ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe or MSI K8N Diamond Plus?!?

deicistdeicist Manchester, UK
edited March 2006 in Hardware
so, I'm looking to buy pretty much a new system in the next couple of days and I'm stuck between 2 motherboards. Here's what I'm getting:

Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (£328.34)
XFX Extreme 7800GTX (£368.95)
2GB Corsair PC3500LLPRO (£229.13)

and either an ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe or an MSI K8N Diamond plus. both of those are the Nvidia SLI-16 chipset, but the ASUS appears to offer better overclocking features, whilst the MSI has an audigy for its onboard sound. At the moment I'm biased towards the MSI, because better onboard sound means more to me than overclocking (although I do like to dabble in a little overclocking occasionally) but I was wondering if anyone had any experience with either of those boards and could give me any tales of woe / glee about them?

Comments

  • jradminjradmin North Kackalaki
    edited February 2006
    GET THE PREMIUM!

    The ASUS Premium board has a built in AI that detects SLI without you having to flip that stupid card over. It also uses a heatpipe to cool the bridges instead of that elcrapo fan that loves to give out. Its not that much more $$, and I've had both and enjoy the premium more.
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited February 2006
    The A8N32-SLI is doing very well in reviews around the web

    PCPerspective
    Anandtech
    HotHardware
    AMDZone
    Xbitlabs
    HardOCP: ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe "New vesion"

    MSI K8N Diamond Plus
    TBreak
    HardwareZone
    THG
    [url=] [/url]
    jradmin wrote:
    GET THE PREMIUM!

    The ASUS Premium board has a built in AI that detects SLI without you having to flip that stupid card over. It also uses a heatpipe to cool the bridges instead of that elcrapo fan that loves to give out. Its not that much more $$, and I've had both and enjoy the premium more.
    Note that with 2 Full PCIe 16x slots, the A8n32-SLI needs neither a SLI Card nor BIOS Detection code, (No 8x/8x split)
  • deicistdeicist Manchester, UK
    edited February 2006
    Well I decided to go for the MSI, the better integrated sound means more to me than slightly better overclocking performance. Cheers for the thoughts and adivce guys, I'll let you know how I get on with it :)
  • tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
    edited February 2006
    I've always liked asus's products, i wouldve gone with them
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    tmh88 wrote:
    I've always liked asus's products, i wouldve gone with them

    Same here! ASUS has always been good to me!
  • jradminjradmin North Kackalaki
    edited February 2006
    Omega65 wrote:
    The A8N32-SLI is doing very well in reviews around the web

    PCPerspective
    Anandtech
    HotHardware
    AMDZone
    Xbitlabs
    HardOCP: ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe "New vesion"

    MSI K8N Diamond Plus
    TBreak
    HardwareZone
    THG
    [url=] [/url]


    Note that with 2 Full PCIe 16x slots, the A8n32-SLI needs neither a SLI Card nor BIOS Detection code, (No 8x/8x split)

    Oh ya, its definately a nice board...but overpriced atm. Those 10fps arn't worth the extra $30-40 in my opinion. When it gets down below $200 then it will be worth getting and probably in my comp :Rocker: :mullet::mullet::mullet::mullet:
  • deicistdeicist Manchester, UK
    edited February 2006
    The MSI board has a full 32 lanes as well, that's why I was torn between it and the ASUS.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    You should be pleased with MSI. The are silky smooth. Not too exciting in any area, but very smooth and reliable.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    You made the right choice, I never intend to touch another Asus motherboard again.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Enverex, at first I had thought that you had just experienced exraordinarily bad luck. Hmm perhaps not. My Asus board in my system 4 (signature) just died two nights ago. See this thread. Of course, anecdotal data from you and me does not constitute a trend, but lately I've been reading a lot of sad stories about faulty, DOA, and dying Asus boards. Hmm. It's hard to say if Asus' per capita failures are worse than any other manufacturer's, but it does make one pause to reconsider.
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    I've been a big fan of MSI since my first K7T-Turbo in 2001. I just ordered the K8N Diamond from Newegg today. While my Neo4 Platinum isn't exactly an overclocking board, it's as stable as hell. I'm excited because the K8N appears to end MSI's bad luck with overclocking. Should work well with my Opty 165.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    MSI boards are just simply smooth, and smooth. Did I say smooth? If I weren't an overclocker, I think MSI would be my first choice motherboard every time.
  • deicistdeicist Manchester, UK
    edited February 2006
    Kwitko wrote:
    I've been a big fan of MSI since my first K7T-Turbo in 2001. I just ordered the K8N Diamond from Newegg today. While my Neo4 Platinum isn't exactly an overclocking board, it's as stable as hell. I'm excited because the K8N appears to end MSI's bad luck with overclocking. Should work well with my Opty 165.

    I'm at 2.75GHz stable with my opty 170 on the Diamond Plus :D
  • tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
    edited February 2006
    The asus is definately a better board. Tomshardware did a review on the k8n diamond and they benched it with similar boards, and the asus scored higher.

    http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/01/26/msi_k8n_diamond_plus/page7.html
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    tmh88 wrote:
    The asus is definately a better board. Tomshardware did a review on the k8n diamond and they benched it with similar boards, and the asus scored higher.

    http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/01/26/msi_k8n_diamond_plus/page7.html

    Uh, did you check all of the tests? First of all, the Asus didn't outperform the MSI in every test. Second, in the tests where the Asus did happen to win, it was by 1, myabe 2 percent, negligible differences at best. If you were to run those tests again, most of those boards would flip-flop their positions.

    Tomshardware themselves said:
    The board's performance is right on par with what we would expect from it; of course, it has also been years since we have seen any meaningful differences between comparable motherboards.
  • deicistdeicist Manchester, UK
    edited February 2006
    Yeah, I really doubt you'd see any performance difference between boards with the same chipsets these days... the only major differences seem to be in features and occasionally in overclocking ability. The ASUS might offer slight advantages in extreme overclocking (but judging from Prime's thread in the overclocking forum he's getting a similar overclock on his ASUS) but the MSI board has a range of features that (in my mind) more than made up for that.
  • QeldromaQeldroma Arid ZoneAh Member
    edited February 2006
    I think you made a great choice D and saved a few skins while you were at it. ASUS boards have generally been "when they work they last". Latent failures are something I've rarely encountered- but my experience is dated.

    That said, the only thing tempting me to buy the ASUS is the SATA port in the rear they replaced the worthless-to-me firewire with. There doesn't seem to be many latent failures on the ASUS yet- but the board is still "young". Otherwise I'd serious consider your choice (if I decide to go that rich).

    :thumbsup:
  • Buddha16Buddha16 Austin, Tx Member
    edited March 2006
    So what would be the better choice: Asus with the better oc'ing ability and heatpipes to cool the bridges and rear sata, or msi with the audigy and very smooth nature!!:eek3: I've got a lonely Athlon 64 x2 4600+ looking at me with those big puppy eyes and I can't make up my mind!!:wow2: The egg has them at a ten dollar difference right now. hhmmmm decisions...decisions!:nudge:
Sign In or Register to comment.