Originally posted by: luigionlsd
Hey AT... just wondering if any of you have experience with the A8N-SLI. I found a cheap premium version on FS/FT and I was wondering if it's really as intimidating as it sounds. I read the "Dos and Don'ts" thread, and it sounded like you can screw it/your system up pretty easily. This looks like a nice cheap board, especially for SLI... I've been wanting to try dual 7600 GTs. Lemme know if you guys have any important tips! Thanks in advance 🙂
I know how you feel. I bought an A8N-SLI Premium, and after reading the "Dos and Don'ts" thread was worried, espeically since this was my first build. Perhaps it was the intensive research I did before the build, but it went much easier than I feared, and I wouldn't worry too much, as long as you follow some common sense guidelines.
For example, I did see the issue with the BIOS incorrectly setting memory timings many have mentioned. But I decided to deal with this by buying a matched dual channel set listed in the manual (Corsair Twinx 2048-3200c2) that many had discussed and found the right timing/voltage settings for based on experience and clear testing results/specs at the Corsair site. When i first posted, the BIOS set the timings incorrectly as expected, so I set the timings manully and things worked just fine. (This was the only manual setting in the BIOS I made.)
I'm using only one GPU at this point, and I'm not OCing, so I can't comment on the ease of SLI setup or OCing. Nor can I comment on setup using the Deluxe version. But I can say that if you choose memory that others have used in the Premium board, with timing settings that are well known, the memory issue isn't a problem.
I also followed the advice against installing the IDE drivers from nVidia/ASUS, and the nVidia firewall. Instead of using the CD that came with the board, I downloaded the 6.5 chipset drivers, latest versions of the other drivers, and installed them individually, which gave me more control. It's also wise to disable as much stuff in the BIOS at first as is reasonable; it simplifies things. Then you can enable things one by one after you get the OS and the current drivers installed as you see fit. In my case, I disabled the Marvell Ethernet controller, the Sil3114 RAID controller, all the OC stuff, Qfan, and Cool n' Quiet for the initial startup. I left several things disabled, including the Marvell Ethernet (don't need two), Qfan (I'm using SpeedFan), and the OC stuff. I have enabled the SLI controller, and set up a RAID 5 volume.
The only other issue I've seen that caused any concern was the heat generated by the Southbridge chipset. The fanless design/heatpipe setup attracted me since I want the rig to be as quiet as I can reasonably get it. But the southbridge gets pretty darn hot; frankly it's hotter than I thought it would be. But I checked comments on Newegg, and others have indicated similar experience. I also found a discussion at MotherBoard Point on this issue that has temperature ranges for the nf4 chipset. I'm within those tolerances, and have had no shutdowns that would indicate a heat problem. (To test, I ran Prime95 for 28 hours, and since my GPU is fanless, after the 28th hour started running HD video -- which will be the machine's primary function -- in addition to Prime95 for a couple of hours. Everything ran fine.
Hope that helps. I found these threads and others to be very helpful, so thanks to all, and hope I contribute a little bit.
😉
Here's my setup:
A8N-SLI Premium mobo, BIOS Revision 1009
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Toledo
Gigabyte nVidia GeForce 7600GT SilentPipe II
Corsair Twinx 2048-3200c2 (2GB, dual channel, 2-3-3-6/1T/2.75v)
1 Seagate Barracuda SATA 3Gbs 160GB Drive on nVidia SATA Controller as boot drive
4 Western Digital Caviar WD4000YR 400GB drives on Sil3114 Controller for RAID 5 storage volume
1 Digital Audio Labs CardDeluxe for A/D conversion in and digital audio out
1 Hauppague WinTV PVR250MCE
WinXP MCE
