ASUS A8N-SLI :: Work Arounds:Expensive Bugs:Tweaking:Info

[OC-Master]

Here is my A8N-SLI faq;

LAST UPDATED: 3/23/06

Users of the A8N32-SLI Deluxe should check the ASUS website for the latest bios updates and driver fixes. the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe and A8N32-SLI Deluxe are two completely different boards which means bios'es are incompatible with each other.

Faq Updates / Beta Bios 1017.004
DOWNLOAD (http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/1017-004.zip)
I've updated a few links that were no longer working. Bios 1017.004 is also available for those of you who wish to update to it. It contains a few updates one which is support for the FX60.

Driver Update To v6.69-6.70 Reminder
v6.69 WindowsXP x64 (http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_nf4_winxp64_amd_6.69.html) v6.70 WindowsXP Pro (http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_nf4_winxp32_amd_6.70.html)
Just a reminder that everyone should update there chipset drivers to the latest nVidia ones to ensure the best compatibility and bug fix updates for best performance and peace of mind.

Bios 1016 Final Released
DOWNLOAD (http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/A8NSD016.zip)
With this update, the A8N-SLI Deluxe appearently supports all Socket 939 CPUs to date including Sempron, Opteron, Athlon64, Athlon64-FX and Athlon64 X2 CPUs. ASUS has also finally removed the useless floppy 2.88 option.

Raid Service U.S. English Resources Crashes
It seems that I'm not the only one with this bug. After installing the latest nForce drivers, the RAID utility that is installed seems to always crash on me for some unknown reason. Currently, my only fix around this problem is to manually remove the file to avoid this error. My system is working great without this program loaded and I'm not quite sure what exact task it possesses. UPDATE: Seems that Bios 1012-1013 with Drivers v6.66 or newer completely fixes this issue for those of you who could not get the raid service drivers to function correctly.

nForce4 Driver v6.66+ Fixes Reboot Issue
DOWNLOAD (ftp://download.nvidia.com/Windows/nForce/standalone/6.66/nForce4_amd_6.66_winxp2k_international.exe)
The reboot issue affects bios'es 1012 beta and newer. Thanks to all who have reported the fix to me. It seems with the startling news ASUS launched the other day has gotten people to update there chipset drivers and have found the reboot issue to have dissappeared.

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

Lastly, this bug also effects the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium with bios 1006 or newer so if you've got the premium boards, get those new drivers now. For ASUS to say that damaging the board in a news break, it must be serious stuff.

Get Your Bios'es Here:
The Rebels Haven (http://www.lejabeach.com/ASUS/A8N-SLI_D/a8nslidbios.html)
This website is definately the best place to find odd bios'es, betas or bios'es that have just seemed to have dissappeared. It also has the famous 1010.001 bios for those of you looking for it.

Gain More Voltage From Your A8N/E/SLI/DELUXE/PREMIUM:
SCREENSHOT (http://www.ocforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=43117)
I've performed a vcore mod the other night and it was a success! Like I was hoping for, my vcore went from 1.58v with the beta bios 1012 and 1010 to 1.68v after the vmod was performed. I would like to thank the people over at VR-Zone for sharing their ideas with us. You can find out how to perform the vcore mod by clicking HERE (http://www.vr-zone.com.sg/?i=1624&s=1) . Dont forget to ground all your 4 pins properly and use a meter gauge while performing this operation. I used the fan header nearby for ground.

Vdimm Mod:
The Vdimm mod from here (http://www.xtremeresources.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35539) actually works well. I gained a bit more stability with my memory from the mod but unfortunatly due to OVP (Over voltage protection) my ram will only allow up to 3.08v to go into it making the 3.3v not very effective. However, I know many of you out there do have ram without OVP that would love to juice up their memory.

Zalman Cooler Makes A Good Replacement:
I've just completed a huge mod which envolves the NV Silencer 6 series GPU coolers and the Zalman passive northbridge cooler to work in parrellel on the A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard. This cooler definately destroys the stock northbridge cooling performance wise and with zero noise level. My PCs noise level has been cut in half since removing the northbridge fan.

Venice Handicaps The A8N-SLI Deluxe:
I've had a couple of hours to play around with the Venice 3200+ CPU in an A8N-SLI Deluxe and it appears that all memory dividers when used kill memory stability and severly handicap your memorys clock speeds. Testing with OCZ Premier PC3200 which can easily do 450MHz,,, the memory begins to lock up at around 366MHz and loosening timings or using 2T does nothing for getting the memory to clock higher. As soon as I switched back from 6/4 divider to 1:1, the system would even boot at 10 X 240 (2.40GHz) with memory running at 480MHz CL2.5 3-3-5-1T. This is a terrible limitation which currently is limiting overclocking on the Venice CPU platforms.

nForce4 Hardware Firewall:
Turn this off! Untill further notice, the hardware firewall seems to eventually BSOD all nForce4 based PCs and the bug is nasty. From what I've heard, the problem is global and all nForce4 manufacturers seem to be facing this problem in one way or another. Hopefully, a bios update / driver update will fix this so that we can sit back with peace of mind. BSOD has to be one of the most fustrating things we all face especially when octimizing a PC.

Lack Of 1T Timings At High Speed Is Becoming A Pain:
This is a terrible bug that has been hindering this board since its launch over four months ago. ASUS must address this if they want to keep customers and build new customers for that matter. The fact is, this board does not allow 1T timings with FSB/Mem above 240 without loosing complete stability. Some people have gotten lucky and got to 245 and 250 but thats it! If anyone has a reliable source on this and can confirm if a fix is on the way, PM me ASAP,, this bug needs to be fixed.

PATA Still A No Go Even With the PCI Lock:
7/7/05 UPDATE: Seems as of bios 1010 or newer, the PATA bug no longer exists. I've tested several drives in PATA and I havnt seen any curruption as of over a week of operation. Should be an option now to people who have PATA drives.

Original Bug Dated April 2005;
With the HTT set and PCI lock on, PATA hard drives still seem to currupt after a few weeks of use no matter what bios I use or method of configuring. Of course, my solution was to install my SATA converters which completely eliminated this nasty bug. Hard Drive curruption has to be one of the most fustrating bugs you could run into. For those of you running PATA drives on the A8N-SLI, go out and spend a few bucks on a SATA converter and avoid this nasty bug all together.

HTT 3X Reverting Bug:
UPDATE: 7/7/05
Seems that random bios's do not suffer from this glitch yet all the latest bios'es all definately do. Very strange bug but never the less not to nasty.

This has got to be one of the most annoying bugs yet. Not that it really is a bad thing but the A8N-SLI when equiped with any bios between 1003~1012? will randomly revert your HTT to 3X even if it is set to 4X or 5X in the bios. Most users can identify this issue simply by loading up nTune and monitoring their HTT access. The current only work around for this issue is to manually enable 4X or 5X through nTune everytime your load your OS.

PCI Lock Bug:
EDIT: FIXED! See post #24 below
To lock the PCI lock on your board, all you have to do is make sure you have bios 1003 final or newer and then set your FSB in the bios to 201 or higher. Your lock will then be set. Another alternative since bios 1007 is to set the PCI to 33.3MHz in the frequency menu and NOT to CPU.

Bios Revisions:

Bios 1016.001 Beta
DOWNLOAD (http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/1016-001.zip)
Bios 1016 beta is now available for those of you who are adventurous enough to give it a shot.

Bios 1015 Final
DOWNLOAD (http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/A8NSD015.zip)
Bios 1015 final is now available and can be downloaded from ASUS's website. Fixes include,
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.

Bios 1015-005 Beta
DOWNLOAD (http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/1015-005.zip)
So bios 1015-005 is now ready for download. I was hoping ASUS would release something soon since bios 1015-001 was giving me huge memory instability issues. It seems that ASUS is tampering with the memory settings of the board.
Long story short, with bios 1015-001, I've been getting nothing but instability with my overclock. It will be interesting to see if bios 1015-005 fixes this wreck!

UPDATE: Seems my overclock is back with bios 1015-005. Whatever bios 1015-001 did, it completely destroyed my overclock no matter which setting I tried due to something with the memory settings. Bios 1015-005 seems to be OK for download. If I experience more problems, I'll be posting here asap.

Bios 1014 Final
1014 DOWNLOAD (http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/A8NSD014.zip) | 1015-001 DOWNLOAD (http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/1015-001.zip)
This bios updates the CPU code to recognize the Athlon64 X2 5000+ / 5200+. This bios can also properly identify 64-bit Semprons to allow for 64-bits functionility. Tested and seems to be on par with 1013. Thankyou netlaw1 for contacting me about this release.

I also should mention that Bios 1015.001 beta has been realeased as well but I am not sure of the updates it possesses. If anyone has some experience with this bios, please feel free to contact me with your comments.

Bios 1013 Final
DOWNLOAD (http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/A8NSD013.zip)
Bios 1013 Final is out and is ready for download. A BIG thanks to Pyro for pointing that one out to me.
Bios 1013;
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.

I've finally had a chance to test out the 1013 bios and it seems to be a very well balanced bios. With the latest v6.66 nForce drivers, I'd have to now recommend this one to people who are thinking of updating there bios'es from earlier revisions.

Bios 1013.002 Beta
DOWNLOAD (http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/1013-002.zip)
After testing the bios for a few minutes, I can honestly say that the reboot and shutdown issue still isnt fixed. After checking over the entire bios from end to end I cannot see anything new to tinker with. People with X2 CPUs should download this bios to experiment because I have a feeling this is an X2 CPU compatibility improvement. The only new option to me that wasnt working before is the ability to adjust the CPU Vcore even after the mod. I can now set my vcore to whatever I want in the bios even with the mod installed. Vcore between 0.8~1.68v is now fully selectable.

Also now getting more feedback with the bios tampering with vcore threshhold on various CPUs. X2s seem to be taking the biggest hit loosing vcore from 1.55 down to 1.40v or less.

Bios 1012.003 Beta
DOWNLOAD (http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/1012-003.zip)
This bios still has all the issues the .002 previous had with appearently some memory tweaks yet again. However, if you havnt already downloaded this bios, I recommend you stay away from it. Far too many people have had booting and shutting down issues after upgrading to this beta. Back to 1010.001 I go untill further notice. The later 1013.002 also suffers from this strange bug so I've done some experiments and have determined it to be a temperature monitoring issue the bios reads before allowing a proper shutdown.

Bios 1012.002 Beta
DOWNLOAD (http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/1012-002.zip)
This bios is horrible! Do not use it. After installing this update on several boards, each computer had multiple problems rebooting and sometimes even had problems with memory settings in some cases.

Bios 1012.001 Beta
DOWNLOAD (http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/1012-001.zip)
Isnt really anything too noticable from 1011 with the 1012 bios except a few bios memory timings have been changed.

Bios 1011-001 Beta
DOWNLOAD (http://www.asus.com.cn/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/1011-001.zip)
So far I've noticed that the option for the 1.565v~1.65v vcore adjustment has again been removed. It seems that the final release of this 1011 bios explains that all vcore above 1.55v was removed from the bios on CPUs that sport 1.4V and 1.35Vcore default voltages.

Bios 1010.001 Beta
The 1010 series welcomes back all the memory timings which were hidden in previous bios'es due to some incompatibility issues which are now fixed. Some stability as the 1009.002 beta so if you have the 1009 beta, its recommended you step up to the 1010 beta.

Bios 1009.002 Beta
DOWNLOAD (http://www.asus.com.cn/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/1009-002.zip)
The 1009 series is here and it has some major memory tweaks and support for the Athlon64 FX 57 processor. I'm currently testing out this bios as we speak. UPDATE: It seems the bios is very stable aside from the whole PC Probe bug that has now been introduced :( . Its a solid beta to test out if your looking to venture behond 1007 final and try something new.

Bios 1008.001 Beta
DOWNLOAD (http://www.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/1008-001.zip)
I'm currently testing it out. It seems to support the AMD Athlon X2 series with it now stating how many CPU cores are present on the AMD A8N-SLI Deluxe. The Pci Express features have also been updated now with the support of PCI Express Apecture Size Auto adjustment. Thanks Kektex for pointing this new bios out to me :D

Bios 1007 Final
DOWNLOAD (http://www.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/A8nsd007.zip)
It's here and its official, go grab the 1007 bios asap. I've been examining it now for a few days and it seems to be just like the 1007-004 which was a real keeper with the slew of new features. After playing around with the Vcore, it seems the highest setting is actually when setting the vcore to 1.575v in the bios. CPU-Z now reports a nice 1.60v for those of you looking for more juice. Maybe in the near future, we may actually expect to see a full 1.65v or even higher depending on how much these boards can put out. Yo can download the bios directly from this link below,

1007SD-03 Beta
DOWNLOAD (ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Socket_939/NVIDIA_Chipset/nForce4_SLI/A8N-SLI_Deluxe/1007sd03.zip)
Been testing this bios now for almost two weeks and it seems to be a real keeper for me. I've noticed that this bios gives us a very slight voltage increase at 1.55V (1.565V before and now 1.58V with 1007SD). Some options in the bios have been renamed to avoid confusion in some matters. Also, stability is back from 1004 in all areas so I no longer am faced with disk curruption like I was faced with the 1005 series.

Bios 1004 Final
It essentially is almost identical to the 1004.001 beta asside from more fan monitoring options and very minor adjustments. Some people however are reporting that they are loosing a small portion of their overclock from updating to this revision. However, after a few days testing, this bios seems to be on par with 1004.001 beta for me.

Overclocking:
This is a huge topic and this board is very complicated when it comes to overclocking. While everyone has their own styles in overclocking including the type, brand and quality of hardware choosen, I will give you a general idea on how exactly to configure your board.
Overclocking on the ASUS A8N-SLI is a little tricky especially if your migrating from a socket A platform. Unless otherwise stated, I recommend using 4XHTT multiplier when overclocking. Unless you plan on overclocking past 2.71GHz (3000+) or 3GHz (3200+) more than enough flexibility should be available with the AN8. Some valuable information, the ASUS A8N-SLI on average will cap out at maximum 2472HTT or 309X4 HTT in the bios regardless of setting choosen. This is more than enough HTT to work with in any case. When overclocking this board, I strongly recommend the latest beta 1004.001 bios for greatest stability and overclockability. This board overclocks the easiest with software bar none. The software I used is nForce4 ClockGen which can be found here,
http://www.cpuid.com/clockgen.php
Go get CPU-Z to find the real clock speed of your CPU and memory. Use Prime, SETI, Folding and 3Dmark01~05 to stress test your PC at any given time.
Ai Booster is to me not a very good tool at the moment since most of the time, it seems to lock my system up when I wanna change multipliers or change a huge FSB frequency at a time. Before I completely blow off Ai Booster, it still achieves one important thing,, being it allows your to adjust your ram voltages which can come in very handy sometimes. Ai Booster also has a huge bug being when you change a setting with it, it will lower your Vcore to under 1.5v or 1.35V in the bios which can be a real pain for most. Not to worry, go load up ClockGen and up the VID back to 1.55V to override this glitch without having to restart. Keep repeating this step untill you achieve your desirered frequency. Remember, with the current bios design, no overclock made at this time is ever final. Their is still many bugs to be worked out giving us alot more overclocking potential.

A Little 101 On Q-Fan
Ok, if you really wanna silent your rig while having 3, 4 or even 5 casefans within, hookup and turn on Q-Fan (Requires beta bios 1004.001). Q-Fan can dynamically lower the RPMs of all your fans in your machine cutting noise by more than 50%. Although Q-Fan at the moment has one downside being that the lowest temp we can set it at is 51c for the time being while I think is a little high but I guess ok. To really see the results of Q-Fan, go get a 4pin to 3pin converter and hookup all your case fans to the SF1 connecter located near the bottom right hand corner of the motherboard. By doing this, all your case fans will be driven by Q-Fan meaning all will be temp controlled and help cut noise by insane amounts. If your reading this for the first time, do not pass up this awesome feature, it really does the job. BTW, I was lazzy and just made my own homade moded 4pin to 3pin adapter to get the job done. I simply took a case fan, cut the cord in half and joined the red/black cords to a 3pin hookup from a mod device which I wasnt using. I soldered the two pieces together and then I was good to go.
Qfan is even more efficent when you hook up all your case fans to your CPU FAN HEADER. By doing this, your fans will all now have variable speed termperature control and will spin faster as your CPU temperature rises. Setting your temperature in the bios to 51c insures cool quiet operation while still allowing your case fans to perform when needed. Dont be worried about overloading the 3pin header fore it supports up to 71.5Watts before it reaches its limit. Considering the average LED 80mm fan uses less than 5 watts of energy and the average 120mm fan uses just over 10watts you'll be fine running six or so fans off that single header along with your CPU fan. Go get those 3pin Y splitters from your local shop and start Qfan today!

Volt Modding:
If you like living on the dangerous side, you can also do a Vdimm mod, Vcore and even a chipset mod to help you overclock even further. I will simply leave this section to VR-Zone,
http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=1624&s=1
Great article with lots of volt modding and pictures.

Tweaking The PCI-Express Bus:
So far to date, the best results I've found is setting the PCI Bus transfer rate from 100MHz to 120MHz (3030MHZ PCI Express). A gain of 200 points in 3Dmark03 can be noticed from tweaking this variable option.

When connecting a 4pin molex to your EZ-PLUG hookup, make sure you use your Extra 12v connecter if available to maximize your graphics cards stability.


Updated frequently so check back weekly..


OC-Master

[Aurora40]

The AN8 series does not lock the PCI bus while PATA hard disks are connected to the motherboard.
Wow! Excellent write-up! Question, though. Do you mean actual hard disk? Or anything PATA? My hard disks are SATA, but I've a PATA DVD drive in my system. Thanks!!

