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• MSI P6N SLI Platinum Motherboard (Core 2... (10 offers) Online shop Price See more products Most of the boards in this comparison sacrifice either features or connectors in an attempt to keep cost reasonable, but what happens when a company wants to offer everything for a modest price increase? MSI provides an answer in its P6N SLI Platinum. Features Overview Packing a mid-priced board with features isn't likely to result in a "clean, efficient" design, but careful planning allowed MSI to fit the majority of these into logical locations. It's not like the company added unwanted extra components: Instead, it kept all the expected features and connectors that other companies often remove to maintain low cost. The first middle road taken by MSI is its four-phase voltage regulator, similar to those found in the ECS and Abit samples. By comparison, the P5N-E SLI has only three phases, while the Gigabyte provides six. Overclocking stability tests will prove this design's ultimate worth. Stepping above most of the competition is MSI's selection of solid capacitors in all locations on this board, a move towards stability and longevity matched only by Gigabyte in this comparison. Only six of the possible seven slot positions are useful, but the slot MSI eliminated would often be blocked by a graphics card cooler anyway. One PCI-Express x1 and three PCI slots take care of the majority of configuration needs, while the two PCI-Express x16 slots can be set to one x16 pathway or two x8 pathways via a selector card between them. Both Ultra ATA connectors are located above the center of the P6N SLI Platinum's leading edge for easy cable routing to upper drive bays, and four Serial ATA connectors are lined up just above the lower graphics card slot so as to fit between the oversized coolers of two large graphics cards. The 24-pin ATX power connector's upper front edge location is also nearly ideal for use in traditional tower case designs. Cable routing difficulties include a floppy and front panel cable connectors near the front and rear of the bottom edge and an 8-pin ATX12V header below the rear corner of the CPU cooler location. The floppy connector location is still a bit better than three of the other boards in this comparison, though the front panel audio connector's extremely remote placement is matched by only one. The ATX12V connector might be easier to reach for cases that have the power supply beneath the board, but will force builders using traditional cases to rout the cable over or around the CPU cooler. Heatpipes join the Southbridge, Northbridge, and a partial VRM sink, allowing various CPU coolers to be somewhat effective at reducing heat in an already good design. Builders needing additional chipset cooling will find an add-on Northbridge fan in the box. MSI P6N SLI Platinum (Revision 1.0) Northbridge NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI (C55 SPP) Southbridge nF430 (MCP51) Voltage Regulator Four Phases BIOS 1.1 (03/06/2007) 266.7 MHz (FSB1066) 266.7 MHz (+0.0%) Connectors and Interfaces Onboard 2x PCIe x16 (1x x16 or 2x x8 pathways) 1x PCIe x1 3x PCI 2x USB 2.0 (2 ports per connector) 1x IEEE-1394 FireWire 1x Floppy 2x Ultra ATA 4x Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s 1x Serial Port Header 1x Front Panel Audio 1x CD Audio In 1x Fan 4 pins (CPU) 3x Fan 3 pins (System) 1x Power LED IO panel 2x PS2 (keyboard + mouse) 1x RJ-45 Network 4x USB 2.0 1x IEEE-1394 FireWire 2x Digital Audio Out (S/P-DIF optical, coaxial) 5x Analog Audio (7.1 Channel + Mic-In or Line-In) 1x eSATA (External Serial ATA) interface Mass Storage Controllers MCP51 4x SATA 3.0Gb/s (RAID 0,1,5,10 capable) 2x Ultra ATA-133 (4-drives) Silicon Image SIL3531 1x eSATA 3.0Gb/s Network NVIDIA Gigabit Network 1x Realtek RTL8211BL PHY Audio HDA (Azalia) Controller Interface Realtek ALC888 7.1 Codec FireWire VIA VT6308P 2x IEEE-1394a (400 Mbit/s) The P6N SLI Platinum keeps most of the useful controllers and rear panel ports, using the midrange ALC888 codec rather than the old ALC883 found on a few others. Connected to five of the needed six analog audio jacks, 7.1-channel analog configurations will limit the fifth jack to either Microphone or Line-In functions, not both. MSI puts the digital optical audio output where the sixth analog connection might have gone on other motherboards. The back panel also features a digital coaxial audio output, eSATA, IEEE-1394 FireWire, RJ-45 network and four USB 2.0 ports, PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports and a parallel port.

