Initial impressions of the AX4C-Max

[WizardNJ]

That hit the nail on the head! I changed the memory from "by SPD" to manual and set it to 2,2,2,6 (no 1t setting on AOPEN). Rebooted 10 times now with no cmos corruption. Sandra 2003 mem scores went up 30 more points on top of it!

I have to get some good benchmark programs to test this. What is the consensus on what you people would like to see? I have Quake3, UT2003, 3Dmark 2003, Sandra2003. Let me know

Dave

Originally posted by: PrometheusN
I'll try again. Posted this yesterday based on my reviewing experience with DDR boards and Corsair LL:

"One other thing to consider. We have had horrible problems with the overly aggressive SPD programming of Corsair LL on the SiS655 Dual-Channel boards. Many boards wouldn't even boot with the SPD on Auto. We found you had to get into BIOS somehow (often required cheap memory with a relaxed SPD) and set manual memory timings in BIOS. I wonder if you get off AUTO and set your mem manually to 2,6,2,2,1 or 2,7,2,2,1 if the Corsair would work properly and your system would now be stable. It seems to fix the Corsair LL instability problems on the SiS6555 and is worth a try."

 

[jpetermann]

I have to get some good benchmark programs to test this. What is the consensus on what you people would like to see? I have Quake3, UT2003, 3Dmark 2003, Sandra2003. Let me know

Dave[/i]

Ummm... yes...

Hehe...

 

[P4spooky]

The review of Intel Canterwood board HERE has some benchmark of the RAID integrated with ICH5R. So the SATA problem is specific to Aopen board?

 

[WizardNJ]

Well woke up this morning and turned on the machine to find cmos corruption so setting the memory to manual 2,2,2,6 did not fix the problem.

Going to the dealer later this morning to see if the xms3500C2 memory fixes the problem or not.

Dave

 

[Fallen Kell]

Can you try setting it to 2,3,2,6 since that is what the other memory modules are clocked at? I still don't know why it would corupt the cmos, there is no reason why it should be changing any settings if you tell the BIOS to maunally set the speeds...

Man this really SUCKS! I litterally just ordered TWINX1024-3200LL from newegg 1 1/2 days ago! And since it shipped...I am gonna eat $35 plus shipping cost back to them. I knew I should have just stayed with using Mushkin ram. I have never had a problem with their stuff not working at the specified speeds.

 

[Wesley Fink]

Originally posted by: WizardNJ
Well woke up this morning and turned on the machine to find cmos corruption so setting the memory to manual 2,2,2,6 did not fix the problem.

Going to the dealer later this morning to see if the xms3500C2 memory fixes the problem or not.

Dave

Please try 2,7,2,2 also. The SiS 655 timings and "Safe Boot" memory recommendations for SiS655 are in my review Post#6 at

Memory Recommendations and Timings

 

[WizardNJ]

I did try slower latency (2.5,7,2,2) and XMS3200LL would NOT boot @ 400 MHz and 2.5 volts. It would boot at 2.7 volts but still experienced corrupted cmos on reboot or long power off.

I swapped out the Corsair ram for the OCZ PC3200 Extreme Low Latency Dual DDR pair today. The OCZ at stock voltages, speed (400) , and "by SPD" is 100% stable. No cmos memory corruption on reboot or long power off. I have noticed the default latency is much higher than the XMS3200LL modules. The XMS defaults to 2.5,6,2,2 but wouldn't boot. The OCZ defaults to 2.5,7,4,4 but is 100% stable. Going to try and push the latency settings to see how quick I can go.

Dave

 

[WizardNJ]

Got the OCZ 3200 EL Dual DDR running 2,6,3,2 completely stable now at 400 MHz and 2.5 volts.

Dave

 

[Wesley Fink]

Received my AX4C MAX, and Intel on-chip SATA RAID works fine - even with SATA/IDE adapters. You just have to set it up correctly. For first info and how to get Intel SATA RAID working go to AX4C MAX Canterwood Setup

Will be posting my full "hands-on" review of the Retail AX4C MAX in Intel/Intel Chipsets section of www.asusboards.com later. Yes, I'm the Prometheus Evan referred you to for info on SiS655 boards - it's just Prometheus was already in use by someone here so I had to use PrometheusN.

