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• High-Flying ULi M1695 Reference Board Supports Both AGP and PCIe   [Preview, TomsHardware]
  Taiwanese chipmaker ULi is now marketing a chipset that leaves nothing to be desired as far as functionality goes. For example, it offers the optional, no-quibbles use of AGP, PCI Express or Dual PCI Express. But the yardstick set by NVIDIA and its nForce4 chipset is high. Besides the obligatory details, the nForce4 offers a few gimmicks which raise it above the competition. These include a Gigabit network controller with integrated, hardware-supported firewall (ActiveArmor), a versatile SATA RAID unit with four ports (NVRAID) and its own overclocking software (nTune). Optionally there's the SLI chipset too, which lays the basis for extreme 3D performance through the use of two matching graphics cards.
   Mon, 22 Aug, 2005 | 10 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail

• ABIT AN8-SLI nForce4-SLI Motherboard Review   [Review, PCStats]
  ABIT has had a good history with overclocking, but the company has so far struck out in the Athlon64 world. It's a shame too, since ABIT's boards are usually very well behaved at higher speeds. Before the ABIT AN8-SLI was released, rumors flourished that it would challenge the DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR for top spot, so you can be sure that this review is going to be an exciting one as we try to settle that question. Call it an ABIT vs. DFI battle royal if you will.
   Sun, 21 Aug, 2005 | 21 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail

• MSI RD480 Neo2 Mainboard - CrossFire board short preview   [Preview, Hexus]
  At a computer games convention you’d expect to see a bit of hardware, but all stuff directly related to games such as joypads, steering wheels… the odd mouse mat and that'd be about it. But over on the ATI stand, MSI are showing of something rather special, a running example of their MSI RD480 Neo2 Mainboard.
   Sun, 21 Aug, 2005 | 32 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail

• Secret Overclocking In ASUS Motherboards   [Article, rojakpot]
  It's no secret that ASUS motherboards perform very well. But what's their secret to success? Great engineering? Or something more than that? Today, we take a look at the ugly side of the hardware industry and see the real ace ASUS had up their sleeves!
   Sun, 21 Aug, 2005 | 35 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail

• ASUS P5WD2 Premium Motherboard Review   [Review, legitreviews]
  Overall, the layout of the ASUS P5WD2 Premium is as close to flawless as I have seen. I was extremely impressed by the clean, uncluttered layout that ASUS devised. It is obvious that this board was built with an incredible amount of flexibility in mind.
   Thu, 18 Aug, 2005 | 37 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail

• ASUS PEG Link Mode Guide   [Guide, rojakpot]
  It's been just over a year since ASUS was forced to officially announce the PEG Link Mode. Unfortunately, very little is known about it till today. That's what we intend to correct today. After digging deeper into the mystery of PEG Link Mode, we are proud to present our report on what it actually does!
   Thu, 18 Aug, 2005 | 10 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail

• ABIT AN8 Ultra - Passively Cooled Motherboard   [Review, TrustedReviews]
  If you’re a regular reader of TrustedReviews you might have spotted Gordon’s news piece on the Quiet OTES boards from ABIT a while back. The first board to be reviewed here is the AN8 Ultra which is based on the nVidia nForce4 Ultra chipset. It is really just a modified version of the AN8 with the addition of the chipset heatpipe cooler using the Ultra version of the nForce4 chipset rather than the standard version. This might still be enough to convince users looking for low noise components to consider it – after all, just because you want a fast machine, doesn’t mean you want a noisy one.
   Sat, 13 Aug, 2005 | 73 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail

• Asus A8N-SLI Premium Athlon64 Motherboard Review   [Review, PCStats]
  The general rule in computers is that as things get faster, more heat is produced. Over the years we've seen processor heatsinks, and to a lesser degree videocard coolers, increase in size to compensate for the ever larger amounts of heat they must dissipate. Other devices such as motherboard chipsets have flirted with extravagant cooling solutions in the past, but in reality this was not really very necessarily until recently. nVIDIA's nForce2 was probably the first motherboard chipset that really benefitted from active cooling, and with modern chipsets, active cooling is a must. I guess the only exceptions these days are VIA based motherboards - most get away with a little green passive heatsink.
   Thu, 11 Aug, 2005 | 36 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail

• ECS KN1 Extreme nForce 4 Ultra Motherboard Review   [Review, PCStats]
  It is amazing to see how large the reach of the hardware enthusiast community has become. Enthusiasts have shaped and directed trends within the computer industry for the last couple years just by doing what they like to do the most - push hardware to the max and customize their own systems. From vividly coloured cases to flashy lighting, and of course increased overclocking options, life is pretty sweet if you're a "geek". ECS is known as a manufacturing heavyweight in Taiwan, and for a good reason, it makes a ton of motherboards. Since the early spring of this year though, ECS has been trying hard to improve its retail image and win back some of the market share for value-oriented consumers that it has lost to rival ASUS' no frills ASRock motherboard division.
   Thu, 11 Aug, 2005 | 12 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail

• ECS PF88 Extreme Hybrid Intel/AMD Motherboard Review   [Review, PCStats]
  AMD and Intel technologies are completely different from each other, so it's impossible to use one product in the other's platform. Or at least that has been the general rule until now... What would you say if PCSTATS told you that we have a motherboard here which combines the best of both Intel and AMD CPUs through an innovative daughtercard system, all one board? The ECS PF88 Extreme Hybrid motherboard is on our test bench for a thorough examination, and in the configuration pictured it works with either a socket 775 Intel Pentium 4 or socket 939 AMD Athlon 64 processor. Intrigued yet?
   Thu, 11 Aug, 2005 | 8 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail

• Gigabyte GA-8I955X Royal Intel 955X Motherboard Review   [Review, PCStats]
  The introduction of new processor lines always makes for an interesting time in the tech review world. Everyone wants to try new stuff, and we are no exception. When Intel and AMD introduced dual-core processors and Intel brought out two new chipsets to match, it made for a reviewing frenzy unseen since 64-bit processors came out. While we try to remain cool and calm here at PCSTATS, we're still slobbering tech-heads under the surface, so we got our reviewing hands on some of the goodies as quickly as we could. The Gigabyte GA-8I955X Royal motherboard is a dual core Pentium 4 processor compatible platform, built around Intel's very own 955X chipset. This is the first time we've had a chance to look at an Intel dual-core processor with its designated 'flagship' chipset, so we're most interested to see how it does in comparison to the 945P mainstream Intel chipset.
   Thu, 11 Aug, 2005 | 30 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail

• Foxconn Intel i945/i955 Dual Core Motherboards   [Review, legitreviews]
  Legit Reviews looks at three leading dual core motherboards from Foxconn and see how they handle the latest Intel processors. With the market moving toward dual core CPU's, you need either an i945 or i955 chipset based board to correctly utilize Intel's newest processors. Price points drive the market and LR checks to see if Foxconn's newest boards balance budget and performance.
   Tue, 09 Aug, 2005 | 21 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail

• AnandTech Exclusive: CrossFire Benchmarks Revealed   [Preview, AnandTech]
  This week, we were very lucky to get our hands on a CrossFire motherboard and a CrossFire master card from Gigabyte. We have previously covered CrossFire, so please check out that article for more details. It all comes down to ATI's answer to SLI in the form of a master/slave card combination where the master card reconstructs the data produced by both cards and outputs it to the display. Communication between cards is done over PCI Express and a dongle that plugs into the slave card's DVI port. And today, we have the pleasure of talking about performance.
   Wed, 03 Aug, 2005 | 27 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail

• ECS KN1 Extreme   [Review, HardOCP]
  The KN1 Extreme is ECS’s newest motherboard introduction for the Athlon64 line of processors. Centered around the NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra chipset, the board features full support for the entire Athlon64 socket 939 processor line, including the dual processor X2 line, DDR type SDRAM modules operating in Dual Channel mode up to speeds of 400MHz officially, as well as PCI Express x16 based video cards operating in single card mode. The KN1 Extreme was designed to be a feature complete solution, requiring a minimal amount of components for a functioning system: Athlon64 socket 939 based CPU, DDR memory, PCI Express video card, drives, and PSU. The following components are included in the KN1 Extreme’s design: 2 IDE ATA-133 ports and 4 SATA II ports (RAID 0, 1, and 0+1 capable) on the NVIDIA RAID controller; 1 IDE ATA-133 port and 2 SATA 150 ports (RAID 0, 1, and 0+1 capable) on the SIS RAID controller; 10 USB 2.0 capable ports (4 in rear panel, and 3 onboard headers supporting 2 ports each); 2 IEEE 1394 capable ports (2 onboard headers supporting 1 port each); 1 NVIDIA Gigabit Ethernet port in rear panel with integrated hardware Firewall support; 1 Realtek 10/100 Ethernet port in the rear panel; Realtek 6-channel audio codec featuring S/PDIF optical and component output ports; and PS/2 and serial port support in the rear panel.
   Tue, 02 Aug, 2005 | 11 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail

• Foxconn Intel Dual Core Motherboard Roundup (945G7MA, 945P7AA and 955X7AA)   [Review, OverclockerCafe]
  Both Intel and AMD have released their dual-core CPU's. Motherboard manufacturers have been hot to jump on the wagon and offer their latest and greatest new technology to the masses. Intel's dual-core chipsets are the 945 and 955, and like previous naming schemes, the 955 is going to be geared toward enthusiast. Today, thanks to the generous folks at Foxconn, we have a trio of dual-core motherboards to salivate over. With two of the motherboards based around the 945 chipset and one around the 955 chipset, we've got something here to fit most anyone out there looking for the cutting edge.
   Mon, 01 Aug, 2005 | 17 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail

• BIOS Optimization Guide Rev. 8.1 Posted   [Guide, rojakpot]
  As promised, here is the Complete FREE BIOS Optimization Guide Rev. 8.1! This will bring the FREE BIOS Optimization Guide Rev. 8.1 up to 258 BIOS features! This release features these 8 new BIOS features :- - AGP Performance Control - DCLK Feedback Delay - DRAM Bus Selection - MAC LAN - MAC PHY IEEE Test - Search for MDA Resources - SSE/SSE2 Instructions - Write CAS Latency (Twcl) There are also 3 updated BIOS features :- - Boot To OS/2 - OS/2 Onboard Memory> 64M - OS Select For DRAM> 64MB
   Sun, 24 Jul, 2005 | 32 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail

• Nvidia nForce 4 SLI: DFI LanParty UT nF4 SLI-DR Review   [Review, AMDzone]
  We last looked at a DFI board back in October of 2004 when we reviewed the K8M800. That was a micro ATX Socket 754 VIA based board with integrated video. Today we review a board on the opposite site of the spectrum. The LanParty UT nF4 SLI-DR will not be confused with the K8M800 in any way. This is DFI's top of the line board that throws everything in but the kitchen sink. How will it stand up to other SLI boards that have come through testing? Hold on for that while we look at the long list of specs.
   Sun, 24 Jul, 2005 | 23 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail

• Nvidia nForce 4 Ultra: ECS KN1 Extreme Review   [Review, AMDzone]
  It has been a while since an ECS board has come through the labs, but the past couple of weeks we have been testing what is the most feature filled board we have ever seen from them in the past. Based on the nForce 4 Ultra chipset it goes up against a crowded field, and on new ground for the company. How does it stack up to its competitors? Will the Music Elf be our friend? Before we answer that we will first look at the full system specifications.
   Sun, 24 Jul, 2005 | 20 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail

• Asus A8N SLI Premium - NF4 SLI For AMD Refined   [Review, HotHardware]
  So, Asus did what we've been hoping many others in their competitive arena would do, take what is an already killer nForce 4 SLI for AMD based design and make it better. Better you say? How so? Let's take a collective look at the new Asus A8N SLI Premium and help you decide if it's better than its predecessor the A8N SLI Deluxe. "Deluxe", "Premium", it all sounds good but is the second gen product better? Judge for yourselves in the pages ahead.
   Mon, 18 Jul, 2005 | 64 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail

• NF4 Ultra Shoot-Out: Abit vs. MSI vs. ECS   [Review, HotHardware]
  Today we're going to take a look at three enthusiast class motherboards based on the NVIDIA nForce 4 Ultra chipset, the Abit Fatal1ty AN8, the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum, and the ECS KN1 Extreme. All three of these motherboards take the core features inherent to the NVIDIA nForce 4 Ultra, and implement them in their own unique ways. One board is flashy and boastful, another is subdued and loaded up with third-party on-board peripherals, while the other is rather spartan and quite inexpensive. But in the end, they are all subject to our discerning eyes and the same suite of benchmarks. We took all three of these motherboards for a spin, and had some interesting things occur. Read on to see which one we think deserves a place in your rig, and why. As you'll see, not all nForce 4 Ultra motherboards are created equal...
   Mon, 18 Jul, 2005 | 38 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail