nForce4 SLI Roundup: Painful and Rewarding
by Wesley Fink on February 28, 2005 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
MSI K8N Neo4/SLI Platinum: Features and Layout
| Specification | MSI K8N Neo4/SLI Platinum |
| CPU Interface | Socket 939 Athlon 64 |
| Chipset | nForce4 SLI (single chip) |
| BUS Speeds | 190MHz, 200MHz to 400MHz (in 1MHz increments) |
| PCI/AGP Speeds | Asynchronous (Fixed) |
| PCI Speeds | 100MHz to 145MHz in 1MHz increments |
| Dynamic Overclocking | Auto Overclocking Disable, 1%, 3%, 5%, 7%, 9%, 11% |
| Core Voltage | Auto, 0.825V to 1.55V in 0.025V increments (Normal) PLUS CPU VID 3.3%, 5%, 8.3% (to 1.68V) |
| DRAM Voltage | Auto, 2.55V to 2.85V in 0.05V increments |
| Chipset Voltage | 1.5V to 1.85V in 0.05V increments |
| Hyper Transport Ratios | Auto, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 |
| LDT Bus Transfer | 16/16, 16/8, 8/16, 8/8 |
| CPU Ratios | Auto, 4x to 25x in 0.5x increments |
| Aggressive Timings | Enable, Disable |
| SSE/SSE2 Instructions | Enable, Disable |
| DRAM Speeds | Auto, 100, 133, 166, 200 |
| Memory Command Rate | Auto, 1T, 2T |
| Memory Slots | Four 184-pin DDR Dual-Channel Slots Unbuffered ECC or non-ECC Memory to 4GB Total |
| Expansion Slots | 2 x16 PCIe Slots 1 x4 PCIe 1 x1 PCIe 2 PCI Slots |
| SLI Setup | Movable PCB Card |
| Onboard SATA | 4-Drive SATA 2 by nF4 PLUS 2-Drive PCIe SATA 2 by Sil3132 |
| Onboard IDE | Two Standard nVidia ATA133/100/66 (4 drives) |
| SATA/IDE RAID | 4-Drive SATA 2 PLUS 4-Drive IDE (8 total) Can be combined in RAID 0, 1 PLUS 2-Drive SATA 2 by Sil3132 Raid 0, 1 |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 | 10 USB 2.0 ports supported nF4 2 1394A FireWire ports by VIA VT6307 |
| Onboard LAN | Dual Gigabit PCIe Ethernet PCIe by Marvel 88E1111 PHY PCIe by Marvel 88E8053 |
| Onboard Audio | Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit Hardware 8-Channel with Dolby Digital encoder, 6 audio jacks, CD-in, front audio, and both optical and coaxial SPDIF Out |
| BIOS | Award 3.0B1 |
As Asus has most often been the performance leader for boards for Intel processors, MSI has been the leader of late in the performance of their Athlon 64 motherboards. The whole K8N series from Socket 754 through Socket 939 has provided some of the best performance available for Athlon 64, and provided several Editors Choices along the way. Past performance has set high expectations as we took a closer look at the nForce4 Neo4/SLI.
MSI is the only SLI board in the roundup to provide a SATA 2 add-on controller instead of the SATA 1 Sil3114 used on all the other SLI boards. The Sil 3132 only supports 2 additional ports (added to the 4 SATA 2 provided by nForce 4), but the 2 ports are 3Gb/sec. All of the SLI boards provide dual Gigabit LAN, but MSI provides two PCIe LAN ports, assuring top performance whichever port you use. The biggest standout here was MSI's decision to use the Creative SoundBlaster Live! 24-bit audio chip on the K8N Neo4/SLI instead of the cheaper codec that others used. MSI claims that the Creative chip is a hardware audio solution, and not just a CPU-hogging software solution such as you would normally see on motherboards. Our CPU utilization tests support MSI's claims with very low CPU overhead. The Audio also fully supports Dolby Digital encoding, which will matter a great deal to some users.
Except for the missing PCIe ports, layout of the MSI is really excellent. Ports and power connectors are where they should be, and even the floppy port, which many no longer use, is in a location where full tower owners can use a regular floppy cable for their connection.
Our only complaint is the finicky and flimsy lock for the SLI card. We doubt that the lock will last through many changes from normal to SLI and back. In addition, once the pin is turned to unlock the SLI selection card, it is extremely difficult to lock the SLI card again once you have switched the mode. Someone in MSI design needs to take a look at this little plastic part and improve it before MSI gets a raft of RMAs because users can't secure the SLI card with a broken "lock pin".
Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI: Overclocking and Stress Testing
MSI K8N Neo4/SLI Platinum: Overclocking and Stress Testing
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eva2000 - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
whoops no mention of psu was used in system config listing but didn't read till page 20 of the review it mentions OCZ 520W PS psu hehSlaimus - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
They used a OCZ 520W.neologan - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
I think the test results for 3dmark2003 single and SLI are the wrong way around?http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2358&am...
F4810 - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
Why did they show no benchmarks with the mobo's overclocked? It doesnt make sense to say these boards are better becuase you can clock the memory higher if the overall CPU clock is roughly the same. The reason they dont show you is that due to the onchip memory controller on the AMD chips, the high memory frequency doesnt make much of a difference at all in real world terms. As long as you can clock the CPU high that is all that really matters. Also they dont take into account cost as some boards cost 50% more that the others.dornick - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
I was considering jumping on the SLI bandwagon until I had some sense knocked into me.I'd like to see a comparison of the Ultra chipset MBs, including the Chaintech, Epox, etc... since that's where I think the nForce 4 market will go.
eva2000 - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
missing one vital piece of info, what PSU you used heheSpacecomber - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
Thanks for doing the indepth analysis of this new chipset and how it is being implemented by some major motherboard manufacturers.There was one detail that I was hoping to see some reference to. I understand, from a friend, who has the MSI SLI motherboard, that the Creative Live sound chip only works if your power supply has a -5 volt connector on it. It looks to me like the OCZ power supply that you used has this, but many of the new power supplies, such as the Enermax v2.0 power supplies, no longer have a -5 volt connection. He was using a Enermax 535 watt Whisper II (SLI ready) when he ran into this issue. This kind of compatability problem slipping through QA seems like another indication that the everyone was in a big hurry to get these motherboards to market, maybe before they were thoroughly tested.
Space
Regs - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
I liked the subtle hints Wes.In your final words you stated, "If you want the best performance possible then the answer would likely be yes". Then how would this apply for users getting two 6600GTs?
xsilver - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
great articleminor gripe -- the overclocking "graphs" are useless -- what would be better is the resulting fps of overclocking to show people if its worth it to get that extra xxx fps
arfan - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
now i am waiting ultra mobo benchmark. What about the price of all this mobo ? i fell disappointed with msi doesn't have PCI 1x. (Sorry my english language is very bad)