 

[jpetermann]

Sweet! Glad to hear that Prom... of course, I'll meet ya over at Ab and see how it is going...

 

[brinjin]

My AX4C-Max arrives tommorow, I dying to see how well he can OC it. It'll help me decide whether I should keep it or wait for the IC7-G. WizardNJ, how is your OC experience going now that you've stabalized the board?

 

[WizardNJ]

Going to give OC another shot later.

I was able to get 225 fsb/360 mem (mem was 1.6x fsb) stable last night. CPU failed to post @ 250 fsb. machien ran great @ 225/360. Mem scores were up about 7% over 200 fsb/400 mem.

Dave

 

[WizardNJ]

I'll take a look at the Canterwood setup. Thanks!

Please check to see how your memory runs at default speeds.

Dave

Originally posted by: PrometheusN
Received my AX4C MAX, and Intel on-chip SATA RAID works fine - even with SATA/IDE adapters. You just have to set it up correctly. For first info and how to get Intel SATA RAID working go to AX4C MAX Canterwood Setup

Will be posting my full "hands-on" review of the Retail AX4C MAX in Intel/Intel Chipsets section of www.asusboards.com later. Yes, I'm the Prometheus Evan referred you to for info on SiS655 boards - it's just Prometheus was already in use by someone here so I had to use PrometheusN.

 

[brinjin]

That is a little dissapointing, the Gigabyte board was doin 240 fsb right out of the box. Mind you that board is expected to retail for well over $300. Cmon I believe in you, you CAN do better....I'm trying really hard to like this board, I love the price, all the settings, but if 25mhz is all it can do I think I'm gonna be returning it.

 

[WizardNJ]

Wow! I guess reading the manual actually pays off sometimes

Prometheus, I did set On Chip SATA to enhanced/raid and now both drives are detected. Since I am not running them in raid I did not create any arrays. Booted into XP, loaded IAA and rebooted. Did some testing and getting Sandra 2003 disk score of 32938 now for a single drive. Not shabby at all.

So now all my issues are now fixed Off to try and overclock this bad boy. Did you notice when overclocking the fsb that the agp and pci divider readjusts to keep agp at 66 and pci at 33?

Dave

Originally posted by: PrometheusN
Received my AX4C MAX, and Intel on-chip SATA RAID works fine - even with SATA/IDE adapters. You just have to set it up correctly. For first info and how to get Intel SATA RAID working go to AX4C MAX Canterwood Setup

Will be posting my full "hands-on" review of the Retail AX4C MAX in Intel/Intel Chipsets section of www.asusboards.com later. Yes, I'm the Prometheus Evan referred you to for info on SiS655 boards - it's just Prometheus was already in use by someone here so I had to use PrometheusN.

 

[Fallen Kell]

WizardNJ, trying to find out if you where you had problems with Corsair TWINX1024-3200LL. Were you using 2x TWINX1024-3200LL = 2 GIG's RAM or did you mean 2x as in 2 modules of 512MB = 1 GIG RAM? Getting conflicting results as to the problem from Corsair, as they are saying the problem occurs when using 4 modules (i.e. 4 dimms).

 

[WizardNJ]

Problem was with TwinX256-3200LL, two 256 meg modules (matched pair) in dual ddr configuration. Just would not boot at 400 MHz @ 2.5 volts, no matter what timing settings. Would boot with voltage at 2.7 volts and run at default spd timing of 2,6,2,2 but rebooting or shutting off for any lenghty period of time resulted in corrupted cmos.

No such problems with the OCZ memory but I cannot run at 2,6,2,2 ony 2,6,3,2. I think the SPD on the Corsair is not programmed correctly (too agressive).

Dave

Originally posted by: Fallen Kell
WizardNJ, trying to find out if you where you had problems with Corsair TWINX1024-3200LL. Were you using 2x TWINX1024-3200LL = 2 GIG's RAM or did you mean 2x as in 2 modules of 512MB = 1 GIG RAM? Getting conflicting results as to the problem from Corsair, as they are saying the problem occurs when using 4 modules (i.e. 4 dimms).

 

[jpetermann]

One of the great things about the Intel raid (IIRC) is that you can set up raid AFTER you have installed Windows. Wiz - if you try that let us know how it goes...

PJ

 

[WizardNJ]

OK, tried some overclocking. Using stock cooling here (the retail heatsink/fan that came with the 3.0 GHz SL6WK cpu

Booted to 240 fsb with mem multiplier at 1.6x = 384 DDR. Stable, no failures. Would not post/boot @ 250 FSB. I did not try to increment by 1 MHz steps between 240 and 250. Again interesting thing is the PCI and AGP divider reprogrammed to still keep pci at 33MHz and AGP at 66.

I'm back to default 3.0 GHz (200 FSB) and mem at 400 DDR.

Also have gone back to the Promise SATA connection for my ata133 drives with the adapters instead of the Intel ICH5 since on shutdown the drives would make strange clicking sounds (ran fine on bootup and in OS).

Dave

Originally posted by: brinjin
That is a little dissapointing, the Gigabyte board was doin 240 fsb right out of the box. Mind you that board is expected to retail for well over $300. Cmon I believe in you, you CAN do better....I'm trying really hard to like this board, I love the price, all the settings, but if 25mhz is all it can do I think I'm gonna be returning it.

 

[WizardNJ]

OK, tried some overclocking. Using stock cooling here (the retail heatsink/fan that came with the 3.0 GHz SL6WK cpu

Booted to 240 fsb with mem multiplier at 1.6x = 384 DDR. Stable, no failures. Would not post/boot @ 250 FSB. I did not try to increment by 1 MHz steps between 240 and 250. Again interesting thing is the PCI and AGP divider reprogrammed to still keep pci at 33MHz and AGP at 66.

I'm back to default 3.0 GHz (200 FSB) and mem at 400 DDR.

Also have gone back to the Promise SATA connection for my ata133 drives with the adapters instead of the Intel ICH5 since on shutdown the drives would make strange clicking sounds (ran fine on bootup and in OS).

Dave

Originally posted by: brinjin
That is a little dissapointing, the Gigabyte board was doin 240 fsb right out of the box. Mind you that board is expected to retail for well over $300. Cmon I believe in you, you CAN do better....I'm trying really hard to like this board, I love the price, all the settings, but if 25mhz is all it can do I think I'm gonna be returning it.

 

[Wesley Fink]

The new Promise PDC20378 controller on the AOpen also supports true IDE RAID. Unlike the old controller you can install 2 IDE drives and Master and Slave on the single IDE3 connector - and then combine them as RAID in the controller BIOS. This controller supports 4 drives - two IDE and 2 SATA - and you can use all 4 drives together. That means you could have two new SATA drives as your stripe RAID and 2 old IDE's of the same capacity as mirrors. This is in addition to the 2 SATA drives that can be connected to the Intel ICH5 connecters. A Dynamite setup with wonderful options!! For you Asus fans, this is the same controller and setup Asus is using on their Canterwood board.

 

[eastvillager]

You don't really want to mirror between different speed devices, fyi. General rule of thumb in unix computing, not sure how it holds true on wintel platforms.

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: PrometheusN
The new Promise PDC20378 controller on the AOpen also supports true IDE RAID. Unlike the old controller you can install 2 IDE drives and Master and Slave on the single IDE3 connector - and then combine them as RAID in the controller BIOS. This controller supports 4 drives - two IDE and 2 SATA - and you can use all 4 drives together. That means you could have two new SATA drives as your stripe RAID and 2 old IDE's of the same capacity as mirrors.

Um, wouldn't that kill performance? Only one device can access an IDE channel at a time, so using mirrored drives on a single channel will slow things way down while each drive waits it's turn.

 

[WizardNJ]

Just to let you all know my machine was off all day and no problems on power up with cmos corruption. The machine is definitely happier with the OCZ ram. Fastest timing I can run at Dual channel DDR and stock voltage is 2,6,3,2.

Thanks to PrometheusN's advice :beer: on setting up the Intel SATA raid allowed me to connect the ATA133 drives with SATA adapters to the ICH5 SATA raid controller. So as of now I have no more problems.

Now I have to find something else to break to keep me busy.

Dave