ASUS M2N32-SLI & Epox MF570SLI: AM2 Wunderkinder
by Wesley Fink on June 28, 2006 5:10 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Final Words
It is easy to understand why AMD chose the ASUS M2N32-SLI as the Reference Board shipped in their launch kits. The ASUS is a remarkably stable 8-phase motherboard with an innovative and completely passive cooling solution for what is generally a rather hot NVIDIA 590 chipset. The shipping retail version of the board is improved even more - overclocking higher and providing even more features. All of the NVIDIA 590 features are supported and the overclocking options are noteworthy. In particular, ASUS should be applauded for including very fine increments in their voltage adjustments. Most overclockers are finding these finer adjustments very useful for getting the most from their boards by using lower voltage settings, which presents less risk of damage.
The ASUS is well-laid out, easy to install, and very compatible with every peripheral we threw at it. It even comes with the stock two Gigabit LAN ports PLUS a built-in wireless card. Our only slight reservation is the lack of support for EAX in current ADI HD audio drivers. Otherwise the ADI sounds fine and EAX support would make it a great all-around solution. At this point in time you will have a hard time finding a better nForce 590 SLI board than the ASUS, but the Foxconn 590 is also a contender, as is the Gigabyte 590.
The only other drawback for any of these 590 motherboards is the high price you will pay. That is where the Epox MF570SLI shines. At about half the price of the 590 boards the Epox performs almost exactly the same as the top-performing ASUS. It cannot overclock quite as far, if you consider 318 a limitation, and it is missing Firewire, but otherwise the feature sets are remarkably similar. Yes, the Epox only supports single X16/dual X8, and the 590 boards support dual X16, but we have yet to measure any real performance difference in dual X8 versus dual X16 with current video cards. At its price there is certainly a lot to like with the Epox. You also should take a closer look at the MSI 570 tested in this roundup series. Performance is similar to the Epox and price will also likely compete well with the Epox MF570SLI.
It is not quite time for Editors' Choices in our AM2 motherboard roundup as we have a Part 4 coming. The AM2 Roundup series will conclude with reviews of ATI RD580 AM2 motherboards in the coming weeks. Results from the ATI Reference Board are included in our results here and you can find additional information in our review CrossFire Xpress 3200: RD580 for AM2. ATI's chipset is finally starting to appear on retail AM2 motherboards and we have the MSI and ECS retail boards on their way for review. Both feature the new SB600 ATI Southbridge that finally makes an all-ATI chipset solution fully competitive in the marketplace. We will then review all we have learned about motherboards for AM2 and make selections for Editors' Choice Awards.
There is absolutely no doubt that the AM2 platform is clearly the fastest setup you can currently buy, even if it is only a few percent faster than last generation's Socket 939. However, things will change rapidly toward the end of next month when Intel introduces Core 2 Duo (Conroe). Prices will drop across the board and AM2 will be an ever better buy in just a few weeks. There is also the concern that Conroe supply may be constrained for months, which is currently just speculation, but still a real concern.
If you need a system today any of these AM2 boards will meet your needs. The ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe and Foxconn stand out at the top, and the Epox is particularly attractive if price is a concern. However, if you can wait a few weeks you will be rewarded with a much better value no matter what system you buy.
It is easy to understand why AMD chose the ASUS M2N32-SLI as the Reference Board shipped in their launch kits. The ASUS is a remarkably stable 8-phase motherboard with an innovative and completely passive cooling solution for what is generally a rather hot NVIDIA 590 chipset. The shipping retail version of the board is improved even more - overclocking higher and providing even more features. All of the NVIDIA 590 features are supported and the overclocking options are noteworthy. In particular, ASUS should be applauded for including very fine increments in their voltage adjustments. Most overclockers are finding these finer adjustments very useful for getting the most from their boards by using lower voltage settings, which presents less risk of damage.
The ASUS is well-laid out, easy to install, and very compatible with every peripheral we threw at it. It even comes with the stock two Gigabit LAN ports PLUS a built-in wireless card. Our only slight reservation is the lack of support for EAX in current ADI HD audio drivers. Otherwise the ADI sounds fine and EAX support would make it a great all-around solution. At this point in time you will have a hard time finding a better nForce 590 SLI board than the ASUS, but the Foxconn 590 is also a contender, as is the Gigabyte 590.
The only other drawback for any of these 590 motherboards is the high price you will pay. That is where the Epox MF570SLI shines. At about half the price of the 590 boards the Epox performs almost exactly the same as the top-performing ASUS. It cannot overclock quite as far, if you consider 318 a limitation, and it is missing Firewire, but otherwise the feature sets are remarkably similar. Yes, the Epox only supports single X16/dual X8, and the 590 boards support dual X16, but we have yet to measure any real performance difference in dual X8 versus dual X16 with current video cards. At its price there is certainly a lot to like with the Epox. You also should take a closer look at the MSI 570 tested in this roundup series. Performance is similar to the Epox and price will also likely compete well with the Epox MF570SLI.
It is not quite time for Editors' Choices in our AM2 motherboard roundup as we have a Part 4 coming. The AM2 Roundup series will conclude with reviews of ATI RD580 AM2 motherboards in the coming weeks. Results from the ATI Reference Board are included in our results here and you can find additional information in our review CrossFire Xpress 3200: RD580 for AM2. ATI's chipset is finally starting to appear on retail AM2 motherboards and we have the MSI and ECS retail boards on their way for review. Both feature the new SB600 ATI Southbridge that finally makes an all-ATI chipset solution fully competitive in the marketplace. We will then review all we have learned about motherboards for AM2 and make selections for Editors' Choice Awards.
