Asus A8N- SLi Deluxe

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SleepyDragon

Im about to buy this motherboard and its about to be the first AMD
based system I've bought. I was wondering if I had to do anything or
buy any special power supply. I've read someplaces that you had to buy
an adapter for the mainboard power connection. What should I look for
in the power supply specs? Thanks
 
Im about to buy this motherboard and its about to be the first AMD
based system I've bought. I was wondering if I had to do anything or
buy any special power supply. I've read someplaces that you had to buy
an adapter for the mainboard power connection. What should I look for
in the power supply specs? Thanks
Click to expand...

Here's the URL for a thread on building A8N-SLI systems.
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/38623/?o=0
It gives a list of PSUs that other users have had good luck with. The
very best one appears to be the PC Power & Cooling 510, but expect to
pay more for it than your mainboard costs. The list's not
all-inclusive; Seasonic makes some superb models that are powerful
enough to run SLI setups and are still very efficient (80% range) and
very quiet. I'm partial to the Antec TruePower II 550. It's plenty
powerful enough, meets the ATX 2.0x specs, is nice and quiet, can
control case fans according to the temp of case air, and can still be
had for less than $90 at newegg.
You really need to get a PSU with ATX 2.0 specs. IF you're going to
actually run two PCI-e cards in SLI mode, then be sure to look for a
PSU that already has TWO 6-pin PCI-e connectors. Any PSU that has the
PCI-e connectors will have SATA power connectors. If it's ATX
2-compliant, then it will have the 24-pin power connector and the
4-pin 12V connector you need for the A8N-SLI Deluxe. You could get a
PSU with a 20-pin power plug and buy an adapter, but why not just get
the right PSU in the first place?

It's always been said that the PSU is a foolish place to cut corners
in system building. That's especially true with the SLI mainboards.

Ron
 
If you by a modern power supply chances are that it will be the
other way around : you will not need an adapter for that
board, but it will be required to connect it to older boards.

I have an Antec Neopower (48 Watts). It is not cheap.
There are other PSUs from Antec that come with the proper
connector, plus an adapter for older boards.

Of course there are other brands that are equivalent to the
Antec.
 
SleepyDragon said:
Im about to buy this motherboard and its about to be the first AMD
based system I've bought. I was wondering if I had to do anything or
buy any special power supply. I've read someplaces that you had to buy
an adapter for the mainboard power connection. What should I look for
in the power supply specs? Thanks
Click to expand...
You want a 24-pin connector on your PSU. Do not settle for a 20-pin PSU with
a 20-24 pin converter. The Seasonic S12 is an excellent PSU and very quiet.
If you have a NVIDIA 6600GT or below, the S12-380 or 430 is probably fine.
If you two video cards (SLI) then the 500 or 600 models are best.

If you don't need two video cards (SLI), consider the A8N-E mb.
 
Pick up an Antec TrueControl 2 550W PSU just to be on the safe side, <G>

If you have problems, come to the link in my sig to ask questions and have
them answered.
 
Thanks and yes I am planning on at somepoint in the future running in
SLi so thanks tons. Also as for as chips are concerned, I was looking
at getting the Athlon 64 3500+ Vinice core. Is this a good core or
should I look at the Claw/Hammer? Haven't much found a good answer as
to what the big difference is and can someone tell me how this compares
to the Intel chips? I've kinda got the understanding that the 3500+
means that its comparable to a 3.5 GHz Intel, is this about right?
Sorry if a lot of this sounds dumb but I've just not much dealt in AMD
and as I hear from my friends they are better for games, which Im
putting this rig together for.
 
SleepyDragon said:
Thanks and yes I am planning on at somepoint in the future running in
SLi so thanks tons. Also as for as chips are concerned, I was looking
at getting the Athlon 64 3500+ Vinice core. Is this a good core or
should I look at the Claw/Hammer? Haven't much found a good answer as
to what the big difference is and can someone tell me how this compares
to the Intel chips? I've kinda got the understanding that the 3500+
means that its comparable to a 3.5 GHz Intel, is this about right?
Sorry if a lot of this sounds dumb but I've just not much dealt in AMD
and as I hear from my friends they are better for games, which Im
putting this rig together for.
Click to expand...
You definitely want the Venice core. Stay away from Claw Hammer. The Venice
will run with less power and much less heat dissipation. Which means it is
easier to cool and keep quiet (with low speed fans).

