The Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe...any good?

A

Arklight

Gawd
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Oct 11, 2004
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I am mostly concerned with performance and stability and not with overclocking.

I noticed in the Hard review that all of the reviewers really liked the board but it looks like the performance is somewhat lacking, especially when compared ot the DFI and MSI boards. How does this board compare to the Asus A8N-SLI Premium?

Any opinions on this mobo?

Thx!
 
I love the board. I think it's great for overclocking too and it's one of the few boards that provides enough voltage for my ram to run at it's rated DDR500. As for overclocking I think it's awesome as my San Diego is stable @ 2.75 GHz with DDR500 ram. It's also a very stable motherboard running stock as I have never once had it freeze up on me and installation was smooth as silk.
 
i bought one of the A8n-sli dlux models when they first came out . and it had a few buggy bios problems at first . but is now one of the most stable and overclockable motherboards i have ever had .

i have a DFI ultra d also . and except for the extra voltages, and memory dividers . the asus will allmost overclock as high -


to tell the truth i don't think my DFI hasn't much of an edge on it --if any at all--

you also have to remember that the reviews were done a while back. there has been many many bios upgrades for the A8n-sli .

i am useing bios 1010-01 beta and it is as fast as any nforce clock for clock . there is another beta bios out there 1011-1 and 1011-2 but there got the ram set so tight i don't think my ram can pull it off without bsod-ing windows --if i just had some g-skill--LOL

and another thing --all MB's ain't the same --you can have two MB the same model the same brand and with the same everything and they may be as much as 5% apart speedwise.

if your not overclocking you could get a biostar sli and save a few $$$ --don't know if it is any good but the egg has a great rma reputation !

another MB in SLI that i have heard good things about is that epox -- but i haven't tried a epox or biostar sli . albatron might be a good sli mb also--
 
oh yea i had one of them magic-- overclocking early winchesters it could run windows stable @ 2.89g (not bad for a 3000 winnie) @ 1.57v

my venice 3200 can only do 2.76g on high end air. @1.66v bios 1003-008

the DFI lan party clocks the same on each but i can run the ram a bit faster due to the extra voltage. yea i got the overclocking MB but i'm not going to put the volts to it .

i'm running out of cpu and ram before i'm running out of motherboard--lol

the DFI ultra d clocking the ram down and the cpu down as far as it could go and topping out the FSB i got 366max FSB with the asus and 403fsb with the DFI--more than enough.

IF AMD would just co-operate !!! LOL
 
I really like my A8N. I got it a few weeks after release, and as was said earlier, despite its early probs, its a very nice mobo now.

I am however considering selling it, to get a DFI. Just because I want more volts to the ram. Im getting some Redline soon, and the A8N only does 3.0, I need 3.3-3.5. And the OCZ booster doesnt fit.
 
I was debating on getting it for these past two months while saving up for my rig. After some extensive review reading I decided to go for the MSI K8NNeo4 Platinum SLI instead. The bench tests show it does better in a lot of games, it overclocks better, and it is also very stable. They are both great cards, but my heart's with the K8N which should be arriving next week! Good luck with your decision, and be sure to read reviews for both cards!
 
Check out the sticky thread when you're setting up your board. There are some OC issues depending on what core CPU you get (specifically CBBID Winchesters with all bios versions and Venice with 3.3 and above).
 
just run beta bios 1010-1 and you won't have them problems.

stay away from the 1011-1 and up betas their set super tight on tha RAM.
yep i got a winchester with the crappy ccid code one of the early winchesters and a venice 3200 they all run fine on thei MB.

beta bios 1003.008 is an excellent overclocking bios

1010-1 beta is the best when running SLI
 
mine was great until the fan on the chipset died. after running without a fan for part of a day while i was out, the DVI on my vid cards stopped working. cards are fine, but dvi will not work. applied for an RMA on thursday last week, still nothing from asus.

other than that, its been a great board :)
 
I love mine. Probably the best board I have ever owned. Early BIOS revisions really stank but they're pretty much there now. Just started to play around with the OC which seems to be coming along nicely too. A few people recommend the DFI board which has some more OC'ing options. Feature with the Asus is the nuts.
 
my a8n-sli has been a very good MB and i have had it for at least 6 months running everyday .

the only issues i can think of are . when flashing the bios it is better to use award flasher than the easy-update through windows . i did flash a couple times through windows but after a day or so buggy little things started to happen . when i flashed it the old fashoned way-- the thing works fine--

lastly esp if your useing the beta bioses . be aware of what the changes are in that bios before you flash it . there is a new beta 1012 out --i haven't flashed it yet and won't untill i know what asus did with the ram settings.

there is a socalled t1 issue -- now i haven't had a problem with it and i do have a revision 1 MB . but a few other folks seem to be having problems overclocking above a certain mhz and being able to run t1 on the ram . i haven't noticed a problem because i usually run at t-2 anyways due to my somewhat value-ram status--lol

other than that it is a good solid MB and very stable -- it is one of the most stable MB's i have ever had . and a good overclocker as well.
 
I love mine. My fan started to rattle called up Asus Last thursday got a replacement Chipset fan yesterday.. Fast awesome service! ;)
 
I agree Jason, they just sent me a new one too. Only took a couple of days.

I must say though, that I have been using Asus Update for the bios updates since I got this and have never had any problems with it yet. It also updates itself when a new version is available too.
 
Yeah I'm debating between this one and the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLi. I was going to go the K8N route but then started thinking about the 4 DIMM slot issue, and didn't see a BIOS update that solved it. That and I heard of the OC issues. Not really sure which is the better board considering that I will be getting a 4400+ and 1GB of Corsair Xpert 3200, but later on might make it 2GB if I need to. I also have overclocking in mind since I want to try and get 200MHz out of the 4400+. I'm kind of leaning towards A8N Deluxe, but am still unsure. Still researching since I won't be buying everything for at least another couple of weeks.
 
well the only problems i have had are with the asus updated bioses .

for whatever reason , flashing it with the asus update the MB becomes unstable.

i have used the updater on other asus mb without a problem.

if you look on rebels haven's bios page you'll see lots of bioses for the a8n-sli stateing award flash only .

it could be ok to use the update with the official versions -- however with my last two experinces with the updater on the a8n-sli -- i don't think i'll try the asus-updater again.

just flashed the mb to beta 1012-001sd everything seems cool.

i would get som good ram with tccd chips , but if your not overclocking that much quality value ram will run ok at t-2
 
Once you Flash the Bios to 1010-1 and replace (for free by Asus) the NF4 Fan. This is a great MB, good overclocker, nice features, an all around good MB.

But why not get the new A8N Premium.
It have a Heatpipe cooled NF4 chip cooler, no Selector card, and it overclocks a bit further than the A8N dlx
 
very stable, tons of features (8 sata ports, fw, dual gbit lan) overclocking not great but HTT263 is what i've managed so far with crappy twinmos ram. One problem though, the chipset fan is loud, rpms around 9000 and is a must to replace it since mine is already dying on me I've bought mine just 2 months ago. With a third party solution for the chipset fan, this board is kick-ass. I leave my system on for 3 days on sometimes, 50% of the time under full load encoding video playing games and rest of the time downloading and surfing, hasn't hit a wrong note yet.
 
Is the chipset cooling easy to replace, and what do you put there instead? Just a new fan? A "Thermalright NB-1"? I guess you need special epoxy too in that case.
 
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