asus a8n really a POS?

[wheels]

I ordered a custom desktop from monarch computers with the asus a8n sli motherboard, but I am little worried from seeing the posts about problems with the board. Is it really a bad board or just a bad OCer. I cant really believe or understand some of the people , who act like a mobo is automatically a POS because it is a bad Ocer. So i need to clear this up, if I dont overclock, I am safe right? The most I'd ever modify is changing the video card or adding a wireless NIC.

enermax 485w 2.0 PSU
3500newcastle
asus a8n sli
1gb corsair value select
120gb seagate sata
bfg 6800gt oc
audigy 2 zs

 

[GuitarDaddy]

It is neither!

Its a great motherboard, and a good overclocker.

It's been rock solid for me for over 2 months and it overclocks like mad!
I currently have a 3200+ (2.0ghz stock) clocked at 2628mhz
My CPU-Z Screenie

98% of the people who post here are the people with problems. And a large part of them are either user errors, or incompatability because they didn't do their homework.
Powersupply problems account for a large number of the serious problems.
Don't try and save money on the power supply, get a high quality high powered unit

That Monarch system looks great! I'm sure your going to love it

 

[mofrack]

Do you really need to ask this question?

The reason the board looks problematic on this and all tech boards is because most people only come to boards like this to post about problems they may be having.

I overclock with this board. It's no DFI, and you probably wont reach insane overclocks with it, but the A8N is a good board, for sure.

 

[Waylay00]

Would an OCZ Modstream 520w be a good board for the A8N? Or would the Neopower be good. I've heard people having problems with dual rail PSU's.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Go with the Modstream 520, you are right dual rails aren't good for this board IMHO

I believe the Enermax 485 in wheels sig is a dual rail also
If it where me I would call Monarch and get them to swap it!

 

[wheels]

yeah I didnt think about that. people who arnt having problems usually arnt posting about it and hte people who do are talking alot about it.

 

[Algere]

Would an OCZ Modstream 520w be a good board for the A8N? Or would the Neopower be good.

Modstream over Neopower, for SLI anyways.

I've heard people having problems with dual rail PSU's.

With older & lower powered dual rail PSUs probably, not so much if any with the newer and/or more powerful types.

Go with the Modstream 520, you are right dual rails aren't good for this board IMHO

I believe the Enermax 485 in wheels sig is a dual rail also
If it where me I would call Monarch and get them to swap it!

At the very least a 32A dual rail 485W Enermax 2.0 is equal to a 28A single rail 520W Modstream as far as 12V power is of concern.

 

[CraKaJaX]

I've got the Modstream 520W, been running A8N for about a month and a half now with no problems at all. I highly recommend it

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: Algere

Would an OCZ Modstream 520w be a good board for the A8N? Or would the Neopower be good.

Modstream over Neopower, for SLI anyways.

I've heard people having problems with dual rail PSU's.

With older & lower powered dual rail PSUs probably, not so much if any with the newer and/or more powerful types.

Go with the Modstream 520, you are right dual rails aren't good for this board IMHO

I believe the Enermax 485 in wheels sig is a dual rail also
If it where me I would call Monarch and get them to swap it!

At the very least a 32A dual rail 485W Enermax 2.0 is equal to a 28A single rail 520W Modstream as far as 12V power is of concern.

There are four people posting on Anandtech in the last few days with A8N-SLI's that won't even post. Their power supplies? Two neopower 480's and two Enermax 600's both dual rail. One of the guys with the Enermax 600 has RMA'd two Asus boards and is now using a DFI Ultra SLI and it won't post either? He also refuses to believe that the power supply is his problem.

I have nothing against dual rail power supplies! I have just been watching this and other forums daily since I built my rig in December, and the majority of people having problems with these boards are using dual rail power supplies. There have been may threads debating this topic, none with any conclusive proof one way or another.

But the fact remains people with dual rails are having loads of problems and people with Strong single rails are having 0 problems.

Asus's spec's for this board say with a single 6600gt you should have greater than 18a on the 12v, with dual 6800's you should have greater than 25a on the 12v. The Enermax 485 for example has 12v1=18a 12v2=16a, which means the strongest rail has less than the required amps for one 6600gt. And contrary to what many believe amps are not additive

 

[kki000]

a8n overclocks decently, currrently on 2.3 with a 3000+(1.8stock) .
I think the fact that dfi overclocks so insanely is what has everyone drooling. If u take the dfi out of the equation, i think the asus stacks very well to every other sli board out there.

as for dual rails, everyone on this board thinks its the most evil thing since rdram, and i was firmly against getting one. When that bfg deal came up with the bundled psu, i thought i was all set. 2 cards and a beefy ps, dont need to worry about a thing. When it came in, realized it was dual rails. Yeah i know, shoulda looked it up before i ordered, but i figured it was the mfg selling dual sli cards, why in the world would they put something in the "bundle" thats not compatible. I nearly cried when i saw the specs on the side, dual 12v rails at 18amps. The ps requirements in the asus manual are very clear, but fwiw on nvidia's site, they do mention dual rail psus as being viable. Im sure their comments about adding amps is wrong, but fortunately for me, my dual rail has been working like a champ so far, been running lots of games on sli with no problems whatsoever. (Prime was run for over 12hrs)

So for the record, i dont recommend dual rail psus.
I do think some of those issues posted are with defective a8n boards. One poster said he couldnt save anything to the bios, no way that could be a psu problem.
Since this has to be the most popular sli board by far, im not that suprpised a few are doa. Still, i think this asus board is solid.

