATA 2 ports?
These are the upper two ports.

[HKPolice]

I've started a thread with my own experiences here: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=83206