ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus: NVIDIA's 650i goes Dual x16

Final Impressions

This is our first look at an NVIDIA hybrid configuration for the Intel platform. ASUS has done an amazing job combining the 650i SPP and 570 SLI MCP chipset into a board design that offers the same basic features of the 680i SLI chipset at a very competitive price point. This is the same philosophy that NVIDIA is using with the 680i LT SLI chipset, only their first implementation fell a bit short in features when compared to the ASUS solution. Certainly both designs have their own strengths and weakness but at this time we feel like ASUS did a better job when they decided to lower the price point for obtaining 680i features and performance.

This does not mean the 680i LT SLI is not a viable product; between the two designs we certainly think it is the more elegant solution although the actual implementation on the EVGA board lacked a finishing coat of polish. However, with the OEM version (two year versus lifetime warranty) of the EVGA board now selling for around $159 we think the board is a very good value considering its performance. One would still be hard pressed to fall in love with its active cooling or neutered BIOS, but at certain price points it becomes easier to overlook a few flaws that are not fatal to the quality or performance of the board. Where does that leave us with the ASUS board?

We really like this board, so much so we are awarding it a Silver Editors' Choice Award. More importantly, we appreciate the fact that ASUS went to the trouble of designing and producing it at a time when 680i boards were selling well north of $250. ASUS has engineered a unique solution that performs better and costs less than most 680i motherboards. While the 680i LT SLI has taken a certain amount of air out ASUS' sails, we still believe this board offers the best overall combination of features, quality, and performance in a 680i level board for under $200.

We did not have too many issues with the board over a grueling six week test schedule. The overclocking aspects of the board do not reach the same levels as other 680i boards and will probably not satisfy the extreme overclocker or a user needing high FSB speeds with a quad core processor. However, the overclocking abilities of this board will satisfy the majority of users and stock performance in most applications and games is nothing short of amazing with the right memory installed.

Memory performance is exceptional for an NVIDIA based Intel chipset, and our internal tests reveal a 23% advantage in Sandra unbuffered test results. This memory performance directly influences the test results we witnessed across a variety of benchmarks. The issue is that a user will need high performance memory to take advantage of the tight sub-timings that ASUS has designed into the BIOS. We certainly recommend fairly low latency memory for this board along with the capability of running at 1T Command rates around the DDR2-800 level.

In all honesty, the performance differences between our budget memory modules and the higher performing modules were usually less than 5% in extended testing. The important factor to consider is that this board is one of the few that is able to fully take advantage of our higher performance modules by offering stable 1T operation with very aggressive memory sub-timings. We are still testing this board with a wide variety of memory modules but if you have the patience to tweak and test memory settings, this board will reward you with measurable performance improvements across the board.

In the end, none of this really matters unless the board offers a high degree of quality, performance, and support. We feel like ASUS offers all of these and more with this board. We fully expect the pricing to drop a little more now that the 680i LT SLI chipset has been introduced, but when looking at boards in the $150~$200 price range we feel like ASUS has hit the nail on the head with the P5N32-E SLI Plus. It might not do everything "perfect" and it isn't designed for everyone, but it offers more than the sum of its parts would indicate and that is something we are just not use to seeing very much. We congratulate ASUS on a job well done and look forward to their next opportunity when they have to engineer a new product to satisfy a market demand instead of providing the same old product with a different marketing spin.