Asus A8N SLI Deluxe OC Thought

[pilryu]

In this forum, I've been hearing a lot of people complain about the OC memory instability on a8n deluxe. Yes, after testing a bunch of different rams (with the help of some of my friends), I must concur with their thoughts.

However, I don't think you should give up on ASUS just because of this memory issue. Asus is a fine OC-ing board, and for people like me, this is THE motherboard of choice.

Let me explain.

The only reason why I decided to upgrade to nforce4 chip was mainly due to the support of 8 SATA drives on two motherboards, namely Gigabyte and Asus. After some consideration, I decided to go with Asus, since I've used their board before. And now I have over 2 terabyte of storage all inside this one case. So, unlike most of you, I upgraded my computer because of storage issue.

Anyhow, so for people like me, who need lots of storage, Asus/gigabyte is the way to go.

And, I will show you now that you won't be disappointed with OC results, if that's also in your thoughts.

Let's say you are building a new 64 system. You can try to buy $$$ parts, so that you'll have the highest possible performance, or you can buy value products and get a pretty high OC out of it.

This is what I would recommend if you are upgrading.

$140: 64 3000+ 939 (buy retail since the retail fan is totally awesome!)
$165: Asus a8n sli deluxe
$100: cheap/compatible PC3200 dual channel memory 1GB with lowest timings you can find
$200: 6600 GT PCIE

for about 600 bucks, you can have the ultimate system, which can play FARCRY at 1600x1200 at max settings without AA/AF around 30-60 FPS!!!

now, you're probably wondering why I said buy cheap memory. Well, since ASUS can't overclock memory well anyway, why spend $$$ buying high quality RAM? If you have 300 to spend on memory, I'll suggest that you get another graphic card for SLI set up or go for the 6800 GT or ultra.

Because overclocking the memory above 400 DDR won't give you a high performance/price ratio than having a really nice GPU.

And now I'll explain how to OC your system so that you can get maximum value out of your system.


When I first purchased my system, I tried to stay at CPU multiplier of 9-11 while trying to achieve 1:1 or 6:5 divider on my memories. I could overclock CPU to 2.7+ easily (with stock cooling! yeah that is the bomb!), but my memories would give me lots of troubles around 220-240Mhz (440-480DDR). After many prime95 and memtest, I think I found a perfect solution to my problem.

Why not leave the memory at 400 DDR?

There are multiple ways of leaving your memory at stock speeds

1) HTT = 200; Set BIOS to DDR400
2) HTT = 240; Set BIOS to DDR333
3) HTT = 300; Set BIOS to DDR266
3) HTT = 400: Set BIOS to DDR200

Of course, I don't recommend either 1 or 4 for OCing because 1 forces you to raise CPU multiplier to ridiculous levels and 4 is simply madness (although it might be possible with 6x multiplier-- but I'm not even going to test it)

so you really have only two options, HTT at 240 or HTT at 300

for achieving HTT of 240, you can try to set your CPU multiplier between 9.5, 10, 10.5, 11 to achieve speeds between 2280-2640, which are all possible speeds for 3000+ on stock cooling.

or on the other hand for HTT of 300, you can set CPU multiplier between 7.5, 8, 8.5 for speeds between 2250-2550.


I've noticed that achieving higher speeds is easier with lower mutlipliers, so I would strongly suggest going for HTT of 300.


So this is what you should aim for:
HTT = 300 Mhz
CPU Mutliplier = 8.5x (or 8x if you want to stay safe at 2400)
Mobo Multiplier = 3x

then you'll have
2550Mhz CPU at
900 HTL
400 DDR

I personally use 3200, since I didn't know any better but I KNOW that 3000 can reach those numbers. I don't even remember the last time, I had such an easy time overclocking CPU. AT DDR200 setting, I just stopped OCing after reaching HTT of 340 at 8x... prime95 ran correctly, but while my internet explorer would randomly crash in the process... so I thought something was up (although I don't know what).

Anyhow, I know there are lots of people on this forum who use OCZ platinum rev 2 but why bother? when those ram cost around 250!!! instead buy 100 dollar ram and use the other 150 to buy a better GPU or make a SLI set up.

Here some of my numbers on my 2550 MHZ set up right now

3DMark05 3909
3DMark03 9281

If I had an extra 150 dollars, I'll set up a SLI and I know my 3dMark05 would reach the 6000...

the difference between DDR200 and DDR400 on 3DMark05 is less than 100! how much difference could DDR500 or DDR600 could make?

anyhow, this was just my 2 cents... I just can't seem to understand why some people would use high quality ram and a single 6600 GT, when they could have clearly bought a better GPU (s) + cheaper ram with the same money.

and like i've said before. IF you want massive storage options, Asus or gigabyte is the way to go (although asus has that extra sata pci extension thingy, which may come in handy once i expand my harddrives further). And they give 8 free sata cables!!! those are pretty expensive if you buy from a retailer like radioshack (but online you can get them dirt cheap).

and yes, I can run everything perfectly on my stupid antec (somebody on one of the post said antec sucked--umm, hello?), 20 pin, 430W PSU. If you wish to know how I managed it, look up my other post (afterall, I only have one other post--I just had to reply--and sign up to the forum--since so many of you are confused about the whole PSU issue). Watt usage add up (comp alone can add about 30-40 bucks per month on billing with high Watt PSU+monitor+printer+sound system, if you leave comp on 24/7)

 

[Dean Edward]

Check out the new Asus Intel SLI mobo released a few days ago. Notice how they have used AMD SLI version customers to revise the mobo. No whiney chipset fan. SLI led indicatore light...I'm sure they managed to make things very nice for their cash-cow Intel customers AFTER using us as lab-rats with their rush to market AMD SLI set-up.

Sounding a bit pissed??? You bet i am!!!

http://www.tweak.dk/nyheder2.php?id=9599
http://www.hothardware.com/image_popup....=big_P5ND2SLI-3D.jpg&articleid=757&t=n

 

[pilryu]

interesting... but it only contains nforce4 chip RAID and not Sil's raid...

but it seems to have a SATA port next to the EZPLUG and I don't know what that is for... maybe it plugs into a device which expands it?

anyhow, even if ASUS made an identical mobo for intel, amd chips are just far more cheaper... that is unless you already own p4 extreme...

Here are AMD and Intel's economic solution to their 90nm chipsets

retail 64 3000 90nm = 145 bucks
retail P4 2.8Gz 90nm = 155 bucks

But AMD's 3000's OC performance is so much better than 2.8 P4. And you need to buy more expensive ram for P4.

 

[mrscintilla]

awesome post. agree with your observations.

 

[pilryu]

why thank you for your kindness!

I just want to inform anyone who is building a new system (or even someone who might currently own A8N Sli) that he/she doesn't need to buy DFI (for 60 bucks more) mobo or expensive ram to get a very good OC on Asus mobo.

I just don't like seeing people buy similar parts to "mimic" performances of others without really considering the price/performance ratio on what they are actually buying.

One thing I've noticed often is people incessantly making this kind of remark: "ABC sucks, so I'm going to change to XYZ." This is my question to them: "if you cannot reconcile the problems with your current product, how much of performance benefit do you believe you'll have with your NEW product?"

The whole point of OCing, in my humble opinion, is to achieve the greatest performance possible, while spending the least possible $$$ (of course this doesn't apply to all of you). If you are going to spend $$$ getting the greatest mobo, greatest ram, greatest hd, greatest psu... and sometimes spending more $$$ replacing semi-good ram, mobo, etc... it seems a bit ridiculous to buy the cheapest cpu and gpu...

and i think i've shown in my original post that you can get extreme performance (at least in current games) by spending as little as possible.

anyhow, my ranting stops here today

 

[densoN]

actually pilryu id love ur help on my clock settings, im not an expert on bios clocking so im just using automated clock ratio's and 10% is only giving me a 2.4x Ghz proc speed.
plus it's not running very stabel i think
would you mind if i added you to msn and you helped me a bit with the corrrect settings :$
i would sure appreciate it =)

 

[pilryu]

well, I don't know about messenger, since I rarely use it but let me see if I can help you out through the forum. why don't you give me the following info and i'll try to see what would be a safe starting point for you

automated clock settings aren't very nice, so stop using it, first of all.

