nForce4 SLI Motherboards: Premium Performance at a Bargain Price
by Gary Key on January 3, 2006 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Basic Features: nForce4 SLI from Asus, Foxconn, and Albatron
The Asus A8N-SLI Premium is a member of the Proactive Ai product family and as such, it is a fully featured board targeted towards the PC enthusiast. The board ships with an extensive accessory package along with several dynamic overclocking features, such as AI NOSTM (Non-delay dynamic Overclocking System), AI Overclocking (intelligent CPU frequency tuner with preset profiles), ASUS PEG Link (automatic performance tuning for single/dual graphics cards), and the ASUS Ai Booster Utility Precision Tweaker software that allows control over certain system settings within Windows. The board also features the Cool-Pipe heat pipe design to dissipate heat away from the chipsets.
The Foxconn NF4SK8AA-8KRS2 is their featured value segment performance board targeted towards the PC enthusiast. The board ships with an accessory package along with several BIOS and software features such as SuperBoot (reduces boot times), SuperRecovery (easy to operate tool designed to back up or recover hard disk data), SuperBIOS-Protect (protection against viruses designed to wipe BIOS information), SuperStep (software based monitoring utility with ability to change FSB settings), SuperUpdate (Windows based BIOS update), and SuperLogo (Windows utility designed to replace and backup the BIOS logo).
The Albatron K8SLI is a featured value segment board targeted to the PC gamer on a budget. The board ships with an minimal accessory package along with a unique dual BIOS feature. The Albatron BIOS Security module contains an operational BIOS that can restore the main BIOS in case of corruption. You simply plug the ABS module into the appropriate header location, set the jumper to recover, and boot the system.
| Specification | Asus A8N-SLI Premium | Foxconn NF4SK8AA-8KRS | Albatron K8SLI |
| CPU Interface | Socket 939 Athlon 64 | Socket 939 Athlon 64 | Socket 939 Athlon 64 |
| Chipset | nForce4 SLI (single chip) | nForce4 SLI (single chip) | nForce4 SLI (single chip) |
| Bus Speeds | 200 - 400 MHz (in 1 MHz increments) | 200 - 300 MHz (in 1 MHz increments) | 200 - 450 MHz (in 1 MHz increments) |
| PCI/AGP Speeds | Asynchronous (Fixed) | Asynchronous (Fixed) | Asynchronous (Fixed) |
| PCI Express | 100 MHz to 145 MHz (in 1 MHz increments) | 100 MHz to 145 MHz (in 1 MHz increments) | 100 MHz to 145 MHz (in 1 MHz increments) |
| PCI Synchronization | Auto, To CPU, 33.33MHz | Auto, To CPU, 33.33MHz | Auto, To CPU, 33.33MHz |
| Core Voltage | Auto, 0.800V - 1.65V (in 0.125V increments) | Auto, 0.825V - 1.55V (in 0.025V increments) | Default, +5% to +15% (in 5% increments) |
| DRAM Voltage | Auto, 2.60V - 3.00V (in 0.05V increments) | 2.5V to 2.85V (in 0.05V increments) | 2.7V, 2.8V, 2.9V, 3.0V |
| Chipset Voltage | 1.5V, 1.6V | Default | 1.5V, 1.6V, 1.7V, 1.8V |
| Hyper Transport Ratios | Auto, 1X to 5X (in 1X increments) | Auto, 1X to 5X (in 1X increments) | Auto, 1X to 5X (in 1X increments) |
| CPU Ratios | Auto, 4x to 20x (in 0.5x increments) | Startup, 4x to 20x (in 0.5x increments) | Auto, 4x to 25x in (0.5x increments) |
| DRAM Speeds | Auto, 12 memory dividers | Auto, 7 memory dividers | Auto, 7 memory dividers |
| Memory Command Rate | Auto, 1T, 2T | Auto, 1T, 2T | Auto, 1T, 2T |
| Memory Slots | (4) x DIMM, max. 4GB, DDR 400/333/266, non-ECC, un-buffered memory | (4) x DIMM, max. 4GB, DDR 400/333/266, non-ECC, un-buffered memory | (4) x DIMM, max. 4GB, DDR 400/333/266, non-ECC, un-buffered memory |
| Expansion Slots | (2) x PCI-E x16 (support X8-X8 in SLI) (1) x PCI-E x1 (1) x PCI-E x4 (3) x PCI 2.3 |
(2) x PCI-E x16 (support X8-X8 in SLI) (1) x PCI-E x1 (3) x PCI PCI 2.3 |
(2) x PCI-E x16 (support X8-X8 in SLI) (2) x PCI-E x1 (2) x PCI PCI 2.3 |
| Onboard SATA | nForce4: (4) x SATA II | nForce4: (4) x SATA II | nForce4: (4) x SATA II |
