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Asus K8N-E Deluxe Motherboard Review
Asus K8N-E Deluxe Motherboard Review - PCSTATS
Comes loaded with features like an additional four port Serial ATA/RAID Silicon Image controller, Gigabit IDE RAID, 8.1 channel audio and IEEE 1394a.
Filed under: Motherboards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: ASUS Sep 10 2004   C. Sun  
Home > Reviews > Motherboards > ASUS K8N-E Deluxe

Asus K8N-E Deluxe Motherboard Review

By now it should be clear that 2004 is a transition year between old and new technologies. If you're an enthusiast it's a very exciting and expensive time, so it's no surprise that many consumers have decided to lay low till the dust settles.

Looking back, the biggest complaint coming from geeks who bought the first Athlon64 motherboards to be released was that there was a total lack of a functioning AGP/PCI. If you're world revolves around overclocking, this is a big limitation. Normal computer users on the other hand couldn't care less.

In any case, in this review PCstats will be focusing on the brand new Asus K8N-E Socket 754 motherboard. This little baby is powered by nVidia's nForce3-250Gb chipset, and comes loaded with features like an additional four port Serial ATA/RAID Silicon Image controller, Gigabit IDE RAID, 8.1 channel audio and IEEE 1394a. On the software front, the bundle lists WinDV Platinum 5, WinDVD Creator Platinum 2 and WinRip2 software among the titles.

Asus K8N-E Deluxe Motherboard

Includes:

Users Manual, Motherboard Sticker, Quick Setup Guide, WinDVD Software Suite, Driver CD, Two Ultra/133 IDE Cables, One Ultra/33 IDE Cable, One Floppy Drive Cable, Four Serial ATA Cables, Two Molex Y Serial ATA Splitter Cables, Game Port/USB Port Bracket, IEEE 1394a Bracket, I/O Shield

The Asus K8N-E Deluxe motherboard comes in the standard 'Asus brown' shade, and maintains a pretty good component layout that won't cause too many headaches when you go to install it. All the IEEE 1394 and Serial ATA headers are at the bottom, and well out of the way.

The nForce3 250GB chipset gets passed off with a dead silent, totally passive heatsink that is kind small. When the board is overclocked, this little BGA heatsinks gets warm, so point a fan in its direction if you feel it is holding things back. If you're interested in learning a bit more on nForce3-250 technology make sure you check out our Epox 8KDA3+ review.

I've never understood why all nForce3-250 based motherboard have their two native Serial ATA channels positioned right above the AGP slot. I suppose they don't really interfere with anything, but it's an odd location to place something like that.

As you can see from the picture on the right, Asus has implemented a new type of videocard locking slot. It's certainly easier to use than the older systems which required a switch, and can be accessed from both the top and bottom. It's handy for those of us wth high end cards with memory RAMsinks.

Frequent readers of PCStats know that I have ripped a lot of older onboard audio codec's for sapping too much CPU power and providing low quality audio. Manufacturers have heard our complaints, yes and the quality of sound and features has certainly gone up! Cool features like a set of SPDIF outputs (coaxial and optical) on the rear I/O only make things sweeter!

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Contents of Article: ASUS K8N-E Deluxe
 Pg 1.  — Asus K8N-E Deluxe Motherboard Review
 Pg 2.  Overclocking with the K8N-E
 Pg 3.  System Spec's and Benchmarks
 Pg 4.  Benchmarks: Winstone 2002, Winbench 99
 Pg 5.  Benchmarks: SiSoft Sandra, Super Pi
 Pg 6.  Benchmarks: PCMark2002, 3DMark2001, AquaMark3
 Pg 7.  Benchmarks: Comanche 4, X2: The Threat, UT2003
 Pg 8.  Benchmarks: UT2004, Doom3

 
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