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Asus SLI help!?!

F

freddiepm61

Gawd
Joined
Oct 19, 2004
Messages
836
I have been thinking of going SLI for a while now.
However i need 100% stability.
therefore, with the asus board (i need this so that i can use dual leadtek 6800gt),
(1) Will it be easy to set up
(2) Will it be completely and utterly stable, as a 1 gpu machine?

thanks
f
 
SLi itself doesn't cause instability. The motherboards can though depending on BIOS, chipset drivers and of course other components. AMD based PC's aren't the easiest to setup. They can be easy, or they can do things the hard way. Although supposedly the latest Nforce drivers address most if not all the issues with the NF4 chipsets.
 
Overclocking aside, I have yet to have a crash or any problem with my A8N-SLi, but I don't have 2 video cards ether.
 
If you want to ensure absolute stability you are out of luck, computers are never 100%...but if you want 99.9% chance of a highly stable system I would not settle for anything less than the PCP&C Turbo Cool 510 SLI PSU, it may cost more but it is worth it, trust me. Good choice on motherboard w/the video cards you have as I think the ASUS board may be the only one with the PCIe slots far enough apart to allow for the heatsinks on those Leadteks. Plus it is not a bad board unlike what others may lead you to believe and I think that future BIOS updates will only make it better.
 
personally i am going with the ocz 600w powerstream, as it has fantastic performance,
unlike many other 600w psu, is 600w sustained, and 700w max output!
also, it is quieter and a bit cheaper than the pcp&c.
indeed my main boon with the pcp&c is its noise.

would you think/agree that powerstream is good enough?
f
 
My Asus A8N SLI Deluxe has been rock solid except when I'm pushing the overclock too high. It's running quite stable at the following specs right now:


240 HTT
11x Multi (3500+ @2.640 mhz, 1.6vcore)
4x HT Multiplier
480 mhz DDR @2-3-3-5 (2.9v, 1T)

This is with two 6600GT's overclocked to 572 core/1.16 DDR

With the latest beta BIOS I had the HTT stable as high as 255 with RAM at 1T.
 
yeah get the 510 and the asus does have a lot of space but isn't much of an ocer. ur choice depends what u want to do with it. the msi for 170 is a good deal for ocing but I have no idea yet as to how much gpu space it has. i'm going with a single card in the msi sli mobo until the next gen sli cards come out.
 
vxspiritxv said:
Overclocking aside, I have yet to have a crash or any problem with my A8N-SLi, but I don't have 2 video cards ether.
Click to expand...
If not overclocking (above 225MHz FSB) I don't see any stability issue. I am running 2 (eVGA) 6800 Ultras in SLI. I have yet to crash the board while gaming or anything else (when not OC'ing). I have been running the CPU and RAM @ stock speeds for the last month and haven't seen a random reboot, BSoD, or game crash yet.

I would highly recommend this board but havent tried any other NF4 yet. I am using a Enermax 650W PSU (EG651P-VE FMA), SLI, P4, SATA, blah, blah, Ready.
 
How bout this, these will be my specs, can anyone see any potential problems of stability that any of these may have with the board or each other?
Athlon 64 4000+
A8N SLI Deluxe
2GB (2X1024) Geil Value Ram @ 3-4-4-8 (or, does anyone know where i can get some of that ocz titanium ram, that does 2-3-2-5?)
2x Leadtek 6800gt
2x 74gb raptor
1x western digital 40gb hd
plextor px716a
plextor dvd-rom
floppy drive/card reader
fan controller from enermax
thermaltake tsunami case
thermalright xp-120 w. vantec stealth 120mm
ocz 600w psu

thanks everyone for your help so far
f
 
freddiepm61 said:
How bout this, these will be my specs, can anyone see any potential problems of stability that any of these may have with the board or each other?
Athlon 64 4000+
A8N SLI Deluxe
2GB (2X1024) Geil Value Ram @ 3-4-4-8 (or, does anyone know where i can get some of that ocz titanium ram, that does 2-3-2-5?)
2x Leadtek 6800gt
2x 74gb raptor
1x western digital 40gb hd
plextor px716a
plextor dvd-rom
floppy drive/card reader
fan controller from enermax
thermaltake tsunami case
thermalright xp-120 w. vantec stealth 120mm
ocz 600w psu

thanks everyone for your help so far
f
Click to expand...
Everything is looking good. One thing to keep in mind is that don't expect a whole lot out of 2GB of memory in terms of overclocking. Most people seem to be limited in what they can reach and you can pretty much forget about 1T (if there is someone out there running 1T on an A8N let me know I would like to know what memory can do this). Of course the Venice core w/improved memory controller will hopefully remedy this. I don't know how the new OCZ Titanium will fair but I wouldn't hold my breath.

