AMD is introducing Socket AM2 together with Nvidia's new Nforce5 chipset. Compared to its predecessor Nforce4, Nvidia has armed its latest model with brand-new functions.

Block diagram of the Nforce5 chipset

The Nforce5 chipset
IDE Controller
Nvidia has overhauled the IDE controller in three important respects. It now has six SATA connections, but loses one IDE port. This means you can only use two parallel ATA (IDE) devices.

The six SATA connections let you connect two more drives.
A special feature is the RAID configuration, allowing you to connect six hard drives to a RAID network, for example. RAID levels 0, 1 and 5 are supported.
Summary
- The AMD Generation Comes Of Age
- New Socket AM2 With DDR2
- Memory Speed: Socket AM2 Vs. Socket 939
- Write Performance
- Write Performance, Continued
- Write Performance, Continued
- Memory Speed: AMD Vs. Intel
- Memory Speed: AMD Vs. Intel, Continued
- The Divider Problem
- DDR2 SLI Memory: 10.3 GB Per Second
- Automatically Overclocking SLI Memory
- Automatically Overclocking SLI Memory, Continued
- All New AM2 Processors
- The New Socket AM2 With 940 Pins
- New Retention Module Requires New Heatsink
- Low Dissipation Guaranteed
- New Energy-efficient Processors
- Heatsinks: Things Gets Louder, Continued
- Features: Virtualization And TCPA
- Price Comparison: AMD More Expensive Than Intel
- Motherboards
- Gigabyte
- Epox
- The New nForce5 Chipset For AM2
- LAN Interface With 2 Gbit/s
- Test Setup
- Benchmarks And Settings
- Benchmarks Socket 939 Vs. Socket AM2
- Games - DirectX
- Games - DirectX, Continued
- Video
- Video, Continued
- Video, Continued
- Video, Continued
- Audio
- Applications
- Applications, Continued
- Applications, Continued
- Multitasking, Continued
- Synthetic Benchmarks
- Synthetic Benchmarks, Continued
- Synthetic Benchmarks, Continued
- Synthetic Benchmarks, Continued
- Synthetic Benchmarks, Continued
- Evaluating The Benchmark Scores
- Athlon 64 X2: Now Somewhat Slower
- Benchmarks AMD Vs. Intel
- Games - DirectX
- Games - DirectX, Continued
- Video, Continued
- Audio
- Applications
- Applications, Continued
- Multitasking
- Synthetic Benchmarks
- Synthetic Benchmarks, Continued
- Synthetic Benchmarks, Continued
- Synthetic Benchmarks, Continued
- Synthetic Benchmarks, Continued
- Synthetic Benchmarks, Continued
- AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 Vs. Intel Extreme Edition 965
- Conclusion: Good Energy Efficiency, But A Bad Value For Money