ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe @ [H] Enthusiast

munkle said:
maybe im wrong on this but isnt nvidia's internal bridge the same as ati's dongle? just ones on the inside and ones on the outside?
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Correct. NVIDIA's implementation does allow for two 7800GTX's to operate in SLI mode without the bridge installed with reduced performance. I do not know if ATi's solution does this as well. The fact is both solutions (on the high end) need the bridge/dongle to work.

Most people seem to agree that the NVIDIA solution is more elegant and preferable to use and setup. This article is about a motherboard. Not Crossfire. Kyle has already addressed the point about the earlier speculation of this chipset getting rid of the need for the dongle. At this time it does not do that.
 
Top voltage setting is 1.400v again with the vcore option. Same problem as the A8R-MVP and they didn't fix it here. Dissapointing, really.
 
pk-w00t said:
Top voltage setting is 1.400v again with the vcore option. Same problem as the A8R-MVP and they didn't fix it here. Dissapointing, really.
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The adjustment range differs based on the installed CPU. Our FX-53 test CPU showed to be running at 1.5 1.55 was selectable. That was with a 130nm CPU. The voltage regulator is capable of going beyond 1.4v. As such it seems this is a BIOS limitation rather than a physical hardware limitation. I can understand your dissapointment here.

Even so you should be able to reach very high overclocks with this board.
 
The dongle isnt an issue to me at all. And it sure wouldnt stop me from getting a Crossfire setup. Its behind the PC, and out of sight. I dont understand the issue with it.

I just got an A8N32-SLI, and find myself wishing I had waited 2 more weeks for this board. Even though I have SLI on it.. this A8R seems to kick serious butt. And overclocks even better than mine, with more options.
 
fallguy said:
The dongle isnt an issue to me at all. And it sure wouldnt stop me from getting a Crossfire setup. Its behind the PC, and out of sight. I dont understand the issue with it.

I just got an A8N32-SLI, and find myself wishing I had waited 2 more weeks for this board. Even though I have SLI on it.. this A8R seems to kick serious butt. And overclocks even better than mine, with more options.
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The dongle isn't a big issue for me either and wouldn't stop me from purchasing a Crossfire based system. That being said I think the A8R32-MVP Deluxe and the A8N32-SLI Deluxe are roughly equal all around. I had personally better results with the A8N32-SLI Deluxe on the overclocking front, but overclocking is very much a luck of the draw scenario. My advice is to pick your video cards, and go with the supporting motherboard. After all the video cards are more of the equation than anything else in a gaming system.
 
Dan_D said:
The dongle isn't a big issue for me either and wouldn't stop me from purchasing a Crossfire based system. That being said I think the A8R32-MVP Deluxe and the A8N32-SLI Deluxe are roughly equal all around. I had personally better results with the A8N32-SLI Deluxe on the overclocking front, but overclocking is very much a luck of the draw scenario. My advice is to pick your video cards, and go with the supporting motherboard. After all the video cards are more of the equation than anything else in a gaming system.
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Ive already got my video cards, 2xBFG 7800 GTX's. I have had three different A8N's, and I do like the A8N32 the best. I just really dislike the bios reset jumper placement. Makes it so annoying when you are trying to find your overclock. I just took out the second GTX till I got it where I wanted it. Now that I just got a new CPU... I have to do it all over again. I would also like to keep the HTT at 5x, not lower it to 3x as I have to do on this board.

They are not big issues really, and I am very happy with my A8N32, but I would like the better placement of the jumper, and 5x. Also, ATi's chipset seems to run cooler, which is nice too, and without a fancy heatpipe. Its just nice to have a very good competitor for the NF4. Hopefully other vendors will follow suit, Im sure DFI's board will rock as well. My Ultra-D sure did.
 
Very good read. I am glad to see that nvidia is now has some competition in the performance skt939 sector.

Are we going to see an article comprising Nvidia-ATI-SLI-Crossfire-78xx-X19(something) battle royale in the future?
 
To those in the know:

Might this indicate a new round of Turion/Radeon Xpress laptops coming down the pipe in the near future?

 
M1ster_R0gers said:
Very good read. I am glad to see that nvidia is now has some competition in the performance skt939 sector.

Are we going to see an article comprising Nvidia-ATI-SLI-Crossfire-78xx-X19(something) battle royale in the future?
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I am pretty sure that has already been covered on our pages....

Quite frankly, it is not that exciting because it is so close.
 
