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

[colombodk]

jcool: any links to BSEL mod on Xeon then? I'll have to check the charts and figure it out myself, I guess

Edit: the X7DAL-E is just for a temp solution ...

[s0lid]

jcool: any links to BSEL mod on Xeon then? I'll have to check the charts and figure it out myself, I guess

Edit: the X7DAL-E is just for a temp solution ...

My X7DAL-E+ does 380Mhz with setfsb

Yea there's 1600mhz Bsel for E54x0 harpers but i there's no quarantee that, that board can do 400FSB.

[colombodk]

s0lid; I want to do a BSEL mod on 1600Mhz FSB CPUs to change it into 1333Mhz FSB CPUs to that I may use the X7DAL-E board I have, that supports 1333Mhz FSB, and not 1600Mhz FSB...

By the way, what are ppls opinion on the X7DWA-N motherboard? Thinking about getting one to replace the Z7S WS.

[s0lid]

s0lid; I want to do a BSEL mod on 1600Mhz FSB CPUs to change it into 1333Mhz FSB CPUs to that I may use the X7DAL-E board I have, that supports 1333Mhz FSB, and not 1600Mhz FSB...

By the way, what are ppls opinion on the X7DWA-N motherboard? Thinking about getting one to replace the Z7S WS.

Oh sry, didn't read enougth carefully... Well not sure is there that kinda mod...

X7DWA-N is one solid board, IIRC movieman did 464FSB with that board and X5470s. Absolutely recommended!

[jcool]

jcool: any links to BSEL mod on Xeon then? I'll have to check the charts and figure it out myself, I guess

Edit: the X7DAL-E is just for a temp solution ...

Well ok then, here is what I got from Dave... maybe you can figure sth out

[VistaViewer]

I would highly recommend the Intel Skulltrail....

Funny thing about that Skulltrail...

Intel originally published the mechanical specification for dual-socket 771 pin motherboards, available here:

http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/designguide/313871.pdf

Note that it is called a Design Guide and not a standard. But as a practical matter, any manufacturer (like Asus or SM) who doesn't follow the recomended form factor leaves themselves open to criticism of being non-standard. This type of thing can sometimes be the deathknell of a product. So this Design Guide has become a "defacto" standard for 771 mobos.

On page 36 of the Design Guide there is a drawing entitled "Figure A-11. LGA 771 Socket Motherboard Footprint (Sheet 7 of 7)". It shows the exact orientation of the two sockets, including their center-to-center spacing.

Now all of us who have built up systems have had some difficulty finding and selecting our coolers, (except for you Water Bugs) because of the overly tight spacing. Let's face it, for every different 771 cooler available there are probably 50 available for the 775 socket. But we can't easily use those 775 coolers because TWO won't fit. This restrictive situation makes the build process far more difficult than it really needs to be.

So fast-forward a couple of years and Intel decides to build an "enthusiast" level dual-771 motherboard. They will call it the Skulltrail, a very catchy name. And what do they do about the aforementioned spacing problem? They violate their own published mechanical specification. Incredible!

Some would call this a "dirty trick". But Intel can get away with it because they are a monopoly. But ultinmately, the consumer gets to "vote with his wallet" and no one has to buy the Skulltrail. But the increased center-to-center socket spacing certainly does give the board some additional appeal.

I have no doubt that the Skulltrail is a good board, at least from the technical standpoint. But I personally would never buy one because it's just TOO BIG! From my viewpoint, smaller is better.

They call these things PERSONAL COMPUTERS for very good reason, because we each get to choose. Hence, there is room in the market for many choices.

Good Luck.

VV

[STEvil]

So I hear we have an Asus rep here on the forums now...

[Movieman]

So I hear we have an Asus rep here on the forums now...

By the name of illuminatiASUS..
I know, I set up his account last night and he and I have been having such long,wonderful talks about the Z7S WS..

[jcool]

Great - when do we get our individual yell-time? 30 Minutes should be appropriate

[illuminatiASUS]

Hello all please feel free to yell as much as you want. I have currently been reviewing this situation since coming into this role. I have been working with Movieman on the details and will keep you guys and him up to date as the situation plays out. Currently I am awaiting some information from our motherboard team and few other sources on some questions I have asked of them. I thank all of your for the patience you have had and apologize for the frustration you have experienced. I myself as an end user know how hard it can be trying to get answers or a resolution to an issue.

[minhgi]

Wow!!! Just got back from school out of state.

Things sure had change allot here. Read up on all the posts to get up todate. Numerous motherboards death and some very unhappy customers. This thread had not seen many new posts either. this was use to be the hang out place.

