ASUS A8N-SLI :: Work Arounds:Expensive Bugs:Tweaking:Info [Archive] - Page 2

Slake

06-08-05, 04:22 PM

We got an answer about reaching 1.65[V] Vcore problems when 1.65[V] is set in bios, finally they solved this - new 1011 rev. is out!:

Description A8N-SLI Deluxe Bios version 1011
1. ..
...

4.Set CPU VID Item max value as 1.55V when using 1.40V/1.35V CPU.

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

that`s rather sad..

..especially when we compare this board to some other manufacturers (DFI) ..
I'm staying with 1009-002 (or maybe 1010 )so I can keep my higher voltage options.

friendly1

06-08-05, 04:56 PM

I understand You...

OC-Master

06-17-05, 02:37 PM

Faq updated to represent the release of bios 1012.001 Beta.
http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/1012-001.zip

OC-Master

MethanolMan

06-20-05, 08:15 PM

Whats the latest Oc master ? I look foward to reading your info bro

friendly1

06-20-05, 08:44 PM

Yes, me too!

OC-Master

06-20-05, 11:55 PM

Whats the latest Oc master ? I look foward to reading your info bro

Well I've been busy modding the A8N-SLI to put out 3.23Vdimm to my memory for a higher clock speed and also a complete overhaul replacement of the northbridge cooling. See the little note I made in the faq if you are interested in the mod.

One of the more challenging mods was installing a Zalman passive northbridge cooler with a couple of NV Silencer 6rev2 along side. The job had taken just over three hours and eventually worked out better than I had ever imagined! The NV Silencer is soo effecient being it not only cools the graphics card but also northbridge passive heatsink as well. My noise level is near Zero now with Q-Fan always on, passive cooling on the northbridge and silencers running which as the name describes are dead silent.

I used a dremel to cut out a fraction of the NV Silencer so that the heatsink could use some of the waisted space the Silencer consumes. Next, I used the dremel to cut down or remove a few heatsink fins on the Zalman to help better fit the NV Silener. The end result is a extremely cooling running, quiet very nice looking setup.

OC-Master

MethanolMan

06-21-05, 10:21 PM

Thanks Bro !!! Keep it coming buddy

OC-Master

06-24-05, 05:20 PM

Faq updated since the release of Bios 1012.002. If anyone is willing to test, I would love some feedback of this new bios. Its dated 23rd of June which is yesterday :) .

OC-Master

OC-Master

06-25-05, 04:16 PM

If there is anyone who has a copy of Bios 1010.001, if you could post it, I'd be very happy. I've been spending the last two hours trying to hunt down this bios revision.

OC-Master

odradek

07-01-05, 04:07 PM

Y!

You can find it at
http://www.lejabeach.com/ASUS/A8N-SLI_D/a8nslidbios.html

odradek

OC-Master

07-02-05, 11:59 AM

Faq updated for the release of Beta Bios 1012.003

OC-Master

surject

07-02-05, 03:48 PM

OC-Master

07-02-05, 09:26 PM

Hi,

do I have to update to 1012.003 to get 1T working?
With 1008 i get black screen/beep at boot.
And I thought the Venice should handle 1T with 4 modules (Dualsided) ?

How else can I improve performance of RAM and CPU and overall without risking too much? Sorry, I'm a oc n00b.
I played a bit with NVtune and were able to run DDR at 420MHz and PCI-Express at 2650MHz ...and CPU I had at 240MHz (instead 200) once ..hmm, but dont really remember if it was really stable :)

thx

surri

Surri,

The Venice and Sandiago cores indeed fix the 1T issue with four memory modules installed at once. However, untill I can confirm, the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe still contains a 1T limitation from memory frequencies operating behond 240 (480MHz) with the odd person making it to 250 with their board.

It has been confirmed that the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium fixes the 1T issue completely so if your planning on doing some hardcore overclocking with memory then I would start thinking about trading up your board for the Premium edition. It is unlikely that ASUS will be able to fix the 1T issue with the Deluxe edition but then again you never know.

OC-Master

surject

07-02-05, 09:38 PM

OC-Master

07-04-05, 02:31 PM

hmm

any idea why it's not working for me even at default 400MHz?
And let's hope they fix it for Deluxe ..although I dont wanna hardcore overclock, just a bit as long as stable and a real difference to default (non-oc) performance, without much risk nor heat.

I wont replace my deluxe again hehe, had enough trouble (many hours of testing) to find out my first deluxe was broken (dualchannel didnt work stable) ;)

Surject,

Is your ram really capable of 2-2-2-5 timings @ 400MHz? With 4 512MB sticks installed in your PC, I would find thats almost an impossible setting to achieve. I would set timings to 2-3-3-6 or 2.5-3-3-5 and see if that fixs your stability issues. There is slight stability issues with any board these days with two sets of dual channel memory. To test whether this theory is correct, uninstall one pair and boot the thing back up. Everything should be fine.

OC-Master

surject

07-04-05, 07:50 PM

okey thanx, will test a bit in the next few days...

just sucky to clear cmos all the time if system doesnt boot up anymore :/

Krashnicki

07-05-05, 12:47 PM

pfgp

07-05-05, 01:50 PM

OC-Master

07-06-05, 02:54 AM

I am testing beta bios 1012.003 and I am experiencing difficulties when I try to shut down or restart. My monitor goes black and the pc does not reboot or shutdown untill I manually hit the reset or power button on the PC.

I'm getting this too. Definately a mistake on ASUS's part. However, this bios has much better memory handling than any other bios before it.

BTW, I just finished Vcore modding my motherboard and it was a SUCCESS! I'm now running at 1.68v for my CPU which gives me much more flexibility overclocking now.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?p=3813842#post3813842

OC-Master

OC-Master

07-07-05, 04:20 AM

The Faq has been updated to reflect the release of Bios 1012SD-03 and has also recieved a face lift.

OC-Master

Krashnicki

07-07-05, 12:24 PM

The Faq has been updated to reflect the release of Bios 1012SD-03 and has also recieved a face lift.

OC-Master

I have been unable to find this bios listed on asus's website. They may have removed it due to some problems. You may want to avoid using this bios for a little while.

OC-Master

07-07-05, 12:27 PM

I have been unable to find this bios listed on asus's website. They may have removed it due to some problems. You may want to avoid using this bios for a little while.

As far as I know, it is available from the ASUS website for download. I have checked the link to the download and it is working. You can find the link to the download in the faq.

OC-Master

Krashnicki

07-07-05, 02:28 PM

OC-Master

07-07-05, 03:22 PM

The link is working but when I manually go to the Asus website I am unable to find the new bios listed. The newest bios Asus has listed is 1012.003 Does this new bios take care of the rebooting problem?

After reviewing the bios structure, this bios is identical to the 1012-003. Stay away from it unless you can live with having to use the reset switch to reboot and on startup at times.

OC-Master

Nocturnal01

07-10-05, 08:49 PM

Any of you have a Plextor 716SA with the newest 1012-003 BIOS? I notice when I burn/rip things it really causes havoc on the system.

Also, anyone have two 512mb Crucial Ballistix PC3200 memory sticks running at stock speeds with BIOS 1011 final? I had 1011 installed but it would lock my system up at random with no errors in event viewer or even a blue screen.

haemma

07-13-05, 06:12 AM

Hi all!

I`ve got some problems with my a8n sli deluxe (BIOS 1010.1)

My system specs:
A8N SLI Deluxe
A64 Winchester 3200+ ADA3200DIK4BI CBBHD 0450UPMW (goes up to 2700mhz, this cpu is pretested).
1gb GeIL UltraX 3200
GF6800GT@Ultra
480W Tagan psu
Thermalright XP120 + 120Papst-Fan
Temp 1,4Vcore: 32 degrees C
Temp 1,6Vcore: 40 degrees C
MB Temp/Case Temp: 30-40 degrees C

The Problem:

The CPU runs under the following settings:
240HTTx10 HTTLink 4x, 1.4vcore primestable.

When i go to 245HTT, the boot-menu shows up, I select windows and all i got is a gray screen. When I set the VCore to 1.55V the same problem shows up, also with a Vcore of 1.6V. My RAM is set to 400MHz 2.7v @ 2.5-4-4-5 1T. PCI clock is fixed @ 33.3MHz, Cool&Quiet is off and all other settings are at manual.

I have 2 SATA-disks, one WD Raptor and a Seagate Barracuda, is it possible that the problem is situated here? I´ve heard that some SATA Ports are fixed and some not? Is this true?

The strangest thing is that the system boots with a HTT of 260 and above and a Multiplier of 10 with Vcore 1.45 - 1.65V, the Bootmanager appears, Windows doesn`t start but Linux does work fine. Strange, uhm?

Ya, thats all folks.
Thx for your help

greets
haemma

pfgp

07-13-05, 06:36 AM

Try putting the memory at 2T. This board doesn't like 1T over 240HTT. :)

haemma

07-13-05, 06:46 AM

ok, thanks I`ll try it.

But 2T is not so good for performance?

pfgp

07-13-05, 06:51 AM

you'll lose about 2-3% at the same HTT. so at 2T with higher HTT you will gain performance.

haemma

07-13-05, 07:02 AM

ok, thats not much performance loss.
But I think that i`ve already tried 2T yesterday.

haemma

07-13-05, 12:58 PM

ok, I`ve tried it with 2T but it still doesn`t work with 241HTT or above, Multi 10 and Vcore 1.55v

My RAM is working at CL2,5 5-5-5 2T @ 400MHz (afaik).
its the same error as before.

Should I try an other HTlink such as 4 or 5?

Pyr0

07-14-05, 05:02 AM

try using ram dividers, set it to 333

haemma

07-14-05, 07:09 AM

OC-Master

07-14-05, 11:46 AM

you'll lose about 2-3% at the same HTT. so at 2T with higher HTT you will gain performance.

Going from 1T to 2T is actually a performance loss mininum of 10% and up to 20% depending on your CAS timings used. An example with PC4400 memory would be 2.5-4-4-8-2T 550MHz and the benchmark would be 6500MB/s. Enable 1T and your benchmark would rocket to 7300MB/s.

I have OCZ's PC4400 Gold Limited Editoin memory and thats the results I've gotten.

However, its not the end of the world using 2T and if you tighten your timings, that performance loss will start looking more like only 10%.

OC-Master

OC-Master

07-14-05, 11:50 AM

I´ve already tried it with DDR266 and 333 but it still doesn`t work above a HTT of 250.

HTT Multiplier is set to 3x
CPU: HTT250x10 1.65v, RAM: CL2,5 5-5-5 2T @ 2.9v at DDR266, Linux works, Windows hangs up next to the bootmanager

And your sure Windows isnt corrupted? Clock back to stock speeds and attempt to boot into windows. Sounds like Windows is corrupted. On the Deluxe edition of these boards, anything past 240BUS selected in the bios is a gamble. Some people have gotten all the wat to 255~260 but they flucked out if you ask me.

OC-Master

haemma

07-14-05, 02:00 PM

at first thx for your help :)

windows works at stock speeds and up to 245HTTx10.
if I select 250htt and above, nothing happens after the boot-manager.

OC-Master

07-14-05, 05:19 PM

at first thx for your help :)

windows works at stock speeds and up to 245HTTx10.
if I select 250htt and above, nothing happens after the boot-manager.

What are the fine memory timings set at? I dont know them off by heart but your bios should look something like,

3
8
4
4
22
24
6T
3T
2T

The 22, 24, 6, 3 should be the fine setting options. Completely relax all your fine settings and see what happens.

OC-Master

shawkins

07-14-05, 05:38 PM

I just downloaded Motherboard Monitor, but it doesnt list this MOBO in the list of supported MOBO's.

Is there another way to make MBM5 work or is thiere another program that works the same as MBM5?

Thanks

dreammmatt

07-14-05, 06:23 PM

The main list on the first page reflects an incompatibility with "Venice" cored chips, is that true? Do the A8N-SLI boards suffer instability when paired with a venice?

OC-Master

07-15-05, 01:28 AM

The main list on the first page reflects an incompatibility with "Venice" cored chips, is that true? Do the A8N-SLI boards suffer instability when paired with a venice?

