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Sony, Apple, HP, Compaq, Palm, Alienware, and Falcon Northwest all have one thing in common and its the company that provides them the components for their best selling products. That company is ASUS. This Taiwan based corporation is a bull in the industry that has been delivering the goods since '99 and they continue to provide enthusiasts with more toys than Santa Claus.
Making sure every possible niche is covered, ASUS has provided AMD users an SLI capable motherboard with several unique features. The ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe dishes out goodies like the brand new 780a chipset, 3-way SLI capability, Hybrid SLI, ESA, HyperTransport 3.0, PCIe 2.0 and the sexy Cool Mempipe. Is this the motherboard you've been waiting for? HardwareLogic straps the M3N-HT onto the test bench and drops the knowledge on you, raw and uncut.
| PRODUCT | |
| CPU SUPPORT | Socket
|
| CHIPSET |
|
| MEMORY |
|
| VGA |
|
| EXPANSION SLOTS |
|
| STORAGE | Southbridge
Marvell® 6111 SATA controller
|
| AUDIO |
|
| LAN |
|
| REAR I/O PANEL |
|
| INTERNAL I/O HEADERS |
|
| SYSTEM BIOS |
|
| FORM FACTOR |
|
| WARRANTY |
|
| CURRENT PRICING |
Bundle
| ACCESSORIES |
|
| CABLES |
|
| APPLICATION DVD | Asus Motherboard Support DVD
|
| DOCUMENTATION |
|
I've come to expect a generous bundle when I open an ASUS product and the M3N-HT did not disappoint. It comes with everything you would expect and then some. One of my favorite accessories, the Q-Connector kit, saves you time and effort when you need to hook up your front panel connectors. The Q-Shield is ASUS' specially designed I/O plate that protects the board against static electricity and electronic magnetic interference (EMI). The bundle also includes a small fan to provide airflow over the chipset area when using a watercooling or passive air cooling CPU block. There are also a pair of SLI bridges for your choice of SLI or 3-way SLI configurations.
The support DVD comes with the usual suspects and an interesting new feature. The drivers are accompanied by several useful utilities like the AI Suite, PC Probe II and ASUS Update. This is the first time I've seen ASUS Express Gate which is an instant-on environment that allows you to surf the internet and use Skype without entering the operating system environment first. The program stored on the mobo so it can be utilized even with no hard drive installed. Neat!
