Asus P5N-E SLI Motherboard Review - The 680i Killer

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Apoptosis
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Asus P5N-E SLI Motherboard Review - The 680i Killer

Post by Apoptosis »

Asus has long been a major player in the motherboard market in every segment you can think of. Their name has long been a favorite with the enthusiast crowd. Can they continue the trend with this motherboard? Can the ASUS P5N-E SLI motherboard compete with the top 680i SLI boards that are out? ASUS claims that the P5N-E SLI has the best cost versus performance ratio of all dual VGA motherboards on the market. Read on and find out if they are right!

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Article Title: Asus P5N-E SLI Motherboard Review - The 680i Killer
Article URL: http://legitreviews.com/article/434/1/
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ikjadoon
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Post by ikjadoon »

Awesome! I've got this in a build coming up, also a E6600. Can't wait!

Can you guys post some results with additional cooling on the chipsets?

~Ibrahim~
Overdrive PC Core2.SLI:

Core 2 Duo E6600 @ ~3.5GHz, ASUS P5N-E SLI, 4GB of DDR2-770, 8800GTS 640MB @ 621/1836, Western Digital 640GB, LITE-ON 20X, CM Stacker 830, Enermax 620W, Vista Ultimate 64-bit SP1

3DMark '06: 10,302
SuperPI 1M: 15.194s
WEI: 5.7
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Post by Apoptosis »

ikjadoon wrote:Awesome! I've got this in a build coming up, also a E6600. Can't wait!

Can you guys post some results with additional cooling on the chipsets?

~Ibrahim~
Additional cooling? What do you have in mind? The way it is now is awesome as 500MHz FSB is hard to come by
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Post by dicecca112 »

I remember reading another review that this board can hit 600mhz with the right ram and cooling on the chipset. Something simple like the evercool twinkle
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Post by pastorjay »

If I can dig something up, I will try and see what adding a little cooling and some AS5 to the board will do.

Even without that, this board does rock! 8)
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Post by ikjadoon »

I was just wondering how much of a difference a heatsink or something on the southbridge would make. Without saying, this board rocks, even without a heatsink on the chipset! I mean, 496+ is just amazing. And out of $150? What are you waiting for??

~Ibrahim~
Overdrive PC Core2.SLI:

Core 2 Duo E6600 @ ~3.5GHz, ASUS P5N-E SLI, 4GB of DDR2-770, 8800GTS 640MB @ 621/1836, Western Digital 640GB, LITE-ON 20X, CM Stacker 830, Enermax 620W, Vista Ultimate 64-bit SP1

3DMark '06: 10,302
SuperPI 1M: 15.194s
WEI: 5.7
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Post by Gamble »

Looks like a winner to me! I wonder what ASUS is gonna do with the all-out 680i chipset...only place to go is up. ASUS just keeps getting better.
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Always a gamer.
Rock on.
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Post by Apoptosis »

This board was launched at $129.99 and has gone up in price since it came out... This board would have been a steal at that price.
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Post by pastorjay »

The board was on sale at Club-it for $125 earlier today. They are sold out right now though.
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Post by Apoptosis »

pastorjay wrote:The board was on sale at Club-it for $125 earlier today. They are sold out right now though.
oh man... insane price
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Post by KingClub »

Is this board better than the ECS PN1 SLI2 Extreme Motherboard?
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Post by Apoptosis »

KingClub wrote:Is this board better than the ECS PN1 SLI2 Extreme Motherboard?
Yes, and the ECS PN1 SLI2 is no longer being made and less than 1,000 pieces were sent to the US.
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Post by pastorjay »

KingClub wrote:Is this board better than the ECS PN1 SLI2 Extreme Motherboard?
Hehe... the ECS is not even close to the performance of the Asus board. Overclocking is awesome on the Asus, and almost non-eistant on the ECS.
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Post by pcrobot »

I was surprised at the relatively small bundle that comes with it. You'd think they'd throw in more on such a sweet board.

It's on my wishlist....
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Post by SAMSAMHA »

wow a 650 to be 680i killer. That sucks as the price of 680i is just too much yet if 650 can performs just as good,I guess nvidia may have hard time pushing 680i (specially with all hte trouble and heat issue).
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Post by liqnit »

My friend got one and he cannot make the sound work (HD or AC97).
Have you encounter any such problems?
he trien installing the DIvers from RealTek and the ones from the CD supplied.
Checked the BIOS and connectors and nothing.
Windows XP cannot see any sound hardware
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Post by pastorjay »

Sounds to me like maybe he got a bum board. I had no issues with mine. Maybe someone else here has gotten a board that had sound issues and will speak up...

Anyone?
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Post by Apoptosis »

If it's enabled in the BIOS and it's not even detected in the Device Manager it sounds like you might have gotten a bum board as Jason mentioned.
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Post by liqnit »

Thanks.
I have talked to him and he will do RMA in next days

it is strange that the sound OB can be defective - i thought the bords go through some kind of QA
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Post by DaIceMan »

I have this board with an E6600F and Corsair CM2X1024-6400C4 ram and I can only OC to a stable 3.2. tried 3.3, 3.41 and 3.6 all resulted in crashes. I have the Tuniq Tower 120 cooling the CPU and a Thermalright HR-05 on the south bridge.
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