The A8N/SLI/E/DELUXE boards have stability issues while in attempt of high overclocking when used with a "memory divider". When the memory divider is off and 1:1 ratio is used then everything is fine. Get some PC4000+ memory and you'll be fine for overclocking with a Venice.

This is with the 1012.001~.003 bios anyway. Newer bios'es will most likely change this.

OC-Master

haemma

07-15-05, 02:24 AM

What are the fine memory timings set at? I dont know them off by heart but your bios should look something like,

3
8
4
4
22
24
6T
3T
2T

The 22, 24, 6, 3 should be the fine setting options. Completely relax all your fine settings and see what happens.

OC-Master

yes, it`s something like this. I`ll try your settings ;)

Digital Junkie

07-18-05, 08:32 PM

What are the fine memory timings set at? I dont know them off by heart but your bios should look something like,

3
8
4
4
22
24
6T
3T
2T

The 22, 24, 6, 3 should be the fine setting options. Completely relax all your fine settings and see what happens.

OC-Master

OC, should 22,24,6,3 always be used? default settings on these seem to be 11,14,4,3 and wonder if this makes a big difference to begin with.

apopilot

07-20-05, 04:30 AM

What is the difference between 1T and 2T. I have the Corsair XPERt 1GB Memory at 2-2-2-2-5 timings.

OC-Master

07-21-05, 06:46 PM

What is the difference between 1T and 2T. I have the Corsair XPERt 1GB Memory at 2-2-2-2-5 timings.

10~15% performance difference depending on the frequency your memory is running at. Alot of ram simply cannot run 1T timings even at stock speeds. As far as I know, all the newly made ram on the market (MADE THIS YEAR) can handle 1T at there defualt timings.

OC-Master

Kosmic

07-21-05, 09:01 PM

Great FAQ, OC-Master! I'm just installing windows on a new set up with an SLI Deluxe. At reboot, I saw the bios version was 1003, so I'll have to hook up a floppy drive and update that asap (I forgot to buy a floppy for this rig...)

I'm using a San Deigo 3700+ so hopefully I will be able to get my memory up to 250 or so with enough voltage and loose timings without having to go to 2T-- That's my goal, anyway. I hope they get the divider problem fixed soon...

Kosmic

07-23-05, 11:20 AM

Does anybody have a link to Bios 1010.001 ?

Thanks,
Kos

Pyr0

07-23-05, 03:11 PM

can anybody reccomend the best bios to use with an x2 4400 chip please

currently using 1011.002 and with my winchester 3000 the fsb could easily go to 270 but since putting the 4400 in i can't push the fsb above 210 :(

silentdebuggers

07-23-05, 05:29 PM

Speedfan has working configuration files for a8n-sli. It'll pick up an aux temp sensor that the asus one doesn't.

LoneWolf121188

07-23-05, 05:35 PM

Does anybody have a link to Bios 1010.001 ?

Thanks,
Kos
Theres a post in AMD Asus mobos about that with a link.

can anybody reccomend the best bios to use with an x2 4400 chip please

currently using 1011.002 and with my winchester 3000 the fsb could easily go to 270 but since putting the 4400 in i can't push the fsb above 210
1012.001 is what CyboRob and I are using, and we both managed to hit around 246x11 as our max.

Pyr0

07-23-05, 06:07 PM

Thanks :)
does that version have the shutdown problems? :shrug:

CyboRob

07-25-05, 12:04 PM

I've had no shutdown probs

Kosmic

07-25-05, 08:51 PM

Can anybody confirm that the PCI lock works correctly on the SLI Deluxe? I've scrambled my HD 5 times trying to go over 230 mhz. I'm usiing the 1011 bios and I thought that would fix the problem, but it happened again today. Here's a thread I started about the issue: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=402016

Pro*Banshee

07-25-05, 09:49 PM

yeah, you have to go under the menu where you can select the HTT frequency and set the PCI bus to 33.33 MHz

Kosmic

07-25-05, 09:56 PM

Yup, did that. Still scrambled my hd...

Pro*Banshee

07-25-05, 09:58 PM

did you overclock the PCI-E bus as noted in the FAQ at the beginning? It might work for some, but it always hosed my hard drives

Kosmic

07-25-05, 10:47 PM

nope. I left the pci-e bus at 100 because I had better 3d mark scores that way. That's why I'm wondering if the pci lock is really working...maybe i'll try the 1012 bios, but not for a while. I'm tired of reformatting!

Pyr0

07-26-05, 06:16 AM

in your bios, doesn't the pci lock/clock need to be set to "auto" to lock the pci bus

OC-Master

07-26-05, 10:46 AM

in your bios, doesn't the pci lock/clock need to be set to "auto" to lock the pci bus

I must have to agree with you. For some really strange reason, some people find that the bios locks the PCI bus if you set to AUTO. Some others have found that the 33.3MHz option seems to also work just fine.

Your best bet is use the AUTO setting and set your HTT Bus frequency to 201 if you want the bios to be locked for sure.

Use clockgen to double check to see whether your PCI bus is actually locked or not. slide the overclock bar over and see if its at 33.3 .

OC-Master

Kosmic

07-26-05, 02:44 PM

I had missed that the first time I read the FAQ. Clockgen does show me at 33.3 with pci bus set to auto and HTT at 230 or anything else above 200.

BUT I still have problems at anything much over 230 HTT. I can memtest my memory all day at 250, but can't even boot into windows without screwing up my boot sector at anything above 235. I took the CPU and memory out of the equation by lowering their dividers and booting into windows at 245 HTT. Windows froze up, I rebooted and my boot sector was bad. The repair console couldn't help me, either...

I think that I just got unlucky and bought a bad mobo for overclocking. That's how it goes -- some components OC, some don't. I'm going to leave it at 230 after I finish reformatting again. I'm getting very good at installing windows and working at the same time.

Bocephus

07-27-05, 12:18 AM

I have read this whole post and there is some great info here. Also, great work by OC-Master, it really helps newies (like me, this is my first OC attempt). OK, so I was told by a couple other people that my voltage may be a little high, it's set @ 1.60v. Is this an issue w/ this board? My CPU idle temp is up from 36c to 43c and it's 53c @ load (prime95 torture). Also, should I leave the HT freq at "auto" in Bios or change it? Not really sure what the "auto" setting equates to. Here's my CPU-Z verification (http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=29036) in case you're interested. I have run all the tests (prime95/superpi/memtest86+) and it all appears very stable. Anybody got any extra tricks to get it higher?

Pro*Banshee

07-27-05, 12:48 PM

Bocephus

07-27-05, 08:45 PM

wow dude, you got your board to 289 stable? That's pretty good, your HTT divider must be at 3, install the Nvidia tweaking tools to see what your HTT frequency is.

If it's 867, then you've come down with the 3x reverting HTT bug and you can probably overclock further

That's exactly where it is 867MHz @ 3x. It sounds like this is a common problem. Pardon my ignorance but what does knowing this do for me? I can't add volts so should I take my cpu mult up and work on the HTT? Or should I just be happy where it is and try to back the voltage down? Thanks for your help. This board seems to be pretty easy to work with (minus a few bugs) but then again it's my first try @ OC'ing. :)

OC-Master

07-28-05, 01:17 PM

Faq updated to reflect the release of bios 1013 beta 2.

OC-Master

LoneWolf121188

07-28-05, 03:11 PM

OC-Master

07-29-05, 10:23 AM

OC Master: I'll dl the 1013 BIOS and let you know if I see an improvement with my X2 over 1012.001.

hmmm...it appears to cap my vcore at a meager 1.450, which shows up in CPUZ as 1.360, almost a full .1 volt off! guess its back to 1012.001 for me.

ASUSUpdate also won't let me flash to a lower image with this BIOS, even though the Downgradable BIOS box is checked in the options...strange. I'll just have to flash in DOS then.

Thanks for sharing that information with us. Vcore is a precious thing and when you just cant get enough of it, you totally loose your overclock in most cases. I have a feeling that ASUS is once again tinkering with the vcore on all A8N models including the premium edition as well.

I'd have to say that I've never had any luck reverting back to older bios'es without having to pull out the ancient floppy disk from in the closet and booting to a command prompt. I currently have a floppy free WindowsXP 64 on the way along with a floppy free Flash utility to go with it :)

OC-Master

OC-Master

07-29-05, 11:16 AM

Theres a post in AMD Asus mobos about that with a link.

1012.001 is what CyboRob and I are using, and we both managed to hit around 246x11 as our max.

Just a quick question; Which Memory divider are you currently using? Just curious since the Venice CPUs cannot go higher than 222~240 with the 6/4(266), 6/5(333) dividers but when I use 1:1 (400) you can get Bus speeds up to 300+. Maybe the X2s have the same issue?

OC-Master

LoneWolf121188

07-29-05, 12:21 PM

Just a quick question; Which Memory divider are you currently using? Just curious since the Venice CPUs cannot go higher than 222~240 with the 6/4(266), 6/5(333) dividers but when I use 1:1 (400) you can get Bus speeds up to 300+. Maybe the X2s have the same issue?

OC-Master
I'm using CPU/14, which is 333MHz. CyboRob has faster RAM than I do, i think, he may not be using a divider...I'll check real quick.

Unless he hasn't updated his sig, he has PC3200 as well, but he's somehow running it at 245MHz, meaning no divider.

Alcoholiday

07-29-05, 01:15 PM

OC-Master

07-29-05, 02:43 PM

I'm using CPU/14, which is 333MHz. CyboRob has faster RAM than I do, i think, he may not be using a divider...I'll check real quick.

Unless he hasn't updated his sig, he has PC3200 as well, but he's somehow running it at 245MHz, meaning no divider.

Man I wish we had a stick of OCZ PC4800 or GSKILL DDR600 and see if this divider issue is true for X2s as well.

Venice CPUs just dont like Dividers with the 1012 beta bios and as soon as you take them off, your max bus goes from 220ish to 300+.

OC-Master

OC-Master

07-29-05, 02:50 PM

Need some help here with setting up a friends Asus AN8 SLi system.
What bios settings is best when running 4 memory modules? (I know running 4 dimms are not recomended, but thats what he got, so...)

Seems like 4 dimms give me errors in prime at any settings..

Running Comandrate at 2T and newest bios...

Straight from AMD Spec sheet;

Winchester/NewCastle CPUs while having all four dimm slots populated can handle an average maximum of 333MHz 2T. Some Winchesters have more stable memory controllers than others so some people may hit 400MHz with 2T and have stability.

To achieve 1T timings with stock 400MHz DDR400 speeds and all four dimms populated, you need to have a Venice/Sandiago, Manchester or Toledo CPU to do the job. This is why AMD improved the memory controller in the Venice stepping CPUs.

OC-Master

AgentGreen

07-30-05, 12:09 PM

Straight from AMD Spec sheet;

Winchester/NewCastle CPUs while having all four dimm slots populated can handle an average maximum of 333MHz 2T. Some Winchesters have more stable memory controllers than others so some people may hit 400MHz with 2T and have stability.

To achieve 1T timings with stock 400MHz DDR400 speeds and all four dimms populated, you need to have a Venice/Sandiago, Manchester or Toledo CPU to do the job. This is why AMD improved the memory controller in the Venice stepping CPUs.

OC-Master

my winchester can run stock DDR400 (1:1) 2T with four double-sided dimms.

Your almost correct about the 1T timmings + venice/diago cores.
In those revision E cores they fixed it so *ALL* can run DDR400 2T with four slots (as I am now...).
The only "fix" to 1T is that it can run four *SINGLE* sided dimms at 1T, with double sided (like any good memory...) its still forced to do 2T.

Jazzy

08-02-05, 06:46 AM

Hi.

First of all, thanks for this great thread that helped me to install my rig saving many hours of time. :clap:

About having four DIMMs running at DDR400 (of course, at 2T), here is my experience:

- BIOS versions prior to 1008 auto setup set them at DDR333. With 1008, they are set as DDR400.

- Running the four modules at DDR400 (setting them to DDR400 manually before 1008 BIOS) with Cool'n'Quiet disabled gives no problems. System is memtest and Prime stable (12 hours running). Hard discs do not experiment any corruption (even with NCQ enabled).

- Running the four modules at DDR400 with Cool'n'Quiet enabled produces disc corruption, in both SATA and PATA drives. It is very easy to reproduce. Just calculate a checksum for a bunch of files, copy them, retest the checksum, and surprise: corruption. If I repeat the tests with only two DIMMs, the system runs rock solid and no HD corruption appears.

I like the Cool'n'Quite feature, so I'm going to use only 2 DIMMs. The thing is I need 2Gb. Any recommendation of 2x1024 dual channel set with decent timings and nice price? My processor does not OC much. It is a Winchie 3500+, and runs stable at 2500 (I haven't played much with voltages yet to be on the safe side)

Kosmic

08-02-05, 01:12 PM

Interesting obversation, Jazzy. I had HDD corruption at anything over 230fsb. I'm running 2x1GB memory sticks at DDR400, and Cool'n'Quiet is off. Bios is 1011. I know it's the board, as I can memtest my memory at 250fsb all day long with no errors. It's only when in windows that I have problems. I even tried running at 240fsb with ddr333 and a lower divider on my cpu to take them out of the equation. It took about 10 minutes to have hdd corruption again. After that I just said 'fuggitall' and left it at 230fsb. I'll buy a DFI board later to OC higher...

For memory, here's what I bought: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146970

And here is a huge but informative thread for 2x1gb: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=395335

Jazzy

08-02-05, 07:04 PM

Thanks Kosmic. I can get those in a store near me for a similar price.

230 was my limit too, and it wasn't for the memory, as it is DDR500. Above that, corruption appeared, almost always on the windows registry on restart after the PC crashed.

Zenagon

08-03-05, 02:20 PM

Thanks OC-Master for a great thread. I've been following it for months and appreciate your work in keeping it up to date.

My problem is that I recently purchased 2x1GB Corsair Value Select because of the BF2 benefits. I was hoping to be able to overclock with a divider. I previously had 2x512MB Crucial Ballistix PC4000. I was running stable with default voltages at 2250 1:1 (9x250, 2T) before. I was able to get to 2.34 with a divider before. Now I am unable to overclock very far without stability issues. Actually I can get to 1980 (9x220, 2T) with the 333 divider. Anything beyond results in BSODs. I have tried different voltages and different bios versions, without success. So... is this just a result of the Winchester memory controller? Would a Venice chip be more overclockable with 2GB and a divider? You have mentioned that Venice don't overclock well with a divider.

Do you have any ideas I can try? My computer is "fast enough" at this point, but I love to squeeze every bit out of it. Thanks!

silentdebuggers

08-04-05, 04:35 PM

Try running your ram as close to 200mhz as possible while raising the overall clockspeed with dividers. When you say 1980(9x220, 2T) do you mean your htt is @ 220? If so, your ram would be way lower. Try working up to 250 htt with the 5/6 divider to keep those sticks (i have the same ones) in spec while still overclocking the overall clockspeed by alot.

Zenagon

08-04-05, 04:48 PM

Thanks for your reply. Yeah, at 220HT the ram is only at 360MHz I believe. BTW, I'm using the latest beta 1013.002 bios. Could my power supply be too weak for the additional ram?
I'm going to strip down my computer to basics tonight to see if I can figure anything out.

OC-Master

08-09-05, 11:08 PM

Faq updated today to relate to some important information for people who use BIOS 1010 or newer.

OC-Master

LoneWolf121188

08-10-05, 12:19 AM

Faq updated today to relate to some important information for people who use BIOS 1010 or newer.

OC-Master
Hmm, interesting...Except I'm pretty sure I already have these drivers. :shrug: My HSF and CPU are in the process of being lapped, so that machine is down for a while.

Has the hardware firewall been fixed yet?

JudgeDredd

08-10-05, 12:30 AM

What kind of system damage are we talking here? I've had 1010.001 for a little while now and I believe I'm still using the drivers straight from the CD.

LoneWolf121188

08-10-05, 12:58 AM

^^ I suggest that you don't find out the hard way ;) .

Son1990

08-10-05, 07:24 AM

I upgraded mine to the latest buggy drives a while back before I knew...and I would boot all the way, then shut down and random BSOD's Im going to power it up sometime soon with my new setup and see if thats still the case or maybe just flash to an onlder version.

~Ken

Pyr0

08-10-05, 09:49 AM

OC-Master

08-10-05, 10:07 AM

i've just gotten another gig of memory
all my slots are filled, i'm not using any ram dividers, but i can't run with 1T
if i try to set 1T, the pc hangs at boot, forcing me to have to clear the cmos :(

all settings are in my sig

Thats due to the on-die memory controller in your CPU that just doesnt like having 1T timings with all four dimms being controlled. The Venice, Toledo and Manschester cores made it possible for people to be able to garantee all four dimm slots to be filled with DDR400+ while using 2T timings. Next generation CPUs will again improve on the memory controller making 1T timings a reality with all four dimms being populated.

OC-Master

Pyr0

08-10-05, 10:21 AM

OC-Master

08-10-05, 01:29 PM

gutted :(
thanks for the reply though :)

looks like i wasted my money on pc4000 memory, as i can't push the fsb past 210MHz :bang head

and the cpu voltage selection on this board is appalling.
it doesn't seem to matter what bios i use, if i select any value between 1.36-1.47 all i get is 1.36 or 1.37, and nothing above 1.47 works either :shrug:

i'm sure it works for other people, but not me :rolleyes:

Sounds like your Hiper 480 WATT 18db Silent TYPE-R 24Pin PSU is causing Vcore values to be lower than normal. My Enermax 600W Noisetaker has such high raillines that it actually will push 1.58Vcore when 1.55 is selected. Upgrading to either the OCZ Powerstream 600 or Enermax 600 would give your Dual Core CPU alot more juice to play with. I learnt how much of a difference a more powerful PSU makes going from a 450Watt to the 600Watt so I got to see first hand how much my vcore and even chipset voltage was affected for that matter.

OC-Master

Pyr0

08-10-05, 02:08 PM

i've got so many problems with this setup, that i don't know what to buy first (PSU, watercooling, new case, the list goes on and on)

do you really think that it's my psu at fault?
i never had any votage selection problems with my winchester :shrug:
why does nothing work between 1.36-1.46 (it always reads 1.36-1.37), and then, when selected, it suddenly jumps to 1.47v

my temps are the main problem at the moment tho.
with the settings in my sig, i'm hitting 52°C when running 2x prime95 and when it does, i get a bsod
last week everything was ok, and the max temp was 48-49, i haven't changed anything, and i don't think the weather is any warmer this week

so for the time being, i've disabled QFan, and dropped everything back to stock speeds

edit: i haven't noticed any shutdown, or restart problems with this bios :shrug:

apopilot

08-11-05, 12:43 AM

Little confused here. Which is the latest bios for the PREMIUM board?

Krashnicki

08-11-05, 01:45 AM

I am one of the peaople who had the rebooting problems after installing bios 1012-003. I stuck with it for a couple of weeks. Then I installed nvidia's 6.66 drivers and the problem stopped. I still have this bios running and have not had a problem for over a month. I hope this may give someone an idea on what is causing the reboot problem

Pyr0

08-11-05, 06:36 AM

Little confused here. Which is the latest bios for the PREMIUM board?
1007.002 (according to the asus site)

I am one of the peaople who had the rebooting problems after installing bios 1012-003. I stuck with it for a couple of weeks. Then I installed nvidia's 6.66 drivers and the problem stopped. I still have this bios running and have not had a problem for over a month. I hope this may give someone an idea on what is causing the reboot problem

on the asus site they now have a warning to update the drivers to 6.65 or later before upgrading the bios

A8N-SLI Deluxe Beta BIOS 1013.002
Please do read the description before updating BIOS
To avoid crashing file system, please do update the chipset driver to below version prior to this Bios.
For WinXP 32bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.65 or later
For WinXP 64bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.65 or later
For Win2k/2003 32bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.66 or later
For Win2003 64bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.66 or later

for the a8n-sli deluxe, these drivers need to be installed before updating to 1012 or later
for the a8n-sli, before 1010 or later
for the a8n-sli premium, before 1006 or later
and for the a8n-e, before 1006 or later

i was using 6.66 before updating my bios to 1013.002, and i haven't had any shutdown/reboot issues

Pyr0

08-12-05, 03:41 AM

asus have released the 1013 final bios for the a8n-sli deluxe
http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/A8NSD013.zip
A8N-SLI Deluxe Bios version 1013
Please do read the description before updating BIOS
To avoid crashing file system, please do update the chipset driver to below version prior to this Bios.
For WinXP 32bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.65 or later
For WinXP 64bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.65 or later
For Win2k/2003 32bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.66 or later
For Win2003 64bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.66 or later
1. Support new CPUs. Please refer to our website at: http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx
2. Update nVidia onboard Lan PXE ROM to V215.0503
3. Fixed system will hang in memory test 2.09GB if Quick Boot disabled.
4. Change class code of SATA to fit new Driver (WHQL) if RAID is enabled.
5. Fixed system cannot detect ARC 12xx Serial ATA RAID Host adapter.
6. Fixed K8 Vcore will set wrong value under AI-Booster.

LoneWolf121188

08-12-05, 08:24 PM

whats the verdict on 1013 final?

Pyr0

08-13-05, 08:20 AM

it seems ok, i haven't had any problems yet, but i haven't been trying to tweak much, cos this x2 chip is crap for overclocking :(

it doesn't seem to like fast fsb speeds, even if i reduce the multiplyer on the cpu, i can't take it past 210MHz without gettin errors at boot about missing or corrupt files
(my pci clock is set to auto, so it should be locked :()

markyoneandonly

08-13-05, 10:35 AM

Thats due to the on-die memory controller in your CPU that just doesnt like having 1T timings with all four dimms being controlled. The Venice, Toledo and Manschester cores made it possible for people to be able to garantee all four dimm slots to be filled with DDR400+ while using 2T timings. Next generation CPUs will again improve on the memory controller making 1T timings a reality with all four dimms being populated.

OC-Master
can i ask you about your system i have just recently built a system similar to yours an athlon 3700+ san diego core,an a8n sli-deluxe mobo,2x512 corsair ddr550 xms,thermalrite xp 120 with 120 uv fan,two 73gig raptors(that are setup in a jbod configuration because me mobo wouldnt recognise them as SATAs).i am running bios revision 1007.dunno if its the latest one or wot.
Me problem is me graphics cards running them in sli i have two inno3d 6800 gt,s mmmmmmmmm i know but i cant get them two to run together.
firstly the computer does,nt recognise the pci bridge. :eh?:
Or i thought it was probably the bios,s didnt match on me cards. :rolleyes:
Now call me a dumb ass but how do i flash the cards bios,i,ve downloaded nvflash onto a bootup disk,rebooted with disk in a command prompt screen appears and do you think any of a combination of different commands will not work and now i am at me wits end :bang head check this site is all i did do you know of an easier way?http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/34
And as i am quite a newbie to overclocking memory timings could you point me in the right direction?
I know it seems like "hey who,s this guy bombarding me with questions" and any advice you might give should be paid for in pound sterling but as you can guess i spent a lot of time and money into building this in my eyes a pretty damn good system to run in sli and now i cant :shrug:
Dissapointed is an understatement and throwing the poxy thing is,i know a little excessive so please if you could find it in your heart please ease me of my burden and sort me @"**ing rig out.
These 6800gt,s have got heat me up as much as you can written all over them...lol sorry now i,m ranting...

OC-Master

08-14-05, 09:43 PM

can i ask you about your system i have just recently built a system similar to yours an athlon 3700+ san diego core,an a8n sli-deluxe mobo,2x512 corsair ddr550 xms,thermalrite xp 120 with 120 uv fan,two 73gig raptors(that are setup in a jbod configuration because me mobo wouldnt recognise them as SATAs).i am running bios revision 1007.dunno if its the latest one or wot.
Me problem is me graphics cards running them in sli i have two inno3d 6800 gt,s mmmmmmmmm i know but i cant get them two to run together.
firstly the computer does,nt recognise the pci bridge. :eh?:
Or i thought it was probably the bios,s didnt match on me cards. :rolleyes:
Now call me a dumb ass but how do i flash the cards bios,i,ve downloaded nvflash onto a bootup disk,rebooted with disk in a command prompt screen appears and do you think any of a combination of different commands will not work and now i am at me wits end :bang head check this site is all i did do you know of an easier way?http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/34
And as i am quite a newbie to overclocking memory timings could you point me in the right direction?
I know it seems like "hey who,s this guy bombarding me with questions" and any advice you might give should be paid for in pound sterling but as you can guess i spent a lot of time and money into building this in my eyes a pretty damn good system to run in sli and now i cant :shrug:
Dissapointed is an understatement and throwing the poxy thing is,i know a little excessive so please if you could find it in your heart please ease me of my burden and sort me @"**ing rig out.
These 6800gt,s have got heat me up as much as you can written all over them...lol sorry now i,m ranting...

