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A fistful of nForce 590 SLI motherboards compared

Geoff Gasior
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THE NFORCE 590 SLI is easily the most feature-rich core-logic chipset available for Athlon 64 processors. Nvidia takes feature integration further than any other chipset maker, and that’s enabled the company to ensure a measure of consistency between motherboards based on its chipsets. Unfortunately, although core logic consolidation has done wonders for promoting a consistent end user experience, it’s also made it increasingly difficult for motherboard manufacturers to differentiate their products.

With an eye toward maintaining a measure of unique identity in a sea of boards whose performance and features are largely defined by the chipsets they use, mobo makers are scrambling to break new ground. For some, new ground comes in the form of workstation-specific amenities like PCI-X slots. For others, it’s digital voltage circuitry around the processor. Some have even challenged the chipset itself, replacing integrated audio with something a little more exotic.

But do these attempts at differentiation actually make for better boards, or are you better off with simpler designs that do little more than bring a chipset’s payload to bear? To find out, we rounded up a fistful of nForce 590 SLI motherboards from Abit, Asus, DFI, ECS, and MSI.

The boards
If you’re not already familiar with Nvidia’s nForce 590 SLI, I suggest browsing through our coverage of the chipset’s launch. All five of the boards we’ll be looking at today use the 590 SLI, and we’ll be focusing our attention on the unique characteristics of each rather than the common denominator.

Before we dive into coverage of each board, let’s set the stage by quickly comparing the boards’ features.

  Abit Fatal1ty AN9 32X Asus M2N32 WS Professional DFI LANParty UT NF590 SLI-M2R/G ECS KN3 SLI2 MSI K9N Diamond
Chipset nForce 590 SLI nForce 590 SLI nForce 590 SLI nForce 590 SLI nForce 590 SLI
Expansion slots 2 PCI Express x16
2 PCI Express x1
1 32-bit/33MHz PCI
2 PCI Express x16
2 PCI Express x1
1 32-bit/33MHz PCI
2 64-bit/100/133MHz PCI PCI-X
2 PCI Express x16
1 PCI Express x8
1 PCI Express x1
3 32-bit/33MHz PCI
2 PCI Express x16
2 PCI Express x1
2 32-bit/33MHz PCI
2 PCI Express x16
2 PCI Express x1
2 32-bit/33MHz PCI
Auxiliary storage NA Marvell 88SE614x ATA/SATA Silicon Image 3132 SATA JMicron JMB363 ATA/SATA NA
Audio Realtek ALC882 Analog Devices AD1988B Realtek ALC885 Realtek ALC882 Creative Audigy SE
Firewire Texas Instruments TSB43AB22A Texas Instruments TSB43AB22A VIA VT6307 VIA VT6307 VIA VT6306

Since we’ll be covering each mobo individually, I’ll only point out a few highlights here. First, note that almost every one has a unique distribution of PCI, PCI Express, and even PCI-X connectivity. There’s also some variety when we look at auxiliary storage controllers, with each board that taps an extra chip using a different manufacturer and model. This is the first time we’ve seen a board with a Marvell storage controller, and it will be interesting to see how the chip performs in our ATA and Serial ATA tests.

Things get at little more homogeneous when we look at audio, with three of five boards succumbing to the (Realtek) crab. The MSI board’s Audigy SE is a bit of a surprise here, not only because it bucks the nForce 590 SLI’s integrated “Azalia” HD audio controller, but because it does so with an Audigy. However, as we’ll illustrate in a moment, the Audigy branding is a bit of a misnomer. Don’t get your hopes up.

 
Abit’s Fatal1ty AN9 32X

Manufacturer Abit
Model Fatal1ty AN9 32X
Price (Street)
Availability Now

A geek’s Air Jordan

Fatal1ty is the closest thing the enthusiast community has to a celebrity endorsement, but there isn’t much a motherboard can do for your gaming skills—I’ve used numerous Fatal1ty boards over the years, and not once has one kept me from getting owned. Still, the Fatal1ty AN9 32X represents the pinnacle of Abit’s lineup for Socket AM2, and the board packs a handful of extras you won’t find on the vanilla AN9 32X.

Of course, Fatal1ty branding does come with a price premium. In this case, it’s about $20, which isn’t bad considering the board’s relatively affordable street price. To start, that $20 buys you a unique black-and-red color scheme that’s maintained nearly throughout the board. Abit really should have completed the aesthetic by swapping out the blue USB headers, though.

Colors aside, Abit does a good job with the Fatal1ty board’s power plug placement. Primary and auxiliary 12V connectors are located along the edges of the board where cable clutter won’t impede airflow around the CPU. The auxiliary 12V connector is only a four-pin plug, but there’s also an additional Molex power connector on the board for SLI configurations that require a little extra juice.

Abit keeps tall capacitors away from the CPU socket, but the board’s north bridge and VRM heatsinks might interfere with extremely large coolers that fan out beyond the retention bracket. The DIMM slots are also very close to the CPU socket, which could create clearance problems with taller DIMMs like Corsair’s XMS PRO series.

Everyone seems to be doing passive chipset cooling these days, so it’s no surprise to see a series of heatpipes and bare heatsinks on the AN9. However, rather than relying solely on ambient airflow, the board features a pair of fans in the port cluster area. These fans move air over the VRM heatsink, which is also connected to the south bridge cooler via a single heatpipe. Interestingly, the north bridge chip’s passive heatsink isn’t connected to the others.

Moving south, Abit stacks all of the AN9’s Serial ATA ports in a single cluster along the edge of the board. Longer double-wide graphics cards shouldn’t interfere with the AN9’s Serial ATA plugs. However, the GeForce 8800 is longer than some motherboards are wide, and I haven’t tried it with this board. Your mileage may vary.