[OC-Master]

Wow! Excellent write-up! Question, though. Do you mean actual hard disk? Or anything PATA? My hard disks are SATA, but I've a PATA DVD drive in my system. Thanks!!

As far as I know, the motherboard only has issues when PATA hard drives are connected. I have one SATA converter and when I use it, my system runs flawlessly with FSB of 283 and higher.

Hopefully this is a bios limitation and eventually will be fixed. I might add that when the hard disks begin to fail, you'll notice your DVD drive acting up as well by making noise and the little light coming on.


OC-Master

[LoneWolf121188]

PCI Lock Bug:The AN8 series does not lock the PCI bus while PATA hard disks are connected to the motherboard. I must stress that things really get hectic as soon as you venture above 210MHz FSB.

Really? I was having problems too with 1002 (I was stuck at 214x11), but with 1003 theres a BIOS setting called PCI lock or something which appears to work for me...I'm at 220x11 and I have 2 IDE HDs. No problems so far (I'll run P95 overnight). For me, the problem was the RAM (look below for details).

[swindelljd]

I have 2x 80GB IDE drives setup in a RAID-1 array on the NVIDIA RAID controller (master/slave on secondary controller) and here are my current OC settings:

BIOS=1002 (my pci lock works as documented)
Actually just upgraded to 1003 last night to get the IDE RAID array working properly.
FSB = set to 250/2.2Ghz @ bootup, can max out @ 270/2.43Ghz
CPU Multipier = 9x
HTT = 3x
vCore = 1.50V
DIMM = 2.85V
Memory divider set at 333Mhz
CAS = 2.5
RAS to CAS = 3
Row Precharge = 3
Min RAS cycle = 6
So I guess that's 2.5-3-3-6

Have run benchmarks, game demos, prime95, superpi all without error. System runs about 32C with no load and gets to about 49C running prime95.

RAM also seems to be my weak link. Have to keep the volts up over 2.8V otherwise I can't run memtest86 (test 5 & 6 ) for more than 30 seconds.

Still need to play around with HTT, move it to 4x. Also plan to loosen the memory to something like 3-4-4-10 and see if I can run stable at my current max of 285ish FSB / 2.6Ghz cpu.

3DMark05 = 3654
3DMark03 = 9018

John


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

[tinytool]

Question, I currently am running 104.001 bios and watercooling my chipset. everytime I start my computer I get a Chipset fan error message. It says you can disable it in the bios but it is not highlighted so you can't select it. I know I could throw a small fan in there but I rather not. Any suggestions?

[LoneWolf121188]

Question, I currently am running 104.001 bios and watercooling my chipset. everytime I start my computer I get a Chipset fan error message. It says you can disable it in the bios but it is not highlighted so you can't select it. I know I could throw a small fan in there but I rather not. Any suggestions?

This pisses me off too, though my problem is with the CPU fan. I've got it connected to my fan controller. A simple workaround is to hookup another fan to that connecter. that should fix it.

[Aurora40]

I've only got the DVD drive hooked up to the PATA, though I am using the Silicone Image SATA connectors (which runs off the PCI bus). I just got 1004-001 and the PCI lock set to 33.33 still does nothing for me. It still moves with the HT bus.

I tried 210MHz (tried 217 for DDR433 and the comp crapped out) for the HT and a 4x mupltiplier, then ran 3DMark03 just to see. My score dropped from 8750 or so to like 5550... So now it's all back to stock. I think I'll just OC my graphics card and leave it at that. I hope the board implements stock SLI very well when I finally do decide to do that. Otherwise I doubt I'll ever buy another Asus motherboard. As it is I miss the ease of use of my Abits (who also include a useful description in the BIOS help for each item)...

[tinytool]

Another question, I notice MBM5 does not support this board as of yet... Is there any alternative boards you can put down that will monitor it the same? I'm currently using speedfan but I like MBM 5 better.

[LoneWolf121188]

I've only got the DVD drive hooked up to the PATA, though I am using the Silicone Image SATA connectors (which runs off the PCI bus). I just got 1004-001 and the PCI lock set to 33.33 still does nothing for me. It still moves with the HT bus.

I tried 210MHz (tried 217 for DDR433 and the comp crapped out) for the HT and a 4x mupltiplier, then ran 3DMark03 just to see. My score dropped from 8750 or so to like 5550... So now it's all back to stock. I think I'll just OC my graphics card and leave it at that. I hope the board implements stock SLI very well when I finally do decide to do that. Otherwise I doubt I'll ever buy another Asus motherboard. As it is I miss the ease of use of my Abits (who also include a useful description in the BIOS help for each item)...

Did you try the 1003 BIOS?

Is there a prog that will tell you your PCI bus speed?

You can see my sig for my SLI benches...good, but not what I was hoping for. I thought SLI was supposed to get 10k+ in 05...and I heard of people getting my AM3 score with ONE gfx card. could be the drivers, could be the progs. The one good thing is that it'll only get better.

[Aurora40]

Did you try the 1003 BIOS?

Is there a prog that will tell you your PCI bus speed?
Yeah, I tried 1003, then got 1004-001. In both cases, setting it to "33.33" does nothing. You can launch the nTune to see if it stops telling you they are locked. But also what I used was ClockGen mentioned in the first post: http://www.cpuid.com/clockgen.php When I move the HT speed up, the PCI speed goes up with it... :-\ Maybe it's because I'm not using the nVidia SATA controller... I dunno. I'm not a big OC'er, but I think I ought to be able to squeeze out 10MHz or so without a problem. It's not like my big plan was to OC the crap out of my machine. But I find it annoying that the problem is a very expensive mobo, not just that my cpu can't handle the speed or heat or the memory can't handle the timings, etc. Those would be a lot more understandable. That said, if I had it to do over again right now, I'd still probably buy the same board. If the Abit SLI board were out already, though, I would buy it instead.

[OC-Master]

Yeah, I tried 1003, then got 1004-001. In both cases, setting it to "33.33" does nothing. You can launch the nTune to see if it stops telling you they are locked. But also what I used was ClockGen mentioned in the first post: http://www.cpuid.com/clockgen.php When I move the HT speed up, the PCI speed goes up with it... :-\ Maybe it's because I'm not using the nVidia SATA controller... I dunno. I'm not a big OC'er, but I think I ought to be able to squeeze out 10MHz or so without a problem. It's not like my big plan was to OC the crap out of my machine. But I find it annoying that the problem is a very expensive mobo, not just that my cpu can't handle the speed or heat or the memory can't handle the timings, etc. Those would be a lot more understandable. That said, if I had it to do over again right now, I'd still probably buy the same board. If the Abit SLI board were out already, though, I would buy it instead.

You have to use the SATA controller if you want to overclock with your PATA hard drives installed in the machine. I recommend the sata converters to do the job niceless. Funny thing is, even when the PCI lock in the bios is turned on, ClockGen seems to show the PCI bus locked yet when you overclock, all the same stupid stuff happens,, hard drive begins to currupt, video cards begin to act up, and worst off, the on-board ethernet cards begin to fail.

After testing many different ways, all these problems go away as soon as I hook up my hard drive to the nVidia sata port. I presume the Silicon Image ports would work great too.


OC-Master

[Aurora40]

You have to use the SATA controller if you want to overclock with your PATA hard drives installed in the machine. I recommend the sata converters to do the job niceless. Funny thing is, even when the PCI lock in the bios is turned on, ClockGen seems to show the PCI bus locked yet when you overclock, all the same stupid stuff happens,, hard drive begins to currupt, video cards begin to act up, and worst off, the on-board ethernet cards begin to fail.

After testing many different ways, all these problems go away as soon as I hook up my hard drive to the nVidia sata port. I presume the Silicon Image ports would work great too.


OC-Master

I have SATA drives, not PATA. They are hooked to the Silicon Images controller, not the nVidia one. I couldn't get WinXP to install on the nVidia one with RAID0, so I used the Sil Im controller. Perhaps the Sil Im ports don't work great too, or perhaps my board is just weirder. But the lock doesn't lock anything on my comp... You can see my comp in my signature --v

[OC-Master]

I have SATA drives, not PATA. They are hooked to the Silicon Images controller, not the nVidia one. I couldn't get WinXP to install on the nVidia one with RAID0, so I used the Sil Im controller. Perhaps the Sil Im ports don't work great too, or perhaps my board is just weirder. But the lock doesn't lock anything on my comp... You can see my comp in my signature --v

Aurora, this is off topic but I am very curious to your CPU voltage when set at 1.55v in the bios. Does your Vcore still flucuate like mine (bounces between 1.58 and 1.601V or does it stay still at 1.61Vcore?

EDIT: I guess I should ask, are you using the latest 1004.001 bios as well?

My PSU should be here today or Monday and I'm very curious to if I will see a difference in stability with my overclock.


OC-Master

[stu_allen]

I've only got the DVD drive hooked up to the PATA, though I am using the Silicone Image SATA connectors (which runs off the PCI bus). I just got 1004-001 and the PCI lock set to 33.33 still does nothing for me. It still moves with the HT bus.

The only way to lock the PCI bus under 1004.01 is to leave the pci lock at AUTO. It then dosent move :beer:

[LoneWolf121188]

thats interesting, because ClockGen shows my PCI bus at 33.34 at the speed I'm at.

I just thought of something: What Silicon revision and board revision are you guys using? I have board revision 1.02 (found under the 1st PCIE slot and on top of the SLI connecter thing) and silicon revision A03 (esay way to find this is with CPUZ: Under the mainboard tab, theres a box that says "Revision: A2" or "Revision: A3". This info can also be found under the chipset cooler).

[Aurora40]

Aurora, this is off topic but I am very curious to your CPU voltage when set at 1.55v in the bios. Does your Vcore still flucuate like mine (bounces between 1.58 and 1.601V or does it stay still at 1.61Vcore?

EDIT: I guess I should ask, are you using the latest 1004.001 bios as well?

My PSU should be here today or Monday and I'm very curious to if I will see a difference in stability with my overclock.


OC-Master

My vcore is set to 1.400 I believe (auto), and it flips between 1.392 and 1.408. It is always the same numbers, never any inbetween, so I suspect it may not actually fluctuate much at all, just the scale of the sensor isn't very fine-grained. For some reason it shows 1.550v in the nTune monitor, though.

Where are you looking to see the setting/actual?

Yes, I have 1004-001 bios.

[Aurora40]

The only way to lock the PCI bus under 1004.01 is to leave the pci lock at AUTO. It then dosent move :beer:
But the manual choices are 33.33 and "track CPU" or something. Wouldn't auto just pick between the two, and not pick the secret 3rd option "work properly"?

[stu_allen]

Dunno, but 33.33 dosent work on mine - ntune reports its still tracking. When i set it to auto it works!

[LoneWolf121188]

hmm, maybe I lied. I left my clock at 223x11 and tried to get the memory at 1:1 with higher latency. It was working fine until I tried 2.5-4-4-6 or something, and that gave me an error like "system file x is corrupted". Now I have to reinstall windows...weird. Oh well, no big deal. At least nothing's broken...I hope.

[UweXS]

Dunno, but 33.33 dosent work on mine - ntune reports its still tracking. When i set it to auto it works!
33.33 doesn't work at mine neither with bIOS 1003 or 1004-001(was working with beta BIOS 1003-005...)

BUT

If you set your overclocking to "Manual" and the frequency to other than the stock 200 MHz, you'll see with ntune or clockgen, it will be locked.

[Aurora40]

WOOHOO! Finally it is locked!! I've tried auto before but it never "took". Now it is showing it as 33.34 with the HT at 217. I've my memory at 2.5-3-3-10 and I'm wondering if I can take the thing up to DDR466... :)

I noticed the 8.5% OC (17MHz HT) made a 12% improvement in the CPU score on 3DMark05. From 4266 to 4752. Man does that benchmark pummel my machine! The fps almost never breaks above 30!!

[tinytool]

Has anyone had this problem. I'm running 104 bios everything is stock at the moment (no OC) My computer was working fine then all of a sudden my DVD drives start going constantly and the HDD light is solid. I tried to restart the machine and the same thing happened it took like 5 min. for window to fully load. I unpluged them from the IDE and now everything is back to normal minus the DVD drives. Any suggestions?

[OC-Master]

It's FINALLY BEEN MASTERED!!

After weeks of pain and literly hudreds of reboots, I have mastered every single in and out of this motherboard. To completely lock your AN8-SLI, you will have to do the following in steps..

From scratch;
#1
Leave everything at stock in bios with all options you want set to allow you to install windows and get things up and running.

#2
Have your Motherboard CD handy and install your chipset drivers/ide/ethernet and so fourth. Important tools to get and install are nVidia's nTune which we will use to check the HTT and clockgen which can be found in the link within post #1 in this thread. Install ASUS Update, yes its windows bios updating software. The last piece of software we are gonna use is CPU-Z to give us accurate CPU readings.

#3
Once you've downloaded everything and installed, we can begin. flash Bios 1004.001 Beta through ASUS Update program! This was my problem hence I never used it before but instead used the dos version. The big difference is the windows version can totally clear and update your cmos checksum, the little thing that stores stuff like the date, HTT and voltage. MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THAT BUTTON.

#4
Once your bios is clear, go into your bios and select 201MHz for your FSB setting and leave the PCI lock to AUTO. Select 4X HTT from your bios. Pump up your Dimm voltage if ya need to, save your settings and then reboot. Head back into windows.

#5
load up ntune, and use the nvmonitor util. Look at your HTT, it should be 804MHz not 1008MHz. If its 1008MHz, you missed a step on #4 or you may need to reflash the bios yet again. Next go into clockgen and have a look at your PCI MHz. move your FSB slider and your pci bus should now be locked. If all these steps are done, your motherboard should be completely unlocked and you should be able to achieve HTT of 300 or even higher even with PATA drives.

Thanks everyone for posting tips for me to look at, fore I very much appreciate all of your help.


OC-Master

[swindelljd]

OC-Master,
How did you get your memory to run at 283.06? If I run my memory > 230 I can't pass memtest86. To get to 230, I have the vdimm set to 2.85 right now and if I set it lower then I can only get the memory to go to 210-220 range.

I can get my HTT up to 290 (~2.6Ghz) but I have to drop my memory back to 266 divider netting about 186Mhz on the memory on a HTT=290. Which costs about 20% performance hit in Sandra memory testng.

thanks,
John

[DaveB]

Here is my AN8-SLI faq;

First off, their is a bug that drove me almost $80CAD insane and I must quickly point out.

PCI Lock Bug:
Just a heads up for everyone, after weeks of testing this board now and still waiting on my 2nd sata converter, I've finally figured out this board inside and out. First off, prepare to be either upgrading your IDE hard drive to newer SATA models or getting the sata converter if you plan on overclocking with IDE PATA hard drives.
The AN8 series does not lock the PCI bus while PATA hard disks are connected to the motherboard. I must stress that things really get hectic as soon as you venture above 210MHz FSB. To put this into perspective, a FSB of 233 translates into a 38MHz on the PCI Bus which is useally the most amount of punishment the average hard drive can take. BTW, the so called lock that is found in the latest 1004.001 beta bios still doesnt fix this bug for those of you who were curious to the potential of that bios feature. If you clock up your motherboard with Ai Booster, you'll notice your video card give out at about 239 with the screen going garbled, again a result from the non locked PCI Bus. To avoid all of this havoc, simply stay away from legacy PATA drives or like me go buy a converter or two to avoid this hitch. You can pickup SATA converters here,OC-Master
This CANNOT be true. I'm running at 9 x 289 MHz (2.6 GHz) with an old Hitachi/IBM PATA IDE 60 GB drive. My Patriot/PDP TCCD is also at 289 MHz. I'm using the 1004-001 beta BIOS so maybe that solved this issue.

Edit: I guess your last post cleared this up. But go back and edit the first post so as not to confuse anyone. I've been running at 289 MHz to 292 MHz since the 1004-001 BIOS came out last week.

[shiyan]

thank you so much for this guide, I was having little luck with this motherboard (bios v1002) and getting very frustrated at the seemingly broken overlocking options

unfortunately I wasn't able to find any DFIs and the only other choice was the MSI, and having read a few reviews of the AN8 I went and bought it :bang head

edit:

finally found out that I have to set Max RAM frequency to DDR333 to get CPU/11, which gave me 210Mhz as RAM's frequency once I overclocked the HTT to 256Mhz

[swindelljd]

3. Asus A8N SLI, A64 3000+ 90nm Socket 939 @ 2.6 GHz, 2x512MB Patriot PC3200 TCCD @ 289 MHz, Gigabyte 6600GT 128MB PCI-e, Win XP Pro SP2

DaveB,
What are the latencies and vdimm's you use to get your PC3200 RAM to 289Mhz? I spent some time last night pushing the system and here is what I my best effort so far
CPU mult = 8.5 @ Auto (floats from 1.45 to 1.475)
HTT mult = 3x
FSB = 306
RAM = 2-3-3-6 1T @ 2.85V
RAM divider = 266 (2:3 ratio)
That results in CPU @ 2.6Ghz w/RAM @ 200Mhz

The best I can get for RAM Mhz is about 222Mhz w/3-4-4-10 1T @2.8V.

I'd like to at least be able to do a 333Mhz (5:6 ratio) on my RAM and lower my FSB a little and still get 2.6Ghz but I am stuck.

Also care to share any benchmarks you have? I have a generally similar setup and would be curious to see how my system stacks up.

AMD 64 3000+ oc@2.6Ghz
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe rev1.02 BIOS 1003 Final
2x512MB Corsair XMS PC3200C2-PT
Leadtek nVidia 6600GT Extreme
Enermax Noisetaker 495 (470W)


thanks,
John

[OC-Master]

Discovered a new problem. After fixing the PCI Lock and HTT issue, my hyper transport multiplier keeps reseting back to 3X everytime I reset the PC. Problem is, appearently nTune cannot hold settings for more than the session so I have to reset the darn thing everytime if I want a performance increase.

