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

My processor is the AMD Athlon...

Strengths: Extremely easy to install. Excellent documentation. Bios upgrades, unlike some brands, are a breeze with the update application. Upgradable to higher-power 939 processors, now and in the future.

Weakness: None so far.

My processor is the AMD Athlon 3500+ ($267 shipped); memory is 2 Samsung DIM-DDR400-512 sticks (1 GB total) from Directron ($77.98 shipped). I got this board ($168 shipped) and the processor from BuyXG.com, which had the best all-round price and shipping deal for both, and good ratings. I upgraded from an Asus TUSL2-C, which was about the best board when it was released, and found myself very...
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My processor is the AMD Athlon 3500+ ($267 shipped); memory is 2 Samsung DIM-DDR400-512 sticks (1 GB total) from Directron ($77.98 shipped). I got this board ($168 shipped) and the processor from BuyXG.com, which had the best all-round price and shipping deal for both, and good ratings.

I upgraded from an Asus TUSL2-C, which was about the best board when it was released, and found myself very loyal to Asus following that experience. I did a lot of research before diving in to the A8N-SLI Deluxe. This new board did not disappoint; neither would the non-deluxe version if you don't need the ultimate expandibility the Deluxe brings and you want a heavier wallet.

Excellent, easy to read instructions. Form factor is larger that the old board, but it fit fine into my Antec SOHO SX-1035B server case.

Processing a particular Quark Xpress file into print-output-quality Adobe Acrobat took 90 seconds. Previously, I could watch almost an entire MASH episode on DVD while the same file processed for 20 minutes on the old system with an 800 MHz PIII and 512 of RAM. I was frankly blown away.

No jumpers to fool with unless you want to overclock and the like. The only squinting I had to do was when plugging in the case lights, as the printing is very small, even for someone with good eyesight (but that's a problem with many boards).

At this writing, Asus has certified only 3 power supplies for this unit, all of them up there in price. However, I upgraded to a TTGI Super Flower 520 Watt from Directron (about $40) at the same time, and is humming along fine. The PS comes with a 20-pin connector, but the board has a 24-pin. No worries, as 20-pin power supplies work just fine; they can plug in only one way.
I can't comment on the SLI performance, I'm using just one 6600GT at this point.

If you want to get a board for the future, and that won't be obsolete as quickly as others out there, as SLI and 939 are, this is the board to get.

Installation was relatively easy. Windows would not start following the board and chip changeout, but running XP's repair install got it back in shape. Since I had only the original XP disk, I had to run the SP2 installer to get everything working. The only difficulty I did have was getting the built-in networking to work. Running the installer would not work right, so I uninstalled it and did a manual install by pointing to the drivers on the disk.
8 hours from beginning the process to smokin' performance. I was expecting a worse time, but it was relatively smooth.

A great board!

By jonlouisville - May 16, 2005

Great mobo for the price

Strengths: easy to install, asus tech support is one of the best. very stable when overclocking

Weakness: not the newest SLI board from Asus

Very stable and flexable board, as for the chipset fan.. all you have to do is use the cool and quiet software and turn up the temp for the fan to hit in..it will run slower (to about 6,000 rpm) and just make sure you have good case fans. My system is running at about 40c with 5 case fans.

By ibeQuint; - Sep 17, 2005

Excellent Motherboard, but blighted by the Chipset Fan problem

Strengths: *Ideal for gaming (fast) *Many features (lots of connectivity options) *Stable *PCI-Express and SLI Support

Weakness: *Loud chipset fan that can fail within weeks

This is on paper a very good motherboard overall. It's fast, stable, and runs games very nicely indeed. It has lots of features (8 SATA connectors, supports up to 8 USB 2.0 ports, quality onboard sound, 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports, etc...). I can't comment on how well the SLI feature works because I don't have two graphics cards (yet). The motherboard is quite nicely laid out and doesn't really seem...
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This is on paper a very good motherboard overall. It's fast, stable, and runs games very nicely indeed. It has lots of features (8 SATA connectors, supports up to 8 USB 2.0 ports, quality onboard sound, 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports, etc...).

I can't comment on how well the SLI feature works because I don't have two graphics cards (yet). The motherboard is quite nicely laid out and doesn't really seem to have any irritating capacitor placements or other obstructions that plague many motherboards.

I have had mine for about 5 weeks or so now. The Chipset fan has always been noisy; however after about two weeks, I started noticing a faint buzzing/rattling noise. I checked my system over and confirmed it was the Chipset fan making the noise. Over time, the intermittent fan noise has been getting worse, and the speed has been dropping.

The fan hasn't stopped *yet* but from reading many dire reports of this problem on the web, I don't hold out much hope of it lasting more than another 2-3 weeks.

It appears even ASUS are aware of the problem, because they instantly agree to send a newer design of replacement fan to anyone with the problem (although it can take weeks for anyone to receive one, and even then you run the risk of damaging the motherboard whilst replacing the heatsink/fan).

Overall, I would not recommend this motherboard to anyone simply because the chipset fan is so unreliable.

You'd be best off either buying this motherboard and immediately replacing the heatsink/fan on the chipset with a 3rd party solution, or go for the slightly more expensive A8N-SLI Premium, which dispenses with the chipset cooling solution for a heatpipe design.

By r0nnaD - Sep 17, 2005

I am very satified with the...

Strengths: The overall set-up is nice. The chipset is well cooled. Overall great SLI board for the AMD 64.

Weakness: None.

I am very satified with the performance of this motherboard. It has turned-out to be an excellent performer. I have an AMD Athlon 64 3700+ on it and a gig of Corsair TwinX DDR 3200-C2 and it's nothing short of amazing. ASUS keeps everything updated very well as far as drivers, BIOS, etc. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a nFoce4 chipset and SLI video setup.

By daveMcc - May 12, 2005

A8N-SLI Deluxe Motherboard

Strengths: Wealth of features, SLI, ASUS brand.

Weakness: None so far

I was building an SLI rig and at the time there were only 4 boards available that could run such a setup and a simple overview of specs showed that other boards were just "poor cousins" of ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe. Price at 175.00 shipped was, in my opinion, excellent given the features: socket 939, SLI, SATA 3G, dual RAID, PCI Express and legendary ASUS overclocking potential plus a bunch of ASUS...
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I was building an SLI rig and at the time there were only 4 boards available that could run such a setup and a simple overview of specs showed that other boards were just "poor cousins" of ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe. Price at 175.00 shipped was, in my opinion, excellent given the features: socket 939, SLI, SATA 3G, dual RAID, PCI Express and legendary ASUS overclocking potential plus a bunch of ASUS proprietary features.
If you want to have future upgrade potential and feel comfortable with overclocking your rig this board is definitely for you.

By sema74 - Aug 20, 2005