You will most likely have to RMA them. In most cases, the GeForce card with the newer bios will also sport a newer physical modification which will make for some horrible side effects after you've flash the card with the older bios up to the bios of the newer card.

I've ran into this problem my self awhile back and so did one of Kektex's friends who has the BFG 6600GT. He installed everything and SLI wasnt selectable due to a slight difference between the two cards.

Its a mistake that is made frequently with all computer hardware outlets because of the lack of knowledge with SLI and GeForce6/7 technology.

OC-Master

LoneWolf121188

08-15-05, 01:29 AM

still waiting for da Master's verdict on 1013 final :D .

markyoneandonly

08-15-05, 05:45 AM

You will most likely have to RMA them. In most cases, the GeForce card with the newer bios will also sport a newer physical modification which will make for some horrible side effects after you've flash the card with the older bios up to the bios of the newer card.

I've ran into this problem my self awhile back and so did one of Kektex's friends who has the BFG 6600GT. He installed everything and SLI wasnt selectable due to a slight difference between the two cards.

Its a mistake that is made frequently with all computer hardware outlets because of the lack of knowledge with SLI and GeForce6/7 technology.

OC-Master
thanx now i,m gutted.....anyhow i,ll just go and get a 7800gtx and upgrade to two of them when i win the lottery.

///M3

08-15-05, 09:12 AM

You will most likely have to RMA them. In most cases, the GeForce card with the newer bios will also sport a newer physical modification which will make for some horrible side effects after you've flash the card with the older bios up to the bios of the newer card.

I've ran into this problem my self awhile back and so did one of Kektex's friends who has the BFG 6600GT. He installed everything and SLI wasnt selectable due to a slight difference between the two cards.

Its a mistake that is made frequently with all computer hardware outlets because of the lack of knowledge with SLI and GeForce6/7 technology.

OC-Master
I had the "SLI not selectable" problem with my two eVGA 6600 GT cards. Contacted their support, they emailed me the latest bios, removed second card and flashed each one at a time, put them both back in and SLI was enabled. Been working fine.

LoneWolf121188

08-15-05, 12:07 PM

I had the "SLI not selectable" problem with my two eVGA 6600 GT cards. Contacted their support, they emailed me the latest bios, removed second card and flashed each one at a time, put them both back in and SLI was enabled. Been working fine.
Thats what I did with my XFXs too, though I had to go get the tools and BIOS myself.

jasovanni

08-16-05, 11:31 AM

OK,

So now that my system is up and running I'm looking at about 2.2 ghz out of my 3000+ winchester. At about 40c with 1.39 vcore. (have yet to stress test, but play hl2 and battlefield 2 no prob.) Thats at 240fsb...not bad.....my memory is crap value brand 1 gig 2x512 and timings are crap. SO, my theory here is its time for some corsair.....

Question:

Would you reccomend low latency 2-2-2-5 pc3200, or 3-4-4-8 pc4400????

J

///M3

08-16-05, 12:01 PM

Since I updated the chipset to v6.65 and then installed BIOS v1013 (vice 1011) I will get a crash in Battlefield 2 and on reboot my SATA Raptor boot drive appears to have lost ability to boot. So I run the WDC diag floppy and it checks out fine, no errors, and on reboot it boots up just fine. This is strange and I wanted to know if anyone else was having similar issues since installing the the new chipset and BIOS software. There have been no other hardware or software changes in the machine.

number 138

08-16-05, 10:24 PM

ckiraly

08-17-05, 08:02 PM

All,

I had the same crash and found that it's a problem between Creative drivers, anti-virus software and the raidservice app. I downloaded DELAYRUN and used it to delay the startup of raidservice. Voila! No more problems. It seems that a combination of those 3 things loading at or near the same time crash raidservice. Try DELAYRUN, just Google for it.

ck

///M3

08-17-05, 08:12 PM

Well, I went back to Chipset ver. 6.31 and BIOS 1011. So far BF2 runs with no crashes. Go figure.

xfxlover

08-17-05, 08:30 PM

i have my asus a8n-sli, and i msut say i am impressed but, and it a big but, i have ocz bh-5 and i know that the ram wobnt shine unless huge amounts of voltage is running thru its pcb, so do i a) volt mod it to 3.3volts or do i b)buy a dfi sli-dr ,

if i do the vdimm volt mod, do i connect a wire from teh atx 3.3v to the vdimm cap? as the linkj didnt explain much only showed pics (i have posted in teh forum)

atm i know my cpu can do 2.922 ghz but and its a big but, my clawhammer i had before wouldnt be stable over 2.640ghz no matter hgow much voltage i pumped thru it, and it was dd tdx wc aswell, would not become stable past 2.640ghz, i have noticed this with my san deigo aswell but i can get the cpu upto 2.922ghz prime it for an hour and it will pass super pi 32m, but an hour prime isnt good enough for me, also since updating to bios 1010 i can only supply 1.550v-core to my cpu but i could supply 1.650 with my clawhammer, and before you say revert back to a previous bios i refuse, as 1)it becomes unstable when overclocking even at low frequencys 2)i cant run my ram at 2-2-2-5at ddr400 with a divider

but if i get a dfi ski dr mobo, will my cpu become more stable at higher freqencys as ill be able to supply more vcore 1.7 i think and i know ill be able to make my ocz gold bh-5 shine because it supplys alot of voltage and it has the option to supply 4vdimm+

any advice would help alot

GPCOLA

08-19-05, 02:13 PM

I have had problems with the newer BIOS's. Anything after 1008 causes BSOD after POST. I updated to the 6.66 chipset drivers before trying a BIOS update. I tried 10 or 11 and 12 a few weeks ago, and last night I tried 13 and all had the same problem. I tried awdflash 1.1 and Asus update. :bang head

Had the same problem with my a8n-sli premium - turns out the firmware for my DVD burner needed updating. I think this is a common problem.

number 138

08-19-05, 07:01 PM

Had the same problem with my a8n-sli premium - turns out the firmware for my DVD burner needed updating. I think this is a common problem.

No go. I updated firware for CD-R and DVD+/-R, flashed BIOS 1013, couldn't boot into windows. :bang head

Pyr0

08-20-05, 09:57 AM

i've just noticed that with the 1013 bios, the voltage selection has been handicapped again :mad:

i'm not sure if it's just for the X2 chips, but the options available only go up to 1.45v but the highest voltage i can get on the chip is 1.376v
(as reported by the bios, CPU-z, and Ai booster)

@ LoneWolf - are you still using 1012.001 ?

edit:
also, can anyone advise me how i could be able to run the memory 1:1 with the fsb?
i have DDR500 memory, but at 1:1 i can only reach 209MHz.

previously, i couldn't boot with the memory at DDR333, but now i can :shrug:
so i'm running @2454 with the fsb at 245.4 and a cpu multi of 10 @1.376v (45ºC after 12 hours of 2x folding@home)
but my memory is only running at 204.5MHz, 2.0-4-4-7, 2T, 2.8v

Pyr0

08-20-05, 06:16 PM

one last thing...
Straight from AMD Spec sheet;

Winchester/NewCastle CPUs while having all four dimm slots populated can handle an average maximum of 333MHz 2T. Some Winchesters have more stable memory controllers than others so some people may hit 400MHz with 2T and have stability.

To achieve 1T timings with stock 400MHz DDR400 speeds and all four dimms populated, you need to have a Venice/Sandiago, Manchester or Toledo CPU to do the job. This is why AMD improved the memory controller in the Venice stepping CPUs.

OC-Master

then on the same page:

Thats due to the on-die memory controller in your CPU that just doesnt like having 1T timings with all four dimms being controlled. The Venice, Toledo and Manschester cores made it possible for people to be able to garantee all four dimm slots to be filled with DDR400+ while using 2T timings. Next generation CPUs will again improve on the memory controller making 1T timings a reality with all four dimms being populated.

OC-Master

this second one was a reply to my question about running my X2 with 4 dimms

so do you think that it could just be the motherboard again, (after the failing to go beyond 250MHz at 1T) since the AMD spec sheet states that the new cores will run 4 dimms at DDR400 and 1T
i'm sure i've seen people using all 4 dimms at 1T
and people with other brands are able to run their memory 1:1 while overclocking their X2's

LoneWolf121188

08-20-05, 06:48 PM

i've just noticed that with the 1013 bios, the voltage selection has been handicapped again :mad:

i'm not sure if it's just for the X2 chips, but the options available only go up to 1.45v but the highest voltage i can get on the chip is 1.376v
(as reported by the bios, CPU-z, and Ai booster)

@ LoneWolf - are you still using 1012.001 ?

I am indeed. I was actually just about to flash to 1013 final, until I read this. With 1.55 cvore in BIOS, CPUz is reporting ~1.5 vcore. not the best, but its better than 1.376! I think I'll stay with this BIOS for a bit longer until Asus gets this bug sorted out.

Pyr0

08-20-05, 10:07 PM

is there any chance some kind person could post a 1012.001 bin file on rapidshare (or somewhere :shrug: )pleeeeease

i tried downloading the 1012sd01.zip from here:
http://www.lejabeach.com/ASUS/A8N-SLI_D/a8nslidbios.html
and extracting the binfile to put on a cd/rw, but when i came to flash, it told me
"the file size does not match."
so i opted not to flash :P
it was after this that i noticed this bin file is only 128KB, whereas the bin files are usually 512KB

i've been searching (and still am searching) for a real version, so can someone please give me a link to a working copy
thanks in advance
-P

EDIT: Thank You to Theo and MarkyC

MarkyC gave me this link:
http://www.winks.ca/files/drivers/

and Theo emailed me the bios image

thanks guys :)

OC-Master

08-22-05, 01:16 PM

one last thing...

then on the same page:

this second one was a reply to my question about running my X2 with 4 dimms

so do you think that it could just be the motherboard again, (after the failing to go beyond 250MHz at 1T) since the AMD spec sheet states that the new cores will run 4 dimms at DDR400 and 1T
i'm sure i've seen people using all 4 dimms at 1T
and people with other brands are able to run their memory 1:1 while overclocking their X2's

Possibly but I also know people who just could not get the 1T working at all with 4 dimms installed at once. Its something to do with the on-die memory controller that is causing the instability. If you do luck out and get all 4 dimms working with 1T timings, the motherboard will most likely be your next bottleneck capping somewhere around 240~250.

OC-Master

dangel

08-23-05, 05:14 AM

Enabling 1T on my system results in a pass in memtest but crashes/lockups in games after a few minutes. 2T seems fine... dispair.
I haven't even overclocked this thing yet and i can't get it to run at stock :(

zippyg

08-23-05, 03:12 PM

Chief_Drunk

08-24-05, 01:13 PM

OK i know this is all about overclocking etc but I cant believe some of the effort you guys go to to get a few% increase in benchmark results. Mine will clock to about 2.7Ghz from 2.2 standard which aint bad in my book. I dont know about X2s but in general ive read they aint good for overclocking but no doubt ya could get another 10% overclock/2fps with a DFI. Maybe ya should just look at yaself in the first place and thought instead of binning one mobo only to buy another you should have purchased a faster cpu in the first place.

Edit: sorry to the guy running at stock didnt notice that.

LoneWolf121188

08-24-05, 01:27 PM

1t is just simply out of the question on this board no matter how good the memory is. with that said. do like i am doing and get rid of this mobo asap. im doing a system build for a friend that does not overclock,so it will be fine for him. just my 2 pennies.out
1T is not out of the question. 1T at high speed with over 1GB or more than 2 sticks is out of the question. I have my ram running at just under 200MHz and 2-3-2-7 and can run 1T just fine.

Cheif_Drunk: The cost difference between the A8N-SLI and the DFI is far less than the difference between a 3000/3200/3500 and an FX ;) .

And the X2s are not bad for OCing at all. Any CPU that can do 2.4GHz with 1.3 volts is a good OCer, and remember, I basically have two FX55s in my rig for only $600, vs $1800. Sounds like a good OC to me!

Chief_Drunk

08-24-05, 01:39 PM

Cheif_Drunk: The cost difference between the A8N-SLI and the DFI is far less than the difference between a 3000/3200/3500 and an FX

I wasnt really refering to cost. More performance. Go play ya latest high end game and tell me the amazing difference. Or go rip ya latest dvd and tell me the difference. It just aint worth the effort to replace a mobo for a few % difference....

Edit : i was refering to the cost difference of trashing/reselling the asus then buying the DFI. Think they cost about a tenner difference new anyway...

LoneWolf121188

08-24-05, 03:47 PM

What effort? Don't tell me you dont think opening new hardware, installing it, etc isn't fun!

Pyr0

08-25-05, 01:11 AM

What effort? Don't tell me you dont think opening new hardware, installing it, etc isn't fun!
exactly :)
doesn't everyone love getting new toys ;)

and this is an overclocking forum (last time i checked)
i'm seriously thinking of going to DFI, but i'm not going to trash or resell the asus. I'll give that (and my winchester 3000) to someone i know who doesn't overclock

-P

LoneWolf121188

08-25-05, 01:24 AM

I'll take it!!!

dangel

08-25-05, 04:28 AM

I dont know about X2s but in general ive read they aint good for overclocking but no doubt ya could get another 10% overclock/2fps with a DFI. .

The 3800X2 is a very GOOD overclocker as the extra core adds just a few watts in extra power so it runs nice and cool, like most A64s :) 2.4 is easily achievable and 2.7+ has been done in some reviews already - not bad, for a dual core!

Chief_Drunk

08-25-05, 01:06 PM

I dont know about X2s but in general ive read they aint good for overclocking
OK im wrong.
Forgive me.

But barin that I wish I had teh dollar and wish to buy a new motherboard for a few % more performance :/

MethanolMan

08-27-05, 11:41 AM

Im using 1011-001 and when i tried to use the 666 chip set all i got was windows would load to my desk top and then reboat back to my desk top and over and over again lol so i put the 653 back in. what is the best bios for me whit the 1011-001 I have no problems but it does not over clock well im using the 14 multyplyer and htt at 201 for 2814 stable. with memory at 2225 1 gig

1911

08-27-05, 09:17 PM

I just upgraded from BIOS v1008 to v1013. Although everything seems to be running fine, I still don't see any feature in the BIOS to change the Graphic Aperture size.

Is it there and I just am not seeing it?

Thanks.

Pyr0

08-28-05, 12:40 PM

i think that's just for agp ports :shrug

Rodman

08-31-05, 08:13 PM

OC-Master

09-10-05, 01:22 AM

I have some questions...
First off, how the hell do you know what bios you are using? I see nothing wile in bios. What does 1011-001 bios mean, is there a 1011-002?

Peg Link Mode?

ACPI suspend type? what do the s3 and such mean?

PCI clock sync? Auto or what?

S/W dram over 4GB remapping? disable?

Once I figure out what these mean I will be good :)

Peg Link Mode?
This relates to PCI-Express protocal and in sence can allow the user to manually overclock the video(s) card from in the system bios. Its best to leave this option disabled or on AUTO if your not sure. No biggy.

ACPI suspend type? what do the s3 and such mean?
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface which S3 is a standard that is used in a broad range of computers. Most people use S3 wit ATX cases/PSUs.

PCI clock sync? Auto or what?
This prevents the PCI internal clock from exceeding 33.3MHz which if exceeded could corrupt hard drives or BSOD your machine depending on the overclock. With bios 1004 final or newer you should be just fine on AUTO or set to 33.3MHz.

S/W dram over 4GB remapping? disable?
For PCs with 4GB of ram installed or more. Enable or disable, mostl likely wont effect your setup. Untill 2GB DDR dimms become available which I'm already starting to doubt with DDR2 becoming more of a standard, this remapping option is feeling more and more useless everyday.

OC-Master

Rodman

09-10-05, 04:31 PM

Thanx, very helpfull :) However I now have a DFI N4 UltraD, talk about questions :p

colortheory

09-10-05, 09:47 PM

First time OC'er here. This thread has been an awesome resource. Maybe one of you OC gurus can help me out. I'm running:

Athlon 64 X2 4200+
Asus A8N-SLI Premium (BIOS 1008-001)
Corsair TWINX2048-3200C2 (two 1GB sticks) at 2.5-3-3-6, 1T
SeaSonic 430 PSU
Ninja Scythe passive CPU cooler
Antec P180 case
2 Seagate SpinSonic 200 GB SATA HDs

The problem is that I can't get the HTT past 227 without causing errors in Prime95. I've tried upping the CPU voltage from 1.3 to 1.45, which brings the CPU temp up to 60 at full load. I'm scared to go past that. I tried giving the RAM 2.8 volts instead of 2.75, but it didn't make a difference. I've also tried the HT at Auto (puts it at 3x) and at 4x - no difference. Tried the RAM at 2T - no difference. Cool n Quiet is disabled.

Should I be happy with 2.5 GHz? I only lusted for more after reading the AnandTech article where they easily got it to 2.64 GHz with 1.45 volts at 245x11, Auto HT. I understand my milage may vary, but I can't get anywhere near that with the same settings.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Brian.

colortheory

09-11-05, 12:50 AM

I really thought this would work:

HTT230, HT4x, CPU 1.45v, 2.5-4-3-7, 1T @ 2.8v

Still no go. BSoD after booting into XP. Any ideas? I've read that people are taking the 3800+ way past this speed, so I feel like I must be doing something wrong.

hotrod469

09-11-05, 01:02 AM

I also can not get past 227 even at 1.55V, 2.95V ram 3-5-5-10. I have tried 2 CPUs and 2 sets of ram. I think it's the MB

Rodman

09-11-05, 07:07 PM

Could be the bios, you should be using at least 1011 :) My ASUS did a very good job of overclocking I could hit 280fsb 1-1@1T timings. Pushed my winnie as far as it will go as the DFI can do no better so far. The asus puts up killer Benchmark#s as well matching my DFI. If the DFI gives me any crap I would get a ASUS A8N SLI DELUXE in a second :p

colortheory

09-11-05, 10:32 PM

Actually I'm on the very latest BIOS - they're numbered differently on the Premium version of the mobo. I suspect hotrod469 is right. What are the odds of 3 CPUs hitting the wall at exactly 227 with such extreme voltages and conservative RAM timings?

Today I tested for stability. I ran memtest through the night with no problems. I'm running 227 at 1.35v, HT 4x, RAM at 2.5-3-3-6 1T at 2.75v. If I lower the CPU voltage a step, it fails Prime95. If I raise the HTT a step, it fails, no matter what the voltage. Even this config failed after 6 hours of Prime95. I suppose that's stable enough, but I'm tempted to just drop it back to 218 at 1.3v, which I know is stable.

hotrod469

09-12-05, 12:16 AM

I have tried BIOS 1004~1013. 1013 overclocks the same as 1007 except 1013 will not let the system turn off even with 6.66 drivers.

colortheory

09-13-05, 04:43 PM

I still can't reliably get past 227, but I discovered an interesting wrinkle. I get significantly higher scores on the PC Pitstop diagnostic tests with the HT at 3x rather than 4x. This held true at HTT227 and 230. Maybe we're oversaturating the HT bus? That said, even at 3x, I can't get a stable 230.

Rodman

09-13-05, 06:29 PM

Just RMA the thing...Better yet get a DFI :p

colortheory

09-14-05, 03:33 PM

With the latest 1008-003 BIOS (remember, I'm on the Premium version), I'm able to do 240 with 1.45v at HT3x. I need to tighten up the RAM speed though. Right now it's set on Auto, which has very loose timings. The default timings appear to be looser than the last BIOS. I'm not sure if the timings are making the difference, or if it's the BIOS itself. Next I'm going to see if I can manage 236 with 1.4v, because 1.45 is too hot (64C under load). I'd be very happy to get manage a stable 2.6 GHz.

wiFFy

09-18-05, 05:07 PM

Originally posted by emzo on another forum

You can flash a nondelux mobo with deluxe bios.
Just download the latest at this moment beta 1005.005 and AWFL109.EXE.
You have to use the new awfl09.exe with the /QI switch.
Thean remember to disable MARVELL LAN,SILICON IMAGE SATA and SPEECH REPORTING.
With the nondeluxe 1002.003 - max HTT 1:1 - 282, with deluxe 1005.005 - 325 HTT 1:1

Its an old post, so don't mind the bios versions. But will that work? Has anyone actually TESTED it? My Asus a8n-sli drops dead when htt hits 304. Im just wondering will this help? If it works, how are you supposed to disable those settings? Should I somehow edit them before flashing, or just simply disable them after the flashing, before I go to windows?

friendly1

09-19-05, 06:08 AM

I installed zalman nb47j on chipset 2 months ago (with 5cm cooler which is bigger than nb47) but I didn`t overclocked my winnie - since today. I found that switching from stock`n noisy cooler to much biger and heavier zalman transposed to an extra +155 o/c MHz. In my case it is stable 2550 MHz (max. 2633MHz, 1T, DDR400) and of course with 1T and DDR400 1:1 (was 2400MHz, DDR333, 1T; max. 2497 but very unstable). I should point that I`m still with 1006 bios.
What`s interesting I'm sure vcore[1.6V] is now 'the bottleneck'. I`m pretty sure If I could rise vcore above 1.600[V] i could reach 2700MHz. So what I`ve changed:

stock driller --> zalman nb47j w/active cooling (even then nf4 was noticeably hot, much more than anything in my box, then even hotter (really) when I o/c`ed cpu. I really don`t know how this chipset could work all this time)

bios:
vcore 1,55[V]
htt[x3,x4 => max. o/c`s was exactly the same]

mem:

Command Rate [1T]
2.5 3 3 10 [CAS, ..., ..., tRAS]
DDR400 [1:1]
vdimm 3.0 [V]

I`ve reached 10x263HTT = 2630MHz max. (mem 263MHz = 526DDR). Stable 2550MHz (10x255HTT)
The vcore[V] bounced between 1.568[V] and 1.600[V] (1st:set 1.550[V] in bios then 2nd: 1.550[V] in clockgen; 2nd: resulted in rise from 1.55)
Because I`m changing my WC all I have done was with stock CPU cooler (with all remaining thermal grease on bottom of it, when I used this cooler first time :)
***
I think part of that o/c score played vdimm set to 3.0V in bios, because i`ve never tried more than 2.75v (i used ram diver ddr333 or ddr266 to keep my ram at specs, so why?). Maybe there is something (or lack of it) between ram dimms and cpu (or mem controller in it). Rising vdimm to 3.0V results rinsing in.. what?? Maybe that`s the main difference between dfi and our mobos? Anyway I`m thinking about vcore/ vdimm mod now. Comments pls!

aszaultz

10-05-05, 11:28 PM

Here new Bios for A8N-SLI Deluxe. It Beta version Beta Version 1015.001 http://www.asus.com.cn/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI Deluxe/1015-001.zip

renegade44

10-06-05, 02:13 AM

Here new Bios for A8N-SLI Deluxe. It Beta version Beta Version 1015.001 http://www.asus.com.cn/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI Deluxe/1015-001.zip

Linky no workee

with slash before deluxe and no slash either

koontz946

10-06-05, 02:22 AM

it should read:

http://www.asus.com.cn/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/1015-001.zip

*edit* well since it shortened it... whenever there's a space in a URL it should be replaced with "%20"

renegade44

10-06-05, 02:28 AM

it should read:

http://www.asus.com.cn/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/1015-001.zip

*edit* well since it shortened it... whenever there's a space in a URL it should be replaced with "%20"

WORKEE, WORKEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

renegade44

10-06-05, 09:47 AM

Well I don't see a difference. If there is a revision sheet I bet its still in Chinese since the download is based in the ASUS chinese website. The ZIP file was the BIoS BIN file only

My Kingston 2X512MB HyperX PC3500 (DDR433) is still at 158MHZ CPU-Z or DDR266 in the BIOS spash screen

Thinking about selling it for some type of TCCD chip. The HyperX I have is CH-5 not BH-5

cruzmisl

10-08-05, 09:26 AM

I have an A8N-SLI Premium board running an Athlon 64 3700 SanDiego, and OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2 1GB (2 x 512MB) 2-2-2-5 memory.

