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Review: ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe WiFi

by Ryszard Sommefeldt on 28 June 2004, 00:00

Tags: ASUSTeK (TPE:2357)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qavz

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System Setup and Notes

Hardware

  • ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe, NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400, Socket A (shipping BIOS)
  • ABIT AN7, NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400, Socket A (11/11/03 BIOS)
  • ASUS K8V Deluxe, Socket 754, VIA K8T800, Athlon 64, 1002.007 BIOS
  • ABIT IC7, Socket 478, Intel i875, Pentium 4, A18 BIOS
  • Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz, 512KB L2, 16 x 200MHz
  • AMD Athlon XP3200+, 512KB L2, 11 x 200MHz
  • AMD Athlon 64 Model 3200+, 1MB L2, 11 x 200MHz
  • NVIDIA GeForceFX 5900 Ultra
  • ATI Radeon 9800XT (412/730)
  • Corsair XMS3200LLPT, 2 x 256MB, 2-2-2-6

Software

  • Windows XP Professional w/SP1 and current Windows Update patches (as of 17/11/03)
  • NVIDIA Detonator FX 52.16 WHQL (A7N8X-E, ABIT AN7)
  • ATI CATALYST 3.9 (ASUS K8V, ABIT IC7)
  • VIA Hyperion 4.48v chipset drivers (ASUS K8V)
  • NVIDIA nForce2 3.13 Platform Driver (A7N8X-E, ABIT AN7)
  • Intel 5.02.1002 chipset drivers (ABIT IC7)
  • DirectX 9.0a Runtime
  • HEXUS Pifast v41
  • Simplisoft HDTach 2.61
  • Kribi Bench 1.19
  • Sciencemark 2.0
  • 3DMark 2001SE v330
  • Quake3 v1.30 HQ (four demo)
  • Serious Sam 2 (OpenGL HQ, SDC demo)
  • LAME 3.92MMX MP3 Encoding (192CBR, U2's Pop album)
  • Realstorm Ray Tracing
  • Comanche 4 Demo
  • X2: The Threat - Rolling Demo
Exactly the same test setups as used in the ABIT AN7 review, the A7N8X-E Deluxe is the last recipient of FX 5900 Ultra and the current test suite, before Tarinder and I migrate to some new applications and gain parity with Radeon 9800XT graphics cards. The last of the current phase of benchmarking at HEXUS, but some items never change.

Corsair remains my memory of choice, the A7N8X-E Deluxe using the test XMS3200LLPT without any problems at 2-2-2-6 timings. The Socket A boards get FX 5900 Ultra, everything else gets 9800XT. It's a system review so graphics card doesn't matter too much, but I'll comment on it where necessary, when the card has an influence on results.

So, a mix of comparison systems but something that's still easy to follow, I'll keep you informed throughout. As always, tests were run three times and the median result used for reporting.

As always, hit our forums or email me directly if you have any questions about the test setup. The A7N8X-E Deluxe ran the XP3200+ at a slightly sneaky 202MHz front side bus speed, giving exactly 2222MHz final CPU frequency, 17MHz higher than the ABIT AN7's final frequency using 200.5MHz front side bus speed (2205MHz). Bear those figures in mind when comparing results, especially tests that are CPU limited.

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