Sander,

Please answer my previous question regarding search enhancements in the A8N-SLI FAQ section, will you do this? This section will only get bigger and bandwidth will be higher as searches are not direct. There are tons of answers here already, but people ask the same things over and over again because they can't find what they are looking for with a text search dedicated to this section.

Mike

I am sorry, my config is as follows:

Asus A8N SLI-Deluxe (rev 1.02 it says on the board)
Bios 1003, 1004 and 1005-008 didn't seem to make any difference
Athlon 64 3200+
XFX Geforce 6800GT
2x512 MB Corsair 3200XLPT (2-2-2-5)
200 gb Maxtor DM10 SATA (but it's currently not hooked up, so it hasn't got to do with that)
Aopen DVD drive (but also not hooked up).
Microsoft Natural Keyboard
Logitech Optical Mouse

I just thought it was the board because it always boots after a CMOS clear. Does it do something differently after a CMOS clear?

Kind regards, Ton.

Ton,

>>>Use 1004 BIOS

2x512 MB Corsair 3200XLPT (2-2-2-5)

>>>Set to 3-3-3-8 2T 400 MHz in BIOS A1 - B1 (blue slots)

Aopen DVD drive (but also not hooked up).

>>>Hook it up IDE 1 or 2 Make it MASTER

200 gb Maxtor DM10 SATA (but it's currently not hooked up, so it hasn't got to do with that)

>>>What do you have hooked up as a drive right now? You didn't mention it above.

PS: I never heard you say once in your post that you made it to windows. Please tell me you have aa installed hard drive with OS on it.

This is a start!

Mike

Mike,

Use 1004 BIOS
>>>I have used it, didn't cure anything.

Set to 3-3-3-8 2T 400 MHz in BIOS
>>>I have set it to 2-2-2-5 400 MHz (everything else on auto) and when it dit boot I ran memtest on it for a couple of hours, memory was fine on that settings.

Hook it up IDE 1 or 2 Make it MASTER
>>>Currently it isn't hooked up at all, can not having any IDE device cause such problems?!? Interesting!

This is a start!
>>>I hope so, but don't dare to believe anymore Thanks for your help, it's nice to be able to come here and try to solve my problems

Mike
Post Edited On: Mar 03, 2005, 03:16 AM

Use 1004 BIOS
>>>I have used it, didn't cure anything.

**************What you think and what I think are two different things. Are you not here asking for help? I'm talking from experience, please install BIOS 1004!!!***********

Set to 3-3-3-8 2T 400 MHz in BIOS
>>>I have set it to 2-2-2-5 400 MHz (everything else on auto) and when it dit boot I ran memtest on it for a couple of hours, memory was fine on that settings.

*************IT WILL NOT BOOT WITH 2-2-2-5*************

Hook it up IDE 1 or 2 Make it MASTER
>>>Currently it isn't hooked up at all, can not having any IDE device cause such problems?!? Interesting!

*************Please install your DVD device on IDE 2*****************

This is a start!
>>>I hope so, but don't dare to believe anymore Thanks for your help, it's nice to be able to come here and try to solve my problems

I hope so, but don't dare to believe anymore

*************Believe it************

Thanks for your help, it's nice to be able to come here and try to solve my problems

*************This is what I am trying to do, but you are not paying attention to my requests, do you want to fix your computer or not?***************

Please answer my question as to what hard drive you have installed. If not the SATA, you must have one on the IDE 1, correct? Do you have OS installed?

Ton

I want to help, please make this easier for me.

Mike

PS: I don't get paid for this. lol

Mike>

I am not ungrateful for your help, and wasn't secondguessing your suggestions, I was just curious to wether there are explanations for your suggestions or are they just experience and you don't know yourself why they work, but history has shown them to do the trick? I can't try your tips at the moment, because I am at work. I will surely try everything out when I get home tonight, and will be forever grateful if it helps

To answer your question; I currently don't have ANY hard drive or optical drive connected, because I was having troubles with the system and wanted to make sure the problem wasn't with the hard disk or dvd rom drive. The HD is a Maxtor DiamondMAX 10 200Gb SATA drive.

Hope this info helps and clarifies some things?

Ton Wissink

I will get your computer to work I promise. Just stick to my plan.

Install the SATA on SATA 1 NVraid and make sure NVraid and SIL is disabled in configurations in the BIOS.
And please follow my recommendations in the last post.

I

>>>Experience my friend, lots of it! And yes I do know why.

