Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI (nVidia nForce4 SLI) MoBo Review
Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI Layout
During assembly of a PC, no issues come up. First, there are no problems with blocking the DIMM slots by latches: the PCI Express x16 slot is positioned at quite a distance. Secondly, connectors for plugging in IDE cables are positioned with gaps and are colored differently.
Nor there are problems with plugging in power supply cables: the main 24-pin and additional 4-pin power connectors are positioned over the board's edges. Also, over the board's edges there are connectors for plugging in various brackets.
To cool the chipset, a cooler with a 40 mm fan is used.
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 in the bottom left corner of the board, and the CPU_FAN near the processor socket.
By the way, the plastic frame of the processor socket uses a traditional (Gigabyte's) scheme of fastening with plastic pins. That means in installing non-standard coolers (like Zalman 7700 or Asus Star Ice) you would have to remove both the frame and the reinforcement plate from the board's reverse side:
There are four DIMM slots on the board, and the maximum memory capacity makes up 4 GB.
At the same time, the scheme of setting the modules to the dual-channel mode is different from what we saw on Asus A8N-SLI. On K8NXP-SLI we have to install modules into the slots of the same color (by the way, you won't be able to fit three modules - in that case, the system won't start).
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.
A few words on the SLI-terminator. Don't think it is some sort of a complicated item - its job is to be a substitute for 20 regular jumpers. But that terminator can be turned in 10 seconds, whereas it would take much longer to switch twenty jumpers inside a dark and cramped housing :)).
Interestingly, but we found no additional power connectors onboard, the way it is on A8N-SLI. I am not sure if that is right - two PCI Express video cards are able consuming up to 150W altogether. However, developers know that better - the aspect must have been explored and thoroughly calculated by engineers at Gigabyte.
Also, there are two PCI Express x1 and two PCI slots onboard.
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CPU & Memory:
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