Abit NI8 SLI: nVidia SLI for the Intel Gamer
by Randi Sica & Wesley Fink on October 7, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
ABIT NI8 SLI: Overclocking
Raising the northbridge voltage has been key on other similar C19 northbridge based boards, but ABIT has left that option out and it most probably was a smart move. As mentioned before, its preset 1.4V combined with the Silent OTES cooling solution gets incredibly hot; more voltage invariably would overwhelm the supplied cooling beyond its capacity. My feeling is even with substantially better CPU cooling such as water or phase change, the limit here is the board itself and not the CPU. Upgrading the NB cooling could potentially help, but without the BIOS option to increase NB voltage we would only get halfway there.
| ABIT NI8 SLI Overclocking Testbed | |
| Processor: | Intel P4 D840 EE 3.2 Ghz |
| CPU Voltage: | 1.41V (default 1.385V) |
| Cooling: | Gigabyte 3D Cooler Ultra GT |
| Power Supply: | PC Power and Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 SLI |
| Memory: | 2x Corsair CM2X512A - 5400UL v 1.2 |
| Hard Drive: | Western Digital 36GB Raptor 10,000RPM |
| Maximum OC: (Standard Ratio) |
220x16 (4x HT) 3520MHz (+9.4%) |
| Maximum FSB: (Lower Ratio) |
220 x 14 (4x HT) (2 DIMMs in DC mode @ 667Mhz 3-2-2-8 1T) (+9.4% Bus Overclock) |
Raising the northbridge voltage has been key on other similar C19 northbridge based boards, but ABIT has left that option out and it most probably was a smart move. As mentioned before, its preset 1.4V combined with the Silent OTES cooling solution gets incredibly hot; more voltage invariably would overwhelm the supplied cooling beyond its capacity. My feeling is even with substantially better CPU cooling such as water or phase change, the limit here is the board itself and not the CPU. Upgrading the NB cooling could potentially help, but without the BIOS option to increase NB voltage we would only get halfway there.
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TheInvincibleMustard - Saturday, October 8, 2005 - link
Thanks for clearing that up, Wesley ... here I was thinking that AT had gone off their rockers for a moment :D-TIM
jojo4u - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
A new Forceware was also used in the gaming tests.smn198 - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
Agreed. This is not a motherboard test.TheInvincibleMustard - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
QFT ... what's the point in testing a new board while conveniently slipping a new processor into it as well? That's akin to "Let's compare this Accord versus this Corolla, oh and by the way, the Accord has nitrous, aftermarket shocks, aftermarket brakes, aftermarket muffler ..."Thanks for an article that shows that dual-core is better than single-core in multi-threaded applications ... funny, I thought Anandtech did one of those articles a while back ...
-TIM
PS -- WTF is up with no Firewire on this board? Mobos http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...">less than $80 shipped have IEEE1394 connectivity for cryin' out loud ...
TheInvincibleMustard - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
Err ... well ... I tried to QFT, but apparently it didn't work? Whatever, I still agree with you guys.-TIM
ksherman - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
Man, I REALLY like the passively cooled chipset... wish DFI did that in the nF4 boards...mongoosesRawesome - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
eh, not so impressed myself. what ABIT did looks expensive and it doesn't get the job done adequately. DFI includes temperature controlled fans in their BIOS, which makes their fans bearable. A nice thing about Nforce 3/4 boards is that you really only have one chip to cool.Who exactly is Abit targeting with this board? Who games with Intel? A64s are cheap, nforce 4 boards are cheap, and they perform better. I realize that in the corporate world, there are people out there that only use Intel, but I figured gamers were different. I just can't see this board really being that popular.
KristopherKubicki - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
ASUS did it first with the "Premium" series stuff.Kristopher
emc2-1955 - Sunday, August 29, 2010 - link
I got an Abit NI8 SLI with an extreme processor and 4 gig of ram. The problem is that to takes forever to load. I've tried it with windows xp pro and windows 7 can anyone tell me what I chould check any tips