Abit SLI Motherboard Showcase
Intro, Specs & Bundle: NI8 SLI
NVIDIA's two-chip nForce 4 SLI Intel Edition chipset is at the heart of Abit's NI8 SLI motherboard. The NI8 SLI is for LGA775 single or dual-core Pentium processors, and requires DDR2 RAM. Other than support for different processors and the different memory requirements though, the feature set of the nForce 4 SLI Intel Edition used on the NI8 SLI remains largely unchanged from the AMD version of the chipset used on the Fatal1ty AN8 SLI. The two motherboards are quite different, however, as you'll see on the next few pages.
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| Processor ·_Supports Socket 775 for Intel Pentium 4 / Pentium 4 EE / Pentium D / Pentium XE / Celeron D processors ·_Supports 1066/800MHz FSB ·_Supports Intel Hyper-Threading / XD-bit / EM64T Technology Chipset ·_NVIDIA C19/ MCP-04 ·_NVIDIA Gigabit Ethernet with NVIDIA Firewall ·_Supports NV SATA 3G RAID NVIDIA SLI Technology ·_Two PCI-Express X16 slots support NVIDIA Scalable Link Interface Memory ·_Four 240-pin DIMM sockets ·_Supports dual channel DDR2 667 non-ECC un-buffered memory ·_Supports maximum memory capacity up to 8GB ABIT Engineered ·_ABIT uGuru Technology ·_ABIT Q-OTES Technology ·_ABIT AudioMAX Technology ·_ABIT CPU ThermalGuard Technology NV SATA RAID ·_Serial ATA 3Gbps data transfer rate ·_Supports SATA RAID 0/1/0+1 2nd SATA RAID ·_Serial ATA 3Gbps by Sil 3132 PCIE controller ·_Supports SATA RAID 0/1 NCQ NV GbE LAN ·_NVIDIA Gigabit Ethernet ·_NVIDIA Secure Networking Engine |
NV Firewall ·_Native NVIDIA Firewall ABIT AudioMAX ·_High quality 7.1 channel Audio Solution ·_Optical S/P DIF Input/Output ·_Supports auto jack sensing Internal I/O Connectors ·_2 x PCI Express X16 ·_2 x PCI Express X1 ·_2 x PCI slots ·_1 x AudioMAX ·_Floppy Port supports up to 2.88MB ·_2 x Ultra DMA 133/100/66/33 IDE Connectors ·_6 x SATA 3G Connectors ·_3 x USB headers Back Panel I/O ·_ABIT Q-OTES ·_1 x PS/2 Keyboard ·_1 x PS/2 mouse ·_4 x USB, 1 x RJ-45 LAN Connector Dimension ·_ATX form factor 305 x 245mm Accessories ·_ABIT AudioMAX Card ·_SLI Connector Bridge ·_SLI Switch ·_SATA cable x 4 ·_ATA 100 IDE Cable x 1 ·_FDD cable x 1 ·_USB Bracket ·_I/O shield x 1 ·_CD Title x 1, SATA Utility Disk x 1 ·_User's Manual x 1, Quick Installation Guide x 1 ·_Jumper Setting Label x 1 |
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The NI8 SLI's accessory bundle is not quite as exciting as the Fatal1ty AN8 SLI's, but all of the necessities are there, and then some. Included with the board, we found two very complete user's manuals (one for the board, the other for its proprietary software), a quick installation guide, and a case sticker that highlights the board's various headers and connectors. There were also a couple of floppies included with NVIDIA and Silicon Image RAID drivers, and a driver / utility CD that contained chipset drivers and all of the same proprietary application we talked about in regard to the Fatal1ty AN8 SLI's bundle (AbitEQ, OC Guru, FlashMenu, BlackBox, and Guru Clock).
On the hardware front, the same AudioMax 7.1 channel rise card mentioned earlier was also included with the NI8 SLI (Realtek ALC850), along with six SATA cables, black floppy and IDE cables, a custom I/O shield, and an SLI bridge connector and retention bracket.
