ASUS M2N32-SLI & Epox MF570SLI: AM2 Wunderkinder
by Wesley Fink on June 28, 2006 5:10 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Epox MF570SLI: Basic Features & Board Layout
The nForce 570 SLI is targeted by NVIDIA at the mainstream market. As such, it is fair to expect that 570 SLI boards will normally offer fewer features than 590 boards. The distinction is somewhat artificial, since the 570 SLI is a simpler one chip solution, but it supports dual X8/single X16 instead of the dual X16 supported by the 2-chip 590 solution. What we mean by artificial is the fact that you will be hard pressed to find any real evidence in today's market that dual X16 SLI can outperform dual X8 SLI. This distinction may exist in the future, but it is just not a reality with today's top graphics cards.
At this time, Epox is not manufacturing a 590 chipset motherboard, and they are to be congratulated for providing a very wide range of overclocking options and board features for their mainstream MF570SLI. This is a board that should sell very well based on an outstanding feature set, good overclocking options, and the kind of added value Epox often delivers on their recent boards. You even get an LED readout much like high-end DFI and momentary switches for mounting outside a case, just like the Foxconn 590 SLI board.
Overclocking options are exceptionally complete, and were it not for boards like the ASUS M2N32-SLI and the Foxconn 590 we would be singing the praises of the Epox BIOS options. As it is Epox manages to provide a DIMM voltage range of 1.8v to 2.5v, but without the fine adjustments found on the ASUS. About the only missing feature is Firewire, which will matter to some, but can be easily added with a card.
A VERY important addition for many will be the JMicron 383 SATA2 RAID chip. Not only does it add two additional SATA2 ports (total 8), but it also adds a second IDE connector for 2 additional IDE devices. Those who point out that Intel and NVIDIA have made optical drives a nightmare with the forced use of SATA optical drives that generally don't exist will be happy to see a manufacturer that listens to what they want.
Epox has been using a striking green and off-white oversize package lately, and the MF570SLI continues that new packaging. Not only is the box oversized, but it is crammed with all the round white cables you will need, white SATA2 cables, and a power pack with manuals, disks, heatsinks for a number of small chips, and a temperature measuring cable that attaches to the motherboard.
Epox uses a slick 4-phase board design with modular coils that certainly look very attractive compared to the manual wind coils often seen on motherboards. Layout of the green Epox motherboard is an area that generates very mixed feelings, however. The 24-pin ATX connector is smack in the middle of the board. Snaking the bulky power cable is difficult and there is danger of impeding air-flow to the CPU. We understand from discussions with manufacturers that a mid board power connector, near the PCIe slots, makes it easier to manage power to the PCIe slots, but this location is not an easy one for many case designs. The 4-pin 12V connector is better located at the top board edge.
The extra IDE connector is very welcomed, but its location, along with the floppy connector, at the bottom of the board makes it a difficult reach in some case designs. If you're using big video cards you will have trouble routing the second IDE and floppy ribbon. Thankfully the 8 SATA2 ports are thoughtfully located out of the way of video cards - even in an SLI installation.
With two double-width video cards like the 7900GTX, there will still be one usable X1 PCIe and two usable PCI slots. With standard width video cards in SLI mode you pick up a second X1 PCIe and an extra PCI slot. The two PCIe X16 slots are separated by three slot widths, which will make exotic video-cooling workable in most cases.
For a mainstream price you still get both Optical and Coax S/PDIF connectors, dual Gigabit LAN, PS2 keyboard and mouse connector, 4 USB, and six programmable mini-jacks for HD audio. Audio is powered by the Realtek 883 codec. You will not find serial or parallel ports on the rear. If you need Firewire you will have to add it.
While the layout could definitely be improved, once the Epox was installed it was exceptionally stable and trouble-free during out testing. Epox also covers potential BIOS flash problems with their Ghost BIOS feature which allows recovery from most "bad flash" situations.