I loved the review....well, really, when I saw that it worked and was entirely passively cooled, that's what did it for me :p

Just thought you might want to know that there's (likely) a spelling error on the first page of the article. You have a sentence that reads, "Exactly like this boards NVIDIA counterpart, there is a bazaar implementation of the SATA ports" and I think that you meant "bizarre" rather than "bazaar." Also, I think that you meant "board's," to indicate the possessive on "board" rather than simply pluralizing "board."

Thanks for the great review!

 
Jason711 said:
thats sort of a let down... how can ATi's AA be that much better? and resolution is resolution.. if nvidia can do it w/o a dongle they have no excuse..

i dunno... i just dont like the dongle.
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Of course you can turn that around and say "If ATI can make xfire work without a bridge, shouldn't Nvidia be able to?"
 
DamienThorn said:
I loved the review....well, really, when I saw that it worked and was entirely passively cooled, that's what did it for me :p

Just thought you might want to know that there's (likely) a spelling error on the first page of the article. You have a sentence that reads, "Exactly like this boards NVIDIA counterpart, there is a bazaar implementation of the SATA ports" and I think that you meant "bizarre" rather than "bazaar." Also, I think that you meant "board's," to indicate the possessive on "board" rather than simply pluralizing "board."

Thanks for the great review!

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You may be correct. However, that's what MS Word's spellchecker corrected my original spelling of the word to.
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
thats somewhat understandble, but how would you distinguish which board is a better buy if they are not compared equally =D?
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They are compared by feature set and the performance of their subsystems. Which is what counts in the real world. For example, in the A8R32-MVP Deluxe review, it is pointed out that the ULI Southbridge is actually faster than the NVIDIA in RAID configurations most of the time.

Stability is also of primary concern. We beat these boards to death on the test bench. As far as I am concerned a board is useless as an enthusiast part if it isn't stable under the most strict of tests.
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
thats somewhat understandble, but how would you distinguish which board is a better buy if they are not compared equally =D?
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To answer your question intelligently, I would have to know EXACTLY what you mean by "better."
 
Doodle said:
Nope...

You test the best of company A's available hardware versus the best of Company B's available hardware.

Before the 1800 series we weren't saying "oh the 7800 series outclasses the X850 series so instead we will test the X850 against the 6800 series".

Me.
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But are you really going to keep saying that when the 7900 series comes out from nVidia as a direct challenge to ATI's 1900 series? At that point, the comparison with the 1900 series from ATI to nVidia's 7800 series would seem less valid.
 
I've been really interested in hearing more about this mobo. Nice to see a good review.

The OCing issues you ran into sort of scare me off. Whether you got a lemon or not, i'm skepticle to risk it. The chipset however, looks to be a winner. Hopefully DFI will something in store very soon.
 
teenk said:
Of course you can turn that around and say "If ATI can make xfire work without a bridge, shouldn't Nvidia be able to?"
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nvidias chipset can work without a bridge.

but what i was actually refering to are the improvements of atis chipset.
 
nice work and very interesting be watching for future systems.
 
The A8R32-MVP review states that memory speeds of up to DDR500 are possible with the E6 revision of AMD processors. Are these memory speeds possible with E6 steppings of the slower X2 dual-processor chips, such as:

AMD 4200+ ADA4200DAA5CD (ADA4200BVBOX) and
AMD 3800+ ADV4400DAA6CD (ADA3800BVBOX)?

The above 4200+ and 3800+ chips are often listed as having "Manchester" cores although the "CD" tray designation suggests that they have E6 steppings associated with "Toledo" cores.

I would appreciate any feedback since I plan to order both the motherboard and the processor this weekend. I already have Corsair TWINX2048-4000PT (2 x 1 GB) memory which is rated at DDR500.

Thanks very much!
 
This may be an old subject but I am ecstatic that the A8R32-MVP does not have heatpipes. My Lian Li PC-V600 case installs the motherboard "upside-down" and I am afraid that the heatpipes on the high-end Asus motherboards will not work in an upside-down orientation. Likewise, I am leary of video cards with heatpipes that assume a specific orientation.

Until the A8R32-MVP came along, I have been waiting with growing impatience for a high-end motherboard without fans and without heatpipes. Thank you, Asus!
 
Rocky Mountain High said:
This may be an old subject but I am ecstatic that the A8R32-MVP does not have heatpipes. My Lian Li PC-V600 case installs the motherboard "upside-down" and I am afraid that the heatpipes on the high-end Asus motherboards will not work in an upside-down orientation. Likewise, I am leary of video cards with heatpipes that assume a specific orientation.

