ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe

ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
Motherboard Specs
Supports AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64FX/Athlon 64	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI
PCI Express Architecture	SATA 3Gb/s
Dual RAID	Dual Gigabit LAN & AI NET2
NV Firewall	AI NOS™
AI Audio (8-channel Audio)
Taken from ASUS's website.

ASUS was the first manufacturer on the scene with an SLI motherboard. Its A8N-SLI Deluxe immediately turned heads for its clean layout, robust feature set, and, at the time, lofty price tag. High-end GeForce 6-series cards weren’t even available yet in PCI Express trim, ironically.

The A8N-SLI

ASUS' I/O panel

EZ Plug: The juice is loose

The passing of time saw prices on the A8N-SLI fall, though, and you can now pick the board up for under $175 online, making it one of the least expensive options for adopting SLI. It’s also one of the most stable; thanks to the latest BIOS from ASUS, we had little problem running GeForce 6800 Ultra, GeForce 6800 GT, and GeForce 6600 GT cards through today’s hottest games. In fact, because the A8N-SLI’s x16 PCI Express slots are spaced three slots away from each other, it’s the only one capable of accommodating two of Leadtek’s WinFast PX6800 GT TDH cards, which are actually larger than standard 6800 Ultras. Just don’t lose that SLI connector--ASUS’ is the only one that isn’t interchangeable across other motherboards.

Ample PCIe connectivity

Nice memory spacing

Passive power cooling

Two x1 PCI Express slots sit between the graphics connectors. If you use single-slot video cards, they’re both accessible. Go with Ultras, however, and you’ll lose one of the x1 links and one of the three standard PCI slots, too. Even with a GeForce 6800 Ultra installed you’ll still be able to change the onboard SLI mode selector, which snaps into place, specifying single-card operation or SLI.

The reversible SLI card

Eight SATA ports

Mo' Firewire

There aren’t any major layout issues of which to speak; ASUS is known for elegant implementations, after all. The NVIDIA chipset is situated such that it doesn’t sit directly underneath a graphics card, unlike other boards. There’s plenty of space between memory slots to better facilitate cooling. Incidentally, Corsair’s Xpert modules fit just fine between the slots. You’ll find plenty of room for mounting larger-than-reference heatsinks and power connectors that might otherwise interfere with processor cooling are far enough out of the way to not be an issue.

Careful when you plug in a graphics card

Unique SLI connector

Big ol' bundle