ASUS P5N32-E SLI mainboard sports third graphics slot

As a complement to its GeForce 8800 graphics chip announcement, NVIDIA this week also unveiled its nForce 600-series mainboards for systems using Intel's Core 2-based processors. One of the initial companies to take advantage of this new platform is ASUS, which has just unveiled its new P5N32-E SLI gaming-oriented mainboard. The new design uses the high-end nForce 680i chipset to provide a third, full-speed X16 PCI Express slot that can be used with a video card supporting NVIDIA's CUDA technology to process AI, physics, and other general code, alleviating the load of the main system processor. The slot can alternately serve as a standard graphics slot for as many as two separate displays, even when the main video cards are paired in SLI for extra performance. ASUS also emphasizes a fanless, heatpipe-cooled chipset that ensures quiet, a dedicated SupremeFX sound card that replaces Intel's built-in audio hardware, as well as an option to automatically overclock the system when it's sufficiently cool. Though board pricing varies by area, ASUS is already shipping the P5N32-E SLI to NewEgg and other computer resellers for $300.