A tolerable yet sub-par board
Written: Mar 28 '04 (Updated Apr 17 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: cheap, big-named chipset, plenty of ports, cd comes with plenty extras
Cons: flaky component detection/driver installs, flaky components
The Bottom Line: If you're adept at dealing with technical difficulty, this might not be a bad board, otherwise it's to be avoided.
|
|
|
| imcrafty1979's Full Review: ASUS A7N8X Deluxe (A7N8X/DELUX D) Motherboard |
Ever since Scott and I (mostly Scott) built this machine for my mom, I've regretted buying this motherboard.
The nVidia nForce chipset is tolerable, although the sound likes to go out once in a while. I've reinstalled the OS for various reasons, and this problems continues to rear it's angry head once in a while. Reinstalling the drivers seems to do the trick, but I'm still not convinced this is entirely a software problem.
When you install Windows XP, SP1, and all the device drivers that weren't installed automagically by the OS, it's hit-or-miss when it comes to the USB and firewire drivers. This board has 6 usb ports (part of this is a 2.0 riser) and 2 different types of FireWire ports. I've found that if the Firewire drivers don't get installed via OS install/Asus driver install CD, they won't install at all. The USB drivers pretty much give the same result.
I reinstalled Windows, and the only thing I couldn't get installed (after much wrestling with USB drivers and such) was the FireWire driver. No biggie. I couldn't, however, get the printer to install as USB. It was detected, but still installed as LPT1. I figured I'd regret doing it, but I checked all USB settings in bios, then removed their drivers. Big. Mistake. No matter what I did, the drivers came out but didn't go back in. Square peg. Round hole.
I wound up reinstalling windows. It was a blessing in disguise, really, because I was looking for a reason to partition the drive. When it finally booted to the desktop, I did not reboot again until I'd installed the stuff on the Asus CD, the modem drivers, the cdrw/dvd stuff, the video drivers, etc. I noticed, also, that the FireWire drivers were installed via the OS install. Shweet! I rebooted, and the USB drivers installed just fine. I got the printer, scanner, mouse, and camera installed with no problem.
specs (taken from asus website)
Socket A for AMD Athlon™ XP/Athlon™ / Duron™
Thoroughbred/ Barton Core Support
North Bridge: NVIDIA® nForce2 SPP(Ultra400)
South Bridge: NVIDIA® nForce2 MCP-T
400* / 333 / 266 / 200 MHz
( * PCB 1.06 or earlier version need BIOS update )
Dual-Channel DDR 400
3 x 184-pin DIMM Sockets
Max. 3 GB unbuffered PC3200/PC2700/PC2100/PC1600 non-ECC DDR RAM Memory (Twinbank)
1 x AGP Pro/8X (1.5V only)
5 x PCI
2 x UltraDMA 133/100/66/33
Serial ATA 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) SoundStorm?/ Dolby® Digital (AC-3) Encoder
LAN 2 Ports
MCP integrated NVIDIA® MAC + Realtek® 8201BL PHY
MCP integrated 3Com® MAC + Broadcom® AC101L PHY
1394 2 Ports MCP-T Integrated IEEE 1394a + Realtek® PHY 8801B
Special Features Post Reporter
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 S/PDIF out + 1 x Surround L/R audio jack + 1 x CNTR/LFE audio jack
2 X RJ45
Internal I/O Connectors 1 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
2 x SATA (Serial ATA) Connector
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
ASUSR PC Probe
Trend Micro?PC-cillin 2002 anti-virus software with Windows® XP support
ASUS LiveUpdate Utility
Accessories I/O Shield
SATA Cable
2-port USB 2.0 / Game port bracket
User's Manual
UltraDMA 133 cable
2-Port 1394 Bracket
FDD cable
UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable
9-pin COM cable
InterVideo® WinCinema (optional)
(WinDVD/WinRip/WinCoder/WinProducer) software
Form Factor ATX Form Factor
12" x 9.6" (30.5cm x 24.5cm)
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 100
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
imcrafty1979
|
|
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.