* ASUS A8N-SLI experiences/results/issues

[spearsd]

Tanclearas,

Yes, I know there are connectors on the front of the case (I own two of them), but I don't much care for cables hanging off the front (HTPC). I'm referring to the 2" x 4" section of unobstructed metal adjacent to the card slots. I may have to cut out a nice rectangle area and afix a metal plate with custom connector openings for serial, game, usb, firewire, and all the other goodies ;-) I DO love the Sonata case BTW.

Thanks,

spearsd

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: gobucks
has anyone had internet issues with the new NV firewall or anything? I've been trying to setup a connection through cable (roadrunner) and have nad absolutely no luck. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the NV firewall. Are there any special tricks i need to know about? I feel like such a jackass, i can put together a $1000 kickass new PC from scratch, but i can't connect it to the internet, lol.



Yeah I had the same sort of problem. Took me three evenings f'n with it to get it working.

What worked for me was flashing the 1003.02 bios, here
and downloading the Marvell Yukon ethernet driver here

Plug your cable into the Marvel Lan jack (the one on the top *edit*)

Unzip the Marvel Drivers, then find and run the file "Setup Yukon"

Hope this works for you.

 

[HiroProt]

So, my MB has a rev 1.02 printed on it... is that the same rev everyone else has?

Mine's rev 1.02 too

 

[gobucks]

guitardaddy, thanks for the info, i'll try it out. However, i think the bottom jack is the nvidia one. Does it matter which one you use in terms of using the NV firewall/activearmor?

On another note, here's another thing i can't find - PCI lock. Asus says it's there, but when i go into ntune, it says my PCI is synched with my HTT speed. I know there is a PCI lock, cause i've seen reviews with FSB speeds of 250MHz+, but i can't find it.

 

[chexi]

Gobucks... are you using XP SP2? Microsoft has stated that certain Wireless networking equipment drivers are not yet ready for SP2 and you will not be able to connect if you are using SP2. I ran into that same problem with my USrobotics equipment, so I uninstalled SP2 (as USRobotics did not have any updated drivers yet). Now I'm connecting fine.

Oh, and I have the firewall disabled. That's what routers are for.

 

[glorfy]

Firewall really seems quite good actually. If it was blocking it would let you know about it, and give you the option to unblock - also as the firewall is in hardware, it doesn't take up much CPU time - hey I don't like the lack of PCI lock - but the firewalls great Not what I was looking for!

 

[gobucks]

thanks, i got it working. However, does this mean i can't use the integrated nvidia lan? Cause i imagine it'll be faster than a non-integrated one.

Anyways, though, i'm still looking for that PCI lock. It's gotta be there somewhere, after all, it's listed in Asus's specs, and Asus is a pretty reputable company, so i'd imagine they aren't lying about it. I'm just afraid to use ntune until i can lock the PCI bus.

 

[runestone]

Originally posted by: glorfy
Firewall really seems quite good actually. If it was blocking it would let you know about it, and give you the option to unblock - also as the firewall is in hardware, it doesn't take up much CPU time - hey I don't like the lack of PCI lock - but the firewalls great Not what I was looking for!

Are you running software firewall also?

 

[glorfy]

Originally posted by: runestone

Originally posted by: glorfy
Firewall really seems quite good actually. If it was blocking it would let you know about it, and give you the option to unblock - also as the firewall is in hardware, it doesn't take up much CPU time - hey I don't like the lack of PCI lock - but the firewalls great Not what I was looking for!

Are you running software firewall also?

No, Nvidia firewall only.

 

[bap4201]

mine says 1.02 too! It is right next to the sli card, if you are looking for it!

 

[Tanclearas]

Hey gobucks,

I was asking about the PCI lock as well in this thread. GuitarDaddy and HiroProt are getting the same message, but they have already started OC'ing. All seems well for them so far. The lock might be automatic, but I would at least like to see that in the BIOS.

I'm quite certain the nVidia network port is the bottom one. I disabled the Marvell LAN in the BIOS. Nothing happens when I connect to the top port, and the bottom one works great!

 

[spearsd]

Yes, the NVidia Ethernet port IS the bottom one.

The A8N-SLI Deluxe has been great so far... eight hours of gaming yesterday and one game CTD (BF1942 SW), but appears to be a game bug. All in all, this board has been fabulous!!!

Does 6000 sound ok for a Sandra 2005 memory bandwidth score on PC3200 @200MHz 3-3-3-8-1T?

-spearsd

 

[gobucks]

okay, so apparently my mobo decided it didn't feel like recognizing my Diamondmax 10 HDD this morning! I don't know what happened, but i had it plugged into one of the SATA-II ports, and now in the bios all SATA channels are empty. I plugged it into the SATA-I controller, and the raid utility saw the drive, but still it isn't bootable. Is there something i need to reset in order to see it? I called Asus, and they said they'd call me back, but i'm kinda freaking out.

On another note, here's a few last questions: 1) Where's the NCQ setting? Is it automatic with supporting drives? SATA-II supports NCQ, so i'm not sure why it wouldn't be an option. 2) Can you think of any reason my floppy drive wouldn't be recognized? I unplugged it, but the "Legacy 3.5" Floppy" is still in the bios, so that leads me to believe that it never saw it to begin with.

 

[glorfy]

Well, tried a second motherboard. Altered the 'fan control' setiting and rebooted,the system hung at the 'press DEL to enter bios' screen, and I had to reset the RTC again! So 2 boards and 2 bugged boards - I think Asus has some work to do!

BTW gobucks, if you are using the black sata ports you have to enable them in the bios - oh, and thats another thing that made it hang, I enabled all 4 (although 2 drives were connected) - reset RTC again!

BTW my board is rev 1.02 also - I would imagine they all are at this stage.

I tried O/Cing, just to see if the lock was working 'hidden' from me, and couldn't get past 2400, with water cooling

 

[gobucks]

glorfy, what do you mean you have to enable the black ones? Those are the integrated nvidia ones. They are supposed to auto-detect. My HDD worked originally, then stopped showing up this morning, then unexplicably came back this afternoon, and now it's gone again. The only thing i can think of is that it's the beta bios. Unfortunately, my floppy drive is not being recognized, and so i can't revert to the old bios.

 

[bap4201]

Originally posted by: spearsd
Hi, all!

Since people are sharing their experiences with the A8N-SLI Deluxe, I'll share mine too. The board seemed to install fine in my case, and WinXP+SP1 Home Edition install was smooth as silk. After installing the NForce4 drivers I ran into some difficulty with BSOD during WinXP boots and became very worried I had a sh!t board (I worried too much). After going through the painful process of isolating the cause by removing components one-by-one it turned out the root cause was the new BenQ DW1620-0C3 DVD DL-RW I put in my system at the same time as the new MB. It turns out currently shipping firmware revision on the BenQ does NOT play nice with NForce drivers. I moved the BenQ to another system and flashed it to the latest DW1620 Pro firmware, moved it back and all was well. Not a single crash in 9 hours of heavy use. This board is Suhweettt!

What I don't like about this board...

- Placement of the additional molex power connector (next to the PCI-X slot); how about anywhere but the middle of the damn board.
- Loud Asz chipset fan; not so much the shear volume as the alternating frequency. Anyone have any idea if it would be safe to replace with a passive copper heatsink?
- Too many backplane connector brackets; a whole bracket for a single serial port? a single FireWire port? 2 usb ports? Seems they could have put more connectors on each bracket.

It would be nice if Antec used all that extra space on the back of the Sonata case for pre-stamped connector pop-outs :-( (thus, I could eliminate most of the brackets).

To the guy asking about his Antec 420W PS... Dude, I wouldn't worry about it unless you find its a problem later on. I'm pretty sure an Antec 420W PS will be MORE than adequate.

BTW... my board came with the SLI configured for dual cards, but I tested both ways and it works fine .

So, my MB has a rev 1.02 printed on it... is that the same rev everyone else has?

A64 3500+ (90nm)
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe Rev 1.02, BIOS 1003-002
2x Corsair CMX512-3200C2 Rev 5.1 (3-3-3-8-1T)
ATI X700 Pro (until my EVGA 6800GT arrives, maybe another later)
1x Seagate BIV 80GB
2x Seagate BIV 200GB
1x BenQ DW1620-0C3 DVD DL RW (Flashed to DW1620 Pro BIOS)
SB Audigy2 ZS
MIT MyHD MDP-100 HDTV Tuner
Antec Sonata case w/ True430W supply

Thanks everyone for contributing to these A8N-SLI threads

spearsd

Yes, I have rev 1.02 too!

Things I like: installation was breeze. I like the placement of the onboard fans and the 12v rail connector. I like the placment of the floppy and ide controllers. I like that the backplate of the heatsink setup is NOT glued to mobo, and I like the way the screws the heatsink retaining clip face north and south and not east/west!

This is the best, fastest motherboard I've ever owned! I should have known, afterall, its an Asus!

 

[glorfy]

My bad, I was originally running a raid array, which upset the motherboard, so had to 'enable' them after destroying the array!

 

[bap4201]

glory, I posted a reply for you on abxzone.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: gobucks
Anyways, though, i'm still looking for that PCI lock. It's gotta be there somewhere, after all, it's listed in Asus's specs, and Asus is a pretty reputable company, so i'd imagine they aren't lying about it. I'm just afraid to use ntune until i can lock the PCI bus.

The PCI express clock is set independently in the Jumper free section of the bios. It comes set at default
100mhz and stays right there as you increase the FSB. I've run the FSB up to 290 (apparently the max for this board) and the PCIe clock stays at 100mhz. I think the nTune message is bogus, the nTune software was obviouly not written for boards with an independent PCIe bus.

