The ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe motherboard supports all AMD processors including the Phenom X3 and Phenom X4, and is based on NVIDIA's latest 780a SLI chipset.

The mean-looking cooling found on the ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe means business.

High-end ASUS boards such as this M3N-HT Deluxe sport a 8+2 phase PWM design.  According to ASUS, eight phases are dedicated for the processor's main functions, while the other two phases are meant for the integrated memory controller.

Something more unique: 8+2 phase power design on this board.

For those who just need to check their email, or just check something, they could just use the built-in ASUS Express Gate feature found on ASUS' higher-end motherboards. By using Express Gate, you are ready to surf the Net in five seconds. This beats wasting a minute or so booting into Windows and then you wait again for Internet Explorer to load.

Express Gate contains a very basic version of the Linux OS, which is embedded on a tiny flash drive connected via USB found on the motherboard. Stripped down versions of both Mozilla Firefox and Skype are included the embedded OS that appears right after you power on your computer.

ASUS Express Gate is not limited only to its higher-end Intel boards.

Three PCI Express x16 slots for Tri SLI and Quad SLI fun.

Mempipe is a passive cooling system designed to cool your DDR2 memory sticks. The plates are mounted and tightened against the memory sticks while heatpipes direct heat away to a larger heatsink. This larger heatsink mounts on top of the heatpipe cooling system already installed on the board.

The Mempipe seats above the board's installed heatsink (note the four screw holes present).

VGA and HDMI display outputs are found at the back of the board. A nice addition is the eSATA port.