ASUS A8N32-SLI vs ASUS A8N-SLI

[spartanslayer]

Which is better for the money? And is the full 16x lanes worth $120 extra? Also, how hot do they get. Thanks.

 

[Phyphor]

Hi there

Hi, I have an A8N-SLI with a AMD 4200 Dual Core - Most of the time the Mobo runs below 29 degrees and the chip runs around 36 with nothin to do and up to 44 when fully loaded, i have no special fans or anythin in my machine - so A8N-SLI is not a bad board!

Phyphor

 

[DonNagual]

I also have the A8N-SLI (deluxe), and my temps are very good. But I sure like that A8N32-SLI board. The price tag is the only negative to it.

From what I have read, the SLI on that board barely performs any better than the dual x8SLI of other boards, but that is simply because the current cards out can't make use of the dual x16.

What I really like about that board is it's new way of distributing power. It appartently keeps things MUCH cooler and since it is fanless (unless you use the optional fans) it is also completely silent.

And....(drumroll) it is a MASTER overclocking board. If you are into overclocking, from the reviews on the net, this board is the best there currently is available. The A8N-SLI board was average at best, but ASUS made up for it with that A8N32. For OCing, this board can go further than any other. Glad to see they are trying to get back at the top of the heap again.

Bottom line, had you of asked which is better, I would have answered the A8N32, but you asked which is better for the money. Unless you want the best of the best and can dish out the cash, I don't think the A8N32 is the best choice.

 

[Phyphor]

I agree with the previous post

 

[Didou]

The A8N32-SLI is slower then previous boards in most tests. The HT link used on it has been slowed down, explaining the decrease in performance.

Taken from ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe Mainboard Review
The explanation of the newer platform being slower comes from one architectural feature of the nForce4 SLI X16. To ensure high-speed communication between the chipset’s North and South bridges, NVIDIA had to reduce the width of the HyperTransport bus the chipset connects to the CPU with and to use two 8-bit channels instead of the ordinary nForce4’s two 16-bit channels there. The smaller bandwidth of the CPU-chipset link does not show up in games, but the performance of applications that actively use the system bus, like data archiving utilities for example, may suffer a lot. We are not even sure the nForce4 SLI X16 will offer any advantage in the next generation of PC games, despite its two full-width PCI Express x16 slots, because the narrow HyperTransport bus will probable be a bottleneck. Being the first chipset with the PCI Express x16 + x16 formula, the NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 is interesting and unique, but it is no better than the ordinary nForce4 SLI, at least in current applications.

 

[DonNagual]

Wow, good find Didou! I knew the board wasn't that much of a performance increase, but to be actually a little slower was surprising. I wonder if any of the newer drivers have helped?

I read some more of that article you posted. It confused me a bit because they show that it is actually slower than the A8N-SLI, but in the very end they go on to say

We think the ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe is currently the best foundation for a top-end SLI-compatible computer with an AMD Athlon 64 processor.

 

[DonNagual]

Now this is odd. Anandtech shows the A8N32-SLI whooping A8N-SLIs bum in the benchmarks:

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2589&p=10