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Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus or P5N-D?

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 Thread : Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus or P5N-D?
 
Profile: stranger
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Which one to get? I'm looking for an SLI mobo.

I can't decide between the two. P5N32-E SLI Plus has 2 PCI-E x16 lanes but no PCI-E 2.0 support I think, but is that really such a downside?!
I can't find any reviews of the P5N-D nor the specs anymore. I read about the new 780i chipset problems and I know the 680 had a lot of them too in it's time and I'm afraid the 750 would follow their lead, so I'm leaning towards the older established and probably more stable p5n32... Prices are equal.. so are the features I believe.. performance is better than the 680...

What's your oppinion?
P5N32-E SLI Plus users are very welcome to share experience!!

Cheers!

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Scarlet & Grey technologies
Profile: Honorary Poster
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Dont concern yourself with a PCI-E 2.0 board yet, nothing takes full advantage of the spec; I wouldnt bother - Stick with the 680; more established board with mature drivers.


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"Because I couldn't go for 3"
Profile: stranger
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I just bought a Cyperpower PC with the ASUS P5N-D using the E6850 CPU,EVGA 8800GT, 2Gigs of memory and have not had a problem with it.
Running 2 weeks now.

Profile: stranger
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Don't get the Asus SLi Plus, I have that board. It's a pain. It fried two of my ram sticks. It can't oc Quads well. Go to the Asus forums or search any of the many oc forums around for that board and get ready to hear some complaining. Do yourself a favor and wait for the 790i chipset, or if you have to have SLi now get the 780i if you plan to oc. There are some good 680i boards out there that can oc, you just have to do some leg work to find the one that fits your needs. If you don't have to have SLi and are looking for a board that can oc Quads well then get the P35 or X38 chipset.

Profile: stranger
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So SLI-Plus is a no go... thanks! 680's are lacking features I guess for the price..

A 790i sli board is going to be THE pefect board for me, considering it's going to be faster that 750 and 780, but for the price tag... so I just don't know...
Now I just need someone who's using sli and a q9450 on p5n-d, beacuse this board is just so damn cheap that it's always pulling me towards it...

Profile: addict
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P35 and (1) good card ftw imo. Save yourself $300+ dollars, the extra 10 fps really aren't worth it.


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Antec Nine Hundred, Gigabyte P35-DS3R, Intel Q6600 @ 3.2 Ghz, Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme, eVGA 8800GT 512MB, G-Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-800 4-4-4-10, Seasonic S12 ATX 650W, Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA, Samsung 22" LCD, Windows XP Pro 64-bit
Profile: stranger
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Good point.. I have to say my zotac 8800gt amp! has yet to find a game that'll make it stutter (crysis aside)...

But it's still easier to buy 2 8800gt cards over a timespan of 3 months, than to buy 1 ultra or gtx or hd3780x2 at one moment in time or whatever's around the corner (9800GX2 etc.) and that's where the multi card setup comes in. So you see my dilemma? I just want to get great gaming performance for as little money as possible; or at least try to spread the budget around a little...
My problem is I love the eye-candy and I love fps but I don't want to pay for it :)
Maybe I will go for a intel chipset board with crossfire and wait for ati to make some good cards!-perfect scenario!

Profile: journeyman
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I have a P5N-D, and after a little tweaking, a handfull of 3DMARK06 runs has netted scores in the 17,100-17,600 range with a Q6600 and 8800gt SLI. I also have the P7N Platinum form MSI. The 750i chipset is weak for overclocking. The P5N-D goes to 1450 FSB stable, while the P7N goes only to 1333 stable. No voltages, processors, timings or memory modules gets me past those speeds. Liquid cooled at max 45C with all 4 cores loaded, so temp is not the issue. Even at the slower FSB speed, the P7N scores better for some reason. I would carefully select a 780i board. Read the reviews at NEWEGG.com. The have reviews for both boards you mentioned. Nividia chipsets are good for SLI only. If you don't need SLI, you don't need the headache that is Nvidia ownership.

Don't count on gettting much of an OC out of the processor, these chipsets can't handle it.

These are not max effort boards. They are budget SLI boards. If you are not going to run SLi, do yourself a huge favor and pick up an p35 or X 38 board. They are WAY more overclock friendly.


Message edited by doubled on 03-07-2008 at 08:14:05 PM
Profile: stranger
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Wow, thanks!

Isn't 1333 stock for a p7n?

Profile: journeyman
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Supposedly stock, but has good overclocking options in the bios. Sadly, the chipset (on my board anyway) can't deliver. This isn't isolated to a quad. I tried to quad and a duo on both boards. The number of cores was not the issue.


Message edited by doubled on 03-07-2008 at 11:45:08 PM
Profile: stranger
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The Asus P5N-D motherboard is a good board.

I have one.

2 x PCIe 2.0 x16
- Single VGA mode: x16
- SLI mode: Hardware ready for x16, x16

So Yes it can do 2x 16 SLI if you want.

I going to buy 2X Geforce 8800GT 512MB, and put it in SLI.
Is Faster than a one Geforce 8800GTX and Geforce 8800Ultra.

Profile: stranger
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The Asus P5N-D motherboard is a good board.

I have one.

2 x PCIe 2.0 x16
- Single VGA mode: x16
- SLI mode: Hardware ready for x16, x16

So Yes it can do 2x 16 SLI if you want.

I going to buy 2X Geforce 8800GT 512MB, and put it in SLI.
Is Faster than a one Geforce 8800GTX and Geforce 8800Ultra.


Specs: Asus P5N-D, Core 2 Quad Q6600, A-Data 4GB Ram 800MHZ, Sparkle Geforce 8800GTX, 2x seagate 250GB Sata 2 Raid0, and 18 Speed DVD RW Drive.


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