Ordered an AN35N today.............

[newg]

.......hope all goes well for my first Shuttle build...............

 

[ColtIce]

they rock!this is my third shuttle board and for someone on a budget their hard to beat

 

[chasingapple]

I have build an AMD and INTEL system with shuttle boards for customers and I must say I love them..helps keep the system prices down as well

 

[Balrog]

Did you get the AN35N Ultra dual channel or the AN35N 400 single channel? Let us know if you have any problems. You might want to check some of the other posts regarding memory as this board can be a bit picky. Good Luck!

Regards, Balrog

 

[ColtIce]

i'll second that it is picky about memory.i have to do the "memory dance"to make any changes in the bios.its not that big of a deal if your ready for it though.

 

[newg]

thanks for the replies.......did order the Ultra version.....plan
on using some TwinMos/Winbond PC3200 BH-5 memory I have........

 

[chasingapple]

Should work fine for ya I use crucial and Mushkin myself.

 

[Balrog]

Should work, you may have to play with the VDimm settings a bit, my Buffalo\Winbond CH-5 runs better on Auto setting for voltage. Also 11-3-3-2.5 timings would be a good place to start as the board acts up with CAS2.0 timings on initial boot.

Regards, Balrog

 

[jazzenjohn]

I'm a newby too. I've just recieved my an-35n ultra motherboard in the mail today. I ordered parts (some I got for x-mas) before I found this forum so I'm kinda stuck with the choices I've already made. 1 stick of 512 Kingston pc-3200 ram, xp-2800+ proc. 2 WD 80gb hd's, Vantec fan, crappy raidmax power supply.. Any obvious problems/issues so far?

 

[Balrog]

Welcome to the Forums Jazzman!

Yeah possibly, the Raidmax PSUs aren't very good, what are the amps per rail and the wattage of the 3.3V + 5.0V rails, you should find this info on the PSU label. The Kingston might give you problems, is it low-latency CAS2.0? You may need to do your initial boot with some generic PC2100 or PC2700 if it is. Give us a yell if you have any problems. The rest of it looks good to me, don't forget to plug in the 4 prong P4 power connector. I'd also download the latest version of Mother Board Monitor 5 as its pre-configured for the AN35N and will allow you to keep an eye on the voltages of your Raidmax, any big flucuations, then shut it down. Did it come with your case or did you buy it separately? Good Luck!

Regards, Balrog

 

[jazzenjohn]

Thanks for the quick reply Balrog! It says on the P.S. 26 amps at 3.3v, 32 amps at 5.0 volts, 13 amps at 12v, 420 watts total. The case and fan, uv wiring, led fans etc. were a x-mas gift from my beautiful wife. The ram is supposed to be cl3. The choices were made based on an extreme tech article "build a speedy pc for $800" except the chip upped to 2800+ from 2500+ the ram from pc2700 to pc3200. My wife doesn't oc and this will be my first attempt.

 

[Balrog]

Sounds good John, I think you'll like the AN35N. As the RAM is CAS3.0 you may be Ok, though some have had problems with it, the board loves CAS2.5, so to start with you might try setting it to that at 166FSB\333DDR\PC2700 setting. The problem is that 12V rail 12A is too low, you want 15A minimum, the rest of the specs look acceptable. XP CPUs draw most of their power from the 12V rail and the 2800+ uses about 8A itself which doesn't leave you much left for your other components. Did the PSU come installed in the case or did it come separately? I'd recommend starting with just a basic system to see if we can get it running and stable and see how the Raidmax handles it. Use 1 x HDD, 1 x CD\ROM device and 1 x FDD and a couple of fans. Once we see what the readings are from BIOS and\or MBM5 then we can decide whether its safe to add the second HDD, UV lights and any other goodies. Is the Vantec a Stealth, Tornado or other, any specs on it amps, wattage? Does the PSU have the 4 prong P4 power connector I mentioned? If the PSU becomes to stressed it could fry, and its possible it will take your MoBo, CPU and HDD with it, not something we want to happen, so we need to go slow and careful.

Regards, Balrog

 

[jazzenjohn]

If the p4 connector you mentioned is the square 12v connector thats marked atx and connects to the motherboard then yes, it has that as a separate connector not daisy chained to anything else. I was planning on setting it up with only one hd at first with windows and adding the second with linux in a dual boot setup. it will have 1 cd/dvd burner and no floppy. If I upgrade the PS what do you recommend? BTW the cpu cooler is going to be a vantec aeroflow.

 

[Balrog]

Sounds like a good plan John. Yeah I'm planning on signing up for the Folding@Home with Team 32 here at the O\C Forums, they have a special program using Knoppix Linux to run it so I can do folding and learn some Linux at the same time. The Vantec Aeroflow is a nice HSF, you'll need to watch your temps as I'm not sure how its rated for high OCs but it will certainly be good to start with. Thats the right connector, funny they skimped on the 12V rail amps considering its P4 rated. Anyway I use a Fortron 350watt PNseries PSU which has plenty of power to run anything you throw at it other than 3.2ghz P4s which require a bit more juice. You can find them at NewEgg for $37.00, they have a single quiet 120mm fan, strong and stable rails and have 2 internal pots for adjusting the voltage on your rails to match your systems requirements. I tune mine while running Prime95 Torture Test and set them to +3% over standard. If you want something fancier they make the same PSU with a Blue LED 120mm fan but charge an extra $15.00 for it. I tried LEDs in my rig but found they clashed with my UV Black lights so I took them out, but thats just my taste, I use UV paint to highlight components in the rig and like the look of it plus if I get tired of it I just shut off the UVs.

Regards, Balrog

 

[Balrog]

Well, I did a bunch of snooping around and I must revise my earlier statement about the Vantec Aeroflow. It seems this little sucker is quite a good performer, at least the reviews I read using the 70mm TMD fan. I think you'll find that this will carry you quite a bit further than I originally thought. Its not quite as powerful as the Volcano 11+ & 12 or the bigger SLKs but its definitely a "keeper". It sounds like this is a fairly quiet HSF too boot which is always nice. After looking at its construction it appears to me that you might also flip the fan over and have it possibly work even better as the center of the sink is hollow and would allow a nice airflow. One thing to keep an eye on is the TMD fan as I remember when these were first released there was some problem with the MoBos being able to monitor the rpms because of the Tip-Magnetic Driving design, they also had a problem of dying with no warning. I believe this was taken care of but as the concept never seemed to catch on and very few manufacturers use them I'd be watchful.

Regards, Balrog

 

[jazzenjohn]

I'll keep an eye on the Aeroflow... whenever it gets here. Looking at your other posts it seems to me that you are concerned about volume as well as performance. The Fortran, from what I've read, is the quietest power supply out there. you would seem to be a candidate for water cooling then wouldn't you? Have you tried h2o yet? What other cooling are you using in your computer? I have an 80mm side case fan that I was thinking of switching to 120mm. I'm getting ahead of myself though since its just a pile o' parts right now...

 

[Balrog]

No, Its wise to look ahead to what you might be doing in the future as it should be taken into consideration for choosing components. The Fortron Rocks! IMHO you will not find a better 350watt PSU in this price range and yes its very quiet, the fan is also themally controlled so depending on your case ventilation it will adjust its speed depending on the temps of air its drawing in as well as how much you are stressing it. The 2 internal pots are great, very few PSUs have these, Super Flower, TTGI and CP&C are the only ones that come to mind and they all cost much more. You must be very careful if you decide to tweak he settings as you have to open the PSU to do this and the capacitors inside contain dangerous amounts of amps. I've done it many times on all mine, you just need to be careful and pay attention, the adjustment pots aren't near the caps so really you'd have to be an idiot to get zapped but you need to be aware of this. I started building up a WC set-up but ran short of funds when a work schedule got reduced early this Fall. I currently have a Chevette heater core, Laguna Utility Pump #2 w\215G.P.H. output, some tubing, extra 120mm Vantec Stealth and the making for a reservoir. I want a Danger Den Maze 4 block and the one for my AGP cards GPU before I decide to install it. I belong to a couple of WC forums but haven't visited recently, check out www.liquidninjas.com and forums. I currently am running my rig all torn apart on my desk as I'm in the process of buying a mini ATX case I found, I hope to have it in a couple of weeks, its only 13" tall X 16" deep X 9" wide and holds a full sized ATX MoBo 3 x 5.25" drives and 3 x 3.5" drives for $25.00 delivered! Its a cheapie steel case but I'm going to modify it for extra fans and ducts and throw a new paint job on it, I think it will look pretty sweet. My old case that I'll re-use for the WC rig is an aluminum Chen Ming mid-tower, basically an Antec LAN-Boy without the door and window. Chen Ming lost the Antec contract so they dumped them on the market cheap a year ago, got mine for $35.00 delivered from NewEgg! It was a steal! My buddy bought 3 of them. In that case I used 120mm Stealths for front intake and top blow hole with the 120mm fan in the Fortron and an 80mm in the back for exhaust, it stayed pretty cool. I used an 80mm fan in the side for my 2 mATX LAN rigs blowing directly into the HSF, the one mounted in the case with a side window is a blue LED Coolermaster with a chrome "Blade" grill. So much for my epic novel post here, be sure to catch the movie version when its released next month!

Regards, Balrog on wayyyy toooo muchhh caffeineeee!!!!

Or maybe it was that big bowl of Crack I just smoked!

 

[2coop]

Wow, I'm new here also. and it is nice to see other people who like their an35n ultra. I have one and I really like it, but in way its kind of boring, nothing ever goes wrong with it. Stable and fast.

 

[Balrog]

Yeah, thats why every once in a while I poke mine with a screw driver and throw some beer on it (ohhh, see the pretty sparks) keeps life interesting. Sometimes boring is a good thing.
Good Luck with your board 2Coop and Welcome to the Forums!

Regards, Balrog

 

[sQUiRLy]

Wow, I'm new here also. and it is nice to see other people who like their an35n ultra. I have one and I really like it, but in way its kind of boring, nothing ever goes wrong with it. Stable and fast.

I beg to differ my boy. Just when I thought my system was fine tuned and rocking, something unexpected happened and it may be my OC or the mobo that caused it. Windows does not recognize my usb devices anymore. It says they are malfunctioning but I think its the controller on the board. Ive exhausted my resources and cant solve the issue.

Someone with a Abit board is having the same problem and he cant figure it out either.