NVIDIA's SLI: Part 1 - Motherboards

Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI

Gigabyte are a well-respected tier one motherboard manufacturer. The company has a habit of producing very fast stock motherboards, while not spending a great deal of time targeting its products at overclockers. That is not to say that their motherboards lack the options to overclock, Gigabyte choose to prioritise the importance of a unique feature set above excellent overclocking options. The GA-K8NXP-SLI is no slouch with a comprehensive set of features; some of these are unique, giving the motherboard a selection of unique selling points.

Main Feature Overview

• Support for all AMD Athlon 64 socket 939 processors;
  
• NVIDIA NForce 4 SLI MCP;
  
• 200MHz FSB;
  
• Phoenix AwardBIOS;
  
• 4x 184-pin DDR memory slots supporting up to 4GB;
  
• 2x PCI-Express x16 slots, 2x PCI-Express x1 slots, 3x PCI expansion slots;
  
• 4 (plus 6)x USB 2.0 ports;
  
• 2 headers supporting 2 full-sized and one mini IEEE1394 ports;
  
• 8-Channel Realtek AC-97 sound chip with S/PDIF RCA input and output ports;
  
• 1x NVIDIA Gigabit Ethernet Controller, 1x Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet Controller & 1 Gigabyte PCI 802.11g Wireless Network card.

The Bundle

The bundle is an area where Gigabyte doesn’t often come up short and this motherboard is no exception to that rule. There is a large array of manuals, installation guides and driver CDs included, along with a Gigabyte case badge. There are eight SATA cables - four in red and four in yellow - along with four molex-to-SATA power cable connectors, which each have two SATA power connectors coming from a single 4-pin molex plug. Along with this there are ribbon cables for both floppy and IDE drives. Like ASUS, Gigabyte has opted against the inclusion of rounded IDE and floppy cables, and there is only the single IDE cable in the extras.

Gigabyte have included an add-in PCI 802.11g Wireless network adapter, and the Dual Power System add-in card that is a feature of Gigabyte's high-end motherboards. It's designed to provide a purer supply of power to the important components on the motherboard using a full 6-phase supply of power. There are also three back panel adapters supporting six USB 2.0 ports and two IEEE1394 ports, an SLI bridge connector and supporting bracket along with the standard motherboard tray backing plate. All in all, the bundle is as comprehensive as any of the bundles included with the other motherboards under the spotlight today.