10 out of 10 people found this review helpful.
Quality Mobo At A Low Price--Great Value!
Date of Review: Mar 25, 2006
The Bottom Line: Lean and mean board at a discount price.
The Background
I had an AMD processor running on an Asus A7a266 for years, and this combo gave me great service. When the CPU finally died--yes, from overheating--I decided I would go with another AMD-ASUS combination. I could have bought another old chip and put it in at considerable savings. The Asus board still works without a problem. However, I usually see these events as a signal to modernize my machine.
Doing My Homework
Every time I need a new computer, I have to read up on the technology again because lots of things have changed. I originally wanted to get an AMD dual-processor chip, because parallel processing has to be better, right? Not necessarily. Not only is the dual processor very expensive, but it might still be ahead of its time. There's not too much software out there that can take advantage of it, so what's the point?
Here's where I was sold on the a8n5x--I always look for technology that will remain reasonably sharp for as long as possible. Expandability and forward compatibility are the keys, and this board has both. It's a socket 939 board. It will hold the Athlon 64 CPU right now, and when the rest of the world catches up to dual processing, I can then swap in a dual processing chip if I want. Given the life span of my old Asus board, I am confident it will last until then. As for expandability, the a8n5x looked good. Its connectors included: 2 ide, 4 serial ATA, 1 Game/Midi, 1 audio, and up to 10 usb.
Installation
It took nine screws to install this board. That's it. 10 minutes, tops. It took less time than that to put the CPU and fan in. The only difficulty I had was with a thin metal backplate that went over the connectors and such. I never had to install one before, and I was afraid of breaking something on the board. I got it on with some patience and care. The a8n5x has onboard audio, so I took my old soundblaster card out. I put in all the other stuff like my old video card, an included usb module, and some new memory dimms. Like most of the newer boards, the a8n5x requires a 24 pin power supply, which I already had. I was done in less than an hour.
So Far, So Good
With the included software, you can monitor and tweak your hardware excellently. You can set the CPU to overclock all the time, or have overclocking kick in only on CPU intensive applications. I have actually underclocked my CPU, because of my old one's overheating. If I'm getting the speed and power I want, why should I allow my device to heat up? I believe this will probably extend the life of my machine. Lastly, I can't tell any difference between the onboard audio and my old soundblaster.
After a couple of weeks, I found one minor flaw. With all its built in connectors, there is only one serial connection in the back of the a8n5x, which I have to use for my monitor. I love my old digital camera, but it outputs its data on a serial cable. So I am going to have to find a creative way to get my photos into my new machine.
