Asus A7N8X-X - Asus A7N8X-X
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The Motherboard
A quick glance at the motherboard looks strikingly similar to the older brother A7N8X Deluxe. The first apparent difference is the all black DIMM slots. Due to the lack of dual channel support, Asus colored all the DIMM slots black. This indication shows that no matter how your memory sticks are arranged, no dual channel support will be given. A more detailed look shows that the board is without the Silicone SATA controller. It has no second ethernet jack. Although I see this as a gain since there is one less feature to incorporate on the board, hence the lower cost, but it still does not feel "right" knowing that the bigger brother has it.
Having only one serial port is not a big deal; most people don't even use anything that uses serial ports. Personally, I think it looks crippled knowing that the board is not symmetric. HA HA! I'm just picky. The motherboard is a rev2.0, meaning that it supports 200FSB CPUS such as the XP3200+. The rev2.0 on the A7N8X Deluxe turned out to be a pretty good overclocker. We'll see soon later on whether it holds true for Asus's "X" board.
The Asus A7N8X-X Northbridge with the new A1 revision. This revision officially supports the 200FSB processors.
Here is the nForce2 MCP southbridge.
The floppy and IDE connectors are placed close to the 3rd DIMM slot. Although it can clutter a little while installing, it helps hide away all the unnecessary cable length behind or in drive cages. The choice of having the floppy connector over the main power connector at the edge of the board was a smart choice. It helps hide away the floppy cable easier. The main power connector would have caused obstruction if it was placed otherwise.
Although the board does not support dual channel, the DIMM slots are still arranged like the older brother. It looks as if they support dual channel. This can be quite misleading to some. I only know of one other manufacturer that released a single channel nForce2 motherboard and that is Soltek. They have changed the layout of their motherboard so that there are only two DIMM slots.
One odd thing that put a frown on my face was where the motherboard was made. Made in China??? I thought all motherboards were made in Taiwan. I guess Asus really needed to cut down on production cost so they went over to China for some cheap labor. HAHA
Although the "X" series has been stripped of features, it still has the basics that give Asus their reputation. Asus uses the same Northbridge passive heatsink for most of their AMD motherboards. While this may seem a bit on the weak side, it does not always mean less performance. Tests were conducted on the Microcool Northpole and it shows that having a passive Northbridge heatsink is not all that bad. Given that there is a higher powered CPU fan running, the Northbridge will be kept fairly cool with the amount of air that the CPU fan releases. However, this passive heatsink will definitely not be good enough if users are going to go with watercooling. Keep in mind that additional cooling on the Northbridge will be necessary if watercooling is used.
I removed the Northbridge heatsink and found that they used a thick layer of pink thermal pad. It would definitely have been better that they used some white silicone grease. The thermal pad doesn't even cover the entire Northbridge!!!
Asus follows to use their Asus Hardware Monitor chip. The Asus Probe helps monitor temperatures and voltages throughout your system. I don't suggest trusting the temperature readings but Asus has been closer than others on this department. The Asus Probe is a nice tool to have to monitor voltage settings.
Asus planted a green diagnostic LED light between the 4th and 5th PCI slot. When the system has power running through the board, the LED will light. If not, then you've got a dud board.
Next are the chips that support onboard features. The Realtek chip is used for LAN purposes. Nothing great but not too shabby either. The onboard sound is controlled by the ALC650 chip. Damn these chips are getting smaller and smaller.
The front panel connectors are nothing extraordinary. There are no prints on the motherboard that help connect the LEDs so referring to the manual would be necessary. There are a total of only 2 fan connectors. The third one was taken out. I thought this was a bad choice. Wouldn't you agree?
Above the front panel connectors are the extra USB 2.0 connector and the optional game port. This board is too focused on budget that it leaves out the game port. This will be a turn-off for many gamers as they won't have the game port to connect joysticks and game pads.
For some strange reason, Asus only uses 2 phase power on their motherboards. This was found on the Asus A7N8X Deluxe, the A7V8X, and the upcoming review of the A7V600. Having more power phases is always better since it helps maintain stability in overclocking, especially when voltages are being pushed to the max. Most motherboards implement 3 phase power. Gigabyte has taken to the extreme of having 6 phase powers on their recent motherboards. I still ponder sometimes why Asus only uses 2 phase power. Then again, if my overclock is high and stable, I'll be happy.
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