One thing I've found about the overclocking options of this board that I don't like is the manual RAM options, or lack of. As you raise the FSB the board automatically applies a memory divider and forces the ram to run async. The maximum FSB that I've been able to run with RAM 1:1 is 246mhz. To get 246 I changed the memory clock option from auto to DDR466 and rebooted, the system comes up with FSB @ 233. Increase the FSB to 246 and it stays 1:1, raise to 247 and it applies the memory divider. I have heard mention of an A64 divider table? Do all A64 boards work this way? Are manual divider settings a thing of the past?

I think my next try will be to drop the multi, loosen the timings and set the mem clock to DDR500, boot to 250mhz and raise it from there.


I did the following test to show the difference running memory 1:1 vs async

prior to running the test I ran Prime95 1-2 hours with both settings


281 x 9.0 = 2529mhz
RAM 181 @ 2-2-2-5
3dmark05 2776

240 x 10.0 = 2400mhz
RAM 240 @ 2.5-3-3-10
3dmark05 3056

As you can see 3dmark05 which most consider mainly a GPU test loves memory speed.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: gobucks
guitardaddy, thanks for the info, i'll try it out. However, i think the bottom jack is the nvidia one. Does it matter which one you use in terms of using the NV firewall/activearmor?

You are correct. I posted the wrong jack, I got mine to work using the Marvel jack (top), I am using the Active Armor, so evidently it will work on either. Like you I would prefer to use the native nforce port, so I will be waiting for the updated nVidia drivers for SP2 mentioned in Chexi's post

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: gobucks
okay, so apparently my mobo decided it didn't feel like recognizing my Diamondmax 10 HDD this morning! I don't know what happened, but i had it plugged into one of the SATA-II ports, and now in the bios all SATA channels are empty. I plugged it into the SATA-I controller, and the raid utility saw the drive, but still it isn't bootable. Is there something i need to reset in order to see it? I called Asus, and they said they'd call me back, but i'm kinda freaking out.

On another note, here's a few last questions: 1) Where's the NCQ setting? Is it automatic with supporting drives? SATA-II supports NCQ, so i'm not sure why it wouldn't be an option. 2) Can you think of any reason my floppy drive wouldn't be recognized? I unplugged it, but the "Legacy 3.5" Floppy" is still in the bios, so that leads me to believe that it never saw it to begin with.

Immediately upon exiting bios hit "F10" and open the nvidia raid utility. Make sure your drive shows and under "bootable" it says yes. If not hightlight the drive and hit "B". You may have to enable the raid feature in the bios to get to the raid utility. If this doesn't work, try making the raid drivers diskette from the mobo CD, booting windows from the CD and installing the raid drivers. I have heard that you need to have the raid drivers installed even if your running a single SATA drive(not sure about this).
There are two driver files loaded by windows from the diskette. one titled "SATA controller", and the other "Nvraid raid driver".

I am running a raid array with 2 raptors, and I've had problems with bios recognizing the array. It seems to have gotten better since I updated to the 1003.02 bios. But I have still have had the problem, especially after installing drivers or software and rebooting. I just pop in the Windows disc and boot up, load the drivers and back in business. I guess it's the price we pay for being first.

 

[gobucks]

well, i called tech support, and told me that either i needed to insulate the mobo (not sure how to do this) or the SATA-II controller died. Looks like an RMA for me!!!! God dammit, i'm pissed! Does anyone have any info on insulating the board, or is the guy just full of crap? I don't really see how it's possible, considering the mobo is screwed in with metal posts, but maybe i'm just not thinking of it right.

On another note, the guy says my floppy is hooked up wrong. I don't really see how this is possible. The end of the ribbon with a pinhole missing goes in the mobo, and on the floppy end, the white stripe goes towards the pin that is missing, correct? In the manual, it says the red stripe, but since there isn't a red stripe, i assumed they mean white. Either way, my floppy isn't functional, so it's either a bad floppy controller or somehow it's hooked up wrong.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

As long as you used the brass or plastic standoffs that came with the case, there souldn't be a gounding problem. I had a problem with my floppy also. Just as I was about swap floppy's, Chexi advised me to recheck my connections, so I unplugged the data cable and pluged it back in and BINGO. Evedently the pins are not keyed on floppy drive connectors, and they are notorious for not making proper connection.


On the SATA issue, have you tried booting from the windows disc and reloading the "SATA controller driver" from the CD provided with the Mobo. I would definenantly try this before RMA'ing the board.
I think this is driver compatibility issue that will probabally be fixed with a nVidia driver update, or a Windows update.

 

[bap4201]

what are you doing way down here? bump...

 

[buckZor]

Curious if anyone has tried installing Windows Server 2003 on their AN8-SLI board yet? We all know Win2K3 is the fastest gaming O/S, right? Just curious about NForce4 support and Nvidia SLI driver support.

Thanks!