My new Antec P150 - Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe Rig

[dlevens]

A few long days of reading reviews and posts, plus some great feedback from many of you on these forums I think I am ready to purchase. Here is da list:

Case:
Antec P150

Power Supply:
High Efficiency 430-Watt ATX12V v2.2 Neo HE (Comes with Antec P150)

MB:
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe

CPU:
AMD OPTERON 170 2.0GHZ DUAL CORE W/1MB X 2 CACHE 90NM 64-BIT

Memory:
OCZ PC-4000 Platinum EB 3-3-2-8 (prob at 3-3-2-7 2.7V 1T)

HD:
WD4000KD (may return for YR version) & WD2500KS (already own both)

Video:
ATI Radeon X800XL PCI-e (already own)

Sound:
Onboard for now (could use a suggestion of a cheap but good card just incase)


I believe this is about perfect, but would be great to find others with similar setup to confirm these are a good match.

Dennis

 

[Corporate Thug]

sound card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829120103

 

[dlevens]

Thanks for the suggestion. Curious if anyone has any issues about the ram choice?

Dennis

 

[ribbon13]

No, that is pretty much THE RAM to buy, especially given your motherboard and CPU choices.

Also don't bother returning your WD4000. Unless you are sure you are going to put it in a RAID5, the differences are very few between the drives: 8Hr vs 24Hr burn in - and TLER enable in firmware.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

You could easily get away with less expensive RAM. I wouldn't pay more than $100/GB. Expensive RAM is definately diminishing returns.

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2392
http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2560

 

[dlevens]

Anyone see any issues with keeping the WD400KD instead of returning for the YR version? Doubtful I will ever go with RAID and if I did it would not be RAID 1 or 5 but RAID 0.

The only thing left holding me from making the purchase was the claim by a few that the power supply that comes in the P150 case has issues with this motherboard, or could be this motherboard has issues with that power supply, still trying to confirm if this is true and if it is, if it is still true.

Dennis

 

[ribbon13]

Posted before my edit. Again: Don't bother returning your WD4000. Unless you are sure you are going to put it in a RAID5, the differences are very few between the drives: 8Hr vs 24Hr burn in - and TLER enable in firmware.

 

[dlevens]

The only hesitation is missing out on the extra 2 years warranty and TLER actually hurting me. The research I did so far seems to indicate that TLER cannot be turned off and having it on really does have an increase chance to losing data during a failure or bad write.

I think I am gold, just tired of all the mistakes over the years, I am supposed to the be "expert" and its always my box which has issues.

Funny how the boxes you throw together for family, using left over parts and mixed generic ram are always the boxes which run the best.

Guess its time to buy. I can already see myself selling the video card and moving up to a 7800GT soon. It never ends...

Dennis

 

[Herse]

Watch out for the Antec NeoHE and ASUS A8N. I've been reading about a lot of problems with this combination. People say that their PCs just shut off after about 20 minutes or so. I don't know if the A8N32 will act differently since it is so new but this happens with the A8Ns. Just something to look into.

Herse


Edit:
Link
Link
Link

 

[dlevens]

Exactly the thing I am still trying to track down. Emailed Asus and Antec and still waiting for a reply.

Dennis

 

[One43637]

sorry if i'm bumping an old post, but i was searching for comments on this motherboard. i was interested in this motherboard and i was trying to see if there were anyone that was experiencing problems with this and an Antec SP2 500w.

i'd also stick with the WD400 that you already own.

 

[WobbleWobble]

I had a problem with the Antec HE NEO from the P150 and a A8N-SLI Premium. It would cause constant reboots 20-30 seconds after boot. Replaced it with a OCZ ModStream and it was fine.

Antec said in one of my support tickets that there are compatibility issues and issued me an RMA for an updated PSU. Let's see how that goes. It's a shame because I love that case.

 

[Some1ne]

SLI = no. SLI mainboards = no. Mainboards that have 32 PCI-e lanes and then use them for SLI silliness = no.

 

[dlevens]

Here is a reply I received from Antec:

Hello, Testing with Asus shows this: Older Asus BIOS + original Neo HE, 80% had a compatibility problem New Asus BIOS + original Neo HE, 20% had a compatibility problem New Asus BIOS + updated Neo HE = no compatibility problem. Any Neo HE + other premium brand boards = no problem. If you still have Neo HE + Asus A8n-SLI motherboard issues after updating the Bios to v1009, ask us for a replacement unit that has the Asus fix implemented. We'll set you up to get a replacement power supply. With Asus's latest BIOS (1009 very important!) your problem should be fixed. We do not have any of the new PSU's as of yet, but they should arrive within the next week. Until then, update your Bios to v1009 as that fixes most system setup issues. We've had no reports from other motherboard manufacturers like Abit, MSI, Gigabyte etc. Thank you...

And another reply:

As of right now, we have a limited supply of the power supplies available (for replacement purposes only). You would need to buy the case with power supply, then process an RMA with us IF your PSU does not work. There is an 80% compatability problem with the original NeoHE with the old bios. Once the bios is updated to 1009, there is only a 20% compatability problem. If you are one of the few that still have problems, you will need to contact us to setup an RMA. Thank you...

 

[dlevens]

and to no surprise, here is the pathetic reply I got from asus:

Dear Sir,
We are unaware of any known issues with any Power Supply manufacturer. Below you will find recommendations for purchasing a new Power Supply

You should be able to use any manufacturer for power supplies without any type of conflict or problem, what you will want to make sure of is that the power supply you choose to go with can put out a minimum of 28 amps on the +3.3 voltage rail which powers up your cpu and your agp slot, a min! imum of 35 amps on the +5 voltage rail which powers up all of the IC chips on the motherboard and a minimum of 18-20 amps on the +12 voltage rail which powers up all of your drives and fans, if you are wanting to have the system go into and come out of stand-by or hibernation mode then you will also want to make sure that your +5 vsb can put out at least 2 amps. All of these specs can be found under the max dc output on the side of the power supplies, as these are just the minimum requirements you may want to adjust these numbers a little higher depending on your system configuration.



MM
ASUS Technologies
7100 Intermodal Dr.
Louisville,Ky 40258

I still have not purchased because I am still hoping for a better board to come out from someone other than Asus. I am so sick of the quality of support from companies like Shuttle and Asus, that I Am willing to wait to avoid them.

Dennis

 

[hmorphone]

What about skipping the extra lanes and going with the new DFI Expert? While the DFI's are known to be a little picky about their power supplies I don't know of any specific issues with Antecs.

 

[dlevens]

I like the heat pipe solution over the tiny fans that break down and are noisy after a year of use. I also like the new power supply scheme for the cpu that asus is using. Hoping a company like dfi does the same.

Dennis

 

[hmorphone]

Yeah, that heat pipe does look like an awful nice way to go... Not too crazy about my northbridge fan. The regular and deluxe Asus fans have an even worse reputation than the DFI.

 

[johnnqq]

the neohe works for a VERY small number of people (who knows why..) DFIs included. do not buy the p150 (i wanted one too...). too bad they dont' make it without a power supply. supposedly a "revised" psu is coming, but there is no indication when.