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

[biggestmuff]

Thanks alot, Ridesy. I appreciate your input. I'm looking forward to building one of these.

 

[nataku00]

Originally posted by: biggestmuff

Will a Sonata II work? What about the P180?

I helped a friend put an A8N32-SLI Deluxe into a Sonata II and it was an extremely tight fit while lowering it onto the offsets. If you're running a single pci-e card, it should be fine, but its not a good candidate of a case for doing SLi. With the air duct for the CPU hsf that comes with the Sonata II, a large HSF, and a good vid card, there isn't much room to work with the mobo jumpers once its in.

 

[keldog7]

This board's layout is far from perfect... The tight areas are obviously at the bottom near the PCI slots. The RAM is located a bit close to the CPU socket, so you might have difficulty with the bigger heatsinks. Add a video card and sound card and there isn't much room left for much else - ESPECIALLY if you want to run anything SLI. Finally, choose your CPU cooler carefully, as the board is somewhat dependent on DOWNWARD airflow (as opposed to ACROSS) to cool the mosfets...
...but the overclocking is great...

-A

 

[biggestmuff]

Ok, I'm confused.

Do I need to install any drivers during the XP install? I'm just using one SATA Western Digital 250GB harddrive.

 

[Nocturnal]

Originally posted by: biggestmuff
Ok, I'm confused.

Do I need to install any drivers during the XP install? I'm just using one SATA Western Digital 160GB harddrive.

You shouldn't need any drivers. For the most part the nForce 4 chipset motherboards will know how to deal with SATA drives. I know that with my A8N-SLI Deluxe I didn't need any drivers loaded during the XP install phase in order to get Windows to recognize my Raptor.

 

[biggestmuff]

Thanks, Nocturnal. I have it partitioning now. Looks like it was recognized. I'm into about an hour and the drive (250 GB) is at 67%.

 

[biggestmuff]

Wow. This board started off good and then 3 days later it's dead in the water (case).

I built this box last thurs and friday (18 and 19 May). It was running well until Sunday morning. I decided to update the BIOS from 1103 to 1205. I normally don't flash from Windows, but decided to use the Asus Update program. It deleted the old version, wrote the new and verified the new. It then asked for a reboot. Nothing. The board just had power. Tried clearing CMOS. No video, no POST, no beeps. Dead. I called Asus Tech Support and talked with them. They suggested I had a bad flash, I agreed. They sent a new BIOS chip on Monday with 1205 on it. I recieved it on Tuesday and this morning (Wed, 24 May) I replaced the old chip with the new one. Guess what? Same thing. No boot, POST, video or beeps. Tech Support is now suggesting RMA. This sucks. What's the typical turnaround time for an RMA to Asus? I forgot to ask.

Just my experience. I thought I'd share. Very frustrating.

 

[Gravity]

Originally posted by: biggestmuff
Wow. This board started off good and then 3 days later it's dead in the water (case).

I built this box last thurs and friday (18 and 19 May). It was running well until Sunday morning. I decided to update the BIOS from 1103 to 1205. I normally don't flash from Windows, but decided to use the Asus Update program. It deleted the old version, wrote the new and verified the new. It then asked for a reboot. Nothing. The board just had power. Tried clearing CMOS. No video, no POST, no beeps. Dead. I called Asus Tech Support and talked with them. They suggested I had a bad flash, I agreed. They sent a new BIOS chip on Monday with 1205 on it. I recieved it on Tuesday and this morning (Wed, 24 May) I replaced the old chip with the new one. Guess what? Same thing. No boot, POST, video or beeps. Tech Support is now suggesting RMA. This sucks. What's the typical turnaround time for an RMA to Asus? I forgot to ask.

Just my experience. I thought I'd share. Very frustrating.

Having a similar experience. I was having 10 minute boots so I upgraded the bios. Now It takes 20 minutes to boot. It crawls through post, like super slow. Once it hits the windows screen it seems to be normal. I'm wondering if it's the nvidia 7800?? Not sure what else to do.

 

[Skott]

I know they say you should keep drivers and bios updated but I've always been of the opinion if it aint broken then dont fix it. Bios updates are especially tricky IMO. Get a bad flash like in your case and its nothing but a big paper weight and chances of getting it right again dont seem likely unless you buy new and start again. I'd definetly RMA that mobo. I tend to be a little superstitious at times though.

 

[imported_ST]

flashed to 1205 from 1103. No issues whatsoever. Overclocking seems to be better, as I can reach 3050MHz readily. Tried to run 3.1GHz on air, but no dice lol....but stability seems to have improved, although the annoying warm boot issues is still there.

 

[pyroman1]

Originally posted by: Ridesy
2. Space is an issue if you want XFi etc, as all the new 7800 & 7900 cards take two slots each and there is no room for anything else, or you really ah heck airflow! Some have squeezed an XFi between, but heat is an issue on this MB anyway and this only makes it worse (hence I went watercool).
...
Personally love the board, great overclock ability in BIOS, but it seems to run hot and the onboard sound is crticised by those audiophiles who care. I personally have no other PCI cards, but with watercool blocks on both graphics cards I could slip an XFi card in should I wish to have excellent sound to go with gaming performance.

Hope this long diatribe helps.

Ridesy

Ridesy,

I am working on moving this mobo to a new case with watercooling. The case is BTX format, do you have watercooling on the NB and SB chipsets?

 

[biggestmuff]

Those of you running this board well, what power supply are you running?

I have 2 EVGA 7900GT CO, 2 GB RAM with one CD/DVD drive and one Western Digital 250GB SATA II drive. I'm running this with an Antec TruePower 2.0, 550Watt.

To add; I RMAed and sent my MB yesterday and it arrived at Asus today. I'm curious to find out what's wrong with it.

