LinkBack URL
About LinkBacksOriginally Posted by BlueMagician
Blue, So if I have two physical disk's one with windows and one with the page file, do you give up the speed increase if you use the second drive for storage of mp3,pictures and doc's as well?
Blue, So if I have two physical disk's one with windows and one with the page file, do you give up the speed increase if you use the second drive for storage of mp3,pictures and doc's as well?
Well, I've got the Asus here, so I guess I may as well give it a go, rather than faff about RMA'ing it. Other boards will come and go, and I'll keep an eye out - nothing stopping me selling the Asus in a while, I guess.
Listening to my sensible side, I suppose until the rest of the competition comes along, it's "better the devil you know"..
Aslo, interesting point about the Maxtors - I'll look into it!
S.
I too have the Asus A8N SLI and there are a few niggles that do need ironing out and My contact at asus assures me they should all be ironed out soon with the newer BIOS revisions.
As for overclocking - I've a 3500+ (2.2 Ghz) running @ 2.5 Ghz with no stability issues (as yet) running nicely with some corsair XL memory. I too was going to get some raptors but instead chose to get 3 x 300 Gb Maxtors to use for storage as my raid 0 using 2 x Seagate 160's was fastly filling with games.
The lastest BIOS is also supposed to fix a problem with the motherboard not working correctly when NCQ is active on the maxtor range of drives.
hth
If the drive containing the pagefile is also being battered to death accessing other data, then things will slow down whilst the OS 'waits' for data. You just have to make sure you distribute data wisely across whatever discs you have, so that load/demand is balanced.
Some people create a RAID-0 array from two drives, which basically makes both drives appear as one summed volume, and stripes the data across the two drives for you. There is a minimal performance advantage to this, but it is very risky - as the two drives are effectively working as one - if either one dies, you lose the data on both.
For what is arguably the best performance/fault tolerant solution as I've mentioned in past posts, a RAID-5 level array is desirable. To save me babbling, and sending people to sleep, you can read more here and here .
HTH,
S.
Ive just got an email from tekheads saying they won't replace my faulty a8n. The memory slot was faulty and burnt out taking one of my memory sticks with it. According to them theyve tested it and it works fine, want to charge me a 25% restocking fee to exchange it!
Was it visibly knackered? If there is visible evidence of component nastiness then you are well within your rights to get at least a like for like swap.
Also, if faulty workmanship can be proved (any they don't try to pin 'user error or mis-installation'), I would expect compensation from Asus for loss of a beloved RAM stick too..
£0.02
S.
Thanks to everyone for the reassurance.. I guess I am gonna have to give it a go.. I'm getting itchy now - I WANT MY PC!!
I was seriously considering 3x74gb Raptors (or other slightly cheaper bigger drives) in a RAID-5 array, running off an Adaptec SATA-R controller. That is until I remember from a past post that I'll only have one usable PCI slot (which will be for my sound card), as the others will be covered up by the bulkiness of the NV5 coolers on the XFX's!
I need to find a PCIe Sound Blaster or to go in one of my spare PCIe1 slots!
D'oh..
S.
Doesn't the A8N SLi Deluxe already have a RAID 5 controller on board though?
the magic word is "SOFTWARE" raid 5 .... horrid truely horrid
Ah. Ohwell. I was gona do RAID 5 on my board too. I'l use the onboard 7.1 sound though, so it should be ok.
maybe its the cpu?as i have heard 3000's are better for oc'ing?
Yeah..the magic word is "SOFTWARE" raid 5 .... horrid truely horrid..I'm starting to wondering if running the NV5's on the 6800's are worth the sacrifice of available PCI slots, tbh.
Anyone wanna buy a couple of unopened Arctic coolers...?
S.
Last edited by BlueMagician; 27-01-2005 at 07:59 PM.
I wouldn't mind the artic coolers for my XFX 6800gt's. I'm going for the exact same setup as you basically, except I might go for a raptor and two 200gb Seagate Barracudas and I'm going for some Corsair 3200XL. Do the Artic Coolers take up more PCI slots? Or do they fit nicely in where they are as the A8N has a nice big space between the PCI-E slots.
Is there no chance of getting a RAID controller in with them?
An NV5 on the GFX card nearest the CPU socket isn't an issue - as you said, the mobo has plenty of space between the two PCIe16 ports.
However, an NV5 attached to a GFX card in the second, further PCIe16 port, covers not only the PCI socket right next to it, but according to Pudds, also muscles in on the next one along - enough for a long enough card in PCI #2 to catch it's solder-side on the spindle of the NV5 cooling fan.
Pudds did post a measurement, or a suggested maximum length of PCI card that would fit, but I think realistically PCI's #2 & #3 are out of action, leaving just PCI #1, which sucks, big time.
If I decide to drop the coolers, I'll give ya a shout matey.
S.
Last edited by BlueMagician; 27-01-2005 at 09:49 PM.
The ASUS A8N-SLI is a super board. Anyone who says otherwise is at best uninformed. It may not overclock "stock" as well as the DFI but it's close, especially if you're running a 90nm CPU. If you are vmodding there is no difference at all.
If you are a serious bencher you should be running a 1MB cach chip (FX-55 with strained sil) anyway. Also, SLI is not the best for benching with a system bench like 2k1. For 2k3 and 2k5 (mainly DX9 GPU benches) the CPU doesn't matter so much and the SLI setup is king. If overall system speed and benching is your thing then you want the FX-55, DFI and PCI-E ATi X850 XT with the nastiest cooling you can afford. For gaming the Winnie, ASUS A8N-SLI and Dual PCI-E 6600GTs or single PCI-E 6800GT is SMOKIN!!!
What BIOS are you using Storm? What have you found to be good voltages for CPU & RAM?
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote