ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe WiFi Edition

Rounding things up...

The layout on ASUS' M2N32-SLI Deluxe WiFi Edition motherboard is generally very good, but we were disappointed to see the SATA port positioning overlooked, somewhat. The pair of SATA ports nearest the bottom corner of the board are not usable when a second high-end video card is installed.

Aside from that, there were no major layout issues to report on - the BIOS was comprehensive, but layered to prevent novice users from getting confused. However, the fact that the BIOS is user-friendly doesn't mean that the enthusiasts are burned by a lack of tweak options. There are enough tweaking options that any enthusiast would be happy with.

Using the board was a joy, and we had no issues during installation or setup. Overclocking was fantastic and so was the board's stability, too. The board was rock solid at its stock setttings and it didn't falter when we overclocked either. It coped incredibly well at 350MHz HTT, and we were able to run our AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 at over 3GHz without issue in the M2N32-SLI Deluxe. It would have been good to see an 8-pin 12V power connector, but we didn't have any voltage regulation issues thanks to the 8-phase PWM controller circuitry.

Final Thoughts...

The ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe WiFi Edition is available for around £130 - even less if you find a good deal. The best deal that we found at the time of writing was for £126 including VAT at Aria. This is cheaper than the Foxconn C51XEM2AA, which sells for around £135 at the same place.

Based on our collective experiences with both boards, we believe that the ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe WiFi Edition represents better value for money on a number of counts and that is not just because it is nearly £10 cheaper. The M2N32-SLI Deluxe was fantastically stable, a great overclocker and is generally well laid out, too. Both the Foxconn and ASUS boards were superb for tweakers and novices alike due to the layered nature of the BIOS. However, the ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe was a much better overclocker than the Foxconn C51XEM2AA.

The two boards were very stable and we have no complaints in that department. We did have some minor niggles with the layout of Foxconn's C51XEM2AA, due to the close proximity of the memory slots. Our experiences with the ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe WiFi Edition were nothing short of trouble free and it is one of the best motherboards we've tested - the only major downside was the positioning of the SATA ports.

One other thing to consider is that Intel is about to launch its eagerly-anticipated Conroe CPUs, which are expected to blow AMD out of the water. However - if you can't wait that long - Socket AM2 is the favoured platform at the moment. If you can live with the poor SATA port positioning, and you're looking for a socket AM2 motherboard, this should be at the top of your list.