| Epox MF570SLI | |
| CPU Interface | Socket AM2 |
| Chipset | NVIDIA 570 SLI (a single 590 SLI MCP) |
| Bus Speeds | 200 to 450 in 1MHz Increments |
| Memory Speeds | DDR2 at Auto, 400, 533, 667, 800 |
| PCIe Speeds | 100 to 145 in 1MHz Increments |
| Core Voltage | Auto, -0.2V to +0.2V in 0.025V increments (With 1.4V CPU 1.2v to 1.6v) |
| Chipset Voltage | 1.5V, 1.6v, 1.7v, 1.8v |
| CPU Clock Multiplier | Auto, 4x-25x in 1X increments |
| DRAM Voltage | 1.8V to 2.5V in .1v increments |
| HT Voltage | 1.2v, 1.3v, 1.4v, 1.5v |
| 1T/2T Memory | Auto, 1T, 2T |
| Memory Tuning | 33 Options |
| Refresh Row Cycle | Auto, 75ns, 105, 127.5, 195, 327.5 (Separately Adjustable for 4 DIMMs) |
| Refresh Rate | Auto, 7.8ms, 3.9ms |
| Clock Drive Strength | Auto, Increment, Decrement |
| CKE Drive Strength | Auto, Increment, Decrement |
| CS/ODT Drive Strength | Auto, Increment, Decrement |
| AADR/CMD Drive Strength | Auto, Increment, Decrement |
| Data Drive Strength | Auto, Increment, Decrement |
| DQS Drive Strength | Auto, Increment, Decrement |
| HyperTransport Frequency | 1000MHz (1GHz) |
| HyperTransport Multiplier | Auto, 1X to 5X |
| HT Width | 8up/down, 16up/down |
| Spread Spectrum | CPU, PCIe, SATA, HT Individually Adjustable Disabled, Center, Down |
| SSE/SSE2 instructions | Enabled, Disabled |
| Special IO for PCI Card | Enabled, Disabled |
| Smart CPU Fan Control | Full Speed, By Duty Cycle, By Temperature |
| Memory Slots | Four 184-pin DDR2 DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered Memory to 4GB Total |
| Expansion Slots | 2 PCIe X16 2 PCIe X1 3 PCI Slots |
| Onboard SATA/RAID | 6 SATA2 Drives by 590 MCP (RAID 0, 1, 1+0, 5) PLUS 2 SATA2 Drives by JMicron 383 (RAID 0, 1, 0+1, JBOD) |
| Onboard IDE/IDE RAID | One Standard ATA133/100/66 (2 drives) PLUS One IDE (2 drives) by JMicron 383 |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 | 10 USB 2.0 ports supported by MCP No Firewire |
| Onboard LAN | Dual PCIe Gigabit by Marvel 88E1116 PHYs |
| Onboard Audio | Azalia HD Audio by Realtek ALC883 codec |
| BIOS Revision | Award - May 17, 2006 |
The nForce 570 SLI is targeted by NVIDIA at the mainstream market. As such, it is fair to expect that 570 SLI boards will normally offer fewer features than 590 boards. The distinction is somewhat artificial, since the 570 SLI is a simpler one chip solution, but it supports dual X8/single X16 instead of the dual X16 supported by the 2-chip 590 solution. What we mean by artificial is the fact that you will be hard pressed to find any real evidence in today's market that dual X16 SLI can outperform dual X8 SLI. This distinction may exist in the future, but it is just not a reality with today's top graphics cards.
At this time, Epox is not manufacturing a 590 chipset motherboard, and they are to be congratulated for providing a very wide range of overclocking options and board features for their mainstream MF570SLI. This is a board that should sell very well based on an outstanding feature set, good overclocking options, and the kind of added value Epox often delivers on their recent boards. You even get an LED readout much like high-end DFI and momentary switches for mounting outside a case, just like the Foxconn 590 SLI board.
Overclocking options are exceptionally complete, and were it not for boards like the ASUS M2N32-SLI and the Foxconn 590 we would be singing the praises of the Epox BIOS options. As it is Epox manages to provide a DIMM voltage range of 1.8v to 2.5v, but without the fine adjustments found on the ASUS. About the only missing feature is Firewire, which will matter to some, but can be easily added with a card.
A VERY important addition for many will be the JMicron 383 SATA2 RAID chip. Not only does it add two additional SATA2 ports (total 8), but it also adds a second IDE connector for 2 additional IDE devices. Those who point out that Intel and NVIDIA have made optical drives a nightmare with the forced use of SATA optical drives that generally don't exist will be happy to see a manufacturer that listens to what they want.
Epox has been using a striking green and off-white oversize package lately, and the MF570SLI continues that new packaging. Not only is the box oversized, but it is crammed with all the round white cables you will need, white SATA2 cables, and a power pack with manuals, disks, heatsinks for a number of small chips, and a temperature measuring cable that attaches to the motherboard.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Epox uses a slick 4-phase board design with modular coils that certainly look very attractive compared to the manual wind coils often seen on motherboards. Layout of the green Epox motherboard is an area that generates very mixed feelings, however. The 24-pin ATX connector is smack in the middle of the board. Snaking the bulky power cable is difficult and there is danger of impeding air-flow to the CPU. We understand from discussions with manufacturers that a mid board power connector, near the PCIe slots, makes it easier to manage power to the PCIe slots, but this location is not an easy one for many case designs. The 4-pin 12V connector is better located at the top board edge.
The extra IDE connector is very welcomed, but its location, along with the floppy connector, at the bottom of the board makes it a difficult reach in some case designs. If you're using big video cards you will have trouble routing the second IDE and floppy ribbon. Thankfully the 8 SATA2 ports are thoughtfully located out of the way of video cards - even in an SLI installation.
With two double-width video cards like the 7900GTX, there will still be one usable X1 PCIe and two usable PCI slots. With standard width video cards in SLI mode you pick up a second X1 PCIe and an extra PCI slot. The two PCIe X16 slots are separated by three slot widths, which will make exotic video-cooling workable in most cases.
For a mainstream price you still get both Optical and Coax S/PDIF connectors, dual Gigabit LAN, PS2 keyboard and mouse connector, 4 USB, and six programmable mini-jacks for HD audio. Audio is powered by the Realtek 883 codec. You will not find serial or parallel ports on the rear. If you need Firewire you will have to add it.
