nForce4 Ultra Roundup: Charting the Mainstream
by Wesley Fink on July 5, 2005 10:28 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
ECS KN1 Extreme: Features and Layout
| Specification | ECS KN1 Extreme |
| CPU Interface | Socket 939 Athlon 64 |
| Chipset | nForce4 Ultra (single chip) |
| BUS Speeds | 200MHz to 400MHz (in 1MHz increments) |
| PCI/AGP Speeds | Asynchronous (Fixed) |
| PCI Express | Fixed |
| Core Voltage | Normal, +25mV to +375mV in 25mV increments (to 1.875V on 1.5V CPU) |
| DRAM Voltage | Auto, 2.55V to 3.11V in 0.08V increments |
| Chipset Voltage | NA |
| Hyper Transport Ratios | Auto, 1X to 5X in 1X increments |
| LDT Bus Transfer | 16/16, 16/8, 8/16, 8/8 |
| CPU Ratios | Startup, 4x to 25x in 0.5x increments |
| DRAM Speeds | Auto, 100, 133, 166, 200 |
| Memory Command Rate | Auto |
| Memory Slots | Four 184-pin DDR Dual-Channel Slots Unbuffered ECC or non-ECC Memory to 4GB Total |
| Expansion Slots | 1 x16 PCIe Slots 2 x1 PCIe 3 PCI Slots |
| Onboard SATA | 4-Drive SATA 2 by nF4 2 Drives by SiS 180 |
| 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 Drives by SiS 180 RAID 0, 1 |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 | 10 USB 2.0 ports supported nF4 2 1394A FireWire ports by TI TSB43AB22A |
| Onboard LAN | Dual Gigabit PCIe Ethernet Gigabit PCIe by Marvel 88E1111 PHY 10/100 PCI by Realtek RTL8100C |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC850 8-Channel codec with 6 UAJ audio jacks, CD-in, front audio, Optical and Coaxial SPDIF Out |
| Other Features | AMD X2 Support with 1.1A or higher BIOS Slot LEDs, Power Transistor Fan and Duct |
| BIOS | Award 1.1A (6/02/05) |
ECS reserves the Extreme label for their top motherboards aimed at the computer enthusiast. While the Extreme boards have been very high on features, they have remained very affordable, often competing with boards that have much more modest feature sets. ECS decided some time ago that they wanted to go after the computer enthusiast; however, the path has been anything but a smooth one. As we have said in other reviews, it is one thing to aim for a board at the enthusiast market, but it is quite another to deliver the features and performance that enthusiasts really want.
Our last review of an ECS Extreme was in the Intel 915 roundup, where the ECS PF4 915P Extreme earned an Editors Choice in that huge roundup. For this roundup, we are taking a closer look at the ECS KN1 Extreme, based on the NVIDIA nForce Ultra chipset.
The ECS certainly has most of the BIOS options that an enthusiast is looking for. Memory voltage goes to 3.11V, which is significantly better than many top-name motherboards, which still have trouble supplying more than 2.8V as a memory voltage option. It would be better if options went to 3.5V, but in fairness, this range will provide the voltage needed for any memory except the high-voltage 2-2-2 OCZ VX and Mushkin Redline, which need 3.5V for best performance. Similarly, processor voltage options to +375mv are very adequate with today's CPUs, and the bus speeds to 400 and full range of processor ratios give users the option to make the most of the Athlon 64 capabilities. The only question that remains is whether or not the nice options mean anything on the KN1 Extreme; in other words, do they actually function?
Click image to enlarge.
There is nothing to complain about in the rest of the layout as ECS did a very good job on the KN1 Extreme. The ATX 24-pin and 12V 4-pin power connectors are on board edges where they belong. The IDE ports are in the ideal position, the 6 SATA ports fully clear the PCIe slot, and the additional connectors are on the bottom edge of the board, outside of the slot area.
ECS also thoughtfully included both coaxial and optical SPDIF out connectors on the rear panel, which also features dual-LAN (gigabit PCIe and 10/100 PCI) connectors. Perhaps manufacturers could label their dual LAN connections because even though I have a 50/50 chance, I seem always to plug the 10/100 when I'm looking for the Gigabit LAN. ECS also features a lime-green shroud with cooling fan for the power transistors, a feature more typical of Abit than ECS. All-in-all, the layout, feature set, and BIOS options are right on target for the audience that ECS hopes to attract.
We should mention in passing that, at first, we couldn't find the CPU ratios in BIOS. After complaining to ECS that there were no ratios, they pointed us to the Power Management tab, where Hammer FID controls were located. This certainly was not an intuitive placement for CPU ratios, although we do get the logic that Hammer FID or ratios are there because of Cool'N'Quiet, which is definitely related to Power Management. In any event, the ratios are there in Power Management, so we might save you a bit of searching.
DFI LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D: Overclocking and Stress Testing
ECS KN1 Extreme: Overclocking and Stress Testing
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Zebo - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Does ECS build EPOX's boards? just curious because they look pretty cheap like ECS IMO..Heidfirst - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
"[b]#19 and Others - I'm sure you must have noticed that some web sites have never posted a negative review of an Abit board. Also water cooling and asynchronous ram is hardly comparable to our air-cooled tests.The first thing I did was check other reviewers and users of the Abit board. The great majority are running into problems at about 250 FSB - although a few are getting better performance. Abit has had so many complaints about the OC performance of this board that I would fully expect a hardware revision on the horizon.[/b]"
Well the Fatality AN8 SLi, AN8 SLi, AN8 Ultra, AN8 V2.0 & AN8-V are effectively the new revision as I pointed out. Why buy a Fatality AN8 when the AN8 Ultra has better Vcore, better sound & is cheaper?
& people have had HTT395 & DDR660 out of them on air ...
Heidfirst - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
#19 and Others - I'm sure you must have noticed that some web sites have never posted a negative review of an Abit board. Also water cooling and asynchronous ram is hardly comparable to our air-cooled tests.The first thing I did was check other reviewers and users of the Abit board. The great majority are running into problems at about 250 FSB - although a few are getting better performance. Abit has had so many complaints about the OC performance of this board that I would fully expect a hardware revision on the horizon.
Abit set the expectation that the AN8 Fatal1ty was the best of the best with a price tag to match. It's an interesting board with many interesting features, but it's performance as it now stands is nowhere near the best.
TheGlassman - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
I think that a round up such as this would serve the readers better if three types of memory were used and various dividers used.My Chaintech VnF4 is running at 256x11 quite happilly, so I know it will run well over 245 with a divider with my memory, and I'm sure most of the other boards as well. And yes, many people run it over 300 HTT with lower multi cpu's.
This is not to say that 1:1 testing is not important, but since this is a round up, the various needs and budgets of your readers should be taken into account.
Seeing bios's used that are dated during the testing, with a known single memory may if repeated cause readers to think that Anandtech doesn't deserve it's well earned reputation as a fair and complete tester of all things important to PC ethusiasts.
Using memories with 3 different types of chips and using relevant dividers to find maximum HTT's and cpu speeds with each, while being more work, I think will be worth while to your readers, especially in a round up where boards are compared directly to each other.
This current round up implies that most nF4 boards are not capable of high HTT's, but the truth is you have only shown that most do not run one type of memory at very high speeds. You have not exposed the limits of the boards, nor do we know if the situation is the same with any of the other commonly used memories.
bldckstark - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Xpose-Not too early. I don't have my board yet. I have been waiting on X2. Using your same logic that means that nobody has a board yet right? I mean, since I am the only person I know that is going to build a A64 system soon then I should assume that nobody has one.
Geez
xpose - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
This Editor's Recommendation for best motherboard is at least 3 months too late. We already have had all of our boards.Also, to say that the VN4F Ultra is a bad overclocking board is completely wrong. I have a 3000+ CPU running at 2.67gz now. That is about 49% OC and damn good reguardless of the MB.
Son of a N00b - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
great article! you can clearly see the hours of hard work you put into it. Great Job, I enjoyed it and it was jam packed with info.one quuestion though where was the gugabyte board ultra board?? sure you may have reviewed it in the SLI roundup, but then did you not do the same with DFI? Plus you had great results with the reference gigabyte board, but not the revision 1 board...i'd like to see how ir fairs now...maybe i missed something why you reviewed the DFI board again becuase I am not familiar witha ll their variations and naming scheme, but to me it looked the same...why review that one and not the others? sure its great to rehash what a great board the DFi one is but....
just wondering as I have always had great success with gigabyte boards...but i probably missed something even thought i read it back to front, sorry if i did as i know that you would never do something without a good reason behind it...
anyway thanks, keep the awesome articles rolling...
smn198 - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Hi Wesley, thanks for the clarification on the HTT. do you know if it would have any more of an impact when dual core is brought into the equation?Thanks again. Good article BTW!
BigandSlimey - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
#18 I really like that idea, would probably be a headache to make it and keep it updated though.