whats up with Asus+AMD=failure?

[k2000k]

I have noticed this commit/sig a few times in the forum and I was wondering why? Whats wrong with AMD compatible ASUS motherboards?

 

[h3llscream]

I have seen that sig as well. I think its someone that just had a bad experience lol.

 

[endyen]

Wusy will reply soon. That's his sig you are talking about. There are three reasons for it.
1 The Asus nforce4 boards have been problematic, esp the voltage regulators.
2 The boards just dont OC well, again due to crappy voltage regulation.
3 The product is priced way beyond it's value, esp when you have to deal with overworked support staff.

 

[tvfreak]

Wusy will reply soon. That's his sig you are talking about. There are three reasons for it.
1 The Asus nforce4 boards have been problematic, esp the voltage regulators.
2 The boards just dont OC well, again due to crappy voltage regulation.
3 The product is priced way beyond it's value, esp when you have to deal with overworked support staff.

So the best boards to get if you want to OC is the DFI I assume. I mean I want to get a opty and I do want to OC later in the future, but i dont plan OCing it really high. Around 10 to 15 percent to be on the safe side. :twisted:

 

[endyen]

My list of Ocing boards always starts with Abit boards. They may not get the extreme OCs that DFI does, but they are easier to use (gotta love uguru) and seem to be better designed (I really hate that dfi didn't go with ISA on the ram slots. It makes no sense to cause more pain for the ODMC)
Epox is a real up and comer as well.

 

[avatar3k]

no idea... i like my asus + amd just fine

 

[tvfreak]

My list of Ocing boards always starts with Abit boards. They may not get the extreme OCs that DFI does, but they are easier to use (gotta love uguru) and seem to be better designed (I really hate that dfi didn't go with ISA on the ram slots. It makes no sense to cause more pain for the ODMC)
Epox is a real up and comer as well.

When I was on newegg they were a lot of complaints about abit boards. I want to get a opty 175 so i'm a little worried that I will run into problems. What abit board do you recommend for the Opty 175? I need sata2, pic express for my vid card, ata/100 for my older hd and decent ocing capabilities? Links would be good. :twisted: thanks dog.

 

[endyen]

I think the KN8 ultra is a great board. The early version had a few bugs, but they seem to be fixed.
I dont understand how anyone could screw up an install on one of these boards, but, when some fool does, they always blame the product.
As per all Amd boards check for ram compatability, and when OCing, use the uguru prog, in windows.

 

[tvfreak]

I think the KN8 ultra [/b] is a great board. The early version had a few bugs, but they seem to be fixed.
I dont understand how anyone could screw up an install on one of these boards, but, when some fool does, they always blame the product.
As per all Amd boards check for ram compatability, and when OCing, use the uguru prog, in windows.

Also i read that this is wrong, can't reconize the dual core, or this and that or it needs a patch for something. I mean I was like damn I guess I better stay away from abit. I'm going to look into that board.

 

[neocristi]

I dont know, maybe a lot of people had bad experiences with cheap ASUS boards, the high end ones seem to be very appreciated. Take for example ASUS A8N-SLI Premium or A8N32-SLI. I think these boards kick ass with AMD and somme low timings DDR.

Even THG uses the A8N-SLI Premium in a lot of tests and benchmarks.

I myself have a cheap A8N-E (100 euro) but I am very pleased with it, the truth is that i only overclock 10% and use Q&Q and QFan. But the PC runs perfect and silent, also low power. I will probably post somme pics in the future.

 

[ChipDeath]

I think the KN8 ultra is a great board

I have to agree. Check out the sig.

I had far more 'fun' trying to get my Epox 9NDA3J running at those settings. Probably mostly due to the lack of VDimm higher than 2.8 - although I couldn't even get the Epox to post in dual channel but the Abit did, even though the Abit auto-detected the RAM at 2.6V, and not it's rated 2.8 :?
Either that, or it's just Nforce3 Vs Nforce4.....

But anyways, it's a solid board. I guess the reported problems are with earlier revisions like Endyen says - although of course, I can't check the X2 problems, since I don't have one. I have a 3000+ Venice floating around though - I could try glueing them together or something :lol:

 

[slvr_phoenix]

I dont know, maybe a lot of people had bad experiences with cheap ASUS boards, the high end ones seem to be very appreciated.

That's been my experience. Asus's top-end products are awesome. (Though some argue overpriced, I consider them worth their price.) But their low-end products have been known to suffer from a lot of quality control issues, and, well, for a looooong time AMD processors pretty much were considered only for 'cheap' low-end systems by a lot of manufacturers. Sure, today that's changed, but it wasn't always so.

So yeah, I can see where a lot of people would put low-end Asus at about the level of MSI, maybe even worse.

 

[ChipDeath]

The A7N8X-Deluxe wasn't low end at the time. It was perfectly stable if you didn't overclock of course, but it was more expensive and less overclockable than the equivalent Abit or Epox board.

 

[avatar3k]

I'm generally agreeing with you guys. I love my a8n-sli premium, and considering it's >$50 more than other 'good' mobos, and think $50 is worth the, uh, pleasure, of knowing you have a great mobo in your rig and that you're probably getting a bit more than $50 extra outta your system. Never go cheap on PSUs, but never go cheap on mobos either!

 

[tvfreak]

:twisted:

I'm generally agreeing with you guys. I love my a8n-sli premium, and considering it's >$50 more than other 'good' mobos, and think $50 is worth the, uh, pleasure, of knowing you have a great mobo in your rig and that you're probably getting a bit more than $50 extra outta your system. Never go cheap on PSUs, but never go cheap on mobos either!

First I'm not looking to spending now 200 for a mobo. It's just out of my price range. I just want a decent one that can OC decent, but have some nice features as well. It must have sata2, pci e and what not. And stable of course. :twisted:

 

[slvr_phoenix]

I don't mind paying extra for quality. But then, that's fairly obvious if one reads my sig. :lol:

 

[avatar3k]

lol we all want nice mobos with decent features that can oc, all for cheap, but we can't all get em.

whats a decent oc for you? whats your price range? are pcix16/sata2 your only requirements? you need to be more specific - there are a heck of outta mobos out there, if you're not sure, find a few you find interesting, post them here, that way we get an accurate idea of what general direction/features you want

EDIT: btw, i dig ur rig

 

[k2000k]

So there is no problem with the Asus premium then?

 

[avatar3k]

the asus a8n-sli premium is a terrific mobo

 

[ibew112]

I have Abit K8n ultra a complete waste of money, It wont match my refurbished $60 MSI neo4-f, I modded a sapphire gto2 and abit crashes on the stock max mem max clock test that came with the gpu every run at no cpu OC'ing. I will sell it to anyone at a discounted price it has had 2.5 hours of juice poured to it, then i took my parts off and went back to my 60$ MSI mobo. I havent tried DFI but at those prices why should I ? Buy some decent ddr 600 memory and basically any manufacturer except chaintech and Syntax that I have tried will let you OC. I am buying an asrock K8 Updrade next the cheapest POS board on the Market.......... LOL
It has no clock lock to the PCI bus or agp port all clock generators are seperate so i can run CPU AND MEMORY Asynchronous of everything else.

http://www.asrock.com/news/20051218.html Cut and paste

I am tired of reading this garbage at TomsHarware who gets his kick backs form Major Advertising of all this Crap, they said the asrock was a poor performer. Unbiased my ace !!!! read the link from OCWORKBENCH.com above


AMD X2 3800=$320, Refurbed Patriot XBS 1G dual Ch pc 4800=$160, MSI Neo4-f refurb=$60, Apower 600W PS=$30, Refurb SATA seagate 7200 two 80G Hdd Raid 0=$100, Sapphire Gto2 x800 unlocked=$240

AmdX2 64 2.0 at 2.45 aircooled all day long Max is 2.67 aircool
Aqua Mark 82,000 Air cool, 3Dmark05 6125 Aircool 5.11 drivers

Shop smart-Read all specs-I have been burned on a Soltek MOBO that cost $23 neo3 by buying refurbished so test them immediately and be prepared to send them back within the RMA period.

 

[pat]

Asus was once a company that would make very good product. But, for some time now, the product they now have are not up to their past reputation. Some years ago, you could find a bad one among good one, but now, you are most likely to hear about one gret product among a batch of flawed design.