That said, we have to commend Abit for offering plenty of clearance between the top PCI Express x16 slot and the board’s DIMM slot retention tabs. Motherboards rarely leave enough clearance for swapping memory modules when a graphics card is installed, but there’s plenty of room on the Fatal1ty.

Unfortunately, there’s plenty of room because Abit’s a little stingy with expansion ports. Discounting the backward PCI Express x1-looking expansion slot over on the right (we’ll get to that in a moment), the AN9 is stuck with only one PCI and two PCIe x1 slots to complement its dual x16 slots. What’s worse, SLI configurations made of double-wide graphics cards will cannibalize one x1 and one standard PCI slot, leaving users with just a single PCIe x1. The AN9 would be much better off with an additional PCI slot, or at the very least, a PCI slot that won’t be compromised by double-wide SLI configs.

So what about that backwards PCIe x1 slot? That’s a dedicated slot for the board’s AudioMAX riser, which packs all the board’s audio input and output ports onto a single riser card. Abit also places the audio codec chip on the riser to help isolate it from board-level noise, although we’ll see whether that really makes much of a difference in our audio quality tests a little later on.

Overall, the AN9 has a decent array of audio input and output options. However, due to limited real estate, the digital S/PDIF input has to share a port with the blue analog line in. That means you’ll need a 3.5mm TOS-Link jack adapter, too.

With audio relegated to a riser, the rest of the AN9’s port cluster looks pretty bare—well, bare if you ignore the dual OTES cooling fans, that is. PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports make an appearance alongside the usual array of USB and Ethernet ports. Users can get at an additional six USB ports and both of the AN9’s Firewire ports via onboard headers.

Presumably with an eye towards adding value to its Fatal1ty package, Abit throws an auxiliary graphics card cooler into the box. The cooler’s fan can be run off an onboard fan header—where it can be governed by the Fatal1ty’s excellent temperature-based fan speed control—or with a standard Molex plug.

 
Asus’ M2N32 WS Professional

Manufacturer Asus
Model M2N32 WS Professional
Price (Street)
Availability Now

PCI-X comes to Socket AM2

For years, enthusiasts had to dip into workstation-class processors and motherboards to enjoy the creamy smoothness of multiprocessing. Today, however, the ascendance of dual-core desktop chips has made buttery-smooth multitasking an affordable reality with even the most basic of desktop boards. The relatively low price of dual-core desktop chips has also further smudged the blurry line between desktop PCs and low-end workstations, and the Asus’ M2N32 WS Professional aims to further that trend. The board is based on the same M2N32 design that Asus has been tinkering with since early summer, and this time it’s been tweaked and massaged with workstation applications in mind.

Apart from the name, the most obvious clue that we’re dealing with a workstation-class product is the price. At over $260 online, the M2N32 WS Pro is by far the most expensive board in this roundup—and close to $70 more than Asus’ M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition.

Asus doesn’t dabble in daring cosmetic treatments with the Pro, but it does get the power plug placement right. Both power plugs are located along the edges of the board, and the auxiliary 12V line uses an eight-pin connector that should provide plenty of juice if your power supply supports it. The board is also compatible with PSUs that feature more common four-pin auxiliary 12V connectors.

Workstation users probably won’t be rocking exotic CPU coolers, but the M2N32 leaves a decent amount of room around the CPU socket to get creative. Chipset and VRM cooling is handled by an intricate array of copper heatsinks and pipes that traverse the motherboard and do their best to imitate industrial art. Asus doesn’t recommend relying on the passive chipset cooling if you’re running a water-cooled system with no ambient airflow, though. For what it’s worth, we didn’t encounter any problems running the board on an open test bench with an active CPU cooler but no other ambient airflow.

The M2N32’s storage cluster is a little tight, in part because there are two IDE ports and a whopping nine SATA ports. Combine that with the south bridge cooler’s heatpipe and a handful of capacitors, and you start running into potential clearance problems. For example, when installed in the lower PCIe x16 slot, longer graphics cards like the GeForce 7900 GTX will obscure access to at least two of the board’s red SATA ports. Those ports are connected to the nForce 590 SLI MCP, so they’re probably the ones you’ll want access to the most.

On a more positive note, none of the other SATA or IDE ports are blocked by beefy graphics cards. There’s even enough room to easily operate the DIMM slot retention tabs when longer graphics cards are installed.

PCI Express peripherals are still relatively rare, and for workstation users heavily invested in networking, storage, or other hardware, PCI-X remains quite useful Fortunately, the M2N32 has been built to accommodate the PCI-X crowd; it features a pair of PCI-X slots powered by an NEC PCIe-to-PCI-X bridge chip. Users can configure the slots to both run at 100MHz, or they can opt to run a single slot at 133MHz. The bridge chip itself is connected to four PCI Express lanes, providing a healthy 2GB/s of bandwidth.

In addition to workstation-oriented PCI-X slots, the M2N32 also has a pair of PCIe x16 slots, two x1 slots, and a standard PCI slot. What’s more, double-wide SLI configs will only cost you a single PCI-X and PCIe x1 slots, leaving plenty of additional options.

This is nitpicking a little, but I can’t ignore the M2N32’s PCIe x16 slot retention clips. The blue tab on the top slot is perfect, mostly because it’s easy to use with double-wide coolers. While the black retention clip on the bottom slot is physically identical, it’s over on the other side of the slot, where it will be obscured by a double-wide graphics cooler.

Around the rear, the M2N32’s port cluster is loaded with just about everything you’d want, including external SATA, coaxial, and TOS-Link digital audio outputs, and even a parallel port. Some workstation folks might miss having a serial port, and they’ll be out of luck, because the M2N32 doesn’t even have onboard headers for one. Onboard headers are available for both of the board’s Firewire ports and an additional six USB ports, though.

