Bundle, Presentation and Manuals
The box moves from the old 2.0 Deluxe style to the new, K8V-like style, a slip over cover hiding the white box inside. The outer cover features a lift up flap that reveals cutout parts that show the WiFi hardware, along with marketing speak on how it all works.
The bottom of the box gives the feature game away and the back of the box goes into all the detail. Opening it up reveals all the contents.
WiFi hardware on the left, in its own little transparent clamshell case, the IDE and floppy cabling lying underneath. In the bag with the cables is a set of spare jumpers for the motherboard. While they aren't tabbed, making them easy to grab, they're still handy and a nice touch.
On the right hand side of the box enclosure we get the ATX I/O shield, the manuals for motherboard, WiFi and the bundled software, the FireWire and USB ports that live on their respective I/O plates and a pair of SATA cables should you wish to use the Sil3112 (and why not, it's a nice controller).
Underneath sits the board itself in a thick anti-static bag, all standard and nothing really amiss. It's not the rounded-cable, FrontX and PC Transpo fest that the DFI is, but nothing is missed out. The software is decent too.
Intervideo get bundled software duties with the -E Deluxe, offering a 5.1 equipped version of WinDVD, their pretty good software DVD player. There's also the regulation CD with drivers on it too, as expected. But oh dear, no floppy disk for installing an NT-class OS like Windows 2000 or Windows XP onto the Sil3112. I hate it when that happens, it's a regular whinge of mine. Pray that ASUS put it into all retail bundles, I hope it's just a sample peculiarity. Of course you can create the disk from the supplied CD, but it's no excuse or solution if you have no access to a CD drive and another computer before you come to use the Sil3112 and the board itself.
Manual wise, it's the usual ASUS quality. They go the extra mile with their main manual which is well written, easy to read and easy to navigate. The Quick Start guide is also excellent, the single sticky sheet of jumper and pin locations is present and correct (and a nice touch) and the WiFi guide is another high point. Getting the -E Deluxe up and running using the manuals will be a pleasure, should you need to reference them at any point.