1. Tell me Your Bios Version
2. IF you can tell me the current settings for the OC part of the BIOS (clock frequency, HT, Mem settings, etc -- more details, more help I can give)

 

[funkwalkr]

Originally posted by: Dean Edward
Check out the new Asus Intel SLI mobo released a few days ago. Notice how they have used AMD SLI version customers to revise the mobo. No whiney chipset fan. SLI led indicatore light...I'm sure they managed to make things very nice for their cash-cow Intel customers AFTER using us as lab-rats with their rush to market AMD SLI set-up.

Sounding a bit pissed??? You bet i am!!!

http://www.tweak.dk/nyheder2.php?id=9599
http://www.hothardware.com/image_popup....=big_P5ND2SLI-3D.jpg&articleid=757&t=n

You know, the reason that the Intel version doesn't have a fan is because there is both a northbridge and a southbridge, unlike the AMD version that has a single chip solution. Thus the AMD northbridge is taking care of a lot of workload. Nothing to be pissed at, not nVidia nor ASUS

 

[MADMAX23]

Originally posted by: pilryu
In this forum, I've been hearing a lot of people complain about the OC memory instability on a8n deluxe. Yes, after testing a bunch of different rams (with the help of some of my friends), I must concur with their thoughts.

However, I don't think you should give up on ASUS just because of this memory issue. Asus is a fine OC-ing board, and for people like me, this is THE motherboard of choice.

Let me explain.

The only reason why I decided to upgrade to nforce4 chip was mainly due to the support of 8 SATA drives on two motherboards, namely Gigabyte and Asus. After some consideration, I decided to go with Asus, since I've used their board before. And now I have over 2 terabyte of storage all inside this one case. So, unlike most of you, I upgraded my computer because of storage issue.

Anyhow, so for people like me, who need lots of storage, Asus/gigabyte is the way to go.

And, I will show you now that you won't be disappointed with OC results, if that's also in your thoughts.

Let's say you are building a new 64 system. You can try to buy $$$ parts, so that you'll have the highest possible performance, or you can buy value products and get a pretty high OC out of it.

This is what I would recommend if you are upgrading.

$140: 64 3000+ 939 (buy retail since the retail fan is totally awesome!)
$165: Asus a8n sli deluxe
$100: cheap/compatible PC3200 dual channel memory 1GB with lowest timings you can find
$200: 6600 GT PCIE

for about 600 bucks, you can have the ultimate system, which can play FARCRY at 1600x1200 at max settings without AA/AF around 30-60 FPS!!!

now, you're probably wondering why I said buy cheap memory. Well, since ASUS can't overclock memory well anyway, why spend $$$ buying high quality RAM? If you have 300 to spend on memory, I'll suggest that you get another graphic card for SLI set up or go for the 6800 GT or ultra.

Because overclocking the memory above 400 DDR won't give you a high performance/price ratio than having a really nice GPU.

And now I'll explain how to OC your system so that you can get maximum value out of your system.


When I first purchased my system, I tried to stay at CPU multiplier of 9-11 while trying to achieve 1:1 or 6:5 divider on my memories. I could overclock CPU to 2.7+ easily (with stock cooling! yeah that is the bomb!), but my memories would give me lots of troubles around 220-240Mhz (440-480DDR). After many prime95 and memtest, I think I found a perfect solution to my problem.

Why not leave the memory at 400 DDR?

There are multiple ways of leaving your memory at stock speeds

1) HTT = 200; Set BIOS to DDR400
2) HTT = 240; Set BIOS to DDR333
3) HTT = 300; Set BIOS to DDR266
3) HTT = 400: Set BIOS to DDR200

Of course, I don't recommend either 1 or 4 for OCing because 1 forces you to raise CPU multiplier to ridiculous levels and 4 is simply madness (although it might be possible with 6x multiplier-- but I'm not even going to test it)

so you really have only two options, HTT at 240 or HTT at 300

for achieving HTT of 240, you can try to set your CPU multiplier between 9.5, 10, 10.5, 11 to achieve speeds between 2280-2640, which are all possible speeds for 3000+ on stock cooling.

or on the other hand for HTT of 300, you can set CPU multiplier between 7.5, 8, 8.5 for speeds between 2250-2550.


I've noticed that achieving higher speeds is easier with lower mutlipliers, so I would strongly suggest going for HTT of 300.