Workstation boards don’t exactly cry out for in-the-box extras, but Asus throws a couple of goodies in with the M2N32. The first is a stereo microphone that Asus says will greatly improve recording quality in noisy environments. Far more useful, at least to us, is a set of small jumper blocks that make connecting front panel, USB, and Firewire headers much easier when a motherboard is already installed in a case. Asus has included these jumper blocks on most of its recent motherboards, and as far as we’re concerned, they should be standard equipment on every motherboard.

 
DFI’s LANParty UT NF590 SLI-M2R/G

Manufacturer DFI
Model LANParty UT NF590 SLI-M2R/G
Price (Street)
Availability Now

Overclocked expectations

Just a few short years ago, DFI was virtually unheard of in the enthusiast community. The company had made a name for itself building motherboards for industrial and OEM applications, but it wasn’t until the LANParty brand launched that enthusiasts began to take notice—and take notice they did. Oskar Wu’s LANParty designs have garnered a loyal following of enthusiasts, gamers, and overclockers, setting our expectations high for the latest LANParty UT NF590 SLI-M2R/G.

That is if we can spit the name out without stuttering. DFI currently sells only one motherboard based on the nForce 590 SLI chipset, making us wonder why we need the -M2R/G at all; it’s not like they need to differentiate the board from other similar offerings. The LANParty board certainly doesn’t need any help standing out in a crowd, either.

Like LANParty designs before it, the NF590 comes on a black board peppered with fluorescent slots and ports. Yellow is the dominant color here, with a little orange thrown in for good measure. If your system happens to have UV lighting, you’ll also get to see the LANParty glow.

UV-reactive slots and ports are gimmicky at best, but the LANParty line does cater to the case window crowd. After all, there are few better venues than a LAN party if you want to show your system’s internals off to an audience that will be genuinely interested in what you have under the hood.

Of course, there’s more to the LANParty board than its glow-in-the-darkness. The mobo also features a rather unique layout that swaps the position of the DIMM slots and CPU socket. This arrangement puts the DIMM slots closer to the port cluster where they should receive additional cooling from chassis exhaust fans, and it moves the CPU socket closer to the front of the case.

I’m sure there are reasons for the LANParty’s unique layout, but I’m not crazy about moving the CPU socket farther away from a chassis exhaust fan. With this arrangement, taller DIMMs like Corsair’s XMS Pro line can also interfere with airflow between the CPU socket and chassis exhaust, and that could result in higher CPU temperatures.

At least DFI does a good job of putting the LANParty’s power connectors along the edge of the board where they won’t interfere with airflow. The board also features digital voltage circuitry around the CPU similar to what you’ll find on some high-end workstation and server motherboards. These digital PWMs promise better power delivery, and they’re cooled by chunky aluminum heatsinks that still leave a decent amount of clearance for larger CPU coolers.

Speaking of coolers, DFI bucks convention and opts for a cooling fan on the nForce 590 SLI MCP. The fan is reasonably quiet, but we still don’t like chipset cooling being tied to tiny fans that tend to be louder and more failure-prone than good chassis cooling. Unfortunately, DFI doesn’t appear to have any alternative; there’s nowhere for a heatpipe to go, and the board’s north and south bridge chips are close enough that their coolers are almost touching as it is.

Despite having two low-profile chipset coolers crowding the bottom of the board, the LANParty easily accommodates longer graphics cards. A massive Radeon or GeForce won’t interfere with the chipset coolers or any of the Serial ATA or IDE ports. However, the edge-mounted SATA ports can be problematic in extremely tight cases that don’t leave much room between the motherboard tray and internal drive enclosures.

Unless you need PCI-X, the LANParty has the most generous assortment of expansion slots in the bunch. In addition to a pair of PCI Express x16 slots, you also get x1 and x8 slots, and three standard PCI slots. Double-wide SLI configurations will still leave you with a PCIe x8 slot and two PCI slots, too.

DFI’s generosity on the expansion slot front does make the DIMM slot tabs a little difficult to operate with a graphics card installed, but we’ll live with that to get the extra expansion slots.

Despite a gaping hole in the middle, the LANParty offers plenty of connectivity in its port cluster, including six USB ports, one Firewire, and coaxial S/PDIF input and output ports. An additional four USB and one Firewire port are available via onboard headers, and you can get at the rest of the board’s audio ports through a small riser board that fills the gap in the port cluster.

The riser sports a full suite of analog audio jacks and also includes the board’s ALC885 codec chip. However, it doesn’t move the codec chip as far away from the board as Abit’s AudioMAX riser. We’ll see how the two compare in our audio quality tests in a moment.

 
ECS’s KN3 SLI2

Manufacturer ECS
Model KN3 SLI2
Price (Street)
Availability Now

Barney begone

If you came to us a couple of years ago with an enthusiast-oriented motherboard from ECS, we probably would have laughed. Recently, however, ECS has shown a keen interest in catering to the enthusiast market. That interest has yet to generate a really good enthusiast motherboard, but ECS has made considerable progress while retaining the affordable pricing that kept it so popular in budget circles. Indeed, the KN3 SLI2 is by far the most affordable nForce 590 SLI board on the market. Enthusiasts are willing to spend a little more to get the features and performance they crave, though, so the KN3 has to deliver more than just an attractive price tag.

After several iterations, it seems that ECS has finally settled on an attractive look for its motherboards. The company’s early attempts adorned boards in a toy-like shade of purple more appropriate for Barney accessories than for high-performance PC gear, but ECS has wisely traded that putrid color for a more serious black. A veritable rainbow of multicolored ports and slots still dot the board, but ECS actually makes use of this color coding in the board’s manual, so there’s some utility to the rainbow.

