Defense of the Asus P4S8X

[SuperBee4406]

I see alot of users here installed this board and had alot of problems. Well, i took the chance and got one and a P4 2.4B retail CPU.
My setup is: P4 2.4B, P4S8X, 512meg Corsair XMS PC2700 DDR, eVGA G4 Ti4400, SB Live 5.1, WD 40 gig HD, Windows XP Pro. I put it together installed Windows XP with no errors or lockups at all. I installed Service Pack 1, no problems. I ran Quake 3 Timedemo many times no problems. I even messed with memory timing, no problems. I guess i lucked out with this board. What should i set my memory timing at? Want to make sure i am getting full performance out of my DDR333.

I think this board is great and i highly recommend it.

 

[Rick67]

Most people that were having problems were using the new ATI Radeon 9700 Pro. Try putting a 9700 Pro in that baby and see what happens?

 

[SuperBee4406]

I was doing more messing with my Memory settings and found I was running at 266 speed, but that is not changed to 333 speed and I may see how far they can go. This board allowed me to set Latancy to 1.5, but the machine didn't boot. Can someone explain the memory settings to me. I have them at 2-3-3-6 right now, quake 3 benchmark showed an improvement. I want to know what those number really mean, so I'm not playing the guessing game.

I don't know if its just the 9700pro causing the problems in this board. I did see someone has the same setup just he had the Ti4600 instead of the ti4400 and he said he was having problems. For me, so far, only problems i have are when i mess with the memory timings, no unexlained lockups or crashes yet.

I am happy with this board. I like the low temps and quiet operation. I came from a Athlon 1900+ that sounded like a server just to keep the temp at idle at 50c. I now idle at 28c and at full load get 47c, and its sooo quiet. I using a stock fan/heatsink combo, can't wait to get my cool master combo with heatpipes on there.

 

[IntelConvert]

Lots of users of this board have reported that it has problems running at 333 (it just wants to run at 266)! After fooling with it for over a week (and flashing the latest BIOS), a friend of mine finally gave up trying to get it to run stable at 333 (using 2 x 512MB Corsair XMS PC2700). :disgust:

 

[Thraxen]

I've been running this mobo in a newly assembled PC flawlessly for several weeks now. And, yes, I'm using a Radeon 9700 set to AGP 8X. Flawless. Also, I've had zero plorblems running the memory at 166 DDR (333). I did try and up it to 200 DDR (400) and it didn't boot, but that doesn't really bother me since I was planning on running (and bought) PC2700 memory to begin with. I'm currently using BIOS ver 1004 beta 2.

 

[SuperBee4406]

I am using Corsair XMS 512meg PC2700 333DDR Ram. It was running at 266(133) by default. I reset it to 333(166) now and it is running fine with no problems. When you say that the board wants to only run it at 266(133) is that maybe that are trying to use PC2100 Ram overclocked to 333 and then board wont boot. i have been checking my bios and it is still at 166mhz.

 

[ToBeMe]

Word seems to be getting around that Asus is aware that this board has problems........The ratio of people whom have problems to boards sold is apparently very high even by their own admission and the forums and newsgroups are full of disgruntled end users and builders. Asus is even doing something unheard of and sending in tech support/PR people to forums and newsgroups..................I imagine if the threads were longer here on A/T like they are at other places like Asusboards........................they would be here too. I also have one running decently with a 9700, but, I also have a Gigabyte board which admittedly has none of the extra features, but, is extremely fast and overclockable, AND will run nearly all DDR-400 modules without a hitch! Asus will need to do something quick with this board or face lots of RMA's which will lead to bad PR on all the boards....................I have to agree, for the multitude of people who seemingly can't run their boards at 166 as the board states, it seems they would have a legit reason for an RMA.................Thing is............there seems to be a lot of people whom are of the opinion that this board will/can not be corrected by bios updates.................what a disaster for Asus if this ends up being a fact..............

 

[IntelConvert]

Originally posted by: Thraxen
I've been running this mobo in a newly assembled PC flawlessly for several weeks now. And, yes, I'm using a Radeon 9700 set to AGP 8X. Flawless. Also, I've had zero plorblems running the memory at 166 DDR (333). I did try and up it to 200 DDR (400) and it didn't boot, but that doesn't really bother me since I was planning on running (and bought) PC2700 memory to begin with. I'm currently using BIOS ver 1004 beta 2.

That's really surprising to me considering that no matter how long I worked at it, I couldn't accomplish that while helping my friend setup his. First, how did you determine that you are actually running at DDR333? Secondly, I'm curious as to what specific PC2700 modules you have, if you are running them at CL = 2 or 2.5, and your other BIOS memory settings.

 

[SuperBee4406]

Originally posted by: IntelConvert

Originally posted by: Thraxen
I've been running this mobo in a newly assembled PC flawlessly for several weeks now. And, yes, I'm using a Radeon 9700 set to AGP 8X. Flawless. Also, I've had zero plorblems running the memory at 166 DDR (333). I did try and up it to 200 DDR (400) and it didn't boot, but that doesn't really bother me since I was planning on running (and bought) PC2700 memory to begin with. I'm currently using BIOS ver 1004 beta 2.

That's really surprising to me considering that no matter how long I worked at it, I couldn't accomplish that while helping my friend setup his. First, how did you determine that you are actually running at DDR333? Secondly, I'm curious as to what specific PC2700 modules you have, if you are running them at CL = 2 or 2.5, and your other BIOS memory settings.

I have Corsair XMS DDR333 512meg Cas 2, and my board is set to 166mhz memory speed. If i try 200mhz settings, it wont boot, but at 166mhz settings it works great. I tested by running Quake 3 benchmark. I set memory to 133mhz and framerates were 229fps, and I did a best of three. Then I set it to 166mhz and my framrates went up to 265fps, same tests. Memory setting did improve system performance. My system is running flawlessly, and is running at 166mhz memory setting. I had the refrsh problem with Windows XP, but thats not the motherboard doing that.

 

[ToBeMe]

Originally posted by: SuperBee4406

Originally posted by: IntelConvert

Originally posted by: Thraxen
I've been running this mobo in a newly assembled PC flawlessly for several weeks now. And, yes, I'm using a Radeon 9700 set to AGP 8X. Flawless. Also, I've had zero plorblems running the memory at 166 DDR (333). I did try and up it to 200 DDR (400) and it didn't boot, but that doesn't really bother me since I was planning on running (and bought) PC2700 memory to begin with. I'm currently using BIOS ver 1004 beta 2.

That's really surprising to me considering that no matter how long I worked at it, I couldn't accomplish that while helping my friend setup his. First, how did you determine that you are actually running at DDR333? Secondly, I'm curious as to what specific PC2700 modules you have, if you are running them at CL = 2 or 2.5, and your other BIOS memory settings.

I have Corsair XMS DDR333 512meg Cas 2, and my board is set to 166mhz memory speed. If i try 200mhz settings, it wont boot, but at 166mhz settings it works great. I tested by running Quake 3 benchmark. I set memory to 133mhz and framerates were 229fps, and I did a best of three. Then I set it to 166mhz and my framrates went up to 265fps, same tests. Memory setting did improve system performance. My system is running flawlessly, and is running at 166mhz memory setting. I had the refrsh problem with Windows XP, but thats not the motherboard doing that.

Not so suprising anymore..............it appears Asus has already shipped a new revision of this board and it now appears at least most of the people whom received the new revision are not having the problems which were encountered with the first board revision! So you see, it's not that you "had better luck" or anything like that...............chances are, you have the new revision and thus, no problems running at 166!

 

[IntelConvert]

SuperBee4406, sounds pretty convincing - are you able to run your memory at CAS 2.0?


ToBeMe, that would explain the situation! Don't you just love it? - all calls to Asus Support result in Asus denying any problem with the P4S8X and within a matter of just 2 weeks after releasing the board, they bring out a new rev that now runs ok! :disgust:

 

[philh]

I had (notice the word had) a P4S8S with one stick of Corsair XMS DDR333 512meg Cas 2. My system worked great for about a day then I started getting random reboots. I tried changing the memory freq to 133 but it didn't help. After reading all the posts about this board on Asusboards.com I decided that I wasn't going to fight it so I returned the board today and ordered a MSI 648 MAX-L.

 

[SuperBee4406]

I paid extra for the Cas 2 memory. So i want my memory to run at that. With this board i had to set it manually to Cas 2(it defaults to 2.5 when optimal is selected). If it is a revision board then thats great. I am happy with this board.

 

[dbett]

ToBeMe:

I don't think it's clear that there is a new revision - just people misinterpreting the WCPUID results. Could be wrong - but I've read through the relevant thread over at asusboards.com and well I don't see any clear evidence and Asus support has denied there is one.