*** Official ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe (nForce4) Thread ***

[vlad4]

Originally posted by: mattdbrown
I have a system set up with the A8N-SLI and 2 HP NVidia Quadro 3400s. Everything appears to be working fine hardware wise: each time I boot into Windows, I am even prompted to activate the SLI multi-gpu mode. The weird problem is this: whenever I attempt to activate multi-gpu mode, the setting change doesn't stick. The computer doesn't restart, and if I go back into the menu, it looks as if I had never changed the setting. I have tried it with every version of NVidia drivers that I could find... and still no luck. Has anyone else had this problem and been able to resolve it? Can anyone suggest something else to try? I'm really stuck here. Thanks a lot.

Could it be possible that the nvidia drivers or the BIOS aren't recognizing the SLI capabilities of the Quadros at startup?

According to this page, only the 6600GTs, 6800 Ultras and 6800GTs are compatible.

 

[pudds]

Originally posted by: SMatson
Several questions on the A8N setup:

1. I am thinking of doing a RAID 1 setup for security b/c I've read RAID 0 isn't all its cracked up to be. I have two brand new SATA Diamond Max 10 250GB 16MB Cache. Do I need to set any Master/Slave jumpers?

2. Any comment on the need for RAID 0? I will be gaming some (SLI BFG 6800 GT OC's) and editing some video.

3. Should I flash to the latest BIOS?

4. Should I use an outboard sound card? (I have an Audiology 2 ZS)

Thanks again.

To EXDEATH - Thanks for the reply. I'm going to call AMD in the AM to find out what they want me to do. (Don't want to void the warranty just yet)

1: There are no master slave jumpers on SATA drives. Im using 3 250GB diamondmax 10's in a raid 0 setup and have had no problem with this drive.

2. If your editing video and gaming then raid 0 would provide a performance increase. You need high sustained transfer rates which raid 0 will provide. As for gaming load times should decrease but you may lose a few fps due to the extra cpu usage the raid setup takes (this is also true for raid 1). Depends if your games a mostly limited by your graphics card or your cpu. If using raid 0 you must use a backup. If one drive fails you'll lose everything. I have 3 ide drives totally 460gb which i use to backup all important data on my raid 0 stripe.

3. Im using the latest beta bios and no problems so far.

4.Yes if youve got it use it. Im using the same card and works fine.

 

[Jim Bancroft]

Don't know if this is the best price right now, but allstarshop.com has the board for $231 here. Not cheap, but I thought I'd mention it because newegg is asking $275 at the moment.

 

[govern1]

Hey DB27, the reason your Panaflo isn't solving the "no cpu fan" alarm problem is that the Panaflos don't have the third wire, which is used for rpm monitoring. I have a 120mm case fan, which has the red, black and yellow wires, attached to the cpu fan header and it solved it for me. I have two Panaflo 120's in a push/pull config on my watercooling rad, which is how I know they don't have that yellow lead.
Hope this helps clear it up.

Shawn

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Puds- WTF? I specificaly bought 2 drives for data integrity on the 2nd in case the first fails. They also happen to be the new RAID NCQ Seagates (pain to track down here and more expensive). Was it a waste of $? I having one 'safe' data disk is more important to me than a slight increase in load times - if I MUST choose.

 

[BigHurt]

Originally posted by: Jim Bancroft
Don't know if this is the best price right now, but allstarshop.com has the board for $231 here. Not cheap, but I thought I'd mention it because newegg is asking $275 at the moment.

Chumbo.com ships the 7th of January with free 2 day shipping for $201.99.
Cheapest ive found so far.

 

[bkzshabbaz]

Originally posted by: vlad4

Originally posted by: mattdbrown
I have a system set up with the A8N-SLI and 2 HP NVidia Quadro 3400s. Everything appears to be working fine hardware wise: each time I boot into Windows, I am even prompted to activate the SLI multi-gpu mode. The weird problem is this: whenever I attempt to activate multi-gpu mode, the setting change doesn't stick. The computer doesn't restart, and if I go back into the menu, it looks as if I had never changed the setting. I have tried it with every version of NVidia drivers that I could find... and still no luck. Has anyone else had this problem and been able to resolve it? Can anyone suggest something else to try? I'm really stuck here. Thanks a lot.

Could it be possible that the nvidia drivers or the BIOS aren't recognizing the SLI capabilities of the Quadros at startup?

According to this page, only the 6600GTs, 6800 Ultras and 6800GTs are compatible.

They list a BFG 6800 Ultra, are those even out?

 

[MrBored]

I recieved 2 LeadTek 6800 GT's today, slapped them in and got insane graphical corruption as they warmed up. Post screen was initially fine but by the time I was in windows there were artifacts everywhere, rebooted and couldn't even read the post screen. All the text was just random ascii characters/colours. I find it really strange that both of them had this problem ( tried them individually and in SLI ). I have sent them back already, but do you think its at all possible it is this motherboard ( I have tried other graphics cards and they worked. )?

 

[imported_DangerMouse]

Just got my new already assembled system and encountered some serious problem
trying to install Windows XP.
Problem in windows setup it says it detects no HD.
I got 1 SATA WD 200 gb.
So i made floppy with drivers from mobo CD and used it during setup but still to no avail.
On the other hand if i press F4 at startup and enter raid configuration window
it shows Physical drive : 186 gb.
Obviously it does detect something .
Would very appreciate any advice how to cope with this annoying problem
Thanks

Rig is Antec 1080AMG / truepower 430/ asus dvd/ athlon 64 3500/ asus sli deluxe/ 1gb OCZ 3700 platinum EB/ Albatron 6600GT/WD sata 200gb

 

[ShoNuff]

Originally posted by: exdeath
I'd replace it with AS5 or something. It's probably all 'piled up' and lumpy now and will raise the contact in those places more than others and give uneven heat transfer.

Thanks for the link. Didn't know those existed.

Hey, do you have TWO 6800 Ultra's? Your 05' score rocks. I'm barley getting 7100 with my 6600GT's.

 

[Kovie]

Originally posted by: DangerMouse
Just got my new already assembled system and encountered some serious problem
trying to install Windows XP.
Problem in windows setup it says it detects no HD.
I got 1 SATA WD 200 gb.
So i made floppy with drivers from mobo CD and used it during setup but still to no avail.
On the other hand if i press F4 at startup and enter raid configuration window
it shows Physical drive : 186 gb.
Obviously it does detect something .
Would very appreciate any advice how to cope with this annoying problem
Thanks

Rig is Antec 1080AMG / truepower 430/ asus dvd/ athlon 64 3500/ asus sli deluxe/ 1gb OCZ 3700 platinum EB/ Albatron 6600GT/WD sata 200gb

You have it connected to the Silicon image SATA ports. Use the Nvidia controlled ones and you shouldnt have this problem.

 

[exdeath]

Originally posted by: ShoNuff

Originally posted by: exdeath
I'd replace it with AS5 or something. It's probably all 'piled up' and lumpy now and will raise the contact in those places more than others and give uneven heat transfer.

Thanks for the link. Didn't know those existed.

Hey, do you have TWO 6800 Ultra's? Your 05' score rocks. I'm barley getting 7100 with my 6600GT's.

Yeah, got lucky a grabbed 2 of the 5 6800 Ultra PCIe cards from www.buyxg.com for $569 a few weeks ago. I was checking stock on several sites literally every 3 minutes!! There were 3 left in stock; I watched that go to 1 after I ordered and I hit refresh one more time and it was out of stock!!!

Pics in my sig

 

[imported_Digitalis]

Does the board come with Firewire 800 or is it still the normal version?

Great thread BTW. Very informative. Thanks to all.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

No, just the standard 1394a 400mbps

 

[imported_Digitalis]

That's ok. Just checking.

Thanks again.

 

[ShoNuff]

DangerMouse - Which set of connectors do you have your drive connected to? Make sure it is one of the black ones. It should show during post when the "Dectecting..." part comes up.

exdeath - That is awesome!!! My local PC Club agreed to take the 6800U AGP I purchased a couple of months ago for store credit. While this means I have $500 PC Club cash I am at their mercy while I wait for the new 6800U's to come in.

EDIT: Dangermouse I see you got help already. Oops!

 

[Relion]

Add this one for the poor guys (like me) that live far away from USA and only have access to buy at Amazon cause they DO accept international cards:

http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varz...70/104-7793810-8701547

Its a reliable zseller....I bought from them vid card, and a duron for my sister. Its pricey tough....but at least is an option....only three were in stock....now only two (got mine ordered already )

 

[runestone]

I think you will like it, relion-mine is running well. Where are they shipping it to?

 

[Relion]

Damn...wrong thread :S
Anyway....it is coming to Costa Rica

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Good reports GuitarDaddy! Thxs!

Now if only someone would answer my questions...

 

[SRoode]

New Beta bios is up at ASUS site (1003.005)... Anyone try it yet? It may fix some issues.

 

[MrBored]

Originally posted by: SRoode
New Beta bios is up at ASUS site (1003.005)... Anyone try it yet? It may fix some issues.

I wish they would post a change list :/

 

[ShoNuff]

At first glance I noticed that 1003.005 added a PCI Lock and more memory tweaks. More testing to follow.

 

[sunday99]

So far my A8N-SLI has been without issues. Have not yet started overclocking.
I have one question, that I'm sure is stupid. When my comp is booting up, I get a message about the Silicon RAID controller asking if I want to go to setup. This lasts for 30 seconds or so, and annoys me everytime. I have 1 WD 74GB Raptor plugged into the Nv controller. I've tried disabling the silicon controller, but it does nothing. Any tips are appreciated. Overclocking results soon to follow =)

 

[pudds]

New bios working fine for me. Still cant go above 240fsb at 1/t though. Using all other memory timings on slowest and 3.0v and still no joy