ABOUT BENCH FORUMS PODCAST LOGIN REGISTER
PC Components
Smartphones & tablets
Systems
ENTERPRISE & IT
GUIDES

Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe: NVIDIA Dual x16 for the Athlon 64

 by Wesley Fink on November 6, 2005 9:00 AM EST
95 Comments | Add A Comment
95 Comments
Basic Features: Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe

 Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
CPU Interface Socket 939 Athlon 64
Chipset NVIDIA nForce SPP 100 Northbridge
NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Southbridge
Bus Speeds 200 to 400MHz in 1MHz Increments
Memory Speeds DDR200, 266, 333, 366, 400
(433, 466, 500 with Rev. E AMD)
PCIe Speeds 100-200MHz on 1MHz Increments
NB to SB Frequency 200-300MHz in 1MHz increments
PEG Link Mode Auto, Disabled, Normal, Fast, Faster
PCI/AGP Fixed at 33/66
Core Voltage Auto, 1.0V to 1.5625V in 0.0125V increments
PLUS 0.2V in vCore Boost
(Maximum vCore 1.7625V)
CPU Clock Multiplier 4x-25x in 0.5X increments
DRAM Voltage Auto, 2.6V to 3.2V in .05v increments
HyperTransport Frequency 1000MHz (1GHz)
HyperTransport Multiplier Auto, 200MHz to 1600MHz in 200MHz increments
SB to NB Frequency 200MHz to 1600MHz in 200MHz increments
HyperTransport (LDT) Voltage Normal, +0.2V
Northbridge Voltage Normal, +0.2V
Southbridge Voltage Normal, +0.2V
Memory Slots Four 184-pin DDR DIMM Slots
Dual-Channel Configuration
Regular Unbuffered Memory to 4GB Total
Expansion Slots 2 PCIe x16
1 PCIe x4
3 PCI Slots
SLI Full Dual x16 SLI
Onboard SATA/RAID 4 SATA2 Drives by nF4 (RAID 0, 1, JBOD)
PLUS 2 SATA2 Drives by Sil 3132
Onboard IDE/IDE RAID Two Standard ATA133/100/66 (4 drives)
Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 10 USB 2.0 Ports by nF4 (9 on Wi-Fi model)
2 1394A Ports by TiTI
Onboard LAN 2 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe Ethernet by Marvell 88E1111 PHY, Marvell 88E8053
PLUS Wireless LAN 54 Mbps on WiFi Model
Onboard Audio AC '97 Realtek ALC850Codec
8-Channel Audio with 6 Auto-Sense Jacks
Coaxial and Digital SPDIF on back IO
BIOS Revision AMI 0301 (9/30/05)

Yes, this is an Asus board, and not a DFI or Abit. The feature set and adjustments are extremely broad compared to any board. The names of the options are sometimes a little different and the adjustment ranges are often set up differently, but everything that an enthusiast needs to get the most from the Asus A8N32-SLI is here.

This Asus provides memory voltage all the way to 3.2V, among the best that we have ever seen from a tier 1 board maker. This should be an adequate range for any memory on the market other than the disappearing VX and Redline high-voltage modules from OCZ and Mushkin. While nothing on the market really comes close to the DFI memory voltage range to 4V, adjustments to 3.2V are more than adequate for current 2 GB modules and any other current DDR RAM.

Memory adjustments are the broadest that we have seen on an Asus board. The ranges are not always as extensive as a DFI or ATI Reference board, but the assortment of control options is just as wide as you will find on any production board.

We know of no other current AMD motherboard with HTT adjustments to 1600. However, don't get too excited by this. We quickly found that the HTT settings above 1000 don't work and the board freezes when they are selected. When we asked Asus about these expanded settings, they told us that they were included for a future enhancement of the AMD on-processor memory controller, which may or may not happen based on the latest information that they have received. The settings above 1000 don't work with current processors, even with the E6 memory controller.

CAS 1.5 is an option in the BIOS, but Asus tells us that it is really a feature for extracting the best performance from DDR333 memory. Sure enough, we couldn't get it to work with DDR400. However, it worked fine with DDR400 memory at DDR333 - providing an interesting option for extreme overclocking.

Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe: Board Layout Overclocking: Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
PRINT THIS ARTICLE
Comments Locked

95 Comments

View All Comments

  • GliderPilot - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link

    Well i have finally gotten my replacement board, and again i have a major issue with it. It seems that in some fit of wisdom, one of asus's underpaid engineers placed a heatpipe right in the way of the x4 PCIe slot. You might not have a use for them, but i certainly do. I have a PowerColor Theatre 550Pro x1 TV Tuner that is right now occupying an x16 slot. While i dont intend to do SLI, i would dearly like to have dual tuners without having to have one on pci, the other on PCIe

  • wbloon - Sunday, December 18, 2005 - link

    I'm not a big gamer. But I currently drive 2 monitors and with the new system want to drive at least 3 monitors and possibly a TV.

    So my question is can I drive two video boards but not in SLI mode, since it is my understanding that SLI will only drive one monitor.

    I understand that I could get away with a board like the DFI Ultra and have 16 lanes to one card and 4 lanes to another and that would probably meet my needs but I'd like stretch the envelope where ever possible because the future keeps coming despite my best efforts.

    Terry Clark

  • GliderPilot - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link

    unless you are gaming on both cards (which probably wont) having 4 lanes is more than sufficient. The bandwidth would be comparable to AGP4 in the downstream. This solution is about as future proof as it gets. To answer your question, yes this board basically has 2 full bandwidth X16 slots, what you do with them is up to you. Buying this board soley for the extra 16 lanes is really a waste of money, unless there is some other reason you like it

  • BibbidyBobidyBoo - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link

    I recently purchased this motherboard and an Antec NeoHe 550W PS and the combo worked great for about 5 to 10 min and then the computer spontaneously shuts down. The issue is with the PS not the MB. The Antec TruePowerII 550W PS works just fine. I believe the incompatibility is from the amount of current supplied on the 12V and 5V lines, it may match the ATX2.2 spec however it is not completely backwards compatible with this Asus MB.

    Beware this issue has also been noted on other Asus MB’s.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustratingReview.asp...">Newegg Customer Reviews">http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustratingReview.asp...

  • JNo - Thursday, November 10, 2005 - link

    Can someone confirm to me that no single x16 video slot version of this Asus motherboard exists? I get the impression that none does. Also, anyone know if the latest zalman CPU coolers fit? Finally, I know most here wouldn't care for the Asus automatic overclocking results but for someone like me, can you please inform me, Wesley, as to how much of a boost does the inbuilt Asus overclocking facility provide please?
    Many thanks

  • Capt Caveman - Monday, November 14, 2005 - link

    Umm, this new chipset is for SLI, thus the chipset name x16 SLI. The pci-e video slot is already x16 on every single video slot socket 939 pci-e motherboard. Up til now, SLI motherboards had to split the x16 into two x8 pci-e graphic slots. Thus, you will never see a single slot video care motherboard using this chipset.

    And yes, it has been confirmed by current users that the Zalman coolers fit.

    Due to the fact that Asus's Overclocking Utilities lack a number of settings that are available in the bios, ie. memory settings, you'll only be able to get a small overclock before the system becomes instable. Overclocking via the bios is the only way to go to ensure a stable overclock.

  • qquizz - Sunday, November 6, 2005 - link

    Whatever happened to BF2 benchies?

  • huges84 - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link

    quote:
    We will be adding Battlefield 2 and Call of Duty 2 benchmarks in future reviews. The benchmarks that we have been testing for these two games are not completely reliable for both single-video and SLI testing, so they were not usable in a review that compares SLI performance. As we find solutions to these issues, we will benchmark with these new games.


    Quoted from page 7

  • DieLate - Sunday, November 6, 2005 - link

    Wesley, any chance of a measurement of northbridge & "stack cool" heatsinks? If you or someone else with one could measure how high off the motherboard they rise, that would be great.

    I'm hoping the Thermaltake Big Typhoon or Thermalright SI-120 would fit, as they have somewhere around 2" raised off the board (though the heatpipes might still hit the northbridge heatsink :( ).

  • DieLate - Tuesday, November 8, 2005 - link

    Nevermind.
    I have confirmed elsewhere the TT BT fits without any issues.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved.
BENCH
TOPICS
FOLLOW
ABOUT

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now