Solidly Built Computer Foundation

How exciting can a motherboard be? To most people not very, and to myself...still not very much. Whenever I consider buying a stereo receiver, I always checkout the back to see all the connections & hidden features. With this ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe, it is no different. This being my first build in a long time, I searched & searched for a motherboard that was reputable, with great features, and was upgradable. This motherboard fit all requirements with the available features. The AMD socket 939 is here & should be for a while. I bought an entry level dual core & will later upgrade to a higher end dual core when necessary. Same goes for the graphic card, right now a GeForce 7800, and possible a second in a few months if required. The board can handle 4 up to (4) SATA style hard drives if necessary, but a single 160gb drive is enough for me right not. I have (2) 1gb chips of RAM & the board can handle 4gb if necessary. If you catch my drift, the motherboard can handle upgrades for the foreseeable future (in computer time that is). Other features like the built-in 1gb Ethernet is nice, all important USB ports, fire-wire if I ever get around to using that, but the on-board sound is a so-so. I didn't get to involved with the on-board sound, so maybe someone in the future can review this in more detail. It also appears that adding a 2nd video card in SLI will tighten the space within the motherboard. I've got the USB card in that spot in between the video card slots so airflow will not be hindered too badly. Hopefully, future motherboard will realize how hoggish these new video cards are getting & will design accordingly. I haven't even gotten into the AMI Bios features, but needless to say, you can control everything you desire.