Until the A8R32-MVP came along, I have been waiting with growing impatience for a high-end motherboard without fans and without heatpipes. Thank you, Asus!
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I don't mind the heatpipes at all. However I do understand where you are comming from on the whole mounting orientation issue.

Rocky Mountain High said:
The A8R32-MVP review states that memory speeds of up to DDR500 are possible with the E6 revision of AMD processors. Are these memory speeds possible with E6 steppings of the slower X2 dual-processor chips, such as:

AMD 4200+ ADA4200DAA5CD (ADA4200BVBOX) and
AMD 3800+ ADV4400DAA6CD (ADA3800BVBOX)?

The above 4200+ and 3800+ chips are often listed as having "Manchester" cores although the "CD" tray designation suggests that they have E6 steppings associated with "Toledo" cores.

I would appreciate any feedback since I plan to order both the motherboard and the processor this weekend. I already have Corsair TWINX2048-4000PT (2 x 1 GB) memory which is rated at DDR500.

Thanks very much!
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All E6 stepping CPU's, X2, A64 or otherwise share the same memory controller specifications. It should be possible.

As always though with overclocking, nothing is guaranteed.
 
The CPU area is pretty crowded. Most heatsinks and even passive solutions should be fine, however extremely large coolers like the XP-120 and 120mm Fatal1ty FS-C77 may be a problem.
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Any word on if the Zalman CNPS7700 (or if not that the CNPS7000) coolers will work? They're large, but tall, so I'm hoping I'll still be able to reuse one of those with my new board when it shows up from Newegg!

Right now I have 2 Mushkin Redline 1 GB sticks that I want to use (though I have some junk Crucial I could use if I really need to).
 
glynor said:
Any word on if the Zalman CNPS7700 (or if not that the CNPS7000) coolers will work? They're large, but tall, so I'm hoping I'll still be able to reuse one of those with my new board when it shows up from Newegg!

Right now I have 2 Mushkin Redline 1 GB sticks that I want to use (though I have some junk Crucial I could use if I really need to).
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The problem is with taller memory modules like the Corsair XMS Pro and XPert modules. They have clearance issues with some heatsinks. I know the 7000 series Zalman coolers won't allow you to install such tall modules in the first DIMM slot. I can't imagine the larger 7700 series coolers would be any easier in this respect. The same problem exists on the A8N32-SLI Deluxe. Both the A8R32 and A8N32 have nearly identical layouts and PCB's. Normal height memory modules SHOULD be ok. I didn't try any. I used Corsair XMS Pro for the A8N32 review and Corsair XMS XPert modules for the A8R32 review.

The new CNPS9500 Zalman cooler will work just fine though. And it's a better cooler than the 7000 series from what I have read. I have never seen the CNPS9500 and the 7700's compared. So I don't know which is better. Due to orientation though, the CNPS9500 is one of the best choices to avoid the memory clearance issues.
 
Has anyone has tried the A8R32 with the antec neo he psu? I'm wondering if Asus has the fix for the A8N implented in this new board.
 
Dan_D said:
The new CNPS9500 Zalman cooler will work just fine though. And it's a better cooler than the 7000 series from what I have read. I have never seen the CNPS9500 and the 7700's compared. So I don't know which is better. Due to orientation though, the CNPS9500 is one of the best choices to avoid the memory clearance issues.
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Thanks! My Mushkin DDR is regular height, so it should be okay. If I didn't already have both the 7700 and the 7000B coolers I probably would pick up a 9500, but alas I bought mine before the new one came out. If by chance I can't get it to fit I'll probably pick up one of the 9500's though...

Thanks again!
 
Excellent review.

It's too bad there's not an AMD board solution that can exploit either dual-card technology, but at least it's nice to know that you can use the video card of your choice and not feel cheated.

Makes me wish I hadn't bought my A8N32-SLI Deluxe, since it's the only component I've bought for my new system.

On an editing note:
Page 1 lists the A8N32-SLI Deluxe instead of the A8R32-MVP Deluxe in the last two paragraphs.
 
Nice work, I believe I will be picking up an Xpress 3200 board. I still want to see what some other major brands do, but as of right now, I am excited for this board.
 