So this is what you should aim for:
HTT = 300 Mhz
CPU Mutliplier = 8.5x (or 8x if you want to stay safe at 2400)
Mobo Multiplier = 3x

then you'll have
2550Mhz CPU at
900 HTL
400 DDR

I personally use 3200, since I didn't know any better but I KNOW that 3000 can reach those numbers. I don't even remember the last time, I had such an easy time overclocking CPU. AT DDR200 setting, I just stopped OCing after reaching HTT of 340 at 8x... prime95 ran correctly, but while my internet explorer would randomly crash in the process... so I thought something was up (although I don't know what).

Anyhow, I know there are lots of people on this forum who use OCZ platinum rev 2 but why bother? when those ram cost around 250!!! instead buy 100 dollar ram and use the other 150 to buy a better GPU or make a SLI set up.

Here some of my numbers on my 2550 MHZ set up right now

3DMark05 3909
3DMark03 9281

If I had an extra 150 dollars, I'll set up a SLI and I know my 3dMark05 would reach the 6000...

the difference between DDR200 and DDR400 on 3DMark05 is less than 100! how much difference could DDR500 or DDR600 could make?

anyhow, this was just my 2 cents... I just can't seem to understand why some people would use high quality ram and a single 6600 GT, when they could have clearly bought a better GPU (s) + cheaper ram with the same money.

and like i've said before. IF you want massive storage options, Asus or gigabyte is the way to go (although asus has that extra sata pci extension thingy, which may come in handy once i expand my harddrives further). And they give 8 free sata cables!!! those are pretty expensive if you buy from a retailer like radioshack (but online you can get them dirt cheap).

and yes, I can run everything perfectly on my stupid antec (somebody on one of the post said antec sucked--umm, hello?), 20 pin, 430W PSU. If you wish to know how I managed it, look up my other post (afterall, I only have one other post--I just had to reply--and sign up to the forum--since so many of you are confused about the whole PSU issue). Watt usage add up (comp alone can add about 30-40 bucks per month on billing with high Watt PSU+monitor+printer+sound system, if you leave comp on 24/7)




Hi!!
I am using a ASUS A8N SLI DELUXE too and my results after multiple tryingas are quite better than yours!!Now I cannot ereport them as I am in the office working but i'll post tehm as soon as possible!!
Legend, my ASUS caps at 257 Mhz in 1:1 ratio or DDR400 in the BIOS!! I WILL EXPLAIN YOU HOW LATER ON!! I am using bios 1006

 

[MADMAX23]

Buying good (unfortunately expensive) RAM MEMORY is worth the performance and results!!

 

[pilryu]

Originally posted by: MADMAX23
Buying good (unfortunately expensive) RAM MEMORY is worth the performance and results!!

I disagree... Performance/Price Ratio is simply too low for the mems.

Assuming that you've achieved 257Mhz with your "average" Corsairs (I'm sorry for you, but your mems aren't considered exotic--just expensive) your performance in buffered mem test in Sandra would have gone up from 6000 (DDR 400) to around 7000-7500 (DDR 500). Although these synthetic numbers might mean something for some people, you simply won't see any major benefits in desktop perfomance or in games. To be more specific, you would have had about 50-200 increase in 3DMark05

Had you spent that extra 100 bucks along with 50 bucks spent on themalright xp-120 (totally useless since 90nm Athlon 64 is already very low heat-- in fact, I even LOWERED my CPU fan speed to 2000 even after OCIng it, so that I can high a nice quiet environment and still keep the temp at 40-45C), you could have bought yourself an extra XFX geforce 6600 GT for an SLI set up or 6800 Ultra, which would have increased your 3DMark05 score by 1500+ points.

My fundamental point is this: Of course, you are going to benefit from a higher mem clock. That's no brainer. But as I've pointed out above, you could have used your money more wisely for pure performance.

To further substantiate my point. I still own P3 at 450MHz (windows 98) and P4 at 1.4 and 1.7 and 2.4 and I also have Celeron 2.4 and 2.8 computers. My current computer (Athlon 64) loads Windows in about 15-20 seconds and it still takes 5-10 seconds to open most office/adobe softwares. In terms of everyday performance benefits, I would say that there is, on average, 5-30 second difference in ways which programs loads, between these "obsolete" computers and my modern rig.

