Two weeks ago, we brought you the first fruit borne of nVidia's push into the low-cost performance market, the 650i chipset. As we discussed in our review of Elitegroup Computer Systems' NF650iSLIT-A, the chipset is based on the same-generation technology as nVidia's ultra-expensive 680i, but owes its more affordable price mostly to a huge reduction in PCI Express pathways. Despite the cost-lowering compromises, we saw only minor decreases in performance, along with solid overclocking that boosted value.

Today, we bring you competition from another of the PC component world's leading brands, Asus.

The Asus brand brings with it a better reputation for quality, and often a price increase to match. Yet, Asus has also proven that it's serious about its push into lower-cost markets: So will its 650i motherboard, the P5N-E SLI, rival ECS' NF650iSLIT-A and prove itself a value leader as well?