Asus M2N-PLUS SLI 2.5.6PCI Express x16 slots

2.5.6PCI Express x16 slots

This motherboard supports two NVIDIA® SLI™-ready PCI Express x16 graphic cards that comply with PCI Express specifications. Refer to the figure below for the location of the slots.





PCI Express x16_1 slot (blue)						PCI slot
	PCI Express x1 slot				PCI slot
	PCI Express x1 slot			PCI Express x16_2 slot (black)

• Connect a rear chassis fan to the chassis (CHA_FAN1) connector when using two graphics cards for better thermal environment. See page 2-26 for details.

•Due to chipset limitation, the black PCI Express x16 (PCIEX16_2) slot can run only up to x8 speed.

•We recommend that you provide sufficient power when running NVIDIA®

SLI™ mode. See pages 2-28 and 2-29 for details.

•See chapter 6 for details on the NVIDIA SLI™ technology feature.

Mode

Non-SLI mode

Dual-graphics

card in SLI mode

	PCIE x16_1 (Blue) slot		PCIE x16_2 (Black) slot
	Card Type	Speed	Card type	Speed
	PCIe x16 graphics card	x16	NA	–
	PCIe x16 graphics card	x8	PCIe x16 graphics card	x8
	PCIe x16 graphics card	x8	Other PCIe devices	x8, x4,
	PCIe x16 graphics card	x8	Other PCIe devices	x1
				x1