The only areas which are going to benefit from high CPU/RAM/GPU are gaming and CAD (which isn't really Athlon's forte). And you simply won't have a mind blowing perfomance difference between 100 dollar ram and 200-300-400 dollar ram. That's a fact. You will, however, have a huge benefit from switching from 6600GT to 6800GT/Ultra or from 6600GT to 6600GT SLI. That's another fact.

If you wish to discredit me, do some synthetic tests (3DMark05 preferred) of your own with your RAM at settings of 400DDR and 500(or rather 514 DDR). If your RAM, miraculously allows a 1000+ increase in 3DMark05, while going from 400DDR to 500DDR, I'll recant my statement and I'll never post again in anandtech.com.

And if you happened to have increased your mem by changing it from 1T to 2T, don't even bother posting. Your benchmark would decrease going from 400DDR 1T to 500DDR 2T.

 

[MADMAX23]

I do agree with your last reply, everything you say is right but, in my opinion, getting good fast RAM memory with low latencies and higher speeds is worth the money since one of the golden rules in overclocking is to achieve the highest HTT (FSB) speed your cpu, mobo and ram can get in 1:1 ratio to get the "theorical" best performance avoiding bottlenecks produced by the applying of dividers.
That´s why I bought my Corsair Twinx 1024 4400c25, I am runing them at 257 Mhz in 1:1 ratio at 2,5-3-3-7 timings at 1T with the standard 1,75v (I think it's pretty exotic, at least for me)
Yeah,you were right, I get very close to 7000 Mb/s in Sisoft Sandra's Memory bandwidth benchmark when running my cpu to 2,4 ghz at 1.425v.Haven´t tested 3dmark yet but I will!
I am now trying the DDR333 divider on the ASUS A8N SLI DELUXE BIOS 1006, yesterday I achieved 2.715 Ghz at 1.5v with the HTT raised to 300 Mhz and memory runing at 250 Mhz 2.5-3-3-7 at 1T.Haven´t still tested that config in Sisoft sandra and others to compare it but I will and post here my results!
About the XP-120: Legend: My cpu does not go any hotter than 35 degrees celsius even after 2 hours of intensive gameplay with MOHPA and running at 2.6Ghz with 1.5v.My panaflo U1A is set to 7v and still delivers 65 CFM aprox. so is very quiet,the chipset fan,however, is very noisy,rotates at 9900RPM and gets very hot, 39º the highest temp, I am thinking about replacing it with a passive Zalman,the ZM-NB47J, what do you think about it?Would like your opinion.
Hope to hear from you soon

 

[pilryu]

I think I posted what I did with my heatsink on the chipset fan forum...

but in case you haven't read it...


Basically, I bought the smaller Zalman, the one that looks like a little golden square. I also purchased a 30x30x10 fan that had lower RPM than the stock fan.

Using scrap metals I placed the fan on top of the zalman (using heat adhesive that came with the Zalman) so that it "kinda" looks like a CPU fan (except a lot smaller).

Took me about 1 hour to make and 30 mins to install (you do have to take out all the components since you need to take out the original fan).

but passive heatsink alone is not going to cut it for you (my heatsink is currently at 54C--actual temperature, not mobo, or software reading--which is a bit warm to the touch, but not painful). with the passive heatsink alone, the temperatures will exceed 60+ very fast.

I don't know what you are looking at for the 39C reading, but the actual temperature of the chipfan after leaving it on 3 full days in 27C room temperature is around 60+C (I forgot the actual temp). You can test this by putting the top of your pinky (the soft side) right next to the fan. It will be PAINFUL!!! 39C is not painful at all.. that's only about 102F. It shouldn't even feel "hot." Warm like how your CPU heatsink would feel (in fact, you shouldn't really feel anything at 39C, since it's so close to body temp).

 

[MADMAX23]

Ok I thought 39 degrees was quite high temp for the Chipset!Thanks

 

[cirthix]

except for the fact that 3000+s only have 9x and under multipliers unlocked... and other companies boards tend to oc higher for cheaper prices and i'd rather go with someone else, like DFI. i will stick with DFI untill something else changes my mind (like ct479 ), they make GREAT boards (if you dont corrupt your bios)