ASUS A8n-e Premium NForce 4

[Compddd]

I want one badly. Whens it due to arrive? and will the NF4 chipset still be cooled by a passive heatsink like in the first pics we saw of this board?

 

[Steg55]

meh - ive given up waiting and ordered the AN8-Sli Deluxe...should be here 2moro

Steg

 

[geogecko]

I e-mailed ASUS again (not as friendly this time), but have still not heard back from them, as of yesterday.

I think that's what ASUS wants us all to do, is go out and buy the SLI board. Heck, they are probably doing that on purpose, to force people to buy it, if they want an ASUS board.

Well, ASUS, there are other nForce4 ULTRA board makers out there, so if you want to keep your business, then I suggest you pony up, and come out with the board, or force us all to go buy a board from MSI...

 

[Trente]

IMO, Asus is WAY overrated these days. I'd pick up the MSI instead of waiting...

 

[geogecko]

Hmm...Good news or not? Hard to tell from the response. I'll post it here, and get you guy's opinion on what this means. Meanwhile, I sent a reply back to ASUS that can only be answered with a Yes or No (hopefully). I'll post that response, when and if I get it.

Trente. Why would you say ASUS is overrated? Just wondering what's behind that comment? I've always tried to stay with the big 3-4 MB makers, at least what I consider to be (MSI, ASUS, ABIT, and Gigabyte). My current home PC has an old ABIT MB and the computer I built for my brother has an MSI in it, and we've rarely if at all, had problems with them.

---E-Mail to ASUS---

Dear Customer,

Email DESCRIPTION
-----------
I''ve sent three e-mails asking about this particular board, (A8N-E
Premium) that has been seen on the internet in a couple locations, and have yet to hear anything about it. I must make a buying decision in the next few weeks, and would like to buy this board, over all the others available. If I don''t get an answer as to if this board is even going to come out, then I will have to go with another choice.

Can I please get an update if this board will even come to market?

Thank you in advance.


Jason




Email solution
-----------
Please watch for these motherboards to be released in the next couple weeks.

Best Regards,

DRR001

 

[Melquiades]

I gave up waiting for this board when the MSI Nforce4 Ultra appeared at Newegg - I've had my new computer set up for about 2 weeks now w/ no problems whatsoever. I am very happy with the MSI board, hopefully for those set on the Asus the "next couple weeks" comes quickly...

 

[Hammer0id]

Heehee,
I gave up the waiting too, but the MSI NF4 Ultra Platinum 54G isn't avaible in Germany.
Every shop has it listet for 28.02.05...already ordered one..

 

[geogecko]

Looks like ASUS dropped the ball on this one. That's 2 (correction, 3) people on this thread that have gone with something else. I'm going to hold out at least until the beginning of March, if I can, since my case isn't due to be ready until the last week of March, or beginning of April. No point in ordering a MB, CPU, and GPU if it's going to sit for 2 months and just get cheaper at the on-line stores.

My main reason for liking the ASUS over the others, is the passive cooler. While the Chaintek (sp?) has a passive cooler, it doesn't have everything I need in a MB. If I see no ASUS in the next 3 weeks, then it looks like I'll be going with either the SLI version of the ASUS, or the MSI version...but both of those require more work on my part to get them "quiet" enough for an HTPC.

 

[geogecko]

Any links of pictures of that MSI 54G board?

 

[Hammer0id]

Originally posted by: geogecko
Any links of pictures of that MSI 54G board?

It's the same as the regular K8n Neo4 Platinum, but there's a 54Mbit PCI Wlan card included:
(German Site
http://www.msi-computer.de/produkte/main_idx_view.php?Prod_id=430

 

[geogecko]

Ah. I see. So you basically have to take up the orange PCI slot with the card then. I guess that's okay. Not a bad board. I don't really need WiFi anyway, since my cable modem and router are all located around my entertainment center. It would be nice for setting up though, just to not have to run an ethernet cable so my setup bench.

 

[Compddd]

I too am waiting for the A8N-E Prem because it has a passive cooler and I don't want SLI since it is a loud hot expensive gimmick. I will continue to wait for this board I hope it comes soon Asus!

 

[ottodostal]

I am waiting for A8N-E Premium for the same reasons. I will continue to wait for this board for a while, but buying the MSI board and replacing the fan with zalman is tempting. Also the announced Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9 seems to have passive cooling on the pictures (http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/motherboard/...s/Products_Spec_GA-K8N%20Ultra-9.htm#).