As for the OCZ, I think you should be fine, but I really like my PCP&C and it is definetely not as noisy as you have been lead to believe. Quieter than all the other fans in my case (except my case fans).
 
ohnnyj said:
Everything is looking good. One thing to keep in mind is that don't expect a whole lot out of 2GB of memory in terms of overclocking. Most people seem to be limited in what they can reach and you can pretty much forget about 1T (if there is someone out there running 1T on an A8N let me know I would like to know what memory can do this). Of course the Venice core w/improved memory controller will hopefully remedy this. I don't know how the new OCZ Titanium will fair but I wouldn't hold my breath.

As for the OCZ, I think you should be fine, but I really like my PCP&C and it is definetely not as noisy as you have been lead to believe. Quieter than all the other fans in my case (except my case fans).
Click to expand...

Im running 1T with my 2gb (patriot 2-3-2-5 1T) they are 2 1gb sticks, my specs are:
FX55 @ 2.79Ghz
215HTT
13x multi
2gb patriot ram
 
newls 1, where did you get your patriot memory, i.e. can you show me a URL.

secondly, will the new memory controller on the venice/san diego cores, allow for 4 dimms of ddr 400, as opposed to just downgrading to 4 dimms of ddr333?
thanks
f
 
newls1 said:
Im running 1T with my 2gb (patriot 2-3-2-5 1T) they are 2 1gb sticks, my specs are:
FX55 @ 2.79Ghz
215HTT
13x multi
2gb patriot ram
Click to expand...
I wouldn't call that the greatest overclock but very respectable nonetheless.
 
freddiepm61 said:
newls 1, where did you get your patriot memory, i.e. can you show me a URL.

secondly, will the new memory controller on the venice/san diego cores, allow for 4 dimms of ddr 400, as opposed to just downgrading to 4 dimms of ddr333?
thanks
f
Click to expand...
I have 4x512MB Corsair 3200XL on my A8N-SLI running at DDR400 speeds. The board will clock it down but certain memory can clock back up if you do it manually in the BIOS, there is a faq on ASUS's website that details this.
 
ohnnyj said:
I wouldn't call that the greatest overclock but very respectable nonetheless.
Click to expand...

I sure I can go higher, just haven't had time to really work on that computer. I have the entire next week off :D for vacation, so I'll see how high, and STABLE I can go. As far as the ram "where I bought it" www.monarchcomputers.com
 
newls1 said:
I sure I can go higher, just haven't had time to really work on that computer. I have the entire next week off :D for vacation, so I'll see how high, and STABLE I can go. As far as the ram "where I bought it" www.monarchcomputers.com
Click to expand...
Sweet, I didn't realize and I apologize. Please let us know how well it turns out.
 
so, bottom line, other than ocing (which at the mo is not my thing), the a8n-sli will be stable from day one?
however will this only be when i have the latest bios?
if so, at what stage of the installation process should i do this (if i am starting from scratch, and looking at my components)
f
 
I have not had any problems with the stock 1002 BIOS or the 1004 Final, have not tried any others. I was running off of 1002 until last month (from December to February w/no problems).
 
ohnnyj said:
I have not had any problems with the stock 1002 BIOS or the 1004 Final, have not tried any others. I was running off of 1002 until last month (from December to February w/no problems).
Click to expand...

The newest non-beta release is 1.006 btw. I've been running 1.007.02 with no problems.
 
freddiepm61 said:
does the in windows donwload bios work well, or should you do a boot disk?
f
Click to expand...

I don't use the 'update from Internet', but I do use the 'update from file' after I've downloaded it. The only reason I ever have to use a boot disk (or CD in my case) is if I want to go downlevel for some reason.
 
Jasonx82 said:
my A8N Sli deluxe is perfect no probs! :D
Click to expand...

Same here I was really surprised after all these threads I've been reading. She went together easy and while not quite as painless as my Intel setup was I am very pleased with this so far.

BTW what settings do you guys recommend for my BIOS with the hardware in my SIG. I will get into some overclocking when I replace this god awefull stock cooler, but right now I just want to know what performance settings to use.

I had everything down for the Intel machines, but this is my first AMD since the Thunderbird days. My last AMD was a 1.33GHz T-Bird. Part of the reason I never went AMD until now was the issues I had with that system. Which got smoothed out after going through 3 Abit KT7's and finally settling on the Asus A7V-133A. After that I didn't have any more problems, but AMD has kind of scared me since then. I've built a few for other people but I never wanted to go through problems like that again.

Thanks.
 
Sir-Fragalot said:
Same here I was really surprised after all these threads I've been reading. She went together easy and while not quite as painless as my Intel setup was I am very pleased with this so far.

BTW what settings do you guys recommend for my BIOS with the hardware in my SIG. I will get into some overclocking when I replace this god awefull stock cooler, but right now I just want to know what performance settings to use.

