ASUS P5N-E SLI is a terrific pick for the average user looking for a mainstream socket 775 motherboard supporting the new 1,333 MHz bus, DDR2-800 memories and SLI.

Bringing SLI, four SATA-300 ports, two FireWire ports, an eSATA port and coaxial SPDIF output soldered on the motherboard – plus an outstanding overclocking capability –, P5N-E SLI has everything Average Joe needs.

Of course high-end motherboards will provide a better performance and more features, but they are more expensive. Costing USD 138, on average (this is an average, so you may find it costing less), we think that ASUS P5N-E SLI has one of the best cost/benefit ratios for the average user around looking for a motherboard with the features that P5N-E SLI provides.

Some mainstream motherboards like ASUS P5B are faster and cost around the same thing, however they do not provide SLI.

There are only two things we didn’t like about this motherboard. First, the SLI selection card. ASUS could have used an automatic switch like everybody else (including themselves). The second weak point on this motherboard is its on-board audio. Even though it uses a 7.1 codec, it only has only three audio jacks on its rear panel, meaning that you can only hook a six-channel speaker system to this board. The codec it uses, Realtek ALC883, is also a low-end codec, providing a low signal-to-noise ratio for its inputs – only 85 dB. This means we do not recommend you to use its on-board audio for capturing and editing analog audio, or you will have a lot of noise on your final file. Also the maximum sampling rate for its inputs is of 96 kHz, while its outputs supports up to 192 kHz. The signal-to-noise ratio for its output is of 95 dB, which is ok for the average user. Even though it brings a coaxial SPDIF out soldered on the rear panel it could also have an optical SPDIF out soldered there.