ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus: NVIDIA's 650i goes Dual x16
by Gary Key on April 2, 2007 3:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Final Impressions
This is our first look at an NVIDIA hybrid configuration for the Intel platform. ASUS has done an amazing job combining the 650i SPP and 570 SLI MCP chipset into a board design that offers the same basic features of the 680i SLI chipset at a very competitive price point. This is the same philosophy that NVIDIA is using with the 680i LT SLI chipset, only their first implementation fell a bit short in features when compared to the ASUS solution. Certainly both designs have their own strengths and weakness but at this time we feel like ASUS did a better job when they decided to lower the price point for obtaining 680i features and performance.
This does not mean the 680i LT SLI is not a viable product; between the two designs we certainly think it is the more elegant solution although the actual implementation on the EVGA board lacked a finishing coat of polish. However, with the OEM version (two year versus lifetime warranty) of the EVGA board now selling for around $159 we think the board is a very good value considering its performance. One would still be hard pressed to fall in love with its active cooling or neutered BIOS, but at certain price points it becomes easier to overlook a few flaws that are not fatal to the quality or performance of the board. Where does that leave us with the ASUS board?
We really like this board, so much so we are awarding it a Silver Editors' Choice Award. More importantly, we appreciate the fact that ASUS went to the trouble of designing and producing it at a time when 680i boards were selling well north of $250. ASUS has engineered a unique solution that performs better and costs less than most 680i motherboards. While the 680i LT SLI has taken a certain amount of air out ASUS' sails, we still believe this board offers the best overall combination of features, quality, and performance in a 680i level board for under $200.
We did not have too many issues with the board over a grueling six week test schedule. The overclocking aspects of the board do not reach the same levels as other 680i boards and will probably not satisfy the extreme overclocker or a user needing high FSB speeds with a quad core processor. However, the overclocking abilities of this board will satisfy the majority of users and stock performance in most applications and games is nothing short of amazing with the right memory installed.
Memory performance is exceptional for an NVIDIA based Intel chipset, and our internal tests reveal a 23% advantage in Sandra unbuffered test results. This memory performance directly influences the test results we witnessed across a variety of benchmarks. The issue is that a user will need high performance memory to take advantage of the tight sub-timings that ASUS has designed into the BIOS. We certainly recommend fairly low latency memory for this board along with the capability of running at 1T Command rates around the DDR2-800 level.
In all honesty, the performance differences between our budget memory modules and the higher performing modules were usually less than 5% in extended testing. The important factor to consider is that this board is one of the few that is able to fully take advantage of our higher performance modules by offering stable 1T operation with very aggressive memory sub-timings. We are still testing this board with a wide variety of memory modules but if you have the patience to tweak and test memory settings, this board will reward you with measurable performance improvements across the board.
In the end, none of this really matters unless the board offers a high degree of quality, performance, and support. We feel like ASUS offers all of these and more with this board. We fully expect the pricing to drop a little more now that the 680i LT SLI chipset has been introduced, but when looking at boards in the $150~$200 price range we feel like ASUS has hit the nail on the head with the P5N32-E SLI Plus. It might not do everything "perfect" and it isn't designed for everyone, but it offers more than the sum of its parts would indicate and that is something we are just not use to seeing very much. We congratulate ASUS on a job well done and look forward to their next opportunity when they have to engineer a new product to satisfy a market demand instead of providing the same old product with a different marketing spin.
This is our first look at an NVIDIA hybrid configuration for the Intel platform. ASUS has done an amazing job combining the 650i SPP and 570 SLI MCP chipset into a board design that offers the same basic features of the 680i SLI chipset at a very competitive price point. This is the same philosophy that NVIDIA is using with the 680i LT SLI chipset, only their first implementation fell a bit short in features when compared to the ASUS solution. Certainly both designs have their own strengths and weakness but at this time we feel like ASUS did a better job when they decided to lower the price point for obtaining 680i features and performance.
This does not mean the 680i LT SLI is not a viable product; between the two designs we certainly think it is the more elegant solution although the actual implementation on the EVGA board lacked a finishing coat of polish. However, with the OEM version (two year versus lifetime warranty) of the EVGA board now selling for around $159 we think the board is a very good value considering its performance. One would still be hard pressed to fall in love with its active cooling or neutered BIOS, but at certain price points it becomes easier to overlook a few flaws that are not fatal to the quality or performance of the board. Where does that leave us with the ASUS board?
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We did not have too many issues with the board over a grueling six week test schedule. The overclocking aspects of the board do not reach the same levels as other 680i boards and will probably not satisfy the extreme overclocker or a user needing high FSB speeds with a quad core processor. However, the overclocking abilities of this board will satisfy the majority of users and stock performance in most applications and games is nothing short of amazing with the right memory installed.
Memory performance is exceptional for an NVIDIA based Intel chipset, and our internal tests reveal a 23% advantage in Sandra unbuffered test results. This memory performance directly influences the test results we witnessed across a variety of benchmarks. The issue is that a user will need high performance memory to take advantage of the tight sub-timings that ASUS has designed into the BIOS. We certainly recommend fairly low latency memory for this board along with the capability of running at 1T Command rates around the DDR2-800 level.
