NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI for AMD Round Up: GIGABYTE, MSI and ASUS

Name: NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI for AMD Round Up: GIGABYTE, MSI and ASUS - Page 3
Brand: NVIDIA

by Jeff Bouton — Monday, October 23, 2006, 12:00 PM EDT

Specifications and Retail Package - ASUS M2N32 WS Pro

ASUS M2N32 WS Pro Motherboard - Specifications and Retail Package

Storage Is What It's All About

CPU
Support AMD Socket AM2 Athlon 64 X2 / Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64/ Sempron
- AMD Cool 'n' Quiet Technology
- AMD64 architecture enables simultaneous 32-bit and 64-bit computing

Chipset
NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP (NVIDIA LinkBoost Technology, NVIDIA Tritium Technology certified)
- North bridge: NVIDIA C51XE
- South bridge: NVIDIA MCP55PXE
PCI-X bridge: NEC uPD720404

Front Side Bus
2000/1600 MT/s

Memory
Dual channel memory architecture
- 4 x DIMM, max. 8GB, DDR2-800/667/533, ECC and non-ECC, un-buffered memory

Expansion Slots
2 x PCI Express x16 slot with NVIDIA SLI technology support, at full x16, x16 speed
2 x PCI-X
2 x PCI-E x 1
1 x PCI 2.2

SLI
Support two identical NVIDIA SLI-Ready graphics cards (both at x16 mode)

Storage

NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP supports:
- 6 x SATA 3 Gb/s
- 1 x UltraDMA 133/100
- NVIDIA MediaShield RAID: RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 and JBOD span cross Serial ATA drives
Marvell 88SE614x:
- 4 x SATA 3 Gb/s (3x SATA; 1x eSATA)
- 1 x UltraDMA 100

Audio
ADI 1988B 8-channel High Definition Audio CODEC
- Support Jack-Sensing, Enumeration, Multi-streaming and Jack-Retasking
- Coaxial, Optical S/PDIF out on back I/O port

TPM Module
Optional

LAN
2 x Marvell 88E1116 PHY
- Firewall function
- Support Teaming functions

USB
10 USB 2.0 ports

IEEE 1394a
TI 1394 controller supports 2 x 1394a ports

Advanced Thermal Design
8-Phase Power Design
Stack Cool 2
Q-Fan 2
ASUS Heat-pipe thermal solution

ASUS AI Lifestyle Features
Multi-language BIOS
SATA on the Go
AI Nap
AI Gear
My Logo 3

Manageability
WOL by PME, WOR by PME, PXE, AI NET2, Chassis Intrusion

Special Features
ASUS AI NOS
AI Overclocking
AI Clock Skew
ASUS PEG Link
Hyper Path 3
ASUS BIOS Profile
ASUS C.P.R.
ASUS AI Booster
Adjustable FSB/DDR2 ratio. Fixed PCI/PCIe frequencies.
Precision Tweaker:
- vDIMM: 25-step DRAM voltage control
- vCore: Adjustable CPU voltage at 0.0125V increment
- SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection): allowing FSB tuning from 200MHz up to 400MHz at 1MHz increment
- PCIe x16 Frequency: allowing PCIe x16 frequency from 100MHz up to 200MHz at 1MHz increment

Other ASUS Special Features
ASUS AI NET2
CrashFree BIOS 3
EZ Flash 2
Q-Connector
ASUS AI Quiet

Back Panel I/O Ports
Parallel
8-channel Audio ports
1 x External SATA
2 x RJ45
4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
1 x Optical + 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Output
1 x PS/2 Mouses port
1 x PS/2 Keyboard port

Internal I/O Connectors
6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
8-pin ATX 2.0/1.1
Chassis intrusion connector
System panel connector
2 x IDE connector
1 x Floppy disk drive connector
9 x Serial ATA connectors
CD audio in
2 x IEEE 1394a port
Front Panel Audio connector
1 x CPU / 4 x Chassis / 1 x Power Fan connectors

BIOS
8Mb AWARD BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.3

Support CD
Drivers
BIOS flash utility under DOS
ASUS PC Probe II
ASUS Update
Anti-Virus Software
Adobe Acrobat Reader ver 7.0
ASUS AI utility
Microsoft Direct X ver 9.0C

Accessories
User's manual
UltraDMA cable
FDD cable
2-port USB module
2-port 1394a module
I/O shield
SATA cable
SATA power cable
Media Launcher
ASUS Q-Connector Kit (USB, 1394, System panel)

Form Factor
ATX Form Factor, 12"x 9.6"(30.5cm x 24.5cm)

The retail bundle that accompanies the M2N32 WS Professional motherboard was a bit more comprehensive than the GIGABYTE GA-M59SLI-S5, leaving little left to desire. ASUS included an ample supply of data cabling, totaling 9 SATA cables, one IDE and one Floppy ribbon cable. There are also three Molex to SATA power adapters that convert a single Molex connection into two SATA power connectors. A flexible SLI connector was provided as well as an ASUS Q-Connector kit, which takes all of the case connections (Power SW, HD LED, etc) and connects them to a pin block that matches up to the headers on the main board. This makes it much easier to connect the cabling without trying to identify each header on the board.

ASUS also provides a two port USB module and two port FireWire module, which, when installed, raise the external USB ports to six while adding two FireWire. The Support CD is also packed with software, including all necessary drivers and various ASUS utilities, such as ASUS PC Probe II, ASUS Update and ASUS AI utility. Rounding out the package was WinDVD Suite Enhanced, which offers a number of InterVideo titles, such as WinDVD Creator, InterVideo PhotoAlbum, Disc Master 2.5 Platinum and DVD Copy 2.5 Platinum. All software is coded so that it will only function on ASUS based hardware.