New mobo, new RAM, having some fun
 

I came into a bit of money this week and decided to put it back into my gaming computer (it's a bit long in the tooth). I need a new video card, but figured the 9700 pros and 9800s will drop in price next month when the 9900 pro is released. So I bought some RAM and a motherboard for now and I'll get a new video card later.

I picked up the Asus A7N8X-X and 2 256mb sticks of Kingston HyperX PC3200 because they were cheap. Set it up last night with a 1700+ JIUHB and an Alpha PAL8045 and 11x200 was automatic (just had to bump voltage a bit). I am usually interested in things that other review sites aren't (does the mobo read from the diode? Does speedfan work? How is the Q-Fan tech Asus touts? Does it have SMBus headers? How much space around the socket is there for big wbs and heatsinks? Are the mosfets laid out for cooling? etc etc). I didn't find many reviews of this motherboard out there yet, and so if you guys want to see it I'll try to get one together. I am going out of town Friday-Monday so it may be a challenge to get it done tonight. It's possible though I guess...

This weekend is sorta hecktic for me ( out of town saturday) but I will work on getting it posted Sunday if you get it done Friday.

(Dedicated to getting a side project done tonight)

The Aopen software owns the Asus for fan control and monitoring btw Joe. Asus is so full of crap (wait for the review :))

you should try the AOpen software on the Asus board, maybe they use the same management hardware ( some winbond thingy)

That's not an awful idea. Speedfan works and in speedfan I see the CPU diode temp. With Asus probe they just take a socket thermistor reading (which barely varies with load) and so their "Q-fan" crap isnt happening. The Asus IC is a rebadged Winbond though, and it seems to be properly wired up since speedfan works. Can I get that from the AOpen website, or do I have to look for a Mexican version?

I hope you can get it from the AOpen site, if not then I will need the mexican version also. (lost the CD)

Ok here is a stupid question, why mexican ver?

Wouldn´t english work ok?

Hehe... :)

I tried out the software Joe but it didnt recognize my IC as being a winbond of the right type. Asus uses winbond ICs but rebrands them and possibly does some reprogramming so they arent recognized. Oh well. Speedfan works beefily so I'll just stick with that I guess.

Moving right along...
 

I sent a review of this board (mostly my comments about the temp readings and fan control) to staff tonight. Hopefully it'll be revised and up in a couple of days. Trying to decide my next project...