I benched with 3X, then benched with the 4X enabled, nearly a 500 point increase in 3Dmark05. My original score was 6001 points and efter discovering this bug, I'm now running almost 6700 points.


OC-Master

[DaveB]

DaveB,
What are the latencies and vdimm's you use to get your PC3200 RAM to 289Mhz? I spent some time last night pushing the system and here is what I my best effort so far
CPU mult = 8.5 @ Auto (floats from 1.45 to 1.475)
HTT mult = 3x
FSB = 306
RAM = 2-3-3-6 1T @ 2.85V
RAM divider = 266 (2:3 ratio)
That results in CPU @ 2.6Ghz w/RAM @ 200Mhz

The best I can get for RAM Mhz is about 222Mhz w/3-4-4-10 1T @2.8V.

I'd like to at least be able to do a 333Mhz (5:6 ratio) on my RAM and lower my FSB a little and still get 2.6Ghz but I am stuck.

Also care to share any benchmarks you have? I have a generally similar setup and would be curious to see how my system stacks up.

AMD 64 3000+ oc@2.6Ghz
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe rev1.02 BIOS 1003 Final
2x512MB Corsair XMS PC3200C2-PT
Leadtek nVidia 6600GT Extreme
Enermax Noisetaker 495 (470W)


thanks,
John
VDIMM is 2.9V, the timings are 3-8-4-4 Auto @ 289 MHz. It runs at 285 MHz or so with the timings tightened to 2.5-8-3-3 Auto, but since the benches I tried don't do any better with these timings, I'm leaving it at 3-8-4-4 Auto for now. I'm not a benchmark freak, but I do have Aquamark3 loaded. I tried it and it scored 61,700.

[prominance]

uh DaveB are you running your ram at 1T or 2T, because noone has been able to go past 245 FSB running any type or RAm at 1T?

[DaveB]

uh DaveB are you running your ram at 1T or 2T, because noone has been able to go past 245 FSB running any type or RAm at 1T?
What's with the "uh"? Anyway, 1T/2T is set at Auto as indicated in the previous question regarding timings.

[prominance]

just wanted some clarification, since your 1T/2T is at Auto you are running at 2T.

[DaveB]

Yes, I just confirmed that for you. Set at 1T it freezes after displaying the IDE channels. At 2T it happily boots into Win XP Pro.

Edit: Just ran SiSoft Sandra 2004 Memory test and scored 6676/6668. How does that compare to running at 245 MHz at 1T?

[OC-Master]

Yes, I just confirmed that for you. Set at 1T it freezes after displaying the IDE channels. At 2T it happily boots into Win XP Pro.

Edit: Just ran SiSoft Sandra 2004 Memory test and scored 6676/6668. How does that compare to running at 245 MHz at 1T?


My system does 6850MB/s in Sandra running 466MHz 2.5-4-4-8-1T with two sticks of PC4400 on the AN8-SLI. It is the highest I can seem to go with 1T with the motherboard being the limitation. Even if I use CL3, the board still cannot boot at 468MHz or 470MHz.


OC-Master

[DaveB]

I'll try 2.5-4-4-8 when I get home since it does 2.5-3-3-8 up to about 285 MHz. Plus, I should bump the VDIMM up to 3.0V and see where it goes. I can run SiSoft Sandra a little faster, but I only do benches at my max stable running speed. The CPU is fine a 2601, but just go a little higher and it gets iffy.

[DaveB]

OK, tried 2.5-4-4-8 which seems fine and ups the SiSoft Sandra 2004 Memory test score to 6750/6729. I also upped HT to 4x.

Upped the VDIMM to 3.0V, HTT @ 293 MHz, CPU @ 2637, SiSoft Sandra 2004 Memory test score now 6848/6816.

HTT @ 296 MHz, CPU @ 2661, SiSoft Sandra 2004 Memory test score now 6891/6887.

HTT @ 299 MHz, CPU @ 2695, SiSoft Sandra 2004 Memory test score now 6985/6976.

HTT @ 301 MHz, CPU @ 2712, SiSoft Sandra 2004 Memory test score now 7023/7027. But, SuperPi fails, so no need to go further. ;)

SuperPi 1M (33s) tops out at HTT @ 298 MHz, DDR @ 298 MHz, CPU @ 2686, SiSoft Sandra 2004 Memory test score @ 6969/6952.

[GraveLayer]

Wow lots on info! I've been running my A8N-SLI Deluxe for over a week now. I've tried lots of OC combo's and will try more with the knowledge gained from reading here.
My problem is I just ordered another 74G Raptor that will arrive today as I wanted to go NV Raid0.

So you can't us the Nvidia SATA in RAID?????? How can this be!!

Also I have used the SI contoller in the past (NF3 MSI board lastly) and can tell you that YOU ARE BETTER OFF on a single raptor than raid0 on that HORRIBLE controller (I'm talking benchmarks only).

Anyone using NV and RAID????

[swindelljd]

Well I am using the NVIDIA RAID controller. I have two 80GB IDE drives (one secondary controller) setup in a RAID 1 (mirrored) array. These are my bootable OS drives.

NOTE: I had to go to BIOS 1003 to get this to work. Also I had to put the drives on the secondary controller (per the docs) and my CD/DVD drive on the primary controller. I'll try to run a benchmark tonight on both sets of drives for comparison. Cost wise the OS drives, WD 80GB, cost $40/ea and the data drives, Maxtor 160GB, cost $100/ea.


Benchmarks:
OS drives: NVIDIA RAID 1 Array Secondary Master/Secondary Slave = 23MB/S
Data Drivers: PCI SI RAID 1 Array Primary Master/Secondary Master = 51MB/S Looks like I need to move those OS drives to separate channels.


No idea about using SATA drives or the SI controller.

I will mention however I have a PCI based IDE controller from SI that I use to RAID 1 my data drives and performance seems pretty good. I only have 7200RPM drives so it's possible that the 10K drives would overload the bus.

John

[reddywing1]

I have gone in a slightly different direction with my harddrive setup. Using the SI raid controller, I have created a 157gb raid5 disc using 3 80gb Hitachi 13G0252 7200rpm 8mb cache discs. Setup was smooth and has been working for about week now without problems.

Benching with HD Tach yields an average read of 91.9MB/s which compares favorably with tests in their database. The big deal for me was getting parity with this drive setup.

Overall cost is also competitive. Drives were purchased from eWiz.com for $57.68 each so with tax and shipping the total was under $200.

John

[shiyan]

I've come across a strange problem:

using BIOS 1004.1

after step 4 of post 24, which is sucessful, I want to set the memory to run asynch to the HTT (my ram tops out at around 220)

but the moment I set RAM Speed to 333, the motherboard drops to 3x HTT, even thout it's still set at 4x HTT :confused:

[Aurora40]

Discovered a new problem. After fixing the PCI Lock and HTT issue, my hyper transport multiplier keeps reseting back to 3X everytime I reset the PC. Problem is, appearently nTune cannot hold settings for more than the session so I have to reset the darn thing everytime if I want a performance increase.

Mine has done this as well, always started at 3x... Do you have all your overclocking set in the bios? My comp doesn't seem to boot well with overclocking, though it tends to run fine once in XP and changed.

You all are getting some pretty impressive OC's there in the 280s-300s!

Edit: This board can be pretty vexing sometimes. Now I set the mem max to DDR466 (but at 1T-2.5-2-2-10 2.8V memtest32 has problems), set to 2.5-2-2-10-1T 2.8V the rest auto, then dial the HTT down to 225 from the 233 it automatically moves to. When I start the comp, it will show the memory running at DDR373 (an 11:9 divider) instead of DDR450... I can't seem to get it to stop doing this... It's very annoying. :-\

[GraveLayer]

I have my 2 Raptor 74G drives running in RAID0 off the NV controller. The only problem I had was I had to remove the Maxtgor IDE drive I had connected. For some reason Windows XP would hang with it installed. I've read that Asus has "issues" currently with Maxtor drives on the A8N-SLI and are working on a BIOS fix. Guess I'll leave that HD out for now.
The only question I had was what Stripe size to use. I'm a gamer and have used a 128K stripe in the past as it seemed faster than 16k, 32k, or 64k for map loading. But this time I set it up with the "optimal" setting. Even the manual doesn't say what that setting is........

[DaveB]

You all are getting some pretty impressive OC's there in the 280s-300s!
You have to run at 2T to get the DDR over 250 MHz.

[Capt_Caveman]

My A8N-SLI D board should be arriving today. Reading this thread, is the 245mhz limit on the memory at 1T a mobo issue that can be fixed with a bios update?

[GraveLayer]

The 1004 final bios came out today. There is a net 1005 beta out now ;)
I'll stick with the 1004 final for now.
I have not been able to get higher than 230fsb stable at 3338 1T Cas settings (DDR400).
I think playing with 2T and maybe DDR333 ram settings would prove to take my AMD3000 higher.......I just would like to know what has worked with others with the same CPU.

[DaveB]

I sent you an email. But you need to go to 2T and set the PCI at 33.33 MHz.

[tinytool]

The 1004 final bios came out today. There is a net 1005 beta out now ;)
I'll stick with the 1004 final for now.
I have not been able to get higher than 230fsb stable at 3338 1T Cas settings (DDR400).
I think playing with 2T and maybe DDR333 ram settings would prove to take my AMD3000 higher.......I just would like to know what has worked with others with the same CPU.

I can't get anything to show up on the beta bios section at Asus. Anyone else having this problem?

[LoneWolf121188]

how is the 1004 final release? Did you update with the windows tool or from a floppy? is there a difference? I can't hit 2.5GHz with my comp so far...

I dont see anything under the beta tab either.

[el]

DaveB what stepping is your winchester?

[Barshow]

Can any one help I installed nTune 200.23 and got it working with help from your forum, but I had one crash when NVMonitor was running now the visual Interface for it, comes up garbled I have uninstalled and Re-installed with no Joy but I still get a garbled Interface help. Processor

Model : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+
Speed : 2.01GHz
Model Number : 3200 (estimated)
Performance Rating : PR3015 (estimated)
Type : Standard
L2 On-board Cache : 512kB ECC Synchronous, Write-Back, 16-way set, 64 byte line size

Mainboard
Bus(es) : PCI PCIe USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
MP Support : 1 CPU(s)
MP APIC : No
System BIOS : Phoenix Technologies, LTD ASUS A8N-SLI DELUXE ACPI BIOS Revision 1004-001
System : System manufacturer System name
Mainboard : ASUSTeK Computer INC. A8N-SLI DELUXE
Total Memory : 1GB DDR-SDRAM

Chipset 1
Model : Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Athlon 64 / Opteron HyperTransport Technology Configuration
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 1005MHz (2010MHz data rate)
Total Memory : 1GB DDR-SDRAM
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 201MHz (402MHz data rate)

Video System
Monitor/Panel : Plug and Play Monitor
Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT

Operating System(s)
Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP/2002 Home (Win32 x86) 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 2)

[GraveLayer]

how is the 1004 final release? Did you update with the windows tool or from a floppy? is there a difference? I can't hit 2.5GHz with my comp so far...

I dont see anything under the beta tab either.
I was running the beta 1004-001, I then downloaded the 1004 final and used the Asus windows utility to flash. Worked much easier then the DOS boot disk way :)

[OC-Master]

I've come across a strange problem:

using BIOS 1004.1

after step 4 of post 24, which is sucessful, I want to set the memory to run asynch to the HTT (my ram tops out at around 220)

but the moment I set RAM Speed to 333, the motherboard drops to 3x HTT, even thout it's still set at 4x HTT :confused:

Ok,

It appears the 1004 Official bios doesnt resolves the HTT issue. This is not a good sign.


OC-Master

[OC-Master]

I was running the beta 1004-001, I then downloaded the 1004 final and used the Asus windows utility to flash. Worked much easier then the DOS boot disk way :)

Good stuff,

The Asus windows utility allows you the ability to clear the checksum which is a very good thing. This actually can fix many problems that wont fix so easily flashing with Dos. It seems, dos doesnt fully erase some elements in the bios so I would ask everyone to stay clear of the Dos flash utility if possible.

If you just installed your motherboard for the first time, flash with the dos utility the 1004 bios and then when you get Windows up and running, re-flash with Windows ASUS update utility and you'll be good to go.


OC-Master

[tinytool]

Ok,

It appears the 1004 Official bios resolves the HTT issue. I havnt had my HTT reset to 3X since upgrading to this bios. its not at 1133MHz FSB :)


OC-Master

I flashed to the 104 official bios and still having problems with the HTT reseting to three in windows. Anyone else have this same problem?

[OC-Master]

I flashed to the 104 official bios and still having problems with the HTT reseting to three in windows. Anyone else have this same problem?

Did you flash with the ASUS Update Utility? Did you clear the Checksum values? Did you reset your bios to 4X manually after restarting?

EDIT: I changed a bios setting this morning and the stupid thing reset back to 3X according to nTune. Looks like we are both in the same boat.


OC-Master

[tinytool]

Yeah did all that, it still reading 780 260*3. How has your overlclocks been with the new bios I seem to have lost a little bit.

[OC-Master]

Yeah did all that, it still reading 780 260*3. How has your overlclocks been with the new bios I seem to have lost a little bit.

Still running good at 2550MHz, with Primed stable 24Hours. 2550MHz still seems to be my maximum overclock before Prime fails.

If you dont relie on prime for stability, I can run SuperPI right untill 2710MHz


OC-Master

[Barshow]

Does any know what is going here , ClockGen says I have a CPU of 2009.96, A HTT 200.93, MEM 200.93, PCI-E 100.00, PCI 33.49. Bios says its HTT is 200.00, I updated Bios with Asus update V6.03.01. to ver 104 Final with clear cmos checksum to load default Bios setting CHECKED. I thought that flashing the Bios would clear everything back to default with no over clocking thats if you can call .93 on the HTT overclocking But no I still show unchanged figures. Model : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+
Speed : 2.01GHz

Mainboard
System BIOS : Phoenix Technologies, LTD ASUS A8N-SLI DELUXE ACPI BIOS Revision 1004 Final System : System manufacturer System name

Total Memory : 1GB Viking DDR-SDRAM 3.3.3.8

Chipset 1
Model : Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Athlon 64 / Opteron HyperTransport Technology Configuration
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 1005MHz (2010MHz data rate)
Total Memory : 1GB DDR-SDRAM
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 201MHz (402MHz data rate)

Video System
Monitor/Panel : Plug and Play Monitor
Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT

Operating System(s)
Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP/2002 Home (Win32 x86) 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 2)

[///M3]

Flashing the BIOS may not clear parameter ram which stores the real time clock and other system settings. The manual, page 2-17, instructs on clearing RTC ram.

[LoneWolf121188]

Does any know what is going here , ClockGen says I have a CPU of 2009.96, A HTT 200.93, MEM 200.93, PCI-E 100.00, PCI 33.49. Bios says its HTT is 200.00, I updated Bios with Asus update V6.03.01. to ver 104 Final with clear cmos checksum to load default Bios setting CHECKED. I thought that flashing the Bios would clear everything back to default with no over clocking thats if you can call .93 on the HTT overclocking But no I still show unchanged figures.

what exactly is your question? Its completly normal to be +/- 1 or 2 MHz on the HTT. Those readings there are stock, so if you flashed the BIOS, those are the ##s you should get.

I highly reccomend to everyone to run 1004. I was stuck at 226x11 with 1003, but I'm at 241x11 now with no problems (so far).

To the people having problems with the PCI bus lock or the HT multi: open CPU-Z and go to the mainboard tab. what does it say under "Rev."? A3 or A2? I assume this means Silicon Revision A03 and A02, and I heard people with the A02s were having some major OCing problems that were resolved in the A03 silicon revision. The only way to know for sure is to look under the nf4 HSF. It should have A02 or A03 printed right on the nf4 chip. FYI, the problems with A02 are presumed to be hardware and not software, so its not something you can fix with a simple BIOS update. Sorry.

[DaveB]

Mine's an A3. :clap:

[tinytool]

Same here

[Sniper.nkc]

Where are the benchmarks? Pics? DFI is full of benchies, but where is Assus?

[LoneWolf121188]

Where are the benchmarks? Pics? DFI is full of benchies, but where is Assus?

*Points to sig* Benches are there. Pics of what, though?

Asus only has one "s", unless you meant to say "Assus", in which case I say: Go back to your DFI thread!!!

[GraveLayer]

Well with Cas 34410 2T settings and HT at auto I'm running 250fsb so far now :)
Starting Prime95 now

Rev A3 board for me also.

[OC-Master]

I'm now in the process of testing the 1005.003 Beta bios which as of today is now available from the ASUS website for download.

> So far, I've noticed that I can no longer run CL2.5-4-4-8-2T 566MHz and now I have to back down to CL3.0-4-4-8-2T. Funny thing is, in CL2.5, my single stick of OCZ4400 scores exactly 3820MB/s after 10 Sandra tests. After this new bios and using CL3, I'm now scoring 3828MB/s, which is better than in CL2.5 lol. BTW, in CL2.5 I can bearly boot into the bios now to change my CAS back to 3.0.

> I'm taking it that they are tweaking the memory portion of the bios this time around. Hopefully they will correct the HTT bug eventually and give us back our 1.65v CPU voltage choice :bang head


OC-Master

[MethanolMan]

Hi Oc Master.

Thanks for all of the help in this thread!!!!!

My goal is to have a stable stock pc.

But would like your info on what to change as for the basics of being stable
Im stable so far. OR just your Imput in general If you dont mind as to what not to do and to do for some basic help or info.

I was having all kinds of problems but since my power supply purchase of the Pc power and cooling sli IM good where i use to be or have many problems.

