nForce4 SLI Roundup: Painful and Rewarding

MSI K8N Neo4/SLI Platinum: Features and Layout

Specification	MSI K8N Neo4/SLI Platinum
CPU Interface	Socket 939 Athlon 64
Chipset	nForce4 SLI (single chip)
BUS Speeds	190MHz, 200MHz to 400MHz (in 1MHz increments)
PCI/AGP Speeds	Asynchronous (Fixed)
PCI Speeds	100MHz to 145MHz in 1MHz increments
Dynamic Overclocking	Auto Overclocking Disable, 1%, 3%, 5%, 7%, 9%, 11%
Core Voltage	Auto, 0.825V to 1.55V in 0.025V increments (Normal) PLUS CPU VID 3.3%, 5%, 8.3% (to 1.68V)
DRAM Voltage	Auto, 2.55V to 2.85V in 0.05V increments
Chipset Voltage	1.5V to 1.85V in 0.05V increments
Hyper Transport Ratios	Auto, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0
LDT Bus Transfer	16/16, 16/8, 8/16, 8/8
CPU Ratios	Auto, 4x to 25x in 0.5x increments
Aggressive Timings	Enable, Disable
SSE/SSE2 Instructions	Enable, Disable
DRAM Speeds	Auto, 100, 133, 166, 200
Memory Command Rate	Auto, 1T, 2T
Memory Slots	Four 184-pin DDR Dual-Channel Slots Unbuffered ECC or non-ECC Memory to 4GB Total
Expansion Slots	2 x16 PCIe Slots 1 x4 PCIe 1 x1 PCIe 2 PCI Slots
SLI Setup	Movable PCB Card
Onboard SATA	4-Drive SATA 2 by nF4 PLUS 2-Drive PCIe SATA 2 by Sil3132
Onboard IDE	Two Standard nVidia ATA133/100/66 (4 drives)
SATA/IDE RAID	4-Drive SATA 2 PLUS 4-Drive IDE (8 total) Can be combined in RAID 0, 1 PLUS 2-Drive SATA 2 by Sil3132 Raid 0, 1
Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394	10 USB 2.0 ports supported nF4 2 1394A FireWire ports by VIA VT6307
Onboard LAN	Dual Gigabit PCIe Ethernet PCIe by Marvel 88E1111 PHY PCIe by Marvel 88E8053
Onboard Audio	Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit Hardware 8-Channel with Dolby Digital encoder, 6 audio jacks, CD-in, front audio, and both optical and coaxial SPDIF Out
BIOS	Award 3.0B1

As Asus has most often been the performance leader for boards for Intel processors, MSI has been the leader of late in the performance of their Athlon 64 motherboards. The whole K8N series from Socket 754 through Socket 939 has provided some of the best performance available for Athlon 64, and provided several Editors Choices along the way. Past performance has set high expectations as we took a closer look at the nForce4 Neo4/SLI.

As you can see in the picture, it looks as if MSI let off parts found on other motherboards. There are absolutely no PCIe slots at all on the Neo4/SLI except for the pair of x16 slots for SLI video. MSI tells us that the 2nd PCIe can function as a PCIe x1 slot if you're not using it for video, but that is it for PCIe. Does this really matter? Right now, it really isn't important, since we had a very hard time even finding a PCIe x1 LAN card for the new PCI Express. It may matter in the future, but by that time, you will likely have moved on to a newer version of whatever chipset is the latest wonder. This is particularly clear when you look at the feature set of the MSI, since it is definitely a cut above the other boards in this roundup.

MSI is the only SLI board in the roundup to provide a SATA 2 add-on controller instead of the SATA 1 Sil3114 used on all the other SLI boards. The Sil 3132 only supports 2 additional ports (added to the 4 SATA 2 provided by nForce 4), but the 2 ports are 3Gb/sec. All of the SLI boards provide dual Gigabit LAN, but MSI provides two PCIe LAN ports, assuring top performance whichever port you use. The biggest standout here was MSI's decision to use the Creative SoundBlaster Live! 24-bit audio chip on the K8N Neo4/SLI instead of the cheaper codec that others used. MSI claims that the Creative chip is a hardware audio solution, and not just a CPU-hogging software solution such as you would normally see on motherboards. Our CPU utilization tests support MSI's claims with very low CPU overhead. The Audio also fully supports Dolby Digital encoding, which will matter a great deal to some users.

Except for the missing PCIe ports, layout of the MSI is really excellent. Ports and power connectors are where they should be, and even the floppy port, which many no longer use, is in a location where full tower owners can use a regular floppy cable for their connection.

Our only complaint is the finicky and flimsy lock for the SLI card. We doubt that the lock will last through many changes from normal to SLI and back. In addition, once the pin is turned to unlock the SLI selection card, it is extremely difficult to lock the SLI card again once you have switched the mode. Someone in MSI design needs to take a look at this little plastic part and improve it before MSI gets a raft of RMAs because users can't secure the SLI card with a broken "lock pin".