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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
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  • Zebo - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link

    LOL

  • Live - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link

    The Techreport writes about overclocking with AMD Cool'n'Quiet here:

    They highlight two important bios options:

    quote:
    You can specify the amount that you want to overvolt the processor as a percentage, and the motherboard will supply that much extra voltage consistently as Cool'n'Quiet slides the CPU voltage up and down through its range of possible values.


    and with regards to memory overclocking:

    quote:
    …because C'n'Q will ramp the processor up to its highest possible multiplier as soon as the system's under load. On my X2 3800+, that would result in a 2.8GHz clock speed and a very nasty crash. The DFI BIOS, however, allows the user to specify a maximum CPU multiplier value for Cool'n'Quiet, neatly solving that problem.


    Does this board have these options in bios?

    As Techreport writes:
    quote:
    I think they should become a practical requirement for an enthusiast motherboard's BIOS.


    I must say I agree.

    Link: http://techreport.com/etc/2005q4/damagebox/index.x...">http://techreport.com/etc/2005q4/damagebox/index.x...

  • DieLate - Saturday, November 5, 2005 - link

    Can we get some official info on these questions?
    They're high on my list of features. I was all set to go with the DFI until I saw this review. These features may win me over if the ASUS has them too.

  • Live - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link

    It looks like official reply is not going to happen. does anyone know if the Asus A8N SLI;Delux;Premium has this in later bios? If so I would bet this one has it aswell.

  • Capt Caveman - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link

    The latest bios for the Asus A8N-Sli Premium came out yesterday and no, it does not have this feature so I doubt the A8N32-Sli Deluxe will have this feature. Not very many overclocker's use CNQ, so I don't think there's a huge demand for this feature unfortunately.

  • WobbleWobble - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link

    I wonder if it's better than the DFI because of the PEG mode Asus implements on its motherboards, which overclocks the videocard.

  • Wesley Fink - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link

    And I disabled "PEG link" mode for our review. Asus has settings in PEG for Auto, Normal, Fast, Faster, and Disabled. We set "Disabled" because we know this trick. Asus suggests using "Faster" for review tests. On the positive side you have that additional performance waiting to be tapped.

    We also turn off the overclocks that are enabled when many boards arrive for review. That's the first thing we check.

  • psychobriggsy - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link

    Really nice to see such diligence!

  • Capt Caveman - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link

    Not by 17%

  • lopri - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link

    Also, if you're running SLI with 2 dual-slot video cards, where are you supposed to put a sound card, or any PCI card? It seems like the only slot available will be, if it's possible at all, the one above the 2nd video card. Not sure how anyone's gonna be able to use any PCI card with SLI.

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