Ordered Mine from the Egg, Weds Night, B4 they sold out, for $226 UPS 3 day shipped, Will Have it in a few days =D Should work well W/ My Opty 170, Am Expecting great things, but plan on waiting for the ATI DX 10 Video cards & HOPEFULLY on card Crossfire,(LOL), before I Upgrade that,(Cultivating some patience till June or so). I think maybe the memory used in the review may have limited the 1:1 CPU RAM OC speed, I Currently Use the 2 X 512 MB Corsair PC 3200 Twin X PRO Ram (See My Sig), & it gets flaky @ 260- 265FSB, Plan to Get Some Mushkin Redline or OCZ Plat 2GB soon. I bought this ATI board to finally replace my buggy MSI Neo 4 PLat SLI board.
 
gathagan said:
Excellent review.

It's too bad there's not an AMD board solution that can exploit either dual-card technology, but at least it's nice to know that you can use the video card of your choice and not feel cheated.
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Well, someone sent me this. It is supposed to allow SLI to work on the ATI Radeon Xpress 3200 based boards. Try this at your own risk. I have NOT verified if this works or not. Caution is recommended.

http://www.ngohq.com/showthread.php?t=5366
 
Hope the SLI patch does work, Seeing that The Board does have The ULI Southbridge, Cause then it would give me more options in the DX-10 SM 4.0 video card dept, Now if I can find the best OCing 2 GB dual channel Ram to use on this board,LOL :)
 
1RadDad said:
Hope the SLI patch does work, Seeing that The Board does have The ULI Southbridge, Cause then it would give me more options in the DX-10 SM 4.0 video card dept, Now if I can find the best OCing 2 GB dual channel Ram to use on this board,LOL :)
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really, you dont need ram that will oc very high. the overall clock speed of the processor matters much more.
 
I want the Higher OC Memory for higher bandwith, better game & Application performance & Just because it's fun to see just how high I can get on the ATI Crossfire Board I'm getting in a few more days :D
 
Optimus said:
Bu**cough**it!

Sorry to call BS on this one, but HardOCP does that all the time. In fact, HardOCP is the only site of which I know that consistently rapes which ever side they deem "not as good" by turning the settings up higher on that hardware than they do on the competition which they deem "best" with little more than arbitrary opinion on "most playable settings." I stopped believing the video card reviews on HardOCP a long time ago because I got fed up with seeing (for example) video card 1 with 4xAF being compared to video card 2 with 2xAF, causing only a slight difference in fps and causing a conclusion that video card 2 is the better card with complete disregard of the fact that it wasn't doing as much work. It is this very kind of "frames per seconds comaprisons that don't equate to real-world performance..." :p
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Clearly you don't understand the point of their reviews if you think their settings are arbitrary. The frame rates that most people consider playable have been well documented over the past 10+ years, most especially in the last 5 or so. The OCP gang simply tries different combinations of quality settings until they arrive at a frame rate that offers the most acceptable performance. It's like the "reasonable gamer" standard. :)

Thanks guys for the review on the A8R. I'm currently trying to decide on components for a new build and this had helped...even if it has served to add one more possibility to the pile :)
 
phobos512 said:
Clearly you don't understand the point of their reviews if you think their settings are arbitrary. The frame rates that most people consider playable have been well documented over the past 10+ years, most especially in the last 5 or so. The OCP gang simply tries different combinations of quality settings until they arrive at a frame rate that offers the most acceptable performance. It's like the "reasonable gamer" standard. :)

Thanks guys for the review on the A8R. I'm currently trying to decide on components for a new build and this had helped...even if it has served to add one more possibility to the pile :)
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Personally I think the A8N32-SLI Deluxe and the A8R32-MVP Deluxe are the best two choices for motherboards out there for most enthusiasts or anyone who wants the impressive feature sets. I'd generally call the boards equal. Both overclocked very well and were rock solid. For you I'd say pick whatever video card setup your going to use and pick the appropriate matching chipset.

That is if you want to use SLI or Crossfire. If not, then it doesn't matter as much.
 
..and it's all over various hardware sites too. I first read it here:

http://www.driverheaven.net/showthread.php?t=100818&page=1&pp=15

I have this board sitting right here ready to be installed but now I will wait. I *FULLY* have faith ASUS will resolve this issue post haste and we all will be able to enjoy this excellent board. Not unexpected at all that there are a few bumps at the start. (being a long time "early adopter" I am used to it) at least this is bios and not hardware related.

I only post this so others either who have bought this board or intend to are informed, Thats all.
 
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