nForce2 6-way Motherboard Roundup - December 2002

ASUS A7N8X Deluxe: Basic Features

The ASUS A7N8X is part of ASUS's series of Deluxe motherboards. There is another stripped down version of the A7N8X without Serial ATA, dual LAN, SoundStorm and FireWire.

Much like ABIT, ASUS used the RTL8201BL physical layer to implement the nForce2's integrated Ethernet. ASUS went one step further and included a second PHY, the Altima AC101L to provide dual LAN functionality driven by the MCP-T's integrated 3Com MAC.

Again, it's no surprise to see that the Realtek ALC650 is used on the A7N8X. Remember that the nForce2 APU only acts as a DSP, final sound quality is still greatly determined by the DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) in the ALC650 AC'97 codec.

ASUS sets up the I/O configuration in an interesting way. Here you'll find two PS/2 ports, one serial port, one parallel port, four rear USB 2.0 ports, two LAN ports, and six 1/8' jacks, which are driven by the onboard sound. Each LAN port is powered by a different MAC; the LAN port closest to the PS/2 ports is powered by 3Com's 3C920B MAC, while the LAN port situated on the other side of the I/O ports is NVIDIA's own Ethernet MAC.

The ASUS A7N8X Deluxe is yet another motherboard that uses Silicon Image's SI3112A Serial ATA RAID controller.

Other high-performance motherboards that include this onboard Serial ATA RAID controller include ABIT's NF7-S (NVIDIA nForce2 chipset), ASUS's P4G8X Deluxe (Intel E7205 chipset), Intel's D845PEBT2 (Intel 845PE chipset), Epox's 4PEA+ (Intel 845PE chipset), and ECS's L4S8A (SiS 648 chipset). The SI3112A controller lets you setup two independent Serial ATA devices as well as RAID 0 (striping) and RAID 1 (mirroring) arrays.

The A7N8X Deluxe doesn't support as many IDE devices as we have seen on other motherboards in the past. This is due to the fact that the A7N8X Deluxe doesn't come with more than just one Primary IDE connector and one Secondary IDE connector, both of which offers two channels each for a maximum of four possible IDE devices (for example, two hard drives and two optical drives). But as we mentioned before, it is rare for users to take advantage of more than 4 IDE devices so this isn't really a downside.

IDE RAID would have been a nice addition to this motherboard, though we're sure the A7N8X Deluxe wouldn't be as much of a bargain; currently, you can purchase the ASUS A7N8X Deluxe for about $140 online in the U.S.

The MCP-T South Bridge supports USB 2.0, six USB 2.0 ports altogether. There are two USB 2.0 headers located at the bottom, right-hand corner of the A7N8X Deluxe. Just plug in the USB 2.0 bracket that comes bundled with this motherboard into one of the two onboard USB headers and you can have six USB 2.0 ports if you so desire.

Onboard FireWire support is controlled by Realtek's RTL8801B, which supports up to two FireWire ports. You can connect the FireWire bracket that comes bundled with this motherboard into the two white FireWire headers located on the left-hand side of the motherboard, next to the 3rd PCI slot.