Dual Duelling DDR2 AMD Motherboards
By Loyd Case

AMD officially launched its Socket AM2 Athlon 64 CPUs on May 23. The new processors sport a new memory controller, which fully supports DDR2/800 for dual core and DDR2/667 for single core. Since the CPU now has a different, 940-pin socket, new motherboards and new core logic are needed. First out of the chute are motherboards using Nvidia's recently announced Nforce 500 series chipsets. Gamers and performance enthusiasts will cotton to the Nforce 590 core logic. In addition to supporting Nvidia's SLI (scalable link interface) technology for dual graphics cards, the 590 offers an unusual degree of tweakability.

Today, we take a close look at a pair of boards based on the Nforce 590 SLI� Foxconn's C51XEM2AA and the ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe, Wireless Edition. One is specifically designed for users who like to hot-rod their systems and wring out every last possible clock cycle. The other is more mainstream (and slightly less overclocker friendly) but no less potent. Think of one as a Dodge Viper and the other as a BMW M5, if you will...

The Foxconn C51XEM2AA motherboard is considerably less refined than most of its competition. The chipset fan is noisy, the memory slots are a little too close to the CPU socket and the other amenities are often blocked by a fully loaded set of expansion cards. The BIOS, however, is an overclocker's wet dream, offering every conceivable tweaking option. Paradoxically, it's easier to overclock than the ASUS board, due to the clever way it uses SLI Ready memory. Of course, if you don't have SLI Ready DDR2, then overclocking can be a real chore.

Users who build their own systems, but are unlikely to overclock, should consider the ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe. Similarly, anyone wanting to build a relatively quiet system will definitely want the ASUS board. The overall design of the hardware itself is refined and laid out for easy installation and maintenance. Our only real quibble about the layout is that we wish the PCIe X4 slot wasn't blocked by a double-wide graphics card. The inclusion of Wi-Fi is a neat bonus, but not absolutely necessary.