My computer had not been boot up in six months and had been upgraded physically. Anyway, I needs help from the experts to restore an image from using Acronis Image 2009. My computer had a Raid 0 with 4 SSD setup using the on board raid controller that Acronis was not able to see. The ESB2E ICH southbridge may not be supported by Acronis True Image for home use. Maybe the business version could work?

Just wanna to know if your guys had any better solutions

[Movieman]

Hello all please feel free to yell as much as you want. I have currently been reviewing this situation since coming into this role. I have been working with Movieman on the details and will keep you guys and him up to date as the situation plays out. Currently I am awaiting some information from our motherboard team and few other sources on some questions I have asked of them. I thank all of your for the patience you have had and apologize for the frustration you have experienced. I myself as an end user know how hard it can be trying to get answers or a resolution to an issue.

Welcome..Just want to warn you to bring your flamesuit when you post in this thread..

[jcool]

Welcome - great to see someone from Asus finally acknowledging the issues with the Z7S.
If you have read this thread (partially) I won't need to do much explaining, basically these things crap out way too early when loaded full-time. While this can happen with individual boards, it certainly shouldn't with most of them, which is what happened here.

Being one of the first people to buy this board retail I am now on my 3rd Z7S WS, go figure

What I would like so see resolved (besides the mysterious death syndrome) is the bios situation. You just can't use the Vcore adjustment setting in Bios properly, either to undervolt or to overvolt the CPUs. Every time you change Vcore from auto to any given value, it will reset the bios unless using a very specific combination of settings. Then you get it to boot ONCE with the desired Vcore, BUT - as soon as you reboot or shut down, the CMOS is shot again.

[STEvil]

You want to rectify the issue, illuminatiAsus?

I want a dual Gulftown board that doesnt die.

[[XC] serlv]

Welcome illuminatiASUS.

You are a brave soul to come into this thread. I hope you come with the best of intentions. I am one of the owners of the 12 dead ( out of 14 ). I have roughly 35 systems here. Until this issue is resolved I will not buy another Asus. Close to $500 for a board and it lasts maybe a month...!!!!!
The level of frustration and anger of us Z7S owners in here is pretty high.

So, hoping you have pull and can get resolution.

Thanks for listening.

Scott

[rjs200]

Has anyone out there had a problem where the Ram heats up to around 75deg after about 30 seconds. The machine tries to boot gets half way through loading windows, dies and repeats the process.
I cant even get a reply from ASUS

[Movieman]

Has anyone out there had a problem where the Ram heats up to around 75deg after about 30 seconds. The machine tries to boot gets half way through loading windows, dies and repeats the process.
I cant even get a reply from ASUS

PM this gentleman:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/member.php?u=111081

[jcool]

You sure it's the memory? FBDIMM should run fairly stable up until ~95C then it starts to throttle but still runs.

[Jaco]

Has anyone out there had a problem where the Ram heats up to around 75deg after about 30 seconds. The machine tries to boot gets half way through loading windows, dies and repeats the process.
I cant even get a reply from ASUS

Have you tried to cool the ram with a fan ?
FB-dimms do get real hot without cooling.

[rjs200]

It has only just started happening, its been ok for about 6 months, if i check the bios the memory temperature is highlighted in red, once it gets hot it shuts down and wont reboot,
this is the lastest of a whole series of problems with this board

[rjs200]

im not 100% sure, the memory temp in the bios is in red figures when the machine shuts down and wont boot again, if its running the temp shows in blue! but everything on the board except for the cpu seems very hot

[Movieman]

im not 100% sure, the memory temp in the bios is in red figures when the machine shuts down and wont boot again, if its running the temp shows in blue! but everything on the board except for the cpu seems very hot

Then it's a simple answer, you need more cooling on the board.. fans and big ones..

[minhgi]

Not to interrupt the conversation but add to the subject. I had 6 4gb fbdimm with OCZ XTC Cooler on top but two of my sticks is running over 80c. The others are running in the high 60's. Does it indicate that I have defective rams? These two rams are sitting in the two middle slots. Anyway, I had taken them out and my system is not giving me any artifact anymor re.

One other thing, when I attempt to over clock I get artifact. I am suspecting is not my memory as I just had change them out. My system might hit a brick wall due to my pair of L5420's or need a more beef up power supply? Any advise? I just want my system to be able to handle 1600FSB.

I had found the solution to my Acronis problem already. I guess none of your guys use acronis here.

[STEvil]

I use a 120mm fan to cool my FB-DIMM's, anything less is not enough.

[minhgi]

Stevil,

how can you strap a 120mm to the memory, as I can not find any possible way of doing that. May if you can show with some kind of picture.

What is your temperature on your if fbdimm. I wonder if a 4gb stick does run hotter due to using higher density memory?