ALTHOUGH THE nForce 590 SLI chipset for Athlon 64 processors was launched in step with AMD's Socket AM2, Nvidia has taken its sweet time bringing the nForce 590 to Intel processors. The chipset was nowhere to be found when Intel unveiled its Core 2 Duo back in July, and although the 590 SLI was scheduled to eventually appear in August, Nvidia delayed that launch twice and eventually scrubbed it altogether. These delays sent the rumor mills spinning, but more importantly, they left Nvidia without a true next-generation chipset for Intel's new microarchitecture.

Now, more than a month and a half after its last aborted launch, the nForce 590 SLI for Intel processors is finally ready for prime time. The chipset has arrived in style, too, riding an Asus P5N32-SLI Premium motherboard that's bursting at the seams with all the perks and extras you'd expect from a high-end mobo. What's more, the P5N32-SLI Premium is already available on store shelves.

Pinch me. The 590 SLI is for real this time.

Of course, the real question isn't whether you can finally pair a Core 2 Duo processor with an nForce 590 SLI chipset; it's whether you'd want to do so. To find out, we subjected the P5N32-SLI Premium to a sweeping array of chipset and motherboard tests, with enlightening results.