Legit Motherboard Reviews
ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe Motherboard Review
| Manufacturer: | ASUS |
| Product: | ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe Motherboard |
| Date: | Wed, Jul 05, 2006 - 12:00 AM |
| Written By: | Jason Petermann - |
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The ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe Arrives
When ATI released the RD480 chipset, commonly known as the Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire, it turned out to be a hit or miss affair for the motherboard partners. Some manufacturers boards were unstable and released with poorly implemented BIOS menus. When we looked at a number of the boards all we encountred was problems. I personally got owned by one of the problem partner boards when I showed off the just released AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 processor with ATI's most recent verison of CrossFire cards on one of the early revision DFI Lanparty UT RDX200 CF-DR boards. In the middle of the presentation our system had several Blue Screens of Death (BSOD) and our brand new installation of Windows XP Professional was dead. The most upsetting part about our whole expierence was that the ATI reference board worked perfectly, overclocked like mad, and was rock solid. The problem was with the board partners and ATI and Legit Reviews both knew that. Fast forward several months and ATI launched a new program called ATI Certified Motherboards. This program makes sure the board, manuals, and packaging meets ATI's standards and that is something Legit Reviews fully supports. Kudos to ATI stepping up to the plate and fixing something before it got out of control!
Today Legit Reviews takes a look at the ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe motherboard, which is the first and only CrossFire Xpress 3200 chipset board that is certified by ATI Technologies Certification Program. When you are looking to buy an ATI chipset motherboard make sure the symbol below is on the box!
Without further delay Let's take a look at the specs of the ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluexe motherboard!
|
CPU |
Socket 939 for AMDŽ Opteron?/Athlon? 64 FX/ Athlon? 64 X2/ Athlon? 64 AMD64 architecture enables simultaneous 32-bit and 64-bit computing AMD Cool 'n' Quiet!? Technology AMD HyperTransport Technology |
|
Chipset |
ATI? CrossFire? Xpress 3200/ULI M1575 |
|
Front Side Bus |
2000/1600 MT/s |
|
Memory |
4 x DIMM, max. 4GB, DDR 400/333/266, ECC and non-ECC, un-buffered memory Dual Channel Memory Architecture |
|
Expansion Slots |
2 x PCI Express x16 slot with CrossFire support at full x16, x16 mode 1 x PCI Express x1 3 x PCI |
|
CrossFire |
Support ATI CrossFire graphics cards (both at x16 mode) |
|
Storage/RAID |
ULi M1575 South Bridge: - 2 x UltraDMA 133/100/66/33 - 4 x Serial ATA I/II 3.0Gb/s with RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 and JBOD support Silicon ImageŽ 3132 SATA controller supports - 1 x Internal Serial ATA 3 Gb/s hard disk - 1 x External Serial ATA hard disk (SATA On-the-Go) - Support RAID 0, 1 |
|
Audio |
Realtek ALC882 8-channel CODEC Universal Audio Jack Multi-Streaming Coaxial / Optical S/PDIF out ports on back I/O |
|
LAN |
Marvell 88E8053 PCIe Gigabit LAN Controller, featuring AI NET2 Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit LAN Controller, featuring AI NET2 |
|
IEEE 1394a |
TIŽ 1394a controller supports: - 2x IEEE 1394a connectors at midboard |
|
USB |
Max. 8 USB 2.0/1.1 ports |
|
ASUS AI Life Features |
Stack Cool 2 SATA on the Go (External SATA on back I/O port) |
|
Overclocking Features |
Intelligent overclocking tools: - AI NOS? (Non-delay Overclocking System) - AI Overclocking (intelligent CPU frequency tuner) - ASUS PEG Link - Automatically performance tuning for single/dual graphics cards Precision Tweaker: - vDIMM: 12-step DRAM voltage control - vCore: Adjustable CPU voltage at 0.025V increment - vNB:Northbridge provides independent voltage adjustment at 0.1 V increment for core power,HT bus and PCI Express bus. SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection) - FSB tuning from 200MHz up to 400MHz at 1MHz increment - PCI Express tuning from 100MHz up to 150MHz at 1MHz increment Overclocking Protection: - ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall) |
|
Special Features |
ASUS MyLogo2 Multi-language BIOS CrashFree BIOS2 ASUS AI NET2 ASUS Q-Fan2 Technology ASUS EZ Flash |
|
Back Panel I/O Ports |
1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x Parallel 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Out 1 x Optical S/PDIF Out 1 x External SATA 2 x RJ45 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 8-Channel Audio I/O |
|
Internal I/O Connectors |
2 x USB 2.0 connector supports additional 4 USB 2.0 ports 2 x IEEE1394a connectors 5 x SATA connectors 2 x IDE connectors 1 x Floppy disk drive connector 1 x GAME/MIDI connector 1 x CPU/ 2 x Chassis/ 1 x Power FAN connectors 1 x COM connector 24-pin ATX Power connector 4-pin ATX 12V Power connector Chassis Intrusion CD audio in connector Front panel High Definition Audio connector System panel connector |
|
BIOS |
8Mb Flash ROM, AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, SM BIOS 2.3, WfM2.0 |
|
Manageability |
WfM 2.0,DMI 2.0,WOL by PME,WOR by PME, Chassis Intrusion, PXE and RPL |
|
Support CD |
Drivers ASUS PC Probe II ASUS Update Anti-virus software (OEM version) |
|
Accessories |
User's manual 5 x Serial ATA cables 2 x 2-port Serial ATA power cables 1 x 1-port Serial ATA power cable 2-port IEEE1394 module 1 x 2-port USB2.0 / Game module COM port module 1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable IDE cable FDD cable I/O shield InterVideo Media Launcher |
|
Form Factor |
ATX Form Factor, 12"x 9.6"(30.5cm x 24.5cm) |
Ok, let's move on and take a look at the layout of the board.
Next Page - The Layout:
| Review Index |
|
Page 1 - The ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe Arrives
Page 2 - The Layout: Page 3 - The Bundle Page 4 - The Bios Page 5 - The Test Setup Page 6 - The Tests: Overall System Performance - World Bench 5 Page 7 - The Tests: Overall System Performance - World Bench 5 Continued Page 8 - The Tests: Overall System Performance and Memory Bandwidth Page 9 - The Tests: 3D and Gaming Performance Page 10 - The Tests: Overclocking Page 11 - The Conclusion |
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