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ASUS P5NSLI

ASUS’ P5NSLI motherboard mates full support for Intel’s new Core 2 Duo line of processors and NVIDIA’s dual card SLI architecture. With both of these winning technologies, ASUS is almost assured to have a powerhouse on its hands.

Introduction

ASUS is well known both inside and outside enthusiast circles as a maker of high performance and reliable gear. They continue to be a market leader by pushing the boundaries of design and performance in new and innovative ways through both their hardware implementation and supporting software applications. Their latest motherboard release continues this trend.

The P5NSLI is among ASUS’ offerings with out of the box support for the newly released Intel Core 2 Duo LGA 775 style CPU.

The board itself is designed around the NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI and MCP51 Southbridge chipsets. The nForce 570 SLI chipset offers full support for all LGA 775 processors, DDR2 RAM modules operating in Dual Channel mode up to 800MHz, as well as dual card NVIDIA SLI support in x8 mode with matching NVIDIA graphics cards installed. The P5NSLI is a feature complete solution out of the box, only requiring a minimal number of additional components including: an Intel LGA 775 style processor, DDR2 memory, drives, and a PSU. ASUS integrated the following components in to the P5NSLI’s design: 4 SATA II ports (RAID 0, 1, 0+1, and 5 capable); 2 IDE ATA-100 ports; 8 USB 2.0 capable ports (4 in rear panel, and 2 onboard headers supporting 2 ports each); 1 Marvell Yukon GigE Ethernet port in rear panel; ADI 6-channel audio codec featuring an S/PDIF RCA component output port; and serial, parallel, and PS/2 port support in the rear panel.

Main Specifications Overview:

Detailed Motherboard Specification List:

Packaging

ASUS chose a plain design for their box, featuring the name of the board and the supported CPU and chipset in bold letters across the front of the box. The following accessories are bundled with the P5NSLI: ATA 133 and floppy ribbon cables; SATA cables; the rear panel shield, the normal complement of driver CDs and manuals; a rear panel with USB 2.0 port support; the SLI connector; and the Q-Connector module. The Q-Connector modules allow for an easy interface for connecting in to the motherboard headers. You simply plug in your front panel jumpers in to the white connector and the USB 2.0 jumpers in to the blue connector block, and then plug both blocks in to the motherboard headers. It makes for a much easier install for those typically hard to reach header areas.

Board Layout

ASUS did a superb job on the physical layout of the P5NSLI, with no real tightly packed or overlapping areas. The 2 major complaints I have with the board are the lack of active cooling on the Northbridge chipset and the lack of any cooling at all on the Southbridge. Both chipsets were observed to get overly hot without active airflow over them in testing. While the board did not have a clearly marked serial number on it, there was a revision marker silk-screened in to the board in between the Northbridge chipset and the primary PCI Express x16 slot. The board used for tested was marked as a revision 2.00G sample. ASUS chose to use capacitors manufactured by United Chemi-Con (USA) in producing the P5NSLI.

The CPU socket area is mostly free on any space inhibiting obstructions, allowing for the use of most any LGA 775 style CPU cooling mechanism. The metal capacitors to the right and above the socket are low profile type, so as not to impede cooler and CPU surface mating and the passive MOSFET cooler just above the socket is placed far enough away so as to not impede with cooler mounting. The board uses the standard 4 hole LGA 775 style method for CPU cooler mounting. The nForce 570 SLI Northbridge is to the immediate left of the CPU socket, covered by a large passive heat sink. The heat sink is held in place with push pins on opposite sides of the chipset. While not the optimal cooling solution, you should have minimal problems with the heat sink cooler under stock conditions. Just above the Northbridge are the 4-pin ATX12V power connector, a USB 2.0 header, the CHA_FAN header, and the USBPW1 jumper. This jumper controls system activation based on activity detected on devices connected to the rear panel USB 2.0 ports. Just above the socket is the large copper based passive MOSFET cooler, held in place by push-pins, with the KBPWR jumper to its right. The KBPWR jumper controls system activation based on activity detected on devices connected to the rear panel PS/2 ports. The CPU_FAN header is located to the lower left of the CPU socket, just above the upper most DIMM slot.

The onboard DDR2 DIMM slots are oriented in a 2-by-2 fashion, with Dual Channel mode activated by placing modules in like colored slots across sets. The 24-pin ATX power connector is located to the lower left of the DIMM slots.

The MCP51 Southbridge chipset lies just below the secondary PCI Express x16 slot. Notice that while the chipset has mounting holes on either side, ASUS chose to leave the chipset sans cooler. In testing, we found the chipset itself to get extremely warm and would strongly recommend at minimum a passive cooling solution. The CMOS battery, PWR_FAN header, SB_PWR LED, and 4 onboard SATA 2 ports are located to the left of the Southbridge chipset. The SB_PWR LED illuminates when an active power source is connected to the board. The 2 ATA-100 ports are located below the chipset along the board’s edge. Note that the IDE ports have been rotated 90 degrees so that once engaged, the IDE cable is parallel to the board’s plane. The front panel header, chassis intrusion header, CMOS clear jumper, USBPW2 jumper, and a USB 2.0 header are located in the left most corner of the board. The USBPW2 jumper controls system activation based on activity detected on devices connected to the onboard USB 2.0 headers.

The P5NSLI ships standard with a set of 2 PCI-Express x16 SLI capable video slots, 3 PCI-Express x1 slots, and 2 PCI slots. In between the 2 PCI Express x16 slots is the ASUS EZ SLI selector card port, which determines the operating mode of the 2 x16 slots depending on the card orientation in the slot. The onboard floppy port, CD and AUX audio ports, and front panel audio header are situated along the outside edge of PCI slot 2. An S/PDIF output header is located just above PCI slot 2.

ASUS chose to incorporate the following rear panel ports in to the P5NSLI’s design: PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports; parallel and COM ports; 4 USB 2.0 ports; 1 Marvell Yukon Gigabit LAN Ethernet port; 3 analogue audio ports; and an S/PDIF RCA component output port.