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M2N32-SLI Deluxe

ASUS brings their motherboard engineering expertise to AMD's new Socket AM2 platform. This new board supports all the latest NVIDIA chipset features and is targeted at the enthusiast and high end PC market. Don't miss this one.

Introduction

ASUS is the worlds premier OEM and high end motherboard manufacturer. They've been in business since the mid 1980's and have always had a reputation for high quality motherboards that offer outstanding stability and features. This board uses NVIDIA's new 590MCP which has a couple of new features over the older NForce 4 chipsets. This is not intended as a specific chipset review, but I'll cover the highlights that set this apart from earlier NForce 4 based enthusiast offerings for socket 939. Support has been added for six SATA ports, Media Shield Storage and more. Link Boost, First Packet, Dual Net (Dual Gigabit LAN Native). What this all amounts to is some nifty storage features and enhanced performance for high end SLI based PCs and PCs with multiple hard drives. Which actually covers two areas, high end workstation, and gaming PCs. The Wifi-AP Solo feature is essentially a wireless access point built into the motherboard rounding out the feature list making this one of the most feature packed and versatile motherboard's to have been manufactured to this point.

The M2N32-SLI Deluxe is ASUS’ latest offering supporting the new socket AM2 CPU's . The M2N32-SLI Deluxe supports all current socket AM2 (940) processors including the Athlon 64, Athlon FX, Athlon X2, and Sempron processors. The board supports full speed dual x16 PCI-Express graphics slots, memory up to DDR 2 800MHz speeds officially. Following industry trends, the M2N32-SLI Deluxe requires only a few additional components for a full system. Components needed include a socket AM2 CPU, DDR2 memory, a PCI Express x16 video card, drives, and 24 pin power supply. ASUS integrated the following components into the M2N32-SLI's design: 1 EIDE ATA-133 port; 1 floppy port; 6 SATA 2 ports on 590MCP (RAID 0, 1, 0+1, RAID 5 and JBOD Spanning are all supported.) 2 SATA2 ports (1 external and 1 internal) attached to the integrated Silicon Image 3132 controller; 8 USB 2.0 capable ports (4 in rear panel, and 2 on board headers supporting 2 ports each); 2 IEEE1394a Firewire ports (via motherboard headers); 2 NVIDIA Gigabit Ethernet ports on the rear panel; Sound MAX HD 8-Channel Codec with Universal Audio Jack Sensing and Coaxial / Optical S/PDIF out ports on the back I/O panel and as usual, standard PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports.

Main Specifications Overview:

Detailed Motherboard Specification List:

Packaging

The M2N32-SLI Deluxe's Box is an elegant black box with the orange AI logo and white Lifestyle lettering underneath dead center in the box. The M2N32-SLI Deluxe Motherboard text denoting the model appears below the centered logo. The box is devoid of any specs or stats on any sides. The ASUS logo is on the far left hand top corner, and the words Rock Solid, and the words Heart Touching are next to it. Though I honestly don't understand what ASUS’ marketing team is trying to do with this. ASUS included the following components in the box; User's manual, WinDVD Suite Enhanced Software, 1 driver and utilities CD, 6 SATA cables, 3 SATA power cables, 1 ATA-133 cable, 1 floppy cable, 1 game port and USB rear panel combo bracket , 1 IEEE1394 rear panel bracket, ASUS fan for use with passive and water cooling solutions, Wifi antenna, ASUS Array microphone, Standard I/O shield, the ATX I/O shield has holes for the motherboards standard PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, SPDIF out, fiber-optic out port, 7 mini head-phone jacks, 4 USB ports, standard 9 pin RS232 port, and two RJ-45 network ports. Also included in the box are connectors designed to make front panel wiring easier. These are a welcome addition and greatly simplify motherboard installation.

Board Layout

The layout of the M2N32-SLI Deluxe has an exceptional layout. The CPU area, memory orientation, power layout, and cooling layout are all nearly perfect in their positioning. Ample room is found between the x16 PCI-Express slots. Due to the memory being positioned at the top of the board, memory installation is easily done with an installed video card. However, there is one flaw on this boards design that is worth mentioning. Two of the six NVIDIA SATA ports are directly in front of the primary x16 PCI-Express slot and as a result, the connection of an SATA device on one of these ports is difficult if not impossible depending on the length of the video card you are using. Other than that, there isn't any glaring placement issues of ports on this board. Though I would prefer the IEEE1394a port would be moved up closer to the front edge of the board rather than at the back corner. Most front panel cables won't reach that far back in a larger case.

The CPU area is free of general obstructions, and the use of most larger heat sinks and fans will prove to be a non-issue. However, use of extremely large heat sinks and fans such as the XP-120 and 120mm Fatal1ty FS-C77 would prove impossible. Still with all the things this board has integrated into it I am amazed that ASUS was able to keep with the standard ATX foot print. Plus there are plenty of excellent cooling solutions that will cool even the most hardcore of overclocked processors. As such I do not consider this a major flaw.

The board's 4 DDR 2 DIMM slots are located on the far right side edge of the motherboard to the right of the CPU rather than directly in front of it like most motherboards. This allows the installation of memory modules without the removal of a video card. The color scheme is typical and matches ASUS’ latest offerings using yellow and black color coding on the memory slots to denote correct dual channel operation. Like other recent motherboard designs, this board requires a 24 pin PSU for proper operation and adapting the connection for an older 20 pin PSU is not recommended.

The Northbridge is located just to the left of the CPU socket area, just as you would typically expect on any PC motherboard. The Northbridge uses ASUS’ heat pipe design and this heat pipe system covers both the Northbridge, Southbridge and the mossfets as well. The Southbridge also has a snowflakes imprinted on the heat sink. An odd touch, but interesting. Directly in front of the Southbridge are the six SATA ports.

The M2N32-SLI Deluxe has 2 PCI-Express x16 slots that have full x16 lanes of bandwidth each. There are also 1 x4 PCIe slots, 1 PCIe x1 slots, and 2 PCI 2.2 slots.

The M2N32-SLI Deluxe includes the following ports on the rear I/O panel: 4 USB ports, 2xRJ45 ports, 7 mini-headphone connectors for the audio, 1 SATA 3G connector, Optical and SPDIF out connectors, as well as one standard RS232, and the standard PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports.