- Which do you recommend : A8N-SLI or A8N-E?

Other than the price advantage, is there any reason why someone would opt
for the A8N-E over the A8N-SLI for typical home and semi-pro usage?

A8N-E :
http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=0&model=455&modelmenu=1

A8N-SLI :
http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=0&model=382&modelmenu=1

Other than the dual video cards and "a bit more of everything", they're
essentially the same technology, right?

I'd be doing a little bit of gaming, a little bit of photo editing, a little
bit of music editing... naturally, I'd like to do it all in optimal
conditions (2 GB of ram, 3 large drives including at least two SATA Raptors,
etc). Now, I have the money for either board, that's not the issue... but
having the money doesn't mean I want to see it burned.

Is there really any reason for me to pick the A8N-SLI over the A8N-E that I
haven't considered? Perhaps more long-term considerations that escape me?

 

Other than the price advantage, is there any reason why someone would opt

SLI has way too many issues for too little gain

 

But the question is why would one purchase the A8N-E? Even if he
didn't want to install SLI, might he not appreciate the extra SATA
controller or the Marvell LAN controller (that seems superior to the
NF4 LAN in some reviews)? It's not that far-fetched to think that
someone might in the not-too-distant future want to connect more than
4 SATA devices. Since there's so little difference in price, I see no
reason not to get the A8N-SLI even though I never intend to set it up
with more than one GPU.

Clearly, the potential price advantage is the only reason to choose
the A8N-E. Because of availability issues, though, I don't believe
that there's even a significant price advantage at this point in time.

And there can be substantial gain in gaming benchmarks, so that can be
a reason to choose the A8N-SLI, too.

Ron

 

Didn't get too many responses to this, so I'm trying again. <sheepish look>

 

Seeing as the Asus cpusupport and the Asus download page have
next to nothing for the A8N-E, I would say you don't have enough
info on the A8N-E yet to be buying one. Until it is reviewed,
how do you know it isn't a dog ? I would never buy a motherboard,
without downloading the manual from the download page - the
manual is your guarantee of what features are supported on the
board, like clock lock functions. You should especially check the
pictures of the BIOS screens, to see what features are supported
in there.

There is plenty of experience on the A8N-SLI in the private
forums. You can decide whether that board is for you or not,
based on some of that feedback.

Paul

 

I've heard that the price difference will be negligable.

Yes. AFAIK they're the same board. The idea is that the PCI socket
layout is adjusted and the nForce4 is "different". (they're probably
the same chip, but configured slightly differently)

Yes. The SLI is available.

Ben

 

My local store is selling both cards. I need to make a choice.

Isn't it detailed enough here?
http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=0&model=455&modelmenu=1

I just don't have the technical background to know what half of these specs
mean, though. I'd appreciate if you (or anyone else) can tell me in layman's
terms what the A8N-E has over the A8N-SLI, and vice versa.

The A8N is for me. I just don't know whether the SLI or the E versions of it
are best for me.

All I know is I will be producing music on it, and some games, though I
don't consider myself hardcore. I can still appreciate awesome graphics. I
intend to have 2GB of ram on it, and 3 drives (one SATA Raptor, one for
storage, and one for removable storage).

Price is not an issue, there is a mere $35 difference between both boards
here. However, it was suggested to me that since the A8N-E came out several
months after the SLI, that Asus might have taken those extra months to
"refine" things it wished it could have done in the SLI.

Is that reason alone enough to push for the A8N-E? Is it always a gimme that
boards released later will have slight subtle improvements over those
released prior by the same company?

 

So is the A8N-E, right across the street from where I'm typing this.

 

All this has been said, but, to recapitulate:
It seems unlikely that the A8N-E will be subtly better. When
improvements are made, Asus simply starts manufacturing a later
revision. My guess is that there was such demand for SLI in the
gaming community that Asus decided to put all of their limited supply
of NF4 chipsets into the A8N-SLI. I suspect that's the only reason
the A8N-E came later, as opposed to delaying its release while they
made "refinements" in it. I could be wrong, but I believe that the
A8N-E will be nothing more than an A8N-SLI minus the SLI capability,
minus the Marvell Gb LAN, minus the SI SATA controller. I expect that
the A8N-E BIOS is the A8N-SLI BIOS minus the entries for those three
features.
Therefore, if the difference in price is important to you, get the
A8N. If not, get the A8N-SLI. It will do everything the A8N-E will
do and give you a few options you wouldn't have with the A8N-E. On
the other hand, the A8N-E will produce music JUST as well as the SLI,
and since you don't classify yourself as a hard-core gamer, you can
get awesome gaming performance from it if you want to invest in a
top-tier display adapter.
I don't think there are any other mysterious factors to consider.
Ron

 

Can you tell us the price difference?

Nice to know the board exists, at least. Asus still don't have it on
their (UK) website. Hmm, it is on their global site though.

Ben

 

Also no firewire on A8N-E!
I didn't need SLI either but I don't need my motherboard to be that cut-down!
So A8N-SLI it is for me although I won't use that particular facility.

Mark

 

Very good point! Thanks. That's the most constructive thing I've read on
this subject yet.

 

$40 CND price difference here ($205 vs $245 for the SLI)

You can order it from NCIX.com, they seem to have plenty in stock. Though
I'm not sure if they ship that far.

 

That's not a very good tradeoff for everything they strip off the SLI
to arrive at the A8N-E. I'd pay the extra CND$40, get the SLI, and
never look back.
What I was hoping for in the A8N-E was a board with MORE capabilities
than the SLI as a tradeoff for not having the SLI feature (which I'll
never use). The A8N-E, though, is the opposite. It may be the retail
equivalent of an OEM board that could have a legitimate place in the
OEM market. As a retail product, I think that Asus will sell a few to
people who need to watch every penny, but I suspect that interest in
this board from the enthusiast community will be almost nil.

Ron

 

I have seen three different pictures of this (A8N-E) motherboard,
in prototype form. All three pictures were different. I would
want to see the final manual and product, before saying
another word.

There is nothing preventing you from buying the A8N-E and
telling us all about it. There was a person on Abxzone.com,
who has been testing a "A8N-E deluxe", but the description
makes that board sound like it is SLI, and not the product
everyone is interested in.

Due to all the confusion and overblown expectations for this
board, I cannot recommend buying such a product sight unseen.

Have patience.

It is obvious that Asus wants to sell as many A8N-SLI as
they can, so there is no advantage to them rushing the A8N-E.

Paul

 

I agree.

ditto.

Mark

 

is the a8n-sli can overclock from 200/400fsb to 400/800 fsb like the
a8n-e?

Is really the a8n-e a chip version of the sli version with less
performance of every thing? i can't think of that.

 

The A8N-E is missing SLI and IEEE1394 (Firewire) over the A8N-SLI.
The A8N-SLI Deluxe has a Silicon Image SATA controller and a 2nd
ethernet controller over the A8N-SLI. The A8N-SLI Premium has BIOS
controlled SLI instead of a flip-over card, and a heatpipe chipset
cooler over the A8N-SLI Deluxe.

They all use the same chipset (the -E uses a variant that has a
different chip ID to disallow SLI being enabled) and are capable
of the same performance and overclocking. The -E is not slower
than the -SLI models.

The only thing I miss on my -E is IEEE1394, I would have got the
-SLI but there were none in the country at the time.