My cpuz says im A3

MY Proc is a FX 55

MY Memory is corsair xms 2225 I have 2 gigs of this. What its at now acording to cpuz is 2.0 3 3 5 11 16 I did not set the memory to that its just at that by its self .I am sort of new to pc building as this is only my 2 build and first with amd.

I have 2 raptors set up as stripped and optimal which is 64 k I think ? but they are striped for sure.

I have Bios 104 not beta but the final one.

My heat sink is a gigabyte rocked cooler pro

My video card is a Evga 6800 ultra.
The drivers are the ones that came with it. I have tried the 67 ones
but once in a while my pc would freeze in game. Have not had it happen as of yet with these.

I do have the 693 platform kit drivers

Am i for getting any other drivers that i need

Sorry for the dumb questions bro but i dont have anyone in my area to help me
and Im not sure of all of the drivers that i need to update.

The bios and the the platform drivers are the only ones that i no I need to update. But a list of what drivers there are and the ones to update would help me out a lot.

Again sorry to ask these dumb questions but Im just not sure if i have all of the stuff i need to update updated yet.

My 3dMark 05 score is not good but im stock and happy here is a link if this helps

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=618381

Thanks so much for your time MethanolMan

[Aurora40]

I have not been able to get higher than 230fsb stable at 3338 1T Cas settings (DDR400).
I noticed we have the same RAM. Have you noticed the Ballistix doesn't seem nearly as overclockable as the article Anandtech did on it? Or at least not at anywhere close to the tight timings they were using?

[OC-Master]

Hi Oc Master.

Thanks for all of the help in this thread!!!!!

My goal is to have a stable stock pc.

But would like your info on what to change as for the basics of being stable
Im stable so far. OR just your Imput in general If you dont mind as to what not to do and to do for some basic help or info.

I was having all kinds of problems but since my power supply purchase of the Pc power and cooling sli IM good where i use to be or have many problems.

My cpuz says im A3

MY Proc is a FX 55

MY Memory is corsair xms 2225 I have 2 gigs of this. What its at now acording to cpuz is 2.0 3 3 5 11 16 I did not set the memory to that its just at that by its self .I am sort of new to pc building as this is only my 2 build and first with amd.

I have 2 raptors set up as stripped and optimal which is 64 k I think ? but they are striped for sure.

I have Bios 104 not beta but the final one.

My heat sink is a gigabyte rocked cooler pro

My video card is a Evga 6800 ultra.
The drivers are the ones that came with it. I have tried the 67 ones
but once in a while my pc would freeze in game. Have not had it happen as of yet with these.

I do have the 693 platform kit drivers

Am i for getting any other drivers that i need

Sorry for the dumb questions bro but i dont have anyone in my area to help me
and Im not sure of all of the drivers that i need to update.

The bios and the the platform drivers are the only ones that i no I need to update. But a list of what drivers there are and the ones to update would help me out a lot.

Again sorry to ask these dumb questions but Im just not sure if i have all of the stuff i need to update updated yet.

My 3dMark 05 score is not good but im stock and happy here is a link if this helps

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=618381

Thanks so much for your time MethanolMan

MethanolMan,

Go with the 128K strips since most files the average person accesses is more than exceptable of using 128K strips.

So far, the only drivers I can recommend to you is the ASUS ones found onboard on your ASUS Motherboard installation CD. For graphics, I personally use the latest 75.90 drivers which you can find from Guru3D.com .

I'm currently beta testing the 1005.003 and 004 bios to check for stability issues and so fourth. The memory sub-system has been tweaked a bit in the 1005 series which should help improve memory bandwidth on memory running 1T timings or CL3.


OC-Master

[MethanolMan]

Thanks oc master for all of your help !!!!! ***EDIT*** The guru3d drivers are better then the other ones that I useing thanks bro.

I need to redo the raid and then reformat ? for the 128k strips ?
Thanks for the info on the video dirvers bro I will go and check them out now



If you ever want to play call of dudy U O check our my clans servers

We would love to have you stop by make yourself at home

All the best my Friend Peace MethanolMan

[GraveLayer]

I noticed we have the same RAM. Have you noticed the Ballistix doesn't seem nearly as overclockable as the article Anandtech did on it? Or at least not at anywhere close to the tight timings they were using?
I'm stable at 250fsb with 34410 timings. 2.85v (ram) 1.5125v (CPU)
Still not above 6K on Sandra Memory :(

[DaveB]

At 250 MHz you'll need tighter timings than that to get decent memory bandwidth scores. Can't you run at 2.5-3-3-7 and 1T at 245 MHz with your Ballistics TCCD? I don't think you can run at 1T much over 245 MHz or so.

[Barshow]

After I changed the ram from Viking DDR400 to
Corsair CMX512-3200C2, A week ago my system has not crashed.
I used Clock Gen to Tweak. Because it seems to do what it says.
Ntune NvMonitor Gui got corrupted prior to the new ram it would be nice to have working.
I have tried re-installing Ntune Plus I used a reg cleaner but I still get back the same corrupted Gui I think it could be I corrupted some kind of help program in windows but which one I think Ntune is Written in XML.

I think I could get more out of this Box but I am taking things slow.

Model : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+.
AT 2.489.99 GHz.

Mainboard ASUS A8N-SLI DELUXE.
System BIOS : Revision 1004 Final System.

Total Memory : 2x512 Corsair C2 DDR-SDRAM 3.3.3.8 .
HTT 249mhz.
Gpu core 540 mhz.
Gpu Mem 1.10 Ghz
2x XFX: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
ForceWare VER 71.81
Operating System(s)
Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP/2002 Home (Win32 x86) 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 2)

3Dmark2001 se 22141 in sli mode.
3Dmark2001 se 21473 one card.

[LoneWolf121188]

did anyone else notice a drop in scores when they moved to the 1004 final BIOS, or was that just me? I could OC much higher vs 1003, but with 1004, my 3DM05 scores dropped 80pts or so, and I had to use those extra 300MHz that 1004 gave me to get to the same scores I did with 1003.

As anyone tried increasing the PCIe bus speed? Is there a performance increase that goes along with that, or is it unnessicarry?

[OC-Master]

did anyone else notice a drop in scores when they moved to the 1004 final BIOS, or was that just me? I could OC much higher vs 1003, but with 1004, my 3DM05 scores dropped 80pts or so, and I had to use those extra 300MHz that 1004 gave me to get to the same scores I did with 1003.

As anyone tried increasing the PCIe bus speed? Is there a performance increase that goes along with that, or is it unnessicarry?

My scores seem to be fine. My problem was going to the 1005.003 and .004 beta bios. Those two bios'es are terrible and I highly recommend you stay away from them if you are a heavy overclocker and have your memory running at a very high speed.

The 1005.003 actually currupted my OS and many files that were within.

1004 Official is the best bios to date. Qfan being fixed is a dream come true for me. If your not already using Qfan, go hook up it now!


OC-Master

[Banboss]

for HTT 3X Reverting Bug :

you must Clear CMOS when update bios, normaly it's good after for take the HTT 4X or 5X ;)

sorry for my poor english :bday: i'm french

Thanks to guigui42 :attn:
http://forum.hardware.fr/forum2.php?post=638355&cat=1&config=hardwarefr.inc&cache=cache&p=1&page=186&sondage=0&owntopic=0&word=&spseudo=guigui42&currentnum=3917576#t3917576

[///M3]

OC-Master,

You will have my undying admiration if you can figure out why I CANNOT get WinXP to install on my WDC Raptor 74. With a new mobo (RMA) it installed on my old and slow Maxtor ATA133 the first try. The Raptor passes all WDC diags just fine and the WDC tech says call Microsoft--which I have already done (Microsoft Research Support, not just 1st level). I'm using BIOS 1004 Final and have read the manual thoroughly. The raptor is working great as a D: drive--reading and writing files perfectly.

The install fails after successfully formating the raptor and copying all XP files to it, then in the reboot into GUI setup it immediately fails with the error "File missing or corrupt: D:\Windows\System32\hal.dll"

I've even expanded a new copy of hal.dll from the install CD i386 directory and it still fails with the same error. I'm MCSA, Network+, and A+ certified and I guess I'm just too deep into this and would really appreciate a few fresh ideas.

Got any?

[reddywing1]

This link seems to address your problem. Hope it helps.

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm

[///M3]

Thanks! That link and Microsoft Tech Article #314477 hold the keys to my issue I'm pretty sure. Now I just have to spend the time to work through the fixes.

[///M3]

The SATA Raptor is now configured correctly with WinXP and will
boot as the D: drive in a multi-OS system. I ran a Western Digital Corp new
drive configuration utility that I downloaded and was able to copy the boot
sector and all subdirectories and files from the ATA133 C: drive over to D: (like
an xcopy I guess). I then edited boot.ini to make sure the ARC paths for
both C: and D: drive were correct and made D: the default boot drive. The D:
drive booted right up after this and is still working fine with the
exception of a few minor application pathing issues that will be resolved soon.

[Theman7747]

Hey guys, just saw that the 1006 official and 1007.002 Beta bios are out. Hope they are better and that you guys can get everything worked out by the time I get my computer together!

[reddywing1]

Hey guys, just saw that the 1006 official and 1007.002 Beta bios are out. Hope they are better and that you guys can get everything worked out by the time I get my computer together!

Yea, they are out. But they still have not fixed the 1T timing limitation. I am beginning to wonder if Asus CAN fix it.

[nicknomo]

probably going to need a new revision of the board.

[reddywing1]

probably going to need a new revision of the board.

I very much suspect you are right. But, jeez, I do hope you're wrong. Hope is about all I have at this point. Have already spent the money. All I can do is sit and wait.

Early adapter blues...........

[Enigma422]

Anybody tryout the new 1006 BIOS? Just checked Asus' website and the latest BIOS revision is 1006.

[///M3]

I'm running it but not OCing with it. The SLI mode selection option has disappeared. Just shows the EX-Plug warning light choice.

[///M3]

I'm running 1006 but not OCing with it. The SLI mode selection option has disappeared. Just shows the EZ-Plug warning light choice.

[kootenay]

Help - Trying to install NV Raid 0 across two new WD 74 GIG Raptor's - then the wheels come off.
Raid 0 sets up but install of WinXP only shows 74 gig not 140+ ??
So frustrated I moved over to the Sicontroller - yes - went through Bios turned off NV on Si - it gets to windows and quits. Says there are no HD's on the system.

This is driving me nuts - help !!! :mad:

A8NSLI Deluxe
FX55
2 X 512 Corsair 3200XL
2 X 74 WD Raptor
Winfast PX6600GT (for now)

[///M3]

I feel for you! Almost lost my sanity just trying to get WinXP to install on a SINGLE Raptor! What BIOS version are you using?

[reddywing1]

Help - Trying to install NV Raid 0 across two new WD 74 GIG Raptor's - then the wheels come off.
Raid 0 sets up but install of WinXP only shows 74 gig not 140+ ??
So frustrated I moved over to the Sicontroller - yes - went through Bios turned off NV on Si - it gets to windows and quits. Says there are no HD's on the system.

This is driving me nuts - help !!! :mad:

Are you installing the raid drivers at the F6 prompt when windows starts?

[Krashnicki]

I just did the same thing. Here are a few things to watch for. Make sure you have the hard drives hooked to the black sata connectors and not the red.

Next you will need to boot from the asus utility disk before installing windows. a list of drivers will appear. you will need to pick what driver you need and copy them to a floppy. I perfer to use the NV raid utility over the silicon utility. It gave me some troubles.

when booting from your windows disk you will see a message at the bottom to hit f6 if a third part raid or Scsi controller needs to be installed make sure you do that. Eventually windows will prompt to to insert the floppy disk with the drivers on it

[Lostinthewoods]

Hey guys, just saw that the 1006 official and 1007.002 Beta bios are out. Hope they are better and that you guys can get everything worked out by the time I get my computer together!

I'm runnig 1006 with no issues. Haven't tried overclocking with it yet....

[Aurora40]

Hey, a few things I've noticed with the 1006 bios. Anyone else notice them? For one, now if you set an overclock profile, then go set a RAM max speed, it doesn't reset your manual overclock settings. However, if you set the overclock settings first, it does seem to set the max mem speed back to auto. But being able to set them both is a big plus, especially in lieu of setting the multiplier/divider manually.

The other thing I've noticed is that it doesn't actually work... For example, I set my HTT to 210, then set the max to DDR400. Boot it up and it's at 1:1... :-\ I can't get past about 215MHz HT in windows with 3-3-3-10 @ 2.8v at 1:1. I'm not sure if it's the cpu or mem causing Prime95 to fail, but I kinda suspect cpu. I'd like to crank down the mem speed to be sure, though.

[JDRacer47]

Hey, a few things I've noticed with the 1006 bios. Anyone else notice them? For one, now if you set an overclock profile, then go set a RAM max speed, it doesn't reset your manual overclock settings. However, if you set the overclock settings first, it does seem to set the max mem speed back to auto. But being able to set them both is a big plus, especially in lieu of setting the multiplier/divider manually.

The other thing I've noticed is that it doesn't actually work... For example, I set my HTT to 210, then set the max to DDR400. Boot it up and it's at 1:1... :-\ I can't get past about 215MHz HT in windows with 3-3-3-10 @ 2.8v at 1:1. I'm not sure if it's the cpu or mem causing Prime95 to fail, but I kinda suspect cpu. I'd like to crank down the mem speed to be sure, though.
Setting it at 400 is 1:1, ignore what is said in bios. 333 is 5:4, 266 is 3:2. It isn't a max DDR frequency, it is the memory divider.

Also, Prime keeps failing because they are still working on the memory part of the Bios. Try prime with little memory mixed in and I bet it runs fine. 10 more bios releases and I bet it is finally fixed

The settings are stupid and not explained....blame Asus. :)

[reddywing1]

Setting it at 400 is 1:1, ignore what is said in bios. 333 is 5:4, 266 is 3:2. :)

Your logic is fine but the math is just a little off. DDR333 setting will yield a 6:5 ratio. :)

[swindelljd]

Ok being a good OC newbie I decided to try 1007.002 the other night. So I started playing around with all the usual OC suspects and I came across a couple of things that I'd like to share.
I did all my testing exclusively with memtest86 booted from a CD so that if I had a "bad" OC config I wouldn't corrupt the boot sectors of my system.


1) My memory (2x512MB Corsair CMX512-3200C2PT) has a "magic number" for throughput of 2400MB/S. The closer I got to that the more likely I was to get a hang or complete failure to POST. Does this make sense?

2) The max memory setting AND the cpu multiplier work together. So to say that setting your max mem to 333 means a 5:6 (or 400 * 0.833) ratio based on 333/400 is a bit of an over simplification.

I believe the formula is actually
Round(CPU Multiplier / (Max Mem/400),0)

So for example
Mem Divider = 266
CPU Multiplier = 8
Effective Mem Divider = 12
FSB = 300
CPU Mhz = 2400
Mem Mhz = 200

A slightly more complicated example (my runtime settings):
Mem Divider = 266
CPU Multiplier = 8.5
Effective Mem Divider = 13
FSB = 306.5
CPU Mhz = 2605.4
Mem Mhz = 200.4

I created a matrix and checked a couple of these with CPU-z and I got the result I predicted. I'd appreciate any feedback.

NOTE: Save the following as a csv and then open in excel.
---START CSV---
,,,,CPU Multiplier ,,
Memory Divider,Ratio (Divider/400),9,8.5,8,7.5,7
500,1.25,7,7,6,6,6
433,1.0825,8,8,7,7,6
400,1,9,9,8,8,7
333,0.8325,11,10,10,9,8
266,0.665,14,13,12,11,11
200,0.5,18,17,16,15,14
---END CSV---

However I don't think that is the end to the memory throughput mystery. I dont quite have a handle on the formula for different memory latency settings.


John

[Aurora40]

Wow, great info! I guess the memspeed setting makes sense when you explain it that way. Also, your chart worked when I set my multi to 8x, and max to DDR333. I got a CPU/10 speed for ram.

So I start out at 225x8 (/10 for mem) to get 1800MHz, and about DDR373 or so. I crank it up in windows to about an 1880MHz, which still leaves the mem underclocked. Prime95 gives errors almost immediately. Reduce to 1850ish, and it runs fine through the whole first quicktest part (those first 4 tests).

I think my cpu is just a crappy overclocker. So I can get 1845MHz without needing to reduce the HTT multiplier or making the mem asynch, so I'll just run it at 205x9, and 1:1 mem and x5 HT. Everything's stable this way, and I guess a 2.5% overclock is better than no overclock, right?

Edit: this was all at 1.4125v

[reddywing1]

Hey Aurora,
A 2.5% o/c would be the lowest maximum I have ever seen. That's got to be pretty disappointing for you. Anything we can do to help?

[Aurora40]

Hey Aurora,
A 2.5% o/c would be the lowest maximum I have ever seen. That's got to be pretty disappointing for you. Anything we can do to help?

Heheh, well I paid for a 1.8GHz cpu, and I guess that's what I got... :) I will keep playing around with it for sure, though. And, I take consolation that my graphics card overclocks like a champ at about a 20% OC before I start to get any artifacting (about 595/1245 max).

[reddywing1]

Heheh, well I paid for a 1.8GHz cpu, and I guess that's what I got... :) I will keep playing around with it for sure, though. And, I take consolation that my graphics card overclocks like a champ at about a 20% OC before I start to get any artifacting (about 595/1245 max).

You really got a good GPU overclock. The XFX is an excellent card and that is some consolation. Don't give up on your CPU. You have to be able to pull some more MHZ out of it somehow.

Good luck.............

[Cisco Kid]

Looks as though I will be buying the SLI Deluxe board, questioon guys. I finally secured my second Chaintech SE6600GT PCI-e card. So now I have 2 for SLI but I want to know if there is enough clearance between each card to install NV Silencer on each.

