WARNING! Asus Star Ice incompatible with Asus A8V Deluxe & Corsair Twin-X Pro

[Rave]

I wish I could as that would fix all my problems. According to the motherboard manual, if I do that, it won't work.

Try it anyway, you've nothing to lose.

Rich :¬)

[StormPC]

I'm sorry, but both of those coolers are rediculous. They are overpriced and are no better than a Venus 12 as far as performance is concerned. And that Corsair memory looks neat but it is not as fast as many others and is overpriced as well.

Return the memory and the cooler, buy a Venus 12 and some good memory (Kingston Hyper-X PC3200 will run at 480MHz+ all day long and a gig of it is under $200 US). Those heat pipe coolers look interesting (I guess) but they don't work that well. Also, if you are using an A8V you are probably not vmodded so high-speed low latency memory is useless to you. You're better off with some higher latency (and cheaper) stuff if you have not vmodded the DIMM.

Before you shoot down my choices you should note that I do have the fastest A8V on the ORB. You'll save yourself a ton of grief if you stay away from memory with blinking lights built in and coolers taller than 4" that are not normally found powering a refridgerator.

[GingerNinja.net]

Try it anyway, you've nothing to lose.

Rich :¬)

Well, yeah, I do - any chance of returning the Asus cooler. I haven't even applied any thermal paste to the heatsink it is actually new and a restockable item. If I run it on my PC I'll put it out of action as I don't have any other way of testing the memory without bunging it in and turning on the PC. That would have been something I would have toyed with AGES ago if I could have.

I'm sorry, but both of those coolers are rediculous. They are overpriced and are no better than a Venus 12 as far as performance is concerned. And that Corsair memory looks neat but it is not as fast as many others and is overpriced as well.

Return the memory and the cooler, buy a Venus 12 and some good memory (Kingston Hyper-X PC3200 will run at 480MHz+ all day long and a gig of it is under $200 US). Those heat pipe coolers look interesting (I guess) but they don't work that well. Also, if you are using an A8V you are probably not vmodded so high-speed low latency memory is useless to you. You're better off with some higher latency (and cheaper) stuff if you have not vmodded the DIMM.

Before you shoot down my choices you should note that I do have the fastest A8V on the ORB. You'll save yourself a ton of grief if you stay away from memory with blinking lights built in and coolers taller than 4" that are not normally found powering a refridgerator.

*sigh* OK, not a fat lot I can do about the memory to be honest. I think I simply got carried away when specing my system as I was originally going to go for some Crucial memory for £135 and ended up getting the Corsair stuff for £200 delivered. Problem is that I have had it for nearly a month now and really cannot jusify sending it back. Plus it came from DABS, so you KNOW they will not take it back from me.

You appear to have had experience with the A8V MoBo. I have an AMD 64 3800+. What cooler would you get to go on top of it?
In terms for cheap but powerful, I have been told that the Akasa AK855 is really good and costs about £10, but I would really appreciate your thoughts.

[GingerNinja.net]

Well for starters Corsair Pro RAM is unusually huge so don't blame ASUS for that one

Also, have you had a look to see if you can turn the fan around in that thing? Then you could run it the other way round and still have air travelling in the right direction.

Cannot change the fan direction. All I COULD do would be to reverse the airflow in the case i.e. in from the back and out the front so that the cooler can be turned around, but I don't know what issues that would cause and would possibly do more harm than good. (

[StormPC]

If you can find a Venus 12 or Polo 735 (both made by Thermaltake and both very good values...very high performance for the money) you'd be miles ahead. They both have adjustable fans that can pump close to 80cfm of air right down on the solid copper heatsink. The only difference is the number of fins (Venus has about 8 or 10 more and a bit more massive) and the way they attach. The Polo attaches with two screws into the backplate and the Venus clips on to the black plastic bracket.

[ed^chigliak]

The XP-120 at the highest fan speed setting is 39db the venus 12 at its lowest fan speed setting 42db. OK the XP-120 is a little crazy and a tad expensive but you can run it 34db and that IMO is what XP-120 is all about.

Sods law something doesn't fit no matter how carefully you plan.

[GingerNinja.net]

Well, well, well. Sent off an e-mail to Thermalright last night and they replied almost immediately!

Me: Hi. Can you tell me if the XP120 can sit on the Asus A8V Motherboard when Corsair XMS Pro memory is installed in DIMM 1?
Your website states that the Asus A8V has no problems with this cooler, but as the Corsair memory is taller, I thought I should check. Thanks

Thermalright Tech: No. The memory sticks with LED from Corsair can not be used on Dimm #1 when XP-120 is installed. Please try our XP-90 which has very close peformance and can be installed by turning 180 degree.
Thank you for taking interest in Thermalright!

