ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe/Wireless Edition Motherboard
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Performance

Once you finish installing the motherboard and the operating system, the real fun begins. Along with the nForce drivers (which the drivers CD will install for you all at once – nice feature), ASUS included a number of nice utilities with this motherboard:

  • Cool and Quiet: shows CPU frequency and voltage on AMD K8 CPUs.
  • PC Probe II: monitors Vcore and power supply voltages, CPU and motherboard temperatures and the CPU fan and up to four chassis fans in a modular format. PC Probe II also includes system information monitors and an adjustable alarm threshold, which is great if you’re trying to find the absolute boundaries of your system.
  • Update: flashes the BIOS in Windows.
  • Ai Gear: adjusts the speeds of system fans to find the right balance between noise and cooling.
  • Ai Nap: suspends the system to save power without shutting it off.
  • Music Alarm: turns your computer into an alarm clock by having it auto-start and play music at a specified time.
  • Ai Booster: overclocking utility.
Although all of these utilities have a lot of good uses, my favorite by far is the Ai Booster, which takes a lot of the guesswork out of overclocking a system and even better, allows you to do your tests in Windows, where you can see the results immediately. Those of you familiar with NVIDIA’s more recent chipsets may know that NVIDIA also has an overclocking utility, called nTune, which allows you to adjust system clocks, fan speeds, memory timings and voltages all on the same page. Ai Booster works in a similar fashion, giving you less control over the memory but more control over both the CPU and the voltages. It also includes a monitor of system stress and a test function that usually gives you an idea of whether or not your system will crash with your new settings. Overall, I thought it was an improvement over nTune, especially for overclocking beginners, but it’s worth having both available.

A view of the built-in wireless card that comes with the Wireless edition of the M2N32.


Using Ai Booster, I overclocked my system, which has the following specs:
  • Processor: AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core 4200+ 65W
  • Memory: 2 GB of Crucial Ballistix DDR2 PC2-8000 RAM
  • Power Supply: OCZ NVIDIA SLI-Ready GameXStream 600W
  • Video Card: Two XFX GeForce 7900GS in SLI configuration
  • Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750 GB
  • OS: Windows XP SP2
  • Software: Battlefield 2142, Call of Duty 2, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion



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