M2N32-SLI Deluxe board inspection
We'll start with the tamest of our duo, if you can call an enthusiast motherboard tame. ASUS's M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition is an AMD Live! ready board. Live! is, for those not savvy to it, AMD's answer to Viiv, Intel's digital entertainment platform branding (get more details on Viiv here). It's also got its share of heatpipes and overclocking features to justify its position as an enthusiast board. Let's have a look at it, then.
ASUS stick with black for the PCB, although there's still ample colour from the various molded connections and sockets on the board, not the mention a lot of copper on display.
The DIMM slots, which somewhat resemble a wasp's behind, should be clear of any interference, although they are quite close the CPU socket. Surrounding the socket are a pair of hefty heatpiped heatsinks, in direct contact with the board's VRMs. Heat from the board's north- and south-bridges must also be dissipated through these sinks, hence their siM2N32-SLI Deluxe ports, bundle and featuresze. Their position allows air blowing off the CPU cooler to pass through them.
To the left of the picture, the sole IDE header overlaps with the 24-pin ATX connector, which could prove a little awkward.
The SATA ports - all six of them - are positioned fairly close to the edge of the board, in the usual place. However, with a second heffer of a graphics card installed, two of these ports will likely be inaccessible.
Also note the abundance of 3-pin fan headers on the board; they're all located in rather useful places around the board, so it's unlikely a fan lead won't have a header within reach.
The expansion slot arrangement is good; even if two dual-slot graphics cards are installed, there's still a PCIe 1x and PCI slot feet. Visible on the far left is the daughter-board for the board's wireless LAN controller. Just to the right of that is the ATX +12V connection, in what is possibly one of the worst positions it could be in.
ASUS has crammed a lot of features on the board, which is great, but it has lead to a few bits and pieces being positioned inconveniently.