• ECS P45T-A (Revision 1.0) Northbridge Intel P45 Express Southbridge Intel ICH10R Voltage Regulator Four Phases BIOS 080015 (07/22/2008) 333.3 MHz (FSB1333) 332.9 MHz (-0.13%) Clock Generator IC2 9LPRS926EGLF Connectors and Interfaces Onboard 2x PCIe 2.0 x16 (Modes : One x16 or Two x8) 2x PCIe x1 2x PCI 3x USB 2.0 (2 ports per connector) 1x Floppy 1x Ultra ATA (2 drives) 6x Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s 1x Front Panel Audio 1x CD-Audio In 2x Fan 4 pins (CPU) 1x Fan 3 pins (Chassis) 1x Internal Power Button 1x Internal Reset Button IO panel 2x PS2 (keyboard + mouse ) 1x Serial Communications Port 1x External SATA 6x USB 2.0 1x RJ-45 Network 6x Analog Audio Jacks (8-ch out, Mic+Line In) Mass Storage Controllers Intel ICH10R 6x SATA 3.0Gb/s (RAID 0,1,5,10) JMicron JMB361 PCI-E 1x Ultra ATA-133 (2-drives) 1x External SATA 3.0Gb/s Network Atheros AR8121 PCI-E Gigabit LAN Connection Audio Realtek ALC883 HD Audio Codec 7.1 + 2 channel Multi-Streaming Output Like the Biostar TP45 HP, the ECS P45T-A uses only four of the chipset’s six PCI Express lanes to support two onboard controllers and two x1 slots. ECS chooses the RAID-capable ICH10R however, getting another leg up on at least one competitor. ECS’s single eSATA port gives it a lead over Biostar and ASRock products, but lacks the IEEE-1394 FireWire controller and digital audio connectors offered by ASRock. The legacy serial communications port of the P45T-A is out-of-place on any modern motherboard, but the six analog audio connections are still viable. JMicron’s JMB361 controls the Ultra ATA 133 and eSATA ports, using a PCI Express interface to support up to 250MB/s bi-directionally. The tiny Atheros AR8121 Gigabit Network controller also uses PCI Express for peak performance. Realtek’s ALC883 is rated at a reasonable 95db signal-to-noise ratio, and we’ll try to confirm that rating in our audio quality tests.

• ECS X48T-A (Revision 1.0) Northbridge Intel X48 Express MCH Southbridge Intel ICH9R Voltage Regulator Six Phases BIOS 04/28/2008 333.3 MHz (FSB1333) 332.9 MHz (-0.13%) Clock Generator ICS 9LPRS926EGLF Connectors and Interfaces Onboard 2x PCIe x16 (Modes: Two x16: One x4/x1) 2x PCIe x1 2x PCI 3x USB 2.0 (2 ports per connector) 1x Floppy 1x Ultra ATA (2 drives) 6x Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s 1x Front Panel Audio 1x CD-Audio In 1x IrDA 1x Fan 4 pins (CPU) 1x Fan 3 pins (Chassis) IO panel 2x PS2 (keyboard + mouse ) 1x Serial Port 2x Digital Audio Out (S/P-DIF Coaxial, Optical) 1x Digital Audio In (S/P-DIF Coaxial) 6x USB 2.0 1x External SATA 2x RJ-45 Network 5x Analog Audio (7.1 or 5.1 ch. out, 2 or 4 ch. in) Mass Storage Controllers Intel ICH9R 6x SATA 3.0Gb/s (RAID 0,1,5,10) JMicron JMB361 PCI-E 1x Ultra ATA-133 (2-drives) 1x External SATA 3.0Gb/s Network Intel 82566DC (GLCI) PHY Gigabit LAN Connection Realtek RTL8111B PCI-E Gigabit LAN Connection Audio Realtek ALC888S HD Audio Codec 7.1 + 2 channel Multi-Streaming Output What’s missing from the onboard device list? High-end buyers have come to expect IEEE-1394 FireWire controllers, yet most don’t have any devices to connect to these. Designed for high-bandwidth peripherals, the most frequently found devices that still use these connectors are Sony video cameras. If you ever need one of these ports you’ll regret not having it, but most users never require them. With FireWire not included, ECS instead provides a legacy serial port to fill the empty space on its port panel. We’d have preferred a second External SATA port (eSATA) instead, but ECS chose to use JMicron’s single-SATA plus Ultra ATA model JMB361 controller, rather than the more frequently picked JMB363. One nice added feature of the X48T-A is its digital audio input, which we’ve not seen on many boards recently. The digital output is provided with both coaxial and optical connectors. Five analog audio jacks support 5.1 surround plus microphone and line inputs, but 7.1 surround can be configured by disabling one of the inputs. This isn’t a significant loss, since the average user will employ the front panel header for their microphone. Rated at a 97db signal-to-noise ratio, the ALC888S provides a total of 10 analog output channels. Users can output 7.1 surround signals to speakers while listening to a separate stream through their headphones. ECS uses Intel’s high-end 82566DC GLCY PHY to access the ICH9R integrated gigabit networking capability, which is usually a smart move to conserve PCI-Express lanes. It appears, however, that the X48T-A actually has extra lanes left over. The second Gigabit Ethernet port is provided by Realtek’s RTL8111B PCI-Express controller chip. Between this controller, the Ultra ATA/eSATA controller and the two x1 slots; only four of the ICH9R’s six available PCI-Express lanes are used.