Mike

Hi Mike,

Think that this is probably a memory error but may not be as the screen disappears so quick that I have not
been able to read what it says.
>>>Start>My Computer>right click>Then Properties>Advanced>Startup and Recovery>Settings>System Failure>uncheck Automaticaly Restart to see the messages.

-x-x-x-Great Tip for the future but unfortunately I can’t get the PC to launch into windows-x-x-x-

tried to set the NV Performance as per Mikes FAQ but have been having problems with Blue screen of death after trying to load previous settings
>>>Set mem timings to 3-3-3-8 to start, and in BIOS set CPU FSB to 201 MHz PCI synchronization mode to 33.33. Start new Ntune guide on page 16. Then reduce GPU Memory Core by my increments or others specified in the guide. Still have some tweaking to do after this point.

-x-x-x-Have set the Mem timings to 3-3-3-8
What are the benefits of setting my memory to these timings is this the best timings for my memory?

BIOS set CPU FSB to 201
Have set PCI synchronization mode to 33.33

Will tuning with Ntune get the most out of my CPU though?
I was hoping to run it at least 2.4GHz-x-x-x-

BIOS 1003
>>>Change to 1004.001

-x-x-x-Shall upgrade to 1004.001 have copied these to boot disk-x-x-x-

I was using the 66.93 Drivers and installed the 71.81 and installed the Nvidia omega optimized 16177 drivers
Windows XP PRO SP2
>>>Go back to 66.93 and remove 16177 until you fix your problems.

-x-x-x-Plan to just use 66.93-x-x-x-
-x-x-x-It appears that the other drivers are causing more problems than they are worth at present. -x-x-x-

2 * 512MB DDR400 PC3200 RAM (elixir brand) with Copper RAM Heatsinks on A2 – B2 (dual channel)
>>>Any reason for it to be on A2 and B2? A1 and B1 (blue)

-x-x-x-System did not boot in A1 and B1 so settled for A2 B2 is there any loss in performance by doing this? -x-x-x-

Thought about putting in another 2 but believe this is not beneficial
>>>Depends on your needs, what you use your computer for.

-x-x-x-Plan on using the computer mostly for gaming, think that instead of buying another 2 pieces of cheap memory I would be better of saving the money and upgrading the RAM to some good overclocking stuff when I get the new components-x-x-x-

-x-x-x- Should also say highly recommend Rome Total War, what a great game-x-x-x-

What FSB can the board handle safely on CPU multiplier *9, can you lock the PCI slots?
>>>Ideal is 800 max 1100.

-x-x-x- I noticed that CPU Multiplier is set to Auto in the BIOS why is this not set at the max for the CPU?-x-x-x-
-x-x-x-Will you help me to tweak my system when I get the new raptor? -x-x-x-

Can someone explain the benefits of going for RAID array
>>>Read the last two pages of the forum, I just explained it all.

-x-x-x-Sounds like there is not really any need for me to use RAID array, I would be better of just formatting the Raptor and using this for the OS and the other disk for storage as you stated below-x-x-x-
-x-x-x- I can just plug the new hardrive into SATA1 and the Disk for storage into SATA2

Would the hardrive speed be the bottleneck that I would have on this system, if so I could buy another 36 GB
Western Digital Raptor and use this in RAID?
>>>No, yes.
-x-x-x-What do you think would be the bottleneck of my system at the moment then? -x-x-x-

was planning on reinstalling Windows when the new hard disk arrives and using the raptor for gaming and the OS and the Other Disk for Movies and music does this make sense?
>>>Raptors OS with programs EX: Gaming, video processing etc...
Larger one for storage.

-x-x-x-Are you stating above that the games should or should not be installed on the same system was not sure about the EX part of the statement, does that mean excluding games-x-x-x-

bought the Athlon 3000+ as I heard it was very good for overclocking and plan to upgrade in the up and coming year to include an Athlon FX55 and a second XFX 6800 GT when I plan on moving to SLI.
>>>Good, you'll like your upgrade.

-x-x-x-Yes but just wish that I had bought these components to begin with but think it seems like a waste to ditch the Athlon 3000 so quickly, hopefully the FX55 chip will dramatically drop in price in the near future. -x-x-x-

-x-x-x- Am I correct in saying that I will be able to connect the second DVD drive to the spare HDD IDE slot using the HDD IDE cable?-x-x-x-

Cheers for the prompt response
DR

DR

dr dr

have been working on trying to smooth out numerous problems and trying to OC my system.
I am relatively new to Overclocking and I had tried to set the NV Performance as per Mikes FAQ but have been having problems with Blue screen of death after trying to load previous settings
-x-x-x-Great Tip for the future but unfortunately I can’t get the PC to launch into windows-x-x-x-
>>>I thought you were able to get into windows as per the statement above. Just don't try to load your Ntune file not to get BSOD, and do the following below.

