ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe:

Author's Rating:

Pros: -reasonably priced -cutting edge features -a very well constructed.excellent user manual included. -hugely expandable.

Cons: none noticed.

The Bottom Line: 
As long as you can handle all the new features, and are prepared to purchase a sufficient power supply, I highly recommend this motherboard.

Author's Review
This was my first PC build, and it went off without a hitch thanks,in large part,to this motherboard.
Asus did a fine job in engineering an extremely user friendly system that eliminates many of the snags associated with building a system. The manual is set forth in a very logical manner, and with a little common sense I had no trouble going from start to finish without any major difficulties.
There are a few things to take note of when assembling a system around this motherboard though.
First; the board is set up with the newer 24 pin atx power plugin,rather than the older 20 pin type. Adapters can easily be found that will enable you to use your older 20 pin power supply but that leads to the second point; this system cannot be run on just any power supply. You will need to invest in a high quality power supply with the proper amperage and wattage. These are power supplies that have been tested and found to be able to run this motherboard,and depends on whether you are running your system using one or two SLI, pci-express video cards.

Power supplies tested with a single GeForce 6x00/GT/Ultra or up to 6600GT SLI
- Zalman ZM400B-APS, 400-watts
- Antec TruePower 430, 430-watts
- Tagan TG480-U01, 480-watts
- Enermax Coolergiant EG435AX, 430-watts
- Antec NeoPower 480, 480-watts
- PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 SLI, 510-watts

Power supplies tested with GeForce 6800GT and 6800 Ultra in SLI

- Tagan TG480-U01
- Antec NeoPower 480
- Fortron Source FSP550-60PLN*
- Antec TruePower 550 EPS12V*
- PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 SLI**

**The PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 SLI is currently the best PSU for running an SLI configuration or a high-end PC and comes with dual 6-pin PCIe connectors.

The power supplies designated with a * are needed if you want to run the A8N-SLI with an Athlon 64 FX 53 or 55 processor, two GeForce 6800 Ultras and two or more high capacity Serial-Ata drives. However they need to be modified in order to convert the 8-pin 12-volt connector, coming off of the 2nd 12-volt rail to two 6-pin PCIe power connectors, this is a simple procedure that means extracting the pins from the original connector and splitting them out to two 6-pin PCIe connectors. These will be connected to the GeForce 6800 Ultras directly, hence powering them off of their own 12-volt rail within the power supply. From our testing this is the only way to guarantee absolute stability. Take notice that when running SLI the EZ-Plug must also be connected to guarantee stable operation.

Other than these considerations I can highly recommend this motherboard, especially to anyone interested in PC gaming.