We do wish ECS had moved the KN3’s auxiliary 12V power connector up to the top edge of the board, though. There, it would be just as close to the CPU socket, but cabling wouldn’t interfere with airflow between the CPU socket and rear chassis exhaust. At least the primary 24-pin power connector is neatly located along the right edge of the board where it won’t be in the way.

A row of tallish capacitors flanks one side of the KN3’s CPU socket, and that could create clearance problems with larger aftermarket coolers that fan out from the retention bracket. However, the board uses a low-profile north bridge cooler that does a good job of staying out of the way.

Like the Abit Fatal1ty AN9 32X, the KN3 SLI2 opts for active VRM cooling. A tiny chipset fan sits inside a plastic shroud and exhausts warm air around the board’s voltage circuitry from the case. The VRMs aren’t equipped with heatsinks or anything else to expand their surface area, though, and the fan is likely to be plagued by the same increasing noise levels and premature failure that tends to afflict such tiny fans. We’d rather see a beefy passive heatsink dependent on more reliable airflow from a larger chassis exhaust fan.

Of course, the VRM cooler isn’t the only fan on the KN3. The board also features an active MCP cooler that to my ears is a little louder than the chipset cooler on DFI’s LANParty board. ECS has used more exotic heatpipe chipset coolers on its most recent Core 2 motherboards, but the KN3 must make do with a more traditional design.

To ECS’s credit, the KN3’s Serial ATA ports won’t interfere with longer double-wide graphics cards. However, although the nForce 590 SLI chipset offers six Serial ATA ports, you’ll only find internal ports for five; the chipset’s sixth port is routed to an external SATA port. Few users will actually need all six of the nForce 590’s Serial ATA ports, but we can’t understand why ECS didn’t tap the board’s auxiliary JMicron storage controller for the eSATA port. Siphoning off one of the nForce ports effectively kills the board’s ability to run six-drive RAID arrays—something any of the other 590 boards should handle with ease.

ECS doesn’t get too fancy with the KN3’s expansion slot layout, serving up pairs of PCI Express x16 and x1 slots, as well as standard PCI slots. More importantly, double-wide SLI configs will still leave room to populate at least one PCI slot and one PCIe x1 slot.

We don’t usually gripe about graphics card retention mechanisms, but the tiny tabs found on the KN3 SLI2 are without a doubt the worst we’ve used. ECS has put these tiny tabs on several of its most recent motherboards, and they haven’t grown on us. Longer fingernails are practically required to flip back the tabs, especially with beefier graphics cards installed.

The KN3’s port cluster may be dominated by a fluorescent plastic shroud for the board’s VRM cooler, but ECS still manages to squeeze serial and eSATA ports into the picture. S/PDIF ports are conspicuously missing from the port cluster, though, leaving the board with no capacity for digital audio output. Firewire doesn’t make the cut, either, but there are two Firewire headers onboard along with pins for an additional six USB ports.

Rather than relegating additional expansion ports to PCI slot cover plates, ECS provides a handy 3.5″ drive bay insert that can accommodate a couple of USB and Firewire ports. The insert is a nice little touch, especially if you’re running an older case that doesn’t already have front-mounted ports.

The KN3’s most intriguing accessory is the little Top Hat flash chip that comes in the box. This chip can be clipped onto the board’s existing BIOS chip should the original become corrupted. From there, users can flash the original chip, saving them the headache of having to obtain a new BIOS chip on their own. The Top Hat flash unit will only come in handy if you accidentally corrupt your BIOS with a bad flash or other fiddling, so it’s not something you’re going to use every day. However, we’ve had a few BIOS flashes go wrong over the years, so it’s nice to know that the Top Hat has our back.

 
MSI’s K9N Diamond

Manufacturer ECS
Model K9N Diamond
Price (Street)
Availability Now

Acoustic originality

In many ways, the K9N Diamond is a perfect representation of what we’ve seen from many of MSI’s latest enthusiast boards. On the surface, the board doesn’t look particularly flashy or unique. To the untrained eye, the K9N Diamond might even look a little dull—something that wouldn’t be unexpected given the board’s surprisingly affordable $150 price tag. However, dull isn’t necessarily a bad thing if the K9N Diamond does all the little things right, especially at that price.

Under its rather pedestrian appearance, the K9N Diamond is also hiding a unique surprise: a Creative Audigy SE audio chip. You wouldn’t know it looking at the board, though. In fact, were its name not silk-screened onto the PCB, you might have a hard time picking the K9N Diamond out in a crowd.

If you don’t care about your motherboard’s color scheme—and few of us really do—the K9N Diamond’s ability to blend in with a crowd isn’t a bother. Board layout is a far more important consideration than a motherboard’s looks, although MSI runs into a few problems on that front. First, the auxiliary 12V connector is below the CPU socket where cabling can interfere with airflow.

Next, the entire CPU socket area is a little tight for our liking, with a row of tallish capacitors bordering the socket on one side and a tallish north bridge cooler crowding another. Despite the fancy heatpipe between the board’s north and south bridge chips, MSI still relies on a tiny fan to keep the chipset cool.

Fortunately, the K9N Diamond offers excellent graphics card clearance. There’s enough room to operate the DIMM slot retention tabs with longer cards installed, and double-wide behemoths won’t interfere with any of the board’s Serial ATA ports.

Moving to the expansion slots, we find the same basic layout as on the ECS KN3 SLI2. The K9N Diamond serves up two PCI Express x16 slots, two PCIe x1 slots, and a pair of PCI slots. As with the ECS board, double-wide SLI configs should leave room to use one PCIe x1 slot and one PCI slot.

Next to the expansion slots lurks the K9N’s piece de resistance, a Creative audio chip that presents itself as an Audigy SE. Don’t get too excited about the name, though. The chip itself is little more than a SoundBlaster Live! 24-bit, so you don’t get the hardware-accelerated 3D audio associated with the Audigy name. SE might stand for Special Edition, but in this case, it’s the special of the short-bus variety.

