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Everyone in the computer
enthusiast community is familiar with the Asus name. This top tier
manufacturer has been producing and delivering high quality offerings across
their very considerable product line for over 13 years. Asus’ products include
notebooks, graphics cards, optical storage, PDAs, and assorted server, desktop
PC, and communications equipment. To us they are best known for their
motherboards. Regardless of what the requirements may be; full featured to
value priced; enterprise to SOHO, Asus has a mainboard that will fit the
need. Today, ExtremeMhz will be reviewing the Asus A7N8x motherboard based on
the nForce2 chipset.
The Bundle
**click to enlarge**
The
bundle that was included with the A7N8X is very generous and in all honesty,
to be expected for a motherboard of this caliber. In addition to the
motherboard itself, the package we received included an I/O shield, a 9 pin
com cable, a 2 port firewire bracket, a 2 port USB 2.0/Game Port bracket, 2
serial cables, and the obligatory manual, quick reference card, assorted
DMA/Floppy cables, and a case badge.
The support CD included
reference drivers, the Asus Probe utility, a copy of PC-cillin 2002 anti-virus
software, and a proprietary update utility.
Product
Specifications
The
specs direct from Asus’ site:
Processor
Socket A for AMD® Athlon™ XP/ Athlon™/ Duron™ 600MHz ~ 2.8GHz+
Thoroughbred core CPU ready
Chipset
North Bridge: NVIDIA®
nForce2 SPP
South Bridge: NVIDIA® nForce2 MCP-T(Deluxe Model) / MCP
FSB
333 / 266 / 200 MHz
Memory
Dual-Channel DDR 400
3 x 184-pin DIMM Sockets
Max. 3 GB unbuffered PC3200/PC2700/PC2100/PC1600 non-ECC DDR RAM Memory (Twinbank)
Expansion Slots
1 x AGP Pro/8X
(1.5V only)
5 x PCI
IDE Ports
2 x UltraDMA 133/100/66/33
Serial ATA (Deluxe Model)
Silicon Image® Sil 3112A Controller with 2 ports
Support RAID 0/1
Audio
Realtek® ALC650 6CH w/built in HP amplifier
Integrated
APU (Audio Processor
Unit, Deluxe Model)
SoundStorm™
/ Dolby® Digital (AC-3) Encoder (Deluxe Model)
LAN
2 Ports
MCP integrated NVIDIA® MAC + Realtek® 8201BL PHY
MCP integrated 3Com® MAC + Broadcom® AC101L PHY (Deluxe Model)
1394
2 Ports MCP-T Integrated IEEE 1394a + Realtek® PHY 8801B (Deluxe Model)
Special Features
Post Reporter (Deluxe Model)
Power Loss Restart
Q-Fan Technology
STR (Suspend-to-RAM)
C.O.P. (CPU Overheating Protection)
CPU Throttle
Back Panel I/O Ports
1 x Parallel
1 x Serial
1 x PS/2 Keyboard
1 x PS/2 Mouse
1 x Audio I/O
4 x USB 2.0
1 x Surround L/R audio jack + 1 x CNTR/LFE audio jack (optional)
2 X RJ45 (optional, 2nd RJ45 is for Deluxe Model)
Internal I/O Connectors
2 x USB 2.0 connector support additional 2 USB 2.0 ports
CPU/Power/Chassis FAN connectors
Game Connector
20 pin ATX power connector
IDE LED connector, power LED connector
2 x 1394 Connector (Deluxe Model)
2 x SATA (Serial ATA) Connector (Deluxe Model)
WOR, WOL, Chassis Intrusion, SM Bus, SIR
Headphone (optional)
Front MIC
CD/AUX/Modem audio in
Front Panel Audio connector (optional)
BIOS Feature
4Mb Flash ROM, Award BIOS, TCAV, PnP, DMI2.0, DMI, Green
Industrial Standard
PCI 2.2, USB 2.0
Manageability
DMI 2.0, WOR, WOL, Chassis Intrusion, SM Bus
Support CD
Drivers
ASUS® PC Probe
Trend Micro™ PC-cillin 2002 anti-virus software with Windows® XP support
ASUS LiveUpdate Utility
Accessories
I/O Shield
SATA Cable (Deluxe Model)
2-port USB 2.0(Deluxe Model) / Game port bracket
User's Manual / Quick Reference Guide
UltraDMA 133 cable
2-Port 1394 Bracket (Deluxe Model)
FDD cable
UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable
9-pin COM cable
Form Factor
ATX Form Factor
12" x 9.6" (30.5cm x 24.5cm)
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