NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Edition Chipset Review :: Conclusion

It seems that now both Intel and AMD have a new threat lurking in the form of NVIDIA Corporation's new chipset. Intel's chipset division will take a hit in the desktop arena as more sales go to NVIDIA based motherboards, and AMD, well now they have to compete on equal ground in the SLI arena, this being a market they totally dominated until a few days ago. The chipset was both expected and disappointing in the same breath as it has all the great features offered on their nForce4 platform for AMD, which is great, but I was expecting something other than RAID 5 capability as an advancement or new feature. Do not get me wrong here there is absolutely nothing wrong in any way with this new platform, that is why I say Intel and AMD will both take a market loss somewhere as the chipset, but myself being the picky person I am, I just expected something new. Their on-board sound is blasé and even though I have talked to them about this their feeling are on-board sound is obsolete and we all are going to just go buy a Creative labs card. My point right back is, why cannot a board be fully featured and fleshed out with awesome sound capabilities so that the entire board is enthusiast geared.

After all, if NVIDIA is now even having limited partnership with the boys at Intel why not now make the next step on their next generation board. They should now implement the sound environment coming out on Intel's new i955 platform, as it will offer ADAT functionality and Sonic Focus technology, taking sound, not just on-board sound, but PC audio for home entertainment to a new level. Fans of the Intel CPU overclocker's club will be happy in most respects as overclocking within the BIOS works very well if you watch your memory speeds and just slowly, increase the systems clock and memory speed. As always I must point out that, no two results are ever, exactly the same. The reasons for this variable are many, especially when one CPU does not perform the same as another or the bandwidth limitations on various sticks of memory change from stick to stick.

The nForce4 Intel Edition SLI board in my humble opinion behaves and performs a lot like the Intel 925XE series boards with essentially the same headroom for overclocking as many of the enthusiast based boards currently available fir the LGA775 platform. I am sure as this chipset matures and relations between the Intel giant and NVIDIA improve we will se significant changes in the nForce4 SLI Intel Edition. Things like supporting the new Dual-Core CPUs from Intel are already underway and within a very short time, we will see nforce4 boards supporting that processor series. All in all NVIDIA has come a long way, from their roots in VGA cards to the first GPU, and now support for Intel and AMD to boot. The new nForce4 SLI Intel Edition has what it takes to please even the most demanding user, whether it be gamer, enthusiast or your average Joe. It looks to me like the sky is the limit for these folks now, and that is good for us as well as competition breeds superior products. A special thanks to Mr. Del Rizzo and Mr. Burke of NVIDIA for their continued support. Thanks Guys! You have a winner here!

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