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One day while browsing the Asus Global website, I saw something which I thought was odd; an AMD Athlon64 socket 754 nForce4 motherboard with support for PCI Express... the chipset was released awhile ago but apparently socket 754/nForce4 motherboards have only just recently become available. The board in question was the ASUS K8N4-E Deluxe, making it a potentially attractive upgrade option. Atthe same time, it also breathes new life into socket 754 systems.

Today, PCStats will be looking at the new Asus K8N4-E Deluxe motherboard. It's so new that it's not even up on Asus's North Americanwebsite. Based around the nForce4 chipset, this motherboard supports Socket 754 AMD Athlon64 or Sempron processors. It's memory slots will accommodate up to 3GB of single channel DDR memory. Graphicscome courtesy of a standard PCI Express x16 slot, which is the key selling point as far as we're concerned.

Onboard goodies consist of an extra Serial ATA/RAID controller, a 7.1-channel audiocodec, IEEE 1394a Firewire and Gigabit LAN. Despite all the integrated features the K8N4-E Deluxe shouldn't break the bank at about $142 CDN ($115 US). Expansion needs are cared for with an unusualarrangement of three PCIe x1 slots and three conventional PCI slots. A total of eight SATA 1 devices are supported, as well as four IDE devices.

Asus K8N4-E Deluxe


Includes:

Motherboardmanual, Driver CD, Quick Setup Guide, WinDVD Software Suite, two Ultra/133 IDE cables, Floppy cable, Ultra/33 IDE cable, Six Serial ATA Cables, Three Molex to Two Serial ATA Power cables, I/O Shield,USB/Game Bracket, USB Bracket, IEEE 1394 bracket

The Asus K8N4-E Deluxe is a full size ATX motherboard, in a tan brown coloured PCB, with a nice assortment of audio options like optical and compositeSPDIF-out. The layout of components and sockets on the K8N4-E Deluxe is good, so working with this board is a pleasure. All the headers are labelled, and enthusiasts will appreciate the five well...