Product Listing

ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe (nForce 590 SLI)

By Zachary Chan - 10 Jun 2006

Conclusion

Conclusion

From our benchmarking session, the base performance of the M2N32-SLI Deluxe may not look too different from the mid-range MSI K9N Platinum. However, the M2N32-SLI Deluxe will only truly shine in the hands of the enthusiast who has the time to tweak. It still seems that it is a little too early judge the full capabilities of the nForce 500 series MCPs though. As a new chipset implementation, many manufacturers (ASUS included) are still in the process of fine tuning their boards and debugging those pesky little quirks. Ever since the M2N32-SLI Deluxe arrived at our labs, we've had almost a half dozen BIOS revisions coming every other day. The good news is that things seem to get better with each revision and it looks like more performance can be squeezed out of the board.

Improving upon the already feature rich nForce 590 SLI chipset, the M2N32-SLI Deluxe leaves nothing to be desired in terms of features. Dual Gigabit LAN, WiFi (Wireless Edition only), FireWire, two SATA 3.0Gbps controllers, HD Audio with S/PDIF, support for all Socket AM2 processors and full SLI x16 compatibility. The only consumer feature that one would probably miss on the M2N32-SLI Deluxe would be a TV Tuner. On the downside, the M2N32-SLI Deluxe is a little low on expansion possibilities. While this might sound contradicting to what we've just said about its features, many gamers would still like to use a dedicated sound card. Furthermore, proprietary add-on cards like Ageia's PhysX physics processing unit is shaping up to further enhance game play as we know it, but requiring yet another expansion slot. So despite the board's capabilities, you can see that fulfilling a demanding enthusiast would still be a tall order.

Still, the M2N32-SLI Deluxe is no doubt one of the most advanced motherboards to date for the AMD platform and users can expect to shell out a premium for it. The ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe will initially carry an SRP of around US$250 for the flagship Wireless Edition, but if you look around the many online retailers, you could probably find one for less.

One final note is when you are on the hunt to build a new AMD AM2 system, our advice at this early stage of platform proliferation is to be careful of your DDR2 memory choice and make certain with your retailers of the various exchange policies should you encounter a mismatch.

Join HWZ's Telegram channel here and catch all the latest tech news!
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.