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E1952
First Edition
March
Contents
Chapter 1: Product introduction
Chapter 2: Hardware information
Chapter 3: Powering up
Chapter 4: BIOS setup
Chapter 5: Software support
Chapter 6: SLI™ technology support
Appendix
Federal Communications Commission Statement
Canadian Department of Communications Statement
Electrical safety
Operation safety
How this guide is organized
Where to find more information
Conventions used in this guide
A8N-SLIPremium specifications summary
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Chapter summary
1.1Welcome
Thank you for buying an ASUS® A8N-SLIPremium motherboard
1.2Package contents
Motherboard
I/O modules
1.3.1Product highlights
HyperTransport™ Technology
Dual Channel DDR memory support
Serial ATA II technology
Dual RAID solution
PCI Express™ interface
S/PDIF digital sound ready
IEEE 1394a support
USB 2.0 technology
Temperature, fan, and voltage monitoring
1.3.2ASUS Proactive features
1.3.3Innovative ASUS features
ASUS Multi-languageBIOS
ASUS MyLogo2™
ASUS Instant Music
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Hardware2 information
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2.1Before you proceed
Onboard LEDs
2.2.1Placement direction
2.2.2Screw holes
2.2.3Motherboard layout
2.2.4Layout Contents
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2.3.1Overview
2.3.2Installling the CPU
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2.3.3Installing the heatsink and fan
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2.4.1Overview
2.4.2Memory Configurations
Table
DDR400 Qualified Vendors List
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2.4.3Installing a DIMM
2.4.4Removing a DIMM
2.5.1Installing an expansion card
2.5.2Configuring an expansion card
2.5.3Interrupt assignments
2.5.4PCI slots
2.5.5Two PCI Express x16 slots
2.5.6PCI Express x1 slot
2.5.7PCI Express x4 slot
2.6 Jumpers
1 . Clear RTC RAM (CLRTC)
2.7.1Rear panel connectors
9 . Microphone port (pink)
Audio 2, 4, 6, or 8-channelconfiguration
11 . USB 2.0 ports 3 and
12 . USB 2.0 ports 1 and
13 . IEEE 1394a port
2.7.2 Internal connectors
3 . Serial ATA connectors
(7-pinSATA1, SATA2, SATA3, SATA4)
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6 . Serial port connector (10-1pin COM1)
7 . USB connectors (10-1pin USB56, USB78, USB910)
8 . ATX power connectors (24-pinEATXPWR1, 4-pinATX12V1, 4-pinEZ_PLUG)
Power supply requirements
9 . Internal audio connectors (4-pinCD, AUX)
10 . GAME/MIDI port connector (16-1pin GAME)
11 . Chassis intrusion connector (4-1pin CHASSIS)
12 . IEEE 1394 connector (10-1pin IE1394_2)
13 . Front panel audio connector (10-1pin FP_AUDIO)
14 . System panel connector (20-pinPANEL)
•System power LED (Green 3-pinPLED)
•Hard disk drive activity (Red 2-pinIDE_LED)
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3.1Starting up for the first time
3.2.1Using the OS shut down function
3.2.2Using the dual function power switch
3.3.1Vocal POST messages
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3.3.2Winbond Voice Editor
Changing the default language
Load
Write
Yes
Customizing your POST messages
Add
Add Wave File
Edit
Event Sound Editor
Save
.flh
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4.1.1Creating a bootable floppy disk
4.1.2Updating the BIOS
File Name to Program
4.1.3Saving the current BIOS file
4.1.4ASUS CrashFree BIOS 2 utility
Recovering the BIOS from a floppy disk
4.1.5ASUS EZ Flash utility
4.1.6ASUS Update utility
Updating the BIOS through the Internet
Updating the BIOS through a BIOS file
4.2BIOS setup program
4.2.1BIOS menu screen
4.2.2Menu bar
4.2.3Legend bar
4.2.4Menu items
4.2.5Sub-menuitems
4.2.6Configuration fields
4.2.7Pop-upwindow
4.2.8General help
4.3.1System Time [xx:xx:xxxx]
4.3.2System Date [Day xx/xx/xxxx]
4.3.3Language [English]
4.3.4Legacy Diskette A [1.44M, 3.5 in.]
