Asus A8R-MVP.....best S939 motherboard?

computergeek22 · Post by **computergeek22** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 9:46 pm

Keep me posted. I'm interested in getting this board - seems the best solution between overclocking and silence.

andy_c · Post by **andy_c** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 11:10 am

Anybody know if a Scythe Ninja will fit on this board? Looking at the picture at the newegg link posted earlier, it looks like the heatsink for the ATI chip is pretty tall.

The RAID 5 support looks interesting. I'm pretty close to making a music server with a RAID 5 array. The integrated RAID 5 setups I've seen so far, like the one on the Gigabyte board posted earlier in this thread, seem to have pretty sketchy documentation and software support. But looking through the ASUS manual of this new board, RAID 5 appears to be better supported with this ULI chipset. Reliable add-on RAID 5 cards are upwards of 200 bucks, so a robust RAID 5 implementation on the mobo could really save some money.

I'm currently having some problems with an integrated Silicon Image RAID 1 setup on my ASUS motherboard, so I am suspicious of integrated RAID solutions in general. But saving 200 bucks sure is attractive.

Ryan Norton · Post by **Ryan Norton** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 4:40 pm

Ninja fits just fine. Actually fits better than it did on my Neo4 Ultra... more clearance between the heatpipes and the voltage... stuff. I don't have a digicam or I would show you.

Mystr_Byrnz · Post by **Mystr_Byrnz** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 4:54 pm

Hey Ryan.

How is stability with this board? I'm sick of having to tip-toe around my nForce4 board when updating/installing drivers.

Was setup smooth and easy or was it a pain like many nForce4 boards can be?

Thanks in advance

andy_c · Post by **andy_c** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 4:58 pm

Ryan Norton wrote:Ninja fits just fine. Actually fits better than it did on my Neo4 Ultra... more clearance between the heatpipes and the voltage... stuff. I don't have a digicam or I would show you.

Excellent. Thank you much!

mattthemuppet · Post by **mattthemuppet** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 8:06 pm

Ryan, sounds like you may need to fiddle with the dividers (or other settings) in the advanced section of the Speedfan setup. After some trial and error you should be able to find a setting that'll show the right fan speed at less than 100%. Then again, when my CPU fan goes below 1300rpm it shows 38500rpm (which would be pretty impressive!) - some sort of MB BIOS thing I think.

slimeballzz · Post by **slimeballzz** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 6:09 pm

Is everyone getting this over the Asus A8N32-SLI?

Sooty · Post by **Sooty** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 6:18 pm

Nvidia buys ULi

Where does this leave boards with an ATI / ULi combo? I was just about to invest in an Asus A8R-MVP. If this is a ‘block-move’ by NV, is it likely such boards will cease to exist? Therefore I’ll be left with a dodo mobo.

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 6:45 pm

Sooty wrote:Nvidia buys ULi

Where does this leave boards with an ATI / ULi combo? I was just about to invest in an Asus A8R-MVP. If this is a ‘block-move’ by NV, is it likely such boards will cease to exist? Therefore I’ll be left with a dodo mobo.

-nVidia said they will continue selling ULI products like before, at least for now.
-This won't happen over a night, I don't think we would notice any differences in the next coming 6 months.
-nVidia makes money when mobos are sold with a competitors chip, so what? It's still money for nVidia! They don't have to sell both NB and SB to make profit. There are several nVidia mobos that have a VIA chip (for Firewire I think) for instance, and everybody's happy.
-nVidia would only make a bad name out of them self if they made the manufacturing of A8R impossible. What do you think Asus, possibly the biggest mobo maker would say about that? Besides, what would the costumers say?
-ATI will show up with a new SB in a couple of months, bringing us even more mobos that probably will look similar to A8R.
-What can you say about ATI mobos today? They're better off with an ULI SB, coming (soon) from nVidia! I'm sure nVidia likes that!

anaqer · Post by **anaqer** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:29 pm

Points 1 through 4 are entirely valid - but as for #5, we've yet to see any trace of the Holy ATi Soutbridge (ie. the elusive SB600) that's supposed to fix all bugs and shortcomings of previous incarnations. ATi may now have a better incentive to *really* look into the matter, but a 'couple of months' still seems little more than wishful thinking - actually, I'd be surprised if it even got announced before 06Q2 (let alone be available).

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:49 pm

I wasn't very precise when I said "a couple of months". But I simply don't think there's any reason to panic. If ATI got any brains they will have that SB finished before M2 shows up.

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:52 pm

A8R crossfire test.

Sooty · Post by **Sooty** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 6:31 am

Mats wrote:-nVidia makes money when mobos are sold with a competitors chip, so what? It's still money for nVidia! They don't have to sell both NB and SB to make profit.

But there’s a bigger agenda here. It’s the risk of ATI’s new chip dominating the market, at the expense of their own product. They’ll see no profit from that.

Mats wrote:There are several nVidia mobos that have a VIA chip (for Firewire I think) for instance, and everybody's happy.

I don’t think VIA and NV are quite the rivals NV and ATI are.

Mats wrote:-nVidia would only make a bad name out of them self if they made the manufacturing of A8R impossible. What do you think Asus, possibly the biggest mobo maker would say about that? Besides, what would the costumers say?

Bill Gates isn’t too popular either, mostly through his monopoly tactics. But MS are still top dog, and that’s all MS and 99% of other companies care about – market share and profit. They won’t worry much if the trade off is occasional unpopularity.

Mats wrote:-What can you say about ATI mobos today? They're better off with an ULI SB, coming (soon) from nVidia! I'm sure nVidia likes that!

