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Scored a cheap x1900xt now I need to ORDER THE REST - advice kind sirs

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been reading alot of good things about this Asus A8N-SLI Premium

Its certainly a bit more pricey than the others, but for stability I'll pay it. Any thoughts?

OK, time to go to bed - I'll check back in the morning. Mostly need advice on the PSU, Mobo, and RAM at this point.
 
Originally posted by: TheNewGuy8
been reading alot of good things about this Asus A8N-SLI Premium

Its certainly a bit more pricey than the others, but for stability I'll pay it. Any thoughts?

OK, time to go to bed - I'll check back in the morning. Mostly need advice on the PSU, Mobo, and RAM at this point.
Click to expand...


I would consider the Asus A8N-SLI Premium if I didn't have a case that inverted the MB (apparently the heatpipes don't work correctly upside down). Other than that it would be between this board and a DFI if I was buying from scratch.

I don't think you would have too many problems with a DFI board. If you are unsure what a setting does, then just don't change it 🙂. I have an Opteron 165 right now on a DFI NF4 Ultra D overclocked to 2.6, and the only thing I had to change was HTT and the divider for the memory. Wouldn't be any more difficult than doing that on another board. And when you get adventurous and want more overclocking options they will be available.

The Asus A8N-SLI Premium looks like a really nice board though, and it has the passive northbridge cooling that you want. I will say this about the DFI NF4 board I have, the northbridge fan is loud as hell. I am actually replacing it with a waterblock this weekend.
 
ya, if the DFI had passive cooling it would be a no brainer. I've done alot more research and feel more confident about the DFI now.

I've also read that you can't really replace the NB fan with the zalman passive HS b/c its too tall and the placement hits the graphics card.

So now its between those two...hrmmm.....anymore thoughts? I dontt think I need to worry about inverting it, as I dont really like thos lian li cases that do it. If I got a new case it would almost surely be either a P180 or a Coolermaster Centurion (the blue one with the window). I think I'll wait though, and soo how my superlanboy does with all this new heat and noise.
 
Originally posted by: TheNewGuy8
ya, if the DFI had passive cooling it would be a no brainer. I've done alot more research and feel more confident about the DFI now.

I've also read that you can't really replace the NB fan with the zalman passive HS b/c its too tall and the placement hits the graphics card.

So now its between those two...hrmmm.....anymore thoughts? I dontt think I need to worry about inverting it, as I dont really like thos lian li cases that do it. If I got a new case it would almost surely be either a P180 or a Coolermaster Centurion (the blue one with the window). I think I'll wait though, and soo how my superlanboy does with all this new heat and noise.
Click to expand...

The downside to the heatpipe cooling on the ASUS is temperature. I've heard the chipset gets roasting hot. No such issues on my ultra-d. It's a trade off though...noise from the crappy NB fan, and cooler temps, or heatpipe cooling and hotter temps.

 
I tried the Zalman passive nothbridge cooler on my Epox Nforce4 board. The cooler gets hot - almost scalding hot. The Nforce4 chipset runs too warm, IMO, to cool it passively without a heatpipe.

With that in mind, I'd either get the A8N32-SLI or one of the new RD580 boards. The A8N32 is about $30 more expensive than the A8N SLI Premium, but it gets better reviews overall and seems to be an excellent overclocker. The RD580 boards will probably be cheaper, and it looks like most of the boards will have passive cooling on the northbridge.

Regarding the power supply, Seasonic is the way to go if you want the quietest. They're pretty expensive however, if you wanted a cheap alternative the Antec Truepower 2.0 line is pretty decent and well priced.
 
Originally posted by: TheNewGuy8
is there ANY way to get a better NB HS or HSF on there?
Click to expand...

On the DFI? Bigtime mod to a passive northbridge heatsink...measure how much you need to chop off the pipes based on your card, and go at it.
 
Hmm, not really up to that mod.

I've basically got it all figured out except for the Mobo. Got to do more reading I guess.
 
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