nForce4 SLI Motherboards: Premium Performance at a Bargain Price

FOXCONN NF4SK8AA-8KRS: Features

Foxconn designed an excellent board layout with all major connections easily reached. The board is lacking most clearance issues and was very easy to install in a mid-size ATX case. Foxconn did a very good job with the color coordination of the various peripheral slots and connectors. The 4-pin molex connector located next to the first PCI-E x16 slot is required when utilizing two video cards in SLI operation.

The DIMM module slots' color coordination is correct for dual channel setup. The memory modules are easily installed with a full size video card installed in the first PCI Express x16 slot. The power plug placement favors standard ATX case design and the power cable management is very good. The floppy drive port connector and the two nForce4 IDE port connectors are conveniently located on the front edge of the board along with the 24-pin ATX power connector.

The nForce4 SATA II ports are conveniently located down and to the left of the IDE port connectors. The SATA II ports feature the old attachment design that could create connection issues.

The CK8-04 chipset is actively cooled and is located in an ideal place on the motherboard.

The nForce4 USB connectors and System Panel connector are located along the left edge of the board. The CMOS reset is a traditional jumper design located next to the BIOS chip.

The board comes with (2) physical PCI Express x16 slots, (3) 32bit PCI slots, and (1) PCI Express x1 slot. The layout of this design offers a very good balance of slots and allows for numerous add-in peripheral cards.

In between the two x16 PCI Express slots is a PCI Express x1 slot. This configuration could potentially render this slot useless when utilizing the first x16 PCI Express slot. Also located in this area is the paddle card for SLI operation. We did not have any issues utilizing this slot with video cards containing single slot cooling systems, but we were unable to install a network card upon installation of a NVIDIA 7800GTX 512mb in the x16 PCI Express slot. The first PCI slot next to the second PCI-E x16 slot will be rendered useless when utilizing a two-slot video card cooling solution.

Returning to the CPU socket area, we find ample room for alternative cooling solutions. We utilized the stock AMD heat sink, but also verified that several aftermarket cooling systems would fit in this area during our tests.

Foxconn places the four-pin 12V auxiliary power connector at the top of the CPU socket area, but out of the way of most aftermarket cooling solutions.

The rear panel contains the standard PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, parallel port, LAN port, and 4 USB ports. Located below the parallel port and to the right of the PS/2 ports is the Serial Port, Coaxial S/PDIF, and Optical S/PDIF connectors. The audio panel consists of 6 ports that can be configured for 2, 4, 6, and 8-channel audio connections.