Appreciate the feedback

Cisco Kid

[OC-Master]

Looks as though I will be buying the SLI Deluxe board, questioon guys. I finally secured my second Chaintech SE6600GT PCI-e card. So now I have 2 for SLI but I want to know if there is enough clearance between each card to install NV Silencer on each.

Appreciate the feedback

Cisco Kid

Yup,

There is more than enough clearence on the ASUS A8N-SLI for installing the nV Silencers. I have a question for you,, fore where did you spot those nV Silencer 6 coolers?

Reason I ask is I too want to pick up two of those bad boiz so that I can bring my temps down alot. Stock heatsinks suck big time and this is exactly what I need to get a high overclock.


OC-Master

[OC-Master]

OK people, its been awhile but I'm currently testing the 1007SD.03 beta bios to see how much of an improvement it holds. So far, I've primed 30min as I type this at 2575MHz which would crap out after 10min before. We'll see if this thing will do an hour or more.

EDIT: almost 1 hour into Prime95 now, and I've noticed the Vcore has gone up a tiny shade since the 1004 official bios. The A8N-SLI now gives me a solid 1.585V in CPU-Z with it bouncing back and forth between that and 1.600Vcore. With the 1004 bios and my 600 Watt Enermax Noisetaker, my vcore was at a solid 1.575v and never got to 1.58v let alone 1.60v.

EDIT: OK, passed the 2 hour mark in Prime95.. This is a new record for this CPU, and all I did was upgrade from Bios 1004 to 1007SD.03 . I'll keep everybody posted on if this thing makes it to the 12 hour mark.

EDIT: 10 Hours of Prime95!! with two instances :) I have never seen this chip be this stable on this board ever untill today.

So there you have it, the 1007 bios gives you a little voltage increase which helps alot for us Winnie people.


OC-Master

[OC_Rick]

I was playing with 1003 beta bios and when I set my memory to ddr500 it drops my cpu to a 1.75 speed instead of 2.0. I am new to this overclocking thing, but you guys are really opening up some doors with this site. I am trying to get my cpu to run around 2.4 and get better 3dmark05 score with this awesome Video card I am using(Currently its 5600). Ntune says my memory is at 500mhtz and my system performance benchmark goes up about 15 pts when choosing DDR500 ....WHY?

MEMORY: If I use any other manual settings on my memory speed I get blue screens when I boot-up.Using CPUZ it posts my mem as being pc3200 max and when setting maually to ddr400 I get a nice blue screen when booting. Mem setting default is 3-4-4-8.

PCI-x: I tried upping my PCI express to 125 mhtz using clock-gen. System was stable untill I tried to boot and recieved a 200 score increse on 3Dmark05.

Can you guys give me some tips on what settings I should change in bios? Like HTT multipliers PCI-x increases, DRAM changes and what order to do them. Also some voltage settings considering my cpu core voltage seems low at 1.4v with clock-gen.

Anything appreciated...

Rick

[OC_Rick]

I just increased my HTT to x4 bumped my CPU multiplier to 9x which upped my CPU speed to 2.25 Ghtz...my mem seems to run at 415 in the Ntune giving me a score like 345.

My DRAM setting is still at DDR500. I was getting a system performance score of like 124 out of 130, which could be good or bad.

After running 3Dmark05 I recieved a 5710 score which still doesn't seem all that good. I don;t think I want to mess with the PCI-x clock untill I get some advice from you guys.

Rick

[OC_Rick]

OK using ver. 1003 beta bios these are my new numbers:

CPU 2.500 : was getting system benchmarks in NTune about 40 pts higher then when I was running things stock

HTT 250 : If I mess with this I get some system problems

RAM 208 mhtz 2.3.3.7 : Seems stable, but the boot is more stable with 3.3.3.7 (running kingston hyperx pc4000). Don't know if I like this ram yet.

PCI-x 100 Mhtz : Last time I messed with this I ended up having to re-install WIN XP.

Going to run 3Dmark05 and toss an edit with my score.
----------------------------------

I am new to overclocking and slightly crazy for using this comp. as a lab, but you know.....I am crazy and or possesed.

Any input or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I was trying to update to BIOS 1006 through the ASUS installer but I am having trouble gettin beyond 1003 as a choice. I can download the 1006 to disk, but can't seem to figure out how to install it through the update utility.

Rick

[OC-Master]

OK using ver. 1003 beta bios these are my new numbers:

CPU 2.500 : was getting system benchmarks in NTune about 40 pts higher then when I was running things stock

HTT 250 : If I mess with this I get some system problems

RAM 208 mhtz 2.3.3.7 : Seems stable, but the boot is more stable with 3.3.3.7 (running kingston hyperx pc4000). Don't know if I like this ram yet.

PCI-x 100 Mhtz : Last time I messed with this I ended up having to re-install WIN XP.

Going to run 3Dmark05 and toss an edit with my score.
----------------------------------

I am new to overclocking and slightly crazy for using this comp. as a lab, but you know.....I am crazy and or possesed.

Any input or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I was trying to update to BIOS 1006 through the ASUS installer but I am having trouble gettin beyond 1003 as a choice. I can download the 1006 to disk, but can't seem to figure out how to install it through the update utility.

Rick

Save you bios to your hard drive in its own folder, than flash to 1004 official, then after you reboot and get back into windows, you can then reflash to 1006 or 1007SD.03 and it shouldnt be a problem. Also save your 1004 flash after flashing to 1004 just in case you want to roll back from 1007 or 1006.


OC-Master

[reddywing1]

Just womdering where this 1007SD.03 beta bios might be found for download? Any help is appreciated.

[Kektex]

Hey reddywing,

I believe you can find it at this site.

http://www.rhcf.com/sis-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=000027;p=0

[reddywing1]

Kektex,
Thanks for the feedback............

[KHF]

Hi,
My new A8N SLI Deluxe will be arrived tmr, anyone can tell me which BIOS should I flash it? 1004 or the 1007.03 ? stable is what I concern.

[autoMATTic]

Hey OC_MASTER does your board still always revert back to 3x HT???

[OC-Master]

Hey OC_MASTER does your board still always revert back to 3x HT???


Unfortunately yes,

I couldnt even begin to tell you why exactly they havnt fixed this very irritating bug.

On a side note, I've been down for awhile since my OS currupted from overclocking my ram too high with this new Bios. This bios definately still rocks thou.

They still need to give us more Vcore and more stable 1T clocks.


OC-Master

[RangerDave]

i got ocz ddr 533 enhanced latency platnum dual channel memory. i cant run past 220 with out it making the devider huge.. i cant get a 1:1 ratio after this.... at 1t or 2t. i cant figure out how to get it up..... my goal was to hit 263 w/ 1:1 but when i change to 263 my memory goes to like 165 mhz. its ****ing me off i didn't buy this memory to run at low speeds. can someone please help. ive tried bios 1003 1004 1006 1007.02 beta

[reddywing1]

Set "Max Memclock" in bios to ddr400. That will lock you to 1:1.

[RangerDave]

i tried but once i set a max memory mhz then my cpu goes to auto... then if i try to change that to set the pci lock then the ddr max mhz goes back to auto... its a never ending loop. i cant seem to do very well in 1:1 and im sure my memory can support it.. i set timings to 2.5-3-3-8-2t and i can do manual and set my cpu multi to 9 pci to 33.33 mhz pci-e to 115 mhz fsb to 220 (which still stays 1:1) and 2.75 vdimm and 1.5 vcore and then in windows with clock gen i can adjust but i cant adjust that high.... im using the new 1007.02 right now. can someone with a successful oc to around 250-263 mhz tell me abolutely everythign did in bios and in clock gen and ntune? thanx

[reddywing1]

Leave your PCI Clock Syc. at auto. That will lock your PCI and PCIe no matter where you set FSB. Set FSB to 201 and do your o/c work in Windows with clockgen. Set yor ram latency to the SPD spec. in CPUz. It will need to be 2T timing if you go over FSB245. Lower your HTT multiplier to 4X or even 3X if you go much above FSB250.
You should be ok for FSB263 assuming tour ram and cpu can get there.

In my own overclock shown in my sig below I have set the ram to DDR333 so that I can run it at 1T but also get a decent CPU overclock.

To do this right you should isolate each computer component which can fail and find that components top speed. The components are:

CPU
ram at 1T
ram at 2T
FSB
HTT multiplier

For example: to find max CPU speed set ram to DDR266 2T and all other timings at highest number. Set HTT multiplier to 3X. Start with FSB at highest known stable setting and rise gradually until a program like Prime95 dies. Then back of the FSB til it is stable. Play with voltage to achieve max seting and watch the temp. of the component you are testing where applicable.

Test all other settings the same way by underclocking all components exceprt the one you're looking at.

Good luck.

[RangerDave]

ive got everything where i want it... i just had to make my memory 2t and 3.0 insted of 2.5 (its rated for 2.5 @ 533 mhz) but im happy. in sisoft i get just abit under 6.2 gb/s its like 6.18 or something. only prob is clockgen dont reload settings on reboot :(
how i did it was i got my ram all @ auto except the 2t and 3-3-3-8. in the jumperfree section i got it at manual. 220 fsb (highest i could get it and it let me do 1:1) 1.5 vcore 2.75 vdimm. 9 multi pci-e 115 mhz 33.33 mhz pci.
then in windows in clock gen i set it to 263 and it stays and its fairly stable as far as i see. and temps are good too. anyone think theres somethign wrong with the tmep senser i got good case air curculation but i idle @ 33c cpu and 31 nb. and load highest ive seen is 37 cpu and 34 nb. im also on stock cooling until i get my water cooling. my 6800gt idles @ 53 though. i got a big 120 mm fan up front 80 mm on side right over cpu and 80mm antec temp controlled super quiet fan pushing out... oh and the 120mm fan on my ocz modstream 520w. if someone could help me out on making the settings stay perm that would be awsome thanx

[reddywing1]

Go to the ClockGen site. You can set it up to load settings on bootup with a simple script.

http://www.cpuid.com/clockgen.php

[OC_Rick]

I honestly don't see a 1007 bios version for the A8N - SLI. I see one for the deluxe but not the standard A8N-SLI .... I spent maybe 30 minutes checking the ASUS website.


I am running MY HTT at 250 and the multiplier is x4 HT....my cpu is set at x10 for 2.5 Ghtz. DOes these settings sound right? CPUZ detects my mem speed at 208 Mhtz and that its pc 3200.....its supposed to be DDR 500 and I was setting it the BIOS (version 1003 beta). I was using 1003 because it actually had ddr500 settings for DRAM. Why would the bios keep showing as DRAM as AUTO when I set the settings myself?

Hopefull someone can shed more light. I know a lot of this has been talked about in this topic but I am still a newb and trying to figure some more stuff out.

Rick

[KHF]

I honestly don't see a 1007 bios version for the A8N - SLI. I see one for the deluxe but not the standard A8N-SLI .... I spent maybe 30 minutes checking the ASUS website.


I am running MY HTT at 250 and the multiplier is x4 HT....my cpu is set at x10 for 2.5 Ghtz. DOes these settings sound right? CPUZ detects my mem speed at 208 Mhtz and that its pc 3200.....its supposed to be DDR 500 and I was setting it the BIOS (version 1003 beta). I was using 1003 because it actually had ddr500 settings for DRAM. Why would the bios keep showing as DRAM as AUTO when I set the settings myself?

Hopefull someone can shed more light. I know a lot of this has been talked about in this topic but I am still a newb and trying to figure some more stuff out.

Rick
did you try to set the DRAM to DDR400?

[reddywing1]

Set memory to DDR 400 in the bios which locks in a 1:1 ratio. Memory will then be running at 250x2 = DDR 500 when you set FSB to 250.

When you set the bios to DDR 500 and the FSB to 250 you are telling the computer to run your memory way too fast at about a 4:5 ratio.

[OC_Rick]

I am gonna go try it...last time I tried I think it caused a post failure. I still don't understand the 1:1 ratio with memory and I could use some direction to find a good FAQ for memory newbs. Good newb memory info seems hard to find.

Rick

[Aurora40]

I am gonna go try it...last time I tried I think it caused a post failure. I still don't understand the 1:1 ratio with memory and I could use some direction to find a good FAQ for memory newbs. Good newb memory info seems hard to find.

Rick
The "DDR400" setting doesn't really mean DDR400. What it means is the memory runs at the HTT speed. The HTT speed is supposed to be 200MHz, double that for the double data rate mem, and you get 400MHz memory. However, you are jacking your HTT up to 250MHz. So the "DDR400" setting, which really just means "use the HTT speed as is" really becomes a DDR500 setting.

Does that make more sense? Use DDR400. Also, the 1006 bios is the latest release, and that'll let you set the mem speed and the CPU stuff without one or the other changing to "auto". :)

[reddywing1]

Your PC4000 memory is also called DDR500. 4000/8 = 500mhz. The actual bus speed of the ram is 250 (500/2 because it is double data rate).

This is faster than the fsb of the AMD64 which is 200mhz.

PC3200 ram or DDR400 (3200/8 = 400) has a bus speed of 200 (400/2 = 200).

AMD64 = 200 and DDR400 = 200. Since the buses are equal they are said to be 1:1. The main point here is that setting to DDR400 in the bios is locking in that 1:1 ratio. It has nothing to do with what ram is actually installed on the computer.

If you raise the computers FSB to 250 you will also raise the rams speed to 250 which is DDR500 (250x2 = 500) This would mean your CPU would be overclocked 25% (50/200) and your ram would be running at its rated speed of 250 (DDR500 = 250x2)

Setting a slower speed for ram in your bios such as DDR333 (5:6 or 333/400) will cause your ram to clock slower than the front side bus and increase at a slower rate. Because of the way the computer derives ram speed it is not exactly proportional to that 5:6 rate but it is very close.

For example: My ram is set at DDR333
When FSB = 200 ram = 164
When FSB = 250 ram = 205

[OC_Rick]

OOOOooOoo...thanks for the explanation! Makes complete sense now.

CPU running 2.5 Ghtz - winchester 3200+
HTT 250
Ht multiplier x4
CPU voltage stable at 1.55
RAM set to DDR400 is now running at 500 Mhtz (2gigs kingston)
x850 XT vid card is running stock 100 Mhtz PCI-E
SATA maxtor drive is running smoothe
40C vcore idle 55C running taxing games

5750 3Dmark05 score

I am loving this system so far! Should I change anything if I want to push my HTT up to about 260-270?....maybe drop my ram to DDR 333?

Rick

[reddywing1]

I am loving this system so far! Should I change anything if I want to push my HTT up to about 260-270?....maybe drop my ram to DDR 333?

Rick

That is exactly why I use the DDR333 ram setting. I cannot use a 1T ram timing beyond FSB238. Therefore because the 1T timing effects my performance substantially, I use the DDR333 setting to ****** ram speed while increasing CPU speed. It is a tradeoff but it gives me my best 3DMark scores.

Push your fsb up slowly till you reach a fail point. Then drop the ram latencies to see if that lets you continue. Maybe increase voltage to see if that helps stability. Drop the ram fsb timing with the DDR333 setting as a last resort. Above FSB250, at some point you may need to reduce your Htt multiplier. My HTT kills me at about 1080 (270x4) so I had to drop back to 3x.

[JudgeDredd]

Question, I currently am running 104.001 bios and watercooling my chipset. everytime I start my computer I get a Chipset fan error message. It says you can disable it in the bios but it is not highlighted so you can't select it. I know I could throw a small fan in there but I rather not. Any suggestions?

This ****es me off too, though my problem is with the CPU fan. I've got it connected to my fan controller. A simple workaround is to hookup another fan to that connecter. that should fix it.

Just to let ya'll know, in BIOS 1007, they added the option to disable the CPU fan warning.

[OC_Rick]

Quic question also....I had the multiplier set to x4, but it looks like using NTune that my HT is running at 750 Mhtz??? what gives? Is this the annoying bug people are talking about?

Rick

[reddywing1]

Quic question also....I had the multiplier set to x4, but it looks like using NTune that my HT is running at 750 Mhtz??? what gives? Is this the annoying bug people are talking about?

Rick

Yes, I think that is the annoying bug that people are talking about. :) I never had that particular problem but I think it was just luck.

[OC_Rick]

I can't seem to get a 1006 bios cause I am not using the deluxe version of the motherboard. I don;t think it would be a good idea to try and install the deluxe versions anyway. If there is a 1006 non deluxe version PLEASE point me in the direction....thanks a bundle.


Also when I tried an install a deluxe version I get a message saying it doesn't match my ROM. Any input would be appreciated like always :)

Rick

[OC_Rick]

Interesting thing...I didn't have the AI booster installed on my computer. When I did actually install it, clicked once on the NOS feature (didn't select anything), proceeded to close it and recieved a system hang. When I rebooted the computer my HT multiplier went from x3 to x4. NTune was detecting HTT speed of 1000 MHz instead of 750 and the same with the AI booster....I promptly manned the ROFLcopter and grabbed a brew.

NON DELUXE BIOS versions: I have seen talk of versions 1003.006 beta (currently using 1003.002). None of which I can find on ASUS sites. I will do some more digging later and if anyone else has a location of these bios files please link it. Some of the old links I found do not work.

Rick

[///M3]

Chipset fan FAILED! And this is the second fan, the first was a howler. I wonder is this little fan actually does any good on a non-OC'd board.

But better yet, does anyone know of a source for a BETTER fan than ASUS uses? I'd install one in a NY second.

[OC-Master]

Chipset fan FAILED! And this is the second fan, the first was a howler. I wonder is this little fan actually does any good on a non-OC'd board.

But better yet, does anyone know of a source for a BETTER fan than ASUS uses? I'd install one in a NY second.

