Asus a8n-e..

[mscbuck]

Originally posted by: blurp
Hi mate,

You need to set your HTT to 4x. Read this Thread if the HTT settings don't stick in Windows.

When might also have to use a memory divider (333 instead of 400) because your memory might not reach 230 but i Think it is ok. Use Memtest to validate your memory and Prime95 to test your CPU and more or less memory.

Hey man, thanks a lot. Setting the HTT to 4x cleared a LOT of things up.

However, one more question.

What setting should my DRAM configuration be. I'm not talking the timings, but the "MAX MEMCLOCK" setting , there is "200, 266, 333, 400", etc

Which one should it be at? If I set it to automatic, the board says to use 266Mhz. However, I when I go into Windows and go look in CPUZ, it says the speed is 176Mhz. SANDRA memory bandwith though shows a bandwith of over 4000Mb/s, blowing away anything in sight. Also, this Crucial ballistix can go well up to 270Mhz with the right timings (lookign at the reviews). with 2.5-3-3-7 at 2.9V

What CPU-Z says

As of right now, I'm running at 270FSB x 9 at 1.4875 V, and the RAM at 2.5-3-2-6 timings at 2.9Volts, and that MAX MEM CLOCK set to 266.

If this is confusing, feel free to make me clarify

 

[chronokefka]

The MaxMemClock option is a little misleading. It's actually your ram divider ratio. If your ram can go up to 270, you can leave the ratio at 400, to get your ram running at 270MHz, but let it run a couple passes of MemTest to make sure it's stable before you try booting into windows at that. If you get errors in MemTest, either loosen the timings, or reduce the ratio. 333 would drop your ram down to a speed of 225 MHz, as 333/400=0.8325 * 270 = 224.775. Usually, you will want the tighter timings over the higher bandwidth.

Now if only I can figure out what's killing my computer...I think it was the ignorant mistake I made of putting the nVidia IDE drivers on the first install...as Windows would no longer boot last week, so I fresh installed...and it's dead again. What the hell is going on?

 

[mscbuck]

Thank you so much man!

I had a suspicion that those were the Ram dividers, it's just I didn't quite understand what exactly they were a ratio too. I'll go try everything out now, and yeah< i'll probalby use 333 so I can use the tight timings on the Ballistix.

Update:

Unfortunatly, seems like I've hit the wall at 270HTTx9, but I'm happy with that. My RAM now is going great, 2.5-3-3-6. Tried to get lower, but couldn't, even with 2.9V.

Thanks for all the help dudes. Just did a SiSoft Sandra Memory BAndwith test, and got over 6000Mb/s! Great stuff!

600Mhz overclock ain't too shabby in my book.

 

[chronokefka]

I had my own running 48+hours Prime stable at 310x8.5, 266 divider...but now I'm working on trying to find out what keeps cutting my OS to pieces. Another fresh install last night, and I BSoD'd during the damned install. Now I'm just trying to get it running again, and having endless issues.

 

[mscbuck]

Is your system running any slower due to the 266 divider? Because if not, I may try taht actually. See if I can get this thing up to 300

 

[chronokefka]

At a 310 HTT with the 266 divider, my ram is actually still running slightly overclocked. You won't really notice much of a difference in speed with ram bandwidth though. I've got crappy ram because of a shipping screw up that won't clock higher than 210/420 without errors. So it's running at...206 with 2-3-2-5-1t timings, and I haven't noticedany speed differences at all.
The max-memclock heading is misleading. You ram will still scale well beyond that speed as you push up the HTT...my board goes right up to 387Mhz without issues, but my processor can't handle any speeds beyond 2.635Ghz. And I've got OCZ high performance ram.

 

[intersys]

Just put my system together today - 2x512 Corsair, 6800GT PCI-e card, 3200+ Venice CPU. System boots to BIOS ok, but nothing on the Primary IDE port is recognized. Same drives on the Secondary IDE are recognized with no problem. Anybody run into this?

Thanks

 

[mscbuck]

Just ONE more question, not related to overclocking though.

The ASUS Universal PCI-E Slot gives the users freedom and flexibility on the utilization of the PCI-E interface. With Universal PCI-E Slot, user is able to plug in an additional PCI-E graphics card to have dual VGA on a single motherboard! This special design supports up to 1GB/s in bandwidth, and it will also take in most of the PCI-E devices out there!

Could some explain this Universal PCI Slot that the A8N-E supposedly says you can install another VGA into? It doesn't look like it will fit a PCI-E 16x card. I don't think it supports Crossfire or SLi, so what's the point of it? Just to maybe hook up another card so you could more easily hook in more than one monitor?

