Gigabyte 8N-SLI Royal (nVidia nForce4) SLI Intel Edition
Gigabyte 8N-SLI Board Layout
There aren't any issues while assembling the computer: the PCB design is quite traditional. In particular, there is no problem with blocking the latches of DIMM slots - the PCI Express x16 slot is positioned at quite a distance. Secondly, the main power connector is positioned on the board's bottom end. But the additional connectors (a 4-pin and that for Molex type) are installed closer to the board's center, which makes cabling an issue. Also, connectors for plugging in IDE cables are positioned with gaps and are colored differently. The ParallelATA connector of the additional RAID controller is positioned in parallel to the board's plane.
If we look at the processor socket, we can see the lack of Foxconn marking. That means alternative suppliers of LGA775 sockets are finally there.
In my view, that won't make high-end board cost cheaper :)
To cool the chipset, a passive radiator is used
on top of which you can place a 40 mm fan:
The heat emission from the north bridge proved to be so high that the radiator is unable to cope with it on its own, so the system wouldn't start. Therefore, installation of an additional fan (available in the bundle) is a must. In my view, that is a shortcoming of the current stepping of the nForce4 chipset, not that of the PCB design.
The cooler is plugged in to the two-pin NB_FAN connector. Besides it, there are the following connectors for fans: the PWR_FAN near the main power connector, SYS_FAN near the battery, and the 4-pin CPU_FAN near the processor socket.
There are four DIMM slots on the board, and the maximum memory capacity makes up 16 GB.
The scheme of switching the modules to the dual-channel mode is standard: the first two slots relate to the first channel, the other two - to the second (i.e. memory modules have to be installed into slots of the same color).
As regards the SLI technology, there are two PCI Express x16 slots onboard (in the SLI mode, they run as x8, that is enable 8 channels each), with an SLI terminator between them. The latter is designed for switching between the single-channel and the SLI mode.
There is an additional Molex connector nearby. Note that Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI (AMD) lacked an additional connector. But the Prescott system consumes more power than the AMD platform. So, stability and quality is power supply are very important for the board built on the nForce4 Intel Edition chipset: that resulted in the emergence of an additional connector.
Nevertheless, we used two GeForce 6600GT video cards in the SLI mode without plugging in additional power supply connectors. There was nothing to complain about the stability during operation. But while operating high-end cards of the 6800GTUltra class, use of additional connectors is a must.
Also, there are two PCI Express x1 and two PCI slots onboard.
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