M3,

Their is alot of better Chipset cooling solutions out there. However, one reason ASUS choose this cooling solution was simply because of size. If you decide to go with other solutions, you might loose clearence for some devices such as some graphics cards that fit in the second PCI Express Slot.

I would recommend you contact ASUS, tell them exactly what is happening and they should be sending you an replacement fan in the mail ASAP.


OC-Master

[///M3]

Thanks. I decided to go with a Swiftech MCX159-A. It's tall but clears my EVGA 6600GTs just fine.

[OC-Master]

Updated the faq today on the original post. On a side note, Bios 1005S is out with unknown new features that I cannot explain. At this point of time I'm trying to figure out which is better, the 1007SD.03 or this new 1005S bios both being betas but with the 1005S appearently being newer.


OC-Master

[swindelljd]

OC-Master,
Where did you find 1005S? I looked on ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Socket_939/NVIDIA_Chipset/nForce4_SLI/A8N-SLI_Deluxe/ but only 1007.003 (and 1006) is there. I also checked the global site but no joy.

Do you have any preliminary results with 1005S? I'm really hoping to get past 230Mhz w/3-4-4-10 1T with my memory.

thanks,
John

[OC-Master]

OC-Master,
Where did you find 1005S? I looked on ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Socket_939/NVIDIA_Chipset/nForce4_SLI/A8N-SLI_Deluxe/ but only 1007.003 (and 1006) is there. I also checked the global site but no joy.

Do you have any preliminary results with 1005S? I'm really hoping to get past 230Mhz w/3-4-4-10 1T with my memory.

thanks,
John

Its for the non Deluxe edition of the A8N-SLI I believe.


OC-Master

[carlcote]

hello, I am stumped on the cpu voltage issue........in the bios the max voltage is like 1.55! This is no good to me because i have water cooling and I could get it a lot higher if i could change the vcore more...it wont start up if i change the fsb to more than 286ish.... so 2.6 is what its max is.....Is there a way to get around this with a different program? or is there a different bios i could load? If there is a different I can load, Is there anyway I can set up a new bios without reflashing? I dont want to flash because if I do it will reset the date on my computer therefor making my windows 64 trial invalid when I try to reboot. Help anyone?

[Happy13178]

I have a question regarding the PATA hard drives being corrupted unless they're on SATA converters....will this same problem affect optical drives, like cd/dvd-roms? and will keeping the PCI bus locked at 33.3 MHz prevent damage even if you do have a PATA drive attached? AND, will the same problem occur if you're using a PATA drive in an external firewire enclosure?

[OC-Master]

I have a question regarding the PATA hard drives being corrupted unless they're on SATA converters....will this same problem affect optical drives, like cd/dvd-roms? and will keeping the PCI bus locked at 33.3 MHz prevent damage even if you do have a PATA drive attached? AND, will the same problem occur if you're using a PATA drive in an external firewire enclosure?

Nope,

The bug seems to be only present with Hard Drives with CD/DVD drives working just fine in all cases. I've never heard of anyone complaining from the motherboard having an incompatibility from an optical device. The nForce4 just does not like PATA drives for some reason whether the PCI bus is locked at 33.3 or not.

I wouldnt worry about this bug thou since I'm betting your gonna either be on SATA or going out to get those convertors. The SATA portion of the IDE Bus master controller is much faster than the PATA side anyways (according to benchmarks with Sandra2K5 benching my PATA drives with Ribbon then with SATA cables hooked to SATA).


OC-Master

[swindelljd]

....will this same problem affect optical drives, like cd/dvd-roms? and will keeping the PCI bus locked at 33.3 MHz prevent damage even if you do have a PATA drive attached? AND, will the same problem occur if you're using a PATA drive in an external firewire enclosure?


Happy13178,
FWIW, I run my machine OC'ed anywhere between 2.5Ghz and 2.6Ghz with a FSB of 275Mhz to 306Mhz. I am using 2 x 80GB PATA drives on the secondary IDE controller on the mobo and have never experienced an issue with corruption. They are currently my bootable OS drives and are a RAID-1 configuration on the NVidia RAID controller.

I have been doing this starting with BIOS 1003 and am now running 1007-002.

I'd recommend testing before spending money on PATA to SATA converters.

John

[carlcote]

so no one has any ideas for me??? my post is about 5 up from this one

[reddywing1]

hello, I am stumped on the cpu voltage issue........in the bios the max voltage is like 1.55! This is no good to me because i have water cooling and I could get it a lot higher if i could change the vcore more...it wont start up if i change the fsb to more than 286ish.... so 2.6 is what its max is.....Is there a way to get around this with a different program? or is there a different bios i could load? If there is a different I can load, Is there anyway I can set up a new bios without reflashing? I dont want to flash because if I do it will reset the date on my computer therefor making my windows 64 trial invalid when I try to reboot. Help anyone?


If you reflash your bios from windows you can specify to not reset cmos. Your date will not change.

I thnk some of the earlier bios had more volt options but I am not sure. Later bios are for sure more stable.

[swindelljd]

hello, I am stumped on the cpu voltage issue........in the bios the max voltage is like 1.55! This is no good to me because i have water cooling and I could get it a lot higher if i could change the vcore more...it wont start up if i change the fsb to more than 286ish.... so 2.6 is what its max is.....Is there a way to get around this with a different program? or is there a different bios i could load? If there is a different I can load, Is there anyway I can set up a new bios without reflashing? I dont want to flash because if I do it will reset the date on my computer therefor making my windows 64 trial invalid when I try to reboot. Help anyone?

1. I think more recent BIOSes are tightening up the max voltage. I seem to recall the 1002 BIOS that came when I bought my mobo went higher than 1.55V so I suggest downgrading BIOS (1 rev 1004->1003->1002 at a time until you get to one that allows you to get a higher voltage)


Assuming when you say "it will reset the date" you mean change the system clock then
2a) I would unplug your XP 64-bit drive if you want to guarantee it doesnt get touched. There should be a DOS based flash option which you could boot from floppy (or maybe cd) and that way you should'nt (in theory) need a hard drive. Then once you get to a BIOS that does what you want you set the date to whatever you need in the BIOS and then plug your XP 64Bit drive back in and see if it boots.
OR
2b) buy a second drive and either
i) mirror it and then unplug the original and use the mirrored disk. that way if you have XP 64 problems due to BIOS date/times you just reflash to current BIOS, put your original drive back in and call it a day OR
ii) install a new OS on the second drive and use it for testing the BIOS changes (again unplugging your original drive).


Hope this helps.

John

[LoneWolf121188]

just flash, reboot, and go into the BIOS before it loads windows to change the time. that shouldn't change the time in windows.

Theres a new BIOS, BTW: 1007.004 Beta. 2005/04/07.

[OC-Master]

The Faq has been updated today to reflect the release of Beta bios 1007.004. This bios is insane for those of you who are intereted in thighter memory timings and higher CPU voltage.


OC-Master

[LoneWolf121188]

I'm wondering if I should switch to it. I had some (so far irreversable) problems after going to 1006 final (click the link in my sig)...I wonder if 1007.004 will help...

Are you guys still having the PCI bus lock problems? I was at 241x11 with IDE drives and 1004 final and everything was just fine.

[OC-Master]

I'm wondering if I should switch to it. I had some (so far irreversable) problems after going to 1006 final (click the link in my sig)...I wonder if 1007.004 will help...

Are you guys still having the PCI bus lock problems? I was at 241x11 with IDE drives and 1004 final and everything was just fine.

Havnt had any problems since 1004 final. It seems thou that when I went to CL2.5 for memory, the bios somehow made my ram unstable and currupted my machine slowly over time. The 1007 series seems to be much better in handling this CAS Corruption issue.

On that note, is there someone that could test this bios with 1T timings and a FSB above 240 and report if they achieve stability?


OC-Master

[LoneWolf121188]

I'd be happy to, once I get all these problems fixed.

[LoneWolf121188]

I'm at 241x11 and 2-3-3-7-1T CPU/13 (same settings as before) with 1007.004, and prime failed after 15 min. with 1004, it failed after over 30 hours. I think I know which BIOS I'm sticking with...

[OC-Master]

ASUS has once again added the option of selecting up to a 1.65v vcore option into the 1007.004 bios. I want everyone to cross their fingers in hopes we'll see an actual 1.65v+ when selecting 1.65v in the bios instead of getting only 1.58 while 1.65v is selected.

The 1007 Final should hopefully have this fixed. I'm gonna need 1.65v to get 2.60GHz+ stable. 1.60v doesnt seem to be enough since Prime will crap out after 7min with my CPU.

Note that this voltage issue seems to only be a problem with the Winchesters since the NewCastle Cores seem fine.

If anyone see's a newer bios since this release in the coming days, let me know ASAP. We just might see full selection of the vcore soon.

I'm also hearing rumors that the A8N-SLI is actually capable of 3.3v for the vdimm and can be selected with the bios if they ever choose to program the bios to allow us to access the full 3.3v. The capacitor actually pumps 3.3v to the regulator which in turn is limted from the bios.


OC-Master

[LoneWolf121188]

When I was at 1.65 briefly, CPU-Z reported something like 1.68. Where are you getting 1.58 while at 1.65 BIOS?

[///M3]

Nope,

The bug seems to be only present with Hard Drives with CD/DVD drives working just fine in all cases. I've never heard of anyone complaining from the motherboard having an incompatibility from an optical device. The nForce4 just does not like PATA drives for some reason whether the PCI bus is locked at 33.3 or not.

I wouldnt worry about this bug thou since I'm betting your gonna either be on SATA or going out to get those convertors. The SATA portion of the IDE Bus master controller is much faster than the PATA side anyways (according to benchmarks with Sandra2K5 benching my PATA drives with Ribbon then with SATA cables hooked to SATA).


OC-Master

Well, now you can say you've heard of it! I'm on my 3rd DVD-R/W drive and this one is an Asus! None have been able to write to either a CD-R or DVD-R. So far, the Asus techs have not come up with any likely explanation/fix. Are you guys saying that it may be worthwhile to try the PATA>SATA adapter and avoid the IDE bus altogether?

[LoneWolf121188]

that what it sounds like. IDK, my bus lock is working fine...

[OC-Master]

When I was at 1.65 briefly, CPU-Z reported something like 1.68. Where are you getting 1.58 while at 1.65 BIOS?

The 1.58v limitation affects the Winchesters and Venice CPUs only. Venice CPUs will most likely be hit worse.


OC-Master

[Pro*Banshee]

I've found that this board is a definate Software overclocker.

settings that have failed miserably in BIOS have been 2*prime stable for at least 8 hours.

My PCI lock works perfectly, I just have to set it to 33.33 MHz in bios (instead of to CPU speed). and this Parallel ATA corruption only happens when I set the PCI express bus higher than it should go (don't recommend this at all, stick with overclocking the video cards)

OCmaster: with your XFX 6600s' try volt modding them, I've been artifact free up to 85c, and I keep them around 70 peak @ 1.62 and 1.6 volts respectivley

[LoneWolf121188]

I've found that this board is a definate Software overclocker.

settings that have failed miserably in BIOS have been 2*prime stable for at least 8 hours.


thats very interesting...

FYI, I dropped it down to CPU/12, 2-3-3-7-1T, and 241x11, and prime failed at 15h 3min. Time to go back to 1004.

[RangerDave]

i can get up to 9x261 and anythign after that (in ut2004 mostely) i notice lines and **** all over the place and it gets worse the farther i go. would that be a pci-e issue since im @ 115 mhz? or cpu problem. i would like to gop back up to 266 which was my goal but i get graphical errors in games like nfsu2 ut2004 and far cry. im gonna experiment more but if anyone can help me out that would be great.

[AgentGreen]

Ok guys, what am I doing wrong here?

My system:
3500+ Winchester (1.4v 2.2GHz stock)
Asus A8N SLI - Deluxe (tried 1002, 1006, and now using 1007-004)
OCZ PC3200 Plat Rev2 (2-2-2-5@2.7v stock - all articles pertain it to overclocking very well)
550 Watt ACRyan reliable PSU.
120GB WD IDE drive (will replace with 2x SATA raptors running on the silicon RAID)

complete 1/2" Danger Den W/C setup, my CPU in the same loop as my graphic cards runs cooler then cool no matter how many volts I put into it,
*so my problem should not be heat or voltage*

After a thousand reboots I’ve tried many overclocks including this one that almost worked, but I CANT FIGURE OUT WHY ITS NOT TAKING! - (so frustrated :bang head )

I have isolated the problem to the memory:

240*11 = 2.6GHz (DDR333 6/5 divider)
So my memory it running stock 200 (400 DDR) 2-2-2-7

My FSB never exceeds 1000 (usually use 4x), and my PCI bus is confirmed locked by clockgen. All overclocks done in the bios.

Windows crashes with the blue hardware error screen ever time - yet it worked booting up in safe mode?
I’ve tried upping voltages, lowering the timings - nothing works, my ram should be able to handle this after reading countless similar overclocks, and im not exceeding the 1T frequency limit on this board RIGHT? (hell, even 2T does nothing!)

same thing happens if I try to get 2.6Ghz in 1:1 by going 237x11 (DDr400 1/1)
And lowering timings to 2-3-3-7 (tried 2.5-3-3-7 too).

I’m even having problems with a lesser overclock of 2.5GHZ (230*11 1/1 - various voltage combos) Windows will load but benchmarks have a 50% chance of crashing or my sound cuts out completely - why is this happening if my bus is confirmed locked?

And 2.4GHz (11x220 1/1) almost doesn’t seem worth it, I have to lower ram timings and my FSB takes a hit unless I run it at 5x (1100) - even this setting seems a bit shakey.

And finally any crazy combo like 300x8 3xHT (900FSB) (DDR 266 3/2 - to equal stock 200 (DDR400) speeds) doesn’t get past the logo screen.

Desperately seeking help here, I would like to believe it’s not my expensive RAM but my board? Or could it be my IDE drive being somehow not locked PATA bug? - It already did go corupt once.)

[OC-Master]

Ok guys, what am I doing wrong here?

My system:
3500+ Winchester (1.4v 2.2GHz stock)
Asus A8N SLI - Deluxe (tried 1002, 1006, and now using 1007-004)
OCZ PC3200 Plat Rev2 (2-2-2-5@2.7v stock - all articles pertain it to overclocking very well)
550 Watt ACRyan reliable PSU.
120GB WD IDE drive (will replace with 2x SATA raptors running on the silicon RAID)

complete 1/2" Danger Den W/C setup, my CPU in the same loop as my graphic cards runs cooler then cool no matter how many volts I put into it,
*so my problem should not be heat or voltage*

After a thousand reboots I’ve tried many overclocks including this one that almost worked, but I CANT FIGURE OUT WHY ITS NOT TAKING! - (so frustrated :bang head )

I have isolated the problem to the memory:

240*11 = 2.6GHz (DDR333 6/5 divider)
So my memory it running stock 200 (400 DDR) 2-2-2-7

My FSB never exceeds 1000 (usually use 4x), and my PCI bus is confirmed locked by clockgen. All overclocks done in the bios.

Windows crashes with the blue hardware error screen ever time - yet it worked booting up in safe mode?
I’ve tried upping voltages, lowering the timings - nothing works, my ram should be able to handle this after reading countless similar overclocks, and im not exceeding the 1T frequency limit on this board RIGHT? (hell, even 2T does nothing!)

same thing happens if I try to get 2.6Ghz in 1:1 by going 237x11 (DDr400 1/1)
And lowering timings to 2-3-3-7 (tried 2.5-3-3-7 too).

I’m even having problems with a lesser overclock of 2.5GHZ (230*11 1/1 - various voltage combos) Windows will load but benchmarks have a 50% chance of crashing or my sound cuts out completely - why is this happening if my bus is confirmed locked?

And 2.4GHz (11x220 1/1) almost doesn’t seem worth it, I have to lower ram timings and my FSB takes a hit unless I run it at 5x (1100) - even this setting seems a bit shakey.

And finally any crazy combo like 300x8 3xHT (900FSB) (DDR 266 3/2 - to equal stock 200 (DDR400) speeds) doesn’t get past the logo screen.

Desperately seeking help here, I would like to believe it’s not my expensive RAM but my board? Or could it be my IDE drive being somehow not locked PATA bug? - It already did go corupt once.)

AgentGreen,

Maybe I missed something but have you confirmed that your HTT isnt stuck at 5X? A horrible bug I've found was that sometimes on flashing the bios, the HTT would be stuck at 5X for some reason even when I set 3X or 4X in the bios. A good way of telling if this is your problem is to run the monitor utility in nTune.

2nd, are you positive that your CPU can operate at 2.6GHz or behond? Most Winchesters start getting flacky after venturing behond 2.6 without lots of voltage or water cooling. The highest voltage you can currently achieve on the A8N-SLI is setting the voltage to 1.575v in the bios. As a result, it will run a steady 1.60Vcore to your CPU. Any setting above 1.575v for some reason doesnt give accurate voltage to what you set it at.


OC-Master

[AgentGreen]

AgentGreen,

Maybe I missed something but have you confirmed that your HTT isnt stuck at 5X? A horrible bug I've found was that sometimes on flashing the bios, the HTT would be stuck at 5X for some reason even when I set 3X or 4X in the bios. A good way of telling if this is your problem is to run the monitor utility in nTune.

2nd, are you positive that your CPU can operate at 2.6GHz or behond? Most Winchesters start getting flacky after venturing behond 2.6 without lots of voltage or water cooling. The highest voltage you can currently achieve on the A8N-SLI is setting the voltage to 1.575v in the bios. As a result, it will run a steady 1.60Vcore to your CPU. Any setting above 1.575v for some reason doesnt give accurate voltage to what you set it at.