4.3.5Primary and Secondary IDE Master/Slave
Access Mode [Auto]
Transfer Mode
4.3.5First, Second, Third, Fourth SATA Master
4.3.7HDD SMART Monitoring
4.3.8Installed Memory
4.4.1CPU Configuration
DRAM Configuration
Hyper Transport Frequency [Auto]
AMD K8 Cool’n’Quiet control [Disabled]
4.4.2PCIPnP
4.4.3Onboard Devices Configuration
IDE Function Setup
OnChip IDE Channel0 [Enabled]
OnChip IDE Channel1 [Enabled]
IDE DMA transfer access [Enabled]
Serial Port 1, 2 [Enabled]
SATA2 DMA transfer [Enabled]
IDE Prefetch Mode [Enabled]
NVRAID Configuration
RAID Enabled [Disabled]
IDE Primary, Secondary Master/Slave RAID [Disabled]
USB Configuration
USB Controller [Enabled]
USB 2.0 Controller [Enabled]
USB Legacy Support [Enabled]
Onboard NV LAN [Enabled]
OnBoard LAN2 Boot ROM [Disabled]
AC97 Audio [Enabled]
PCI IEEE 1394a [Enabled]
Silicon SATA Controller [Enabled]
Serial Port1 Address [3F8/IRQ4]
4.4.4SLI Configuration
4.4.5JumperFree Configuration
PCI Express Clock [100MHz]
DDR Voltage [Auto]
Chipset Voltage [+1.5V]
HT Voltage [+1.2V]
CPU Multiplier [Auto]
4.4.6LAN Cable Status
4.4.7PEG Link Mode
4.4.8Speech Configuration
4.4.9Instant Music
4.5.1ACPI Suspend Type [S1&S3]
4.5.2ACPI APIC Support [Enabled]
4.5.3APM Configuration
Power On By RTC Alarm [Disabled]
Day of Month Alarm [Disabled]
Time (hh:mm:ss) Alarm [Disabled]
Power Up By PS/2 Mouse [Disabled]
Power On By PS/2 Keyboard [Disabled]
4.5.4Hardware Monitor
CPU Target Temperature
CPU Fan Speed warning [1200 RPM]
CHA1 Fan Speed warning [Disabled]
CHIP Fan Speed warning [Enabled]
4.6.1Boot Device Priority
4.6.2Removable Drives
4.6.3Hard Disk Drives
4.6.4CDROM Drives
4.6.5Boot Settings Configuration
Boot Up Floppy Seek [Enabled]
Bootup Num-Lock[On]
Typematic Rate Setting [Disabled]
Typematic Rate (Chars/Sec)
Typematic Delay (Msec)
4.6.6Security
A note about passwords
Forgot your password
Password Check
4.7Exit menu
Exit & Save Changes
Exit & Discard Changes
Load Setup Defaults
Exit & Save Changes
Discard Changes
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Software5 support
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5.2.1Running the support CD
5.2.2Drivers menu
5.2.3Utilities menu
ASUS AI Booster
Microsoft DirectX
Anti-virusUtility
ADOBE Acrobat Reader
Winbond Voice Editor
5.2.4Manuals menu
5.2.5ASUS Contact information
5.2.6Other information
Browse this CD
Technical support Form
Filelist
5.4.1ASUS MyLogo2™
Ratio
5.4.2AI NET
Using the Virtual Cable Tester™
5.4.3Audio configurations
Sound Effect
S/PDIF option
SPDIF
Speaker Configuration
Speaker Configuration
Auto Test
UAJ Automatic
AI Audio feature
Connector Sensing
Bracket
Option
HRTF Demo
HRTF Demo
Play
Stop
General settings
General
Language
Rear panel audio ports function variation
5.4.4Using the NVIDIA® Firewall™
Setting security profiles
Low
High
Lockdown
Anti-hacking
Turning the NVFirewall™ off
Current Firewall Profile combo list box then select Off
2.Click Turn Firewall OFF
5.5RAID configurations
RAID
RAID 0+1
JBOD
Just a Bunch of Disks
5.5.1Installing hard disks
5.5.2NVIDIA® RAID configurations
Entering the NVIDIA® RAID utility
Creating a RAID Volume
RAID Mode
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Rebuilding a RAID array
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Deleting a RAID array
Clearing a disk data
5.5.3Silicon Image RAID configurations
Entering the Silicon Image BIOS RAID Configuration Utility
Create RAID set
Delete RAID set
Rebuild RAID1 set
Resolve Conflicts
Creating a RAID 0 set (Striped)
Create RAID set then press <Enter> to display an option menu
Creating a RAID 1 set (Mirrored)
Create RAID set then press <Enter>. The following sub-menuappears
configuration and press
Create with data copy, the following pop-upmenu appears
Creating a RAID 5 set (Parity)
Manual configuration a. Select Manual
configuration and
Creating a RAID 10 set (Mirrored+Striped)
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Creating a JBOD set (Spanning)
5.6Creating a RAID driver disk
Make NVIDIA RAID Driver
\Drivers\Sil3114
5.7.1Enabling Cool ‘n’ Quiet!™ Technology
5.7.2Launching the Cool ‘n’ Quiet!™ software
5.8.1Managing your nForce™ system
5.8.2Clock control
5.8.3Voltage/Fan control
5.8.4Information
5.8.5Other options
5.9.1Launching the ASUS AI Selector
5.9.2Using the SLI mode
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6.1.1Requirements
6.1.2ASUS Certified SLI Graphics cards
GeForce 6800 GT models
GeForce 6600 GT models
6.2.1Installing SLI-readygraphics cards
PCIEX16_1
PCIEX16_2
EZ_PLUG
6.2.2Installing the device drivers
6.2.3Installing the ASUS AI Selector utility
6.2.4Enabling the multi-GPUfeature in Windows
6.Select the NVIDIA GeForce tab
multi-GPU item
6.2.5Setting the ASUS AI Selector utility
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A.1.1 Installing the 2-portSATA extension module
A.1.2 Installing SATA hard drives