nForce4 SLI Roundup: Painful and Rewarding

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe: Features and Layout

Specification	Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
CPU Interface	Socket 939 Athlon 64
Chipset	nForce4 SLI (single chip)
BUS Speeds	200MHz to 400MHz (in 1MHz increments)
PCI/AGP Speeds	Asynchronous (Fixed)
PCI Speeds	100MHz to 145MHz in 1MHz increments
Core Voltage	Auto, 0.8V to 1.65V in 0.0125V increments
DRAM Voltage	Auto, 2.6V to 3.0V in 0.05V increments
Chipset Voltage	None
Hyper Transport Ratios	Auto, 1X to 5X in 1X increments
LDT Bus Transfer	16/16, 16/8, 8/16, 8/8
LDT Voltage	None
PCI Synchronization	Auto, To CPU, 33.33MHz
CPU Ratios	Auto, 4x to 20x in 0.5x increments
DRAM Speeds	Auto, DDR200, DDR266, DDR333, DDR400, DDR433, DDR466, DDR500
Memory Command Rate	Auto, 1T, 2T
Memory Slots	Four 184-pin DDR Dual-Channel Slots Unbuffered ECC or non-ECC Memory to 4GB Total
Expansion Slots	2 x16 PCIe Slots 2 x1 PCIe 3 PCI Slots
SLI Setup	Movable PCB Card
Onboard SATA	4-Drive SATA 2 by nF4 PLUS 4-Drive SATA by Sil3114
Onboard IDE	Two Standard nVidia ATA133/100/66 (4 drives)
SATA/IDE RAID	4-Drive SATA 2 PLUS 4-Drive IDE (8 total) Can be combined in RAID 0, 1 PLUS 4-Drive SATA by Sil3114 Sil3114 Raid 0, 1, 5
Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394	10 USB 2.0 ports supported nF4 2 1394A FireWire ports by TI 41AY42T
Onboard LAN	Dual Gigabit Ethernet PCIe by Marvel 88E1111 PHY PCI by Marvel 88E8001
Onboard Audio	Realtek ALC850 8-Channel codec with 6 UAJ audio jacks, CD-in, front audio, and both coaxial and optical SPDIF
Other Features	3-slot SLI spacing
BIOS	Award 1005 Beta BIOS

When the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe was first introduced, prices were in the stratosphere. However, after several weeks on the market, prices have settled solidly below the $200 price point. Several online retailers now offer the Asus SLI in the $175 range. The feature set and Deluxe name are generally reserved for Asus for their "notch-down" boards, which might indicate that Asus has plans for a top-line Premium board in the future.

The Asus is unique among the tested SLI boards in providing 3 slots between the x16 PCIe slots used for SLI. All of the other SLI boards provide 2 slots between the video cards. This will be an important feature for users who water-cool their video cards or have special cooling in mind for the pair of SLI cards. As you will see later in our overclocking test, however, this capability is basically wasted, since this Asus is not a particularly good overclocker. Lately, Asus has stood at or near the top in overclocking, but that has been truer of Asus Intel solutions than those for AMD.

We have commented before that Asus pays close attention to the layout of their motherboards, and that also shows in the A8N-SLI Deluxe. Connectors are all where they should be - IDE, floppy, ATX and 12v are all conveniently located for easy access. In fact, our only real complaint is the so-called EZ-plug that Asus uses to provide more power to SLI. It is bad enough that two top-end video cards require 4 Molex connectors to power them, but on the Asus board you also have to connect another 4-pin Molex for additional video card power. Asus says that this is required for "stable SLI operation", but the other 3 SLI designs do fine and are quite stable without the 5th power connector.

In its favor, the Asus was the only SLI board that allowed you to change the setup from "normal" to "SLI" without having to first remove the video card. The design of the PCB was also the best of the group with positive side locking that looked like it might survive a few changes. We also very much liked the locks on the video slots because you could release them from the back of the slot as well as the front - a real plus with double slot cards.

The feature set on the Asus is just average in this roundup. There are two gigabit LANS, but #2 is PCI instead of the faster PCIe. Audio is the rather average Realtek 850 with nothing special in the Asus implementation - quite a step down from the leading edge designs of some Asus boards for Intel processors. Firewire is also 1394a, or Firewire 400, when Asus uses Firewire 800 on their recent Intel boards. Another way to put this is that this Asus A8N-SLI is certainly not up to the high design standards that Asus has set for their recent Intel designs. Perhaps there is another Asus SLI in the works that will do a better job at bringing high-end features to Asus nForce4.

The storage area is an area where it first appears that the Asus stands out. Asus fully supports the nVidia SATA 2 and IDE any drive RAID features, and then offers an additional Silicon Image 3114 SATA RAID controller that even supports RAID 5. In the end, 3 of the 4 SLI boards provide the same Sil3114 controller, which is SATA 1, and does not support SATA 2 drives.

The Asus is certainly a competent SLI motherboard, but it is pretty average in this roundup and does not stand out in any way other than the wide space between the video slots. Add to this below-average overclocking abilities and the problems experienced with our 6800 Ultra cards on just the Asus board, and it is hard to get too excited about this particular Asus board. Asus engineering is an important benefit with any Asus product, and the resources of this giant company are impressive. But as you will see in the roundup, there are better choices among the SLI boards available.