Even if the K9N’s Audigy SE doesn’t support hardware acceleration for 3D audio, it’s nice to see MSI making an attempt to provide better onboard audio. At the very least, the Creative chip and its drivers should ensure more complete support for EAX positional audio than we’ve seen from some Realtek-based integrated audio implementations.

MSI complements the onboard SoundBlaster Audigy with a decent array of audio ports, including coaxial and TOS-Link digital S/PDIF outputs. The K9N is also the only board in this round-up to offer both serial and parallel ports along side the usual assortment of USB, Firewire, PS/2, and Ethernet ports. An additional six USB ports and one Firewire port are also available via onboard headers.

 

BIOS options
BIOS overclocking and tweaking options are essential for enthusiasts, and all five boards manage an acceptable level of each. Here’s how they stack up against each other.

  Abit Fatal1ty AN9 32X Asus M2N32 WS Professional DFI LANParty UT NF590 SLI-M2R/G ECS KN3 SLI2 MSI K9N Diamond
Bus speeds HT: 200-400MHz in 1MHz increments
DRAM: DDR2-400, 533, 667, 800
NB PCIe: 100-200MHz in 1MHz increments
SB
PCIe: 100-200MHz in 1MHz increments
NB/SB reference: 100-200MHz in 1MHz increments
HT: 200-400MHz in 1MHz increments
DRAM: DDR2-400, 533, 667, 800
PCIe1: 100-200MHz in 1MHz increments
PCIe2: 100-200MHz in 1MHz increments
NB/SB HT: 200-400MHz in 1MHz increments
HT: 100-500MHz in 2MHz increments
DRAM: DDR2-400, 533, 667, 800
PCIe1: 100-200MHz in 1MHz increments
PCIe2: 100-200MHz in 1MHz increments
NB/CPU HT: 100-500MHz in 2MHz increments
NB/SB HT: 200-500MHz in 2MHz increments
HT: 200-300MHz in 1MHz increments
DRAM: DDR2-400, 533, 667, 800
HT: 200-500MHz in 1MHz increments
DRAM: DDR2-400, 533, 667, 800
NB PCIe: 100-148.4375MHz in 1.5625MHz increments
SB
PCIe: 100-200MHz in 1MHz increments
Bus multipliers SB<->NB: 1x-5x
NB<->CPU: 1x-5x
SB<->NB: 1x-5x
NB<->CPU: 1x-5x
SB<->NB: 1x-5x
NB<->CPU: 1x-5x
SB<->NB: 1x-5x
NB<->CPU: 1x-5x
SB<->NB: 1x-5x
NB<->CPU: 1x-5x
Voltages Vcore: 1.3-2.075V in 0.025V increments
Vdram: 1.75-2.3V in 0.05-0.1V increments
Vnb: 1.2-1.5V in 0.05V increments
Vsb: 1.5-2.0V in 0.05-0.1V increments
Vht: 1.2-1.35V in 0.05V increments
Vddr ref: +/- 0.01-0.06V in 0.01V increments
Vcore: 0.8-1.525V in 0.025V increments
Vcore ultra high: 1.55-1.62V in 0.025V increments
Vdram: 1.8-2.5V in 0.025V increments
Vp_1.2: 1.2-1.4V in 0.05V increments
Vp_1.5v: 1.5-1.675V in 0.025V increments
Vp_1.3v: 1.3-1.5V in 0.025V increments
Vp_1.5vsb: 1.5-1.7V in 0.1V increments
Vp_1.2v: 1.25-1.425V in 0.025V increments
Vp_vttddr_sw: 0.5*+1.8V, 0.6*1.8V
Vcore: 1.3-1.6V in 0.00625V increments
Vcore special: *100-121.25% in 0.05-0.1% increments
Vdram: 1.7-3.0V in 0.02V increments
Vnb: 1.2-1.5V in 0.02V increments
Vsb: 1.5-1.8V in 0.02V increments
Vsb standby: 1.5-1.8V in 0.01V increments
Vht: 1.3-1.5V in 0.01V increments
Vinterconnect: 1.3-1.5V in 0.01V increments
Vcore: 1.2-1.35V in 0.025V increments
Vdram: 1.8-2.2V in 0.05-0.1V increments
Vnb: 1.2-1.35V in 0.05V increments
Vsb: 1.5-1.65V in 0.05V increments
Vinterconnect: 1.2-1.35V in 0.05V increments
Vcore: 1.2-1.35V in 0.025V increments
Vcore extra: +0.05-0.3V in 0.05V increments
Vdram: 1.7-2.3V in 0.05V increments
Vpcienb: 1.5-1.85V in 0.05V increments
Vpciesb: 1.23-1.35V in 0.04V increments
Vht: 1.2-1.5V in 0.05V increments
Vinterconnect: 1.3-1.43V in 0.04V increments
Fan speed control CPU*, SYS, AUX1, AUX2, AUX3, AUX4 CPU CPU*, SYS, NB CPU CPU

Looking at the options available, only the ECS KN3 SLI2’s lack of additional bus speed options and higher voltages really stands out. The Abit, Asus, and DFI boards offer particularly extensive clock speed and voltage control, although only the most extreme overclockers are likely to tap the extra flexibility.


The M2N32 WS Pro’s memory timing options, page 1

On the memory timings front, all five boards offer access to the most common latency settings, including the DRAM command rate. The Abit, Asus, and DFI boards go a little more overboard here, especially the M2N32, which has a full two pages of memory timing options to exploit. Most users will leave the vast majority of these at their “auto” setting, though.