I know, from experience, that their nforce3 and 4 based motherboard are not among the best produced. While they are "adequate" for certain, they have too many flaw to be called outstanding product. It looks like that, from now, Asus should be the budget line of Asrock, as the Asrock motherboar, while not being the perfect one, are robust product. The 939 DUAL SATA2 motherboard is one of the best I've used/tested. And oveclock way better that even the top of line premium serie.. while costing 3 times less..

A good exemple about how flawed a motherboard can be is by looking at the BIOS update.. Asus seem to release BIOSes every week.. A good motherboard with a solid design as a basement wouldnt need to be patched every week or month for its entire life. While BIOSes to support new CPU are something that has to be done, seeing an update that fix one thing but screw another one.. that would be fixed by a new BIOS.. that would bring its lot of incompatibility.. to me, it is not normal. I know someone that tried to upgrade his BIOS on the A8N-E motherboard to enable newer feature only to find out that is messed up the something with the PCI slot causing some of his car to stop functionning.. He then tried older BIOS.. down to the original BIOS he first had..

I one time or two had to set up a system based on VIA chipset with an Asus motherboard.. this went well and the thing is still running good. But it was a budget board with integrated video... for socket 754.

And the problem is not only part of AMD motherboard serie .. no.. Intel motherboard does suffer from bad engineering too. The P4S800(or the 533, I don't remember well..) has so many flaws that give the SIS chipset a bad reputation... Just like back in time, VIA gives AMD a bad reputation ... Even board based on Intel chipset from Asus has voltage regulator problem. While the A8R-MVP is a good board overall, and probably the only Asus I would get so far, I still read about voltage spikes from time to time.. just like the brand new P5WD2 with Intel 975x chipset, as shown by this article from Anandtech.

This article from techfear show how an Asus board with nforce chipset for Intel did perform.. Draw your own conclusion..

What's good by not being a fanboy of any brand is that you can look at different product with rather objective eyes.. Instead of trolling forums to prove your point about your beloved company not having flawed product, you look at the offering and pickup the best, according to your preference and utility.

Today, I'm using Asrock and AMD. Tomorrow, I don't know.. I'm souting the forum and web site looking for the rare gem... And when I'll find it, I use it t'il I find something else. But right now.. no Asus for me.

 

[apesoccer]

Heya

Reference: I currently own the premium, i've also had the deluxe.

Both board are stable and solid at stock settings. The deluxe can't oc much past 1:1 233fsb 95% of the time. The premium has 1 issue that i can think of, the voltage on the cpu bounces a little bit, but i haven't attributed any issues so far to it. I was able to hit 330 fsb 1:1 on a 4x multi on this board. So it can oc as far as you want, so long as you have the ram/cpu/cooling/pwr/knowledge to back it up. Other then the oc and the heatpipe on the premium, they're the same board. You could run in to an issue with the premium if you bought a btx styled case. The so-called btx cases force the mobo's in backwards/upsidedown, so the heatpipe doesn't work and causes the mobo to overheat.

 

[dunawayc]

Is this mobo:

A8N32-SLI Deluxe

the same as the one this thread addresses?

I have no plans to oc anything. Will it be suitable? (gaming mostly).

Thanks

 

[Snale]

I have had to change my A8N-SLI Deluxe three times, but now runs very well.

 

[apesoccer]

If you have no plans of oc'ing, then yes it's "suitable". It's a really high-end board, I can think of two advantages to having that board over the premium. 2x16 pci-e slots and the updated power supply system (also fixes the cpu voltage flux). You'll want a special power supply to make proper use of the new power system on that board. I can't remember ... it's called *edit* 8-phase power...anyway, you need a 8-pin connector to hook up to it, instead of the typical 4-pin. I think it boots ok with a 4-pin, but if you're going to spend the money to get the 32, you might as well get the right psu.

Newegg has this particular psu: psu spklepwr| FSP550PLG 550w item #: N82E16817103517. I got mine in early Dec. It has all the correct dongles for 8-phase pwr, as well as sli. If you need/want any more info, ask away.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103517