Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI

Each board contains two rows of SATA connectors; four SATA II channels apiece from the nForce4 chipset (allowing a maximum transfer rate of 3Gb/sec), plus extra headers from external chipsets. The MSI has two extra SATA II channels; the Gigabyte has four extra, but these are SATA I, giving a maximum transfer rate of 1.5Gb/sec and no support for NCQ (native command queuing). It's not a huge limitation, given that modern disks are still some way from hitting the limits of a 1.5Gb/sec bandwidth. Both have four DDR DIMM sockets for a maximum of 4GB of RAM. The MSI has three extra conventional PCI slots, whereas the Gigabyte offers two conventional plus two single-lane PCI Express connectors - good for the future, but we've still yet to actually see any single-lane PCI Express devices.

When it comes to performance, the identical chipset on each board means we weren't expecting any huge differences between them. In fact, the relative performance difference is only just above the bounds of experimental error: the MSI's score of 2.59 is pipped by the Gigabyte's 2.63, but that's a difference of less than 2 per cent.

It's worth noting that a single graphics card actually works fine in both 8x/8x SLI and 16x non-SLI modes: the 3D benchmarks for a single card are identical in either mode. 8x PCI Express, which is roughly equivalent in performance to 8x AGP, clearly has bandwidth to spare, showing that 16x has loads of future-proofing built in.

These two boards are close when it comes to an overall verdict on which you should buy - both are very capable and packed with features. However, with its extra PCI Express slots, bundled wireless adaptor and marginally better overall performance, coupled with a difference in price of only a few pounds, the Gigabyte wins out. But whether or not an SLI board is the best choice for you depends on your current setup and upgrade plans: see above for the verdict on SLI itself.

Author: David Fearon