Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI (nVidia nForce4 SLI) MoBo Review
Performance
Note that Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI overstates the nominal FSB by 1MHz:
As contenders to our board in question we used a system based in a motherboard with ATI Xpress 200 chipset (support for Athlon64 Socket939 + PCI Express video), as well as Gigabyte K8NXP-9 (nForce4 Ultra) and Asus A8N-SLI (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).
Final Words
Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI is a direct competitor to Asus A8N-SLI. Even a detailed comparison of these two boards is unlikely to reveal the leader (even at specific area of tests). Anyway, at the package bundle Gigabyte's board that comes with a WiFi modules is a better performer. The Asus' product offers a bracket for plugging in external SerialATA devices.
At expansion options, there is absolute parity. The Asus' product offers an extra PCI slot, while Gigabyte's offers support for three Firewire-800 ports (Asus' offers merely two IEEE1394 ports).
At the overclocking capabilities, both the products are approximately equal. But in some fine points, Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI is second to A8N-SLI. That applies, above all, to the operation stability in the overclocking mode (at HTT=300MHz, the Gigabyte's products demonstrate a jittering of the 3D-image) and compatibility to various memory modules (at that, the Asus' board does a bit better).
Therefore, the user will make the choice of a motherboard guided by the retail prices and personal preferences.
Conclusion
Pros:
- Excellent stability and performance;
- Support for the SLI (two PCI Express x8\x16 slots);
- Support for SerialATA (4 channels of SATA II; 4 SATA I; RAID);
- Integrated 8-channel audio and two Gigabit LAN controllers;
- Support for the USB2.0 (10 ports) and IEEE-1394b (3 ports);
- A pack of Gigabyte proprietary technologies: (DualBIOS, Smart FAN, @BIOS, FaceWizard);
- Rich package bundle (including a WiFi module).
Cons:
The board's specific features:
- Powerful overclocking tools + good results.
- DPS (Dual Power System) technology
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