ASUS - ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Motherboard Review

HardOCP takes a look at the new, enhanced ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe nForce2 Ultra 400 motherboard:

It would be difficult to deny that ASUS continues to be an industry favorite and heavyweight. Any enthusiast could rarely go wrong by choosing a board from the large, diverse line that ASUS offers and the new A7N8X-E Deluxe surfaces with the features and history to maintain this reputation. By dusting off the older A7N8X motherboard and polishing it up with a few Deluxe qualities, ASUS strives to keep us nForce2 users happy. The A7N8X-E Deluxe is an enhanced version of the A7N8X reviewed here over a year ago. Driven by NVIDIA’s nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset, the new ASUS board is primed to satisfy your AMD needs. Standard is support for AGP 8X; Dual-Channel DDR400; Dual LAN (Marvell 1000Mbps GbLAN and NVIDIA 10/100Mb LAN); NVIDIA SoundStorm audio; and Serial ATA supporting RAID 0 and 1. The Deluxe brings in the ASUS WiFi slot to round out the base options.

. . . The A7N8X-E Deluxe finishes with a very flat result-set. I actually don’t have much to complain about with this board, but am left less-than-impressed overall. It performs decently out of the box and gave me absolutely zero problems. My feelings are that it performs as advertised and will make a very stable addition to the standard user’s PC. The audio subsystem performed flawlessly and is one of the strong points of this board. As a centerpiece to a music system, I’m positive that the A7N8X-E Deluxe wouldn’t disappoint many. The Gigabit LAN fell about 25% below my expectations, but was held up by the NVIDIA controller’s perfect run. As far as drive performance goes, this board ended with an adequate result and, for normal use, would satisfy most. If you are in the need for an upgrade and want to stay in the nForce2 market, this board at least deserves a deeper look. However, if your current Socket A can last a little longer, I would wait for the next generation to make it to retail shelves.

HardOCP
ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Motherboard Review