ASUS P5N-E SLI

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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ASUS P5N-E SLI - ASUS offers up an affordable motherboard from the new nForce 600 series family; the P5N-E SLI featuring the nForce 650i chipset. To put it plainly, this motherboard gave us awesome overclocking for the money spent.

ASUS has a hell of an enthusiast motherboard engineered inside the P5N-E SLI. The P5N-E SLI is stable. The P5N-E SLI is a performer. The P5N-E SLI is a great overclocker. All of this is done at a very reasonable price and has the ASUS reputation standing behind it.
 
Nice review.

I'm curious as to if or when NVIDIA will release a 650i ref board for EVGA, BFG, etc.

Once again, nice review.

EDIT: Those two tall capacitors near the CPU socket seem like they maybe might cause future problems if a large cooler was mounted.
 
the only thing i wish they woulda kept for this board is dual gigabit lan. Perhaps another party board will have it.
 
curious thing is, I installed one of these today myself...... and ended up with identical OC ability....... 475fsb x 7 = 3325.0MHz; RAM at DDR2-950 (although I had to run mine at 5-6-6-16-2T - actually, that's what setting everything on AUTO gave me).....
 
I didnt have time to read the whole review so just read the conclusion till I can get more time but I think a stable 475fsb with a E6600 is very respectable for a first time 650i mobo. :)
 
No comment on the board just a comment on the page(s)

Along with:

Date:Monday , January 01, 2007
Category:Motherboard
Manufacturers:ASUS
Author:Morry Teitelman
Editor:Kyle Bennett

I was wondering if you guys can include the MSRP of the product reviewed. That's if, you can find one. Currently, I would have to check the very last page just to see an approximate price.

Nice review though. I'm looking for an upgrade to my current system that wouldn't cost over 600 bucks for motherboard, processor, and ram. This review just gave me another option.
 
Nice review. Just what I was waiting for. The independent CPU and memory frequencies are awesome. I would have been content with ratios but this is even better.
 
Nice review. I am considering a new built and this motherboard might just be it. Still waiting for this to be available locally . :cool:
 
Great review. the 650i sounds like the way to go. Has excellent value, good for a cost effective system with a c2d and sli option. Now I can save about $100 over the 680i board, and spring for a 8800gtx rather than the gts.... and then add another for SLI down the road.

I'd like to see an evga mb with 650i
 
Ditto the comments in the review about the northbridge, in particular. That large passive heatsink gets hot hot hot and if you replace a stock cooler with something like a Zalman 9500 that doesn't produce airflow out the sides it just gets hotter and unstable. I haven't had the success of other reviewers with mine yet, but haven't invested the time in R&Ring the northbridge cooler yet, either. Some of what I'm saying is that it seems it's got great potential but may not run to it all "as delivered".
 
Nice review.

I'd like to see [H] do some motherboard testing with some RAM that doesn't cost more than than an E6300/E6400 + mobo combined. DDR2-9600 is nice and all and I understand you're looking for top end FSB numbers, but not all of us can afford that.

Is it possible to include a pair or three of 2x1gb sticks in the $200-250 range for overclocking results in addition to the DDR2-9600?
 
Homer that sounds like a fair request to me :) Actually I was thinking testing with the ram that alot of folks have, like the G.Skill 2x1gb HZ to be exact, or something of that nature. As for the northbridge hs, it looks like you could go skinnier and taller, with a possible fan on top. So as not to interfere with the cpu socketed area for its hs. I am looking at this board or its big brother the ASUS P5N32-E SLI. But if someone like BFG or EVGA could come out with the 650i version and add another lan port, and a few more features for another $20-$30, im sold.
 
don_xvi said:
Ditto the comments in the review about the northbridge, in particular. That large passive heatsink gets hot hot hot and if you replace a stock cooler with something like a Zalman 9500 that doesn't produce airflow out the sides it just gets hotter and unstable. I haven't had the success of other reviewers with mine yet, but haven't invested the time in R&Ring the northbridge cooler yet, either. Some of what I'm saying is that it seems it's got great potential but may not run to it all "as delivered".

I had no problem reaching solid 450MHz FSB with stable operation with stock cooling on the board. I would not however suggest you do it every day all day. As noted the northbridge heatsink is a HUGE unit that just needs some airflow across it to do a good job and that airflow will be supplied by many stock heatsinks. Remember we water cool all of our test units, so in our testing we do not have that cooling our northbridges, which is done by design now days.

I dont think you need a new heatisink, just good airflow on the one that is already there. And you need to make sure it is mated well.
 
So if I don't care about SLi, is this the new HardOCP "value" pick or does the Gigabyte/Biostar P965 option still rule supreme?
 
