Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe: NVIDIA Dual x16 for the Athlon 64

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.