I want to try and get the max performance but I am not that great with this stuff (OK I suck)

Anyway, my bios is currently rev. 1007 according to Asus probe. After reading I am unsure if I should update the Nvidia drivers to 6.66 and unsure which bios to run. I presume all these installs are standard execute files with no special considerations?

Thanks a ton and any other advice or simple changes necessary?

Thanks again,
Cruz.

kovboi

10-08-05, 10:54 AM

Anyway, my bios is currently rev. 1007 according to Asus probe. After reading I am unsure if I should update the Nvidia drivers to 6.66 and unsure which bios to run. I presume all these installs are standard execute files with no special considerations?

Nice rig! :) You should definitely update your chipset drivers to version 6.66. Uninstall you existing drivers first through the windows control panel, then reboot into safe mode. If any dialog boxes pop up and prompt you to install drivers for newly found devices, just click "cancel." Use Driver Cleaner Pro (http://www.drivercleaner.net/) to clear out any remnants of your old nforce drivers. Reboot normally into windows. Again, click "cancel" if windows prompts you to install new device drivers. To install the 6.66 drivers, just double-click on the file.

As for the bios, 1007 is the latest official bios for the Premium. There are two beta bios on asus's site (1008.003, 1009.001), but no descriptions for either. If you're going to try overclocking, I've heard (unsubstantiated) claims elsewhere that 1006 is better than 1007. Anyone else have any firsthand experience to support that?

cruzmisl

10-08-05, 12:16 PM

Is the driver I want to uninstall the NVIDIA network bus enumerator under control panel/system/devices? Just want to be sure I am deleting the right thing. Alternatively is it under the add/remove programs? If it is the latter do I want to remove all Nvidia drivers (using ATI VC)?

Thanks!

kovboi

10-08-05, 10:49 PM

netlaw1

10-10-05, 03:46 PM

Has anyone tried BIOS 1014 (final) it's on the USA website. I haven't tried it and will wait for the input of the real AsusMasters.

Pyr0

10-10-05, 03:52 PM

i was just wondering the same thing :D
what about the 1015.001 bios?

anyone?

OC-Master

10-11-05, 01:07 AM

Faq updated to relate to two new bios updates for the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe.

OC-Master

LoneWolf121188

10-11-05, 09:21 AM

Has anyone tried BIOS 1014 (final) it's on the USA website. I haven't tried it and will wait for the input of the real AsusMasters.
same here.

Pyr0

10-19-05, 09:46 AM

no results yet?
i guess nobody likes to test the new stuff anymore

///M3

10-19-05, 10:03 AM

no results yet?
i guess nobody likes to test the new stuff anymore
Isn't it only for dual-core processors? Probably not many people here have the need for it yet.

Pyr0

10-19-05, 11:56 AM

1015.005 was released today for the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe 10/19/05.

ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/socket9...xe/1015-005.zip

(Unknown changes.)

1009.004 was released today for the ASUS A8N SLI Premium 10/19/05.

ftp://ftp.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/...um/1009-004.zip

(Unknown changes.)

OC-Master

10-20-05, 10:14 PM

no results yet?
i guess nobody likes to test the new stuff anymore

Faq updated to relate to the release of Bios 1015-005.

Thanks Pyr0 for pointing out bios 1015-005 to me. I have tested bios 1014 and bios 1015-001 fully now and bios 1015-001 suffers from some strange memory issues on my system.

After flashing to bios 1015-005, I've gotten my overclock back and things seem like they did before with bios 1013 and 1014.

OC-Master

RangerDave

10-21-05, 12:41 AM

i upgraded to bios 1014 and i put in my memory setitngs which seemed to work before... (i upgraded from 1006). and the things i left on auto where not auto any more =/ so i left them as they where but put in all the other info. when i went to 270 fsb @ 2t it rebooted... which before worked fine and then i tried 250 and my screen was flickering... i then rebooted and i couldn't get into windows... now anytime i have one of my 250 gb hooked up i get this bsod of irq less or equal and ntfs something. but w/o the hd hooked up i can get in no problem... this WAS my main one till it corrupted to hell. and i cant do anything with windows or windows install when having this drive hooked up. is it a total loss and i gotta return it? or is there some way i can retrieve some data (i had 2 partitions and im thinking the second on just holding music survived). has this happened before to anyone? btw its an sat western digital 250 gb wd2500jd

swindelljd

10-21-05, 09:20 AM

OC-Master, did you check the max cpu voltage on any of these newer BIOSes? Does it still seem restricted?

John

MethanolMan

10-22-05, 08:42 AM

Im using 1101 I belive and if i go to the new bios what chip set do i need to dl first. The last time i tried to change to the 665 from the 653 i got big problems so what order do i need to do this and how can i with out crashing my system.

OC-Master

10-22-05, 10:13 PM

OC-Master, did you check the max cpu voltage on any of these newer BIOSes? Does it still seem restricted?

John

Because my motherboard is volt modded, I am unable to test this result from the new bioses that are coming out. My voltage is always stuck at 1.68v no matter what selection I make in the bios.

OC-Master

renegade44

10-23-05, 12:02 AM

OC-Master, did you check the max cpu voltage on any of these newer BIOSes? Does it still seem restricted?

John

1014 and 1015.001 are still limited at 1.55vdc

swindelljd

10-23-05, 11:12 PM

1014 and 1015.001 are still limited at 1.55vdc

Thanks!

BTW that's quite a bit of disk (1.5TB) you have. Do you do video editing?

John

renegade44

10-25-05, 02:25 AM

Thanks!

BTW that's quite a bit of disk (1.5TB) you have. Do you do video editing?

John

Naw I just have a lot of stolen movies ;-)

kjax

10-26-05, 09:33 AM

Bah- something wrong with the rice in Taiwan.

Have A8N-SLI that shipped with 1011. Corrupted that with crazy memory timings, and had to get another chip (nothing to flash with). Had it programmed with 1012. Hotflashed my corrupted chip w/ 1012. Sandra memory benchmarks royally sucked with 1012, so I put on 1013-002. Benchmarks better, *and* the HTT setting was correct. Great. Loaded 1013-004. Memory benchmark took slight hit, and HTT bug back. Argh. Box is for someone else... I don't have time for this... why can't they just come up with a decent BIOS for this board?

Wish it were possible to get more Vcore with BIOS settings- I think this San Diego would go faster. Can clock it to just under 2900Mhz... but then it gets flaky after that. 260x11x4 is about all it can do reliably. I'd bet a bump in Vcore would let it go 2.9Ghz+ pretty easy. And wow does the stock cooler suck with an overclocked chip. The memory I have is definitely not 1T CR material, so I think I've got some fairly decent numbers going... would be nice to see a decent bios come out.

friendly1

11-06-05, 09:44 PM

New BIOS v1015 is OUT (http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us)

1. Support new CPUs. Please refer to our website at: http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx
2. Fix unstable under 400MHz-Single channel issue.
3. Modify DDR max speed from 400MHz to 333Hz when full loading.

#3 - What da hell this mean?? :argue:

aszaultz

11-08-05, 01:22 AM

A8N-SLI Deluxe Bios version 1015 Final

OC-Master

11-10-05, 02:28 PM

faq updated due to the release of Bios 1015 final.

OC-Master

DarkDraco

11-10-05, 04:04 PM

1015 killed my motherboard. RMAing it with asus since its still under warranty

night8jim

11-10-05, 05:54 PM

Is 1004.001 beta still the best overclocking BIOS, i am currently running 1012

Leonardi

11-10-05, 07:23 PM

I have this processor coming my way: AMD Athlon 64 4000+ rev. E4 (San Diego core), as seen here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103529

I plan to purchase a motherboard from Asus, and this one seemed very interesting because of the fanless design, Asus A8N-SLI Premium:

http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=539&l1=3&l2=15&l3=0

The Asus website says that it supports several different processors, but doesn't specifically says that the one I mentioned (AMD Athlon 64 4000+ rev. E4, San Diego core) is supported.

The list of supported processors for the motherboard is here:

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=A8N-SLI%20Premium

As you can see, they mention the FX processors and even newer ones, like dual-core processors, but not the one I mentioned.

HOWEVER, I have read somewhere that this processor is similar/nearly the same as the former FX-53/FX 55, which means it would work on this motherboard.

It also seems strange to me that the motherboard with work with newer processors and not this one.

I e-mailed ASUS but I don't really expect a realible answer anytime soon, so if anyone can tell me whether or not this motherboard + this processor work together, please do so.

friendly1

11-10-05, 09:30 PM

hey Leonardi read this:

http://www.anandtech.com
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2589

hotrod469

11-10-05, 10:39 PM

Hay DarkDraco you are not the only one, 1014 killed my board. Had to RMA also! It F-ing sux!!!!!!!!!!

Elbereth

11-12-05, 06:20 PM

Was trying to overclock using 1013 with very small luck... The VCore on my 4400+ would not go further than 1.35V even if I was setting it to other values in the BIOS. Achieved 220Mhz HTT with that (2.4Ghz).

With BIOS 1015 the VCore lock is gone. I can go through 1.45V (no greater other values in the bios). But with that setting my CPU will not go higher than 230Mhz HTT. Anyway, it was just to state that the VCore lock is now higher with 1015 compared to 1013 on a X2 4400+.

Gregz

11-15-05, 03:56 PM

I'm pretty bothered by this 1T vs 2T timing issue. I'm about to spend $300 on a watercooling rig so I want to make sure I'll see benefits from it. Does anyone know if I'll be suffering from the 2T limitation with the setup in my sig?

Note: 4 X 512 (all four slots populated) + A8N-SLI Deluxe

///M3

11-16-05, 02:15 PM

LoneWolf121188

11-16-05, 07:21 PM

^^ I think you're right.

OC-Master

11-17-05, 06:26 PM

It is my understanding that 1T is only possible with 2 x 512 or 2 x 1024. When all 4 memory sockets are filled only 2T will work due to limitations in the memory controller. Someone correct me if I'm mistaken.

Correct!

This is not ASUS's issue but rather AMD's. Most people who have 4 sticks of ram know that running 1T is impossible unless you drop your frequency to 333MHz (166) or less.

http://www.dangeo.com/proddetail.php?sku=52222

If you want 2GB of ram and you are a serious overclocker, this is the best ram out there . Most people who own this stuff get it to 550MHz 2.5-4-4-8-2T with the A8N-SLI Deluxe or 1T with the DFI-SLI. I dont think any other ram gets you anywhere even near 550MHz with 2GB kits, correct me if I'm wrong.

OC-Master

swindelljd

11-29-05, 12:52 PM

Has anyone who is using the NVIDIA PATA or SATA drivers for XP-32 and been able to update to 6.65?

I want to update to BIOS 1015 in advance of buying an X2 but am concerned it will cause me to have to reinstall the OS to do so. Also I have a feeling I really have only one chance to get this right.

Currently my config is
2 x PATA (channel 0 master/channel 1 slave) on NVIDIA in RAID 1 for XP-32 OS
2 x SATA on NVIDIA in RAID 1 for data drives.

Aside from scaling back all my OC settings to defaults, any tips on how to proceed? FWIW, I have downloaded the ASUS makedisk to create a floppy with the NVIDIA drivers.

thanks,
John

-------------------------
AMD 64 3000+ oc@2.4Ghz
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
2x512MB Corsair XM3200C2PT
Leadtek nVidia 6600GT Extreme
Enermax Noisetaker 495

netlaw1

11-30-05, 10:18 PM

I had no difficulty updating to Nvidia 665 and then upgrading bios. I did this a few bios ago. I did not have to reinstall XP or anything else.

DarkDraco

12-01-05, 12:51 PM

what does someone with 1015 have to do to install windows? obviously cant install 665 before updating..

swindelljd

12-01-05, 05:33 PM

I had no difficulty updating to Nvidia 665 and then upgrading bios. I did this a few bios ago. I did not have to reinstall XP or anything else.
netlaw1, thanks for the follow-up. I take it you have your OS running on the NVIDIA controller.

DarkDraco, I'd suggest downloading the 6.65 drivers disk and use it during the install and the immediately run the full 6.65 install immediately after the base OS is loaded.