There is absolutely no doubt that the AM2 platform is clearly the fastest setup you can currently buy, even if it is only a few percent faster than last generation's Socket 939. However, things will change rapidly toward the end of next month when Intel introduces Core 2 Duo (Conroe). Prices will drop across the board and AM2 will be an ever better buy in just a few weeks. There is also the concern that Conroe supply may be constrained for months, which is currently just speculation, but still a real concern.
If you need a system today any of these AM2 boards will meet your needs. The ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe and Foxconn stand out at the top, and the Epox is particularly attractive if price is a concern. However, if you can wait a few weeks you will be rewarded with a much better value no matter what system you buy.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
23 Comments
View All Comments
leexgx - Sunday, April 15, 2007 - link
i am trying to get an stable overclock from this m2n32-sli deluxe got an 3800+ X2 at 2.65 (10x265) when i set it to 2.70 270 it just BSODdo i need to up MB and SB volts up ? as well or lower the NB to SB as well
if any one could point me to an web site that has overclocked one of these motherboards be usefull
mss242 - Tuesday, December 5, 2006 - link
doesn't the asus also offer raid 5? Page 2 lists raid options as 0,1,0+1,10, and JBOD.darkswordsman17 - Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - link
Something I've noticed is a lot of boards are starting to get DDL/Dolby Master Studio and DTS Connect capabilities, but Anandtech doesn't even mention it half the time, and doesn't even test it at all.I think it would be worth looking into, as its really starting to become a viable alternative to Creative's surround solutions (EAX support wouldn't even matter if its being encoded in DD/DTS would it), which more than a few people do not like (although myself am fairly neutral as I've liked the Creative cards I've owned). Also, there are plenty of people sore over losing DDL support when they moved to a newer platform than nForce2 with SoundStorm. I often see people saying how they still miss it, and yet, its been here for almost 6 months already (Intel Bad Axe, possibly others). I see a lot of new boards from ASUS, Gigabyte, and Abit featuring support for these.
Also a lot of these new boards are using different chips to handle processing, so maybe that makes a difference as far as quality or performance.
I just think it would be beneficial at the very least to make a note of it, as its not always easy to find out what boards actually do support them.
Just a thought.
classy - Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - link
Why not show the results of the scores gained from oc?DrMrLordX - Friday, June 30, 2006 - link
Probably because it's a review of the motherboard and not the CPU itself. All a motherboard review needs is information about the maximum HTT speeds achieveably on the board at stock.saratoga - Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - link
The CPU use numbers for the on board audio are great, but it'd also be nice to know just how good the actual quality is. If theres massive THD or a resampling problem, benchmarks will look great, but the part may still suck.Using RMAA would allow people to see immediately if there were any serious issues with the sound quality such as poor resampling or noise.
Seeing as other tech sites have started using it, it'd be nice if you guys could too. See this review:
http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q4/soundblaster-...">http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q4/soundblaster-...
Obvious so much info isn't needed for a motherboard review, but posting the summary chart that RMAA spits out with the crosstalk, SNR, IMD and THD numbers would be great.
Gary Key - Thursday, June 29, 2006 - link
We will post RMAA results when a new audio chip is introduced. I will run the results on this chipset and have it available in our next article. We actually used RMAA 5.5 in a previous article and had more comments wanting subjective analysis. However, we will do the short version of the test results. :)Sifl - Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - link
With a new and interesting built-in WiFi option (as far as ATX MOBO's go), why not show us the antenna and where it goes?
For the Asus board layout, I can see all the IO ports (letter designations on the image could help identify which connector is which) but I'm not sure where the WiFi antenna would go. Is it the little gold colored thing off to the right in the picture for rear IO? Because I don't see that same thing in the top views. Maybe another view is better like a perspective view of the ports, rather than the straigh-on view.
And why does the Epox lack Firewire -- But has 10 USB's ?! Who uses 10 USB ports? Firewire is just basic for any digital video equipment. I chose my current MOBO (Epox 9NPA+) because it HAS Firewire. Maybe they will have another model with it included.
Myrandex - Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - link
"Who uses 10 USB ports?" I do...But then again I also use firewire, bure still it would have been stupid for Epox to have included less USB ports (arrggg EVGA's microATX nForce4 SLI mobo of mine only supporting 8). Back 6 have printer, Windows Media Center Remote sensor, mouse, cell phone data/charger for MPX220 (mine), and cell phone data/charger for Motorola V3 Razr (g/f's), and webcam. Then only 2 of my front 4 USb ports can be connected, and that means I can only use 2 USB devices in the front (ranging from hard drive cages for testing, flash sticks, USB controllers for emulators, etc.) For a manufacturer to have a chipset with 10 USBs yet only implement 8 is just kind of backwards and extremely pointless :-/
On a side note I did have to laugh at PCI/AGP Fixed at 33/66 as there seem sot be no AGP on these boards for it to be locked at 66 :)
Jason
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - link
Yes, the antenna screws to the gold connector on the right of the rear IO port on the Asus.As for no firewire on the Epox, it is likely a cost savings to meet a target price point. Most of the digital cameras we have seen recently have emphasized high-speed USB2 instead of Firewire, although we agree Firewire is still widely used in digital cameras and video. Add-on Firewire cards are very reasonable, but they would be an added expense if you required Firewire on the Epox.
The MSI 570 reviewed at http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2773&am...">http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2773&am... is also based on the nForce 570 chipset and does feature Firewire.