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.
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 | |
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.
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Phantronius - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
Holy shit!!! $250 for one of these boards via newegg!!????Capt Caveman - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
Newegg = ScreweggMwave has it for $195 in stock. And Mwave will call you to let you know that it shipped.
Zebo - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
Mwave rocks I'm not even sure why people screw around with newegg anymore. I've ordered my last six or so mobo+cpu combos from mwave always cheapest and a free something... game.. app..etc.Asus appears to be back after lackluster non-existant NF3 and recent NF4 boards! I may get this and I don't even run Sli.. $200 is a little hard to swallow with DFI ultra for $120 but I like silent setup.
Jedi2155 - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
Wat about Monarch?bob661 - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
Monarch has it for $249 last I checked. I wouldn't buy from Mwave. Like the other dude said their customer service leaves a LOT to be desired. I'll buy from Newegg. Customer service is top notch and their shipping is super fast. I'll also buy from ZZF. Their customer is also pretty good although shipping a bit slower than Newegg.Leper Messiah - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
See, I've had both good and bad expierences with mwave, their customer service is crappy (can't understand asians who have been speaking english for a month tops.) but their prices are good. Too bad newegg gouges on Fedex shipping now.BTW, whats going on with the forums? Haven't been able to log in for a while...
xsilver - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link
thats a bit racist isnt it?they have a totally different pronounciation format in their language so they never get the english accent totally right
conversly, even if you learned chinese for 20years your accent would still sound funny
sxr7171 - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
When SLI was first introduced last year, we were told that 8x was more than enough bandwidth and that currently video cards can't even come close to saturating that bus. Now we have all this dual x16 hype - for what? Were they lying then or are they lying now? I guess it's good for future-proofing and progress is good, the consumer must be aware of it.ElFenix - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
if they're claiming a goodly reduction in energy usage due to the 8 phase design i'd like to see if it bears out.SnakeJG - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
I would really love to see you guys test this out by comparing the power draw of different SLI systems, and seeing if the 8-phase design actually saves noticable power.