Product Listing

ASUS P5N-T Deluxe (NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI)

By Zachary Chan - 25 Jan 2008

Conclusion

Conclusion

Despite the unorthodox method of getting PCI Express 2.0 into a chipset refresh, the nForce 780i SLI is still a powerful chipset in today's market, sans DDR3 support. ASUS did a very good job configuring the motherboard and the usual ASUS quality can be seen throughout, from its design, layout and finish. Besides chipset features, ASUS has also been piling on proprietary technology onto their motherboards and the P5N-T Deluxe is one of the next wave of boards to feature ASUS' own EPU voltage regulator as well as a PWM design upgrade to match Gigabyte's offerings. This puts the two motherboard giants on a similar footing when it comes to PWM component use.

In terms of experience however, we've mixed reactions. The P5N-T Deluxe is a solid and stable motherboard if you're the 'install-and-forget' kind of user. However, overclockers need to be aware that there are still some lingering CPU compatibility issues with the board. The good news is that ASUS seems to be on the ball about this, as they've been coming up with new BIOS updates over the past weeks to address this. The bad news is that it's still not perfect. In our case, overclocking with a dual-core processor went flawlessly, achieving the expected overclocking headroom from the chipset with a high maximum of 490MHz (1960MHz QDR). However, the board would hardly overclock with a quad-core Kentsfield processor, hitting a ceiling at 390MHz.

Benchmark results on the P5N-T Deluxe were erratic as well. Clearly, it would seem that the larger part of the problem for the P5N-T Deluxe was its graphics subsystem, which was pulling down the overall results in every benchmark, with SPECviewperf 9.0 being the most impacted. At this point in time, it seems like this is the fault of the nForce 780i SLI not living up to expectations rather than a board issue. However, we can't confirm if this is a problem with the way graphics is routed through the nForce 200 or other chipset implementation. As we get more nForce 700i series boards in for testing, the situation should become clearer. Hopefully, it's not a conflict of proper PCIe generation one compatibility.

If SLI is something you absolutely require, the P5N-T Deluxe can probably be considered, but for everything else, any of the mentioned ASUS Intel 3-Series boards would probably do a better job.

With the graphics wars heating up again, NVIDIA basically forced themselves into a situation where they needed to support their own 3-way SLI configuration. And since their own chipset was the only official means to run SLI (besides using Intel workstation motherboards), NVIDIA's nForce 780i SLI is really just a stop gap to keep NVIDIA's brand relevant in the chipset market while they work to get the nForce 790i SLI out in earnest.

While the Striker II Formula (the other ASUS SKU using the nForce 780i SLI chipset) has a valid gaming angle to it; the only segment that would probably benefit from 3-Way SLI, we cannot find any real reason to recommend the P5N-T Deluxe over ASUS' range of Intel 3-Series motherboards. Price-wise, the nForce 780i SLI isn't the most expensive in the market anymore, probably because of its DDR2 heritage as well. The P5N-T Deluxe (US$280) sits between the P5K3 Deluxe (US$230) and P5E3 Deluxe (US$330), but the chipset value just isn't there when you look at its positioning and performance.

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