While the layout could definitely be improved, once the Epox was installed it was exceptionally stable and trouble-free during out testing. Epox also covers potential BIOS flash problems with their Ghost BIOS feature which allows recovery from most "bad flash" situations.
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leexgx - Sunday, April 15, 2007 - link
i am trying to get an stable overclock from this m2n32-sli deluxe got an 3800+ X2 at 2.65 (10x265) when i set it to 2.70 270 it just BSODdo i need to up MB and SB volts up ? as well or lower the NB to SB as well
if any one could point me to an web site that has overclocked one of these motherboards be usefull
mss242 - Tuesday, December 5, 2006 - link
doesn't the asus also offer raid 5? Page 2 lists raid options as 0,1,0+1,10, and JBOD.darkswordsman17 - Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - link
Something I've noticed is a lot of boards are starting to get DDL/Dolby Master Studio and DTS Connect capabilities, but Anandtech doesn't even mention it half the time, and doesn't even test it at all.I think it would be worth looking into, as its really starting to become a viable alternative to Creative's surround solutions (EAX support wouldn't even matter if its being encoded in DD/DTS would it), which more than a few people do not like (although myself am fairly neutral as I've liked the Creative cards I've owned). Also, there are plenty of people sore over losing DDL support when they moved to a newer platform than nForce2 with SoundStorm. I often see people saying how they still miss it, and yet, its been here for almost 6 months already (Intel Bad Axe, possibly others). I see a lot of new boards from ASUS, Gigabyte, and Abit featuring support for these.
Also a lot of these new boards are using different chips to handle processing, so maybe that makes a difference as far as quality or performance.
I just think it would be beneficial at the very least to make a note of it, as its not always easy to find out what boards actually do support them.
Just a thought.
classy - Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - link
Why not show the results of the scores gained from oc?DrMrLordX - Friday, June 30, 2006 - link
Probably because it's a review of the motherboard and not the CPU itself. All a motherboard review needs is information about the maximum HTT speeds achieveably on the board at stock.saratoga - Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - link
The CPU use numbers for the on board audio are great, but it'd also be nice to know just how good the actual quality is. If theres massive THD or a resampling problem, benchmarks will look great, but the part may still suck.Using RMAA would allow people to see immediately if there were any serious issues with the sound quality such as poor resampling or noise.
Seeing as other tech sites have started using it, it'd be nice if you guys could too. See this review:
http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q4/soundblaster-...">http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q4/soundblaster-...
Obvious so much info isn't needed for a motherboard review, but posting the summary chart that RMAA spits out with the crosstalk, SNR, IMD and THD numbers would be great.
Gary Key - Thursday, June 29, 2006 - link
We will post RMAA results when a new audio chip is introduced. I will run the results on this chipset and have it available in our next article. We actually used RMAA 5.5 in a previous article and had more comments wanting subjective analysis. However, we will do the short version of the test results. :)Sifl - Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - link
With a new and interesting built-in WiFi option (as far as ATX MOBO's go), why not show us the antenna and where it goes?
For the Asus board layout, I can see all the IO ports (letter designations on the image could help identify which connector is which) but I'm not sure where the WiFi antenna would go. Is it the little gold colored thing off to the right in the picture for rear IO? Because I don't see that same thing in the top views. Maybe another view is better like a perspective view of the ports, rather than the straigh-on view.
And why does the Epox lack Firewire -- But has 10 USB's ?! Who uses 10 USB ports? Firewire is just basic for any digital video equipment. I chose my current MOBO (Epox 9NPA+) because it HAS Firewire. Maybe they will have another model with it included.
Myrandex - Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - link
"Who uses 10 USB ports?" I do...But then again I also use firewire, bure still it would have been stupid for Epox to have included less USB ports (arrggg EVGA's microATX nForce4 SLI mobo of mine only supporting 8). Back 6 have printer, Windows Media Center Remote sensor, mouse, cell phone data/charger for MPX220 (mine), and cell phone data/charger for Motorola V3 Razr (g/f's), and webcam. Then only 2 of my front 4 USb ports can be connected, and that means I can only use 2 USB devices in the front (ranging from hard drive cages for testing, flash sticks, USB controllers for emulators, etc.) For a manufacturer to have a chipset with 10 USBs yet only implement 8 is just kind of backwards and extremely pointless :-/
On a side note I did have to laugh at PCI/AGP Fixed at 33/66 as there seem sot be no AGP on these boards for it to be locked at 66 :)
Jason
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - link
Yes, the antenna screws to the gold connector on the right of the rear IO port on the Asus.As for no firewire on the Epox, it is likely a cost savings to meet a target price point. Most of the digital cameras we have seen recently have emphasized high-speed USB2 instead of Firewire, although we agree Firewire is still widely used in digital cameras and video. Add-on Firewire cards are very reasonable, but they would be an added expense if you required Firewire on the Epox.
The MSI 570 reviewed at http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2773&am...">http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2773&am... is also based on the nForce 570 chipset and does feature Firewire.