Abit KN9 SLI specification
We've highlighted the main differences between NVIDIA's nForce 570 SLI and 590 SLI in a previous article. The gist of it is that the 570 SLI, while mostly just as capable as its bigger brother, isn't quite so geared towards enthusiasts. Still, we don't see why a manufacturer couldn't put some effort into making a lower-cost enthusiast's board around this chipset.
On to the KN9 SLI, then. Will it have what it takes to appeal to an enthusiast, despite its chipset, or will it simply sit as a board for the gamer?
| Board feature | Implementation |
|---|---|
| Chipset | NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP (single chip) |
| CPU support | All socket AM2 processors: Athlon 64 FX, Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64 and Sempron |
| RAM | DDR2 400/533/667/800 8GiB total, 4 slots |
| Graphics Support | PCI Express: 2 PEG x16 slots (electrical, x8 in SLI) |
| PCI Express | 2 x PCIe x1 |
| PCI Conventional | 2 x PCI |
| Networking | 2 x NVIDIA Gigabit Ethernet with NVIDIA DualNet |
| FireWire | 2x FW400 headers |
| Audio | Realtek ALC883; HD Audio, 10-channel (7.1+2) Jack-sensing, optical TosLink digital out |
| USB | nForce 570 SLI MCP 10 ports USB2.0; 4 on I/O panel + 3x 2-port headers |
| Disks | 6 SATA300, 1 ATA133 IDE, RAID0,1,0+1,5 |
The majority of the specification is courtesy of the nForce 570 SLI MCP. Notice the presence of just one ATA133 channel, such is the trend with the latest generation of chipsets. Perhaps we can soon wave goodbye to those ribbon cables? If you count up the number of PCI and PCIe slots, you'll reach six. The ATX spec allows for seven. Flick over to the next page to see if we can determine a reason for this.