I had everything down for the Intel machines, but this is my first AMD since the Thunderbird days. My last AMD was a 1.33GHz T-Bird. Part of the reason I never went AMD until now was the issues I had with that system. Which got smoothed out after going through 3 Abit KT7's and finally settling on the Asus A7V-133A. After that I didn't have any more problems, but AMD has kind of scared me since then. I've built a few for other people but I never wanted to go through problems like that again.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
You can start with memory timing and ensuring that it is set to DDR400 speeds. Disable things you don't need such as onboard audio, the SI controller if you have nothing attached to it, etc.
 
ohnnyj said:
If you want to ensure absolute stability you are out of luck, computers are never 100%...but if you want 99.9% chance of a highly stable system I would not settle for anything less than the PCP&C Turbo Cool 510 SLI PSU, it may cost more but it is worth it, trust me. Good choice on motherboard w/the video cards you have as I think the ASUS board may be the only one with the PCIe slots far enough apart to allow for the heatsinks on those Leadteks. Plus it is not a bad board unlike what others may lead you to believe and I think that future BIOS updates will only make it better.
Click to expand...

I agree. I've had zero problems with my A8N-SLi Deluxe. The layout is superb and the features of the board are great. Stability is top notch, aside from the overclocking issues.
 
ohnnyj said:
You can start with memory timing and ensuring that it is set to DDR400 speeds. Disable things you don't need such as onboard audio, the SI controller if you have nothing attached to it, etc.
Click to expand...

Yeah I've disabled the uneeded devices, but specifically I was reffering to the 1T and 2T stuff. Intel's don't have as many settings for memory and they of course don't have HyperTransport. Since I am new to AMD's I don't know that much about all those settings.
 
Sir-Fragalot said:
Yeah I've disabled the uneeded devices, but specifically I was reffering to the 1T and 2T stuff. Intel's don't have as many settings for memory and they of course don't have HyperTransport. Since I am new to AMD's I don't know that much about all those settings.
Click to expand...
For starters then you definetely want to do 1T if you can. I unfortunately cannot since I have all four DIMMS populated and the current memory controller on the A64s won't allow me to, I may have to get myself one of the new Venice cores if they release and FX or wait for the dual cores. I may also have to switch to the Premium if it offers a reasonable upgrade.
 
ohnnyj said:
For starters then you definetely want to do 1T if you can. I unfortunately cannot since I have all four DIMMS populated and the current memory controller on the A64s won't allow me to, I may have to get myself one of the new Venice cores if they release and FX or wait for the dual cores. I may also have to switch to the Premium if it offers a reasonable upgrade.
Click to expand...

I don't think that the Premium will offer anything more than better overclocking. Not that it's a bad thing to release a better overclocking board, and of course the removal of the SLi connector card is nice, but not a big deal since you essentially set it once and go from there.
 
(1) Sir Fragalot, how is your plextor px-716sa?, i have read some bad reviews on it being a bitb bolshy with some media, and some write mistakes. is this bollocks, i.e.is it the best in the world, as my px-708a was when it came out?

(2) looking at what i am going to have in my system (look back a page, in the middle)
what order should i go through installing stuff?....i.e. obviusly proc, mobo, ram etc etc., but should i stuff in the dual gpu and set the so-dimm to SLI from day one, or should i get everything set up (including all my programs etc.) and then do it, or what?

thanks again, this is all very helpful

f
 
I've got both the PX-712SA and the PX-716SA and they have both been very good drives. I've never had write issues with either of them. The drive is quiet and they've been reliable so far.

Having a SATA optical drive is nice BTW. Ribbon cables suck.
 
freddiepm61 said:
(1) Sir Fragalot, how is your plextor px-716sa?, i have read some bad reviews on it being a bitb bolshy with some media, and some write mistakes. is this bollocks, i.e.is it the best in the world, as my px-708a was when it came out?

(2) looking at what i am going to have in my system (look back a page, in the middle)
what order should i go through installing stuff?....i.e. obviusly proc, mobo, ram etc etc., but should i stuff in the dual gpu and set the so-dimm to SLI from day one, or should i get everything set up (including all my programs etc.) and then do it, or what?

thanks again, this is all very helpful

f
Click to expand...
I have the Plextor as well and it has done very well so far, no problems at all.

Something to be aware of, however, is that I had trouble getting it to work when I enabled RAID on the nVidia SATA ports, but once I moved it to the SI ports all was well. I have not tried with the latest BIOSes so they may have fixed this but I am not positive.

And in regards to setting the system up, I would treat it as any other system, and yes I would install both graphics cards initially with the EZ-Selector card set to dual card mode.
 
I set it up for SLi and installed my OS on it with both cards installed. I never had any trouble. The only issues I had were getting the Windows installer to recognize my RAID configuration. That's it though.
 
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