While ASUS was first with an nForce4 SLI compaitble mainboard Gigabyte
wasn’t far behind (look below). ASUS’ board, a.k.a. ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe has
potential for enormous performance in 3D-applications, but don’t worry
ASUS hasn’t spared any costs on the rest.
Some specificatios:
– Socket 939 for AMD Athlon 64FX/Athlon 64
CPU
– Nvidia nForce4 SLI chipset – FSB 2000/1600 MT/s
–
Dual-channel DDR400/333/266 – 2*PCIex16/2*PCIex1/3*PCI slots
– 4*SATA
3Gb/s and 2*ATA133 support RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 and JBOD
– 4*SATA
1.5Gb/s support RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 and RAID 5
– 2*Gbit LAN
As you can see the specifications are mighty impressive with two PCIe
x16-slots (needed for SLI), two PCIe x1-slots, a whole bunch of
SATA-portar (8 where 4 are SATA-300), dual Gigabit Ethernet etc
etc.
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe also offers some interesting features to improve
userfriendliness and performance. Among others EZ-Plug that makes sure that both
cards gets a stable and pure voltage.
AI NOS is ASUS new technology for
dynamic overclocking. The difference compared to other is that NOS relies on the
voltages and not temperatures.
ASUS has also come up with simple solution
for the heat issue with running two graphics cards:
“The A8N-SLI
Deluxe included a special design in which two PCI Express x1 slots are placed
between the two PCI-E x16 graphics slots, permitting more room for ventilation
compared with conventional SLI designs. This thoughtful layout has proven to
increase airflow and lower the temperature.”
We have managed to get
our hands on a high resolution picture (2045 x 1285 pixlar) of the board with
two PCIe-graphics cards.
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe looks without a doubt like a
winner and paired with two SLI-capable PCI Express-graphics cards the
performance can be truly great.
The best things is that have one of these
babies lying just waiting to be reviewed.
Shortly after ASUS had launched their SLI-board, Gigabyte launched their
board: Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI. The card is a part of Gigabyte’s 8Ó-series and the
trumpcard is of course the dual NVIDIA PCI Express-graphics card support via
SLI.
Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI is just like ASUS a very powerful board and offers a
lot of features. Among others a 6-phase power with the external DPS-module, dual
BIOSes, dual Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11g wireless network, 8 SATA ports, 10
USB2.0 ports, 3 FireWire ports, 8 chanel audio and a lot more.
There is no
doubt that mainboard manufacturerers are doing all they can to get their
SLI-capable mainboards on the market.
One thing is sure though, it’s getting
harder and harder for boards to be unique when it comes to
features.
