Copyright
1996-2024
by TSW
(Nikolay Tuzhilin)
Last updated: 02.01.2024
Specifications
A7N8X Deluxe provides a revolutionary audio/video experience.
With an array of advanced technology, the A7N8X Deluxe provides a revolutionary audio/video experience. AGP Pro/8X, doubling the
bandwidth of AGP 4X, provides cutting-edge graphics performance while Dolby® digital 6-channel support brings incredible sound
quality.
| Processor | Socket A for AMD® Athlon™ XP/ Athlon™ / Duron™ 600MHz ~ 2800+ Thoroughbred core CPU ready |
| Chipset | North Bridge: NVIDIA® nForce2 SPP South Bridge: NVIDIA® nForce2 MCP-T |
| FSB | 333 / 266 / 200 MHz |
| Memory | Dual-Channel DDR 400 3 x 184-pin DIMM Sockets Max. 3 GB unbuffered PC3200/PC2700/PC2100/PC1600 non-ECC DDR RAM Memory (Twinbank) |
| Expansion Slots | 1 x AGP Pro/8X (1.5V only) 5 x PCI |
| IDE Ports | 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) |
nForce2 ATA controller
Starting from 2.00 version of driver pack for nVIDIA nForce 2 chipsets there is special version of IDE controller driver which claimed to be more optimized for nForce 2 SPP/IGP ATA controller. I have run two test to check it for myself on my system.
Test configuration:
- Main board: Asus A7N8X Deluxe rev. 1.05 (BIOS ver. 1004);
- CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2100+;
- Memory: 512 MB PC400 SDRAM (running at 266MHz);
- Hard drive: IBM C35L040AVER07-0 40G;
- Operation system: Windows XP Pro SP1.
Results
| Driver | nForce MCP IDE | nForce 2 SPP/IGP ATA |
| WinBench 99/Business Disk WinMark 99 (Thousand Bytes/Sec) | 6300 | 8720 |
| WinBench 99/High-End Disk WinMark 99 (Thousand Bytes/Sec) | 18300 | 17800 |
| WinBench 99/Disk Access Time (Milliseconds) | 13,1 | 12,5 |
| WinBench 99/Disk CPU Utilization (Percent Used) | 9,88 | 8,23 |
| WinBench 99/Disk Playback/Bus:Overall (Thousand Bytes/Sec) | 6300 | 8720 |
| WinBench 99/Disk Playback/HE:AVS/Express 3.4 (Thousand Bytes/Sec) | 19200 | 17000 |
| WinBench 99/Disk Playback/HE:FrontPage 98 (Thousand Bytes/Sec) | 66500 | 61400 |
| WinBench 99/Disk Playback/HE:MicroStation SE (Thousand Bytes/Sec) | 23100 | 24800 |
| WinBench 99/Disk Playback/HE:Overall (Thousand Bytes/Sec) | 18300 | 17800 |
| WinBench 99/Disk Playback/HE:Photoshop 4.0 (Thousand Bytes/Sec) | 8760 | 8000 |
| WinBench 99/Disk Playback/HE:Premiere 4.2 (Thousand Bytes/Sec) | 14700 | 15000 |
| WinBench 99/Disk Playback/HE:Sound Forge 4.0 (Thousand Bytes/Sec) | 27900 | 27100 |
| WinBench 99/Disk Playback/HE:Visual C++ 5.0 (Thousand Bytes/Sec) | 18700 | 20200 |
| WinBench 99/Disk Transfer Rate:Beginning (Thousand Bytes/Sec) | 35600 | 34000 |
| WinBench 99/Disk Transfer Rate:End (Thousand Bytes/Sec) | 21700 | 19400 |
nVIDIA nForce MCP IDE controller
This is the standard IDE drivers provided by Microsoft (version 5.1.2600.1106). nVidia driver just sets the name and timings. Have large High-End disk results, but higher CPU utilization and access time. Graphic of transfer rate with this drivers is smooth.
nVIDIA nForce 2 SPP/IGP ATA controller
They are claimed to provide smaller CPU usage, that is right (but not too much). But disk transfer rate became very comb-shaped and its values at the start and end smaller then for the standard drivers.
Driver version: 5.10.2600.0340.
There are also some problems with this driver: they do not support SMART information (so no HDD temperature) and when you try to uninstall them you got unbootable windows :(
Silicon Image SATA RAID controller
This motherboard was the core to upgrade one computer for video authoring. In order to increase disk subsystem performance was bought two 320G 7200rpm SATA hard drives (Seagate 7200.10 family) and constructed RAID0 (stripped) array.
Test configuration:
- Main board: Asus A7N8X Deluxe rev. 1.05 (BIOS ver. 1009);
- CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2800+;
- Memory: 1024 MB PC400 SDRAM (running at 275MHz);
- Operation system: Windows XP Pro SP2.
Comments
As some PCI interrupts are shared on this motherboard, TV tuner card works only in the last (5th) slot.