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Title: *Official* - AsusTek A8N32-SLI Deluxe thread

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lol wuwoze, mine says that too and also says shiped/yes and a tracking number woot. is the moderator putting up a thread for this board so we can detail our experiences and help people??
 
QuixoticOne,

Thanks for the informative reply. I'm now thinking I'll be okay with this board and (1) new 7800 512MB graphic card. It seems as though I would save a little money with one of these new cards vs (2) EVGA 7800gtx KOs. I look forward to your comments on the board when it arrives. I'm ready to pull the trigger on this new rig, but just giving about two weeks for more info on this board and the 7800 512MB.

 
Really looking forward to reading what the early buyers have to say about this mobo. I imagine ASUS will need time to get supply up in sufficient quantity to meet demand. Vendors wont know how much to order/buy in the beginning as well since no one can yet predict how popular this mobo will be.
 
The way I found it in stock at MWAVE was not at Mwave. I googled A8N32 and the links come up with the usual pc xgear , monarch, and east luna. I had been doing this for two weeks waiting for something to change and sure enough yesterday morning mwave showed up. I hit the link and it said in stock. I purchased two in about 2 minutes and then sent link to my friend who wants one. My friend hit the link within minutes and it was gone.
 
The first supply shipment must have been a small one. Glad to hear you got one..err..two. Let us know how good it is when you get it installed and running. 🙂
 
woot they are here, i will try and post by tommorrow night with any issues. 1 system will be with 2 7800 gtx's the other with 2 6800 Ultras. Should be intersting
 
Looking forward to your post, Squonk. Be sure to let us know if a pci sound card or something similar can be added as well with those two vid cards in SLI mode.
 
Just installed the motherboard. Now I got one serious fu_king problem. My mobo cant detect my 3rd and 4th SATA harddrives.

Also, the heatpipe is sooooooooooo hot!

Dont buy this mobo. It is not ready.
 
Fedex messed up and I only got my A8N32 this afternoon.

I'll try to build it with an X2 4400, 7800GT, Audigy II ZS, 3 GBy DDR,
and either the Zalman CNPS 7000B or stock AMD X2 heatsink in the afternoon.

I'll share my photos / impressions / errata / results with you all by the evening
and / or thursday.

wuwoze --
Unfortunately I've got a sea of parallel hard drives, and only one SATA so I can't
test and confirm if there's a SATA bug or not. My hunch is that it's probably just
a problem in Windows with installing / updating device drivrers for the SATA chips,
and setting up the right SATA modes in the BIOS too.
You do know that there are TWO distinct, totally different manufacturer and everything
SATA interface chips on the ASUS right? One chip (the NVIDIA chipset chip) controls
some of the SATA interfaces, and another chip, I think it's a Silicon Labs SIL chip
controls the other SATA ports, right? You probably have to install the right
SiLabs and NVIDIA chipset / RAID drivers for these things to work right. Also
if you're massively overclocking, be aware that the SATA ports on one chip will
possibly not overclock as much as the SATA ports on the other chip. Anyway
tons of people have problems with the SATA ports because of problems installing or
bugs in the SATA chip drivers, the NVIDIA drivers, the BIOS settings, and so on.
This isn't at all related just to the ASUS A8N32, but is the same for virtually every
NVIDIA + other SATA controller (SiiLabs, Promise, etc) motherboard out there.
Look for forum threads on the RAID / SATA / NVIDIA chipset drivers topics.
Some people suggest to use the microsoft drivers and not the NVIDIA ones I think.

Anyway as to the hot heat sink ... well it's supposed to get hot. 🙂 You're also supposed
to have decent air flow from a fan over the radiator fins of the heatsinks, and you're
NOT supposed to have the motherboard with the heat pipe installed at any angle
that doesn't make the radiator fins end of the heat pipe 'up' relative to the other ends
of the heat pipe. Check the manual on that point.. The AnandTech and other reviews
actually said this board ran COOL, so unless you really have a defective / broken
one, I tend to believe that the motherboard's heat pipe design is good and maybe
you don't have good case airflow, or you installed something upside down or something.
If you accidentally pulled on the heatsinks / heatpipes too much you can dislodge them
from the chips they're sitting on, and then you WILL get really horrible cooling results
but that's true with ANY heatsink.

good luck on fixing your system.. I'll have more tips later today after I build mine.
I have a digital thermocouple temperature probe so I'll check how hot things
are getting too.

 
QuixoticOne, what are you talkng about? As an Asus A8N-Sli Premium owner, I hope Wuwoze knows the proper installation alignment of the board, which is not to have it inverted like a number of the Lian cases have it. Plus, if you have a SATA drive, you can test it for Wuwoze by plugging your drive in Port 3 or 4.

Also, no SATA drivers are required for installation unless you are running RAID. I would check to see if you have RAID enabled in the bios. In regard to the heatpipe being so hot, I know the heatpipe on my premium has never felt hot. I would check with otaking71 at xtremesystems who also has the board - http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=79312
 
Ummm, yeah, unless it is defective.

