Vcore stability on Asus A8N Mobo's and X2s...

[virtualrain]

I've been away from the forums for a few months... When I was last here, the A8N-SLI Premium (which I have) has terrible CPU voltage stability issues with the X2's and different BIOS revs also had problems with being able to accurately select the Vcore for overclocking (i.e. it seemed to have a mind of its own). Have any of the recent BIOS offerings from ASUS fixed this issue?

How is the Vcore voltage stability and overclocking options for X2's on the newer A8N32 boards?

Thanks!

 

[virtualrain]

Bump... anyone? I know there are a ton of you guys on here that are using these two boards... what's the latest?

 

[virtualrain]

What should I assume from the lack of response? I've gone through the major A8N forums and can't find anything...

 

[humanure]

i just flashed to 1011-006, it does seem to be more stable. i'm still have temp issues if i set the vcore over 1.4, and when i set it to 1.4175 in the bios it actually runs at 1.45 or so. anyway, it does seem much improved, not getting the huge changes in vcore like i used to, and the heat problems are mostly due to my case cooling(upgrading soon, sonata 2 soon will be for sale).

 

[virtualrain]

Thanks, it would seem that what you set in BIOS does still not translate directly to what the chip sees.

Does anyone know if the A8N32 is any better?

 

[n7]

A8N32-SLI

For me, with over voltage enabled (which in turn enables the 8-phase power), vcore is rock solid, at least according to software anyway.

 

[Megatomic]

My A8N-SLI Premium is very stable. I run my 4800+ @ 2.5GHz at stock Vcore and I see very little swing in voltage. Oh and the reported voltage is usually within .02 of what I've set in the BIOS (1.35V).

 

[imported_ST]

Before I sold my premium, the updated bios seemed to help in the vcore fluctuations somewhat (i still honestly think this is a hardware vrm issue), but was still limited to 1.45V in the maximum voltage. with the a8n32 sli deluxe, it's a LOT more stable and can push it up to 1.60V.

 

[virtualrain]

Thanks... It sounds like the A8N32 is the way to go for pushing overclock limits where you need tight control and stable VCore. I agree with whoever suggested that the Vcore issues with the Premium are likely a hardware issue and perhaps why ASUS went with the 8-Phase design on the A8N32.

 

[lopri]

Umm.. A8N32's VCore is NOT stable. Is it better than that of other ASUS boards? Yes. Is it rock-solid as DFI's? Hell, no. I haven't seen ONE ASUS board which supplies "rock-solid" voltages to CPU yet. It's somewhat do-able with single-core CPUs, but with dual-cores, you will inevitably see dancing Vcore. Not only the fluctuation, but there also are other issues stemming from ASUS' ****** engineering when it comes to voltage regulation.

A number of issues surfaced after users had time to utilize the board and experiment with varying component combinations. Issues ranged from the boards inability to properly power-up while in an overclocked condition, ASUS applications and Creative drivers not playing nice together, a humming turning to whining noise when utilizing certain memory modules, game play lag while online, stuttering in graphic intensive games, random benchmark scores, RAID 5 issues with the ULi SATA controller, poor HTT overclocks with synchronous memory settings.... You can start to understand the type of issues early adopters faced with this board.

It's an excerpt from A8R32-MVP review by Gary, and I'm so glad that AT finally listens to the real users and real products (Gary says he purchased the review unit off the internet, instead of receving a "review sample" from ASUS)

Basically when it comes to OC'ing, you will go through lots of frustration with OC'ing. But once you find your sweet spot, it's rock-solid and keeps the CPU cooler.

 

[n7]

Err, the topic is about the A8N series, not the A8R series...

 

[virtualrain]

Originally posted by: lopri
Umm.. A8N32's VCore is NOT stable. Is it better than that of other ASUS boards? Yes. Is it rock-solid as DFI's? Hell, no.

What is your experience with the Vcore on your setup?

Does the reported VCore match what is set in BIOS?

How much variation or swing do you see?

I'm getting +/- 0.025V on my A8N-SLI Premium (or 1.45 to 1.5 when set at 1.475) which is terrible.

 

[lopri]

Generally speaking, the higher you set the Vcore, the wider the fluctuation tends to be. And dual-core CPUs' Vcore is 10 time worse than that of single-core CPUs. A8N32 improved alot compared to A8N-SLI Premium, but it's still not stable. I'd say the variation is about 1/2 of A8N-SLI Premium. Also another thing I noticed is that ASUS boards can't seem to sustain Vcore under load. For those reasons, and to avoid warm boot issue, you will have to give more voltages to your CPU.