| Onboard IDE | nForce4: (2) x UltraDMA 133/100/66/33 | nForce4: (2) x UltraDMA 133/100/66/33 | nForce4: (2) x UltraDMA 133/100/66/33 |
| SATA/IDE RAID | nForce4: (4) x SATA II RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, JBOD, and spans across Serial and Parallel drives Silicon Image 3114R: RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10, RAID 5 |
nForce4: (4) x SATA II RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, JBOD, and spans across Serial and Parallel drives |
nForce4: (4) x SATA II RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, JBOD, and spans across Serial and Parallel drives |
| Onboard USB2.0 IEEE-1394 |
(10) USB2.0 ports (2)TI-1394a ports |
(10) USB2.0 ports | (8) USB2.0 ports |
| Onboard LAN | nForce4 Gigabit MAC with External Marvell PHY. Marvell 88E1001 PCI Gb LAN |
nForce4 Gigabit MAC with External Marvell PHY. | nForce4 Gigabit MAC with External Vitesse PHY. |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC850, 8-channel Audio CODEC, Jack Sensing and Universal Audio Jack, (1) x Coaxial S/PDIF out port. (1) x Optical S/PDIF out port. |
Realtek ALC850, 8-channel Audio CODEC, Jack Sensing and Universal Audio Jack, (1) x Coaxial S/PDIF out port. (1) x Optical S/PDIF out port. |
Realtek ALC655, 6-channel Audio CODEC, (1) x Coaxial S/PDIF out port. |
| Power Connectors | 24-pin ATX 4-pin ATX 12V 4-pin EZ Plug |
24-pin ATX 4-pin ATX 12V 4-pin Plug |
24-pin ATX 4-pin ATX 12V |
| Back Panel I/O Ports | 1 x Parallel 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x Audio I/O 2 x RJ45 LAN 2 x S/PDIF Out (Coaxial+Optical) 4 x USB 1 x IEEE1394 |
1 x Parallel 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x Audio I/O 1 x Serial Port 1 x RJ45 LAN 2 x S/PDIF Out (Coaxial+Optical) 4 x USB |
1 x Parallel 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x Audio I/O 1 x Serial Port 1 x RJ45 LAN 1 x S/PDIF Out (Coaxial) 4 x USB |
| Other Features | ASUS Cool-Pipe ASUS AI Selector ASUS NOS ASUS PEG Link ASUS C.P.R. ASUS Q-Fan ASUS EZFlash ASUS Instant Music |
SuperUtilities Suite - SuperBoot SuperBIOS-Protect SuperRecovery SuperSpeed SuperStep SuperLogo SuperUpdate |
ABS Module Watch Dog Timer |
| BIOS | Award 1011-11 | Award 538W1P23 | Award R1.12 |
The Asus A8N-SLI Premium is a member of the Proactive Ai product family and as such, it is a fully featured board targeted towards the PC enthusiast. The board ships with an extensive accessory package along with several dynamic overclocking features, such as AI NOSTM (Non-delay dynamic Overclocking System), AI Overclocking (intelligent CPU frequency tuner with preset profiles), ASUS PEG Link (automatic performance tuning for single/dual graphics cards), and the ASUS Ai Booster Utility Precision Tweaker software that allows control over certain system settings within Windows. The board also features the Cool-Pipe heat pipe design to dissipate heat away from the chipsets.
The Foxconn NF4SK8AA-8KRS2 is their featured value segment performance board targeted towards the PC enthusiast. The board ships with an accessory package along with several BIOS and software features such as SuperBoot (reduces boot times), SuperRecovery (easy to operate tool designed to back up or recover hard disk data), SuperBIOS-Protect (protection against viruses designed to wipe BIOS information), SuperStep (software based monitoring utility with ability to change FSB settings), SuperUpdate (Windows based BIOS update), and SuperLogo (Windows utility designed to replace and backup the BIOS logo).
The Albatron K8SLI is a featured value segment board targeted to the PC gamer on a budget. The board ships with an minimal accessory package along with a unique dual BIOS feature. The Albatron BIOS Security module contains an operational BIOS that can restore the main BIOS in case of corruption. You simply plug the ABS module into the appropriate header location, set the jumper to recover, and boot the system.
