Asus A8N32-SLI-Deluxe NVIDIA Socket 939 ATX Motherboard

First go to www.asus.com forums and do a search for this board, you will be enlightened.

Case: Thermaltake Tai Chi Liquid Cooled Case - VB5001SNA (Oxide)
Power: PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 850 SLI
CPU: Athlon 64 X2 4800+
Motherboard: ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe
Memory: ASUS Ready XMS-3500LL PRO 2GByte-kit (4GB Memory) x2
Main Drive: WD raptor 74 GB, 10000 RPM, 8 MB Cache (Raid0 con-fig) x2
Storage Drive: WD Caviar RE2 400 GB SATA (Raid0 con-fig) x2
Monitor: Sync Master 244T (6ms seek time)
Optical Drive: HP DVD Writer dvd740i (w/Light-Scribe)
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi
Video card(s): Dual 256MB PCI-Express x16 NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX KO (SLI Enabled) x2
Mouse & Keyboard: Logitech MX5000 Cordless Keyboard and Laser Mouse

I figured the asus a8n32 was the best board for this build, boy was I wrong. Please understand I did a lot of research and did not find any negative reviews on this board, until now and I have had every one of them.

Here is my story;

Build went well, POST check was fine, put everything together and the board would not detect the Sony dru-720 dvd writer and the wd caviar wd4000yr (turned out this was a bad hdd)now the real problems began and I will summarize.

Can not install windows, error every time.

still will not detect Sony drive. I have put it into another computer and it works fine.

Bios crashed when trying to set timings.

cleared CMOS to default, upgraded bios 1009 no effect.

video now very disturbibg low quality ( figured I fix that with WinXP install)

Sill can not install WinXP pro (each time I try I get a different error, I will not bore you with each one and they are many, but basically corrupted file messages.

Again go to to (www.asus.com ) and see for yourself. Pretty much every problem discussed I have had. IT IS GOING BACK TODAY. Also check out how they are targeting customers in CS.

You may get lucky, but do you really want to take the chance that down the road you will have problems?

good luck to all

This mainboard beat out several others when I decided to build a new system to support all the current games and trends in personal computing. I believe I chose correctly.

First off, I've been a loyal Asus devotee for quite a while. Every mainboard I've purchased for a custom system has been an Asus, and for good reason. They are, without a doubt, the leading mainboard provider for many OEMs, and this confidence has thusly spread to consumers of bare parts to build their own PCs.

The packaging and included parts impressed me. Asus obviously went to alot of trouble to get every part in the package needed, and the box itself is an attractive design. The black mainboard is a sight to see with it's heatpipe built on-board, quite a show stopper for those of you looking for instant head turning ability. The heatpipe is fully functional, and performs very well in it's job of keeping the chipset cool.

When I installed the mainboard, I did run into one problem. It's more of an annoyance, but it should be noted this is the reason I didn't give this board a perfect 10 and opted to give it a 9 instead. On the under side of the CPU, there is a metal plate attached to the mainboard. It's not screwed or clipped. It's glued. This proved to be a little troublesome because I decided to install a Zalman 7700Cu heatsink on this board. To install this cooler, it comes with a plastic plate that helps support it's massive weight, and this plate is supposed to be installed on the under side of the CPU. Well, unfortunately I couldn't do this because the Asus metal plate was glue in the way, and to get it off would be to risk the mainboard's integrity and perhaps damage it beyond possible repair, even for those with steady hands and the courage to repaint traces. I had to get a little creative, and I ended up using the factory screws for the AMD 939 and a few washers, and it worked out quite well. In fact, once I got past the squeamish part of tightening down the heatsink, I determined the Asus metal plate is probably better than the plastic Zalman plate for holding nearly 2lbs of copper.

Anyway, after it was all installed, the software side went flawlessly. I have no complaints about the board other than the problematic heatsink install, and I'm very happy with the purchase. It's turned out to be a great mainboard, and with the features it offers, it will remain a deciding force in my gaming habits for several years to come.... in this world of day-to-day technology advances, I believe that's the best compliment anyone can give.