Think that this is probably a memory error but may not be as the screen disappears so quick that I have not
been able to read what it says.
>>>Start>My Computer>right click>Then Properties>Advanced>Startup and Recovery>Settings>System Failure>uncheck Automaticaly Restart to see the messages
>>>Just do it in safe mode.

What are the benefits of setting my memory to these timings is this the best timings for my memory?
>>>A base to which your computer will not give errors due to RAM. This helps eliminate boot issues to get to the real problem, and also helps to see if this is the problem,RAM is overated!!!

Will tuning with Ntune get the most out of my CPU though?
I was hoping to run it at least 2.4GHz-x-x-x-
>>>We will see when we get there.

System did not boot in A1 and B1 so settled for A2 B2 is there any loss in performance by doing this?
>>>There is a problem already. Did you try one stick in B1?

-x-x-x-Will you help me to tweak my system when I get the new raptor? -x-x-x-
>>>If you keep asking me questions like this, we will never get there. lol

-x-x-x-What do you think would be the bottleneck of my system at the moment then? -x-x-x-
>>>We will use a bottle opener to remove the problem of the bottle neck. We're not there yet.lol

-x-x-x-Are you stating above that the games should or should not be installed on the same system
was not sure about the EX part of the statement, does that mean excluding games-x-x-x-
>>>EX: Means example

-x-x-x-Yes but just wish that I had bought these components to begin with but think it seems like a
waste to ditch the Athlon 3000 so quickly, hopefully the FX55 chip will dramatically drop in price in the
near future. -x-x-x-
>>>I doubt the price will drop for a long time.

x-x-x- Am I correct in saying that I will be able to connect the second DVD drive to the spare HDD IDE
slot using the HDD IDE cable?-x-x-x-
>>>Yes

Cheers for the prompt response
DR

DR
>>>Your welcome

Set mem timings to 3-3-3-8 2T to start

Mike

Hi ,

i have a non deluxe A8N-SLI on which i get random system freezes , possibly im under-powered (400w)
but first step to upgrade the BIOS. There have been some reports of the 1004 bios working on the non deluxe , but when i try im told its the wrong model. Ive done ALT-F2 , asusupdate and awdflash all no joy. Im presently using the 1003 beta thats posted , should i downgrade to 1001 first ? but i did initial try using awdflash before i even noticed that it was a delux bios , or is there something im missing ?

Dave

Dave Ballantyne

Simon Lu may be able to help you with this. He's running 1004 on the same board.

Mike

Hello and thanks for supplying the FAQ as well as all the great info in answer to peoples questions.

I received delivery of the A8N-SLI Deluxe on March 1 2005, along with an Antec P160 case with side window, and an Antec 480 Truepower PSU.

Thats all the parts for now until next pay day.

For memory I was looking at getting 2 gig and was leaning towards 2 packs of PC-3200 1024MB G.Skill 184-pin DDR SDRAM (PC3200 2-2-2-5/PC4400 2.5-3-3-7) 2x 512mb sticks. A gaming friend who also has the board said the only way he could get 2 gig to work was to slow down the memory (I forget what loose settings he used). Is there anyway to get 4 sticks of low latency 512 sticks to work at the best speed settings, or is two one gig sticks going to work out faster.

I also need recommendations on sata drives, I want to run raid 0+1, on an other forum a user said "go some seagate SATA drives - they have NCQ to match your mobo" I have no idea what that means though! Also why is the nforce4 raid recommended over the silicon image raid?

I'm still not decided on the graphics card and if I should go two 6600gt's or try two 6800gt's (but buy the second 6800gt later to spread the cost)

I havent mentioned which cpu I was going to use. I will most likely go for the 3800, mainly for the price vs performance point.

If you could provide advice especially with regard to the memory that would be ace.

Cheers
Simon

It's really not going to make a difference what latency memory you are going to get once you are running 4 dimms. You will be at 2T which will slow your machine way down.

This is a gaming motherboard first and foremost, most people I can guarantee are picking 2gigs for bragging rights (albiet shooting themselves in the foot to do it)....I am pretty much a power user, dealing with huge images and databases, I don't think after that extra gig would help as much as it harms.

If I wanted a media editing machine I'd personally pick something like a 865/875 chipset.

Dave Ballantyne:
put the 1004 BIOS on a CD, then do ALT+ F2, it will upgrade itself without asking anything,
i have tired to flash it myself, it gives me the same message, hope this will work out, let me know if you have questions.
but once you go to DLX, you wont be able to go back to the nonDLX BIOS, i tried to repeat what i did with the ASUS CD, it did not work. so, it is your call, but 1004 DLX is running well for me now.
Lu

Ton:
trust Mike, 2-2-2-5 400 Mhz wont work for you, i have the same problem, getting BOSD all the time with this setting, BTW,i have the same RAM, put it on 2.5-3-3-6 1T, from there, you can fix your HD problem,
Lu

Ton:
trust Mike, 2-2-2-5 400 Mhz wont work for you, i have the same problem, getting BOSD all the time with this setting, BTW,i have the same RAM, put it on 2.5-3-3-6 1T, from there, you can fix your HD problem,
Lu

He needs to start at 3-3-3-8-2T

Simon go back and read my post to you page 48 at the bottom.

Mike

Simon Lu,

From a CD ???
I did try from a floppy, strange there should be a difference but ill give it a go.

Dave

Dave Ballantyne

i dont have a floopy drive yet, so i did it with a CD, i was on 1001 final, so, give it a go first, see what happens.
Lu

Alkemyst Darkened:
>It's really not going to make a difference what latency memory you are going to get once you are running 4 dimms. You will be at 2T which will slow your machine way down.

Just curious, why does the machine slow down with 4 dimms as opposed to 2. Would using 2 1gig sticks keep it at (is it) 1T?

>This is a gaming motherboard first and foremost, most people I can guarantee are picking 2gigs for bragging rights (albiet shooting themselves in the foot to do it)....I am pretty much a power user, dealing with huge images and databases, I don't think after that extra gig would help as much as it harms.

Mainly want more memory to avoid disk thrashing when upping the settings in games like StarWarsGalaxies. If I can avoid paging to disk as much as possible I would be really happy. Are you saying that for current gaming, that 1gig memory is all that is required? Its not about bragging so much as having the best performance. If 1 gig is better for games than 2, then I'll stick to 1.

>If I wanted a media editing machine I'd personally pick something like a 865/875 chipset.

Yep, not after media editing just solid game presentation at high settings in games where a lot of texture loading occurs (eg driving your landspeeder into Mos Eisly or in World of Warcraft when a raiding party run into the area)

Simon Voigt

For memory I was looking at getting 2 gig and was leaning towards 2 packs of PC-3200 1024MB G.Skill 184-pin DDR SDRAM (PC3200 2-2-2-5/PC4400 2.5-3-3-7) 2x 512mb sticks. A gaming friend who also has the board said the only way he could get 2 gig to work was to slow down the memory (I forget what loose settings he used). Is there anyway to get 4 sticks of low latency 512 sticks to work at the best speed settings, or is two one gig sticks going to work out faster.

>>>I have one kit of Corsair Twinx 2048 PC3200 C2PL (2X1Gig). I'm running at their rated timings of 2.5-3-3-6-1T and cannot lower my timings on the AMD platform. They state that on an Intel system you can go down to 2-2-2-6. Performance is great in the sense that bandwidth is very high, my RAID0 system has data transfer rates of 270 MB/s when the two sticks are in place. The minute I remove one stick, I get 130 MB/s transfer rate. I too am getting the G.Skill LE PC4400 but 4 X 256 MB, I feel the lower MB's the better for timings, even in 4 DIMM's I will be at very low latencies 2.5-3-3-7 1T, but I will suffer in a loss of bandwidth for my drives. It's a trade off. With my Corsair I cannot even get past an FSB of 215 MHz stable with my FX55 at 3100 MHz, Multiplier 14.5 or so. I will post my results with the G.Skill soon. I think I will hit the 300FSB mark at 3400 MHz Multiplier 11 with this RAM, we shall see!

I also need recommendations on sata drives, I want to run raid 0+1, on an other forum a user said "go some seagate SATA drives - they have NCQ to match your mobo" I have no idea what that means though! Also why is the nforce4 raid recommended over the silicon image raid?

>>>A recent post I made;
>>>NCQ - Native Command Queuing is a new technology like SLI. I would wait a little while before stepping into it, I mean look at us here in this forum, we saw a great thing and now were all beta testers. Do you want to be a beta tester for this drive? I trust the Raptor as it's been around for awhile and has proven to
be a fast and reliable drive. Want more space? Get more Raptors. Just the thought of going back to a 7200.7 RPM drive gives me the willies.

I'm still not decided on the graphics card and if I should go two 6600gt's or try two 6800gt's (but buy the second 6800gt later to spread the cost)
>>>two 6800gt's, you will regret not getting the higher performance from the 6800's.

Mike