Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939 - nForce3 And 1394b
Board Revision: n/a
BIOS Version: F6
The second board from Gigabyte also arrived too late, and therefore did not contain the actual standard package. The K8NSNXP-939 is based on the nForce3 Ultra, so it is an AGP board, and comes with a total of five PCI slots.
In terms of hardware design, Gigabyte offers nearly as much here as the K8NXP-9, except for the extra SATA-RAID controller. Since the nForce3 only has two ports for SATA devices, Gigabyte planted a Sil3512 on the board so that it can at least offer four.
Here, too, we have two network connections, one of which is Gigabit-compatible. The obligatory sound system is included, as are DualBIOS and DPS - although in this case, DPS gets by without an extra module and is integrated directly onto the board instead. We liked the two FireWire chips; as is the case with the PCIe board, one is 1394a while the other handles 1394b. It's a pricey extra, but FireWire b is unique in being able to handle external hard drives without bottlenecks.
