Well this ASUS A8N-SLI BIOS is... fun

[Steve]

I decided to have a play around (running 1004-001 beta) and get some overclocking action into place.

The software overclocking tools are all pants - steer clear until they update them.

As for the BIOS... well it isn't much better. CPU voltages are a bit out for the winchester, and don't even get me started on RAM speeds.

Still, in the end I managed to get RAM and HTT speeds under control and kept at stock (1ghz HTT, 200Mhz/DDR400).

So, I've got my watercooled winny up from 2.0Ghz to 2.5ghz and it seems stable under prime. It's a really bad week 50 stepping too, so I'm quite pleased

I'll dare to tweak the RAM about a bit when I can be bothered, and maybe see how much more this CPU has left in it.

[skb3]

I am running Bios 1003, and like you I have also had some fun. Got my 3200+ 2.0ghz running at 2.5 GHz, but it hasn't been plain sailing. I also tampered with the DRAM settings, unfortunately when ever I change some of the settings for the RAM and then change the Jumperless settings for the CPU then the DRAM settings can jump back to [Auto] and vice versa. Its a nightmare.

Also on boot the bios reports DDR400 when I clearly have my HTT running at 250. Not sure why this would be?

[nur5ey]

Hey kez
wonder if you could give me some help on how, laymans terms, you would clock this baby Ive got the 3200 winnie and the same board as you, ive also got 1g of corsair twinx mem too. Never done any serious ocing yet but wanna try. cheers in advance if you can help. Im running the 1003 final bios but will go to 1004 beta if needed. By the way how do you find out which week production mine is? Lots of questions I know.

[Lee H]

heh got mine @ 2.6 GHz stable so far.

Using the corsair XL pro stuff thats rated to run at 500 Mhz but I'm nowhere near that until my watercooler is setup

[Steve]

Right, it is mega quirky, but I found a way of getting it to work.

My HTT is running at 250 and the RAM is set in the BIOS to max DDR333. It is running at 208.3Mhz (CPU/12). The BIOS reports it as DDR333 at bootup, so ignore that and use CPUz to see what it's really running at.

As for settind DRAM/overclock without them reverting, I have no idea how I did this. Try setting overclock mode the manual, tweaking all the settings so none are on auto (make sure you set PCI to 33.3) even if it's just 'tweaking them to stock'. Then go into cpu config and check the DRAM config is still OK. Then go back into jumperless config and check that's still all OK.

Save and exit - for some reason that overcomes the problem. I have no idea how much of that you actually have to do - but it works so I'm not going to change my ways.

[Steve]

Hey kez
wonder if you could give me some help on how, laymans terms, you would clock this baby Ive got the 3200 winnie and the same board as you, ive also got 1g of corsair twinx mem too. Never done any serious ocing yet but wanna try. cheers in advance if you can help. Im running the 1003 final bios but will go to 1004 beta if needed. By the way how do you find out which week production mine is? Lots of questions I know.

I suggest setting your RAM to DDR333 in the BIOS so that you're not overclocking it. Then set the HTT multiplier to 4x.

Then you can play with CPU multiplier and frequency without worrying about your HTT or RAM going over the top.

I lowered my CPU multiplier to 7 and cranked the frequency up to 250mhz (giving me 1ghz HTT back (4x 250)). Then I put the CPU voltage up a bit (no worries about that when you're watercooled ) and got back my 10x multiplier, giving me 2.5ghz. I will play with the RAM speeds and timings at some point too.

edit: Sorry that really WASN'T laymans terms. I'll see if I can grab some photos of my bios tonight or tomorrow for you.

[skb3]

Kez, I have no experience with Bios 1004 beta, is it worth flashing from 1003? I think someone else asked this as well.

[Steve]

I don't know becuase I flashed it pretty much straight away. :\

[Lee H]

1003 is the most stable and solved the issue with the "2 power on attempts to actually boot".

They changed a few things in 1004 (shown below)

Fixed S3 resume fail in SLI mode.
Add CPU, CHIP, Chassis Fan check Item in Setup and set Chassis Fan checking default to Disabled.
Show SATA mode on summary screen.
Update NVRAID BIOS to 4.81.


Oh - looks like 1005.1 BETA is released as well folks its a BIOS a day from Asus at the moment.

[Steve]

About time. I've been waiting for a new version!

edit: Where is is Wildmonkey? I see 1004 is now release, and 1005 is listed in the history, but I can't find it on the site.

[Lee H]

About time. I've been waiting for a new version!

edit: Where is is Wildmonkey? I see 1004 is now release, and 1005 is listed in the history, but I can't find it on the site.

Me either - it was there and now it wasn't..... maybe it's a buggy beta

[Steve]

Or maybe you can still get hold of it via the asus update application? I don't know because I don't have it installed right now.

This BIOS seems to work for me ATM so I'll stick with it until I hit an o/c ceiling.

[skuzgib]

Or maybe you can still get hold of it via the asus update application? I don't know because I don't have it installed right now.

Make sure it stays that way - it's unbelievably crap.

I'm running 1004-01 and it seems pretty stable. Running my 3000+ @ 3500+ ok, but the board doesn't seem to be the worlds greatest clocker.

[nur5ey]

I suggest setting your RAM to DDR333 in the BIOS so that you're not overclocking it. Then set the HTT multiplier to 4x.

Then you can play with CPU multiplier and frequency without worrying about your HTT or RAM going over the top.

I lowered my CPU multiplier to 7 and cranked the frequency up to 250mhz (giving me 1ghz HTT back (4x 250)). Then I put the CPU voltage up a bit (no worries about that when you're watercooled ) and got back my 10x multiplier, giving me 2.5ghz. I will play with the RAM speeds and timings at some point too.

edit: Sorry that really WASN'T laymans terms. I'll see if I can grab some photos of my bios tonight or tomorrow for you.

cheers m8, thats what I like about this forum

[Steve]

tip: Don't set the HyperTransport multiplier to 5x when the cpu frequency is set at 260mhz in the bios. 1.3ghz HTT does not agree with a cold boot.

I have the following settings:

CPU Settings:

HTT Mult: 4x

CPU Settings > DRAM Config:
RAM Speed = DDR333

Jumperless Config > Manual Mode:

CPU Mult = 10x
RAM Voltage = Auto
CPU Freq = 260Mhz
PCI-Express = 100Mhz
CPU Voltage = 1.550 (I think, can't remember.)
PCI = 33.3Mhz

I'm now running the 1005-001 BIOS - I have noticed no difference... yet.

[Lee H]

BIOS NEWS According to a nforce forum I visit that full of g33ks the 1004 has been finalised and is on the .de domained liveupdate server and so is the 1005 beta

Other Quirks Don't run media centre 2005 with NIS 2005 that comes on the disc, if you do - disable the firewall and use the hardware firewall - or you will get a lot of nice BSOD all complaining about Nvtcp.sys STOP errors. As soon as the firewalls disabled - no BSOD for 5 days now and PC is on 24/7