A7N8X-E Deluxe - SATA for HDDs + IDE for DVD-ROM & DVD-RW

[Richard Harrison]

I'm in the process of assembling the bits for a new PC, and doing the
research...

I decided to go for the best spec of the 'old' technology - so have got
myself a A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo and XP3200+ Barton (400 FSB). I'd like to
stick with a similar setup to one I'm using now on my old KT7A-RAID:

SATA 1 - 80GB (8MB cache) Samsung Spin-Point (nice 'n quiet!) [boot drive]
SATA 2 - ditto, no raid - WXP Swap File, PhotoShop Scratch Disk, other data
IDE1 - DVD-ROM
IDE2 - DVD-RW

With my old system, I found that keeping the four drives on separate
channels (each as master) eliminated all corruption events and maximised
transfer/access speeds.

Advice/experience please:

1. I understand, from reading a number of forums and ASUS's FAQs, that the
SATA drives automatically take priority - with the first logical drive on
SATA 1 being assigned C: etc. - is this your experience?

2. I assume I have to enable the SATA channels with the jumper on the mobo,
but do I have to install the Silicon Image drivers at all if I'm not going
to use the RAID functions? In other words, will WXP see the SATA drives
without any SI drivers installed?

3. Any advice on memory choice would be welcome - I planned to buy 2x 512MB
sticks of Corsair CAS2 Platinum PC3200 and run at standard full speed in
'Dual' mode. Anyone comment on compatibility?

4. I'm also looking for a quiet/efficient CPU cooler - the Zalman
CNPS7000A-Cu seems to fit the bill, but anyone have experience of it fouling
anything on the A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo?

All help/advice gratefully received...

 

[Natéag]

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1. I understand, from reading a number of forums and ASUS's FAQs, that the
SATA drives automatically take priority - with the first logical drive on
SATA 1 being assigned C: etc. - is this your experience?

That is not correct. In Boot order, SATA (Identified as SCSI, on that
board)
has to be selected as first boot drive. IDE or any orther device second,
etc.

2. I assume I have to enable the SATA channels with the jumper on the mobo,
but do I have to install the Silicon Image drivers at all if I'm not going
to use the RAID functions? In other words, will WXP see the SATA drives
without any SI drivers installed?

If you want to install the Operating System on that board, answer is YES.
Otherwise Windows Install will not see it.

3. Any advice on memory choice would be welcome - I planned to buy 2x 512MB
sticks of Corsair CAS2 Platinum PC3200 and run at standard full speed in
'Dual' mode. Anyone comment on compatibility?

Do not know about Corsair. I have Kingston 3200 400 Mhz. They are fully
compatible.

4. I'm also looking for a quiet/efficient CPU cooler - the Zalman
CNPS7000A-Cu seems to fit the bill, but anyone have experience of it fouling
anything on the A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo?

No experience there. But I use the CPU cooler that came with the CPU.

 

[Paul]

I'm in the process of assembling the bits for a new PC, and doing the
research...

4. I'm also looking for a quiet/efficient CPU cooler - the Zalman
CNPS7000A-Cu seems to fit the bill, but anyone have experience of it fouling
anything on the A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo?

All help/advice gratefully received...

The Zalman has a radius of 55mm from the center of the processor die.
The socket on the A7N8X-E is close to the top of the motherboard.
There has to be somewhere around 8 or 9mm space between the top
edge of the motherboard and the case of the power supply. Otherwise
the fins on the heatsink will bump into the PSU.

To measure this in advance, take the picture of the motherboard
in the downloadable PDF version of the manual, into Photoshop. Use
the spacing between the pins on the socket as a yardstick for
dimensioning purposes. That is how I figured out the clearance
required, but you should verify the number for yourself.

Computer cases vary from providing just 1mm clearance between
motherboard and PSU, to 15mm in one case.

The AlCu version is a bit lighter and cools about the same as
the pure Cu version.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Ben Pope]

Thanks to all who replied, some directly.

I've got the board and, when the (replacement!) Nexus Breeze case arrives,
I'll see if I've got enough room between the ZIF socket and the PSU to fit
the Zalman cooler - otherwise, I might try the Nexus cooler.

I've been doing a lot of reading around probs with Corsair PC3200 memory
and the A7N8X (-E) Deluxe mobos in Dual Channel mode - seems you've got to
increase the mem volts to 2.7 and the timings manually to get it to work
reliably with a Barton 3200+ at 400MHz.

Mine worked fine, I have TwinX1024-3200LL. I increased the voltage to 2.7V
and managed 225MHz stable at 2-2-2-7 timings.

So even if you have issues... up the VDimm and set the timings, no big deal.
I advise doing that anyway, at least you'll then know what it's doing.

There were known problems with Corsair, some of their modules had incorrect
SPD info, but that was some time ago now.

Ben

 

[Ben Pope]

I'm in the process of assembling the bits for a new PC, and doing the
research...

I decided to go for the best spec of the 'old' technology - so have got
myself a A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo and XP3200+ Barton (400 FSB). I'd like to
stick with a similar setup to one I'm using now on my old KT7A-RAID:

SATA 1 - 80GB (8MB cache) Samsung Spin-Point (nice 'n quiet!) [boot
drive] SATA 2 - ditto, no raid - WXP Swap File, PhotoShop Scratch Disk,
other data IDE1 - DVD-ROM
IDE2 - DVD-RW

With my old system, I found that keeping the four drives on separate
channels (each as master) eliminated all corruption events and maximised
transfer/access speeds.

You shouldn't get corruption.

Advice/experience please:

1. I understand, from reading a number of forums and ASUS's FAQs, that the
SATA drives automatically take priority - with the first logical drive on
SATA 1 being assigned C: etc. - is this your experience?

Well it's determined by the boot order, if you set SATA above IDE then
Windows will tend to name the SATA drives first.

2. I assume I have to enable the SATA channels with the jumper on the
mobo, but do I have to install the Silicon Image drivers at all if I'm
not going to use the RAID functions? In other words, will WXP see the
SATA drives without any SI drivers installed?

Dunno. I doubt it, but some say to the contrary. Just whack the drivers on
floppy and install them with F6 on start of setup.

3. Any advice on memory choice would be welcome - I planned to buy 2x
512MB sticks of Corsair CAS2 Platinum PC3200 and run at standard full
speed in 'Dual' mode. Anyone comment on compatibility?

See my other reply. You should be fine.

4. I'm also looking for a quiet/efficient CPU cooler - the Zalman
CNPS7000A-Cu seems to fit the bill, but anyone have experience of it
fouling anything on the A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo?

Nope, using a Coolermaster Aero7+

Ben

 

[Richard Harrison]

Thanks to all who replied, some directly.

I've got the board and, when the (replacement!) Nexus Breeze case arrives,
I'll see if I've got enough room between the ZIF socket and the PSU to fit
the Zalman cooler - otherwise, I might try the Nexus cooler.

I've been doing a lot of reading around probs with Corsair PC3200 memory and
the A7N8X (-E) Deluxe mobos in Dual Channel mode - seems you've got to
increase the mem volts to 2.7 and the timings manually to get it to work
reliably with a Barton 3200+ at 400MHz.

Any other info on what I'm planning would be gratefully received.

Thanks all

 

[Helen Zass]

Anybody having trouble with a Plextor DVD Burner running smoothly with the
A7N8X-Deluxe boards, Plextor tech support said they have had alot of
trouble with the Nvidia chip sets

 

[mitchd]

I have a Plextor DVD writer, PX-708A, no problems at all. I have one
EIDE driver, master on channel 1, and the Plextor as a master on
channel 2.