OC-Master

Heya, thanks for the input! :)

This is the strange part about the HTT, if i run 11x220 and set HTT to 4x I get 880 like I should be getting shown in AI Booster (5x give me 1100). Yet ntune always shows 5x no matter what, which is accurate?

Also, I can now sucessfully get to 2.6GHz+ in two ways (11x236 1:1 or 11x240 6:5) after reinstalling windows, but neither is stable and my winXP seems to get corrupt DLLs and stuff all the time. Im really thinking of leaving this system stock because the overclock has barely benefited performance in 3Dmark, yet overclocking my W/C'ed video cards has had a HUGE performance gain.

I have this window of opportunity to not worry about data loss and how many times I have to setup WinXP on this IDE drive because tonight im getting 2x WD Raptors that I will setup in Raid-0 on the silicon controller (is this a good idea? I only have 2x red SATA ports exposed, everything else is hidden behind my rad. Also, does it matter if the raid is hooked up non-sequentially ex: SATA 1 + 3, or 2 + 4 (since those are the only 2 available))

Finally, I can confrim its my memory because I can lower the HTT and the cpu multiplier to keep the speed reletively stock (or underclocked), and its my memory that goes unstable at those settings... (ex: 240x9 HTT 3x 6/5 memory and it will crap out for some damn reason, why does this happen if my memory is running at stock speeds?)

also, if DDR333 is 6/5 divider, why the hell does 240 give me a memry frequency of only 188 (CPU/14?! whats this about?) instead of 200?

thanks!

[LoneWolf121188]

The highest voltage you can currently achieve on the A8N-SLI is setting the voltage to 1.575v in the bios. As a result, it will run a steady 1.60Vcore to your CPU. Any setting above 1.575v for some reason doesnt give accurate voltage to what you set it at.


Where are you getting that number? CPU-Z always reports a higher vcore than the BIOS. Its currently 1.648 in CPU-Z, but 1.625 in the BIOS.

Oh, I just realized what that problem might be: I've got a NC and you all have winnies. Thats what the guys at XS were saying, anyway.

[OC-Master]

Heya, thanks for the input! :)

This is the strange part about the HTT, if i run 11x220 and set HTT to 4x I get 880 like I should be getting shown in AI Booster (5x give me 1100). Yet ntune always shows 5x no matter what, which is accurate?

Also, I can now sucessfully get to 2.6GHz+ in two ways (11x236 1:1 or 11x240 6:5) after reinstalling windows, but neither is stable and my winXP seems to get corrupt DLLs and stuff all the time. Im really thinking of leaving this system stock because the overclock has barely benefited performance in 3Dmark, yet overclocking my W/C'ed video cards has had a HUGE performance gain.

I have this window of opportunity to not worry about data loss and how many times I have to setup WinXP on this IDE drive because tonight im getting 2x WD Raptors that I will setup in Raid-0 on the silicon controller (is this a good idea? I only have 2x red SATA ports exposed, everything else is hidden behind my rad. Also, does it matter if the raid is hooked up non-sequentially ex: SATA 1 + 3, or 2 + 4 (since those are the only 2 available))

Finally, I can confrim its my memory because I can lower the HTT and the cpu multiplier to keep the speed reletively stock (or underclocked), and its my memory that goes unstable at those settings... (ex: 240x9 HTT 3x 6/5 memory and it will crap out for some damn reason, why does this happen if my memory is running at stock speeds?)

also, if DDR333 is 6/5 divider, why the hell does 240 give me a memry frequency of only 188 (CPU/14?! whats this about?) instead of 200?

thanks!

ahh,,

your HTT is stuck at 5X which explains why you get corruption and loss of stability. nTune is the only true utility you can trust to identify the actual HTT multiplier.

All you should have to do to avoid this bug is make sure your motherboard battery isnt defective, your jumper set to defualt for the bios checksum so that it can retain values, and finally, you have to reflash the bios using the ASUS windows utility.


OC-Master

[LoneWolf121188]

^^ wait, what jumper is that? are you refering to the ClearRTC jumper?

[OC-Master]

^^ wait, what jumper is that? are you refering to the ClearRTC jumper?

The jumper which is located on the right hand side where the battery is located on your motherboard. Its the jumper that controls whether you want power supplied by the battery or straight from the PSU which is a temp alternative since if you cut the power to the PSU, everything is lost.


OC-Master

[Pyr0]

i think the final 1007 bios has been released

i found it here

ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Socket_939/NVIDIA_Chipset/nForce4_SLI/A8N-SLI_Deluxe/1007sd.zip

let me know if it's any good.
i doubt very much that they fixed the 1T mem prob tho.

[OC-Master]

i think the final 1007 bios has been released

i found it here

ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Socket_939/NVIDIA_Chipset/nForce4_SLI/A8N-SLI_Deluxe/1007sd.zip

let me know if it's any good.
i doubt very much that they fixed the 1T mem prob tho.

Thankyou very much for posting this,

I will get back to everyone asap with some results.


OC-Master

[thorilan]

how many drives can this board supot simultaniously please

posted asking this in its own thread a few days ago and havent got a responce but i need to know so i can finalize some design plans for a case

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=381961

[reddywing1]

Thirteen.

Or more if you've got USB drives.

[LoneWolf121188]

i think the final 1007 bios has been released

i found it here

ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Socket_939/NVIDIA_Chipset/nForce4_SLI/A8N-SLI_Deluxe/1007sd.zip

let me know if it's any good.
i doubt very much that they fixed the 1T mem prob tho.

Looks like its on the main dl site too. Here's what they have to say:

1. Support new CPUs. Please refer to our website at: http://www.asus.com.tw/support/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx
2. Support CPU Voltage warning message on POST
3. Add Help String for AI-NET.
4. Add AI-Selector Item
5. Modify SETUP String and its discription of DRAM Over 4G remapping function

Looks like we got Venice support! And whats this about voltage warning and the AI stuff?

Initial reactions, OC-Master?

[netlaw1]

Thirteen.

Or more if you've got USB drives.
How do you count 13 drives? 4 SATA on Nvidia, 4 SATA on the SI Raid, and 4 on the SATA? That comes to 12 by my count plus 1 or 2 floppies. Then there is 1394 and USB 2.0. Actually for additional PATA, I put in an older Promise Controller and that pushes 4 PATA Drives.

[netlaw1]

A couple of questions,

1. Where is anyone finding 1007 for the A8N-SLI Deluxe. As usual, I'm findinig that Asus' website sucks!!!! and the links don't work.

2. I do not understand "Modify SETUP String and its discription of DRAM Over 4G remapping function"

Can anyone explain what this is/does?

[OC-Master]

Looks like its on the main dl site too. Here's what they have to say:



Looks like we got Venice support! And whats this about voltage warning and the AI stuff?

Initial reactions, OC-Master?

1007 final seems to be very well rounded and seems to give me a feeling much like the 1004 final did when it was released. I cant see any differences between the 1007.004 beta and final but I'm presuming they just wanted to make the .004 beta official.

After playing with it for several days, it seems to be a great bios. Still more work to go into these bios updates but I think were starting to get somewhere.


OC-Master

[LoneWolf121188]

Stability? 1T problem?

woah, I just noticed you blew a GPU in your sig...sorry to hear it. Got a good story behind that one?

[lucas81]

I'm having a hard time oc-ing this board....this is way harder than the nf7 i had....it's kinda frustrating now... :S

I have a question...I have set the vcore to 1.55 in the bios, but in clockgen it says it's at 1.45 and in cpu-z it's reading 1.568...which one is the right one?

[RangerDave]

yeh id really like to know cuz this 2t timings is ****ing me off :) some guy w/ geil ultra pc4000 says hes getting 6.6 gb/s and i dont believe it cuz all the reviews are saying 5.8 max and no where even close let alone on his amd system. which they say the memory isn't that good on amd systems. so yeh i hope 1t is fixed so i can shut him up :)

[RangerDave]

i must be doing something wrong cuz this 1007 final sucks for me. i cant get ne where. before i had set 220 in bios which let my pclock stay and keep 1:1 w/ ram. now i cant oc w/o **** going wrong. if i select 245 my screen flickers like mad and then reboots and a whole bunch of corruption on my sata hd and registry was restored :(. anything higher just reboots. whats going on???

[lucas81]

ok, i guess i hit a wall...but dunno which one.. :P
I have my muliplier htt set at 3x, my memory is set at ddr200, and the frequency is set at 270. (all in the bios) Multi is at max, 9x
In my attempt to max my cpu out, these are the settings i use.
So, i'm at 270*9 now, can boot into windows, but prime fails after only a few secs. with 265 it is prime stable for at least 2 hours. Could i already have maxed my chip??? at "only" ~2400??
I also tried to lower my multi to 8x but 270 fails too after a few secs. So i have the feeling i haven't maxed my chip out..but my ...htt bus??
Could someone explain which brick wall i have hit? :P

[edit]
My vcore is set at 1.575, and euhm...max temp with ntune monitor is:
cpu: 48
system: 31
GPU:40

my setup:


A8n SLi ndlx
3000+
1 gig OCZ 3500EB
Standard air cooling

[OC-Master]

I'm having a hard time oc-ing this board....this is way harder than the nf7 i had....it's kinda frustrating now... :S

I have a question...I have set the vcore to 1.55 in the bios, but in clockgen it says it's at 1.45 and in cpu-z it's reading 1.568...which one is the right one?

The vcore your bios monitoring utility and CPU-Z reports is the correct voltage. The Voltage that clockgen shows is actually the internal CPU voltage defualt which should be 1.45v max for Winchesters and 1.55v max for New Castles.


OC-Master

[lucas81]

Thanks! :) ..so that's sorted then...but could you shed some light on my next issue? that wall? :)

[henryhamster]

hi all,

has anyone ever tried this new bios with the non deluxe a8n sli

I did want to increase my chance of OC and this bios seems to help, but I do not have the deluxe edition.

[AgentGreen]

ahh,,

your HTT is stuck at 5X which explains why you get corruption and loss of stability. nTune is the only true utility you can trust to identify the actual HTT multiplier.

All you should have to do to avoid this bug is make sure your motherboard battery isnt defective, your jumper set to defualt for the bios checksum so that it can retain values, and finally, you have to reflash the bios using the ASUS windows utility.


OC-Master

I picked up two 74GB 10K RPM SATA Raptors that im running off the nvraid controller in RAID-0 - They have been working beautifully. :)
Since im off the pci-bus, is it safe to assume I no longer risk data corruption?

I can get a completely stable overclock @ 2.4GHz (220x11 2-3-3-7 DDR440 stock volts on cpu and dram), but @ ~2.5GHz (228x11) the sound starts flaking out, could this be due to pci-latency, or is that my HTT acting up because it is indeed not at 4x?

Now, about Ntune and the HTT. Are you sure this is a bug, and what makes you trust ntune? So far, AI booster has reflected all my changes made in the bios including voltages, HTT, FSB etc.. yet ntune always reports 5x and that my volts are 1.5 when I know for a fact its running at 1.4

[AgentGreen]

NEVERMIND! dude, you were totally right...

Asus update doesnt work with SP2 so I plugged in my old IDE drive, setup winXP, ntune, and asus update on a virgin winXP install.
Finally I flashed the 1007 bios again, and now ntune reports the correct HTT!

its time to overclock, yehaaa! :cool:

edit: 2.6GHZ (237x11) DDR 474 (2-3-3-7) 1:1 Rock solid!

[nicknomo]

I think I should add into this post that the 1T timing issues are not present with the new boards (A8N-e and the soon to be A8N-e premium). I hear the A8n-sli premium won't be affected either.

I assume there will be a board revision for the A8N-Sli Deluxe sometime in the future.. but it appears that is what is needed to correct the issue.

(this info is based on threads in the anandtech forums, where several independant users have reported up to 270 1T timings..

[OC-Master]

Stability? 1T problem?

woah, I just noticed you blew a GPU in your sig...sorry to hear it. Got a good story behind that one?

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=382667

LoneWolf,

This is officially the second time that stupid little chip at the back of the XFX card blew up and caught fire! :bang head

I'm soooo fustrated right now man, what do I do lol ... Waiting for XFX Canada to get back to me is making me impatient. Once you've gone SLI, going back is soo sad, especially with Doom, FarCry and HL2.


OC-Master

[Mojoooo0]

hey i just set up my system today and i have a problem here are the stats

64 3200 winchester /w xp90
asus a8n sli deluxe
muskin cl2 blue
6600gt
maxtor PATA 16mb cache 200gig
450 ocz modstream

my comp is having trouble installing xp for some apparent reason. it gives me bsod and weird errors. could this be because of hd being Pata? or could this be a problem else where

i havent updated my bios yet, will in 8 hours. so im using the first bios. havent OC'ed either

[OC-Master]

hey i just set up my system today and i have a problem here are the stats

64 3200 winchester /w xp90
asus a8n sli deluxe
muskin cl2 blue
6600gt
maxtor PATA 16mb cache 200gig
450 ocz modstream

my comp is having trouble installing xp for some apparent reason. it gives me bsod and weird errors. could this be because of hd being Pata? or could this be a problem else where

i havent updated my bios yet, will in 8 hours. so im using the first bios. havent OC'ed either

Most likely your hard drive being a PATA drive or memory timings may be incorrect. I have never trusted auto memory timings and if you want to be on the safe side, only use the timings your memory company suggests and with Mushkin, I think its like 2-3-3-6-1T.

Attempt to upgrade to bios 1007.

OC-Master

[OC-Master]

Bump!

The faq has now been updated to represent the release of beta bios 1008.001.


OC-Master

[JudgeDredd]

I just installed the 1008.001 BIOS, seems to be good. Asus PC Probe no longer works now, though, so I'm trying to access Asus Global to see if there's a new version out, but the sites down at the moment. Anybody know what that PCI-E aperture thing does that's new in this BIOS?

[OC-Master]

BUMP!

Faq updated to reflect the release of the 1009.002 Beta bios that hit the web just a few hours ago.

You can download the bios here,
http://www.asus.com.cn/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/1009-002.zip

[friendly1]

Hi OC-Master!

I`m very curious if this new release can fix '1T over 250 FSB' problem? I`m reading this thread for a long time and personally i think that we are facing a bug not only with a8n-sli bios but also with it`s design (hope not!) Look at HDs compatibility problems (i can say smth about that). With two maxtors and newest Nvidia drivers (6.53) i got BSOD instantly on WinXP SP2 load (no raid). I tried with other ide drivers and found that included in v6.39 package seems to work fine (for now!) Then this hardware firewall.. Yes, the same advertised on Asus web pages and the same encouraged us to buy their product some day ago. How many of us - enthusiasts bought this asus mainboard ONLY for hardware firewall functionality.. Is there anyone who`s still using it? For me it provided constant-daily crashes. I had switched them off. At the end: i`m really NOT an DFI owner. Asus, we are patient.
OC-Master We`re waiting for post.. :-)))

[LoneWolf121188]

Then this hardware firewall.. Yes, the same advertised on Asus web pages and the same encouraged us to buy their product some day ago. How many of us - enthusiasts bought this asus mainboard ONLY for hardware firewall functionality.. Is there anyone who`s still using it? For me it provided constant-daily crashes. I had switched them off.

Yeah, I personally am not too concerned about the 1T dealy, but this hardware firewall problem really ****es me off, especially when it the box for the thing talks about how great all of the OCing functions of the board are!

[friendly1]

@LoneWolf121188

Hi!

I`m new on this forum and first of all I`ll apologise for my english. But thanks You would agree with me, at least one person (for now ;-)).
In the beginning i think i should say that first of all of my mainboards i ever bought was an Asus (don`t remember the model) on i440BX along with p2450MHz oc/504 MHz with stock cooling (that was in early 1998) and this computer STILL WORKS in some of the polish small company (mean small business yeah?), 10 hours a day/ 6 days a week with no probs! (i only changed power supply 2 years ago). Two months ago, after 7 years i decided i will 'back to the root's ;-) What i`m going to say (copied and pasted from Mr Bush, Jr. speech) is Asus, Inc. behaved much more differently some times ago.. They tested they product first, then said it features great things - AND NOT like now they sell their products, mean time making pre-release beta bios-es (i bought mine with v1002, now is 1009.002 - so they published 7, without counting beta) and ActiveArmor along with Firewall for example still don`t work. Like I said we are patient Asus, but this can mean (hope not)that we are the last time.
Greetz for all

[broonsbane]

@Mojooo

I have a very similar setup to yours and had the same exact problems...

I flashed to bios 1007 and all my problems disappeared..everything is running perfectly now, haven't had a single error yet..only difference between our setups is I am using SATA Raid.

I was getting Memory Managment errors and lsass.exe BSOD's constantly until I flashed the bios...

Could be something else, but I"m willing to bet that might help you out..the factory bios my board came with was like 1001.007 or something..

AMD643200+ Winnie
Asus A8N SLI Deluxe
1 gig Mushkin cl2
2 80GB Hitachi SATA 2 HD

[Pyr0]

so is the new 1009 bios completely stable?
are you still getting the same overclocks?

[OC-Master]

so is the new 1009 bios completely stable?
are you still getting the same overclocks?

Yup, still got the same overclocks but last night I noticed something. I noticed that my CPU was much more stable using a TRAS of 6 instead of 7, 8 or 10. I honestly cannot tell you exactly to why this is but it seems to be a good thing.


OC-Master

[Pyr0]

looks like i'll be flashing my board in a bit, i'm just finishing downloading the farcry 64bit patches

[Picky]

Hey guys Im new here and Im getting this board today and had a couple of questions. Being new to AMD and this being the second system Im building Im not to sure of the process of installing drivers and what what drivers I actually need. This is what I will have in the system..
Athalon 64 3500
1 gig corsair xms DDR 400 3200
WD 74gig 10000 rpm sata HD
gigabyte geforce 6800 ultra gfx card
Sound blaster audigy 2
OCZ Modstream 520W PSU
TDK 440n DVR-+ burner
Plextor 16/10/40a CD writer
generic floppy

Im not looking to overclock just yet. Being new to AMD I just want this thing to run smoothly for now. Been reading about some problems with the sata and the pata and most of it is greek to me. Im not sure if I will have the same problem that some are having since I am using an sata HD but everything else is pata. Can someone give me a heads up on what order to install my drivers/bios and windows updates and if they see any problems I might encounter.
Thanks in advance guys.

