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Asus A8N32-SLI Premium
- Thread starter 16Valve
- Start date
Raudulfr said:I guess I was wrongThe GeForce 6150/6100 / nForce430/410 will have conventional heatsinks, these will still have the A8N Premium's heatpipes, new ones though
Behold
Another motherboard that I can't buy due to its design. I can get that board put in my SLI video cards with the arctic cooling heatsinks and then take my 2 pci cards ( X-Fi and TV card) and...... Oh wait, I can't.
I got my Asus A8N-SLI Premium because I can still easily use 2 of the PCI slots. My X-Fi sound card is long enough that it has to be atleast 2 slots away from the video cards so it doesnt interfer with the fan. But I am waiting until the new sockets come out before I upgrade anyway so oh well.
This layout is horrible. You have two 6800 ultra cards or the newer Quadros and you have no PCI slots open. (Maybe the lower one in the middle....maybe...if you want to block the intake fan of the top card's HSF.) Damn hope other companies do a better job with the layout.
AACDIRECT said:
I wouldn't call that horrible. You can definatley from the looks of it install a sound card above the second video card slot. Now while this isn't ideal, the 6800 Ultra is the only card this could be an issue with. Even then, how does this differ from EVERY other SLi board on the planet that has the slots too close together? Seems like an ok comprimise to me. They had to make some changes for the 2 chip solution that makes up this chipset.
kleox64 said:
In a way it does. It has a Northbridge and a Southbridge, like older chipseets for the Athlon XP and the Pentium 4's do now. However, this chipset looks like a more or less direct port of the nForce Professional Chipset 2250/2200 to the desktop. One chip covers the PCI-E lanes of the top PEG slot and the other chip, the bottom PEG slot.
Now, I haven't looked at all the chipset specific features of this new board, but my guess is (from the look of it) that its very similar to the nForce Pro chipset.
Sir-Fragalot said:
The issue is not with just the Ultra. The Asus 7800 GTX cards will not fit a DFI mobo because the fans are bigger than the 6800 Ultra to the point that the fan of one card hits the other one.. Also the new Quadros have a large HSF. On a system running SLI with any of these cards or with aftermarket cooling (aka watercooling) the chance of having room to add any PCI cards is near zero. Even if you can the PCI card is going to block the intake of the videocard restricting airflow. In my opinion the layout is bad because of this. BTW I personally don't like MSI to much but the layout looks better on that board. Atleast you have one PCI slot 100% free and clear. (Wonder if that board requires an EPS PSU....note the 8 pin connector on it.)
AACDIRECT said:
There is no 8 pin connector on that board. I've looked over it, and all it has is the standard 24pin ATX 2.0 connector, the 4 pin 12v connector, and a 4 pin standard molex connector. Just like all the current SLi boards now.
You're point is valid on the Quadro's, but considering the layout alternatives, I just don't see they had any other choice. If they had the PEG slots closer, they could have freed up a PCI slot for any and all situations and needs, but you still would have blocked the top slot of a 6800Ultra or Quadro, the same as you would on any other board. At least this way, if you don' t need an extra PCI slot, you're cards will never have their airflow restrecited.
I agree it would have been better if they could have kept the layout more like that of the previous A8N-SLi Deluxe and the A8N-SLi Premium. That would have made virtually everyone happy, except for the rarer few who wanted the extra 4x PCI-E slot.
My biggest complaint with that board is the fact that there is only 4 SATA connectors other than that lone goofy one in the back near the backplane.