Asus Crosshair AM2 Motherboard

[CMB]

NP....Up to you...

[MikeVictor]

I have had the 12volt 8pin connector as well as the 20pin power connector attached to the MB all the time.

I have a family vacation coming up next week, I can't have this PC build on my mind then, so.....I handed all my partially built PC and remaining uninstalled components over to a local PC shop i have used before. The fun project of building a super PC became too much of a challenge for a rookie like me and my time has run out. So for $99 they are going to build the PC for me including installation of the OS and all drivers....

I'll try upgrading it some later on myself, I hope to hear good news today that it is ready for pick up. I hope I won't hear that I had any deffective components to start with, which may be the case...we'll see.

Will let you all know how it goes from here. I learned a lot from each person that offered me some much needed guidance, I truly appreciate it, thank you.

I am curioius now about how to configure the BIOS properly, including how to take best advantage of the MB''s control of the fans via the temperature sensors. And at some point before too long, I would like to have a go at overclocking some. This MB appears to be an OC'ers dream.

Also, I will get a new BIOS chip with the most current SW on it, in the mail in a day or two, I would like to see how it effects others before I take on installing it myself....after my vacation.

Later, thanks again,

Mike

[Miless]

Probaly a good idia.I have built many pcs over the last 10 years and they can sometimes have just some little thing not just right and can drive you crazy if you let it.It will take alitle time but if you need a suggestion or any help then thats why Im a member here like most of us to help each other out because we all are at different learning curves.

Keep things up to date and jump in any time I have any topic going,

Miless

[MustangSVT]

With its name and Ryan saying "its quite a change from regular mobos", and seeing how it's NF 590, I figured this mobo has SLI and CrossFire support. I actually thought it's got one of those ATI Xpress chipsets for CF.

[garikfox]

Nothing can beat me fact Give up the AM2 guys I was AMD all the way uptoo what i have now.

[Senor Panadero]

Nothing can beat me fact Give up the AM2 guys I was AMD all the way uptoo what i have now.

Hey cool. You should post over here about that.

Re: Asus Crosshair AM2 Motherboard

[Miless]

(I have been running my Crosshair now about 3 weeks and it doesent matter what setting the back switch is in for mine to boot up.I know that in the bios that there is a selection for activating it or not,mines activated on)


Boy was I wrong.The switch in the back has to be turned off for the pc to boot,my bad

[MikeVictor]

Well, I caved in and took my CROSSHAIR and all to a local PC shop and had them finish the install. It's working fine and I am in the process of installing applications on it now.

Come to find out, there were a couple bent pins on the CPU that I didn't see initially that was causing all my problems. I straighted them out using a plastic card similar to a credit card. No problems now...except my OEM DVD is DOA and I have to replace it. Fortunately, I have another DVD/CD combo that I installed in the PC temporarily till I get a replacement from Newegg.

Now I want to figure out all the configuration settings that are possible in the BIOS and in Windows XP to optimize the performance of this CROSSHAIR based monster.

Thanks to all,

Mike

[Allen Haid]

I have my Crosshair system with an Athlon 64 3800+ X2, 2 GB of Corsair SLi EPP memory, and two 7900 GT's (SLi) running in a temporary case right now. We used it for gaming on Labor Day and it crashed a few times - might be power issues as I'm using an Ultra 500W SLi-approved PSU with active PFC. It could also be an overheating issue, as the crashes didn't occur after I removed the side-panel (which also has a 120mm fan blowing air into the case). I ordered two of the Zalman VF700-Cu-LED GPU coolers (arrives next week) and one of those Thermaltake supplemental PSU's for the graphics subsystem (Power Express - 250 Watt Supplementary Graphic Power Supply Unit (W0099)) and it arrives in a few days. I hope this takes care of the few crashes.

BIOS wise, I am still running the original BIOS version (121). What version is the best one to run right now? I want a stable machine, and I'm not overclocking by much yet.

[BillA]

Anyone running 4 sticks of memory ?
I ordered a combo w/4 512MB Corsair (800) memory sticks from Monarch 2 weeks ago and they cannot get it to run.

Ideas ?
Suggestions ?

EDIT: today's answer was that their test bench had a 'bad' psu causing problems only for a couple of mobos
hi ho

[MikeVictor]

I have wondered if the Crosshair has a digital audio input connector (I don't see one) to hook up a DVD/CD drive to. Perhaps the IDE cable provides digital input to the Crosshair MB and Sound Card. I don't see such a connector on the Soundblaster XFi platinum sound board either.

I assume one isn't needed with this MB?

Mike

[Senor Panadero]

...

I assume one isn't needed with this MB?

Mike

Those cables are legacy devices. You don't need them and shouldn't use them (been known to collect EMI) unless you have a DOS game or something that needs it.

[MikeVictor]

Legacy cables, got it. I hoped that was the case. I've noted that current DVD/CD drives have connectors for them on the back. Glad we can get digetal input from the DVD/CD without hooking up yet another cable to the MB or Sound card.

Mike

[Meridian]

Just finished setting mine up, and I'm still installing basic software before the overclocking starts. My main complaints concern the manual and the often hard-to-understand information in it. For instance, it doesn't make clear which slots to put your RAM into to get dual-channel. I would go with colour-coding (both blue or both white), and Ryan seems to agree, but the manual suggests that actually you need to go with one pair of slots - i.e. white and blue. This is supported by the colour-coding of their other 590 SLI AM2 boards like the M2N32, where colour-coding puts matching colours side-by-side (two black next to two yellow).


The layout seems fine, and it booted first time (unlike my DFI for instance). Can't think of anything on the board itself I'd like to change.


M

[Senor Panadero]

FWIW, the way I read the Crosshair manual is to use an A slot in combination with a B slot. So according to the pictures in the manual that I have, you follow the colors. Blue and blue is slot A1 and B1 and that will give 128 bits.

To make it worse, Asus has done the 128 bit differently, even inside of a product family. For example, A8N-E is opposite of the way the slots work on A8N-VM (E=A+B, VM= A1+A2).