WiFi Networking and Overclocking
Since the WiFi (and networking in general) is where the emphasis lies in this update to A7N8X 2.0, I thought I'd say a little bit about it, relating to ASUS' marketing approach with the whole thing.Their focus is to get the technology into more homes. They sell a wide range of branded WiFi products and since it's now cheap enough to tack on to motherboards, they think why the hell not, it differentiates them from the masses. Fair play to them, there are worse ways to get the technology into the hands of the regular punter.
And it works well, especially the software access point mode when using Windows XP as your operating system. You can turn your A7N8X-E Deluxe WiFi-powered system into a wireless access point for the other WiFi equipped devices that you own, in the vicinity. While it's no substitute for a 'real' access point that doesn't rely on a PC being switched on all the time, it's a cheap way to get a small ad-hoc network up and running. With a pair of WiFi equipped ASUS boards up and running, the A7N8X-E and my K8V sample, my first experience with a functioning WiFi network as it happens, everything ran great.
I didn't need a dedicated AP, the K8V box acting as the AP was able to get the A7N8X-E onto my small home network, and even out onto the internet via my small router box. I'd previously missed the attraction of WiFi a little, having failed to experience it first hand. Now I've had the pleasure, I'd like to see the technology on more motherboards. Intel will help here, their upcoming ICH6 southbridge has a WiFi solution built in, and at $5 a chip in bulk, I can see a load of motherboard makers bundling aerials and taking advantage.
Compatibility with ASUS' products is a given, it's an 802.11b part, so everyone wins. Will 2004 be the year of WiFi equipped boards? If it is, ASUS are there first.
It's still a marketing driven feature for the most part, many of you couldn't care less about it, but I applaud its inclusion, here's hoping we see more of it from other board makers, less wiring is a good thing and the speed makes it decent for home networking applications between a few PCs.
Overclocking
I'll cover overclocking on this page since I'm here and there's some space. Recently AN7 and the DFI LanParty NFII Ultra B have both hit ~240MHz front side bus, indicating some kind of bridge stepping limit. LostCircuits managed to take the DFI to 260MHz with some cooling mods, so anything ~240MHz from the ASUS would indicate its use as an overclockers friendly board.Sadly it wasn't to be so. Giving the CPU plenty of juice, dropping the multiplier to 9.0x and the memory timings slackened off to 2.5-4-4-7 (2.8V Vdimm), the combination used for 240MHz on the AN7, 228MHz was the upper end of the stable clocks obtained.
The SPP bridge stepping is the same as the DFI so it's maybe cooling related and definitely sample related, all boards aren't created equal. But using the samples I've had to hand, it's poorer than recent Socket A entrants I've seen recently.
As always, your mileage may (and probably will) vary.