 

[chronokefka]

Not completely sure, but it wouldn't be a full power PCI-E card, but rather a weaker card for purely 2d and light 3d rendering. Just like with older computers you had both AGP and PCI..or even extremely old ISA VGA cards for multiple monitor support. So, it's bascially for having that second(third?) monitor for putting all your extra programs on.
It's advertised as a universal, because you should be able to plug in any PCI-E device into it and get it to function(GigaBit LAN, etc)

 

[calamari13]

Isn't there a hack you can do on the A8N-E to make it SLi. I'm sure I erad it somewhere but I'm not sure how you actually do it.

 

[Marc in MN]

Hello all,

I found this board and had to join since I too have an A8N-E motherboard.

Unfortunately, today it began to have issues with the Northbridge fan. I've since learned that this is a common problem with this board (thank you ASUS for continuing to send out boards with the bad fan).

This computer has been my first build and it has been a rocky road from the start. I originally started out with an MSI motherboard but swapped it out for the A8N-E after being plagued with several months of mysterious lockups that everyone from the experts on computer message boards to the guys down at CompUSA were unable to exorcise from my machine. It turned out to be a faulty mobo since the problem vanished after I replaced the MSI with an ASUS. Who knows if I glitched it myself or if it came to me that way (I lean toward the latter since I was quite careful while handling all components). Needless to say, after several months of troubles, multiple reinstallations of Windows XP and all software on the computer, I wasn't too thrilled to learn that I'd have to replace the Northbridge fan.

I've been told that I'll have to remove the motherboard from the case to do this. How difficult of a task is it to replace this fan? I''ve thought about getting the Zalman that people are talking about, but I may just call ASUS and get them to send the newer model. I'm reluctant to take the tower apart again since I'll be paranoid that it won't work when I get it together again. (Doesn't make sense, I know....but the last few months have had that impact on me =P )

Anyway, I guess I'm posting this in hopes that people will shed some light on what I can expect in this whole process.

Thanks,
Marc

 

[sandeep108]

I had a similar mobo problem with a 845 chipset Intel MB a couple of years ago - it simply kept killing my HDDs every 1-3 months. Finally going to the 865 solved a lot of my problems. So far my fan has been working ok (almost a month as against 24-48 hours for some people). I feel that replacing the fan may not be too much of a big deal, especially if the other side of your case allows you access.

 

[Marc in MN]

Hmm, today I checked the BIOS and it said that the chip fan is running around 2000 rpms. When I checked it yesterday it was around 7000 rpms.

I called ASUS and they said they'll send a new northbridge hsf as soon as they get some in stock (she said in a day or two). I'm wondering if my computer is still safe to operate normally or if I should play it safe and leave it off until I can swap out the fans....

 

[imported_Technomancer]

Ok, I've been having a lot of problems myself. The one that I'm concentrating on right now is the problem of the Cool'n'Quiet not working. It's set to work in BIOS and I don't have AIBooster on my computer so that shouldn't be an issue. Of course I'll try some of the suggestions on the previous page, since my FSB seems to be stuck at 201. I also have another wierd issue where CPU-Z shows my CPU's Vcore to vary anywhere between 1.2 to 1.328. I'm using 1005 BIOS now, but the VCore was stable at a reported 1.296 before. Of course, I'm well aware that hardware might report this inaccurately, but 0.128 is a pretty big difference.

I've also got other issues with installing the new NForce drivers in this thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=29&threadid=1670539&enterthread=y

 

[imported_Technomancer]

Ok, I Flashed the 1005 like ed on the last page suggested, it doesn't solve my problem. All the CPU clocking settings are still stuck even using his commands for the BIOS flash, my FSB is still stuck at 201 Mhz and Cool'n'Quiet still doesn't work. But now CPUZ says Vcore is now stable at 1.296 again. Oh, and the ASUS probe utility doesn't work anymore since I first upgraded from my 1004 BIOS.

 

[WobbleWobble]

Originally posted by: edwardhchan
I figured it out! The problem was I've been updating the BIOS in Windows using AsusUpdate. This time I went to 1006 using AWDFLASH in DOS and that really cleaned out the BIOS, and now my setting stick! THank goodness. It seems the windows utility isn't doing a good job of updating. Anyways, the command line for DOS that I used in case anyone needs to use it is:

AWDFLASH XXXXXXXX.BIN /py /sn /cc /cd

This should clear everything out in the BIOS and reset to defaults for you. Hope this helps you guys with BIOS settings not sticking.

Ed

Same issue here. I tried doing the flash and reset defaults thing and it didn't work for me either. Switching from flashing in Windows with AsusUpdate to the command line tool fixed the issue!

 

[imported_Technomancer]

At least it works for some people. Actually, it turns out that it does work for me on the surface--the settings now get saved, but there's something quirky going on as the FSB is set to 200 but it's actually running at 201.

 

[chronokefka]

Originally posted by: Technomancer
At least it works for some people. Actually, it turns out that it does work for me on the surface--the settings now get saved, but there's something quirky going on as the FSB is set to 200 but it's actually running at 201.

I'm not completely sure, but mine runs at 201.5 when left stock. There was another topic on here about ASUS force overclocking one of their boards 2MHz with the latest bios update. It's kinda annoying that it runs faster than it should, but the overclock doesn't seem to exist at higher speeds. With my own FSB set to 310, my proc is running rock solid at 2635(8.5 multi).

 

[venicecore]

I need some help with the memory dividers. I have the 3200+ venice core and running at multiplier 10x with FSB 260. I set the mem divider to 333 and when I boot, the POST screen shows my cpu speed to be 2600MHZ as it should be with memory being DDR333 dual-channel. But when I get into windows and load up cpu-z, my FSB is down to 216MHZ and CPu at 2160MHZ. Why is it doing this? The mem divider should only control the mem speed, not the FSB speed !!! I can't figure this out...please help.

 

[mscbuck]

Sounds like you may have your CPU matching your Memory speed 1:1

 

[imported_Technomancer]

There was one issue I did notice in going from BIOS 1004 to 1005. Using the latency tool that comes with CPU-Z, I saw latency to RAM increase from 125 clock cycles to about 140 clock cycles. I'm still not entirely sure why that is. I would go to the 1006 but Windows doesn't start when I update the new drivers first, then again ASUS put the A8N-SLI drivers in the A8N-E downloads section instead so maybe that was my problem.

 

[sandeep108]

Technomancer - I think you can try to update the bios to 1006 and then update the drivers. I think Asus means that 1006 bios will not work very well with older drivers, but I am sure that it will allow you to update the drivers. Otherwise now that I have updated my bios, does it mean I cannot do a fresh install of xp?

 

[M0RPH]

Originally posted by: Marc in MN
I wasn't too thrilled to learn that I'd have to replace the Northbridge fan.

I've been told that I'll have to remove the motherboard from the case to do this. How difficult of a task is it to replace this fan? I''ve thought about getting the Zalman that people are talking about, but I may just call ASUS and get them to send the newer model. I'm reluctant to take the tower apart again since I'll be paranoid that it won't work when I get it together again. (Doesn't make sense, I know....but the last few months have had that impact on me =P )

Anyway, I guess I'm posting this in hopes that people will shed some light on what I can expect in this whole process.

WHy is it exactly that you feel you need to replace the chipset fan? Is it failing in some way? I just installed this omtherboard today and I also have the old type chipset fan. I really don't notice much noise from it. THen again, the 120cm fan in front of my case is louader than everything else. I need to have that fan running because I have 4 hard drives in there.

Anyway, don't feel like you have to replace the chipset fan just because everyone else here is doing it. I have a feeling people are exaggerating about how loud this fan is.

 

[sandeep108]

I sort of second M0rph. I have had this motherboard since more than a month now, running quite a bit and I also do not notice much noise from the chipset fan. There are anyway lots of other fans making equal if not more noise. When it fails I will see. I run Asus Probe when I am not playing games, just to warn me in case it fails so there is no permanent damage.

 

[riceknight]

Originally posted by: M0RPH

Originally posted by: Marc in MN
I wasn't too thrilled to learn that I'd have to replace the Northbridge fan.

I've been told that I'll have to remove the motherboard from the case to do this. How difficult of a task is it to replace this fan? I''ve thought about getting the Zalman that people are talking about, but I may just call ASUS and get them to send the newer model. I'm reluctant to take the tower apart again since I'll be paranoid that it won't work when I get it together again. (Doesn't make sense, I know....but the last few months have had that impact on me =P )

Anyway, I guess I'm posting this in hopes that people will shed some light on what I can expect in this whole process.

WHy is it exactly that you feel you need to replace the chipset fan? Is it failing in some way? I just installed this omtherboard today and I also have the old type chipset fan. I really don't notice much noise from it. THen again, the 120cm fan in front of my case is louader than everything else. I need to have that fan running because I have 4 hard drives in there.

Anyway, don't feel like you have to replace the chipset fan just because everyone else here is doing it. I have a feeling people are exaggerating about how loud this fan is.

I replaced my chipset fan with the zalman and I'm running quieter and a little cooler. I'm running a Sonata II with all ultra low speed fans. I found the most noise came from the little chipset fan, trust me... it's noisier than you think.... plus its prone to break very quickly. You'll notice people complaining about a clicking noise or other problems after a while. I'd save myself the headache and just get a new heatsink before any problems arise.