... A friend of mine is even more of an enthusiast than me so you can't beat user experience, he was running an ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe - no surprises there, and I must say I was impresses with the board.
So back home I look into the ASUS range as I am a fan of their kit and have bought quite ... Read review
Advantages: Excelent choice when moving from AGP to PCI-E Disadvantages: Not quite the rolls royce in this range from ASUS
...experience, he was running an ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe - no surprises there, and I must say I was impresses with the board.
So back home I look into the ASUS range as I am a fan of their kit and have bought quite a few boards by them.
What I was pleased to see was a value version of the A8N32-SLI Deluxe that was the A8N-SLI SE.
Now what was the difference between these 2 boards?
To put that ... ...budget choice. In many ways this board is similar to he top range board but they do strip out some items such as fan less heat pipe cooling, an second gigabit LAN card and they also skimp a bit on the on-board audio quality. The audio isn't a factor I consider as I always use my own add-in card.
True PCI-E SLI x16 Support is also removed, what that essentially means is that when you fit 2 Graphics Cards you cant run them both in the ... more
I've been an avid gamer for many years now and I can put my hand on my heart and say it's becoming an expensive pass-time.
So when the time came to move from My Athlon XP 3200+ gaming rig with AGP I took a small step in the right direction and went to an Athlon 64 system with AGP support until I could afford a PCI-E card. That way not taking the whole move in one big hit.
So fast forward and bit and I am ready to upgrade again, so off I go and start doing my homework. A friend of mine is even more of an enthusiast than me so you can't beat user experience, he was running an ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe - no surprises there, and I must say I was impresses with the board.
So back home I look into the ASUS range as I am a fan of their kit and have bought quite a few boards by them.
What I was pleased to see was a value version of the A8N32-SLI Deluxe that was the A8N-SLI SE.
Now what was the difference between these 2 boards?
To put that into a nutshell and justify why this is a good budget choice. In many ways this board is similar to he top range board but they do strip out some items such as fan less heat pipe cooling, an second gigabit LAN card and they also skimp a bit on the on-board audio quality. The audio isn't a factor I consider as I always use my own add-in card.
True PCI-E SLI x16 Support is also removed, what that essentially means is that when you fit 2 Graphics Cards you cant run them both in the full x16 mode.
To me that didn't matter, as I was aiming to use only one Graphics Card, besides if I did choose to add another Graphics card and go SLI mode I wouldn't notice any problems as most cards only run in PCI-E 8x mode so as you can see it divides the 16 PCI-E channels between the two cards.
What you do get is:
AMD Socket 939 supporting Athlon 64FX, Athlon 64 X2 and Athlon 64 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Chipset Dual Channel Memory Support PCI Express SATA RAID with 3Gb/s support Up to 10 USB 2.0 ports using on-board and external connectors SPDIF audio output for home cinema AI NOS (software over clocking) Crash Free BIOS
Ok then enough talking about who what why and when let's get down to what's in the box.
Inside the box you will find your motherboard, back plate, SLI cable, sata cables, ide cables, floppy cable, sticker, manual and driver cd.
Everything was well packed and easy to get at.
With my case hollowed out and my screwdriver in hand I moved on to the building. The layout of this board makes it very easy to work with, plenty space around the CPU socket for large over clocking coolers, the DIMM sockets are located a good distance away from the CPU and are colored to help you know which to use to for Dual Channel Mode. I used an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ and it fitted snug under my Zalman cooler.
The Nforce Chipset is cooled with a nicely designed fan and produces minimal noise and is located deceivingly close to the first PCI-E slot, I thought it would be an issue but once you get your card in there you will wonder why you were fussing in the first place.
With everything connected and plugged in I fire up my PC and enter the BIOS. The menu system is easy and intuitive to use and I had my SATA RAID and BIOS setting tweaked in no time. The board runs really well and was a huge jump up in performance as my old board ran on a Nforce 3 Ultra chipset, even the RAID performance is improved and I get much better throughput.
So about 10 Months on now my board is still running fine, I have upgraded to an AMD Athlon X2 4600+ dual core it took the chip without the need for any bios upgrade.
If like me you are looking to upgrade on a budget, you should seriously consider this board. However socket 939 is now a dead platform in favor of socket AM2, but if you have already invested in the 939 platform this is a good board to choose.
codiak 16.03.2007 (16.03.2007)
Ciao members have rated this review on average:
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Review of ASUS A8N-SLI SE - motherboard - ATX - nForce4 SLI
Advantages: Simple, Fast, Cool, Sturdy, With tons of extras! Disadvantages: Weak SATA cables and cramped
just after this motherboard was released I set about making a brand new gaming PC from scratch, i bought only the best, and this was, and still is the best.
My friend bought an a8n32-SLI recently, and while it has some advantages in speed and cooling, this motherboard is absolutely fantastic, not only for it's near limitless connectors (8 SATA, 15 USB Etc) but for the extras in the box, even a joystick port connector, USB slots, even a device to ... ...on your desk!)