The problem that really annoys me is that after making SATA1 and SATA2 RAID0, my SATA3 and SATA4 harddrives just dissappeared from BIOS menu or Windows XP. But I could still find them under NVIDIA MediaShield in Windows XP and NVIDIA MediaShield Utility that shows up after the computer turns on and goes through RAID and you press F10. But I have no way of adding them. Just no way.

Even if I tried to install Windows XP, the installation program could only detect RAID0, but not the other normal sata drives. When I removed the RAID0 setting, the Windows XP installation program then detected all sata drives.

In BIOS menu, under Main, in IDE Configuration, only SATA1 and SATA2 can be controlled, enabled or disabled. SATA3 and SATA4 options are missing. A8N32-SLI Deluxe manual also states that way. But with ASUS A8N-SLI Premium, SATA3 and SATA4 can be controlled and RAIDed (am I right? I forgot. I never raid SATA3 and SATA4. I only RAIDed SATA1 and SATA2).

I just installed the newest BIOS. The whole APM Configuration under Power in BIOS menu was gone haha.
 
Yeah, I know how to install motherboard. It is easy but it needs a lot of work.

Actually the heatpipe of A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard is not that hot. I can put my finger on it for a long time. The heatsink of my BFG 7800GTX is much much hotter than it.
 
Glad you guys are giving it the old college try. I'm looking forward to hearing more experience with this mobo. Just a thought but maybe now would be a good time to create an official thread for this particular mobo? Not sure who does that but maybe something to consider.
 
I got delayed cause I ordered new coolers. The two boards are screaming at me to be installed . Coolers here tomorrow
 
In the meantime I did answer the PCI slot question. With both single slot and dual slot (Honkin Cooler) video cards the only pci slot useable is the middle of the 3. I run Audigy ZS 2's so Im glad one is available. It may be possible to use the upper or lower with a half hieght card combined with 1 slot cards but for my tastes its way to close to the video cards fan.
 
Well, thats somewhat encouraging, Squonk. Is that with the 7800GTXs or the 6800s? Also what type of 7800GTXs are they? They the regular cards (430MHz) or the overclocked type with big fans? The eVGA 7800GTX KO ECS3 (490MHz) cards are supposed to be like 2-inches thick due to the extra cooling of the ECS3 kit. I'm hoping the mobo can handle these big cards and a sound card at the same time. Love to see a pic too if you can do it.
 
Capt Caveman,

You don't see a problem with this board an an Antec P180 case, do you? It is my first build and I think the Lian cases are the only ones that you seem to have to install the board inverted. Is this correct? Just want to minimize problems due to my first build.

Thanks
 
I am really interested in hearing about personal (non-expert) reviews ie. performance/bugs. Pre-Ordered from xpcgear earlier this month. The guy i talked to on that day said " They will be in on the tenth" and I asked " That would make delivery on the forteenth right?" " If you choose three day shipping" so I did. Called them today to see what thier stock was......and well, its non-existant. They say " ASUS is making very limited quantities, first come first serve". WTF? I'm not sure im buying that load of garbage. How can a top board maker only produce limited quantities? Another option which I hope is not true, is that they are selling them at $250 somewhere until they are readily available for everyone and the prices drop down to the Pre-Order price. Again I hope I'm wrong, but I'm also wondering whether it was worth it to pay $50 less.

The Surgeon is out to lunch.
 
Okay, I think I may know your problem. Under IDE, you can disable IDE Channels 1 + 2 and SATA Channels 1 + 2. Channels not actual ports. I don't know if this bios is much different than the Premium but right under IDE, you should have Nvidia and in their you can enable RAID and enable/disable each individual IDE/SATA port. Can I assume you have SATA ports 1 + 2 enabled but ports 3 + 4 disabled? How about about switching your SATA raid ports from 1 + 2 to 3 + 4, then stick your non-raided sata drives into ports 1 + 2?

Originally posted by: wuwoze
Ummm, yeah, unless it is defective.

The problem that really annoys me is that after making SATA1 and SATA2 RAID0, my SATA3 and SATA4 harddrives just dissappeared from BIOS menu or Windows XP. But I could still find them under NVIDIA MediaShield in Windows XP and NVIDIA MediaShield Utility that shows up after the computer turns on and goes through RAID and you press F10. But I have no way of adding them. Just no way.

Even if I tried to install Windows XP, the installation program could only detect RAID0, but not the other normal sata drives. When I removed the RAID0 setting, the Windows XP installation program then detected all sata drives.

In BIOS menu, under Main, in IDE Configuration, only SATA1 and SATA2 can be controlled, enabled or disabled. SATA3 and SATA4 options are missing. A8N32-SLI Deluxe manual also states that way. But with ASUS A8N-SLI Premium, SATA3 and SATA4 can be controlled and RAIDed (am I right? I forgot. I never raid SATA3 and SATA4. I only RAIDed SATA1 and SATA2).

I just installed the newest BIOS. The whole APM Configuration under Power in BIOS menu was gone haha.
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