Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2004/10/25/elitegroup_nforce4_mobo/

ECS unveils nForce 4 Ultra board

Extra SATA, Gigabit Ethernet, audio thrown in

By Tony Smith

Posted in Personal Tech, 25th October 2004 13:29 GMT

Elitegroup today launched a motherboard based on Nvidia's nForce 4 Ultra chipset and geared toward Socket 939 Athlon 64 CPUs.

The KN1 Extreme provides PCI Express support for regular add-in cards and graphics boards. It also offers Serial ATA with RAID, adding a second, SiS-derived controller to the four-drive controller within the Nvidia chipset. That adds support for two further Serial ATA drives, taking the total to ten. The Nvidia controller supports 3Gbps Serial ATA 2 units.

Similarly, Elitegroup has added a second Gigabit Ethernet controller, joining the nForce 4 integrated LAN adaptor. Audio comes courtesy of a Realtek six-channel sub-system which drives both optical and co-ax SPDIF outputs. That's in addition to the nForce's own AC97 audio support.

Elitegroup also said it would ship the board with support for 24-pin power connectors. "The power supply capacitors and Mosfets can lose performance when they get hot," the company said, "so ECS covers these components with a duct for cooling air with a vent through the I/O panel where you would usually find the legacy Parallel port."

The KN1 ships at the end of November. Elitegroup did not provide pricing information. ®

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