Epox Computer yesterday introduced the EP-8NPA SLI motherboard, which features Nvidia's nForce4 SLI (scalable link interface) dual-graphics chipset and is the world’s first SLI motherboard for the AMD Socket-754 platform, claims the company.
In the SLI motherboard market, most consumers buy a Socket-939 board plus a 6600TD or 6600GT graphics card, according to the company. Epox said that the 8NPA SLI provides the opportunity of saving on the cost of the CPU and instead upgrade the graphics card for better 3D performance.
Besides standard SLI specifications, the EP-8NPA SLI is also the first 754 motherboard to support SATA2 with RAID.
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Epox EP-8NPA SLI motherboard | |
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Item |
Detail |
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Photo |
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CPU socket |
Socket-754 Athlon 64/ Semporn up to 3700+ with 1.6GTs HyperTransport processor |
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Chipset |
Nvidia nForce4 SLI |
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System memory |
Two 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM memory slots, single/double-sided 2.5v DDR-333/400 DIMMs in 128/256/512Mb technologies (for up to 2GB) |
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Expansion slots |
Two PCI compliant with PCI v2.2, two PCIe x1 compliant with PCI e 1.0a, two PCIe x16 compliant with PCIe 1.0a to support SLI technology (without SLI MXM connector) |
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Connectors |
Ten USB ports, two IDE ports (up to 4 IDE devices), four SATA2 ports |
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Audio |
2/6-CH audio from onboard RealTek ALC65X AC¡¦97 v2.3 compliant CODEC |
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LAN |
1Gb Ethernet from onboard VITESS VSC8201RX Gigabit Ethernet PHY |
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Form factor |
ATX: 305x225x40mm |
Source: Company, compiled by DigiTimes, September 2005