[reddywing1]

Install Windows
Install ethernet driver if needed for internet access.
Install all Windows updates.
Install chipset drivers.
Install video drivers.
Finally install any other drivers - audio, printer, etc.

[Picky]

Thanks Reddywing1! I figured that was the order just wanted to make sure. Looks like you left out bios update. Should I do that before the chipset drivers?

[pfgp]

After updating to 1009.002 bios, CS:S is performing in slow motion :bang head . As anyone noticed this? Or should I install chipset and display drivers again? Other than that this bios seems stable.

[reddywing1]

If bios is 1004 or later they are all stable. I would suggest flashing earlier bios in dos before software installation.

[Pyr0]

Anyone tried the new 64bit beta 6.56 drivers?
i found them here:
http://www.k8we.com/?q=node/99

apparently they fix the issues with optical SATA drives :thup:

[pfgp]

I’ve reinstalled all NVIDIA drivers and the problem with CS still persists, flashed it back to 1007 and everything became fine.

[Pyr0]

Weird!

i'm glad you managed to get it sortd out :)

Has anybody else had any problems with the new 1009 bios?

[lucas81]

Hey guys, I ran into a weird problem.
I replaced my NB fan with a passive heatsink, the zalman NB-47J. Everything was running fine at 265*9, mem 333, 1.55V. Max load temp: 45degrees C. This was prime stable for 6 hours ( I stopped the test myself)
The problem i Ran into was, when i was transfering massive loads of date from one disk to another. I was transfering around 100GB from one disk to another....it went ok for 8 minutes or so...till I got a system hang. I had to reset the computer, because it wasn't responding anymore. After my that, I was thinking about burning the data on DVD, because I had to store it anyway. So, I tried to burn one, but got another systemhang.., now I was kinda wondering what it was. So I had to reset for the 2nd time, and tried to transfer some data from one disk to another....guess what..same thing happens again. So what's wrong with that?
I was thinking maybe the NB isn't getting enough cooling or something? Cos eventhough i fitted the nb heatsink well, the heatsink is..euhm..movable...i mean..it doesn't sit on it very tight(ly?) The sink does get kinda hot though...
So do you guys think my problem is related to the (lack of) nb cooling?

(I have an A8N-SLi ndlx, with a 3000+ Winchester, 1 gig ocz 3500EB ram..550 sparkle ESP psu, euhm..what else is relevant? )

[friendly1]

I think you have stability problem with your mainboard at this htt settings, did you ever copied so big file before? Try this on default values (9x200) then you will know. The zalman NB-47J is a good heatsink nevertheless cooling passively nforce4 sli nb isn`t a good idea - especially when overclocked, apply some quiet fan (if the air isn`t moving inside your case - nb heatsink isn`t cooled too.)

[friendly1]

@lucas81

ps. is your Eheim1250 quiet enough, i mean do you hear it? I was thinking about installing two eheims 1048 to eliminate hum as much as possible.

[lucas81]

Well I already transfered all the data I needed to transfer, but you are right. Maybe I should try it at default speed.
About the cooling, I already have 3*80mm fans in, and one 120mm fan as an out fan. So i think the case cooling is already sufficient...mabye it's a dead spot there....not sure though. But I keep wondering if the zalman is good enoough for non-standard speed...does it cools enough to oc the board?

About the pump..its really quite..I couldn't hear it as long it isn't in direct contact with your case. I always had to put my hand on the pump to be sure it was working. =)

[broonsbane]

Can you install 64bit chipset drivers even if you have only 32bit windoze?

[friendly1]

@lucas81

Or try this: ThermalRight NB-1 Chipset /NB-1C. About the eheims - personally i think these pumps are the best.

[prominance]

ok if I got a Sandiego 3700 with this board, do u guys wthink with 2-2-2-5 ram that is specd at 240 I would definately be able to overclock to this FSB at 1T (assuming of course the san diego chip can handle it which it shoul dbe able to from forum posts, these chips are reachig FSB of 260 and above)? Is like the hard limit 250 at 1T for this board and does it matter what the SPD timings of the ram are or it is 1T and 250 at whatever timings the memory can withstand? I will not be overclocking past 240 and the Asus has such a great feature set and I do not plan to use hardware firewalls or NCQ or that other stuff that causes problems. My ram is 2 1GB sticks of PDP memory specd at 2-3-2-5 at 200MHZ but it hits 240 on my current board

[reddywing1]

You are close to a viable plan but no one can say EXACTLY what your results may be. The Asus 1T problem is not yet fixed so 250 will be hard at 1T and even 240 may not be possible. I have traded away my A8N but when I had it I hit the 1T wall at 238.

Your results may vary.

[friendly1]

I agree with reddywing1, 1T bug isn`t fixed yet (i think it won`t be) and yes You will probably 'hit the wall' at 240MHz with 1T. But look at the other side: the SLI design of an asus a8n sli is just very good, especially when you add 2nd vga card with extra cooling kit. You`ll have still one spare pci expansion slot (eg. for audigy card). I got two pci cards: audigy 2 zs and dvb card. Compare this mainboard`s layout with the best of super-overclockers DFI LanParty nF4 SLI DR: u will notice that adding one pci based card to dfi will obstruct air flow near vga cooling kit. At the end no one knows how mainboards will play with the latest amd chips, this is not the case with a8n sli deluxe: http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20050509/cual_core_athlon-07.html. Choose yourself!

[reddywing1]

And I agree with friendly1. I switched to the DFI board because of it's ability to overclock to high speeds. If your goal as you stated is a mild overclock then the Asus ergonomic layout is clearly superior. The A8N is a very forgiving and easy board to work unlike the DFI and with the extra space between two video cards in SLI mode on the Asus it is practical to employ air cooling solutions on the video cards. On the DFI, my Silencer6 card cooler would not even allow the installation of the second card. Very tight.

[friendly1]

I will add only that I agree with Reddywing1 and with me.
:-)

[pfgp]

1008 final is available in the German asus ftp. I’m going to try it out.

[pfgp]

The only thing changed in this one, is a S3 power improvement The other problems still persists (1T over 240, 250, and firewall whit P2P programs).

[friendly1]

Hey Prominance read this:
http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20050513/index.html

[friendly1]

They didn`t inculded any asus board ;-(
About naming boards i think that Asus should name their a8n sli with fatal1Ty NOT abit with their an8 ;-))

[reddywing1]

They didn`t inculded any asus board ;-(
About naming boards i think that Asus should name their a8n sli with fatal1Ty NOT abit with their an8 ;-))

Fatal1Ty. Love it! :)

[RangerDave]

Can you install 64bit chipset drivers even if you have only 32bit windoze?
nope... ull get bsod :) wont work @ all.. because your drivers is how windows communicates w/ ure hardware and if ure using 64 bit drivers itll cause error because your windows will be sending 32 bit commands to drivers excepting only 32 bit

[friendly1]

I wonder how motherboard`s layout can interfere with some memory timings (you know i speak about fatal-1T-y problem). And You probably saw this: http://www.vr-zone.com.sg/?i=1624&s=2 . So maybe THE PROBLEM with this mobo (I mean not only fatal1Ty problem but generally overclocking) lies somewhere else? Maybe the bios isn`t so buggy, maybe feeding NB with some extra volts can solve that?

[nicodejong]

I wonder how motherboard`s layout can interfere with some memory timings (you know i speak about fatal-1T-y problem). And You probably saw this: http://www.vr-zone.com.sg/?i=1624&s=2 . So maybe THE PROBLEM with this mobo (I mean not only fatal1Ty problem but generally overclocking) lies somewhere else? Maybe the bios isn`t so buggy, maybe feeding NB with some extra volts can solve that?

I did so..followed the instructions on the page.. NB Volt = 1.8V and now i'm running @ 300Mhz HTT with 1T timings... (i didn't get further without mod @230Mhz HTT with 1T Timing)... (WATERCOOLING) But the mod is very tricky to do...

AMD 3000+ .09
Running currently stable @ 2,55 Ghz
300Mhz HTT.. DDR 500 Cas 2.5 / 4 / 4 / 8 With CorsAir XL @2,9V

[swindelljd]

nicodejong can you post pics of the post mod board? I am really curious to see this. The write up also says that the "chipset" gets pretty hot. Did you add extra cooling or is a watercooled CPU enough to handle the extra volts? Have you stressed it yet and do you before/after have temps you can post? - TIA, John

FYI BIOS 1010-001 for A8N-SLI showed up on the ASUS Taiwan site briefly and I grabbed it. I think it's gone off the site now. Anyone with the guts to try it PM me. I myself am too chicken especially after 1008 and 1009 issues that every had.

John

[JudgeDredd]

It's on the North American website now and I just grabbed it. I already started a thread for results.

[Barshow]

Can any one tell me if I am going to have a problim Overclocking if I add another 2x512 Corsair cmx512-3200C2 that would be a total 4x512 all same type, On the Asus site on the rec memory area it says ''no can do'' But I dont think that area has been updated in a long time Any one useing 4 sticks same type please help


Model : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+.
AT 2.000 mHz.

Main board ASUS A8N-SLI DELUXE.
System BIOS : Revision 1006 Final .is Up to date
Total Memory : 2x512 Corsair C2 DDR-SDRAM 3.3.3.8 .
Model & manufacturer of video card are
XFX: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT,
ForceWare VER 71.84
Gpu core 500 mhz.
Gpu Mem 1.00 Ghz
Operating System(s)
Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP/2002 Home (Win32 x86) 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 2)

[LoneWolf121188]

:welcome: In order to stop thread clutter, please post in the right section, and feel free to make your own thread. I think that question belongs in the Memory section of the forums. The search function is very useful too. There are many threads around here talking about using 4 memory sticks, and generally the answer is no (especially with the NF4).

[RDL]

My A8N runs at 275mhz HTT (2750mhz) with 1T timings at 2.5-4-4-7. No problemo. I'm not liking this new BIOS thought.

[OC-Master]

My A8N runs at 275mhz HTT (2750mhz) with 1T timings at 2.5-4-4-7. No problemo. I'm not liking this new BIOS thought.

Your ram is running behond 250MHz with 1T timings on the A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard? I'm gonna have to ask how you did it and if you could post some pictures including CPU-Z and a successful completion of Prime95 running at least over an hour.


OC-Master

[Pyr0]

My A8N runs at 275mhz HTT (2750mhz) with 1T timings at 2.5-4-4-7. No problemo.

wow, is that with a volt mod?
could it be a new revision of the board?

[RangerDave]

it better be :) but im gonna try that volt mod one day. but im thinking the 1.7 v will be enough so ill just stick a 1k ohm resister on there insted of a variable one... cuz i dont think id do more then 1.7. aspecially since im going to like 266 and no more. plus are the new bioses any good? ever since i put int 1007 final it was crap.. i dont know what i did but im sure i had all the same specs and it couldn't handle over 235 htt. also it was stayong on 5x ht insted of the 4 i usualy use... has it been fixed yet? in the 1008? or any of the betas?

[Slake]

My A8N runs at 275mhz HTT (2750mhz) with 1T timings at 2.5-4-4-7. No problemo. I'm not liking this new BIOS thought.

Like OC-Master said.... :eh?: Pics?

[OC-Master]

Faq updated to represent the 1010 beta release and intial Venice CPU testing.


OC-Master

[OC-Master]

Faq updated to relate the introduction of Bios 1011.001 ..



OC-Master

[MethanolMan]

Im using 1010 and I cant get the pc to boot when setting it to 1 t at any setting but 2t
Any way here is a pick remember Im only a newb this is my 2nd pc that i ever built.
http://www.soulchamber.us/uploads/aaf62f99b3.jpg (http://www.soulchamber.us)

http://www.soulchamber.us/uploads/fd93383879.jpg (http://www.soulchamber.us)

The cpu voltage goes between 158 and 163 duno why but i have a
Pc power and cooling pro 510 sli

[OC-Master]

Im using 1010 and I cant get the pc to boot when setting it to 1 t at any setting but 2t
Any way here is a pick remember Im only a newb this is my 2nd pc that i ever built.
http://www.soulchamber.us/uploads/aaf62f99b3.jpg (http://www.soulchamber.us)

http://www.soulchamber.us/uploads/fd93383879.jpg (http://www.soulchamber.us)

The cpu voltage goes between 158 and 163 duno why but i have a
Pc power and cooling pro 510 sli

Over 90% of people who have all four dimms populated with ram simply cannot get 1T timings to work on any motherboard. Its not just a limitation of the A8N but rather the Winchester/Clawhammer/NewCastle cores. The Sandiago and Venice cores do a much better job of handing four dimms of memory being populated and most cores can do 1T timings right across the board

[MethanolMan]

Thanks OcMaster I'll give it a try :p

***UpDate***

ok Bro it worked thanks alot Oc your the man bro two thumbs up

http://www.soulchamber.us/uploads/ef26e88ac6.jpg (http://www.soulchamber.us)

I also backed down the HTT for now just to see if it would boot with the 1t and 2.0 settings and as you can see it did.

So now I think I will Try ocing her a little bit now thanks again bro.

Peach MethMan

[OC-Master]

MethanolMan,

I just wanna say, nice timings your using there with your memory. I'm also trying to tighten the memory timings on my ram to give me that extra 5% more performance gain.

Here is a screen shot of my memory which you can pick up now for $125CAD ($85US) 1GB at alot of places.


OC-Master

[MethanolMan]

Thanks Man ! Or I mean thanks to you.

I had know Idea about the 4 sticks thing cause this is my first Amd Pc.
But then again I never had 4 sticks with my old Intel so either way I had
No Idea lol. Man I am a real Newb :p

[OC-Master]

Thanks Man ! Or I mean thanks to you.

I had know Idea about the 4 sticks thing cause this is my first Amd Pc.
But then again I never had 4 sticks with my old Intel so either way I had
No Idea lol. Man I am a real Newb :p

Sacrificing 1T for 2T timings isnt anything to worry about since your running 2GB of memory. Your machine will eventually run faster with 2GB of memory anywayz rather than just 1GB of memory with some of the titles to emerge in the near future like Unreal III, Quake4, DSII, and even Doom3 which can already use 2GB of system memory in some levels.

If your really worried about wanting 1T timings, you could always go for some Ballistix PC4000 1GB sticks which can do 1T on AMD setups which would bring you to 2GB with only two sticks.


OC-Master

[LoneWolf121188]

If your really worried about wanting 1T timings, you could always go for some Ballistix PC4000 1GB sticks which can do 1T on AMD setups which would bring you to 2GB with only two sticks.

Or, you know, you could just buy another CPU for about that price :D .

[MethanolMan]

2GB with only two sticks.

I spent the money on 4 sticks and never once though about just getting two 1gb sticks. :bang head

But now I will ! Man there is so much to learn and my thirst is high.

[reddywing1]

I spent the money on 4 sticks and never once though about just getting two 1gb sticks. :bang head

But now I will ! Man there is so much to learn and my thirst is high.

There are reasons why most people do not buy 1 gig sticks.

1. Higher cost per gig.
2. Slower timings.
3. Few programs use or need more than 1 gig total.

The use of 2 gigs on the desktop is rare because for most people it slows performance. If that's what you need though, (2) 1 gig sticks is a better route than (4) 512s.

[jcniest5]

Has anybody gotten their his/her board to work reliably with 1T and 240+ FSB? Is this a defect on this board?

[reddywing1]

Has anybody gotten their his/her board to work reliably with 1T and 240+ FSB? Is this a defect on this board?

Yes, it is a defect. Everyone has been waiting for a bios fix which is looking more and more like it will never happen.

[Slake]

Has anybody gotten their his/her board to work reliably with 1T and 240+ FSB? Is this a defect on this board?
Mine is Prime95 stable 250x10 1T(stopped at 26hrs). Mine is an exception though. Cant get Prime stable at 2.6 though, even at 2T. I didnt have A64 Tweaker running when I took screenshots of 26hr Prime95 pass. But here's a link to one from a 21 hr test. Don't know why nVidia Monitor is showing HTT at only 750, it was I had the HTT multi at 4 when this test was run, it correctly displays 1000 HTT now.
Screen shot Here (http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y120/captainstrack/Strack%20in%20Progress/Prime21hrs31minwithstardock.jpg)

[jcniest5]

Mine is Prime95 stable 250x10 1T(stopped at 26hrs). Mine is an exception though. Cant get Prime stable at 2.6 though, even at 2T. I didnt have A64 Tweaker running when I took screenshots of 26hr Prime95 pass. But here's a link to one from a 21 hr test. Don't know why nVidia Monitor is showing HTT at only 750, it was I had the HTT multi at 4 when this test was run, it correctly displays 1000 HTT now.
Screen shot Here (http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y120/captainstrack/Strack%20in%20Progress/Prime21hrs31minwithstardock.jpg)

3X HTT reverting also another defect on this Asus mobo, which is mentioned at the beginning of this thread.

Here's my reason why I am really interested in Asus fixing this 1T and 3x HTT defects. Long story, but to make it short, I used to own one, sold it due to these two defects. Went with DFI's LP NF4 SLI-DR, way too many memory timings options, am not able to get it run as stable as I like, bought another Asus', thinking it has been fixed, got it today, the same defects remain. Not sure what else to do now. Might sell it again and really gonna put my patience to work waiting for the A8N SLI Premium, hoping these two defects are no longer presented on/in the Premium version.