 

[pyroman1]

@biggestmuff: I am running 1 eVGA 7800 GT, 2GB TWINX2048-4000PT Corsair, PX-716A and PX-712A, 4 SATA2 Seagate 400GB drives in RAID5, 3800+ X2 64bit and Xi-Fi Platinum. Before the hard drives I had the exact same PSU (I was using one 120GB PATA drive), after putting them in I upgraded the PSU to Thermaltake PurePower 680W. The system seemed less stable after the HDD upgrade; however, that could have been an existing problem as I had to RMA that board anyway.

If I recall correctly, the Antec doesn't have indivdual sleaving coming straight out of the PSU, whereas the Thermaltake does. This makes cable management a breeze, IMHO.

 

[biggestmuff]

Well, still waiting on my board from Asus. I called this morning and they hadn't figured the problem out. It's been one week today.

 

[Billb2]

Originally posted by: biggestmuff
Those of you running this board well, what power supply are you running?

To add; I RMAed and sent my MB yesterday and it arrived at Asus today. I'm curious to find out what's wrong with it.

PCPower&Cooling 1KW 12.03V always, even massive OC's. Yeah, I know it's overkill, but I had problems (drove me nuts) with another PSU.

ASUS is pretty fast. Turned around a 6800GT in a week door to door.

 

[Sackness]

I built my system about a week or two ago, I've had no problems to date.

I LOVE being able to finally truely multitask. The other day I was rippinng 2 diferent DVDs, copying files over the network and on the net all at once. Another time I was re-encoding a DVD, using Photoshop and the net.... Even being able to Burn 2 diferent DVD's at 12x and 8x .... CPU not even breaking a sweat, and I'm probably not even pushing it ... freaken sweet 😀

I'm using the Silverstone Strider 600W PSU, and I was burning 4 DVD's at once with no probs (see spec below)

Pretty sure I'm using Bios 1103 too.... so don't know about any 1205 issues, but I'll check my bios when I get home.

 

[biggestmuff]

Well, called again this morning. Asus still has no clue. It's just in a "repair" status. They won't know the problem until it's fixed. Gee, really? However, she did think that it'd go out today or Monday. Now, how is that possible. No clue as to current status of repair or what the reason for failure is, but has a ship date. Unreal. This is my first big issue that I've had with Asus. My fourth or fifth board I've bought from them.

 

[farp96]

I was thinking about getting this board. I have 2 7900 GTX's. I want to put those in with my creative xfi sound card, will they fit on this motherboard? Also I have a zalman 7000B cpu cooler, would that fit along with the video cards and sound card?

Thanks

 

[biggestmuff]

Originally posted by: farp96
I was thinking about getting this board. I have 2 7900 GTX's. I want to put those in with my creative xfi sound card, will they fit on this motherboard? Also I have a zalman 7000B cpu cooler, would that fit along with the video cards and sound card?

Thanks

From Ridesy's post,

2. Space is an issue if you want XFi etc, as all the new 7800 & 7900 cards take two slots each and there is no room for anything else, or you really ah heck airflow! Some have squeezed an XFi between, but heat is an issue on this MB anyway and this only makes it worse (hence I went watercool).

3. CU770 fits fine except, a) you have to remove pre-fitted Asus backplate behind CPU and fit Zalman one and, b) won't fit over Corsair PRO memory in A1 Slot as heatsink with LED's is too high.
As a side note the 9500 Zalman fits straight onto the Asus backplate and has no issues with PRO RAM in slot A1.

 

[onioneater36]

bump

 

[biggestmuff]

Alright, so I get my messed up A8N32 SLI board back today, but wait! I shipped my board to the RMA department in Kentucky. Why is it being returned to me from a California address? Different board! Know what really gripes me? They don't tell me what was wrong with my original board! Just some paperwork informing me that they've swapped the old one for a replacement. Now to find that thread on performing a MB swap.

 

[SMatson]

I have a A8N-SLI with a FX-53 and am considering upgrading. Here are a few questions.

1. Should I bother to upgrade the motherboard and just get the FX-60 dual core for the A8N-SLI?

2. Can you resonabley sell old stuff like my FX-53 processor or A8N motherboard (used obviously)

3. I have Kingston value select 512X2. Should I get two more sticks or upgrade the ram too?

4. Is my New HE 550 power supply OK?

Scott

 

[Ridesy]

Hi,

1. This board is nice, but there is little debate that with the newest graphics drivers the nForce4 x16 chipset on this board doesn't give a real performance hike when compared to the nForce4 chipset in your current A8N board, so unless you are going to use the old board elsewhere or it is broken I wouldn't spend the extra money.

2. FX60 v's FX53 - again with the new generation AMD chips not far off, the Core2 on our doorstep, both of which support/use DDR2 memory -- I'd say wait and do full new system upgrade when prices/availability stabilize.

3. Market for second hand is ebay and best of luck, as you could sell for 50% of what you paid, or 10%.

4. If you did decide to spend $200 on the A8N32 and $1,000 plus on an FX60, then you really need a 2Gb (2 x 1Gb) matched pair kit to justify it and hence the above comments that the cost for gain probably isn't worth it.

Ridesy

 

[SMatson]

Well, perhaps I will wait then.

My system is ok now, but wanted to go to dual core.

Scott

 

[MDesigner]

I bought the Abit AN8 32X SLI x16, and it had bad DIMM slots.. RMA'd for another, Abit sent me a replacement that now has a faulty SATA/IDE controller (the nForce one, not the SiliconImage one). I'm seriously considering just buying the ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe. I just need to make 100% sure the problem in my system isn't CPU related, or that the power supply isn't toasting the motherboard & messing up these on-board components. (if that's even possible.. I checked the voltages, everything is normal and within range)