ECS KN1SLI Extreme (nVidia nForce4 SLI)
Performance
Note that ECS KN1SLI Extreme overstates the nominal FSB by 1 MHz:
As contenders to the board in question we used a system based on a motherboard with ATI Xpress 200 chipset (support for Athlon64 Socket939 + PCI Express video), as well as the motherboard Asus A8N-SLI Premium (nForce4 SLI).
In our test setup, we used the following hardware:
Let's first take a look at the results of synthetic benchmarks.
Now on to the gaming benchmarks (i.e. real-world applications).
It should be noted that Asus A8N-SLI Premium also overstates the HTT (by 1.5MHz).
Final Words
ECS KN1SLI Extreme is one of the best value motherboards built on the nForce4 SLI chipset. At the same time, its price is 10-15$ exceeds that for the remaining entry-level boards with support for the SLI. And no change in the situation is seen, since Elitegroup offers one more value board - KN1 SLI Lite. It's just this board that is positioned as the cheapest to support the nVidia SLI technology.
As regards specifically ECS KN1SLI, of note are its wide functional capabilities: two LAN controllers (one of them - Gigabit), additional SerialATA II RAID controller, support for the Firewire. Also of note is the excellent exterior of the board and the quite rich package bundle (which contains a LAN-cable, a bracket with SATA port, a 3" panel to bring USB2.0 and Firewire ports over to the front panel of the housing). Finally, of special mention is support for the TopHat-Flash technology which is meant to restore the BIOS flashing.
A couple of positive points. First, the board uses an additional system for cooling the power supply module. Secondly, switching between the SLI modes is effected programmatically (not with a SLI-terminator, the way it is done on 1st generation nForce4 SLI motherboards).
As regards the overclocking capabilities, the board has nothing to boast. Despite the features for raising voltage on the processor and memory, great range of HTT selection, the maximum stable operation did not exceed 255MHz (which is too little as compared to other boards by first-rank manufacturers).
Conclusion
Pros:
- Excellent stability and performance.
- Support for SLI (two PCI Express x8\x16 slots)
- Support for SerialATA (4 channels of SATA II; 2 SATA II; RAID)
- Integrated 8-channel audio and 2 LAN controllers (one of them is Gigabit Ethernet).
- Support for USB2.0 (10 ports) and IEEE-1394 (2 ports).
- Rich package bundle
- Excellent exterior
- Support for the TopHat-Flash
- Additional system for cooling the power supply module
- Programmatical switching between the SLI modes
Cons:
The board's specific features:
- Middling overclocking features and poor results.
Join the conference with all your questions, remarks and suggestions.
 |
Top Stories: |
 |
 |
|
MoBo:
| |
|
|
VGA Card:
|
|
|
|
CPU & Memory:
|
|
