Another new build advice thread

I don't see how you can say that. My A8N32 didn't cost all that much. Also, there's a lot of satisfied users out there with lower end boards, both Gigabyte, ASUS, and others. You're right in one aspect though, low end boards weren't meant for OCing. Lets just say the incidents of problems may increase with the lower cost boards.

I don't build my own PCs with cheaper boards, but that's not to say I haven't had good luck with lesser boards on builds for others. Some people only want to do email and surf, which doesn't call for much in the way of system resources. Most of the retail PCs don't have mobos as good as many of the low end enthusiast models. That's a huge part of the market there. Plus, companies that build enthusiast boards have built for the manufacturers in the past. With the larger part of the market being lower end boards, it seems probable they'd have the corresponding larger number of problems.

LOCO
Are you particularly wanting the same model board? Since it's an RMA to the Egg, they might let you trade up to a higher end board.

 

The A8N32 wasn't a midrange board, it was a high end part. "didn't cost all that much" is relative for motherboard owners. As far as I'm concerned anything that costs over £100 is not cheap. I considered my X38-DS4 to be a very expensive board, but for many people here it's about average. Personally I don't really consider a board 'cheap' unless it costs £55 or less, that tends to be the bargain basement dropoff. Calling an A8N32 inexpensive isn't realistic for most people. I thought the A8N-SLI Premium was expensive, let alone the 32. I see no reason to stop recommending people the P35 boards. Despite they're 'cheap' nature, they perform solidly. Asus boards for that price don't seem to. I'm sure there are exceptions to that rule, but I can't ignore the evidence I have to the contrary.

 

I did'nt say the A8N32 was inexpensive. I considered it middle of the road and to some degree "old tech" considering some of the high end gaming boards available for about twice the price (or more). The 939 boards have had a long run. The A8N32 was best for its power management abilities. It and the other 32(s) were built for that specific purpose making them the best of their model series.

 

I quite agree, the A8N32-SLI Deluxe was quite a good value board, but it was still a lot of money.

 

I'd certainly recommend that option. Sometimes you get unlucky, what can I say. I certainly have with Asus.

 

Sammorris
Was that an ASUS board in the AMD PC you had melt down a year or two ago or in the one you had built by the custom shop; or both? From reading the old posts, I couldn't tell much. You kept saying you didn't want to talk about it. Plus, I can't read all your posts, there's too many of them.

LOCO
Gigabyte is okay and likely you won't get 2 bad ones in a row. I've not seen anyone that unlucky in a while. I just thought you might want a higher end board(Gigabyte, ASUS, or whatever) since you mentioned you might want to try OCing later.

 

Lol well that is a trouble with my posting habits...
The A8N-SLI SE was the board my PC originally had when it was built for me. The network card disappeared when I was still using it, but shortly after that, purely coincidentally I built my fileserver, and used the opportunity to upgrade my PC to Core 2 and I use the dreaded P5N-E SLI. The A8N board went in my server in pretty much working order except for the lack of onboard networking, I was using a PCI card. Then that disappeared, and none of the piles of other PCI cards I added appeared either, then the other problems I listed occurred, USB voltage, and finally not POSTing at all. I then replaced it with an A8R-MVP and so far so good, but it reboots itself about 5 or 6 times before it initially POSTs, has done so since new.

The P5N-E SLI started going south about the same period of time afterwards, circa 8 months. On this occasion though, it was very laggy at receiving keyboard and mouse input, before also POSTing on a very infrequent basis. I didn't receive the pile of BSODs that theone received with his though. Last November I replaced the P5N-E SLI with my current (soon not to be) GA-P35C-DS3R, which is still working flawlessly, and is only being replaced so I can use Crossfire.
I've found the overclocking ludicrously easy on my P35C board, and if I had a good CPU like an E6750 and perhaps some 1066mhz RAM, I've no doubt I could pull off a crazy overclock if I wanted to go mad for an evening. As it is, I'll stick with my 75% overclock on my E4300, which took me all of 2 minutes to pull off. The P5N-E was a bloody trial even to get to 3Ghz, and had to be done at 0.04V higher on the Vcore.

 

The way you like to turn up the power, you should have been using the P5N32-E SLI.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131073R&Tpk=P5N32-E+SLI
At that price I'm tempted to order one.

