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Date: September 4, 2006
Author(s): Rob Williams
Editor: Mark Ozimek

The M2N32-SLI Deluxe is one feature packed motherboard in every sense of the word. Whether you are a hardcore gamer, enthusiast overclocker or Joe HTPC, this board delivers what you are looking for.

Synthetic & Real World Tests

Since this is the first AM2 motherboard review we have done, it's difficult to have a basis for comparison. Saying that, these benchmarks don't mean that much right now, unless you know what you are looking for. As we evaluate more boards, this will be more complete. I will be using results from our recent AMD X2 4600+ review. Before we jump into those though, please review our testing methodology:

Throughout all of our benchmarks regardless of what we are reviewing, testing is done in a clean and stand-alone version of Windows XP Professional with SP2. Prior to testing, these conditions are met:

• Desktop and scrap files are cleaned up, including emptying of recycle bin.
• No virus scanner or firewall is installed in the stand-alone installation.
• The stand-alone installation drive is completely defragged using Diskeeper 10 Pro Premier.
• All unnecessary programs are closed, so that Windows should have no more than 15 active processes running.
• Computer has proper airflow.

If you are interested in using the same benchmarks as us, feel free to visit the developers website:

• 3D Mark 2001
• Everest Ultimate 3.0
• PC Mark 2005
• Sandra 2007
• Super Pi 1.5 Mod

The testing rig used for today's benchmarking is as follows:

• CPU: AMD Windsor 4600+ EE @ 2.4GHz - 2.85GHz
• Motherboard: ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe (701 BIOS)
• Memory: OCZ VX2 2GB PC2-8000 Ti Alpha
• Video: ASUS 7800GT TOP
• Sound: Onboard HD Audio
• Storage: Seagate 7200.9 320GB
• Etcetera: Windows XP Professional w/ SP2, NVIDIA 81.98 Drivers
• Cooling: Corsair Nautilus 500

As mentioned, this is our first AM2 review so it's rather pointless to barricade you with a bunch of meaningless results due to the lack of comparison. All future AM2 motherboard reviews will include comparisons to one another. I will not bother explaining these benchmarks, but they will become a basis for comparison.

Next up is some motherboard features that are actually meaningful to test. The onboard peripherals!