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nForce4 SLI Motherboards: Premium Performance at a Bargain Price

 by Gary Key on January 3, 2006 12:05 AM EST
37 Comments | Add A Comment
37 Comments
Albatron K8SLI: Features

Albatron designed a beautiful board with an excellent layout, considering the small form factor utilized. The board is lacking most clearance issues and was extremely easy to install in a mid-size ATX case. Albatron did an excellent job with the color coordination of the various peripheral slots and connectors.

The DIMM module slots' color coordination is correct for dual channel setup. The power plug placement favors standard ATX case design and the power cable management is very good. The floppy drive port connector is on the outside edge of the board next to the DIMM modules slots. 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 nForce4 USB connectors, BIOS, and System Panel connector are located along the front edge of the board. The CMOS reset is a traditional jumper design located next to the battery.

The board comes with (2) physical PCI Express x16 slots, (3) 32bit PCI slots, and (2) PCI Express x1 slots. The layout of this design offers a 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. 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. However, the Zalman CNPS7000 series cooler covered the fan on the CK8-04 chipset, which could limit airflow to the chipset.

The CK8-04 chipset is actively cooled and located between the CPU socket and the first PCI-E x16 slot.

Albatron places the four-pin 12V auxiliary power connector at the top of the CPU socket, which creates a potential cable management issue or airflow issue if your cable is short.

The rear panel contains the standard PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, parallel port, LAN (RJ-45) port, and 4 USB ports. Located below the parallel port and to the right of the PS/2 ports is the Coaxial S/PDIF port. The audio panel consists of 3 ports that can be configured for 2, 4, and 6-channel audio connections.

ASUS A8N-SLI Premium: Overclocking Albatron K8SLI: Overclocking
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  • Gary Key - Wednesday, January 4, 2006 - link

    quote:
    I agree, I feel that the article makes some unfounded and moreover highly irresponsible statements, such as "in fact, the current price structure almost ensures that your nForce4 purchase should be an SLI-capable motherboard." SLI is not worth it in any way, shape, or form from any cost/performance standpoint, unless you happen to be the enthusiast user who wants the highest possible performance available today no matter the cost. For everyone else SLI is worthess...and yet how many new users are going to go out and waste their cash on an SLI board because of statements made in the article like the one above?


    As stated in the article the current pricing structure lends itself to the purchase of an SLI capable motherboard if the nForce4 is your chipset of choice. Even if you do not utilize SLI you at least have the option of doing so, if not for gaming, then for multiple monitor support and excellent performance utilizing two x8 lanes. If you look at the current support from the motherboard suppliers and product plans it is very obvious that SLI/CrossFire capable motherboards are becoming the standard across all price points. Our statements were based on these facts regarding the motherboard choices available. If you consider the potential cost/performance benefits then why pay the same amount of money for a board that is not capable of SLI or CrossFire and will probably not receive the same level of support over the lifespan of the product.

  • bob661 - Wednesday, January 4, 2006 - link

    quote:
    SLI is not worth it in any way, shape, or form from any cost/performance standpoint, unless you happen to be the enthusiast user who wants the highest possible performance available today no matter the cost.


    Isn't this a contradiction?

  • Capt Caveman - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link

    What are you talking about? You can get a SLI board for $70.

  • andlcool - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link

    for the asus one, it should be ddr and not ddr2.

  • ElFenix - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link

    still, should be a good price for stock speed boards

  • ElFenix - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link

    looking at the first chart i mean. doesn't seem to fall off much eh?

    <--- wants an edit function

  • Gary Key - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link

    The Foxconn board offered excellent stability throughout testing although it certainly is not targeted at the overclocking crowd. The performance was certainly acceptable and without the benchmarks you probably would not be able to tell the difference between it and the other boards. The layout is really nice unless you plan on utilizing two video cards with two slot cooling solutions as the space becomes very tight between the two x16 slots.

    I would like an edit function also. ;->
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