BTW, you are getting a great deal from monarch, i went there recently to build a system for a friend who lives on the other coast, and for larks i built a sli system identical to what i built from parts. The monarch price was dead on what i paid!!! Usually when i build from parts i know im getting it much cheaper but this really suprpised me.
If anyone is building an sli rig, i highly recommend going to monarch and getting everything there, prices on sli mobo and dual 6800gts are cheaper than what you would find building piece by piece.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: kki000

BTW, you are getting a great deal from monarch, i went there recently to build a system for a friend who lives on the other coast, and for larks i built a sli system identical to what i built from parts. The monarch price was dead on what i paid!!! Usually when i build from parts i know im getting it much cheaper but this really suprpised me.
If anyone is building an sli rig, i highly recommend going to monarch and getting everything there, prices on sli mobo and dual 6800gts are cheaper than what you would find building piece by piece.

And you get a warranty:thumbsup:

 

[Algere]

There are four people posting on Anandtech in the last few days with A8N-SLI's that won't even post. Their power supplies? Two neopower 480's and two Enermax 600's both dual rail. One of the guys with the Enermax 600 has RMA'd two Asus boards and is now using a DFI Ultra SLI and it won't post either? He also refuses to believe that the power supply is his problem.

What is it that ppl say around here. Most computer errors happen between the chair & the keyboard? Don't know about the four ppl that you mentioned but there's @ least one who's been able to run fine with an A8N-SLI under a controlled environment, or so it seems.

Asus's spec's for this board say with a single 6600gt you should have greater than 18a on the 12v, with dual 6800's you should have greater than 25a on the 12v.

Those requirements are total system power requirements, not just the power requirements for the video cards themselves.

From nZone/nVidia,

"If the power supply specifies two 12V windings (i.e. 12V1 and 12V2), then these current numbers can be added together to check against the specifications described above."

The Enermax 485 for example has 12v1=18a 12v2=16a, which means the strongest rail has less than the required amps for one 6600gt. And contrary to what many believe amps are not additive

It has 32A total with a 18A limit per rail which means if the components on one rail uses 18A, the other rail has 14A to use or if 16A is consumed on a rail, the other rail has 16A available to use. However which way you can balance 32A between two rails while at the same time conforming to the 18A limit per rail.

As for amps not being additive that depends what you mean by that. If you're adding each rails amps together to calculate total system power then it is additive to an extent - depends on PSU & system configs. OTOH you can't add amps together from 2+ rails when calculating the power requirements necessary for a device that is powered by only one rail, like a hard drive or motherboard for example.

 

[akugami]

I have the OCZ Modstream 520w and it works fine on my Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe board. I've gotten to 2.5ghz with a A64 3000+ winny. 278x9 but because I got 1GB of valueram my ram speeds aren't up to snuff but they are running at 2-3-3-8 1T so all's not lost. Not saying it's the greatest overclocking board but it's not a dog.

 

[wheels]

where doesthe amps go on the second rail then? are they just unused or what then? i cant trust much of what people are saying cause they all have OCed systems and tht adds alot more factors to the mix imo. why would the make dual rail psu's if they did not work?

oh and guitar daddy, what psu are you running?

 

[Heinrich]

Over on Hardocp, the lengthy thread is that this board is "POS" in fact that is in the title of the thread with quite a few postings with agreeing comments. I'm too lazy to look it up now, I am close to level 36 in WOW bye

 

[Algere]

where doesthe amps go on the second rail then?

On that PSU mentioned in your original post, the amps on the second rail goes to the motherboard, CPU, & SATA drives.

are they just unused or what then?

Imagine one half of your entire system is powered by one rail while the other half of the system is powered by the other rail. That's generally how that PSU (OP) works.

i cant trust much of what people are saying cause they all have OCed systems and tht adds alot more factors to the mix imo.

Naturally, overclocked systems consume more power than a stock clocked system. Therefore you could ascertain that if such a PSU could power up an overclocked system, a regular system would be an easier load. On the flipside, if you meant that you can't trust them cause you don't intend to overclock while claims of 2+ rail PSUs not working with OC'd SLI systems doesn't help in your case. I suppose you could search for the "What PSU are you using for SLI" threads & the like via the forum's search function for an idea or start a new thread - may get flamed for doin' the latter .

why would the make dual rail psu's if they did not work?

Some 2+ rail PSUs work & some don't with SLI. Factors could be from attempts to power a fully loaded system with a 425W two rail PSU, when in reality, it requires a beefier single or 2+ rail PSU or as I mentioned earlier, older 2 rail PSUs made before the introduction of SLI weren't intended for such applications in contrast to newer 2+ rail PSUs that are.

The reasons they're making 2+ rail PSUs comes from problems that could arise with high amperage single rails & possibly cost to maintain such a high flow of current. Suppose it's similar to why CPUs are headed towards a dual core design.