Asus A8V Deluxe Technical Discussion Thread

[Arvig]

Nothing new other then to say I sent off an e-mail to ASUS re: BIOS 1005.021 and BIOS 1006, asking if there will be an official BIOS to support the AGP lock, or even a beta after 1006 that does. I'll post again when they answer back. So really, this is just an overglorified BUMP.

[Senor Panadero]

All right then, here's an opportunity to say that if you lose the thread, it is in the sticky post too.

[Dazz]

Yeah i noticed theirs no PCI lock in the 1006, not that it bothers me as it doesn't work with my board

[Arvig]

Yeah i noticed theirs no PCI lock in the 1006, not that it bothers me as it doesn't work with my board

If this is any consolation, I've had my board at both 222 * 12, memory set at DDR 400 and 232 * 11.5, again memory set at DDR 400. You'd think that Sandra would give a much higher memory score at 232 * 11.5, since the memory FSB is still at 232, and only 222 at 222 * 12. On my end, it doesn't, score is the same. Even stranger, when I put in a floppy with Memtest on it to check for stability, the memory shows as being faster at 222 then 232 during the test. So, I've rolled back to 222 * 12 even with the lock. With my board that didn't have the working lock, I found I could push to a FSB of 223 before my SATA drives would get corrupted and I'd have to reinstall Windows...i.e. 223 seemed kosher, 234 casued issues with SATA. So...try a FSB of 220 with memory set to same FSB, maybe 221 or 222 at most, and based on what I saw, you'll still be safe even without a PCI lock.

For that matter, if you're using IDE drives and your videocard can handle the AGP FSB overclock, might be a moot issue anyway.

[Orange Juice]

Has anyone used 2x512 Mushkin 222 special in this board yet? Will it run 222?

[Crazy Chuckster]

What is everyone setting their 2T command at? Disabled or Auto? I am running Corsair PC3200LL and I know it could probably handle the 1T command but dont know what to make of that setting.

[BUKHOL]

My System

Asus A8V MB 1006 Bios
2 Gig Corsair Ram (2X1G Twin X Xms 2.5, 3, 6, 3)
939 Pin FX-53
2 X 74 gig raptors in striped array
Bank interleave is on (it made a difference)
Node Interleave is off
2T is disabled
Not overclocked
500 watt Antech PS
Thermaltake Venus 12 fan
Geforce 5900 ultra video card

3dMark 2001se 20,284
3dMark 2003 6,674

[Arvig]

What is everyone setting their 2T command at? Disabled or Auto? I am running Corsair PC3200LL and I know it could probably handle the 1T command but dont know what to make of that setting.

If you want to run your memory at "1T", set to disabled. If you have the time, do SiSoft Sandra's memory bandwidth test with the 2T Command in the BIOS first set to "Auto", then "Disabled" and see the difference in scores.

[Arvig]

Has anyone used 2x512 Mushkin 222 special in this board yet? Will it run 222?

I don't know about Mushkin, but I'm running Corsair XMS XL Pro, which has a setting of 2-2-2-5, 1T and I can run it there if I don't overclock, although the BIOS wants to see it as 2-3-2-5, and one has to set "2T Command" to "Disabled" to get 1T to run, Auto leaves it on "2T" from what I can see.

I am OCed to a FSB of 222, CPU at 222 * 12, and from there I can either run 2-3-3-6, 1T with my memory, or 2-3-2-10, 1T. Yes, 2-3-2-10. Believe it or not, that setting is faster, at least at the FSB I'm at, I got the idea from a couple reviews on AnandTech, they kept making the claim that with at least Socket 939 CPU tests if not A64 CPU's in general, setting TRAS to 10 was the best, even with fast memory that can handle 6 or 5.

Another odd thing happened, when I went to 232 * 11.5, Memory set 1:1 (DDR 400), I still got the same scores in Sandra, neither setting reported any errors with Memtest 86+ but Memtest 86+ reported a bit slower timings. My scores with things like Aquamark 3 and other video benchmarks were slightly higher too.

Since I SEEM to be at a low enough FSB to avoid SATA data corruption (if you look, I actually ended up with two boards, one without the PCI Lock, one with, I was safe up to a FSB of 223 under BIOS 1003 before my SATA drives would get corrupted) I MAY jump to BIOS 1006 even though the lock settings aren't in it. Right now, I'm running 1005.021 BETA.

As for Bank Interleaving, I didn't see an improvement, but 1005.021 BETA sets enabled as a default, so I left it on. I think 1006 the one time I went to it to see if the lock settings were enabled left it on also.

BUKHOL, if I may, what's the first six digits of your serial number? Will start with "45MG..." most likely. Based on what I found so far, if you want to play with beta BIOS 1005.021 and see if the lock works, I can tell you if your board will work, based on what I've seen so far. In short, if your SN# is 45MG0jxxxx or higher, it will, lower (or to be specific, 45MG07xxxx or 45MG0Bxxxx, since that's the only other sequences I've seen so far), it won't.

[BUKHOL]

I won't be able to check out the serial number until later today. I will post it as soon as possible

[BUKHOL]

I am also a bit disappointed in the memory I have. I cannot get to the cas 2 timing. When I do I get no post and have to clear the cmos. Is that a memory size thing? Also, what is remap to 4gb? Thanks guys, board is great, forum is great!!!

[Arvig]

I am also a bit disappointed in the memory I have. I cannot get to the cas 2 timing. When I do I get no post and have to clear the cmos. Is that a memory size thing? Also, what is remap to 4gb? Thanks guys, board is great, forum is great!!!

I'm replying to both of your posts even though only quoting one, so bear with me here.

If you don't want to look in your case for the serial number, it's also on the box the motherboard came in, again look for something marked "45MG....." I really only need the first six characters, last four numbers so far don't seem to matter. Or if you do open the case, look just to the left of the CPU socket, on the I/O ports, I think it's on the parellel port. (Obviously looking at them from inside the case, no need to remove your I/O bracket panel. )

Regarding SN, on the Futuremark forums someone said that 45MG0Kxxxx has the lock along with 45MG0Jxxxx. Which makes sense, since K is after J. Does help to confirm my theory though, kind of my pet thing now to keep confirming which boards have the lock.

Okay, to actually answer the one I quoted, I don't know. I'm using 2 x 512mb Corsair XMS XL Pro, and have no problems at CL 2. Not overclocked I can do CL 2-2-2-5, 1T. FSB of 222 or even FSB of 232 I can do 2-3-3-6, 1T, but found myself faster at 2-3-2-10, 1T at 222 FSB and 232 FSB, as I explained before. Anyway, if you want try setting TRAS to 10 and see if you can hit CL 2.

As an aside, I asked "Ram-Guy" on the Corsair forums about using both 2 and 4 sticks of my memory. I don't know if this is related to using four sticks or to using 2gb of memory, but even with my memory being 2-2-2-5, he said that if I use 4 sticks of what I have, thus being 2gb of memory, I'd probably have to use CL 2.5. I think he even suggested 2.5-3-3-7 despite the memory being 2-2-2-5 normally.

Just to ask a dumb question, do you have your memory in the blue sockets? One should use the blue ones first. You'd PROBABLY be okay if you're using the black and leaving blue empty, but the manual does say populate blue first, then black. There was a little last minute errata insert in my owner's manual that detailed that.

Oh, the remap to 4gb can be ignored. It's only for well...if you're using 4 gig or more of memory, it tells the board to read the memory slightly different. Otherwise, it will read 4 gig as slightly less then 4gb, and won't know what to do if someone has even more then that. So don't set remap to 4 gig unless you have 4gb or over of memory.

[Crazy Chuckster]

Okay, to actually answer the one I quoted, I don't know. I'm using 2 x 512mb Corsair XMS XL Pro, and have no problems at CL 2. Not overclocked I can do CL 2-2-2-5, 1T. FSB of 222 or even FSB of 232 I can do 2-3-3-6, 1T, but found myself faster at 2-3-2-10, 1T at 222 FSB and 232 FSB, as I explained before. Anyway, if you want try setting TRAS to 10 and see if you can hit CL 2.

Arvig, what setting do you have the 2T command set at to achieve the 1T command? Auto, Enabled or Disabled? I am running the PC3200LL and it is reporting 2-3-2-6 in CPUID.

Also how do you know if the 1T option is enabled or not?

[Meth]

I know this is kinda early but has anyone successfully volt mod the new socket 939 Asus A8V? If so please include pictures and stuff. This is my first post im glad to be apart of this forum.

[Senor Panadero]

Welcome Meth,
How about I post a link to some and then move both of our posts to the A8V Discussion thread?

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...821#post471821