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The motherboard

Gigabyte attempted to cram every feature in the book to this motherboard, and it's interesting to see how they did it. Most prominent is obviously the CPU socket. Needless to say, the heatsink retention scheme looks a bit different from the Socket A one (and quite frankly, looks a lot like the P4 retention bracket). For many AMD loyalists looking to upgrade to the Athlon 64 platform, this will involve *gasp* a new CPU heatsink installation method (three cheers for no more slipping screwdrivers).

Also of note is the nVidia chip. For the nForce3 150, nVidia decided to go with a single-chip solution, a la the SiS 735 chipset. Why? Mainly because the memory controller (one of the main functions of the northbridge) is now on the Athlon 64 CPU, relegating the northbridge to nothing more than an AGP controller. By fusing the north and southbridges, nVidia could free up space on the motherboard and potentially lower latency by removing the need to have an interconnect between the two chips. Cost reduction probably figured quite prominently in this design decision as well. The chip is actively cooled as it is more than just a lowly southbridge.

The K8NNXP has 3 DIMM slots for unbuffered DDR 266/333/400. Obviously if you want to maximize performance, we highly suggest running low latency DDR400 sticks. However, unlike the Athlon FX version and the nForce2, the Socket 754 Athlon 64s are single-channel only, which means you don't have to worry about buying matching sticks (obviously the performance takes a bit of a hit, but that can't be helped and according to benchmarks elsewhere on the net, the hit is quite small). There is about an inch of room between the DIMM clips (half an inch when opened) and our GeForce FX 5900 Ultra (which is very long and blocks the DIMM clips of many other motherboards). This obviously eases installation as it does not require you to remove the AGP card before installing or removing your memory. It is nice to see manufacturers taking note of layout problems in previous iterations of motherboards and taking steps necessary to correct them instead of just glossing over something like this.

Rock-stable power supply

The K8NNXP adds another feature not found on 95% of most Athlon XP motherboards - a 4-pin 12v square plug that feeds the motherboard with additional power that the 20-pin ATX connector is unable to supply. This feature has been around since the release of the P4, and it's only been 3 years before AMD finally started using the extra power too.

In addition to the extra power connector, another major selling point for Gigabyte is the DPS, or Dual Power System. By adding a PCI card wannabe to the blue slot above the CPU retention bracket, the motherboard suddenly becomes a motherboard with dual 3-phase power supplies. The extra power supposedly generates a lot of heat, as the card has to be actively cooled with a 40 mm fan.

As you can see, the fan is pretty thick, and does add to the overall noise level. However, the motherboard works fine with 'just' the 3-phase power supply, and is able to run benchmarks with and without the dual power system. We haven't been able to make the system crash, and that's a good thing. However, we do suggest using it, if only for the peace of mind you get when using it (whether or not it works as advertised is an entirely different matter, but hey its included with the box and the LED looks snazzy).

The ATX connector is located at the far right edge of the motherboard, which is significantly better than having it hang over or around the CPU heatsink. Unfortunately, I can't say the same thing for the 4-pin 12 volt plug, which will inevitably hang between a rock (the wire chewing DPS system) and a hard place (the scalding heatsink metal).