Re: ASUS A8N-SLI Premium or the ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe???
- From: nospam@xxxxxxxxxx (Paul)
- Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 17:21:47 GMT
In article <tjljv1dqnkqf70tpele1gi762qutopuvml@xxxxxxx>,
ssouva@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
What is the big difference between the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium and the
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe mobos? I have looked at several of the
comparisons on Newegg and the Asus site, but don't see why the
A8N32-SLI Deluxe is the more expensive board. Can someone just point
me in the right direction? What have I missed?
I had initially thought the ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe as going to be the
mobo for my new system. After reading several nightmare stories in
the Asus Forums, I now question if the ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe is the
best selection for my new system. My hardware consists of the
following:
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Processor Socket 939
- Corsair VS1GB400C3 1GB DDR400 PC3200 CAS3 Value Select Memory
- eVGA e-GeForce 7800 GT PCI Express 256MB DDR3 Video Card w/HDTV,
Dual DVI & VIVO
- Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KS 320GB Serial ATA II 7200RPM
Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer
- Plextor PX-716SA 16X Internal Serial ATA Dual Layer DVD±R/RW CD-R/RW
Drive
- Viewsonic VX924 19in LCD Monitor
- Antec Performance TX TX1050B SOHO Mid Tower case (Black)
Any thoughts on this configuration and should I stick with the ASUS
A8N-SLI Premium? The memory listed is on-sale at ZipZoomFly for
$79.99 for a 1GB stick. It seems rather cheap, maybe I should get
better memory? Any help would be appreciated.
Scott
This would be a limited block diagram of the A8N32. There
are two x16 video card slots. But the available bandwidth
at the processor itself, is only good for an x16 PCIe rate,
which means if both video cards need service at the same time,
they get it at an average x8 rate.
(PCIe is 250MB/sec per lane, so x16 PCIe lanes is 4GB/sec. Each
lane has separate TX and RX bus.)
(Mem) <-------> S939 (single digit numbers shown
6Gb/sec half duplex Athlon64 are maximum bandwidth per
| direction, in GB/sec)
^ | 4
| | | 16 bit HT busses:
4 | v 1000MHz x 2 x 16 = 4GB each
| (DDR) (bits) direction
4 -> --------+-------------
PCI x16 -----------| NVIDIA nForce SPP 100|
<- 4 --------+-------------
|
^ | 4
| | | 16 bit HT busses:
4 | v 1000MHz
|
4 -> --------+-------------------
PCI x16 -----------| NVIDIA Nforce4 Southbridge |
<- 4 ----------------------------
| | |
Other_I/O_Devices here
This would be an A8N-SLI Premium. The chipset is a single
chip in this case.
(Mem) <-------> S939 (single digit numbers shown
6Gb/sec half duplex Athlon64 are maximum bandwidth per
| direction, in GB/sec)
^ | 4
| | | 16 bit HT busses:
4 | v 1000MHz x 2 x 16 = 4GB each
<- 2 | (DDR) (bits) direction
2 -> --------+-------------
PCI x8 -----------| |
| NVIDIA nForce4 SLI |
PCI x8 -----------| |
<- 2 ----------------------
2 -> | | |
Other_I/O_Devices here
The advantage to the A8N32 could be, that when occasion arises,
one video card pf the SLI pair, can work at the full x16 rate,
to the memory attached to the side of the processor. But if you
have a single video card, you can put the A8N-SLI Premium in
non-SLI mode and achieve the full x16 rate as well.
Also, you can see, that by some freak set of circumstances, there
is actually a 4GB/sec "up" and a 4GB/sec "down" transaction on
the Hypertransport RX and TX links to the processor, the memory
can only handle an aggregate of about 6GB/sec (as seen by Sandra)
bandwidth. Which means an average 3GB/sec on the "up" bus and
3 GB/sec on the "down" bus. And the processor would be stopped
dead in its tracks, starved for bandwidth, because it needs to
do memory read/write once in a while too :-)
So while both diagrams are littered with "fat pipes", not every
fat pipe can run full out, arbitrarily.
The A8N32 costs more to make, as there are two chips in the
"chipset". The Premium or the Deluxe uses a combo chip that
performs both the Northbridge and the Southbridge function.
The Premium uses Pericom chips, to take the place of the
paddle card used on the Deluxe - the Pericom chips can
reroute the PCI Express lanes on the fly, and allow the
SLI or non-SLI bus configurations. That is why the Premium
doesn't use a paddle card. The Premium can change modes
electronically, rather than physically with a paddle card.
I would say the A8N32 is intended for the same person who
buys CAS2 memory over CAS3 memory. It would allow the last
5% of performance to be extracted (assuming there are no
chipset limitations, and the drivers do a good job of using
the hardware). Now, depending on which motherboard achieves
higher overclocks, might be the deciding factor on which
one to get. And I have no idea how the two boards compare
in that department. (A8N32 has eight phase power, the other
boards are three phase power, but only an overclocker's forum
will be able to tell you whether that is making any difference
at all. The eight phase power uses "smaller" phases, so it
is not an 8/3 advantage, if that is what you are thinking.
More like comparing a 2 liter V-8 to a 1.6 liter three
cylinder :-) Smoother power.)
Also, I would suggest you look at the slot layout of the two
motherboards, and see how the provided slots will work with
your intended card mix. Depending on the thickness of the cards
you plug in, and the length of the cards, one board might
be better for you than the other.
Paul
.
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- ASUS A8N-SLI Premium or the ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe???
- From: Scott Souva
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