Since I suspect my MSI K9N SLI Platinum of being DOA (problems with using memory in Channel A), I'm looking for perhaps an alternative board. I chose the MSI over the ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe but maybe I was wrong to do so..
Is there anyone here who has this ASUS board, and if so..could you tell me what sort of capacitors are used on it? What kind of phase power does it have? And otherwise, are you happy with the board and does it have some bugs/annoyances?
Can't find any reviews, let alone details on the parts used on it.
Thanks in advance!
Anyone have an ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe??
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I have an Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe. I was hoping to read a review before purchase, but decided to gamble as I've had good luck with three previous Asus boards. It's been up and running for about 10 days now and has been rock solid stable.
I haven't done any overclocking or much BIOS tweaking, other than disabling the JMicron RAID controller (speeds up boot time by about a second with it disabled). My RAM is supposedly 5-5-5-12 but in this mobo it was set by default to 5-5-5-18. I don't know if that makes much of a difference and I haven't yet bothered to experiment with the memory timings.
It came with the proper connectors to hook up the front panel USB and IEEE ports on my P180 case. The main power connector is near the IDE/SATA connectors, which puts it within easy reach of the power supply in the P180 case (PS on bottom). The 4 pin power connector is near the top of the board, which is a long stretch for a new-style Seasonic S12-500 (with the sheathed cables). It barely reaches, although it might work better if the cable were routed underneath the board.
I would have liked it to be able to boot from a USB flash drive, but that's not an option.
The only major problem I've had with this system is that the 7900GT weirds-out sometimes in Oblivion, a problem other 7900GT owners have. I've temporarily resolved it by underclocking the GPU until I get a real fix. This doesn't seem to be anything related to the mobo.
I don't know what to look for in terms of capacitors, and I don't see anything about phase power in the manual. Sorry - those are beyond my knowledge. I can post some close-up photos or possibly read you the markings on the caps if that will help.
I haven't done any overclocking or much BIOS tweaking, other than disabling the JMicron RAID controller (speeds up boot time by about a second with it disabled). My RAM is supposedly 5-5-5-12 but in this mobo it was set by default to 5-5-5-18. I don't know if that makes much of a difference and I haven't yet bothered to experiment with the memory timings.
It came with the proper connectors to hook up the front panel USB and IEEE ports on my P180 case. The main power connector is near the IDE/SATA connectors, which puts it within easy reach of the power supply in the P180 case (PS on bottom). The 4 pin power connector is near the top of the board, which is a long stretch for a new-style Seasonic S12-500 (with the sheathed cables). It barely reaches, although it might work better if the cable were routed underneath the board.
I would have liked it to be able to boot from a USB flash drive, but that's not an option.
The only major problem I've had with this system is that the 7900GT weirds-out sometimes in Oblivion, a problem other 7900GT owners have. I've temporarily resolved it by underclocking the GPU until I get a real fix. This doesn't seem to be anything related to the mobo.
I don't know what to look for in terms of capacitors, and I don't see anything about phase power in the manual. Sorry - those are beyond my knowledge. I can post some close-up photos or possibly read you the markings on the caps if that will help.
Thanks for sharing your experience! Seems like you've had more luck than I have.
More info: http://www.badcaps.net
edit: and another one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague
If it wouldn't take too much of your time, that would be very helpful. It might be interesting for you as well as there have been many incidents of caps leaking and exploding.Gordoco wrote:I can post some close-up photos or possibly read you the markings on the caps if that will help.
More info: http://www.badcaps.net
edit: and another one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague
Gordoco (or anyone else for that mater) would you mind taking a look at my "Recommended Motherboards" sticky thread and providing some information on the M2N-SLI Deluxe?
Relevant information would be BIOS fan control; how many fan headers are controllable, how much control is offered, (start speeds, temp thresholds, ect), and generally just how well the control works in general. If you could check for SpeedFan support that would be appreciated also.
A brief description of CPU under-volting options would also be helpful.
It's already obvious that the board has excellent passive cooling so it has that going for it at least
Relevant information would be BIOS fan control; how many fan headers are controllable, how much control is offered, (start speeds, temp thresholds, ect), and generally just how well the control works in general. If you could check for SpeedFan support that would be appreciated also.
A brief description of CPU under-volting options would also be helpful.
It's already obvious that the board has excellent passive cooling so it has that going for it at least
I have motherboard revision 1.01G. The capacitors are marked KZG. According to Google they are manufactured by United Chemi-Con, which is on the "good" list in the wikipedia entry 
. I could only see the KZG marking on a few, but all caps have the same brown and white color scheme so I presume they're all KZG. See a picture of one of the caps here.
The board has 4 chassis fan headers, one power fan header, and of course a CPU fan header. The manual says all but the power fan header "support the Asus Q-Fan2 feature" which may or many not mean they're controllable. I installed SpeedFan last week to monitor temps, and I briefly played with the fans. It shows three "speeds". Speed01 controls the CPU fan, Speed02 controls chassis fan header 1, and I don't know what Speed02 controls since only one of my case fans has a 3 pin connector so I'm not using the other headers. The RPM reported by Speed02 is whacked out - I know my Nexus is not spinning at 14000 RPM (and I haven't bothered figuring out how to set the multipler correctly). The system is quiet enough for now that I haven't spent much time with fan speed controls.
I'll dig into the BIOS later to see what undervolting options may be available.
I'm also in the middle of building a computer for my girlfriend with the Asus M2NPV-VM. The system is assembled and passes memtest86 so I'll be installing Windows tomorrow night. I'll check its caps and fan controls and post something in a day or two.
. I could only see the KZG marking on a few, but all caps have the same brown and white color scheme so I presume they're all KZG. See a picture of one of the caps here.
The board has 4 chassis fan headers, one power fan header, and of course a CPU fan header. The manual says all but the power fan header "support the Asus Q-Fan2 feature" which may or many not mean they're controllable. I installed SpeedFan last week to monitor temps, and I briefly played with the fans. It shows three "speeds". Speed01 controls the CPU fan, Speed02 controls chassis fan header 1, and I don't know what Speed02 controls since only one of my case fans has a 3 pin connector so I'm not using the other headers. The RPM reported by Speed02 is whacked out - I know my Nexus is not spinning at 14000 RPM (and I haven't bothered figuring out how to set the multipler correctly). The system is quiet enough for now that I haven't spent much time with fan speed controls.
I'll dig into the BIOS later to see what undervolting options may be available.
I'm also in the middle of building a computer for my girlfriend with the Asus M2NPV-VM. The system is assembled and passes memtest86 so I'll be installing Windows tomorrow night. I'll check its caps and fan controls and post something in a day or two.
That was my guess as well..though I'm not really into all the technical details so I'm not sure.cAPSLOCK wrote:I haven't seen one in person, but from looking at the pics it looks like the M2N has a 4 phase VRM.
Are you sure all the caps are made by UCC Gordoco? Strange, my MSI has caps from 4 different brands, some of them low-end.. 1-0 for ASUS.
Don't presume they're all KZG though because I think all those UCC caps have the same color scheme.
My board has KZG, KMG and KZJ for example.Look for any other markings, on the backside etc. There MAY BE counterfeits floating around so make sure if you can. (source: http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread ... ounterfeit)