ASUS A8n-e Premium NForce 4

[LrngToFly]

Both the Premium and non Premium are based on the NForce 4 Ultra chipset, correct? If so, then both should be SATA II (3 Gb/s)


It's the NForce 4 non Ultra/non SLI that is 1.5 I believe. You'd have to be nuts to buy a motherboard based on the non Ultra/SLI.

 

[geogecko]

Oh, yeah, correct. The difference is that you don't get the second SATA controller.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Found a picture of it w/ passive cooler. Anybody know German?
http://www.tweakers.net/nieuws/34478
http://www.hardwareluxx.de/story.php?id=1239

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

That picture is a little old.

If ASUS decides to release the A8N-E with passive cooling they can't use the thing in that picture, it's just not big enough.

I believe they'll use the same noisy thing they used on the A8V-E and A8N-SLI.

 

[Whitewolf]

Here is the final package of Asus A8N-E

Box Shot: http://img186.exs.cx/img186/1184/1109140115mainef0fw.jpg
Layout: http://img186.exs.cx/img186/4958/1109140118img16pk.gif
Close Look: http://img186.exs.cx/img186/5610/1109140122main223hj.jpg
Specs: http://img186.exs.cx/img186/780/17te.jpg

So it seems no passive cooling, but rather the noisy hsf that we have in the SLI models.

Also I noticed it is Rev2. Maybe that's why they released it so late. Let's hope the revision means they fixed the memory @ 1T problem of the SLI models and it can overclock memory very high.

 

[geogecko]

Looks good, if you don't want the additional SATA controller, or the WiFi. The layout is nice, because the HSF, if replaced with the Zalman NB47J heat sink, would not block any PCI or the 16x PCI-E slot.

I'd still like to have at least the second SATA controller, in order to allow for a 4 drive performance RAID array for a media, and then a dual drive mirrored array for the OS.

What is the story these days on the A8N-SLI Deluxe? Are they all Rev.04 now when you buy them? Do all problems seem fixed now?

 

[Capt Caveman]

Whitewolf, where'd you get the pics? Based on the specs, looks like there also will be a premium with Wifi?

Curious, are you happy with your A8N - SLI Deluxe? I got it couple of days ago but undecided if I should keep it or go with something else.

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

ASUS A8N-E:
http://www.asus.com.tw/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=0&model=455&modelmenu=1

 

[tmchow]

Originally posted by: ChineseDemocracyGNR
ASUS A8N-E:
http://www.asus.com.tw/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=0&model=455&modelmenu=1

I guess there goes all teh speculation about whether it would be passively cooled or not. The picture of the mobo at that link shows active cooling.

 

[Capt Caveman]

I may be a guinea pig and buy it.

 

[LrngToFly]

Here's are big pics of rev 2:

http://www.uac.co.jp/news/daily/050210/img/a8n_e_big2.jpg

http://www.uac.co.jp/news/daily/050210/img/a8n_e_big.jpg

Has anyone found any links saying that a premium/deluxe of the a8n-e rev 2 will be released? All the articles I've found re prem/del were from last october about the non released rev 1 board...

I obviously see the extra locations for the raid chip, SATA connectors etc., but that doesn't mean that they'll definitely manufacture the premium version...

 

[jose]

Is the A8N-E available to purchase yet ??? I'd order one right now if it is...

Regards,
Jose

 

[gate1975mlm]

Originally posted by: jose
Is the A8N-E available to purchase yet ??? I'd order one right now if it is...

Regards,
Jose

Will be in about 2 weeks or less!

 

[geogecko]

That's a nice looking board. I would think, since there is room for the additional SATA controller, and a few other things, that we'll see a Premium or Deluxe following fairly soon.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Atacom.com lists that they have it in stock but it's like $20 more than other places that list coming soon.
http://www.atacom.com/program/atacom.cg...RCH_ALL&ordered_number=&KEYWORDS=mba9_

At the Asus Download website, the A8N-e Ultra and A8N-SLI Premium are newly listed w/ 1001 bios. My guess is the next board that will come out will be the SLI - Premium using this board also. If you look closely at the board, it appears in the PCI-e x4 slot there's a black clip (as if the PCI-e x16 slot was removed for the x4 but the clip was left).

I am surprised that this board hasn't come out yet while they come out with the A8N-SLI non-deluxe.

 

[jose]

Thanks Capt Caveman, just ordered from atacom... I should get it wednesday....

Regards,
Jose

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
At the Asus Download website, the A8N-e Ultra and A8N-SLI Premium are newly listed w/ 1001 bios. My guess is the next board that will come out will be the SLI - Premium using this board also. If you look closely at the board, it appears in the PCI-e x4 slot there's a black clip (as if the PCI-e x16 slot was removed for the x4 but the clip was left).

The A8N-E 4x slot is actually a x2 slot (only 2 PCI-E lanes), but you can use a video card on it, similiar to the 4x slot on the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum. ASUS was wise to keep the clip there.
SLI will not work though, unless you mod the chipset (which I don't know if is still possible) or hack the nVidia graphics drivers. But it's useful for having more video outputs.

 

[Capt Caveman]

The Asus website which you gave us the link to, lists the PCE-e slot as x4 slot, http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=455&l1=3&l2=15&l3=0

Originally posted by: ChineseDemocracyGNR

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
At the Asus Download website, the A8N-e Ultra and A8N-SLI Premium are newly listed w/ 1001 bios. My guess is the next board that will come out will be the SLI - Premium using this board also. If you look closely at the board, it appears in the PCI-e x4 slot there's a black clip (as if the PCI-e x16 slot was removed for the x4 but the clip was left).

The A8N-E 4x slot is actually a x2 slot (only 2 PCI-E lanes), but you can use a video card on it, similiar to the 4x slot on the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum. ASUS was wise to keep the clip there.
SLI will not work though, unless you mod the chipset (which I don't know if is still possible) or hack the nVidia graphics drivers. But it's useful for having more video outputs.

 

[gritzali]

No IEEE1394 onboard..Shouldn't that be standard? What a disappointment.. And I was ready to get it..

 

[stickybytes]

indeed, why is there no onboard firewire on the a8n-e?

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
The Asus website which you gave us the link to, lists the PCE-e slot as x4 slot, http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=455&l1=3&l2=15&l3=0

The nForce4 only supports 20 PCI-E lanes. On their website they have:
"1 x PCI Express x16 slot
2x PCI Express x1
1x PCI Express x4 (supports up to 1GB/s)
3 x PCI "

Notice they only say the bandwidth available for the x4 slot, that would point out that it's limited and not really x4. 1GB/s up and 1GB/s down would be x4, but it's probably 512MB/s up and 512MB/s down.
It could be possible to disable the PCI-E x1 slots and have 4 lanes to the x4, but I don't see jumpers on the board to do that.

 

[jose]

The specs on the A8N-E list 1394 onboard, that's firewire..

Regards,
Jose

 

[gritzali]

What specs are you looking at?

According to the Asus web site, it does not have FireWire. Look at the pictures. The connector is missing on the back as well.


Asus A8N-E Specs

 

[gritzali]

Hold your horses on ordering the board..

Atacom's website is incorrect. The link A8N at Atacom

They call it the A8N-E with the NForce 4 Ultra chipset in the short description, but it is actually the VIA K8T890 chipset board known as the Asus A8V-E. The specs in the detailed description and the pictures seem to reflect that this is not the A8N-E..

It might explain how they happen to have it in stock when no one else seems to have it.:Q

 

[NightCrawler]

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