I’m not quite getting your point there, Mats. But yes, NV appears to have grabbed an important part of the jigsaw for ATI’s immediate success, and ‘I’m sure Nvidia likes that’. I’m sure NV could exercise their right to dictate to mobo manufacturers, which NB can be used with their SB – leaving ATI high and dry - at least for the time being.

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 7:39 am

Don't underestimate VIA, they sell a lot of chips to cost effective PC's, and yeah that's not really nVidias cup of tea right now, but it will be when ULI comes in the picture.

You can't compare µ$ and nVidia like that, nVidia is far from monopoly. What I meant was that if they start messing with a big player like Asus then they will regret it sooner or later. µ$ can sell software to existing PC's, nVidias chips goes into the manufacturing of new mobos, they are totally dependant of the mobo makers (and the other way around). If Asus says that they want to make the A8R for like throughout 2006, then they will get the chips from ULI.

Asus made a deal with ULI, nVidia can't just break that deal without hurting themselves. Or do you think Asus sends a guy to the local electronics store and buy a box of ULI chips when they need more of them in the production? Trust me, they do have contracts for this.

But, nVidia may try to prevent new ATI/ULI mobos from showing up, and I think this whole deal is a big heads up for the mobo makers who are planning forthcoming mobos. But that's another story.

rpsgc · Post by **rpsgc** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 8:21 am

ULi to help Nvidia’s high-end chipsets; benefits all around from acquisition

http://www.digitimes.com/mobos/a20051215A2003.html

Ryan Norton · Post by **Ryan Norton** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:11 pm

Well, I got my A8R-MVP already

Have there been any other mergers/engulfments like this before? I've only been seriously following PC hardware developments for a few years; seems like a historical example might be a good way of figuring out what Nvidia might do.

I kind of selfishly hope SB600 or whatever it is takes forever, since I don't want my new mobo to be obsoleted right away. Plus, I picked the A8R because it was much cheaper and almost as good as the A8N32, which I wasn't willing to pay for, and all indications point to SB600 being used in similarly high-end "enthusiast" stuff. I think.

aztec · Post by **aztec** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 6:42 pm

Ryan,

any other feedback/updates on the board?

stable as a rock? gaming?

Thanks!

Ryan Norton · Post by **Ryan Norton** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 8:10 pm

Rock solid for sure.. only crashes when I've been OCing. That didn't pan out exactly as I expected, mostly because the RAM I was using just isn't suited for high HTT 1:1 operation. Also, I was using a rev E4 Venice for awhile that just didn't seem as happy at 2.6GHz+ as the Rev E3 one I've had since July.

I'm not a PC audio buff but the onboard "HD audio" vs. the standard AC97 mobo audio seems like it could be a big plus. I should learn more about it then test vs. my SB Audigy 2.

york · Post by **york** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 1:34 pm

If anyone is looking for this board Buy.com just received and is about sold out of them at $107.99 total on Dec 25th

aug1516 · Post by **aug1516** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 2:03 pm

I just picked up this board and thought I'd share my own experiences with it. Compared to my older motherboard (Asus A8N-E Nforce4) this new Asus board was a real PITA to get working. It's overclocking options are much more limited than my previous NForce4 options and made it really tough to get my memory speed where I wanted it. The board also seemed to flake out sometimes and not allow me into the bios. The keyboard would work fine once in windows but did not register that I had pressed the del key to get into the bios. I tried a USB keyboard and had identical results. I also had a number of times after making changes to the bios where the board would not post until I had power cycled it a few times which then lost my changes for some reason. So after fighting with the motherboard for a couple hours I believe it's finally to the point where I can call it stable and now that it's working fine I really do enjoy it. The passive cooling is great for quiet systems and it does run cooler than the Nforce4 chipset.

computergeek22 · Post by **computergeek22** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 2:10 pm

Yeah, aug, hopefully Asus can get a bios revision as many people who have bought this board are pissed off at some little nitpicks with this board.

1. 1T command rate can't be used @ High HTT on some memory
2. Lack of cpu voltage selection options
3. Finnicky CPU overvoltage option

Hopefully these three issues can be resolved w/a bios update as this board seems like a good mainstream board. Though Ryan was able to hit 325htt so I guess the AT review board wasn't handpicked.

freakazoid · Post by **freakazoid** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 5:51 pm

Ryan Norton wrote:Ninja fits just fine. Actually fits better than it did on my Neo4 Ultra... more clearance between the heatpipes and the voltage... stuff. I don't have a digicam or I would show you.

Ryan,

Just noticed that you have a Ninja outfitted in your ASUS A8R-MVP. Did you mount a fan on the Ninja or are you running it passively? If the former, were there any clearance issues? What components are you running? I just posted a question in the "Scythe SCNJ-1000 Ninja heatsink" discussion -- http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... 331#232331

Also, in mounting a single ATI Radeon X1800XT card does this leave you with TWO PCI slots available? Or only ONE PCI slot? The picture / angle http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/302/ -- looks like there may be only ONE usable PCI slot. If there are any members with pictures, please post!

Thanks!

tjpark1111 · Post by **tjpark1111** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 7:22 pm

I don't really like how manufacturers aren't leaving much room for northbridge cooling upgrade options anymore. Passive cooling can be good in that it's silent, but probably I could put a quiet fan on it in which cannot be heard in a good case, and effectively increase overclocking potential. The only board that I am satisfied with the layout right now is the EPoX 9NPA+ Ultra, which has plenty of room around the CPU for a ninja, and an aftermarket northbridge cooler to overclock(a swiftech). I was surprised, can anyone post some temps when they have it OC'ed?? I usually get the best cooling possible for my components so they last as long as they can and overclock as far as they can.(i mean air not $1000 phase-change)