X-bit labs

ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Mainboard Review

Category: Mainboards

by Yury Mitrofanov

[ 04/20/2004 | 10:14 PM ]

Today we are going to take a closer look at one more Socket A mainboard from ASUS, based on the nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset. An excellent product with rich functionality and a number of unique brand name features will become an excellent choice for your Athlon XP based system.

Table of contents:

• Specifications and Package
  
• Closer Look
  
• PCB Design
  
• BIOS and Overclocking
  
• Performance
  
• Conclusion
  

The era of the Socket A platform is approaching its end. Once a top-end solution, it is now being ousted into home and corporative sectors by new 64-bit products from AMD. On the other hand, these sectors of the market may lack prestige, but they are profitable. That’s why manufacturers of mainboards and chipsets are in no haste to leave this business, but go on producing new things for this seemingly dying platform.

There’s also one more rule: you can’t go about selling one and the same product for too long lest the customers get bored with it and turn to other options. However excellent a product may be, the rapidly-evolving technologies make it average or even obsolete in no time. That’s roughly the reasoning for mainboard manufacturers as they launch new Socket A products.

Right now, two chipsets are largely used in Socket A mainboards: NVIDIA nForce2 and VIA KT600. ASUS also decided to rejuvenate its product range and restore its strong market positions by issuing an update to the A7N8X Deluxe. It is the ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe mainboard.

Specifications and Package

The distinguishing feature of this mainboard – and its main point of difference from the predecessor – is the support of wireless networking by means an expansion Wi-Fi 802.11b card. This wireless protocol allows establishing connections with up to 11Mb/s speed. This option becomes ever more demanded by the users – ASUS is wise to offer it today. Another point of difference between the two mainboards lies in the Gigabit Ethernet controller: ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe uses a chip from 3Com, while its predecessor had a controller from Marvell.