Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe: NVIDIA Dual x16 for the Athlon 64
by Wesley Fink on November 6, 2005 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Basic Features: Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
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.
| 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.
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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 PCIewbloon - 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 itBibbidyBobidyBoo - 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
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.