Here is a link to the driver makedisk download: ( NVIDIA chipset drivers disk for Windows 2000, Windows XP/2003 32bit and Windows XP/2003 64bit.) http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/utils/nvidia/MakeDisk_V665.zip

12/2/2005:
1) Updated to NVidia drivers 6.65
2) updated to BIOS 1015 (final). Used windows Asus Update v6.10.02. Restored my most recent OC settings

HTT = 315 @ 3x = 2.525 Ghz
Mult = 8x
VCore = 1.5375v (cpu-z reports 1.552v)
Memory = 3-3-3-8-1T @ 2.85V @ 166 mult ( cpu/12= 210Mhz )
Cool_n_Quiet = enabled
OS = XP Pro SP2 +++ 32-Bit

Everything running fine. Only odd behavior was after updating BIOS it "found new hardware" and reinstalled in Nvidia 6.65 RAID drivers.

John

gbaz

12-08-05, 09:30 AM

for some reason i cant seem to get my fsb above 270... it will not boot into windows :( my cpu is running at 10X270 at stock v-core with no problems and i think i can get it higher, but can not raise the fsb, and its max multy is 10X. any tricks to get more out of this chip set?

friendly1

12-09-05, 06:59 PM

Does anyone tried this new beta 1006.001 ?

///M3

12-09-05, 08:37 PM

Typo I think--says in the description it is Beta Bios 1016.001. I'm waiting until some brave soul tests it out and reports the results.

OC-Master

12-10-05, 02:19 AM

Faq updated to reflect the release of beta 1016-001.

OC-Master

friendly1

12-11-05, 11:41 PM

Faq updated to reflect the release of my new post :bday:

friendly1

I can be adventurous enough if asus say:
We`ll buy You a brand new DFI in case your fatal1Ty a8n-sli dlx fried up after patching with our new beta*..

*our new beta - a little program which fries up your mobos in most of cases [on th contrary to: our final version which fires up mobos only in 30% of cases]

My experience is i patched twice and my mobo died once..

but seriously - Now I think they should rename or re-brand this particular mobo with smth like: A1T-SLi Deluxe or even better A2T-SLi dlx

A year ago.

:santa: Merry Christmas, :santa: ...we love you Asus

donny_paycheck

12-16-05, 01:22 PM

I haven't read the entire thread, but is there a reason why this isn't a sticky?

DarkDraco

12-18-05, 12:09 PM

it used to be a sticky, but i guess a8n-sli deluxe is out and a8n32 is in o_O

renegade44

12-18-05, 04:13 PM

Sticky!!!

swindelljd

12-22-05, 10:09 AM

Hey I think 1016 final is on the ftp fite but not available on their web. Date on file is 12/1/2005. Haven't bothered trying it as it took me 2 months to work up the nerve to go to 1015 final. ftp://ftp.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/A8NSD016.zip

John

Zwendel

12-24-05, 07:50 AM

Just flashed to 1016 final. Everything seems to run OK.

donny_paycheck

12-24-05, 04:33 PM

Stuck.

Zwendel

12-25-05, 04:05 AM

I had the HTT 3x reverting bug in 1013 and it's still present in 1016. :-/

Merry X-mas to all. :santa2:

OC-Master

12-27-05, 04:22 PM

I had the HTT 3x reverting bug in 1013 and it's still present in 1016. :-/

Merry X-mas to all. :santa2:

This problem seems to be software related with the nForce drivers hence I havnt had it since updating to Drivers v6.69. With that said, I will post links to the latest nForce Drivers to get everyone up to par.

OC-Master

renegade44

12-28-05, 03:13 AM

Stuck.

Thank you!!!

Zwendel

12-31-05, 09:13 AM

Tried 6.70 in combination with 81.98 and the HTT bug occasionally still pops up.
6.70 also gives a serious drop in PCMark2002 so it's back to 6.66.

KillrBuckeye

12-31-05, 06:22 PM

Hello. I just got this board, and coming from an Asus A8V Deluxe, this thing seems much more difficult to overclock. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I can't boot up at 240x10 using the DDR333 (5/6) memory divider, which should put my memory at its default 200 MHz. I downloaded Clockgen, but it won't let me set my VID (is this Vcore?) higher than 1.45V. If I choose anything higher than 1.45V, the "current" value stays at 1.45V. Is this a characteristic of the motherboard? If so, why does the BIOS setup give Vcore options well above 1.50V?

I'm using the 3200+ Venice and 2x512MB Ballistix PC3200 listed in my sig. Any help would be appreciated!

EDIT: I notice in the initial post that the memory dividers don't seem to work well with Venice CPUs. Has that been confirmed by multiple users? I was running 250x10 with a 5/6 divider on my A8V Deluxe, so it will be disappointing if I can't reach that CPU speed due to a memory/divider limitation on this board.

KillrBuckeye

01-05-06, 12:45 PM

Okay after playing around a bit more, I have answered some of my own questions. The VID setting in Clockgen adjusts Vcore relative to the current BIOS setting (VID over 1.4 increases Vcore from the BIOS setting). Memory dividers are crap on this board, at least with my CPU. This confirms what OC-Master stated in the original post. This is very, very disappointing, because this CPU worked great on a 5:6 divider on my A8V Deluxe.

The good news is that I've reached 260 MHz (DDR520) on my Ballistix by running memory 1:1 with the HTT. The timings are now at 2.5-3-3-10, with 2T command of course, 2.8VDimm. I'm currently testing 265 MHz, but I don't think these sticks will go much further without a voltage bump. I haven't tried tightening the timings yet, but I'm curious to see which performs better: a lower overclock, say 240x10 (1:1), with tighter timings, or a higher overclock, say 260x10 (1:1), with the loose timings. I also haven't experimented with how high my memory/mobo can run 1T command.

Overall, I'm liking this board. However, I would be very upset right now if I didn't have memory that could OC well. Anyone with value RAM looking for a decent OC on a Venice core should definitely stay away from this board.

Kosh42|EFG

01-16-06, 11:59 AM

Just thought I'd post a thanks to all the contributors here for the info that's helped me get to my current OC.

I got the A8N SLI Deluxe to replace my A8V when I upgraded to an nVidia 7800 GT. Specs are now:

AMD64 3000+ S939 (Winchester Core)
Asus A8N SLI Deluxe (Rev A3)
XFX 7800 GT (Pre-overclocked)
4 x 512MB Corsair PC4000-C2 RAM
80 GB Seagate IDE (Baracuda I think)
120 GB Maxtor (sp?) SATA
NEC DVD-RW

So far I seem pretty stable at 280MHzx9, giving me a clock of about 2.5GHz. I've had to put V-core at 1.525V, but CPU-Z reads 1.600V or there abouts. Idles about 40C, loads about 60C.

To do this I've had to drop my memory to 266MHz (2/3) as it fails to boot any higher. Its at T2 due to the four sticks...

Any comments welcomed...

KillrBuckeye

01-16-06, 12:07 PM

So far I seem pretty stable at 280MHzx9, giving me a clock of about 2.5GHz. I've had to put V-core at 1.525V, but CPU-Z reads 1.600V or there abouts. Idles about 40C, loads about 60C.

To do this I've had to drop my memory to 266MHz (2/3) as it fails to boot any higher. Its at T2 due to the four sticks...

Any comments welcomed...If I were you, I'd be uncomfortable with those CPU temps/voltage. Asus Probe gives me idle/load temps of 25C / 33C with Vcore at ~1.52V. Unless having the absolute highest CPU clock is very important to you, why not step it back a bit and reduce the Vcore? Many people feel that A64 CPU's shouldn't run much higher than 1.55V.

Kosh42|EFG

01-17-06, 11:40 AM

May be able drop the voltage a bit as I was just playing about to get this. Stuck as it stayed stable... My RAM voltage was the main problem, but seems OK at 2.8V now...

I'm also tempted to drop the speed a bit so I can up my divider to stop it underclocking my memory... Thinking of 250 x 4 HTT...

Will play tonight to see if I can either stay with or up my 280 with a max of Vcore of 1.55V (would have to set in BIOS about 1.45V I'd guess)...

Until then, a CPU-Z dump is here (http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~kosh42/20060117cpuz.htm).

Kosh42|EFG

01-18-06, 06:05 AM

Dropped the voltage to about 1.52V and upped it to 285MHz last night... Seemed stable, but my RAM is still undercloced by 20MHz and the HTT by 145MHz...

Forgot to check my temps as I was only on for 45 minutes...

Really should start benchmarking at OCs and stock speeds to see the effects it has had...

yo4444

01-24-06, 08:59 AM

The bios's and drivers don't indicate wether they work on all A8N-SLI models or individual ones such as deluxe, or premium. I'm wonderin because I'm getting blue screens and freezes with the newest ones I found listed for the premium at the asus site. 6.65 for drivers and 1011-001 for bios.
The rest of the system is:
a8n-ali premium
4000+
evga 7800 gt
ocz 520
2x1gig pqi turbo
2x 74gig raptors raid 0
tt kandalf

Also, the SW drivers are installed.. could that be the problem?. I have them installed on my pc with 2 sata drives and it's fine, but perhaps creating conflicts on this build?

jimi_one

01-29-06, 03:43 PM

See im not getting this...if this is the post for the A8N SLI SE then why when i tried to flash with the 1016 BIOS did it say it didnt match....i have had to flash with the one from the asus website which is 0301

Can someone explain this please?

hotrod469

01-31-06, 02:50 AM

It's a post for A8N-SLI Deluxe, they use BIOS #1001~1016.

Oper8or

02-03-06, 12:26 PM

I've read this a number of times. Trying to figure out why mine wont take the newer version of bios. It finally hit me. I dont have the a8n-sli deluxe. I have the A8N32-SLI DELUXE. There is a difference. I contacted ASUS about it and the latest bios version for this board is 1009. So if your using this board do not try to update to 1016 bios that the other boards are using. Am I wrong about this? If I am please someone correct me before I do something and get someone else mixed up. :bang head

LoneWolf121188

02-03-06, 06:41 PM

The A8N32-SLI deluxe is VERY different than the A8N-SLI Deluxe. 32 PCIe lanes vs 16. IIRC, it uses both an AMD nForce4 chip and an Intel nForce4 chip to provide the 32 lanes.

Oper8or

02-04-06, 10:40 AM

"Some Breaking News
For those of you who have suffered stability issues with your board with bios 1010 or newer, ASUS has finally spoken up today on whats up..
""A8N-SLI Bios version 1010
Please do read the description before updating BIOS
To avoid damaging system, please do update the chipset driver to below version prior to this Bios.
For WinXP 32bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.65 or later
For WinXP 64bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.65 or later
For Win2k/2003 32bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.66 or later
For Win2003 64bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.66 or later ""

So there you have it. If you have the 1010~1013 series, give the newer chipset drivers a shot before doing any overclocking or even any system use for that matter.
For those of you who are curious, I found this bit of news on ASUS's download page.."

Ok, I was wondering if it makes a difference if I am using the Realtek drivers? Should I update to the nvidia ones as well? I dont seem to be having any problems at all.

LoneWolf121188

02-04-06, 05:56 PM

You could have put it in quote tags instead of in an impossible-to-read-without-highlighting color. ;)

Are you talking about the Realtek audio drivers? If so, I'd switch to the nVidia drivers, seeing as they are comprehensive (HDD, Audio, NIC, etc, plus the chipset itself).

Omega Destroyer

02-06-06, 02:57 AM

Just wanted to let everyone know about some issues I've been having with the 1015 bios.

This is a long post and you don't have to read the whole thing. All the important information has been coloured RED.

I personally don't define a computer as stable unless it can run prime for a 48 hour period. My computer was fully stable with the 1014 bios but I flashed to 1015 anyway. I didn't really test anything out, I just assumed that it would be stable. Some months later, I noticed some irratic behaviour in some of my programs (and by this time I had forgotten about the bios upgrade and was thinking that all was well with that). I attributed the problems with the CPU overheating and causing errors. There was something growing in my water cooling system so I thought it was lowering flow rate. At any rate I cleaned everything out and it was still unstable. I started lowering clocks and over a couple of weeks I had gone down to default clocks and I was still erroring out!! Eventually I remembered about the bios so I downgraded back to 1014 and the computer was stable again...but now I had other problems. Everything was running slower than normal. All my benchmarks were condsiderably lower especially my RAM bandwidth. I'm not sure what changes there were to the 1015 bios but I'm 90% sure that they screwed around with some of the RAM settings and it was causing both the instability in the 1015 bios and the slowness when I reverted to the 1014 bios. Anyway I cleared the CMOS of the 1014 bios and all my scores went back to normal!I'm guessing that since the AWFLASH doesn't reset the settings everytime you flash, some setting was transferred over from the 1015 bios that was making everything slow. Now Prime runs happily for ever even when overclocked.

