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

[D_A]

There is actually another product brand that goes by the name Anus http://anuslaptops.com/ though you might want to read between the lines before trying to buy anything.

[alpha0ne]

There is actually another product brand that goes by the name Anus http://anuslaptops.com/ though you might want to read between the lines before trying to buy anything.

Thats hilarious...........now I can safely say I have seen it all

[RonJeremy]

Good afternoon!

Advise, what now is the freshest version BIOS for this motherboard and where it to take?
I have two beta version BIOS 501 (downloaded from links from this forum)
In one control of speed of operation of fans doesn't work and POST occupies 2 minutes. In another control of fans works, but periodically BIOS is dropped on default. In 401 too most.
Can there is more stable release BIOS?

[pbdm4k]

knock on wood guys, my Z7S is still kicking.

I've had it over a year and half now.
No issues.

Stock clocks, never overclocked. Thermalright cooled on the CPU's and chipset.
Kingston HyperX memory.

So far so good!

what have you guys moved on to?

I think I'm getting out of the xeon stuff, next pc is an X58 with i7 for me.
Although I got it jacked up on 24gb of ram.

[STEvil]

Went to a Supermicro X7DAL-E.. also have a UD5 running and an SR-2 just waiting for a case (ordered, shipping in a few days).

[Syndil]

Almost a year after my last post (which is just on page 68, lol) and this thread is still kicking. My Z7S is still alive, although yesterday it did just about give me a heart attack.

I leave mine running all the time, and when I came back from watching TV to "do some work," the PC was on, but it wasn't alive. The fans were spinning, the power light was on, but the monitor was still in standby and the keyboard and mouse were not lit. This happens quite frequently, actually, so I did not panic. Something with about either how the computer goes to sleep or how it wakes up. Anyway, I usually reset it and all is well. But this time, I reset it, and... it did not POST. It went right back to the state it was in before. Lights on, fans spinning, but no beep, and no peripherals powering up.

Very first thing I did was browse to Newegg on my phone to make sure I was still under warranty, or I would have really shat a brick. Warranty is up in April of '11. Whew. So I get my flashlight and start looking for fried VRMs. Don't smell anything or see any signs of fried components, but that does not convince me. So I remove the TV tuner card blocking my view of the GP diagnostic card and boot it up once more, expecting to see the dreaded FF. Instead, it shows E4. Crappy manual doesn't list the meaning of the error codes, only the codes that it displays when everything is working properly. So today I call ASUS, and the guy tells me it's a bad memory code.

I remove all my sticks, power it up, and this time I get beeps--long, short short--along with the E4 on the card. So I put them in one at a time, leaving the stick that had occupied channel 2 for last. I figured it was the most likely to have failed, being the only stick sandwiched directly between two more sticks. And I was right. It's a stick of Kingston HyperX that I purchased from a member here nearly a year ago. Looks like I'll be testing Kingston's lifetime warranty service.

Anyway, after reflecting on the whole episode, I am actually disappointed that it was not a VRM failure. The closer I get to the warranty expiration date, the more concern I have that it will fail after the warranty expires rather than before. I'm considering calling ASUS and asking if they will just replace my Z7S with a DSEB-DG even though mine hasn't failed yet. Surely by now they must know that these things are ticking time bombs.

[jcool]

what have you guys moved on to?

evga SR-2, what else

[MrBean]

My Z7S is still ticking away, albeit as my brother's main rig - pretty reliable, and no issues 2 years down the track.

I have switched to a SuperMicro X7DWA-N though, doing a great job - yeah, it's not the latest tech, but I cannot justify getting new SR2 - and it won't fit in my Blackbird case - so I'll stick with the SM for a while longer.

[RonJeremy]

Good day to all owners of this "miracle" Asus Z7S-WS!

Discovered a problem with this motherboard. Posted in Asus technical support to the following letter:

The problem with increasing frequency of the second processor.
Intel QX9775 processors have a free multiplier. Default multiplier for them is x8.
Accordingly, if you change the multiplier to x8, 5 both processors are working
at a frequency of 3400Mhz. And even at increasing the multiplier to x9 crashes - the first processor actually changes the frequency at 3600Mhz, and the second is reset to 3200Mhz, ie remains in the native factor x8.
Same thing happens for the factors x9, 5, and x10. Higher factors are not checked.
Ie it looks like this:
Factor, Real Clock CPU1, Real Clock CPU2
Auto 3200Mhz 3200Mhz
x8 3200Mhz 3200Mhz
x8, 5 3400Mhz 3400Mhz
x9 3600Mhz 3200Mhz
x9, 5 3800Mhz 3200Mhz
x10 4000Mhz 3200Mhz
In this case, the motherboard BIOS at boot time reports about the frequency, which should be a test utility CPU-Z, Coretemp and HWinfo - the frequency of the second processor is lower than the first.