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Gary Key - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link
Hi,I have been informed by Blue Gears that the significant differences we are seeing is due to the current beta driver set. They recently released a 64-bit driver set that improved performance up 18% in some applications. The general C-Media driver that was provided last fall was in worse shape than the June beta for the 32-bit operating systems so they went back to the drawing board. If you go back and read some of our recent Intel reviews you will see that Realtek has improved their HD codec performance by up to 40% in some instances over the last three driver releases. The A380 release we utilized for the ALC850/655 was around 9% better in Serious Sam II and BF2 (not shown yet) over the A379.
I would not be concerned with their next card at this point. They are very customer focused and are doing everything possible to improve the performance of the C-Media driver sets.
yacoub - Wednesday, January 4, 2006 - link
Thanks for the replies, Gary. Looking forward to seeing better numbers. I totally understand what you mean about scenes breaking up. I experience that as I'm waiting for the new BlueGears card to come out later this month so I'm running the onboard ALC-8xx series audio on the A8N-SLI Premium I have. It's pretty crappy and sometimes heavy action scenes with lots of sound sources seem to chug the computer and now I see that's typical of the onboard solutions.yacoub - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link
Considering the surprisingly poor results of the BlueGears and CLabs X-Fi cards in the actual gaming tests, why do you state that like it's an "obvious" conclusion when the numbers state exactly the inverse - that the onboard audio solutions, as cpu-grubbing as they are, actually provide the better framerates in most of the games tested?
Unless your results are anomalic, I'll have to start my soundcard research all over again. I was sold on the upcoming X-Plosion but now that it doesn't really gain me much if anything in the way of cpu usage improvement during gaming (half the purpose of getting a peripheral soundcard to begin with), I only end up with better audio quality (the other half of the purpose) and for that, yes, the BlueGears card should be better than the X-Fi series, but I really want to get better cpu usage as well. Hmmmm...
Gary Key - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link
The audio quality of those two sound cards are significantly better than the Realtek ALC850/655 codecs across the spectrum. Their performance at times is worse in absolute numbers but the difference in consistent frame rates while playing on-line and within the game was significant from a subjective viewpoint. We are finishing our benchmark suite for showing (consistently) the low/average/high frame rates with sound enabled. I did not publish the BF2/F.E.A.R./HL2 numbers yet as we needed time to verify the benchmarks were repeatable with the latest patch updates. However, the two add-in cards scored better and have more consistent frame rates than the on-board sound solutions. In a couple of scenes in the BF2 benchmark the on-solutions would stutter and the scence would break up, this never happened with the add in cards.
The lastest SSII patch and Creative drivers should improved the scores even further in that game. In Serious Sam II we were quite surprised by the results and they shadowed the same results from the last Intel article. Although I can make out the near/far audio effects being played with a set of high end headphones on the ALC850 codec, it in no way compares to the sounds being played back by the XFI and Mystique. The sound on the ALC850/655 is tinny and muffled while you can hear exacting details in the same scenes with the other two cards. It is even more obvious in F.E.A.R and BF2, almost to the point of wondering if you were listening to the same audio playback.
Also, the on-board ALC850/655 solutions only support up to 26 buffers in the drivers.
Thank you.
Gary Key - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link
Really need an edit function, hit the button before I finished proof reading.
Spacecomber - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link
Shouldn't the game benchmarks, at least, have focused on performance running two video cards in SLI? There was some mention in the Final Words section of using two video cards on these boards; so, I got the impression that this might have at least been tried. Still, it comes across as an after-thought, which seems to miss the point of a thorough testing of what is the main feature of these boards.Just a bit puzzled.
Space
Gary Key - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link
Good Day,We will have SLI benchmarks up once we complete the SLI roundup that consists of several more boards between the $80~$140 range. I might modify the article to include our initial results between the three boards tested. The issue is previous boards were tested with the 78.x drivers while these boards were tested with the 81.85 driver set. There is a significant performance difference in several benchmarks between the two driver sets that would have been confusing. We have not gone back and tested all of the boards in SLI with the 81.85 up to 81.98 drivers yet.
deathwalker - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link
Odd that the Albatron and Foxxcon come out very satisfactory in the testing and the don't make the Motherboard roundup that came out only 2 days ago. Great review though and it nice to see that you can save a couple $ on off-brand mobos and still get a decent product.Gary Key - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link
We still have several more value to mid-range SLI products to review and as such any final recommendations will be done at the completion of the testing cycle.
Calin - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link
On the second page, in the table, all the boards have slots for DDR2 memory. It should be DDR, I think