If anyone else is running 1015 right now, can you check to see if you're Prime stable for at least 48 hours? My errors were mostly happening at around the 30 hour mark.

If you find your system is unstable with the 1015 bios, go back to the 1014 bios and make sure you CLEAR YOUR CMOS. The differences I'm talking about are about 700meg/s in RAM bandwidth, and PC Mark scores closer to stock speeds than overclocked speeds.

Anyway if anyone else is having the same problem, please post.

LoneWolf121188

02-06-06, 06:28 PM

Dont worry so much about Prime. I used be believer in "if it worked at stock and now it doesn't, its not stable". While it makes sense, for some reason, its not 100% true. I really dont know why, but I can tell you that while I fail Prime in less than a second (literally), I can play FEAR all day long without a hitch. Your comp only needs to be as stable as you need it to be. Sure, if we're talking about servers and buisnesses, it should be 100% stable 100% of the time, absolutely no exceptions. However, the only time my comp crashes is if I run two instances of BONIC, so I don't run two instances of BONIC and I'm fine. :D

Omega Destroyer

02-06-06, 08:10 PM

The problem is that I need my computer to be stable like that. I compress many many gigs of data that I've collected and a 1bit error will ruin the whole archive. I don't have the time or resources to check each archive so I have to make sure there are no errors.
Even if I wasn't doing that though, I still demand more than that from my computer. Errors like that build up over time and cause all kinds of corruption. If I were only playing games I wouldn't worry that much but I do too many other things.

RangerDave

02-10-06, 02:34 AM

hmmm when did they make the a8n sli deluxe do 1:1 until u set a ram devider... before if i did 221 or over it would boot up with a memory devider and now its 1:1. .. its all well and good cept i cant do 1t @ 235~ and for some reason even @ 2t i cant do much memory ocing any more no matter what the timings =./ and as u can see i got the memory to oc fairly hi oh well

saboya

02-10-06, 02:39 AM

Hi, I came across this topic while Googling for a solution for the 1T/2T problem, and decided to share some thoughts about that...

From what I've figured from my own experiences and searches about the subject, the bug only affects RAMs with TCCD chips. I've used Crucial Ballistix myself, Micron chips, 2x512, and I was able to run them at 272mhz 3-3-3-8 1T 1:1 with no problems.

Then I sold them and got a Geil Ultra-X PC4400 (TCCD + Brainpower), no good, nothing above 240~245mhz was stable at 1T, but with 2T I was able to get 290mhz 2.5-3-3-5...

Sold them and tomorrow a new TCCD + BP kit should arrive. I don't expect good results, just got a good deal :) G. Skill Extreme Series DDR400, old DFI owner got up to 610mhz. Planning to re-sell them or selling my mobo hehe.

Btw I didn't read through the entire topic, so if this has already been brought up, I apologize... I'd like to hear if anyone tested this mobo with UCCC chips (like 2x1gb DDR500 kits). I hear BH-5 shows no incompatibility issues.

regards

renegade44

02-11-06, 11:49 PM

KillrBuckeye

02-12-06, 12:21 AM

One of the key factors that is often overlooked in Prime95 testing is ambient temperature. Ambient temperature where I live can vary from 75f to 82F and when I put on a 100% load CPU temps can vary from 55C (75F) and stable to 62C+ (82F) and unstableThose load temps, reported in degrees C, seem way too high. My CPU full load temp never exceeds 35C, even at 1.55Vcore. On the 3 A64 systems that I've built, I've never seen full load temps over 38C, even with the stock cooler.

EDIT: Sorry, I realized a bit too late that you were talking about load temps corresponding to each ambient temperature condition.

RangerDave

02-12-06, 04:21 AM

is it true the later rev's of the board have all these memory problem fixed so i can do like 270 1:1 @ 1t insted of being limit to 240 something. id like to know cuz ill return my board and get a new one if this is the case... i bought mine very early in its production back in march so hopefully its resolved by now

Polargoat

02-19-06, 12:19 AM

Maybe a stupid question but do the a8n-sli deluxe bios's work on a regular a8n-sli board? Im currently running 1014 and think Im havin some issues with overclocking. I cant seem to get my xp4000 to run 3-4-3-8 1T at 250x10 with HT at 3 or 4. This ram is supposed to run 250 at those timings np so Im stuck.
FYI: Im a little new to overclocking AMD's, Ive converted from Intel which were so much easier to o/c IMO.

renegade44

02-19-06, 09:03 AM

MethanolMan

02-20-06, 12:48 PM

my chip set fan died can i just buy one and stick it in there as long as it clears.

Polargoat

02-20-06, 04:51 PM

I used a thermaltake fan on my chipset fan. It fits perfect and pushes alot more air. The best thing to do IMO is to replace the heatsink/fan all together. Asus probably used a stickypad for thermal paste and there are better heatsink/fan combos for the chipset. I think I got my Thermaltake fan from frozencpu.com , It came with a heatsink and I just pulled the fan off.

MethanolMan

02-20-06, 05:07 PM

any links please ...Thanks

Polargoat

02-21-06, 01:47 AM

at the bottom of the page is the chipset heatsinks. Doesnt look like they have the Thermaltake heatsink/fan anymore but the swiftech looks nice.
link: http://www.frozencpu.com/scan/se=System%20Cooling/se=Chipset::GPU%20Coolers/mp=menu_search.html

six4withafro

02-22-06, 04:48 AM

New member, and I gotta say that your thread and this forum rock. I've learned that I'm "stuck" with a Venice core and the A8N-SLI board, and I'm 18.5h stable at the settings in my signature. My question is, how do I proceed? Is there a BIOS that will accept a memory divider and a CPU freq.>240? Or do I need to get myself some overclockable ddr500 RAM? I'd love to hear what you think, and keep up the good work.

Kosh42|EFG

02-22-06, 07:49 AM

Try dropping the RAM divider so you don't run at 1:1 if you want to push the FSB further... Just wish I'd bought faster RAM myself :bang head

KillrBuckeye

02-22-06, 08:10 AM

Try dropping the RAM divider so you don't run at 1:1 if you want to push the FSB further... Just wish I'd bought faster RAM myself :bang headThe RAM dividers are extremely unstable with my Venice, even when RAM is underclocked. This same CPU and memory ran fine with dividers with an A8V Deluxe. This mobo/BIOS just sucks for Venice cores unless you run 1:1... and for that you need expensive RAM. :(

six4withafro

02-22-06, 03:36 PM

MethanolMan

02-22-06, 05:10 PM

thanks PolarGoat

pietpara

03-06-06, 07:22 PM

Hi guys,

I´ve looking around to find about this problem, but couldn't find anything (yet).
So, I decided to post it.
Ever since I started using nTune, Cool & Quiet or any of the monitors I get occasional hickups of my mouse cursor; i.e. it just hangs for a few seconds, upto maybe 15 seconds.
I am not sure which of these tools or conjunction thereof causes it.

Has anyone here experienced this?
Is this cuased by COol&Quiet? And if so, is using CrystalCPUID a solution?

Or is it becuase I set my Power settings to Minimal Power Settings (as instructed for Cool&Quiet) but I have set my harddisks to turn off after 30 minutes (no, the hang has not to do with harddisk turning off or on), so not a "pure" minimal power settings.

Any ideas?

Thanks
PietPara

pointofview_365

03-08-06, 01:37 PM

Just got the A8N32-SLI Deluxe...I think I'll set it to Standard and break it in slowly...There seems to be a lot of issues...Playing BF2 in SLI is definitly a issue anyone else not able to play the game with this Board...Anyone play it with this Board??? I've got lots to learn...

///M3

03-25-06, 05:30 PM

Well, after killing three SATA drives over the past 9 months (a Raptor 74 and twice for a Hitachi Deskstar) I've decided to RMA my mobo. The ASUS tech and I think the IDE chipset is the culprit. Luckily the drives were replaced under warranty as is the mobo. Anyone else experience anything similar to this?

BTW, ASUS will cross ship a replacement mobo for a $10 fee if you request it.

paulxmn

04-03-06, 12:07 AM

I have ordered the following upgrades for my premium. G.Skil F1-3200PHU2-2GBNS DDR I PC3200 2.5-3-3-6Dual Channel and AMD 3800+ X2. I understand that the G.Skil can only OC to about 219FSB but I expect for a gaming rig this combination should have good results. Any thoughts on this.

Thanks

friendly1

04-03-06, 09:56 PM

Man if you must buy Asus - buy a8n32. It is widely known that this one is better overclocker at 1T than premium one. ps. If I were You I`ll wait for AM2.. Then buy DFI. // Leave this ...t //

MiracleMan

04-19-06, 09:37 AM

So, I'm stuck until they improve the BIOS. I consider myself lucky that I'm stable with the 5/6 divider... it would be nice to be able to try some faster RAM to see if I can up the CPU freq. without having to buy it, lol.

I don't think this is just luck. I'm running rock solid more than a week with divider 5:6 htt 278, stock vcore and stock cooler. :sn:

KillrBuckeye

04-19-06, 09:49 AM

I don't think this is just luck. I'm running rock solid more than a week with divider 5:6 htt 278, stock vcore and stock cooler. :sn:Hmmm, maybe this issue with Venice cores and memory dividers only plagues the "Deluxe" version of the board? Both of you have the "vanilla" version and can run dividers. I believe the rest of us with divider issues have the "Deluxe" version. The BIOS releases are different for the boards as well.

In any case, I am 100% sure that it is my motherboard causing instability when using memory dividers. I used this same CPU and RAM combination in an Asus A8V Deluxe and the dividers worked flawlessly. I have another really strange problem with this motherboard as well, so I am thinking about an RMA...

MiracleMan

04-19-06, 10:09 AM

Hmmm, maybe this issue with Venice cores and memory dividers only plagues the "Deluxe" version of the board? Both of you have the "vanilla" version and can run dividers. I believe the rest of us with divider issues have the "Deluxe" version. The BIOS releases are different for the boards as well.

In any case, I am 100% sure that it is my motherboard causing instability when using memory dividers. I used this same CPU and RAM combination in an Asus A8V Deluxe and the dividers worked flawlessly. I have another really strange problem with this motherboard as well, so I am thinking about an RMA...
It's sad if the deluxe version are plagued with this issue.
Asap I will change my cooler and try to break 2700mhz.
I'm not a Asus fan boy. I prefer Abit with my guts but they are scarcely avaliable down here, but this A8n are by far the more stable, reliable and easily overclockable mobo I ever had. Of course because nf4 and A64 venice, but still an amazing sistem.

BenZini

04-22-06, 05:52 AM

Hi, I'm new to this overclocking mayhem but it great fun very addictive.

This is great thread OC-Master and other contributors, I’ve read it three times now gathering useful information and have managed a reasonable overclock on my rig :)

I have a question though with regards to the rather annoying HTT 3x reverting bug...... How the hell do you reset it? I was happily running at 230x11 HTT x4 before deciding to try and increase my OC to 235x11. When I booted into windows the bug had got me, x4 in bios, x3 in nTune.

I have read that HTT has no real affect on performance! Is this true as in a previous post you stated that your 3Dmark result were affected!

Any help would be much appreciated! :shrug:

MethanolMan

04-22-06, 09:38 PM

How do I get the nvraid to work on this a8n32 ?

It keeps showing on the main page as ide 3 and 4
I have enabled nvraid the sata 1 and sata2 I have disabled the silicon image feature. and I have cleared my cmos also.

check my wires and all .... I simply cut my pc off and took out my old a8n deluxe and put the new a8n 32 in and all was well when i cut the pc off now it keeps showing up as ide 3 and ide 4.

Please tell me where im giong wrong thanks in advance.

MethMan