Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe thread

[NeoXtremeX]

Hello, just bought this board. Currently benching my opteron 146 at 2.8ghz at 1.49v (not so good of a batch). Ill post pictures and more info later.

[polonyc2]

I was thinking about selling my A8N32 and getting this board...was reading a lot of reviews on it earlier tonight...keep us updated...

[NeoXtremeX]

Hmm, this board's BIOS is tough. Soo different from the DFI bios.

Things i dont like so far:

*Tough BIOS and Settings
*Vcore fluctuates alot
*Vcore limited to 1.45 for my opteron

*For some reason, today when i booted up to windows after a failed overclock attempt, my sound was all screwed up, it sounded really weird...what i did to fix it was switch modes in the X-FI control panel, and it was fixed right away. I dont know if its a problem of the X-Fi or the board.

*Temperature seems to be reporting higher than usual. About 6-7 degrees higher.

Everything else is cool. And its STABLE (AT STOCK) with the X-FI. YES!

I guess the board just needs a BIOS.

And by the way, my 2.8ghz overclock failed.. I will do some heavy overclocking later this weekend as this was only something impromptu.

[ATINUT]

Yes, the board needs the 311 bios. It's widely known that if one gets this board, to update right away to the 311 bios or one runs in to a lot of trouble.

Be advised, don't use the ULI SATA Raid drivers unless you absolutely have to, ie such as setting up a raid system. The ULI SATA Raid drivers cause trouble on my system, and they're not needed unless one absolutely runs a raid array or absolutely must have NCQ Performance Mode for SATA 2 harddrives enabled.

[theonlybabyface]

All works great for me. I am using bios 0404....

[theonlybabyface]

OK. Here's an update. I finally hit 300 htt (with my default multi of 9x as at 8x I could easily hit 300 htt +). These are my settings:

Opty 165 @ 2700 mhz (9 x 300htt) on air.

Jumper Free

AI Overclock Manual
CPU Freq 300
PCI-E Freq 100

FID/VID Change Manual
Processor Multiplier 9
Processor Voltage 1.35
DDR Voltage 2.60
Vcore Overvoltage Disabled
Northbridge Overvoltage Disabled
Southbridge Overvoltage Disabled

Peg Link Mode Disabled
Peg Link Length Auto

AI Clock Skew Chan. A Adv 300
AI Clock Skew Chan B Adv 450

Memory Config

Memclock Mode Limit
Memclock Value 183
Timing Mode Manual

CAS 3.0
TRAS 8.0
TRP 3.0
TRCD 4.0
TRRD 3T
TRC 8T
TRFC 16T
TRWT 3 CLK

MCT Extra Timing mode Manual (15.6us)
User Config Manual
Read Preamble 5.5ns
Async Latency 8.0ns
CMD-ADDR Timing 1T
Bank Interleaving Auto
Burst Length 8 Beats
Hardware Memory Hole Disabled

Chipset

HT Link Speed 800 MHz
NB-HT Link Width 16 Bit

HT Link Three State Disabled
HT Drive Strength Optimal
HT Receiver Comp. Ctrl Optimal
HT PLL Control High Speed

The biggest change I did was disabling all of the over-volting settings and manually setting my clock skew for each channel manually which for my Mushkin XP4000 I found to bo 300 and 450 for A and B. Now I'm climbing!!! I have currently been running dual prime and my temps max out at 47C which is fine for me as I have a feeling that the ASUS reports temps a bit on the high side as my temp probe says that it is actually 41C. I'll do some 3D testing next and start raising some more. However, I feel that I may be at my memory's limit @ 270 mhz.

[Howard Stern_abx]

Nice job, I just put a system together last night and plan on tweaking tonight.

Opty 170
corsair pc 4000 2- gigs
A8R32 deluxe bios 311
2-74 gig raptors
1-250 WD Sata 3 16 megs cache
ATI 1900XT
FSP 600W power supply
Audigy 2 ZS

[theonlybabyface]

I would recommend flashing to the new bios asap....

[Howard Stern_abx]

what did the new bios fix? I have read that 311 is very stable and fast and 404 was a bit slower is that wrong?

[theonlybabyface]

Originally Posted by Howard Stern

what did the new bios fix? I have read that 311 is very stable and fast and 404 was a bit slower is that wrong?

Yes. It allows higher overclocks for me. I went from 280htt to 300htt with this bios and I have yet to push for more but I can tell that there's more room. Read this:

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2743

[Howard Stern_abx]

I updated the bios to 0404 and everything seems fine, I set my cpu freq a bit higher and brought it up to about 2.2G from the default 2.0G. I don't understand all of the settings in the bios to really crank up the OC. I have been using intel for the past couple of years and there was only one real option to OC raise the FSB. Why are you runnig your HT link speed at 800, what is the default speed?

So far I am very impressed with my system speed and stability at 2.2 but I am an overclocker and will push this system to the max I just need to fine a website that will explain what everything does in the bios and gives good sound advise. I fired up Battlefield 2 last night at 1600*1200 with all settings maxed out and it was smooth as butter. Halflife2 also at 1600*1200 and the same thing, they play more like a console system now as far as gameplay goes.

[thenjduke]

Okay here is a good article on overclocking AMD 64.http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20823

[Howard Stern_abx]

I raised the cpu freq to 250=2.5Gig and my PC4000 is finaly being used to its fullest. My memory it running at DDR500. So far very stable, I have been surfing around the net and running 2 prime95's on each core. CPU temp is at 52C, not bad. While surfing I don't feel the prime95's running in the background,the system is very quick and responsive. I think I have a lot left in the tank, maybe 2.8G is reachable.

[Howard Stern_abx]

looks like I spoke to soon, can't seem to get past 2.55G, one core keeps failing prime95 at 2.6. So I guess it's just an Avg overclock. The system is so dam fast anyway I can live with this. Changing my mem from 2T to 1T made a big diff during some benchmarking. Thanks for everyone's help

[Howard Stern_abx]

Originally Posted by theonlybabyface

Yes. It allows higher overclocks for me. I went from 280htt to 300htt with this bios and I have yet to push for more but I can tell that there's more room. Read this:

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2743

Did you install the ULI drivers, I did not so far and there are no devices flagged in device manager so I guess I don't need them. I see nvidia has the 2.20 on there website.