Late last year NVIDIA introduced what has been their best chipset series yet, that being the nForce4 series designed for AMD platforms. While the nForce4 series came in a number of different versions, it was the SLI version that created the most noise. As it stood the nForce4 SLI was the only chipset available that would support NVIDIAs Scalable Link Interface technology. No more than six months later NVIDIA released the nForce4 SLI version for the Intel LGA775 platform. ASUS were among the first to snap up nForce4 SLI Intel Edition chips, using them on their well designed P5ND2-SLI Deluxe motherboard.

Recently NVIDIA updated both their Intel and AMD versions of the nForce4 SLI, giving it true x16 SLI support. The original chipset featured just 20 PCI Express lanes limiting the dual PCI Express x16 slots to x8 operation when in SLI mode. The new revamped version boasts an incredible 40 PCI Express lanes and allows for x16 SLI operation. This means each graphics card now has a dedicated x16 lane allowing each card to utilize up to 8GB/s of bandwidth. Although this may not sound like a big deal, it does significantly improve the flexibility of the nForce4 SLI chipset and the motherboards that use it.

The additional bandwidth will aid performance, particularly when operating in SLI mode the gains will not be all that significant. The nForce4 X16 SLI is also a dual chip design, meaning unlike the original nForce4 SLI chip, there are north and south-bridge chips. However, future graphic cards should benefit greatly from the added bandwidth, meaning this chipset update will help future proof motherboards. Unfortunately, NVIDIA are really only future proofing motherboards that use the nForce4 SLI X16 chipset and not the original nForce4 SLI chipset.

Nevertheless, it is a worth while addition to the chipset and I believe ASUS would agree. In fact ASUS have been very quick in snapping up these nForce4 SLI X16 chipsets and have already put out two working boards. The ASUS P5N32-SLI Deluxe is an updated version of the P5ND2-SLI Deluxe, which was released late last year. The P5ND2-SLI Deluxe was a seriously impressive nForce4 SLI motherboard, though it did unfortunately have a few short comings. First of all the board was horribly expensive as it initially retailed for roughly $275 US, this price has now fallen to just $170 US. Easily the biggest disappointment was undoubtedly the boards cooling design.

The P5ND2-SLI Deluxe was cooled by a single aluminum passively cooled heatsink, after just minutes of operation this heatsink would became as hot as a stove top. Nevertheless, ASUS have corrected this issue with the P5N32-SLI Deluxe as it features a very unique, very intelligent cooling design. Like the recently reviewed A8N32-SLI Deluxe, this motherboard uses heatpipe technology to cool the north and south-bridge chips as well as the power MOSFETs. These heatpipes work wonders for the A8N32-SLI Deluxe and I believe they will do the same for the P5N32-SLI Deluxe.