After spending some time this morning catching up on the eVGA forums and the unbelievable problems they are having - I'm surprised to see such a quick endorsement of another NVidia chip without some bake time?

Good review though.
 
i ordered this board this past weekend and i would like to know what size fan would fit on the northbridge heatsink so i can get that on its way.

or if it would be better to throw on a whole new cooling solution onto the northbridge.

ihave a small heatsink coming for the southbridge already.

thanks.
 
Why was the 7800gtx picked and not a 7900 or 8800 flavor? And your thoughts if a 8800gts was used?
As the board stands right now, putting in a 8800Gtx and not looking at sli we have a killer set up at a very nice price.
I would like to see a side by side same equipment with the P5N32Sli single 8800 card.
 
Nice review! and nice board also.. I have to say I have been eyeballing this board as an alternative to the Foxcon variants. In the absense of available other 680i alternatives and for the great price I was very tempted to pick one up to play with... but I think I am going to hold out for one of the Abit, DFI, or MSI 680i boards..
 
Well, I have been looking to upgrade for weeks, and finally did. I chose this as my mobo and hope it works out well with e6400, TWIN2X2048-6400C4, and evga 8800GTS. I will find out soon enough. Thanks.
 
I have a quick question about the second PCI-e x16 slot. If I'm not using SLi, what bandwidth is it running at? Can I configure it to give 8x to my GPU and 8x to another non-GPU device? Or 12x/4x? Or is it 16x/1x always?

~Ibrahim~
 
I just noticed on the reviews at Newegg that a lot of people seem to be having problems with the IDE controller. Did anyone here have similar problems? If i get this board, I will be using the 2 IDE ports for 2 seperate dvd drives. Not enough SATA ports on the board to justify switching over to SATA optical drives.
 
i see most complaints being that the location of the ide ports are not to their liking, and the included IDE cable is too short.

one person said their IDE drives didnt work.

so just get longer IDE cables, no biggie.
 
bznotins said:
So if I don't care about SLi, is this the new HardOCP "value" pick or does the Gigabyte/Biostar P965 option still rule supreme?

I can see going either way depending on the exact feature set you want, but it is hard to argue against teh DS3 given its current track record.
 
ToddMcF2002 said:
After spending some time this morning catching up on the eVGA forums and the unbelievable problems they are having - I'm surprised to see such a quick endorsement of another NVidia chip without some bake time?

Good review though.

First off, why do you think our endorsement is "quick?" Second, if I waited around for problems to surface and did not trust our own judgement, there would be no reason to publish what we do.
 
Now if they could just ditch the SLI-silliness and go with just 1 PCIEX16 like they ditch the dual gigabit lan, that would be great board for average overclocking joe. Seriously, SLI/Crossfire is useless unless for majority of the average joe market.
Case in point is 8800GTS/GTX vs previous gen SLI, new generation single card owned the more expensive SLI setup.
Also, most people don't even use the 2nd lan connection unless you use your computer as internet gateway or connection shairing. Really, what are the % of people using that?

Why waste money on the extra motherboard component?
 
I've been looking to replace my Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe. Tnx, for the review. Ordered 1 from ZZF today for $135. And with my 8800 GTX I don't need sli :p
 
i could care less about sli. i also think it is a waste of money.

im lookin for a mobo that can oc a ninja cooled e6400 pretty good and that had two IDE inputs.

right now no intel 965 chipset has more than one ide controller.

im already at my budget for my build so not using 2 of my PATA hard drives was not an option - and buying 2 more sata drives. neither was using those very bulky pata to sata connectors in a p180 case.

this board fit the bill :)
 
liveload said:
Here is a quote from the Anandtech review that scares me a bit.


Can anyone expand upon this?

I think what they mean by vdroop is the varience in core voltage. Vdroop can cause random crashes on an otherwise stable overclock, so if that happens, bump it up one. I bought this board and I'm pretty happy with it, the "vdroop" appears normal compared with 8 phase designs. It quite easily got a 6700 to 3ghz w/ a 300 MHZ fsb (1200 QDR). I paired up my new setup with some crucial ballistix (DDR2 1000/500mhz).

My question is this; the review stated that their test bios was 0302, mine shipped (four days ago) with 0202 and I cannot find a new bios yet. I definetly think the memory tuning needs improvement. The board does not use the SPD settings according to cpuz. Attempting to set it manually often results in some problems (requiring the fine finger jumper trick to reset). For the price and performance (paired with an 8800GTX) it is a good choice. I just simply did not want/need all the extra features for the premium a 680i board demanded. My opinion is that it is a nice stable board if you are not particular about tweaking the memory. My experience at stock speeds verse overclocked settings indicate that a 8800 GTX is not much happier with a higher clockspeed. This translates to gaming performance, encoding will enjoy the cpu boost. Even with the cheesy NB cooling, it will still go. Adding a fan is easy though, and doesn't have to be extreme.
 
