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Review: ASUSTeK A8N-SLI Deluxe -vs- DFI LanParty UT nF4 SLI-D

by Ryszard Sommefeldt on 28 February 2005, 00:00

Tags: NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qa7r

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ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe

ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
CPU Support All Socket 939 Athlon 64 and Athlon FX processors
Memory Support 184-pin DDR, 4 slots, 2GB maximum, DDR400, no ECC
Core Logic NVIDIA nForce4 SLI
Audio Realtek ALC850, 8-channel from nForce4 SLI AC'97 feed
3.5mm on ATX I/O backplane, optical and coax digital output on I/O backplane
AGP None
PCI Express Graphics 2 x PEG16X electrical slots, 8 + 8 remap, nForce4
PCI Express 2 x PCI Express 1X slots, nForce4
PCI Conventional 3 x PCI 2.2 32-bit, 33MHz, nForce4
Network Connectivity Marvell 88E111 GigE Phy. <-> NVIDIA nForce4 with Firewall
Marvel 88E8001 discrete GigE with Phy. 32-bit PCI <-> PCI Conventional
Both on ATX I/O backplane
Firewire Texas Instruments TSB43AB22A FireWire400, 32-bit PCI <-> PCI Conventional
1 6-pin on ATX I/O backplane, header for one more
USB 10 USB2.0 FullSpeed ports, 4 backplane, headers for 6 more <-> NVIDIA nForce4
IDE 4-device, 2-port ATA133-able on mainboard <-> nForce4, RAID0, RAID1, RAID0+1, JBOD support
SATA 4 ports on mainboard <-> nForce4; RAID0, RAID1, RAID0+1, JBOD support
4 ports on mainboard <-> Silicon Image Sil3114; RAID0, RAID1, RAID0+1, JBOD support
Other I/O PS/2 for keyboard and mouse on ATX backplane
Parallel port on ATX backplane
Serial port header on mainboard
Game port header on mainboard
Floppy port on mainboard
Size Full ATX, 9-hole mount, 12"x9.6" (HxW)


You wanted lots of on-board features on your SLI mainboard? ASUS would like to sell you something. FireWire400, dual Gigabit Ethernet with one port having the full NVIDIA hardware firewall treatment (although the 88E8001 could do with being connected to a spare PCI Express lane, rather than PCI Conventional), all 10 USB2.0 ports, two PEG16X slots for graphics cards, 8 ports of SATA using the nForce4's SATA2 controller and a competent Sil3114, and finally 8-channel audio, are all there on the mainboard, ready for you to abuse.

You get support for all Socket 939 processors, including upcoming FX-57, and DDR400 is the maximum native memory speed on current CPUs. SLI support means you can run a pair of PCI Express graphics cards from NVIDIA, as long as they're 6600 GT, 6800, 6800 GT or 6800 Ultra GeForces, for multi-participant 3D rendering.

Packing so much onto a mainboard means layout is critical, so let's have a closer look.