New A8N SLI DeLuxe Bios 1011 Final

[psuvette]

Mine won't let me install asus update either. I've tried lots of versions. I've even tried flashing from dos with awdflash 1.11 and using the switches cc, cd, and cp. Maybe I should just go back to an earlier bios. Does anyone have any favorites?

 

[MildSalsa]

i updated to 1011 from 1008 and now my HDD(SATA DiamondMax10 300Gb) isn't recognized. i'm on my old computer now, and have a question: can i make a DOS boot disk to roll back to the old 1008 version using win98? or do i need to make a disk from an xp machine?
other than that issue the new bios is great =\

 

[imported_grinch]

Originally posted by: Insomniak

Originally posted by: MADMAX23
I don't expect the 1:1 1T issue to be solved with future Bioses.

Me neither. I was just wondering how long it was going to take the insane people who still hold hope to ask.

Aside from that there ISN'T A 1T ISSUE AT ALL. The board works perfectly at stock, which is all ASUS claimed it would do. Saying it doesn't overclock well is an "issue" is like saying Honda Accords have a design flaw because they can't compete with Nascar vehicles.

Guess that is a nice way of saying....DOH had I known this going into it...might have changed my mind...I know I did!

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: grinch

Originally posted by: Insomniak

Originally posted by: MADMAX23
I don't expect the 1:1 1T issue to be solved with future Bioses.

Me neither. I was just wondering how long it was going to take the insane people who still hold hope to ask.

Aside from that there ISN'T A 1T ISSUE AT ALL. The board works perfectly at stock, which is all ASUS claimed it would do. Saying it doesn't overclock well is an "issue" is like saying Honda Accords have a design flaw because they can't compete with Nascar vehicles.

Guess that is a nice way of saying....DOH had I known this going into it...might have changed my mind...I know I did!

I can understand that, but I always think it's a difficult distinction to make a strike against or for a particular motherboard because of overclocking...

OCing is unsupported, not promised, voids your warranty, and is generally variable. The manufacturer does not claim that their product will offer any free performance at all, so saying a product is inferior to others because of this seems odd to me. If you are interested only in getting a top OC to top the orb, then I can see it being an issue for you - but for people planning to do some minor OCing, I find the A8N-SLI to be very nice. It's an inredibly feature rich, stable board, and it STILL has the best layout of all the SLI boards out so far.

 

[imported_grinch]

Originally posted by: Insomniak

Originally posted by: grinch

Originally posted by: Insomniak

Originally posted by: MADMAX23
I don't expect the 1:1 1T issue to be solved with future Bioses.

Me neither. I was just wondering how long it was going to take the insane people who still hold hope to ask.

Aside from that there ISN'T A 1T ISSUE AT ALL. The board works perfectly at stock, which is all ASUS claimed it would do. Saying it doesn't overclock well is an "issue" is like saying Honda Accords have a design flaw because they can't compete with Nascar vehicles.

Guess that is a nice way of saying....DOH had I known this going into it...might have changed my mind...I know I did!

I can understand that, but I always think it's a difficult distinction to make a strike against or for a particular motherboard because of overclocking...

OCing is unsupported, not promised, voids your warranty, and is generally variable. The manufacturer does not claim that their product will offer any free performance at all, so saying a product is inferior to others because of this seems odd to me. If you are interested only in getting a top OC to top the orb, then I can see it being an issue for you - but for people planning to do some minor OCing, I find the A8N-SLI to be very nice. It's an inredibly feature rich, stable board, and it STILL has the best layout of all the SLI boards out so far.

there is no denying that this board is awesome...just lacking somewhat in the OC'ing department. I love the board personally...but I am a lil bit more overclocking hungry and got the DFI SLI-DR and am very impressed thus far....this is what I am running at right now:

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=23276

 

[gbohn]

Originally posted by: Insomniak


I can understand that, but I always think it's a difficult distinction to make a strike against or for a particular motherboard because of overclocking...

