Product Reviews

Nvidia always used to release its chipsets for AMD's processors first. Now AMD owns Nvidia's biggest rival, ATI, the tables have turned and the newer chipsets are coming to Intel's processors first. We've looked at Foxconn's N68S7AA and ECS PN2 SLI2+ motherboards, both of which use Nvidia's high-end nForce 680i chipset.

The most noticeable thing about both motherboards is that they have three PCI-E x16 slots. Two of the slots run at full x16 speed and are for graphics cards in SLI mode. The third slot runs at x8 speed. This slot, it's widely expected, will be used for Nvidia's physics hardware. No firm details of how this hardware will work or what it will do have been released yet.

As this is the high-end chipset, both motherboards support the full range of Intel's processors. The 680i chipset also supports processors with a frontside bus (FSB) speed of 1,333MHz; the previous generation of chipsets support processors only with a 1,066MHz FSB. Memory is still limited to DDR2 800MHz, although Nvidia claims that using SLI-ready memory will increase bandwidth.

Overclocking is important for high-end boards, and both the N68S7AA and PN2 SLI2+ have excellent support. There's a choice of the Ntune Windows application, which can use wizards to automatically configure your components for speed or system sound, or the BIOS, which is fully tweakable so you can configure settings manually. The range of settings is impressive. Memory and FSB speeds can be altered individually or linked, so changing the FSB speed automatically adjusts

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the memory speed. Even the individual clock speeds of each of the PCI-E x16 slots can be adjusted.

To ensure that its motherboard stays cool even when it has been overclocked, Foxconn has fitted its N68S7AA with two fans. The larger of the two looks like a turbine and sticks out of the top of the motherboard and at full power, the sound that these two fans make is quite noticeable.

ECS has decided to passively cool its motherboard. However, a fan is provided that clips on to the main heatsink on the Northbridge, which you have to use if you overclock. Still, one fan compared to two is better, and if you're just planning to run your PC at standard settings the PN2 SLI2+ is silent.

When it comes to expansion, both boards are equally matched with two PCI-E x1 and two PCI slots. There's a similar number of ports, too; both boards have six USB2 ports, eight-channel audio, FireWire and two Gigabit Ethernet ports. As with previous nForce boards DualNet can be used so the network ports are combined into one 2GB/s pipe. Six SATA2 ports can be used in a RAID configuration, so there's plenty of room for storage.

ECS jumps slightly ahead of Foxconn when it comes to what is included in the box. As well as providing a full set of cables for all the ports, ECS also provides a blanking plate with two USB2 and one FireWire ports that can be attached to a spare header on the motherboard. There's also a 3in adaptor for these ports, so you can front-mount them, too.

Foxconn merely supplies a blanking plate with FireWire and mini FireWire ports, and a serial port. Performance was very similar, although ECS's PN2 SLI2+ was marginally quicker in all our tests.

With the nForce 680i, Nvidia has created the most powerful chipset available for Intel processors. The PN2 SLI2+ is the better of the two boards reviewed here, providing excellent performance and a huge range of expansion options. If you're planning to overclock your PC, it's a great choice. If you're not interested in overclocking and want a stable, feature-packed motherboard, one that uses Nvidia's nForce 590 SLI chipset will be better value.