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- Date:
- Monday , January 30, 2006
- Author:
- Daniel Dobrowolski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe
ASUS has added the A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard to their already successful and highly-acclaimed A8N series. Is this board a worthy successor to the A8N line?
ASUS Utilities
The A8N32-SLI Deluxe comes with ASUS's Utilities. One part of ASUS’ utilities is Ai Booster, for dynamic overclocking while in Windows. It's also useful for displaying information about your processor, memory, and CPU. Next, there is ASUS's PC Probe II, for thermal and fan monitoring. Then there is ASUS Update, which is for updating the BIOS through Windows. Finally, ASUS My Logo is used to tweak your system logo for customizing your motherboard’s boot screen during POST.
Ai Booster is ASUS's Windows-based utility for real time monitoring of voltages, FSB values, and memory settings, as well as CPU speeds for overclocking. The utility has several settings. Ai NOS, for example, is a dynamic overclocking feature that allows the system to decide the best and safest overclock based on current system demands and needs. This reduces the likelihood of a crash due to an improper overclock, as well as providing a cooler running system—in much the same way as AMD's PowerNow! or Cool 'n' Quiet functions do. The CPU clock speeds will remain at the default values, and then when demand is placed on the system, the clock speed increases past the default clock speed based on what the Ai Booster thinks is safe. As a result, extreme overclocking is not going to be found this way, as the program is somewhat conservative in how far it will push the system. The application also shows CPU FSB, and voltage readings, as PC Probe II does. The difference is that these settings can be adjusted with Ai Booster. One thing I didn't like about this utility is that it required a reboot for almost any setting change (even a minor 5MHz FSB increase).
ASUS PC Probe II is, as expected, an update to the original PC Probe software packages that ASUS has been using for the last several years. ASUS, however, has changed the look for this new PC Probe II, and it is hardly recognizable. Still, the utility maintains the functionality and ease of use that the previous versions have had in the past. The utility allows the user to monitor voltages, temperatures of the CPU and other monitored temperature zones. By default, power, chassis, and CPU fans are monitored. Voltage status for VCore, +3.3v, +5v, and 12v are all monitored. CPU and motherboard temperatures are also monitored. The voltages and thermal readings are all shown in these rectangular boxes. These boxes have little magnet icons in the top right hand corners, and, when clicked, they can be separated and moved around. Therefore, you can configure the shape of the monitoring panel. The main part of the PC Probe application is a hexagonal window, and when the green arrow tab is clicked, the hexagon expands allowing configuration of the utility itself. Just to the right of that is where you'll find detailed DMI, WMI, PCI, and usage information. The usage information is shown in the form of graphs—very similar to Windows drive usage pie charts. These pie charts show CPU, memory, and hard drive usage. In addition, just under the ASUS logo is a reporting tool. This tool shows detailed system information for providing to ASUS’ tech support should it be needed to troubleshoot an issue. There is even an alert log that shows any kind of errors reported by the motherboard such as abnormal fan speeds, or thermal alerts.
ASUS Update allows updating of the motherboard BIOS through Windows. ASUS Update has several methods for flashing the BIOS. You can download the file from ASUS's FTP site, or browse to a pre-downloaded file. You also have the ability to archive your existing BIOS in case you need to revert to the earlier version for any reason.
ASUS My Logo gives the end user or an OEM the ability to customize the motherboard's boot logo with any bitmap they choose, provided it meets the requirements. Large images of course cannot be used due to the fact that a BIOS ROM is relatively small. Therefore, 256 color 640x480 bitmap images are about the only thing supported. The utility is very easy to understand and use. The use of My Logo requires you to have a copy of the desired BIOS version on the system HDD. Next, you browse to the image you desire, and the final screen merges the two files together into a custom BIOS. Then, the BIOS can be flashed with the customized logo.