The 3500+ is an excellent CPU (That is what I run). It has about the same
processing power as an Intel 3.5 GHz, but it does depend on which
application you are using.

Don't forget to install and configure Cool N Quiet drivers and software.
This will keep you CPU running much cooler when not in use.
 
To put milleron's speel another way.
Why spend $x,000 on a great system then make it suffer with an inferior PSU?
SLI rigs can use a lot of juice and if you read the review you will see that
this is a fact and that instability can arise if you under budget or get a
cheapo PSU.

Trust the reviews when they correlate. Do *not* trust manufacturers specs.
They fib.

- Tim
 
Well the case I was looking at has with it a 420W PSU. For now I know
that this will be ok seeing as how I will just be using a single card
for the time being. However I was possibly going to go ahead and get a
540W? PSU from Antec or Thermaltake.
 
SleepyDragon said:
Will the cool n quite throttle the CPU like Intel chips do when they
get hot?
Click to expand...

The CoolnQuiet will lower the voltage and the CPU clock when there is no
demand for a lot of CPU horsepower. It keeps my FX55 on 41 Celsius when
idle, whereas it jumps up to 52 Celsius idle when I disable the feature.
It helps keep the noise level down too, as the fan doesnt have to spin
so much at the lower setting. The performance feels quite the same to me.
 
SleepyDragon said:
Will the cool n quite throttle the CPU like Intel chips do when they
get hot?
Click to expand...
No, it keeps the CPU running at low power and cool any time it is not used.
It does not throttle back when over-heated (at least Cool n Quiet does not
perform that function).
 
If you're looking to overclock, pick up a 3000+ Venice. This thing can go a
long way with air.
 
SleepyDragon said:
Well the case I was looking at has with it a 420W PSU.
Click to expand...

bla bla bla. How do you know it is 420 watts? The label on the side? What is
the composition and restriction on this 420 watts? What make is the PSU
(many makes are known crap).

Getting a case with a PSU in may seem like your are saving some money. More
often than not, you are getting a dirt cheap PSU that will be sufficient in
lower end systems, may fail prematurely, may suffer from bad capacitors etc.

If the case costs $100, how much of that is PSU?

More expensive PSU is *not* always better, but cheap PSU's are seldom
brilliant.

- Tim
 
Ok thanks for all the help but one last thing ... I hope. I was just
talking to a computer store owner today and he was telling me that for
this motherboad you MUST, absolutly MUST use a video card from their
'certified' card list in order for the SLi to work. is this true or is
it something that ASUS is doing to promote their own lines of video
cards. Personally I like the BFG line of cards and have had a good
experiance with them but I was SHOCKED to find that their cards were
not listed on the ASUS certified list. Is it just a marketing ploy to
not get you to buy BFG, because I found out that BFG also makes an
NForce4 mobo, a direct competetor to this mobo.
 
Take a look at the Asus web site - find your mohterboard and note what they
say there.
SLI will not work with cards below a specific specification level.
There is a lot of work for nvidia to get the drivers right, so nvidia has
drawn the line for the minimum spec cards that will work under SLI - no one
else.

Your vendor is not the person specifying this list, nor is it Asus, it is
nvidia as they designed sli, the graphics chips, and make the nforce4
chipset on the motherboard.

I think you will find that it is the chipset on the graphics card that
determines if it is suitable or not, not the make. NVidia produces the
graphics chips with reference designs and numerous manufacturers make
graphics cards according to these designs - with varying adjustments /
"improvements" along the way - but all cards using the same graphics chipset
are fundamentally, at a minimum level the same. Some may go a tad faster.
Some makes are better than others in terms of reliability, price, or
warrantee - but don't hold false loyalties and don't get roped into paying a
premium for a card that can be had elsewhere for half the price because your
vendor says its the "cheapest" or other BS.

Personally, I have no interest in this high end graphics stuff - my "realm"
is databases and programming. An SLI setup is no advantage to me.
 
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