ECS NF650iSLIT-A (V1.0) Motherboard Review

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Thinking about upgrading, but on a budget? Well I may have the solution for you! We’ve been hearing wonderful things about the Nvidia 650i chipset, and ECS has sent me over their latest motherboard based on the 650i chipset, the ECS NF650iSLIT-A (V1.0). This board offers some great bang for the buck, and offers a nice path for upgrading with support for the latest Intel Quad Core CPUs as well. I’ll be honest I’m an AMD fanboy, and my SKT 939 AMD X2 dual core rig has served me well, but it was about time to upgrade. So, herein lies more than a review of the ECS NF650iSLIT-A motherboard, but also the comparison with that setup as well to see just how much of a performance bump I get, with not only the upgraded motherboard but upgrading to an Intel Core2Duo E6420 CPU as well. Read on to learn what I learned and see a great performing motherboard that comes in at a low-budget price…

ECS NF650iSLIT-A (V1.0) Motherboard Review

Reviewed by: Kristofer Brozio

Sponsor: ECS Elite Group

Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:

ECS NF650iSLIT-A (V1.0) Motherboard

ECS NF650iSLIT-A features Core 2 Extreme(FSB1333Mhz OC)/Core 2 Quad processor support, and brings the most significant overclocking performance to the enthusiastic users.

Features:

Windows Vista Ready

The latest generation Microsoft O.S., delivers better personal productivity and digital entertainment on your PC through its improved reliability, security, and performance.

WHQL

WHQL certificate processing now

Core 2 Quad

The new Core2 Quad processor combines two dual-core chips in a single package that plugs into a single chip socket. It enables even more multitasking with greater performance.

FSB1333 

Supports the latest 1333MHz front side bus IntelProcessor

Core 2 Extreme

With the Core 2 processor family, the extreme version gets a higher clock speed, larger caches and a faster FSB. The high-end processor features the latest arsenal of performance-rich technologies.

Over-Clocking

Maximizes your system performance by selecting over clocking options

ROHS

8 Channel High Definition Audio

8 Channel High Definition Audio

Gigabit LAN

Gigabit LAN supporting a high transfer rate up to 1 Gb/s.

RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 

Supports RAID 0(Striped disk array), RAID 1(Mirroring disk array), RAID 0+1(A mirror of stripes), RAID 5(Block Interleaved Distributed Parity). Provides users the performance and protection.

Dual Channel DDR2 800

Doubles the bandwidth of your system memory up to 12.8GB/s and pumps up the system performance.

Serial-ATA 2

Double bus bandwidth which provides blazingly high disk performance, ensuring your computing experience will be faster, more reliable, and completely with current and future hardware and software.

LGA775 

Supports LGA775 Intel Pentium 4 Processor with HT Technology.

64bit support 

Allows platforms to access more memory and larger files. Large memory intensive applications, such as audio and video encoding, complex engineering programs and games, can see dramatic performance increases.

Dualcore

Dual-core is basically two separate processors on a single chip. Those two processors can outperform single-core processors on most multithreaded applications while running at lower clock speeds and consuming less power.

high-speed USB 2.0

Delivers transfer speeds up to 480Mb/s for easy connectivity and ultra-fast data transfers

Specifications:

CPU:

  • LGA775 socket for Intel Core2 Extreme/Core2 Quad/Core2 Duo /Pentium 4 / Pentium D Processors
  • FSB 1333(OC)/800/667/533 MHz
  • Support Hyper-Threading Technology

CHIPSET:

  • NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI
  • North Bridge: NVIDIA C55
  • South Bridge: NVIDIA MCP51

MEMORY

Dual-channel DDR2 memory architecture

4 x 240-pin DDR2 DIMM socket support up to 32GB

  • (Due to the DRAM maximum size is 2GB at present, the memory maximum size we have tested is

  • 8GB)

Support DDR2 800/667/533 MHz DDR2 Memory

EXPANSION SLOT:

  • 2 x PCI Express x16 slot (SLI mode: x8+x8, single PCI-E is x8 mode)
  • 2 x PCI Express x1 slots
  • 3 x PCI slots

STORAGE: 

  • Supported by NVIDIA MCP51
  • 4 x Ultra DMA133/100/66 devices
  • 4 x Serial ATA2 devices
  • NVIDIA MediaShield RAID supports RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 and JBOD

AUDIO:

  • Realtek ALC883 support Intel 8-ch HD Audio
  • Compliant with HD specification

LAN:

Marvell 88E1116 Gigabit LAN PHY

REAR PANEL I/O:

  • 1 x PS/2 keyboard & PS/2 mouse connectors
  • 4 x USB ports
  • 1 x RJ45 LAN connector
  • 1 x Serial port (COM1)
  • 1 x Audio port (Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in,Center/Bass,Surround,Side surround)
  • 2 x Digital SPDIF (Optical & Coaxial) out

INTERNAL I/O CONNECTORS & HEADERS:

  • 1 x 24-pin ATX Power Supply connector
  • 1 x 4-pin ATX 12V connector
  • 1 x Auxiliary 4-pin +12V connector
  • 1 x Speaker header
  • 2 x IDE connectors
  • 1 x FDD connector
  • 4 x Serial ATA connectors
  • 2 x USB 2.0 headers support additional 4 USB Ports
  • 1 x Front panel switch/LED header
  • 1 x Front panel audio header
  • CD in header
  • CPUFAN/NBFAN/SYSFAN/CASFAN connectors

SYSTEM BIOS:

Award BIOS with 4Mb Flash ROM

Supports Plug and Play 1.0A, APM 1.2, Multi Boot, DMI

Supports ACPI revision 1.0 specification

FORM FACTOR: ATX Size 305mm*244mm