Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe: Board Layout
Recent top-line motherboards form Asus have been part of the Ai Life series, and the A8N32-SLI Deluxe continues that tradition.
Like the Intel version of the 32-SLI,
gaming is emphasized in all of the packaging and manuals. That makes perfect sense in this AMD version of the Dual x16 design.
Layout of the A8N32-SLI Deluxe is close to, if not exactly, the layout of the Intel version reviewed last week. This should come as no surprise, since both versions are based on similar NVIDIA chipsets. The board is dominated by interacting heatpipes in a totally fanless and silent design.
The CPU socket area is dominated by MOSFET heatsinks along two sides of the CPU. These heatsinks are cooled by the CPU fan in an air-cooled system, but this board's design invites water cooling.
With a water cooling block on the CPU, there is often no fan, so Asus provides fans that can be attached to the heatsinks for cooling with a water block - or if you just want better cooing in a heavily overclocked system.
The layout is typically Asus, which means that it is generally very well done. We were particularly pleased to see the floppy and hard drive connectors on the upper-right edge of the board where they belong. The IDE connector that falls a bit south of mid-line is an edge connector, which should not interfere with other components in the area.
Power connections are split, but both the 24-pin and 12v are on board edges, so bulky power cables don't need to be snaked over the CPU.
This AMD version uses a 4-pin 12v connector compared to the 8-pin used on the Intel version. This should be your first clue that the current AMD design is not quite as demanding of power as the Intel version.
Another example of lower power demands of the AMD design is the EZplug connector to provide more power to the video cards. On the Intel design, the board will not operate properly without connecting EZPlug. On the AMD version, the manual says that the EZPlug is only needed if you are using 2 cards "without their own auxiliary power connectors". Otherwise, EZPlug is not needed for stability.
Click to enlarge.
Sata is all Sata 2 - 4 ports from the South bridge plus 2 Sata2 from the Silicon Image 3132. Everything on the board is similarly state of the art except for audio.
ATI recently raised the bar for AMD on-board sound by including hooks for High-Definition audio in their Rx480 chipset for AMD. With that in mind, AC '97 audio is now inadequate for most users - even if it supports 8 channels. There is the less-than-stellar sound quality of AC '97, combined with the higher-than-average CPU usage that robs performance from games. Unless your needs are pretty basic, we would suggest disabling the on-board audio and installing a real sound card. It is ironic that NVIDIA pioneered decent on-board sound with their nForce2 chipset, and they now have the worst audio solution available for AMD. We hope that NVIDIA will change that in the near future.
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Wesley Fink - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
I can't help on the Lian-Li question as I don't have a similar setup, but I am familiar with the upside-down mounting some top-end cases are providing. Our test setup runs the board flat, without the advantage of "heat-rising" and we had no issues. It's a good question for Asus engineering or the Forums.As for the slots, check my comments above. With 2 single slot 7800GTX we could still mount 3 PCI and an x4 PCIe - though 2 of the PCI will block video fan exhaust if they are too tall. With double-slot (and worst case) one PCI is usable and one x4 PCIe.
lopri - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
Wesley,Could you please comment on the heatpipe's efficiency for this board? This is a real concern for people with Lian-Li V1000, or any case that houses the motherboard upside-down. I had a problem with A8N-SLI Premium board's heatpipe in my case, and I really, really want to know.
Thank you very much. This review is fantastic.
lop
dunce - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
What about using this board in a reverse ATX case? Like that Antec P180 or Silverstone TJ06? This a new trend in ATX cases to improve video card and CPU cooling by flipping the ATX mother board upside down. From what I know about heatpipe cooling the water boils, heat rises with the gases and cools at the “radiator fins” . Right? On this Asus board in a “normal” ATX case this would work great but in a reverse ATX the radiator fins will be at the bottom of the heat pipe exchange and rendered ineffective. Correct?Paul
Live - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
Antec P180 does not flip the Motherboard. It places the PSU in a separate chamber below the board. The orientation of the board is still standard tough.For cases that does put the motherboard upside down the effectiveness of the heat pipes are decreased.
Aquila76 - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
That's what happened with the A8N-SLI Premium in 'BTX mount' cases like the Lian-Li, etc., I'm sure it happens on this board as well.deeltje - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
In the new cases it won't work, well, it works but the chipsets get insainly HOT!I ordered the V1000 but changed to the PC6070B Plus very quick :)
BTW, any USA shops that has this board in stock and ship abroad???? Anyone???
trooper11 - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
One thing that has been bugging me about this board is the pci-e/pci layout. I was suprised you guys didnt cover that when you talked about the layout of the board.I do want to use SLI on this, but I have to be able to use all 3 pci slots and the single pci-e x4 slot all at the same. now the video card i was going to start with is the EVGA 7800GTX KO with the sheathed cooler. now the way the layout looks to me, that would be impossible.
Did anyone check if the other slots are still useable when using SLI?
Wesley Fink - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
Our test rig uses two MSI 7800GTX in SLI mode. They are single slot cards. I was able to install 3 PCI network cards and a PCIe network card in the x4 PCIe slot. They would all fit, but the cards closest to the 7800GTX cards do mostly block the fans on the video cards. With double-slot video cards one PCI and the x4 PCIe would be all that are usable for expansion.Asus will be introducing a single-slot dual-GPU 7800 card in the near future, but that might mean SLI in a single x16 slot which is bakc to dual x8. We do know the Gigabyte 3D1 dual-GPU cards work on the Asus, DFI, and Gigabyte SLI boards - all 3 have the BIOS hooks to drive a single-slot dual-GPU.
deeltje - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
I've been waiting for this board for over 2 weeks now and it still isn't available anywhere in europe.So i would love to get this board shipped from USA to The Netherlands (where i live).
Does anyone know a good USA Computershop that has these boards in stock and accept Mastercard payments!?!?!?!?
I don't care about the shippingcosts, as long as they can ship FAST :)
Zebo - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
with single card - your chart says DFI is 8x1 - and performance seems to bear that out. OTOH, in narrative below that chart, you say both are running 16x1 and DFI still takes a whoopin.