I was expecting a few problems setting up the quad-core systems, fortunately, issues have been few and far between.
The main headache I've had relates to installing Windows Vista. On trying to install Vista a got the following error:
STOP 0x0000000A (somenumber, somenumber, somenumber, somenumber) IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
This is an issue that I've seen a few times before so I was prepared for it - it's detailed in this knowledge base article on Microsoft.
This BSOD occurs when the following is true:
- The computer uses more than 3 GB of RAM.
- The computer uses a storage system that is running the Storport miniport driver.
- The computer uses a controller that uses 32-bit direct memory access (DMA).
There is a patch for the problems but this doesn't help when you're installing Windows so I whipped out 2GB of RAM and after that the installation went just fine.
Other, far more minor issues include:
- I had a tricky time getting the Arctic Cooler heatsink and fan past the heatsinks on the board
- The connectors on the motherboard for the EL I/O (electroluminescent panel for the I/O port are really small and fiddly
- The manual for the Asus board is, well, lacking
Overall, I'm thrilled with the system! ;-)
Tomorrow, I'll post some benchmarks and load on Windows XP and see if it gives me greater performance that Vista.