Thread: ECS PN2 SLI2 + at NVIDIA nForce 680i

NVIDIA Corporation has always paid great attention to the needs of computer enthusiasts. Until recently, most "advanced" users sitting on the AMD processors, and for this platform NVIDIA provided the best chipsets in its characteristics. Regarding the Intel platform, the situation is somewhat different. At its possibilities chipsets NVIDIA Intel Edition easily compete with Intel products in two areas: the possibility of increasing the ratio and price / quality ratio. In fact, every generation chipset NVIDIA was excellent alternative to Intel chipsets: nForce SLI supported technology, as well as support for those standards that Intel considered obsolete. The last item refers to support Parallel ATA: when Intel reduced the number of channels from 2 to 1, NVIDIA chipsets supported channel 2. And when Intel completely renounced support of the protocol (on the southern bridge ICH8), the NVIDIA chipsets support remained one channel.

In addition, NVIDIA almost always had the advantage of supporting new standards. In particular NVIDIA chipsets 6 channels supported Serial ATA II, 2 Gigabit Ethernet controller and 10 USB 2.0 ports, while Intel products supported Channel 4 Serial ATA II, a Gigabit controller, and 8 USB 2.0 ports.

But lately, the situation changed dramatically: the possibility of expanding Intel chipsets longer assign characteristics nForce Intel Edition and the release of Core 2 Duo architecture completely reoriented computer enthusiasts to use Intel platform. As a result, NVIDIA chipsets, which could not boast of good overklokerskim capabilities times lost its appeal.

It is understandable that such a situation does not satisfy the California giant. Frankly promorgav exit Core 2 Duo, NVIDIA has become quasi lost Leap. First, was issued 590 chipset nForce SLI IE, which compared to nForce4 SLI IE was updated southern bridge. However, enthusiasm on the part of manufacturers of motherboards, this product is not met. And after a while, NVIDIA announces a new line of chipsets Series 6 xx: flagship 680i, chipsets mid-level 650i SLI and 650i Ultra, as well as low-end 600i.

Marketing NVIDIA good job of advertising a new series, above all, the masthead light chipset 680i. Internet was congested rumours of tremendous opportunities to disperse and unprecedented price = $ 120 chipset. This is three times the value of P965 chipset, and has resulted in the cost of the motherboard will be in the region of $ 300. Today, we check how these rumors were true, and test motherboard ECS PN2 SLI2 +, which is based on the reference design.



It is noteworthy that in the case of the 680i chipset NVIDIA company changed the approach to the spread of their products. Virtually all motherboards for the 680i manufactured by OEM order any large producer (in my suspicion - that Foxconn), and Commodity Boards already allocated for the remaining producers. Recent work only on the design and content (ie bundling) boxes with reference card. Thus, all second-tier producers have a chance to renew its range of products in the 680i is not investing a single dollar in the design and debugging board BIOS versions.

Example - charges "production" EVGA, as two drops of water similar to the testing fee ECS PN2 SLI2 +:
However, such an approach has its drawbacks. In particular overflew the entire web of serious defects of the first batch reference card, which was that because of problems with the sync signals, users of these cards could face problems with hard disks, which resulted in damage to or loss of data. Note that the company NVIDIA officially recognized the problem, and stressed that the latter lies in the reference design, rather than in the chipset. Moreover, the problem can be solved by software, and the corresponding version of BIOS has been released (although some users feedback, the problems still remain).

Regarding the front-line producers, it's likely that companies such as ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte will find the necessary resources to develop an independent board to nForce 680i SLI. At least, ASUS and Gigabyte have already submitted such products.

Before proceeding to consider the reference design, will stop in more detail at the chipset nForce 680i SLI. First, we note that the southern bridge (MCP55PXE) not undergone major changes. This means that the expansion will remain at the level of boards with 590 chipset nForce SLI IE. But with the northern bridge engineers NVIDIA seriously sophisticated, and as a result, fired chip C55XE. Its main advantages are to support processor tires with the frequency 1333 MHz and support for DDR2-800 memory. The first paragraph implies support is not yet released Intel processor, as well as an increase in serious overklokerskogo building. The second item is not at first glance is a cardinal improvement: support for DDR2-800 has long provided competing products, such as Intel P965. However, NVIDIA have in stock a few trump cards: Support Technology EPP (Enhanced Performance Profile), the new version 4.0 blocks DASP (Dynamic Adaptive Speculative Preprocessor), which provides preliminary (or pre-emptive) sampled from memory. And finally, Northbridge C55XE optimized to work with memory, with Command Rate = 1T (which could not boast of competing products).



However, such an approach has its drawbacks. In particular overflew the entire web of serious defects of the first batch reference card, which was that because of problems with the sync signals, users of these cards could face problems with hard disks, which resulted in damage to or loss of data. Note that the company NVIDIA officially recognized the problem, and stressed that the latter lies in the reference design, rather than in the chipset. Moreover, the problem can be solved by software, and the corresponding version of BIOS has been released (although some users feedback, the problems still remain).

Regarding the front-line producers, it's likely that companies such as ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte will find the necessary resources to develop an independent board to nForce 680i SLI. At least, ASUS and Gigabyte have already submitted such products.

Before proceeding to consider the reference design, will stop in more detail at the chipset nForce 680i SLI. First, we note that the southern bridge (MCP55PXE) not undergone major changes. This means that the expansion will remain at the level of boards with 590 chipset nForce SLI IE. But with the northern bridge engineers NVIDIA seriously sophisticated, and as a result, fired chip C55XE. Its main advantages are to support processor tires with the frequency 1333 MHz and support for DDR2-800 memory.

The first paragraph implies support is not yet released Intel processor, as well as an increase in serious overklokerskogo building. The second item is not at first glance is a cardinal improvement: support for DDR2-800 has long provided competing products, such as Intel P965. However, NVIDIA have in stock a few trump cards: Support Technology EPP (Enhanced Performance Profile), the new version 4.0 blocks DASP (Dynamic Adaptive Speculative Preprocessor), which provides preliminary (or pre-emptive) sampled from memory. And finally, Northbridge C55XE optimized to work with memory, with Command Rate = 1T (which could not boast of competing products).