ASUS exhibits M2N32-SLI Deluxe, hack impressed
We covered the M2N32-SLI Deluxe on CeBit's opening day, but it's worth covering again simply because it looks so good. Here's a pic.
ASUS place the memory modules above the CPU area, which works for thermals, and they also use passively cooled heatsinks for the power circuitry (8-phase no less), keeping the board free of whiny little fans.
Power connectors are placed sensibly, I/O connectors are well sited on the board's right edge, 7 fan headers are provided and even with dual-slot coolers on SLI'd graphics boards, you still get two usable PCI Conventional slots for sound cards, TV tuners and the like.
eSATA makes an appearance, the core logic gives you HD Audio, 6 SATA2 ports and a firewalled GigE port, and I'm really struggling to see what's wrong with layout or feature set in any major way. Seems like the only thing to stop this board being a winner is its BIOS, and with ASUS pretty much getting that right in recent times I look forward to testing a retail sample.