 

I use a Vcore of 1.39 currently, that doesn't seem excessive to me...

 

"Currently" appears well within limits. However, have you been prone to crank up the power in the past? Rhetorical question, your posts speak for themselves. It doesn't take long to ruin a board (milliseconds) when pushed too far. Normally an ASUS board will shut down, but they don't always make it in time. Sometimes the damage is gradual when high settings strain the board over a period of time. As I mentioned, if you're going to push a P5N board on a regular basis, it should be a P5N32.

 

Nope, I ran 1.42 with the Asus board and I run 1.39 with the Gigabytes. I have NEVER exceeded those limits. You seem to think me an extreme overclocker pushing the voltages to their limits, not so at all.
Also remember that my A8N-SLI SE was never voltage adjusted (ever), and was only tested for overclocking once, for a 5 minute period.

 

Whatever. I suggest you and Russ never buy ASUS again. A lot of enthusiasts still use and swear by ASUS though. As for myself, I'm likely to buy ASUS most often; or a Gigabyte, if they offer something extra when I go to buy.

 

Fine by me, but a lot of people seem like they're trying to say all Asus boards are brilliant and me and Russ are both idiots. I'd like that to end. Granted, we may have been less lucky than others, but it's not our fault that Asus made a pretty large number of shoddy midrange boards.

 

The only thing I'm saying is that I've had excellent luck with ASUS. Knock on wood. From what I've heard, Mort, Doc Ty and some others have also had good luck with the brand. I've not had one ASUS board head south yet. I know they occasionally make a faulty board. If they were perfect, they wouldn't need a warranty.

You can count my number of builds on your fingers and toes, so I'm no great expert. If you feel your and Russ's intelligence is being questioned, I'd say check your paranoia level. I had nothing to do with it.

You and Russ have complained more about the few ASUS boards you've used than any other members of the forum I'm aware of. Since I was told not to post as prolifically as in the past, I've not kept up with my reading lately. I didn't see it in your case, but I saw where Russ was warned not to exceed certain levels and he insisted on going forward anyway so he could brag with the members that were doing some extreme OCing.

All the research I've done has shown the ASUS boards I've used to be enthusiast favorites with good user reviews. I think Mort, Doc Ty and others will agree it's not normal for an enthusiast to run into more than maybe one bad board out of several. Consecutive bad boards tends to make builders curious as to what's happening. So far I'm batting a thousand on mobos and CPUs, and PSUs come in well over 900. Most of the PCs are pulling at least a 10%-15% OC and the new C2D units even more (for long term service).

Large number? Do you have supporting info to make that assertion? Supporting data from reliable sources would go a long way in supporting that comment. I've not seen where Tomshardware, PC World, or other sources were saying ASUS had been building bad boards. Then... I don't know everything or read everything. Thanks in advance for the links and data.

 

I'm not going to carry on this farce. You prefer Asus, I prefer anyone but (with the exception of ECS, PC Chips and Jetway perhaps!).

 

I'm not pouring gasoline on the fire by any means but merely making a comment. I am also batting a 1,000 with asus mobos. then again all I use is top end or very popular models that have proven themselves (eg. P4P800SE). my P5W DH Deluxe 975X has performed flawlessly with a buss speed of 400mhz (default is 266mhz) and the vcore @ 1.4250 (default is 1.35 max) for over a year.

why on earth would I want to venture to another mobo manufacturer. I've tried gigabyte and don't like them besides I am hearing of more problems with them here now than with any asus's. everybody has there peferances and some have had misfortune with one brand or another but for me I will continue to buy top end asus mobos. if or when I have a problem I might consider another brand. I definately wouldn't have spent $300 on an asus rampage formula if I had any corcerns with asus's reliability.

this is only my personal experience and opinion of course. I don't want to persuade anybody into buying something they don't want. it's their money and their choice. I will offer my opinion if I'm asked.

 

I have no quarrel with Asus' top end mobos, it's the midrange ones we were discussing. Anyway, new topic plz.

 

how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop???

no really. as you all(well most all) know my situation with my mobo and cpu. im getting a new PSU within the week. most likely the corsair HX620...seeing how cheap mem is right now would it be smart to go ahead and get some new mem to go with this entirely new build i will have. if so should i stay with 1066 or go down to 800 and get 3gb instead of 2gb?