Why, oh, why did I get the memory with the LED's in it? Looks like if I had just gotten the platinum memory (exactly the same but no LED's) or my originally specced Crucial memory it would have all fitted (and I would have been £70 better off with the Crucial)!

*cue self-loathing*

[Firelord]

Blimey it doesn't fit but no need to have a go at every company thats made parts of your system!! They can't test compatibility for all setups.

I would advise either move the mem to slots 3+4 for DC still OR swap the cooler to an XP90 with a fan like this - http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2584.html (they are nice and quiet ) or http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2572.html

[Rave]

Well, yeah, I do - any chance of returning the Asus cooler. I haven't even applied any thermal paste to the heatsink it is actually new and a restockable item. If I run it on my PC I'll put it out of action as I don't have any other way of testing the memory without bunging it in and turning on the PC. That would have been something I would have toyed with AGES ago if I could have.

Alcohol or lighter fuel will get every last trace of thermal paste off, trust me. If you're just turning on the computer for long enough to see if it posts or not, you can easily get away with no thermal paste at all. The processor won't fry in the 30 seconds (max) it takes to see if the computer boots or not. In fact, since the system has thermal protection, it's pretty hard to fry it at all. If the cooler has a thermal pad on with one of those 'remove before use' stickers then I suppose you're a bit more screwed.

Otherwise, maybe someone else with an A8V could test whether the board works with the memory in the 2nd and 4th slots?

Rich :¬)

[twistedturq]

Nope. The fan draws air in and over the vanes and out the back. You can also add an extra 80mm fan at the back to double your airflow - and noise.

The fan is pictured with the exhaust facing the I/O ports and therefore my rear case fan.

Seriously mate it looks like you've got the base of the HS sitting incorrectly. Should be like this
http://forums.hexus.net/showpost.php...4&postcount=33

[Lee H]

The asus Manual states for dual channel to use DIMM_A1 and DIMM_B1 (blue Sockets)

As you can see from the images earlier - the slot nearest the CPU cooler is blue and thus going on Asus's advice to get the best performance is a no-no using that memory and cooler

[Rave]

Right, well each channel has a blue and a black socket does it not? If you use both black sockets then you'll still be in dual channel- if it works, which I see no reason why it shouldn't.

Rich :¬)

[GingerNinja.net]

Seriously mate it looks like you've got the base of the HS sitting incorrectly. Should be like this
http://forums.hexus.net/showpost.php...4&postcount=33

Of course it isn't sitting properly - that's the whole point!

The photo was taken WITHOUT the retaining brackets so you had a clear view. Whilst the heatsink isn't positioned perfectly on the CPU, the edge of the fan is still sitting on the top of the memory and was when I started trying to screw it all together before I put Arctic Silver on top of the heatspreader and heat-sink.
The exhaust is pointing at the rear of the board which is the whole point of this heat-sink: get the hot air out of the case ASAP.

If you need further proof look here.

Thanks for your input anyway
_____________________________________


Just looked at the ASCII art.

Doh! OK. That raised bit at the back? That is where you attach the thermal probe that comes with the heat sink so that the fan can automatically change its RPM dependent on the temperature of the heat sink. The reviews that I have read state that it works very well and is better on the ears (allegedly) than using one of the two included rheostats.

[GingerNinja.net]

Right, well each channel has a blue and a black socket does it not? If you use both black sockets then you'll still be in dual channel- if it works, which I see no reason why it shouldn't.

Rich :¬)

I've raised this with Asus Technical support. The manual says NO, but we'll see what they say......

[GingerNinja.net]

Blimey it doesn't fit but no need to have a go at every company thats made parts of your system!! They can't test compatibility for all setups.

I would advise either move the mem to slots 3+4 for DC still OR swap the cooler to an XP90 with a fan like this - http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2584.html (they are nice and quiet ) or http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2572.html

Yes, I am looking at the XP-90 and the 92mm Blackfire as an alternative so atleast my thinking is heading in the right direction......

[StormPC]

The XP-120 at the highest fan speed setting is 39db the venus 12 at its lowest fan speed setting 42db. OK the XP-120 is a little crazy and a tad expensive but you can run it 34db and that IMO is what XP-120 is all about.

Sods law something doesn't fit no matter how carefully you plan.

Well that's interesting but far from the truth. I use the Venus 12 and Polo 735 in all of my A64 machines because they are by far the best for the money, and the Venus 12 on high keeps my FX-55 3D bench stable at over 2920MHz. The slight improvement you may see (depending on your chip) by using the Thermalright stuff will not give you better clocks than a Venus 12 on high. Yes it's noisey when pushing 75+ CFM, but even 120mm fans are noisey when moving that kind of air. The Thermalright stuff is a good performer but not substantially better than the Venus 12 and they are costly and a pain in the arse. It's your money and time however.

Rave:

YES the memory runs fine in the black slots!