Asus A8N-SLI Desktop Motherboard - nVIDIA nForce4 SLI Chipset - Socket PGA-939

Spend a little more for the Premium

Strengths: ASUS is excellent, includes 4 SATA cables.

Weakness: They've improved the northbridge heatsink fan (it no longer looks like the one pictured) but it is still too noisy for home theater PC use.

If I had it to do over again, I'd pay more for the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium. This is just the basic A8N-SLI and the main difference is the Premium comes with the "Cool Pipe" which silently cools the northbridge chipset instead of using a fan, which is used in this model and the Deluxe. I ended up replacing the stock northbridge fan with a Zalman heatsink in order to reduce noise (which I think voids...
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If I had it to do over again, I'd pay more for the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium. This is just the basic A8N-SLI and the main difference is the Premium comes with the "Cool Pipe" which silently cools the northbridge chipset instead of using a fan, which is used in this model and the Deluxe. I ended up replacing the stock northbridge fan with a Zalman heatsink in order to reduce noise (which I think voids the warranty).

The first RAM slot is really close to the Main SLI Video Card slot, so you need to insert your RAM before your video card (and remove the card anytime you change that first stick of RAM).

Also, I'm not certain of this, but I think the voltages I'm getting are a little sub-par and fluctuate more than they should. I'm using a high-quality 600W power supply (that cost twice what this motherboard costs!) so I'm pretty sure that's not to blame.

Otherwise this is a stunning board that I'm using happily with an AMD 64 Athlon X2 3800+ and if you don't care how noisy your computer is, then this would be a great money-saving choice. Otherwise you really need the Premium (or the patience to change out the Northbridge fan--which is fairly frustrating).

By briancar - Jun 8, 2006

Asus is good

Strengths: Price, SLI & SLI Connector, Layout

Weakness: 8x each when in SLI Mode

Thought I should say that I didn't even look for a MB with 16x in SLI, I assumed that this one did, my fault for not looking, but the Asus site didn't mention it to my recaletion.

By ldogg1579 - Feb 27, 2006

bump in the road

Strengths: SLI, great price, nforce4 chipset, tons of connections and usb/firewire cables and connectors right out of the box. simple bios makes overclocking automatic and simple.

Weakness: onboard sound

Loved everything about this board,even tho it was a real tight fit in my new ANTEC P160W aluminum mid tower. After making all the connections I was installing all my programs in minutes, then came the bump in the road. The onboard audio wouldn't recognize my Logitech 5300 5.1 speakers and kept thinking I had 2 microphones and front audio speakers plugged into the "auto sensing sound ports". When...
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Loved everything about this board,even tho it was a real tight fit in my new ANTEC P160W aluminum mid tower. After making all the connections I was installing all my programs in minutes, then came the bump in the road. The onboard audio wouldn't recognize my Logitech 5300 5.1 speakers and kept thinking I had 2 microphones and front audio speakers plugged into the "auto sensing sound ports". When I close the audio configuration utility I can still get 5.1 sound but I believe its because my speakers can take any input and automatically convert it to surround. Downloaded the new driver for the mobo and no difference after installing. Called Asus and there only solution was for me to buy an additional soundcard to fix the problem...booo!

By Sumo; - Feb 16, 2006

Everything I hoped

Strengths: SLI, obviously. Great chipset, tons of functionality, lots of accessories, ASUS warranty and tech support

Weakness: Only 3 PCI slots

Wow. Tried other Asus boards and I was disappointed. I dropped the extra money and went with the SLI board and WOW. All my problems disappeared, high quality, great warranty. I recommend this board to anyone.
AMD 3700+ San Diego (actually works with this processor, I've had trouble before)
BFG 7800 GT

What a product!

By slimshadyemb - Jan 27, 2006

Its nice

Strengths: RAID for 4 drives, nforce 4 sli, has all a high end gamer needs. Very detailed manual. Comes with 4 SATA cords. 3 year warranty.

Weakness: None for the price

You cant expect more from a motherboard when everything works without a hastle. This mobo goes with my case like bread and butter considering the USB and 1394 devices. This has a warranty i can sleep with. What else is there to say other than GRRREEAT SLI!

By siwskforever - Jul 21, 2005