The Fatal1ty AN9 32X’s fan speed control interface

Users are far more likely to want to manipulate fan speeds, and in that realm, the Fatal1ty AN9 32X is king. The board lets users define temperature triggers, fan speeds, and even reference temperatures for all six onboard fan headers—much more flexibility than what’s available on any other board. However, we should note that the automatic fan speed control for the CPU fan header requires a four-pin fan connector. You can actually get around this requirement by using one of the Fatal1ty board’s system fan headers and specifying the CPU temperature as its reference temperature, so it isn’t a serious issue.

The LANParty board’s CPU fan speed control is also limited to four-pin fans, but that board lacks the flexibility to use a system fan header to fake it. Fortunately, the Asus, ECS, and MSI boards have no problem working with three-pin CPU fans.


More voltage monitoring options than you can shake a small tree at

Abit scores another win in the BIOS department with the best hardware monitoring of the bunch. The Fatal1ty board’s BIOS monitors a wide range of system temperatures, fan speeds, and voltages, and users can set BIOS-level alarm or shutdown conditions based on each. This functionality isn’t available in any of the other boards.


Up to four profiles with CMOS Reloaded

Not content to let the Fatal1ty board hog the limelight, the LANParty also serves up a little something special in the BIOS department. CMOS Reloaded allows users to set up to four different BIOS configuration profiles, each of which can be loaded during the boot process by holding a predefined hotkey. This support for BIOS-level profile management is particularly nice for overclocking, since you can save a stable configuration before pressing on with something a little more daring.

The Asus M2N32 WS Pro also supports multiple BIOS profiles, and while you’re limited to two profiles, that should be enough for most folks. You actually have to go into the BIOS to switch profiles rather than loading them through a hotkey, so it’s not quite as slick as CMOS Reloaded.

Overall, we’re quite happy with the BIOS options available on the Abit, Asus, DFI, and MSI boards. The ECS may have the bare minimum for basic overclocking, but it doesn’t go far beyond that. MSI does a better job of providing enthusiasts with the tweaking and overclocking options they’ll need, but the BIOS doesn’t really branch out into brave new territory, either. The Abit, Asus, and DFI BIOSes do, and among those, the Abit’s combination of hardware monitoring and fan speed control options will probably have the most appeal for enthusiasts.

If you’re uncomfortable mucking around in the BIOS, the Abit, Asus, and MSI boards come with tweaking and monitoring software for Windows. The Abit suite offers the best functionality of the lot, followed by Asus’ tag team of tweaking and monitoring applications in a distant second. Nvidia’s free nTune system utility falls somewhere between the Abit and Asus apps, but at least it works on all five boards. However, many of nTune’s capabilities rely on specific BIOS hooks that not every manufacturer implements.


nTune’s monitoring app the way it should be, on an Nvidia reference board

None of the boards offer full support for nTune’s monitoring utility, with most failing to monitor system temperatures and voltages. Without system monitoring software of their own, DFI and ECS should be even more eager to offer full nTune support, especially since the app is a free download from Nvidia’s website.


Everything nTune could do, if mobo makers would let it

Things don’t improve much when we move to nTune’s tweaking utility, which has only spotty support across the board. Most of the boards will let you manipulate memory timings and a few bus speeds, but voltages are almost universally unsupported on the five boards we’re comparing. None of the boards work with nTune’s fan control options, either.

 

Our testing methods
All tests were run at least twice, and their results were averaged, using the following test systems.

Processor Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6GHz
System bus HyperTransport 16-bit/1GHz
Motherboard Abit Falat1ty AN9 32X Asus M2N32 WS Professional DFI LANParty UT NF590 SLI-M2R/G ECS KN3 SLI2 MSI K9N Diamond
Bios revision 1.3 0601 Revision A 1.0e 1.1
North bridge nForce 590 SLI SPP nForce 590 SLI SPP nForce 590 SLI SPP nForce 590 SLI SPP nForce 590 SLI SPP
South bridge nForce 590 SLI MCP nForce 590 SLI MCP nForce 590 SLI MCP nForce 590 SLI MCP nForce 590 SLI MCP
Chipset drivers ForceWare 9.35 ForceWare 9.35 ForceWare 9.35 ForceWare 9.35 ForceWare 9.35
Memory size 2GB (2 DIMMs) 2GB (2 DIMMs) 2GB (2 DIMMs) 2GB (2 DIMMs) 2GB (2 DIMMs)
Memory type CorsairTWIN2X2048-6400PRO DDR2 SDRAM at 742MHz
CAS latency (CL) 5 5 5 5 5
RAS to CAS delay (tRCD) 5 5 5 5 5
RAS precharge (tRP) 5 5 5 5 5
Cycle time (tRAS) 12 12 12 12 12
Command rate 1T 1T 1T 1T 1T
Audio codec Integrated nForce 590 SLI MCP/ALC882 with Realtek HD 1.47 drivers Integrated nForce 590 SLI/AD1988B with 5.10.1.4530 drivers Integrated nForce 590 SLI MCP/ALC885 with Realtek HD 1.47 drivers Integrated nForce 590 SLI MCP/ALC882 with Realtek HD 1.47 drivers Audigy SE with 5.12.1.519 drivers
Graphics GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB PCI-E with ForceWare 93.71 drivers
Hard drive Western Digital Caviar RE2 400GB
OS Windows XP Professional
OS updates Service Pack 2

Thanks to Corsair for providing us with memory for our testing. 2GB of RAM seems to be the new standard for most folks, and Corsair hooked us up with some of its 1GB DIMMs for testing.

Also, all of our test systems were powered by OCZ GameXStream 700W power supply units. Thanks to OCZ for providing these units for our use in testing.

We used the following versions of our test applications:

The test systems’ Windows desktop was set at 1280×1024 in 32-bit color at an 85Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests. Most of the 3D gaming tests used the Medium detail image quality settings, with the exception that the resolution was set to 640×480 in 32-bit color.

All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.

 

Memory performance

The boards perform fairly similarly in terms of memory bandwidth and latency. With the Athlon 64 memory controller integrated into the processor, any differences here are due to how the mobo makers have chosen to tune the CPU’s memory controller. Interestingly, the DFI LANParty board has the lowest scores in the bandwidth tests, but it’s the quickest in the latency test by a good half-nanosecond.

Not all motherboards handle four-DIMM configurations well, so we popped in an extra couple of memory modules to look for problems. We had to drop each motherboard’s command rate to 2T to get them to boot with four DIMMs installed. In fact, we’ve yet to encounter a Socket AM2 motherboard that will run four DIMMs with a 1T command rate.

Although all five boards were stable with four DIMMs installed, the Abit, DFI, and ECS boards were all a little flaky in Cachemem. The boards would crank away in Memtest86+ for hours on end without so much as a whimper, but Cachemem would often stall after running more than a couple of consecutive iterations. This problem only seems to affect Cachemem, so it may be an application-specific quirk.

 

WorldBench

Despite the fact that all five motherboards share a common chipset and processor, there’s a three-point spread between the highest and lowest WorldBench scores. The K9N Diamond takes top honors here, with the Asus workstation board pulling up the rear.

Gaming

With the exception of F.E.A.R., where the Asus and ECS boards are clearly faster, the boards’ gaming performance is evenly matched.

 

Multi-GPU gaming performance
Our first round of gaming tests was conducted with more modest in-game detail levels and display resolutions, but we’ve cranked things up for a second round. These tests use high resolutions, high detail levels, and anisotropic filtering and antialiasing. We’ve tested each board with a single GeForce 7900 GTX, and with a pair of cards running in SLI.

No board has an advantage here, but there are clearly huge performance gains to be had from adding a second GeForce 7900 GTX to one’s system.

 

Cinebench rendering

Cinebench scores don’t vary much from board to board.

Sphinx speech recognition

Sphinx performance is very close, as well.

 

Audio performance

Audio codec drivers tend to determine CPU utilization in RightMark 3D Sound, and as one might expect, the Realtek-based boards lump together, while those based on Creative and Analog Devices chips handle differently. Interestingly, it’s the Analog Devices-powered Asus board that registers the lowest CPU utilization of the bunch, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that the K9N Diamond’s Creative audio chip is an Audigy in name only. In fact, the MSI board has the highest CPU utilization of the lot with 3D audio, although it’s the only board to support 64 simultaneous 3D voices.

We should also note that some of Realtek’s HD audio drivers fail to correctly implement EAX occlusions and obstructions, rendering some games unplayable with EAX effects enabled.

Audio quality
We used an M-Audio Revolution 7.1 sound card for recording in RightMark’s audio quality tests. Analog output ports were used on all systems. To keep things simple, I’ve translated RightMark’s word-based quality scale to numbers. Higher scores reflect better audio quality, and the scale tops out at 6, which corresponds to an “Excellent” rating in RightMark.

Only a couple of RightMark’s Audio Analyzer quality tests really spread the field, and the DFI LANParty board is the only one consistently out in front. Maybe there’s something to that stubby audio riser after all; it certainly does better than Abit’s AudioMAX and even the MSI board’s Creative chip.

 

ATA performance
ATA performance was tested with a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ATA/133 hard drive using HD Tach 3.01’s 8MB zone setting.

With the exception of the Asus board’s Marvell 88SE614x, which tanks HD Tach’s write speed test, ATA performance is pretty even between the boards.

 

Serial ATA performance
Moving to Serial ATA, we tested performance with a Western Digital Raptor WD360GD SATA hard drive. Again, we used HD Tach 3.01’s 8MB zone test.

Serial ATA performance is pretty predictable, but again we see the Marvell 88SE614x having trouble keeping up in a couple of tests.

 

USB performance
Our USB transfer speed tests were conducted with a USB 2.0/Firewire external hard drive enclosure connected to a 7200RPM Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 hard drive. We tested with HD Tach 3.01’s 8MB zone setting.

With all five boards using the same nForce 590 SLI USB controller, it’s a little odd to see the DFI board lagging behind. Still, no matter what we tried, we couldn’t get the LANParty to keep up with the rest.

Firewire performance
Our Firewire transfer speed tests were conducted with the same external enclosure and hard drive as our USB transfer speed tests.

Apart from the Fatal1ty AN9 32X, whose performance leaves something to be desired, the rest of the pack is even in our Firewire tests.

 

Ethernet performance
We evaluated Ethernet performance using the NTttcp tool from Microsoft’s Windows DDK. The docs say this program “provides the customer with a multi-threaded, asynchronous performance benchmark for measuring achievable data transfer rate.”

We used the following command line options on the server machine:

ntttcps -m 4,0,192.168.1.25 -a

..and the same basic thing on each of our test systems acting as clients:

ntttcpr -m 4,0,192.168.1.25 -a

Our server was a Windows XP Pro system based on Asus’ P5WD2 Premium motherboard with a Pentium 4 3.4GHz Extreme Edition (800MHz front-side bus, Hyper-Threading enabled) and PCI Express-attached Gigabit Ethernet. A crossover CAT6 cable was used to connect the server to each system.

The boards were tested with jumbo frames disabled.

Gigabit Ethernet throughput doesn’t vary much from board to board, but CPU utilization does, despite the fact that all five are using the same Nvidia GigE controller. Oddly, it seems that one of the nForce 590’s integrated GigE controllers always uses less CPU time than the other. The difference can be as much as 4.5% or as little as 1.5%, but it’s there on every board.

