NVIDIA's SLI: Part 1 - Motherboards

ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe - The Package

ASUS were the first tier one motherboard manufacturer to release their SLI motherboard, and in fact, they were NVIDIA's launch partners back in November when the first SLI reviews went out on to the web. ASUS have a reputation for packing their motherboards with a full compliment of features, and this one is no exception to that rule.

Main Feature Overview:

• Support for all AMD Athlon 64 socket 939 processors;
  
• NVIDIA NForce4 SLI MCP;
  
• 200MHz FSB;
  
• AMI AwardBIOS;
  
• 4x 184-pin DDR memory slots supporting up to 4GB;
  
• 2x PCI-Express x16 slots, 2x PCI-Express x1 slots, 3x PCI expansion slots;
  
• 2x ATA133 ports, 8x SATA II ports;
  
• 4 (plus 6)x USB 2.0 ports;
  
• 1 (plus 1)x IEEE 1394 Firewire ports;
  
• 8-Channel Realtek AC-97 sound chip with S/PDIF RCA and optical output ports;
  
• 1x NVIDIA Gigabit Ethernet Controller & 1x Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet Controller.

The Bundle

Along with the usual manuals and driver CDs that come with any motherboard that you would go and purchase today, ASUS have included a plethora of cables with enough connectivity for 14 devices - there are two ATA133 ribbon cables, a floppy cable, eight SATA cables along with two dual ended SATA power cables.

ASUS have also included several other extras - there are brackets for adding many other features to an already feature rich motherboard. These include fittings for external SATA devices, a serial/comm port, an IEEE 1394 Firewire port, a game port and four USB 2.0 ports. There is also a bracket that adds support for the SLI connector, which is a little longer than on other motherboards due to the spacing between the PCI-Express x16 slots on this board. This will help to stop the SLI bridge connection falling off the two cards during transit - we did not experience any problems with any of the SLI bridge connectors coming loose, but then we did not transport any of these motherboards more than a couple of feet at a time.