Conclusion
This content was originally featured on Amdmb.com and has been converted to PC Perspective’s website. Some color changes and flaws may appear.
Without a doubt, this new Asus A7N8X Deluxe final retail version motherboard is faster than the pre-production model we initially tested back in October, just as I thought would happen. The speed gains we saw did not suffice to overtake the Leadtek motherboard’s lead on all the benchmarks, but it did on most. In everything but the Unreal Tournament 2003 testing, we saw that the Asus motherboard is more than able to handle its own performance wise, which is just what we would expect from Asus products.Where the Asus A7N8X motherboard really shines, however, is in its Deluxe model version of the board. Here is where you get all of the added features that make the motherboard worth having: Firewire, Serial ATA, 6-channel audio with Dolby Digital, dual NIC and more. The motherboard is a quality piece of hardware that most users would be proud and happy to have. The standard version of the board drops a lot of these features, which is a shame, but more suitable for those looking for inexpensive solutions (which Asus is NOT known to cater to) or for those with the extras available in PCI cards already. I would have liked to have seen some IDE RAID available, but Serial ATA RAID is available to compensate.
The overclocking potential of the A7N8X motherboard is very good as well as it provides nearly all the features that you could want for overclocking your processor and getting the most out of your machine. The only drawbacks that I could see were the unavailability of high Vcore settings and the inability to modify the processor multiplier without modding the processor (or having an Athlon MP). That feature, however, seems to be a lacking on the chipset and not the Asus A7N8X motherboard individually.
Overall, I would have no problem recommending the Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard to anyone looking to build a system based on the Athlon XP 333 MHz FSB processors. The nForce2 chipset has all the power you could want and hope for to draw all the performance out of the processor. Coupling this with the extra features, a bonus that cannot be overlooked, and you have a winning combination.
Be sure to check out the Amdmb.Pricegrabber.com entry for the A7N8X and A7N8X Deluxe!!
And, be sure to visit the Asus forum at the AMDForums.com website!