 

Power consumption
We measured system power consumption, sans monitor and speakers, at the wall outlet using a Watts Up power meter. Power consumption was measured at idle and under a load consisting of a multi-threaded Cinebench 2003 render running in parallel with the “rthdribl” high dynamic range lighting demo.

Abit and ECS trade the top spots in our power consumption tests at idle and under load. The top three boards are pretty close together here, but power draw at the wall outlet jumps a when we move to the Asus and MSI boards. I suspect the Asus board’s auxiliary PCI-X and storage chips are responsible for at least some of the extra power draw, as is the MSI board’s Audigy SE.

 

Overclocking
The Athlon 64’s memory divider mechanism makes memory overclocking complicated at best and infuriating at worst. As such, we’ve limited our overclocking tests to seeking out the highest stable HyperTransport clock for each board. We backed off on the CPU multiplier and memory divider to remove them as potential bottlenecks, and were able to reach the following HT speeds with each board:

  • Abit Fatal1ty AN9 32X — 310MHz
  • Asus M2N32 WS Professional — 360MHz
  • DFI LANParty NF590 SLI-M2R/G — 300MHz
  • ECS KN3 SLI2 — 210MHz
  • MSI K9N Diamond — 240MHz

Much to our surprise, the workstation-class Asus board overclocked higher than the rest by a full 50MHz. Asus has been working with derivatives of the M2N32 design for more than six months now, and its experience with the platform may have something to do with our board’s impressive overclocking result.


360MHz on the M2N32 WS Pro, our overclocking champ

Abit and DFI both turn in respectable overclocks, and only 10MHz separates the fastest stable HT speeds we were able to achieve with the Fatal1ty and LANParty boards. However, no amount of extra voltage, gentle nudging, or even threats of violence could coax either board to go much higher than 300MHz. A 300MHz HyperTransport clock will take an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ up to 3GHz, though, so neither board is particularly hurting for headroom.

Unfortunately, the MSI K9N Diamond could use a little more overclocking potential. We were only able to get our board stable with HT clock speeds up to 240MHz, and while that’s probably acceptable for most folks, it’s clear that you can do a lot better if overclocking is a priority.

At least the MSI outclassed ECS’s KN3 SLI2, whose HT clock was only stable a scant 10MHz above stock. A measly 10MHz overclock is simply unacceptable for an enthusiast-oriented motherboard, and although our sample could have been a dud, ECS can’t afford duds if it wants to be taken seriously by enthusiasts.

As is always the case with overclocking, your mileage may vary.

 

Conclusions
After combing through five nForce 590 SLI boards, it’s clear that there’s still room for mobo makers to differentiate their products. Coming up with unique features isn’t easy, but when common chipsets largely define peripheral support and performance, it’s those unique features that make one board worth buying over another. So which of the boards we looked at today is worth buying over the others? Let’s step through some highlights from each to find out.

Abit Fatal1ty AN9 32X — Abit gets a lot right with the AN9 32X, and with a street price hovering around $170, this is the most affordable Fatal1ty board we’ve seen. The board’s BIOS is the class of the crowd, especially if you’re a sucker for flexible fan speed control, and our 310MHz HT overclock suggests that they’re plenty of headroom for overclocking. Unfortunately, the AN9’s expansion slot selection is a little lacking, especially if you plan on running a double-wide SLI config. That’s our only real gripe with this board, though.

Asus M2N32 WS Professional — With a $260 street price, the M2N32 is by far the most expensive board of the lot, but it’s the only one with real workstation credentials. The addition of PCI-X slots hasn’t made the board too stuffy for a little extreme overclocking, either, because it easily outpaced the rest of the field when we turned up the HT clock. However, PCI-X’s appeal really is limited to the workstation crowd, making the M2N32 WS Pro a great niche player, but one with little widespread appeal.

DFI LANParty NF590 SLI-M2R/G — We had high expectations for the NF590 based on our previous experience with LANParty designs, but the board feels a little flat. Performance is great, and the digital voltage circuitry is certainly unique, but the board doesn’t set any overclocking records or even offer much in the way of unique BIOS functionality. DFI doesn’t even include the MAX Hammer FID BIOS setting—which allows overclocking to more peacefully coexist with Cool’n’Quiet clock throttling—that we’ve seen on other LANParty boards. With a street price hovering around $190, DFI should do better.

ECS KN3 SLI2 — At just $140 online, the KN3 SLI2 is the cheapest nForce 590 SLI offering on the market. The board performs very well at stock speeds, too, but its BIOS is only barely adequate, and our overclocking experience was disappointing to say the least. ECS continues to make progress, and we love the Top Hat Flash, but the KN3 SLI2 doesn’t have the overclocking credentials or BIOS flexibility to rise above the others, even at a budget price.


Abit Fatal1ty AN9 32X
December 2006

MSI K9N Diamond — The K9N might not have a real Audigy under the hood, but it’s a solid enthusiast board that we don’t have any qualms about recommending. Performance is as good as any other board, BIOS options are just plentiful enough, and you can even push the HT clock a little. That said, we wish MSI had left more room around the CPU socket for larger coolers, and we hate to see the SoundBlaster Live! 24-bit pimped as an Audigy SE. You can only ask for so much for around $150, I guess.

Picking our Editor’s Choice from this lot is tough, but we can prune a few options right away. The KN3 SLI2 is out of the running for obvious reasons, and while the M2N32 WS Pro is a great single-socket workstation board, it’s too expensive for enthusiasts who don’t need PCI-X. That leaves us with the Abit, DFI, and MSI boards, all of which would do well in an enthusiast system. However, if I could only have one for my own rig, it would be the Fatal1ty AN9 32X. The LANParty does less and costs more. The K9N Diamond is a solid offering, but I’d pay the extra $20 for the Abit’s superior fan speed control and overclocking potential. And I can live with running only a single GeForce 8800 to avoid losing too many expansion slots. 

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