My question comes the answer:

************************************************** ******************************

Dear user,

Due to company support policy, we don’t support overclocking issue.

I’m sorry I can’t anything for this.



Best regards,

Ryan Hung

Global Technical Support Department

ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

************************************************** ******************************

And what do I do?
Technical support does not want to see the problem.
The problem is not related to the consequences of overclocking. The problem with that, to perform overclocking! The motherboard does not provide the documented functionality.

Dear owners!
I have two more requests:
- If you do overclock, check your system (especially for someone installed QX9775).
- Help to steer the conversation with technical support in the right direction. I, unfortunately, not very familiar with the English language. What and how they write that the case has moved?

[STEvil]

Asus = Trash.

edit

For those concerned, the Asus rep that was on the forums and was supposedly investigating the sudden death syndrome hasnt said anything for a few months now.. so I guess we've been left in the cold, again.

[neveroffline]

Hey guys, just lost my Z7S yesterday - bought in June of 2008. Happened in the exact same way as the others, same heatsink area, and yeah, tons of smoke, had to literally evacuate the room.

I have an email into ASUS for the warranty replacement. What are they substituting the Z7S with? I need something hopefully better to throw my 5410's in.

[neveroffline]

Here she is guys...

[D_A]

Looks like the Magic Smoke (TM) got out.

[STEvil]

STEvil - 2
angelshonnny - 1
Jaco/taymans - 3
jcool - 6+
spiro - 1
4DoorGTZ - 1
DanTheBanjoman - 1
Serlv - 1
ZIO -2
colombodk - 1
romanzen - 1
lombardi - 1
Apoptosis - 2
neveroffoline - 1

24

[Syndil]

Mine is still kicking, with the warranty up in April. Really starting to panic, thinking the warranty will be up before the apparently inevitable will occur. But I'm concerned... How much of a fire hazard are these things when they fail? Will the whole thing catch fire if I'm not around to cut power when it fails?

Also I'd like to know what Asus did for ZIO, if you're still watching the thread.

[STEvil]

shouldnt be a bad fire hazard unless you have a lot of wires right next to the spot that burns up.

[Syndil]

Oh and hey, anyone have any more Kingston HyperX FB-DIMMs they want to unload? I can use two more. Also if anyone purchased the FB-DIMM water cooling kit and no longer has a need for it... let's talk.

[STEvil]

667 or 800? 1gb or 2gb?

[Syndil]

HyperX FB-DIMMs were only made available as a 2 x 1GB 800MHz kit.

[STEvil]

funny, i've got 4 similar to these, the non-apple version I guess.. http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/conf...KTA-XE667K2/2G

[Syndil]

Those aren't the Hyper-X though.

[RomanZen]

hey ya,

just here to confirm another dead Z7S.

as you may guess VRM's burnt (again)

case (lian li b-25) mb tray after fireworks



some more funny things.

asus SERVER support only reachable from monday to friday in regular office times. (board went bbq on saturday morning)

phoned them monday morning 09:00. stuff was done quickly since it wasn't the first replacement. ensured that the board will have latest bios update. they failed there at the first replacement. which then needed a 2nd board to be sent with an actual bios.

replacement board arrival ETA by the support was tuesday.

On thursday with no board arrived or any further information from the server support i called them back to get any information about this.

me: hey whats up board should have been arrived but i have none yet.

happy supporter guy: let me check (busy typing in the background) oh yeah, i got it. we have none of these boards in stock. and there is no delivery date.
i should have informed you about that. but i didn't, my apologies for that.

i will get the delivery date for the mb and call you back in 30 minutes.

guess what?

45 minutes later there was no call.

i went to an appointment then, doing dmg control. cause these board in combination with the extra great support is making my customers very mad. cause i can't hold my schedules without my main workstation.

thats now 24h ago.
guess what? no call, no email, no nothing yet.



i got a question now to you guys.

i am trying to find an alternative board.

is there any tyan board not needing ecc rams ? aka is it possible to switch to tyan (or some other mb) without having to switch the fb-dimms which was needed by the z7s.

best regards,

romanzen

[neveroffline]

ASUS USA does not have any Z7S's at all. They replaced my Z7S the other month with a DSEB-DG and I was able to use the same ram etc. It is a much more stable board and better quality. You will need a SSI EEB 3.61 chassis support. I am using an Aerocool bgs 500.

[Syndil]

If they have no Z7S boards in stock, then I would demand that they replace it with a DSEB-DG. Won't fit in your case, but a new case would be cheaper than new RAM.

[neveroffline]

Here is a link to the case I am using with my DSEB-DG:
http://www.amazon.com/AeroCool-PGS-B...9256947&sr=8-1