Asus P5N-T Deluxe 780i Motherboard

Introduction and Specification

Published: 15th January 2008 | Source: Asus | Price: £167 | Author: Matthew Kemp

Introduction

Asus are really pumping out the motherboards recently and introducing a fair few boards to their range. We seem to be seeing a lot of 780i boards coming through the OC3D labs currently and the P5N-T is another that is of that ilk.

As a successor to the 680i platform, the 780i is a board built for the gaming enthusiasts in mind. Featuring "Tri-SLI" along with normal SLI and a whole host of other features you would expect of a high-end board, the P5N-T Deluxe is a board that should be able to do the business.

Despite not being shipped with all of the awesome features we saw on the AI Lifestyle board, the P5E3 Deluxe, the P5N-T Deluxe looks to have a nice set of specs that should ensure most enthusiasts are dribbling in their energy drinks.

Let's take a look at the specs of the board from the Asus website.

Specification

CPU	Intel Socket 775 Core™2 Quad/Core™2 Extreme/Core™2 Duo/Pentium® Extreme/Pentium® D Processors Compatible with Intel® 05B/05A/06 processors Support Intel® next generation 45nm CPU
Chipset	NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI
Front Side Bus	1333/1066/800 MHz
Memory	4 x DIMM, Max. 8 GB, DDR2 1066*/800/667 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory Dual Channel memory architecture
Expansion Slots	3 x PCIe x16 (blue @PCIe2.0 x16 mode, black @PCIe x16 mode) supports SLI Technology 2 x PCIe x1 1 x PCI
Storage	Southbridge 1 xUltraDMA 133/100/66 6 xSATA 3 Gb/s ports NVIDIA® MediaShield™ RAID Support RAID 0,1,0+1,5,JBOD configuration across Serieal ATA drives Marvell 88SE6111 1 xExternal SATA
Scalable Link Interface (SLI™)	Support three identical NVIDIA SLI-Ready graphics cards (all at x16 mode)
LAN	Marvell88E1116 PCIe Gigabit LAN PHY featuring AI NET2
Audio	ADI® AD1988B 8 -Channel High Definition Audio CODEC Coaxial / Optical S/PDIF out ports ASUS Noise Filter Support Jack-Sensing, Enumeration, Multi-streaming AI Audio 2
IEEE 1394	VIA6308P controller supports 2 x 1394a ports
USB	10 USB 2.0 ports (6 ports at mid-board, 4 ports at back panel)
ASUS AI Lifestyle Features	ASUS Power Saving Solution - ASUS EPU (Energy Processing Unit) - ASUS 3rd Generation 8-phase Power - ASUS AI Nap ASUS AI Lifestyle - ASUS AI Direct Link ASUS Quiet Thermal Solution - ASUS Fanless Design: Stack Cool 2 - ASUS Q-Fan 2 - ASUS Optional Fan for Water-cooling or Passive-Cooling only - ASUS Fanless Design: Sophisticated Heat-pipe solution ASUS Crystal Sound - ASUS Noise Filter - ASUS AI Audio 2 ASUS EZ DIY - ASUS Q-Connector - ASUS Q-Shield - ASUS O.C. Profile - ASUS CrashFree BIOS 2 - ASUS EZ Flash 2
Overclocking Features	Intelligent overclocking tools - ASUS AI Booster Utility Precision Tweaker 2 - vDIMM: 64 -step DRAM voltage control - vCore: Adjustable CPU voltage at 0.00625V increment - vChipset (N.B.) 64-step voltage control - vChipset (S.B.): 16 step Chipset voltage control - vHT (Hyper Transport): 41-step Hyper Transport voltage control SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection) - FSB tuning from 133MHz up to 800MHz at 1MHz increment - Memory tuning from 400MHz up to 2600MHz - PCI Express frequency tuning from 100MHz up to 200MHz at 1MHz increment Overclocking Protection - ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)
Special Features	Multi-language BIOS ASUS MyLogo 3
Back Panel I/O Ports	1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x External SATA 1 x S/PDIF Out 1 x IEEE 1394a 1 x LAN(RJ45) port 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 8 -Channel Audio I/O
Internal I/O Connectors	3 x USB connectors support additional 6 USB ports 1 x Floppy disk drive connector 1 x IDE connector 6 x SATA connectors 1 x IEEE 1394a connector 1 x CPU Fan connector 1 x Chassis Fan connector 2 x Power Fan connector 1 x S/PDIF Out connector 1 x8-pin ATX 12V Power connector 24 -pin ATX Power connector 1 x COM connector 20 Pin Panel connector Front panel audio connector Chassis Intrusion connector System Panel Connector CD audio in
BIOS	8 Mb Flash ROM DMI 2.0 AMI BIOS PnP WfM 2.0 SM BIOS 2.3 Multi-language BIOS
Manageability	WOL by PME,WOR by PME,Chasis Intrusion,AI NET2 PXE
Accessories	User's manual 1 x 2-port USB2.0 module / 1-port 1394 module 1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable 1 x Floppy disk drive cable 6 x SATA cable 1 x SATA power cable for 2 devices 3 in 1 Q-connector 1 x Optional Fan for Water-Cooling or Passive-Cooling only 1 x 3-Way SLI bridge card 1 x 2-Way SLI bridge cable ASUS Q-Shield
Support Disc	Drivers ASUS PC Probe II ASUS AI Suite Anti-virus software (OEM version) ASUS Update Image Editing Suite
Form Factor	ATX Form Factor 12 inch x 9.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm )

3-way SLI and a few other highlights means that there's something for most people to chomp into. Now let's get onto the good stuff.

Most Recent Comments

24-01-2008, 20:35:06

Kempez

I was waiting for the BIOS release to try again but due to review time constraints I've had to take it out.

I may get some time to try again but it won't be for a while

24-01-2008, 20:38:06

dwarry

I managed to get it up to 3.375gig (FSB of 1500 in BIOS) and I could run 3Dmark 06 comfortably with a score of 19,448. However when I was playing stalker all maxed out it threw up BSOD's after about half an hour. I didn't try to push it any more than this and this was with my Thermaltake Big Typ 120 air cooler turned right down to silent levels. I am now running at 3.038gig (FSB 1350 in BIOS) with all the fans on Silent and it is Solid as a rock, (No problems playing Crysis last night for 3 hours, wife is at work...!, with all the settings at HIGH inc. AA & AF, Res 1600x1050 on 22" screen) 3Dmark score is still over 1700, So I personally am well impressed with the new BIOS it has helped me overcome my NewB overclocking fears....!
It would be good to see what an expert OC'er could do.....HINT HINT.....!
Cheers, DW

24-01-2008, 20:43:58

Kempez

I simply don't have time right now. If I get some (unlikely) I will update the review

24-01-2008, 21:41:10

dwarry

Thanks dood, you can only try :-)

02-02-2008, 12:34:50

steelkane

I think the benchmarks would be better, if a Nvidia card was used on a sli board. using an ati card makes no sense to me. very bad review.

02-02-2008, 12:51:00

Ham

I think the benchmarks would be better, if a Nvidia card was used on a sli board. using an ati card makes no sense to me. very bad review.

The fact that nvidia and ATI cards perform nigh on identically on any chipset not crossed your mind?

Also the ATI card was used on other boards review, so it there as a control. Using an 8800GT vs the X1950 pro and then saying the motherboard is fantastic for gaming isnt exactly a fair test is it.

And intel dont make graphics cards to test with intel chips.

02-02-2008, 14:44:56

Rastalovich

That`s the thing. There are a fair few reviewers out there that would switch out cards, cpus or memory, but where is the fairness in the comparison ? Or the consistancy really.

U have to try and keep the playing field for all the boards ur going to compare as even as possible. Components, to an extent don`t matter that much as long as they`re the same. A choice of decent proven stuff in this case I think, don`t want to overcomplicate things either and take ur eye of what ur really reviewing, which is the mobo.

06-02-2008, 20:39:58

sinephase

Not a bad review, definitely not a "very" bad review. There are many benchmarks that were taken that don't rely on video at all. I do agree to an extent about the video card, but mainly because it wasn't tested with a PCIe 2.0 card, which is what the board is supposed to be for.

I'm sure it's quite hard to keep everything accurate because, for instance, in a lot of benchmarks a 8800 with 256bit memory vs. one with a 345bit (or whatever it is) doesn't look like much now, but once games, etc. utilize it better, there will be a growing difference between the two. Same with the wolfdale vs. conroe, because the wolfdale is using new instructions, and once those are used in apps, there will be more of a difference.

Would really like to see a comparison between PCIe 2.0 and 1.0(1) performance on this site.

17-02-2009, 10:50:39

Sleekit

I bought this board, sadly jumped into it without reading any reviews, i've been planning on overclocking my cpu for ages now, i've read many guides on overclocking (including the ones on here) but i'm still clueless, does anyone know this board well who could help me please?

17-02-2009, 15:58:51

w3bbo

Probably best asking in the overclocking section m8.

HERE