Two identical NVIDIA® SLI™ Edition graphics cards at x8, x8 speed

ASUS M2N-Plus SLI Vista Edition

2-19

Contents

Page Page Chapter 1: Product introduction Chapter 2: Hardware information Chapter 3: Powering up Chapter 4: BIOS setup Chapter 5: Software support Chapter 6: NVIDIA® SLI™ technology support Federal Communications Commission Statement Canadian Department of Communications Statement Electrical safety Operation safety How this guide is organized Where to find more information Conventions used in this guide Typography M2N-PlusSLI Vista Edition specifications summary CPU Chipset System bus Memory Overclocking features Special features Rear panel I/O ports Internal connectors BIOS features Manageability Accessories Support CD Form factor Page Product1 introduction Chapter summary 1.1Welcome Thank you for buying an ASUS® M2N-PlusSLI Vista Edition motherboard 1.2Package contents 1.3.1Product highlights Latest processor technology NVIDIA® Scalable Link Interface (SLI™) NVIDIA nForce® 500 SLI™ AMD Cool ‘n’ Quiet!™ Technology PCI Express™ interface Gigabit LAN IEEE 1394a support USB 2.0 technology C-MediaSuperior Quality Audio 1.3.2ASUS AI Lifestyle features AI Remote ASAP (ASUS Accelerated Propeller) AP Trigger TPM Support 1.3.3ASUS Special features ASUS Q-Fan2 technology ASUS MyLogo2™ ASUS CrashFree BIOS ASUS EZ Flash 1.3.4ASUS features and the supporting OS Hardware2 information Page Onboard LED 2.2.1Placement direction 2.2.2Screw holes 2.2.3Motherboard layout 2.2.4Layout contents Page 2.3.1Installing the CPU Page 2.3.2Installing the heatsink and fan Page M2N-PLUSSLI CPU fan connector 2.4.1Overview 2.4.2Memory configurations Important notice on installing Windows® XP 32-bitversion General Search Search 4GB memory installed but less memory size detected 2.4.3Installing a DIMM 2.4.4Removing a DIMM M2N-PlusSLI Vista Edition Motherboard Qualified Vendors Lists (QVL) DDR2-800MHz capability DDR2-667MHz capability DDR2-533MHz capability 2.5.1Installing an expansion card 2.5.2Configuring an expansion card 2.5.3Interrupt assignments Standard interrupt assignments IRQ assignments for this motherboard 2.5.4PCI slots 2.5.5PCI Express x1 slots 2.5.6PCI Express x16 slots 2.6Jumper 1.Clear RTC RAM (3-pinCLRTC) 2.USB device wake-up (3-pinUSBPW12, USBPW34, USBPW56, USBPW78) M2N-PLUSSLI USB device wake-up 3.Keyboard power (3-pinKBPWR) M2N-PLUSSLI Keyboard power setting 2.7.1Rear panel connectors LAN port LED indications Audio 2, 4, 6, or 8-channelconfiguration 2.7.2Internal connectors M2N-PLUSSLI IDE connectors M2N-PLUSSLI SATA connectors 4.CPU, chassis, and power fan connectors (4-pinCPU_FAN, 3-pinPWR_FAN, 3-pinCHA_FAN) M2N-PLUSSLI Fan connectors 5.USB connectors (10-1pin USB56, USB 78, ASAP) 6.IEEE 1394a port connector (10-1pin IE1394_2) M2N-PLUSSLI IEEE 1394a connector 7.Chassis intrusion connector (4-1pin CHASSIS) M2N-PLUSSLI Chassis intrusion connector 8.ATX power connectors (24-pinEATXPWR, 4-pinATX12V) 9.Front panel audio connector (10-1pin FP_AUDIO) M2N-PLUSSLI Front panel audio connector 10.Internal audio connector (4-pinCD) M2N-PLUSSLI Internal audio connector 11.Digital audio connector (4-1pin SPDIF_OUT) M2N-PLUSSLI Digital audio connector 12.TPM connector (20-1pin TPM) M2N-PLUSSLI TPM connector 13.System panel connector (20-8pin PANEL) •System power LED (2-pinPLED) •Hard disk drive activity LED (2-pinIDE_LED) •System warning speaker (4-pinSPEAKER) •ATX power button/soft-offbutton (2-pinPWRSR) ASUS Q-Connector(system panel) Page Page 3.1Starting up for the first time 3.2.1Using the OS shut down function 3.2.2Using the dual function power switch Page Page 4.1.1ASUS Update utility Installing ASUS Update Updating the BIOS through the Internet Updating the BIOS through a BIOS file 4.1.2Creating a bootable floppy disk 4.1.3ASUS EZ Flash 2 utility 4.1.4 Updating the BIOS Page 4.1.5 Saving the current BIOS file 4.1.6ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 utility Recovering the BIOS from the support CD Recovering the BIOS from the USB flash disk 4.2BIOS setup program 4.2.1BIOS menu screen 4.2.2Menu bar 4.2.3Legend bar 4.2.4Menu items 4.2.5Sub-menuitems 4.2.6Configuration fields 4.2.7Pop-upwindow 4.2.8General help 4.3.1System Time [xx:xx:xx] 4.3.2System Date [Day xx/xx/xxxx] 4.3.3Legacy Diskette A [1.44M, 3.5 in.] 4.3.4Primary/Secondary IDE Master/Slave Primary/Secondary IDE Master/Slave [Auto] Access Mode [Auto] PIO Mode [Auto] UDMA Mode [Auto] Transfer Mode 4.3.5SATA1~4 Extended IDE Drive [Auto] Landing Zone 4.3.6HDD SMART Monitoring [Disabled] 4.3.7Installed Memory [xxx MB] 4.3.8Usable Memory [XXX MB] 4.4.1JumperFree Configuration AI Tuning [Auto] Overclock Options [Disabled] CPU Frequency [XXX] (value is auto-detected) PCI Express Clock [100Mhz] DDR2 Voltage [Auto] 4.4.2CPU Configuration DRAM Configuration Load Fail-SafeDefaults USB Keyboard Support [Disabled] USB Mouse Support [Disabled] Onboard FDC Controller [Enabled] CKE Fine Delay [Auto] Hyper Transport Frequency [Auto] AMD Live! [Disabled] AMD Cool ‘n’ Quiet Function [Disabled] 4.4.3PCIPnP Plug & Play O/S [No] Primary Display Adapter [PCI] 4.4.4Onboard Device Configuration IDE Function Setup NVRAID Configuration USB Configuration Onboard nVidia LAN [Enabled] Onboard LAN Boot ROM [Disabled] Onboard USB Audio [Enabled] ASUS ASAP [Disabled] 4.4.5SLI Configuration AI-Selector[Auto] 4.5.1ACPI Suspend Type [S1&S3] 4.5.2ACPI APIC Support [Enabled] 4.5.3APM Configuration Restore on AC Power Loss [Power-Off] PWR Button < 4 secs [Instant-Off] Power Up On PCI/PCIE Devices [Disabled] Power On By External Modems [Disabled] Date (of Month) Alarm [xx] Alarm Time (hh:mm:ss) [xx:xx:xx] HPET Support [Enabled] Power Up By PS/2 Mouse [Disabled] Power Up By PS/2 Keyboard [Disabled] 4.5.4Hardware Monitor CPU Q-FanControl [Disabled] CPU Q-FanProfile [Performance] Chassis Q-FanControl [Disabled] Chassis Q-FanProfile [Performance] Vcore Voltage, 3.3V Voltage, 5V Voltage, 12V Voltage CPU Temperature, M/B Temperature CPU Fan Speed CHASSIS FAN Speed 4.6.1Boot Device Priority 1st ~ 4th Boot Device [Removable] 4.6.2Removable Drives 1. Floppy Disks 4.6.3Hard Disk Drives 1. SATA1: 4.6.4CDROM Drives 4.6.5Boot Settings Configuration Case Open Warning [Enabled] Quick Boot [Enabled] Boot Up Floppy Seek [Disabled] Bootup Num-Lock[On] 4.6.6Security Supervisor Password User Password Password Check Security Chip [Disabled] 4.7.1ASUS EZ Flash Exit & Save Changes Exit & Discard Changes Load Setup Defaults Discard Changes Software5 support Page 5.2.1Running the support CD 5.2.2Drivers menu ASUS InstAll-InstallationWizard for Drivers NVIDIA nForce Chipset Driver C-MediaCM6501 Audio Driver AMD Cool ‘n’ Quiet Driver 5.2.3Utilities menu ASUS InstAll-InstallationWizard for Utilities ASUS PC Probe ASUS Update ASUS AI Gear ADOBE Acrobat Reader Microsoft DirectX 9.0c Symantec Norton Internet Security WinDVD Copy5 Trial Corel Snapfire Plus SE 5.2.4Make Disk menu NVIDIA 32/64bit 2000/XP/Vista SATA RAID Driver 5.2.5Manual menu 5.2.6ASUS Contact information 5.2.7Other information Motherboard Info Browse this CD Technical support Form Filelist 5.3.1ASUS MyLogo2™ Page 5.3.2Cool ‘n’ Quiet!™ Technology Enabling Cool ‘n’ Quiet!™ Technology Launching the Cool ‘n’ Quiet!™ software 5.3.3C-MediaCM6501 audio utility Main Setting Mixer Effect Information 5.3.4ASUS PC Probe Installing PC Probe Launching PC Probe Using PC Probe Preferences Hardware monitor panels WMI browser DMI browser PCI browser Usage Configuring PC Probe 5.3.5ASUS AI Gear 5.3.6ASUS AI Nap 5.3.7AI Remote Overview of the ASUS AI Remote USB IR Receiver Software Installation Activating HID-CompliantDevices ASUS AI Remote Settings Use Profile Browse AP-2 Save User Define AP Menu Button and Application menu Define Hotkeys for Application The Function Buttons and AP Profile 5.4.1ASAP (ASUS Accelerated Propeller) ASAP 5.5RAID configurations RAID RAID 0+1 RAID 1+0 JBOD 5.5.1Installing hard disks Installing Parallel ATA hard disks Installing Serial ATA (SATA) hard disks 5.5.2NVIDIA® RAID configurations Setting the BIOS RAID items Entering the NVIDIA® RAID utility Creating a RAID Volume Page Rebuilding a RAID array Page Deleting a RAID array Clearing a disk data 5.6Creating a RAID driver disk 5.2.4 Make Disk menu Page Page Requirements 6.2.1Installing SLI-readygraphics cards Page Page 6.2.2Installing the device drivers 6.2.3Enabling the multi-GPUfeature in Windows® 8.Click the Enable SLI multi-GPU check box