Gigabyte
K8NSNXP - a Mainboard Based on the NVIDIA nForce3 250 Chipset
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One
of the most functional Socket 754 models (I remind you that it's silly to speak of
the performance in this case) with an excellent bundle at that. Though mainboards
with this socket have no future as top products, at present Gigabyte K8NSNXP can
still be the basis for a high-speed computer.
The
only chip in the NVIDIA chipset must have improved the PCB layout, but in practice
it is far from ideal - too many integrated devices. The row of connectors located
along the left side of the PCB is inconvenient to plug the cables; audio-in jacks
in front of the PCI slots, IDE RAID connectors behind them and the SATA connectors
next to the AGP slot hamper the installation of expansion cards and the convenient
cabling in the case. Access to the only jumper is easy even when the mainboard is
installed into the case, a short description of its functions is provided right on
the PCB. When you try to install a +3.3 V video card, a LED will light up indicating
that this video card cannot be used, the second LED indicates power in the memory
slots. The 3-phase switching voltage regulator of the processor uses four 3300 µF
capacitors and four 1500 µF capacitors, and with a proprietary K8 DPS module the
VRM scheme is updated to 6-phase. The PCB also contains voltage regulators of the
AGP bus (consisting of four 1000 µF capacitors and several lower capacity ones) and
the memory (six 1000 µF capacitors).
Gigabyte
K8NSNXP is the top model in the nForce3 250 series of the company, so it's not surprising
that the PCB lacks functional elements which are laid out but not installed (though
some insignificant elements common to the other models of this series are lacking
- jumpers to block BIOS flashing and reset the password, additional audio-in). Two
other mainboards in this series are K8NS and K8NS Pro. The former is the base model,
it is equipped only with a network controller and an audio codec, and the latter
is a close match to K8NSNXP by its functionality (it just has a single (gigabit)
network adapter and a FireWire controller instead of GigaWire), but is lacks all
"bells and whistles" like the DPS module and a bracket for external SATA
devices. PCB dimensions - 305x245 mm (full-size ATX, the mainboard is attached to
the case with nine screws, all the PCB edges are firmly fixed). The ITE IT8712F-A
chip is used to monitor:
- CPU
and memory voltage, +3.3 and +12 V
- RPM
of the two fans
- CPU
and board temperatures (using corresponding embedded sensors)
Onboard
ports, sockets, and connectors
- Processor
socket (Socket 754)
- 3
x DDR SDRAM DIMM (up to 3 GB DDR266/333/400)
- 1
x AGP (with a latch)
- 5
x PCI slots
- Power
connectors: standard ATX connector and a 4-pin 12 V connector
- 1
x K8 DPS slot
- 1
x FDD
- 4
x IDE (Parallel ATA) - two of them are in the chipset, the other two operate due
to an additional IDE RAID controller, so that disks connected to the latter can form
RAID 0, 1 and 0+1
- 4
x SATA (Serial ATA) RAID connectors - two of them are in the chipset, the other two
operate due to an additional SATA RAID controller; disks connected to each pair can
form RAID 0 and 1
- 2
connectors for brackets each with 2 additional USB (2.0) ports
- 2
connectors for brackets with 3 additional GigaWire ports
- Game
connector
- 1
x CD/DVD audio connector
- 1
x IrDA connector
- Connector
for SMBus devices
- Connector
for a case open sensor
- Headers
for additional S/PDIF-In/Out
- 4
x cooling fan pin headers (3 of them with rpm control, the forth is used by the fan
on the chipset heatsink)
Back
panel (left to right, blockwise)
- PS/2
Keyboard / Mouse
- 2
x USB and 1 x RJ-45 (Fast Ethernet)
- 1
x LPT and 2 x COM
- 2
x USB and 1 x RJ-45 (Gigabit Ethernet)
- 3
x audio (Mic-In, Line-In, Front)
Package
Contents
- Box:
standard design box for the K8 Triton series
- Documentation:
user's guide, IDE RAID configuration guide, SATA RAID configuration guide and a poster
with short instructions how to install and setup the mainboard - all in English
- Cables:
2 x Serial ATA, 3 x ATA66/100/133, and 1 x FDD
- The
Serial-ATA bracket to attach external serial-ATA drives using its power and port
connections
- USB
bracket (2 ports)
- USB/GigaWire
bracket (2 USB and 2 GigaWire ports)
- The
audio bracket with Center/Sub, Rear, Side, S/PDIF-Out (Toslink and Coaxial) jacks
- Gigabyte
K8 DPS
- Ports
back panel
- CD
with software:
- mainboard
drivers
- Adobe
Acrobat Reader
- DirectX
9.0
- Norton
Internet Security
- Gigabyte
@BIOS
- Gigabyte
DMIView
- Gigabyte
EasyTune4
- Gigabyte
FaceWizard
- Gigabyte
Windows Utility Manager
- Gigabyte
IA Panel
- Gigabyte
Management Tools
- Gigabyte
System Information Viewer
Integrated
Controllers
- Avance
Logic ALC850 Audio AC'97 Codec supporting 7.1 surround sound audio, with front line-in/out
and S/PDIF jacks
- Two
network controllers, one of them is based on the chipset and ICS 1883 PHY controller
supporting 10/100 Mbit/sec Base-T (Fast Ethernet), the other one is based on the
Marvell 88E8001-LKJ chip supporting 10/100/1000 Mbit/sec Base-T (Gigabit Ethernet)
- GigaWire
(FireWire-800, IEEE 1394b) based on Texas Instruments TSB82AA2 and TSB81BA3 supporting
three ports
- IDE
RAID based on ITE IT8212F supporting four PATA devices and RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and JBOD
- SATA
RAID based on Silicon Image SiI3512CT128 supporting 2 SATA connectors and RAID 0,
1.
The integrated audio quality was tested in 16bit, 44 kHz, using the RightMark
Audio Analyzer 5.2 test application and the Terratec
DMX 6fire sound card:
| FR passband
ripple (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB: |
+0.08, -0.91
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Good
|
| Noise level
, dB (A): |
-84.3
|
Good
|
| Dynamic range,
dB (A): |
84.3
|
Good
|
| THD, %: |
0.042
|
Good
|
| Intermodulation
distortions, %: |
0.067
|
Good
|
| Channel crosstalk
, dB: |
-82.3
|
Very good
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General performance: Good (details).
Good quality of the integrated audio and 8-channel support may satisfy
some customers. But I want to remind you that this is still AC'97
audio, not HDA - the latter can be achieved in Gigabyte K8NSNXP only
using an external sound card.
Proprietary
Technologies
- Gigabyte
DualBIOS (PCB contains a backup Flash EEPROM chip with a copy of BIOS)
- Gigabyte
K8 DPS (the mainboard is shipped with an additional VRM module, which can be installed
into a special connector)
- Q-Flash
and @BIOS (utilities to flash new BIOS versions without booting up to DOS)
- EasyTune
4 (proprietary Windows utility to overclock the mainboard and control its parameters
in real time)
- Xpress
Recovery (utility to backup/restore the hidden HDD data)
- Xpress
Install (automatic detection and installation of necessary drivers and applications
from CD)
Settings
| Jumpers and switches |
Clear CMOS jumper |
|
| In Award BIOS v6.00PG |
Memory timings |
+ |
CAS Latency, RAS to CAS Delay, Min. RAS
Active Time, Row Precharge Delay, Refresh Period |
| Memory frequency selection |
+ |
Auto, 100, 133, 150, 166, 200 MHz |
| HT bus setup |
- |
|
| AGP bus setup |
- |
|
| PCI bus setup |
- |
|
| PCI frequency divider setup |
+ |
AGP(PCIx2) = 66-100 MHz at 1 MHz steps |
| PCI IRQ manual assignment |
+ |
|
| FSB frequency setup |
+ |
200-300 MHz at 1 MHz steps |
| CPU multiplier |
- |
|
| CPU core voltage control |
+ |
Normal, 0.8-1.7 V at 0.025 V increments
up to 1.55 V and at 0.05 V increments higher |
| Memory voltage control |
+ |
Normal, +0.1, +0.2 V |
| Chipset voltage control |
+ |
Normal, +0.1, +0.2, +0.3 V |
| HT voltage control |
+ |
Normal, +0.1, +0.2, +0.3 V |
| AGP voltage control |
- |
|
We
used BIOS vF2, the latest available BIOS version at the time of our tests. The mentioned
BIOS parameters are available in the version, but the viability of non-standard settings
hasn't been tested. Performance
Test
results:
This
model at the manufacturer's web site
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