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http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=6073Quote:
Rather than being based on the highest-performing nForce 590 SLI chipset, this board utilises the nForce 570 SLI, which NVIDIA categorise as being best-suited to "performance gaming" rather than "enthusiast" usage.
Good read but a shame that there was no real overclocking.
Anandtech have had 2 different 570 boards top out ~ 316-318 & hypothesised that they are being limited somehow so as not to reach the same levels as 590s.
Will be interesting to see if that proves to be the case.
I hear you with respect to overclocking. We'll see what we can do about that for future reviews, especially those involving 570 SLI chipsets.
"We feel that a bit more thought (and money) could be spent on the chipset and VRM cooling for this board. It doesn't need to cost a fortune or make a complete racket, but we'd be happier if the heatsinks weren't quite as hot to the touch."
Firat of all, I don't envy your job in testing Motherboards. All you can really test is some performance things that are very undifferentiated across similar types of board, look at the BIOS to see what goodies there are on offer, and make some comments about the board layout and the bundle. Usually you are on an early release of the BIOS code so have little idea of what its real quality will be when generally available, etc.
This means you don't get to test what I find is one of the most important aspects of a MOBO - how reliable is it going to be? What is it going to be like after a year of having dust sucked across it? Do the ethernet ports pack up and die after a month? etc etc.
Chipset cooling is one of those things that are hard to judge. What gives better reliability - passive or fan cooling? The passively cooled ones like this one do tend to get very hot, but does this impact reliability worse than having a very small heatsink with a fan? In my experience with fans, the little suckers run a horribly high speeds and are prone to failure. Maybe you are better off with a setup like this that hits 90 degrees normally, as opposed to a setup that runs at 80 degrees when the fan is working but hits 100+ degrees when the fan fails or goes slow..... Personally I'd take the passive option for preference.
--miw