After re-reading the review, I did notice that my board shipped with bios 0202 and does not have the "sli ready" memory option. That is annoying since the crucial ballistix I ordered is SLI/EPP ready. Need to get my hands on 0304 (previously I stated it was 0302). If I were to have a new years wish it would be for Kyle to save his bios to file and email it to me:)
 
About the IDE, I find that a possible problem, but given the track record Newegg reviews have with me (Pentium EE reviews, WTF?) I'm not believing it.

It's finally nice to see mobos in black. Mustard is generally not a good colour for those who have windowed cases. What took them so long? :)

Lastly, was it difficult to mount the cooler on the mobo? I ask this because of those 2-3 large capacitors near the CPU socket.
 
bznotins said:
So if I don't care about SLi, is this the new HardOCP "value" pick or does the Gigabyte/Biostar P965 option still rule supreme?


Looks like this board and a E4300 + 2Gig kit of DDR2 667 would make a kick ass and cheap OC/SLI bundle.
 
Night Black said:
About the IDE, I find that a possible problem, but given the track record Newegg reviews have with me (Pentium EE reviews, WTF?) I'm not believing it.

It's finally nice to see mobos in black. Mustard is generally not a good colour for those who have windowed cases. What took them so long? :)

Lastly, was it difficult to mount the cooler on the mobo? I ask this because of those 2-3 large capacitors near the CPU socket.

I only have a DVD burner on IDE channel 0- no problems. My drive is SATA and again no problems. I think this board is a good option because the Newegg price was only 129 bucks, and got me into a Core 2. We all know these chipsets just came out, and "hum dinger" boards will eventually emerge - so this board mitigates risk. It performs nicely, for reference I'll provide my 3dmark06 score and settings:

Score: 10543
E6700 @ 3Ghz (10*300 - 1200 QDR - 900 mhz resulting mem 4-4-4-12 2t trc 16)
mem voltage 2.1
cpu voltage 1.36
stock retail cooler from intel

results are not stunning, but i just wanted it to work, not break any records.
 
liveload said:
Here is a quote from the Anandtech review that scares me a bit.


Can anyone expand upon this?

Par for the course with Asus in my experience. Although .09V is an awful lot. I see .05-.06V at times on my P5W.

Nice review. I think if I were buying another board today, I would probably buy this board, and the review helped confirm that ;).
 
Can anyone recommend cooling for the south and northbridge? I was thinking this to passively cool the southbridge (would it block anything?) and attaching something like this to the northbridge somehow. Not sure how, maybe by wedging in some screws or using zipties. Any suggestions?

The choice is between a p5b-deluxe non-wifi and this board, by the way... finally zeroing in on my c2d purchase after months of adding stuff to my newegg cart and going no, no, not yet... yeah I'm one of those guys.
 
schizo said:
Can anyone recommend cooling for the south and northbridge? I was thinking this to passively cool the southbridge (would it block anything?) and attaching something like this to the northbridge somehow. Not sure how, maybe by wedging in some screws or using zipties. Any suggestions?

The choice is between a p5b-deluxe non-wifi and this board, by the way... finally zeroing in on my c2d purchase after months of adding stuff to my newegg cart and going no, no, not yet... yeah I'm one of those guys.

The SB is right behind the secondary PCIe slot, so height of the sink is an issue, can't give you an exact number, but if you don't care about sli it shouldn't matter.
 
wolfhero said:
Now if they could just ditch the SLI-silliness and go with just 1 PCIEX16 like they ditch the dual gigabit lan, that would be great board for average overclocking joe. Seriously, SLI/Crossfire is useless unless for majority of the average joe market.
Case in point is 8800GTS/GTX vs previous gen SLI, new generation single card owned the more expensive SLI setup.
Also, most people don't even use the 2nd lan connection unless you use your computer as internet gateway or connection shairing. Really, what are the % of people using that?

Why waste money on the extra motherboard component?

if you dont need the sli, dont use it. the price difference between a 650sli board and a 650ultra board (non-sli) is probably only a few bucks anyway. and its a good bet you will see a hell of a lot more 650sli boards than 650 ultra boards for sale. and according to the sigs people here have, a lot of guys are using sli, and a lot of guys plan to upgrade to sli in the future. sli/xfire is a good way to get a large performance jump without swapping out motherboards. you arent going to get a 30% bump by upgrading from a 6400 to a 6700, or from 1gb ran to 2gb, or from value ram to $500 ram. i think its a pretty decent option to have available.
 
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