OCing is unsupported, not promised, voids your warranty, and is generally variable. The manufacturer does not claim that their product will offer any free performance at all, so saying a product is inferior to others because of this seems odd to me. ..

To say that overclocking is generally "not promised" isn't exactly true in the case of the A8N-SLI and A8N-E. Take a look at the box (say at Newegg at
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage...20ATX%20AMD%20Motherboard%20-%20Retail

It says on the front "Advanced Overclocking features". The side panel has an entire feature section labled "Overclocking features" explaining things like 'Fixed PCIe/PCI/SATA frequencies", "Vcore: Adjustable CPU volatage at 0.0125 increment", etc.

So, one might think that Overclocking was generally supported, even though your specific results might not be great due to the variable nature inherent in overclocking specific systems to begin with.

So when ASUS appears to be generally inferior in overclocking capability compared to other NForce 4 motherboards, I can understand why some people were disappointed.

In my case, I discovered that the A8N-E appears to lock the HTF multiplier at 5X (despite the BIOS setting) in the current (1004) BIOS (at least in my setup), even though this may have worked in the original 1001.

I was surprised to discover when I called tech support that they basically said they don't care, and won't fix it. (Since I was only asking them to make the setting work again as it appears it used to, and this would fit in with general support for overclocking as their box seems to suggest they support, I didn't think this was an unreasonable request).

As far as the A8N-SLI's 1T issue goes, I agree that it seems very unlikely that this will ever be solved in BIOS, but I can understand why people were originally disappointed.

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: gbohn

Originally posted by: Insomniak


I can understand that, but I always think it's a difficult distinction to make a strike against or for a particular motherboard because of overclocking...

OCing is unsupported, not promised, voids your warranty, and is generally variable. The manufacturer does not claim that their product will offer any free performance at all, so saying a product is inferior to others because of this seems odd to me. ..

To say that overclocking is generally "not promised" isn't exactly true in the case of the A8N-SLI and A8N-E. Take a look at the box (say at Newegg at
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage...20ATX%20AMD%20Motherboard%20-%20Retail

It says on the front "Advanced Overclocking features". The side panel has an entire feature section labled "Overclocking features" explaining things like 'Fixed PCIe/PCI/SATA frequencies", "Vcore: Adjustable CPU volatage at 0.0125 increment", etc.

So, one might think that Overclocking was generally supported, even though your specific results might not be great due to the variable nature inherent in overclocking specific systems to begin with.

So when ASUS appears to be generally inferior in overclocking capability compared to other NForce 4 motherboards, I can understand why some people were disappointed.

In my case, I discovered that the A8N-E appears to lock the HTF multiplier at 5X (despite the BIOS setting) in the current (1004) BIOS (at least in my setup), even though this may have worked in the original 1001.

I was surprised to discover when I called tech support that they basically said they don't care, and won't fix it. (Since I was only asking them to make the setting work again as it appears it used to, and this would fit in with general support for overclocking as their box seems to suggest they support, I didn't think this was an unreasonable request).

As far as the A8N-SLI's 1T issue goes, I agree that it seems very unlikely that this will ever be solved in BIOS, but I can understand why people were originally disappointed.

Read the warranty.

 

[gbohn]

Originally posted by: Insomniak

Read the warranty.

Well, I would if I could find it. Maybe I misplaced it or I'm just not seeing it, but the only references I can find are on the retail box ("3 years warranty") and a brief reference in the owners manual saying you won't get warranty service if you modify your board or remove the serial number. (Interestingly, the same page goes on about how they disavow all "warranties or conditions of merchantability" for the manual. As far as I understand, this means they could give you a manual from a toaster instead of a motherboard and you aren't supposed to be able to complain about it...)

But I digress. I guess my point is that someone could reasonably assume that seeing overclocking information plastered all over the retail box meant they would generally support overclocking (whether or not they actually do).

(The BIOS even has settings for things named "AI Overclock", "AI N.O.S." overclocking, etc.)

I mean, why do this unless you either

A) Actually support overclocking in some general manner or
B) Want to mislead people?

 

[Rustler]

I agree with the overclocking issue, my board overclocks well and I like the layout and features. My board had been rock solid from day one.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I think this is an excellent board, it has two major overclocking problems that mainly effect performance in synthetic benchmarks.

1. the 240-250mhz 1T that limits bandwith, my best Sandra MBW with great RAM is around 7000. With other boards that can run ram 1:1 at speeds above 250mhz with decent timing can get scores of 8000 or even 9000, this also shows in other synthetics like SuperPI, but it makes very little difference in realworld performance because A64 aren't starved for bandwidth

2. Limitied Voltage, the CPU volts are capped on this board at the maximum safe levels for air/water cooling IMO. This is a problem if you want to extreme O/C with phase change cooling. The DDR volts are capped at 3.0 which IMO is the maximum safe voltage with passive cooling, so high ram overclocks with BH-5 and insane timings on active cooling are out without hard modding.

This is an extremely high performance board and the obvious choice IMO if you are not an extreme(phase) overclocker looking to set WR's in bench's and sit atop the Orb.
In most reputable reviews I've seen, at stock speeds this board scored a slim victory over all the others in the NF4 platform, where performance has further been equalized by the chipset, making it very difficult to stand out.

My A8N runs at 2.8ghz and it cuts thru CPU intense apps like a chainsaw thru zombies

 

[Nate7out]

Originally posted by: DangerIsGo
NOOOO!! I just updated from 1011.001 to 1011 Final and BAM ...BSOD before windows even started booting. So I went to 1011.002 and same thing. I had to rollback to 1008 Final to get windows to boot. Anyone else have the same problem?

I just had the exact same problem. I also went back to 8. What are your hardware specs?

 

[Geronymos]

Hello Guys,
It seems that i have the issue discussed above

ASUS A8N SLI Deluxe v 1.02 BIOS 1011 final
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
4 x 512MB Geil PC3500

HTT@4x
"DDR333" divider (gives 416MHz to my 433 Geils) @ 2-3-3-7 , 2.65V
250x10 = 2500MHz @ 1.35V

and as MADMAX23 mentioned my actual Trc (Bank cycle time) value is 22 clocks no matter what i choose in the BIOS

I guess this is not the best one can have but how Trc affects performance?
Is there a workaround?

Regards

 

[Geronymos]

Hello again,
I tried Beta BIOS 1013-002.
Trc seems to change normally now.
Everything but Sandra memory test runs fine (e.g. memtest x86+,superPI pcmark05).
Sandra ends up with BSOD and reboot even if i set Trc to 22.
I guess i'll rollback to 1011 final

 

[Geronymos]

With only 2 DIMMS memory works fine @416MHz 2-6-3-3 2T . As far as I know Toledo Cores do not have the 4 Dimms issue with their memory controller (as winchester cores had).


I try to make it work with 4 x 512MB Geil DIMMs PC3500 (433MHz) but it crashes (BSOD and reboot) when i run Sisoft Sandra 2005 SR2a Memory bandwidth tests or EVEREST Memory read or write. I tried Auto settings (which put my memory to 333MHz!!!) or manual settings with 416 MHz (250 BUS 333 Memory) and 2-6-3-3 2T settings (as recommended by the memory manufacturer) VDIMM was 2.75V (within specs of the memory manufacturer as well). I tried slower settings as 2.5-7-3-3 and 2.5-8-4-4 but no good. At 3-8-4-4 BIOS gives Memory POST error and needs CMOS clear to go back to working state. I tried Beta BIOS 1013-002 but no good.

Any ideas how to work wih all 4 DIMMS ?

I can find Transcend 1GB DIMMs CL3 or OCZ platinum PC3200 2-5-2-3 (Extremely expensive) as an alternative. Any body knows if they work at 416MHz with the above configuration???

 

[Geronymos]

Finally some solution!!!

The problem was the mobo. It was a faulty one!!!!!!
Way to go ASUS... (just kidding. The crappy bastards never replied on their own Support section)

Everything works fine now either @250x10 or @238x10.5 or @227x11...