nForce4 SLI Roundup: Painful and Rewarding
by Wesley Fink on February 28, 2005 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe: Overclocking and Stress Testing
| Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed | |
| Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe | |
| Processor: | Athlon 64 4000+ (2.4GHz, 1MB Cache) |
| CPU Voltage: | 1.5375V (default 1.50V) |
| Cooling: | Thermaltake Silent Boost K8 Heat sink/Fan |
| Power Supply: | OCZ Power Stream 520W |
| Memory: | OCZ PC3200 EL Platinum Rev. 2 (Samsung TCCD Memory Chips) |
| Hard Drive: | Seagate 120GB 7200RPM SATA 8MB Cache |
| Maximum OC: (Standard Ratio) |
234x12 (Auto HT, 2-3-3-7, 1T, 2.8V) 2808MHz (+17%) |
| Maximum FSB: (Lower Ratio) |
255x11 (2805MHz) (4X HT, 2.5-3-3-7, 2.7V) (1:1 Memory, 1T, 2 DIMMs in DC mode) (+28% Bus Overclock) |
Asus has been the overclocking leader in many of our recent Intel processor roundups, so it was certainly a disappointment that the Asus turned out to be a below-average overclocker in the SLI roundup. The highest CPU speed that we could reach with stability was 255, but performance at the stock 12 multiplier of our 4000+ was a respectable 234. With two of the boards in the SLI roundup going well above 300 in the same configuration, this was hardly impressive overclocking.
Memory Stress Test Results:
Memory stress tests look at the ability of the Asus A8N-SLI to operate at the officially supported memory frequency at the best performing memory timings that our standard OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 will support. Memory stress testing was conducted by running 1:1 at DDR400 with 2 DIMM slots operating in Dual-Channel mode.| Stable DDR400 Timings - One Dual-Channel (2/4 DIMMs populated) |
|
| Clock Speed: | 200MHz |
| CAS Latency: | 2.0 |
| RAS to CAS Delay: | 2T |
| RAS Precharge: | 7T |
| Precharge Delay: | 2T |
| Command Rate: | 1T |
The Asus SLI was completely stable with 2 DDR modules in Dual-Channel at the settings of 2-2-2-7 at default voltage. This matches the best timings that all of the SLI motherboards in this roundup were able to achieve.
Filling all four available memory slots is more strenuous on the memory subsystem than testing 2 DDR modules on a motherboard.
| Stable DDR400 Timings - 4 DIMMs (4/4 DIMMs populated) |
|
| Clock Speed: | 200MHz |
| CAS Latency: | 2.0 |
| RAS to CAS Delay: | 2T |
| RAS Precharge: | 7T |
| Precharge Delay: | 2T |
| Command Rate: | 2T |
The Asus K8N-SLI was completely stable at 2-2-2-7 memory timings. We did have to lower the Command Rate to 2T, but this is a function of the on-chip Athlon 64 memory controller. It is rumored that upcoming Rev. E chips will have an updated memory controller capable of driving 4 DIMMs at 1T command rate, which would definitely improve memory performance when running 4 DIMMs.
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chucky2 - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
Typo on Page 20: I don't think you hit F3, it's F6.Chuck
ajmiles - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
Wesley, would it be possible to get a reply to the comment #6 i wrote? ASUS worked closely with you to resolve the dual 6800 ultra issue, but they just stonewall me and everyone else regarding the overclocking at 1T issue.Perhaps if someone with some "muscle" in the hardware reviewing world were to push them for a response you could get one out of them?
Thanks, Adam Miles
teng029 - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
#52 - i don't envy what you have to go through. i've had the misfortune of trying to get tech support from asus sometime ago and it was like pulling teeth.#29 - i agree. while i would love to have two 6800 ultras or GTs in SLI, the fact of the matter is i can't justify the cost. so instead i'm going with two 6600GTs. although this is apparently not a very popular choice, the fact remains that this configuration is still going to be substantially faster than my current setup using a 9700 pro and it costs about the same as my 9700 pro when i bought it.
teng029 - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
giz02 - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
I just noticed that the MSI board lacks additional PCIe boards, where the DFI board has an additional 1x and 4x slot. Anyones opinion on the importance of this?roostercrows - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
I just have to mention to my fellow anandtech members that I have an ASUS A8N-SLI board and I have been trying to get through to their "tech support" Friday and all Monday morning with absolutely no luck whatsoever! You can't even get through to anyone. So, when considering a motherboard keep this in mind. My experience with their "tech support" has been the worst you can imagine. Well...at least they weren't rude or incompetent.... they just aren't there.drewski - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
too bad the non-sli from MSI doesn't use the SB audiohttp://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/m...
giz02 - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
Sorry page 5-11giz02 - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
Heinrich,Did you configure the settings as per page 5-12 in the manual to passthrough on the decoder?
THILE - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
How did you make the Gigabyte run 4x dimms at 200mhz?I have this new motherboard GA-K8NXP-SLI and 4x of kingston hyperx pc3200 (KHX3200UlK2).
And running a new AMD athlon64 3500+ 90nm
I use SPD settings for the memmory. T2 is enabled.
Do I then force 200 mhz it just frezes.