The overclocking is as simple, or hard, as you want it to be. the novice can simply install the bundled software and get up to 10% more speed, but if your insane like me, you can melt some silicone and tweak the bios yourself, while I've seen more options for voltage/speed trade-off in some of my older mobo's, this one wins simply for it's nicely designed jumper-free system.
The only big problem I had was how cramped the board felt ...
DarthPJB 26.01.2007
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of ASUS A8N-SLI SE - motherboard - ATX - nForce4 SLI
Product Information for "ASUS A8N-SLI SE - motherboard - ATX - nForce4 SLI" »
Audio
Audio Output
Sound card
Audio Codec
Realtek ALC850
Sound Output Mode
5.1 channel surround
Telecom / networking
Networking
Network adapter - Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet
Features
BIOS Features
DMI 2.0 support, WfM 2.0 support, ASUS MyLogo2, SMBIOS 2.3 support, ASUS EZ Flash
Manual Settings
CPU frequency, processor core voltage, memory voltage, PCI Express x16 slot frequency
Hardware Monitoring
CPU core temperature, CPU fan tachometer, chassis fan tachometer, system voltage, CPU core voltage, north bridge fan tachometer
Sleep / Wake Up
Wake on LAN (WOL)
Hardware Features
EZ Plug, C.P.R. (CPU Parameter Recall), CrashFree BIOS 2, AMD Cool 'n' Quiet Technology, ASUS Q-Fan 2, NVIDIA Firewall, ASUS AI NOS (Non-delay Overclocking System), NVIDIA SLI Technology Support
Manufacturer's product description
A8N-SLI SE supports AMD 939-pin Athlon 64 FX/ Athlon 64 processors with 1MB/512KB L2 cache, which is based on 64-bit architecture. It features 2000/1600 MT/s HyperTransport Bus and dual-channel un-buffered DDR400 memory support. Currently, it also supports AMD Athlon 64 X2 CPU. A8N-SLI SE supports AMD Cool 'n' Quiet, technology, which monitors system operation and automatically adjusts CPU voltage and frequency for a cool and quiet environment. SLI technology revolutionizes PC performance by combining multiple PCI Express GPUs in a single and scalable system! Gamers and hardcore enthusiasts know that dual GPUs mean increased, supercharged 3D graphics and performance. NV ActiveArmor enhances network security while delivers the highest system performance by offloading CPU-intensive packet filtering tasks in hardware. NV Firewall provides professional-grade traffic inspection capabilities, instant on protection, advanced management features and is easy to use and setup via a user-friendly wizard. PCI Express is the latest I/O interconnect technology that will replace the existing PCI. With a bus bandwidth 4 times higher than that of AGP 8X interface, PCI Express x16 bus performs much better in applications such as 3D gaming. The PCI Express x1 interface creates new usages on desktop PCs e.g., TV tuner, 1394b, and high-speed RAID systems. USB 2.0 is the latest connectivity standard for next generation components and peripherals. Backwards compatible with current USB 1.1 peripherals, USB 2.0 delivers transfer speeds up to 40 times faster at 480Mb/s, for easy connectivity and ultra-fast data transfers. A8N-SLI SE supports next-generation SATA hard drives based on the new SATA 3Gb/s storage specification. Furthermore, the chipset has two dedicated SATA controllers delivering more scalable performance and doubles the bus bandwidth for fast hard drive data retrieval and saves. AI Selector enables easy switching between single-GPU and dual-GPU modes by simply clicking on the mouse under Windows operating system. It begins the era of electronic SLI switch, allowing users to enjoy both SLI and non-SLI applications with ease. Boost performance when you need it the most! Applications such as 3D games and video editing demand a huge chunk of system resource. Inject "nitrous oxide" into your CPU! The patented AI NOS (Non-delay Overclocking System) technology intelligently detects system load and automatically boosts performance for the most demanding tasks. Unlike other dynamic overclocking techniques, AI NOS reacts much faster to satisfy your unending need for speeds. ASUS Q-Fan2 technology intelligently adjusts both CPU fan and chassis fan speeds according to system loading to ensure quiet, cool and efficient operation. PEG (PCI-Express Graphics) Link lets you to raise GPU and VGA memory throughput via the motherboard BIOS the same way system bus and memory bus are tweaked. ASUS engineers carefully fine-tuned the parameters for PCI-Express cards to provide system stability during high-speed graphics operation. Furthermore, with two PCI-Express slots, the A8N-SLI SE is able to activate PEG Link on both graphics. With ASUS EZ Flash, you can update BIOS directly from the BIOS setup menu. No more DOS-based flash utility and bootable diskette required. This motherboard provides convenient connectivity to external home theater audio systems via a coaxial S/PDIF-out jack. It allows transferring digital audio without converting to analog format and keeps the best signal quality.
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