Asus A8N-SLi Premium or A8N32-SLi Deluxe?

badbob · 29 Jan 2006 at 01:15

The Asus A8N32-SLi Deluxe is only £10+ VAT more than the Asus A8N-SLi Premium but is it worth it? I've read a review comparing the two and the Deluxe falls behind on benchmarks (with the same setup) Something to do with CPU/Pixel pipelines or something? Also with the different arrangment of PCIE slots will fitting a soundcard be a problem?

Noni · 29 Jan 2006 at 11:12

A8N32 deluxe is a much much better board. The premium has a lot of problems (if you look at offical asus forums).

Basically, if you want a premium, get a A8N deluxe and zalman cooler.

If you want a A8N32, then get me one too

.

Big.Wayne · 29 Jan 2006 at 15:47

Hi,

I say get the ASUS A8N-SLi Premium

I had it a few weeks and I am really impressed! Has more features than the A8N32 deluxe and is cheaper!. The A8N32 appears to be slightly slower than the A8N-SLi Premium:

Dressed to Kill: ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe Mainboard Review

Btw: I have had no problems so far with this board and the passive coling system is great!

fragster · 30 Jan 2006 at 10:14

What Big.Wayne said

Blue Cypher · 30 Jan 2006 at 10:19

Yeah i got the premium and its actually pretty good for overclocking as well as being faster than the delux. Not sure what delux is like at overclocking but the premium is i think is only 2nd to the DFI top range mobo at overclocking.

Legless · 30 Jan 2006 at 12:46

I'd get the Premium, as i dont like the look of the PCI-E slots on the A8N32, looks like if you have a dual slot gfx card, your gonna loose some PCI slots...

mmj_uk · 30 Jan 2006 at 13:06

Legless said:
I'd get the Premium, as i dont like the look of the PCI-E slots on the A8N32, looks like if you have a dual slot gfx card, your gonna loose some PCI slots...

Yes and that will be a major problem when PhysX boards are released, as you'll have 2 PCI cards (inc. soundcard) and only 1 free slot.

Even if you run single slot cards in SLI airflow will be seriously hindered by 2 or more expansion cards.

Looking at the link Big.Wayne posted it seems obvious the A8N premium is the better board.

badbob · 30 Jan 2006 at 13:44

Will the Zalman 7700 fit the Premium? The 9500 looks a better design and is lighter but with the smaller fan is it noisier?

Big.Wayne · 30 Jan 2006 at 14:01

badbob said:
Will the Zalman 7700 fit the Premium? The 9500 looks a better design and is lighter but with the smaller fan is it noisier?

Hi,

Sorry to keep plugging this heatsink, but if you decide to buy the ASUS AN8-SLI Premium do yourself a big favour and pick up a THERMALRIGHT SI-120!

The SI-120 fits the Premium so well, and performs stunning! not to mention the fact that it matches the A8N-SLI Premiums passive cooling system.

With the Heatsinks heapipes facing the memory the 120mm fan blows a cool jet of air directly down onto the mobos passive radiator. . .

I will post some pics when I can

Bomag · 30 Jan 2006 at 21:27

The Zalman 7700 does fit the A8N premium but not if you have a tall Dimm is slot A1 e.g. Corasir Pro range

merlin2k6 · 30 Jan 2006 at 22:31

A8n32 here and loving it, no problems thus far, stable as a rock... will be overclocking shortly so i'll let u know how it copes...

w3bbo · 31 Jan 2006 at 07:28

Big.Wayne said:
Hi,

I say get the ASUS A8N-SLi Premium

I had it a few weeks and I am really impressed! Has more features than the A8N32 deluxe and is cheaper!. The A8N32 appears to be slightly slower than the A8N-SLi Premium:

Dressed to Kill: ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe Mainboard Review

Btw: I have had no problems so far with this board and the passive coling system is great!

That review is flawed imo. The a8n32 can use either 8xup/down or 16 up/down by setting up the bios correctly. Also what 'features' does the premium have over the a8n32? afaik the a8n32 has more features than the premium, more bios settings and is more stable due to it being an 8 phase motherboard rather than a 4 phase one. Unless your looking to have 8 SATA ports then I cant see any reason why you would buy the premium over the a8n32.

robertgilbert86 · 2 Feb 2006 at 11:56

Hi, I've got the A8N Premium and I'm finding it fine, got a 3700+ @ 2.5Ghz and people say they've got it to 2.9 stable so it's alright for overclocking. Somewhere on this forum someone mentioned the Northbridge is a bit of a weak spot but mines running fine, there is a plug to fit a fan there if you need to anyway

Newb1e · 9 Feb 2006 at 12:55

mmj_uk said:
Yes and that will be a major problem when PhysX boards are released, as you'll have 2 PCI cards (inc. soundcard) and only 1 free slot.

Even if you run single slot cards in SLI airflow will be seriously hindered by 2 or more expansion cards.

Looking at the link Big.Wayne posted it seems obvious the A8N premium is the better board.

I have the deluxe and dual slot cards in sli, and have been wondering the same thing about the Physx card, as it will definately be in my shopping cart. I read somewhere that a short while after the PCI lauch, they will release a PCI express version quote "to cope with a higher bandwidth".

It makes sense to assume the PCI express version wil be designed for the 4x PCI express slot (as sacrificing a full length slots would be a no-no for Sli users) - and by the looks of it, on the deluxe, even with two dual slot cards, the 4x PCI express slot is NOT obscured.