The Mother Of Motherboards? Quite Possibly. (Asus AiLifestyle Series P5N32-SLI Premium/WiFi-AP)

Member Name: Claire_DC

Product:	Asus AiLifestyle Series P5N32-SLI Premium/WiFi-AP
Date:	21/09/08 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Powerful, Future Proof, Useful Features, Has Internal Soundcard

Disadvantages: Can seem pricey compared to the basic cheaper motherboards, worth it though .

Taken from my Ciao account, and originally written in July 2007!

I am going to tell you what I think of this motherboard without going into major geek talk as I don't believe most people will want to know the bus speeds etc as that information is available on-line in other places, but I do think people are interested to know if somebody who owns it thinks it's worth getting, and is able to understand why that person thinks it is a good board.

I got this motherboard for my new pc and I have to say that it works like a dream - I've never really paid out more for a motherboard as I didn't see what difference it could make but since I've started learning more about PC's (with a view to possibly working in IT) I've realised that a decent motherboard is an important addition to a pc that runs well and without too many hitches.


Features of the board are:
- Quad-SLI Ready
- Intel® CoreTM2 Extreme / CoreTM2 Duo Ready
- Intel® Pentium® Extreme / Pentium® D /
Pentium® 4 / Celeron® D Ready
- NVIDIA nForce® 590 SLITM Intel Edition
- Dual-channel DDR2 800(OC) /667/533
- SupremeFX/ DTS Connect/ Array Mic/ Noise
Filter
- AI NOSTM / AI Gear / AI Nap
- 8 Phase Power Design

More information on the spec of this board is available here:
http://uk.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&a mp;l3=337&l4=0&model=1325&modelmenu=1

It really is a great motherboard; it's also got Asus Supreme Audio which eliminates the need for an extra sound card and wireless LAN, which eliminates the need for a separate wireless card. However I do think if you're planning on playing loud music on your PC, it may be worth investing in a separate sound card eventually.

What's more, it's future-proof with quad core technology support for using the new Intel quad core processors (still very expensive at the moment though) so if I upgrade when they come down in price, I won't have to replace my motherboard or any other components, up to 8gb of DDR2 RAM (up to 800mhz) which is more than capable of coping with all present and probably all/most future applications and games.

It also has SLI technology, which enables you to link 2 or more graphics cards to produce a single output, thus creating a better graphics performance. If you're using 2 of the same (spec) graphics cards together, you're basically creating double the performance/processing power and memory by doing so. This is really only used by high end/dedicated gamers though as using a single graphics card is more than enough power/performance for light gamers, internet/multimedia/email and general application users.

I haven't tried over clocking anything on this board as i tend to leave my components as they come due to invalidating the warranty as soon as you over clock them, so i couldn't really go into that in any detail but i will say that there's probably some information available easily on-line if you want to check it out.. I can't paste as it would break dooyoo's rules.

The board comes with a lot of extras (including the media launcher cd and the drivers cd, cables and other accessories), which to be honest could be a little daunting but the manual is decent so should explain most questions you have about all the extras, it also come with a limited 3 year warranty from Asus so you can rest assured that you're not going to have to shell out for a new motherboard if any problems occur after a year or so of use when normal warranties usually run out if you have purchased this as part of a pre built system.

Apparently, there are some issues when using more than 3gig of RAM and Windows XP operating system so be aware of this if you're using XP in this situation. I don't think it happens with ALL set ups like this, but have noticed some stuff about this on-line and thought it best to mention it in my review, but only briefly as I haven't had any experience with this in the whole time I have used this motherboard.

For anybody interested, my pc spec is: intel core2duo E6600, 4gig 667mhz ram, nvidia geforce 8800gtx 320mb, 650 watt PSU, 320gig SATA hard drive.

Summary: Hopefully a review that most people can relate to without having to be PC experts.

Processing/Quality:
Reliability:
Installation:
Speed:
Features: