K8N vs. K8N-E Deluxe?

[roswell]

I'm looking to get a socket 754 board and narrowed it down to the K8N or
K8N-E? Are these boards equal in performance and overclocking
potential? Or is the deluxe model a better deal for $50 more?

 

[Paul]

I'm looking to get a socket 754 board and narrowed it down to the K8N or
K8N-E? Are these boards equal in performance and overclocking
potential? Or is the deluxe model a better deal for $50 more?

The question is, what motherboard facilities make a difference
to overclock ?

1) Vcore circuit - identical on both boards. Max voltage unstated.
2) Vdimm - 2.5V to 2.7V. Not enough for BH-5
3) Clockgen - user manuals state same range 200MHz-300Mhz

Both the 250 and 250GB chipsets have 800Mhz HT bus. That is
not an issue for overclock, as long as the FSB clock times
the bus multiplier is less than 800. At 200Mhz, a multiplier
of four can be used. From there to 266Mhz, a multiplier of
three can be used. I don't see enough differences between
the chipsets to make a difference to the overclock level.

A question would be whether the voltage ranges offered
are enough for overclocking. You might want to look at
some of the other motherboard manufacturers, if you want
more voltage. If you have RAM that doesn't need a lot of
voltage, then this is not going to be as much of an issue.

Asus K8N - customer reviews
http://secure.newegg.com/OldVersion/app/CustratingReview.asp?DEPA=1&item=13-131-512

Asus K8N-E - customer reviews
http://secure.newegg.com/OldVersion/app/CustratingReview.asp?DEPA=1&item=13-131-498

A DFI S754 board. Even has SPDIF-in and SPDIF-out.
http://secure.newegg.com/OldVersion/app/CustratingReview.asp?DEPA=1&item=13-136-147
http://www.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_pr....jsp?PRODUCT_ID=2840&CATEGORY_TYPE=MB&SITE=US
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2198&p=2

If you are more of a "casual overclocker", then either Asus
board should be fine.

Paul