ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe Motherboard Review

The Conclusion

Of all the recent s939 boards that I have had on the test bench, I would have to say that this board ranked right at the the top. It certainly has been my favorite ATI chipset board, due to the sheer ease of overclocking. If looks mean anything to you, the black PCB has to catch your eye. Performance is on par with other ATI 3200 boards, as the only real difference these days seems to be the bundle and overclocking ability, of which Asus tops when it comes to overclocking, and only so-so with the bundle. Running in Crossfire was also a breeze on this board, with the included instructions being very clear and thorough. The positioning of the CPU socket and northbridge heatsink is akward, and could pose some issues for those with large HSF combinations, though we have none on hand due to our use of water cooling. Our Corsair water cooler did fit, and was liewise just a little akward to install, but once installed, it posed no problems.

A quick look at Newegg and other shopping sites shows us that the Asus board does come at a premium, so the question will be is it worth it to you to pay a little extra for this board? In my opinion, yes! We have already looked at the Abit ATI 3200 offering and seen its limitations compared to the Asus board, and the $10-$15 price difference is certainly worth it.

Windows Vista was also installed on this board without a hitch, so future-proofing for the up and coming OS is also an added benefit to this board.

The Legit Bottom Line

This board has by far been one of the easiest I have worked with in a long time. It is a fast board, that is a great overclocker, something that is not seen in all ATI 3200 chipset boards. If you are looking for a s939 board that looks good and overclocks well, it doesn’t get much better than this. This board is staying on my bench, at least until the switch over to AM2, which by the way, this same chipset is available for.