In all honesty, the performance differences between our budget memory modules and the higher performing modules were usually less than 5% in extended testing. The important factor to consider is that this board is one of the few that is able to fully take advantage of our higher performance modules by offering stable 1T operation with very aggressive memory sub-timings. We are still testing this board with a wide variety of memory modules but if you have the patience to tweak and test memory settings, this board will reward you with measurable performance improvements across the board.
In the end, none of this really matters unless the board offers a high degree of quality, performance, and support. We feel like ASUS offers all of these and more with this board. We fully expect the pricing to drop a little more now that the 680i LT SLI chipset has been introduced, but when looking at boards in the $150~$200 price range we feel like ASUS has hit the nail on the head with the P5N32-E SLI Plus. It might not do everything "perfect" and it isn't designed for everyone, but it offers more than the sum of its parts would indicate and that is something we are just not use to seeing very much. We congratulate ASUS on a job well done and look forward to their next opportunity when they have to engineer a new product to satisfy a market demand instead of providing the same old product with a different marketing spin.
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JarredWalton - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
Sorry - just an errant typo correction. If you look at the image, you can see it's 1T. Gary had "TT" in there and I corrected that to 2T when it should have been 1T.yacoub - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
oh awesome :)mostlyprudent - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
I think it's time for a comprehensive article to pick the best boards for Intel CPUs (P965 vs. 680i vs. 650i vs. 680i LT vs. 975X vs. RD600, etc.). I know some of this has been done in pieces, but it would sure be nice to have it all in one article. Please :)Gary Key - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
After I finally complete the opus known as uATX or "How to kill the reviewer", we will have a performance roundup that might even include a new spin of the P35. ;-)yacoub - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
It'd be awesome to see a round-up in time for the April 22nd Intel price drop and 6320/6420 release.I want to know simply: "The Best 650 SLI and 680 SLI NVidia-based Boards For 6320/6420 OverClocking" and NOT with any of that ridiculously over-priced Dominator or Flex XLC RAM. Just test with realistic RAM that actual people would buy like Corsair XMS2 or OCZ Platinum series and similar. High-end RAM but not retarded over-priced stuff with gigantic cooling mechanisms. Test RAM that's around $250 (or less) for 2GB matched pairs.
That's what I'd like to see. An actual overclocker 650/680 board round-up for the 6320/6420 c2d chips with RAM people who are looking for the best bang-for-the-buck would actually buy.
People who spend around $200-250 for the motherboard, $200-250 for quality, low-latency RAM, and $200 for the CPU.
There's a lot of us and we'd love to know which board to buy and which RAM works best with it when oc'ing.
sWORDs - Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - link
The OCZ2N1066SR2GK only costs €208 here, that's SLI ready, 1066 MHz, 5-5-5-15, 2x 1GB.The OCZ2N900SR2GK only costs €192 here, that's SLI ready, 900 MHz, 4-4-3-15, 2x 1GB.
yacoub - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
This image link on page4 is different than the actual image:http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/motherboards/a...">http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/mot...sus/p5n3...
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/motherboards/a...">http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/mot...sus/p5n3...
(I think one of the sample images is duplicated.)
JarredWalton - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
Did someone fix this? They are definitely different images for me, although only minor differences.Marlowe - Monday, April 2, 2007 - link
Very nice review - looks like a good board! After reading the article I have some questions:Isn't the 'Plus' moniker ment to mean some kind of functionality with Vista? I think I remember when some previous Asus board got a new revision and the got the Plus moniker, it also got a small PCB riser board attached below the IO area.. ReadyBoost or something? Does this board have that? It's not that copper square behind the LAN/USB connections? Or maby it's just a new name for their mid-range boards.
Isn't that a 6-phase power circuit in the pics? I know the Asus site claims 8-phase, but they also have a wrong power circuit pic. The site also says "With the highest speed up to 800MHz," about the memory speed and doesn't mention support for EPP at all, so that must be wrong as well according to your article?
In the expansion slot area you write "two PCI Express x1" but that's not so? Isn't the top slot for the "SupremeFX" audio riser board?
In the Dual Core OC page, the E6300 has 2MB L2 not 4MB :)
And a question: I have the Tuniq120 as well, and the fan is placed ~7 cm over the board and placed in an angle so I guess there aren't much airflow going to those heatpipe sinks. Did you have to use an additional fan over the cpu area while using the Tuniq120 heatsink and overclocking? So if overclocking you *have* to hang some fan with zip ties or something over that area? Thats a bit of a hassle isn't it :P
Anyways very nice performing board :D Looks physically totally identical to the Asus P5N32-E SLI tho :D But
sWORDs - Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - link
The E Plus is ment as an upgrade to the E, it has all solid caps just as the Striker.The E, E Plus and Striker all use the same PCB (just look under the white sticker) and all have a 8 phase power design.
All three have EPP and SLI Ready support up the 1200 (and the 1250 works as well).
The top one can only be used for the riser.
True.
The Northbridge does get very hot, however using the heatpipes should be enough to reach 450. Any busspeed above 400 isn't recommended anyway because of the reduction of timing from the strap selection.
True, they share the same PCB, this one has the same caps as the Striker.