 

[Hammer0id]

The A8N-E is now announced by a german Hardware Site:

http://www.computerbase.de/news/hardwar...steme/2005/februar/jetzt_sli_asus_a8n/

http://pics.computerbase.de/news/10095/1.jpg

No news about a Premium version

 

[geogecko]

This doesn't look promising, if the A8N-E has a fan on the nForce4 chip. My guess, is that if the Premium does show up, it will have a fan as well.

Never noticed that Gigabyte. That's another choice as well. What's the difference between the two Gigabyte nForce4 Ultra boards, besides the passive/active cooling?

 

[tmchow]

this is bad news about the chipset fan.. all the previous pictures I saw showed that it was passively cooled. I guess they were either using early-prototype pictures or pictures of a different motherboard?

Either case, it doesn't look like there is any reason to wait for the A8N-E (premium or not) if the chipset has a fan. I'll just get the SLI version instead of waiting 3 more weeks..sigh.

 

[babcom]

Well, if you look here:
http://tw.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_nForce4+Ultra.htm

you could believe there is no operational difference in the two Gigabyte NF4 Ultra boards, but look at the pictures that Gigabyte has on their site.
The K8NXP-9 has additionally an extra chip beside one of the four SATA connectors and a blue connector to the right of the CPU socket.
And looking at the spec list:
http://tw.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_Spec_GA-K8NXP-9.htm
http://tw.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Products/Products_GA-K8N%20Ultra-9.htm

it appears the K8NXP-9 has additionally:
1. Dual Power System (DPS)
2. 802.11g compatible Wireless adapter

BTW, Gigabyte list DPS as a feature of the Ultra-9 in my first link, but if it isn't in the spec list ...?

So the Ultra-9 currently appears to be the only Ultra with passive cooling, since the Chaintech Ultra revision will have a fan.

 

[LrngToFly]

Looks like the A8N-E will be introduced after all!

http://www.ixbt-labs.com/news.html?113618

http://pcweb.mycom.co.jp/news/2005/02/10/010.html

I used Altavista's translater to translate the Japanese webpage- they're expected to be forsale in Japanese shops at the end of February.

I've noticed that the ASUS SLI Deluxe board has gone up in price at Newegg.com - $225. There's an ASUS non Deluxe SLI board forsale now too- at the price that Newegg used to sell the Deluxe!

 

[AppStar]

That is all great information... but the people here are waiting for the A8N-E PREMIUM (not the vanilla version).

Btw, I went with the MSI Neo4 Platinum a few weeks ago (on sale today at newegg.com). I am very pleased with the board. Just installed XP x64 RC2 yesterday (it came out the day before) and am thrilled with it. Almost all the drivers are included with the os.

 

[LrngToFly]

What's the difference between the Premium and non Premium? Where can I find a feature list comparison?

Thanks!

ps- at least there's _some_ movement on the A8N-E...

 

[AppStar]

The specs for the Premium are on the very first post of this topic

 

[stickybytes]

Originally posted by: tmchow
this is bad news about the chipset fan.. all the previous pictures I saw showed that it was passively cooled. I guess they were either using early-prototype pictures or pictures of a different motherboard?

Either case, it doesn't look like there is any reason to wait for the A8N-E (premium or not) if the chipset has a fan. I'll just get the SLI version instead of waiting 3 more weeks..sigh.

agreed. i thought the non-sli was suppose to be passively cooled but i guess we were wrong. that pretty much defeats the purpose of waiting out for the a8n-sli.

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

The nForce4 chipset just can't be passively cooled. Chaintech tried it but they're having to change the cooling on their boards now.

 

[tmchow]

i just placed my order for A8N-SLI Deluxe from ZipZoomFly.com for $189. Difference between deluxe and non-deluxe is that deluxe supports dual gigabit lan (there's one other difference, can't remember off the top of my head though).

Problem with asus is the noisy chipset fan..people are having great luck with using the Zalman NB47J fanless heatsink on it though.

 

[geogecko]

True, most of this talk has been about the A8N-E, and not the Premium version. We are missing WiFi, and possibly, the passive chipset cooler. From what it sounds like though, we may be waiting for a board that has changed from it's initial prototype version. In my e-mail, I specifically asked about the Premium version, so I am still assuming that this one is coming as well.

I for one, don't see why it "can't" be passively cooled. There are tons of people out there that are removing the HSF off of the A8N-SLI Deluxe boards, and putting the Zalman passive cooler on them, AND running SLI. I would think this configuration puts the most stress on the chipset. I have not seen one person that has done this, say that it affected performance. Some of these people are running SLI and even overclocking their system! So, I don't see why ASUS couldn't just put a passive cooler on there, it's cheaper in the long run anyway, and more reliable than a fan.