Today?s Socket AM2 Mainboards

In this chapter we are going to introduce to you those mainboards that were used in our ongoing test session of the ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200 and Nvidia nForce 590 SLI chipsets.

ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200 Based Mainboard: Sturgeon

To test the ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200 features ATI Technologies provided us with a reference mainboard known under the codename of Sturgeon.

Although we try to avoid testing reference mainboards in our lab, because they usually have very little to do with what the end-user is going to get from the store, we made an exception for Sturgeon. The thing is that this fish will most likely surface in the market as a Sapphire product very soon.

The features of ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200 chipset have been expanded with two additional PCI Express Serial ATA II RAID controllers SiI3132 that add another four Serial ATA II ports to the already existing four, with a Marvell Yukon PCI Express gigabit network controller, and an IEEE1394 controller. Moreover, the mainboard also features a fully-functional POST controller with a two-digit POST codes indicator.

The mainboard carries 2 fully-fledged PCI Express x16 slots, two PCI Express x1 slots and a PCI slot. It is interesting that the primary PCI Express x16 slot is not really close to the chipset, but has been moved to the left side of the mainboard PCB instead. When you install a graphics card with a dual-clot cooling system into it, you will no longer be able to use the only PCI slot on the mainboard.

As for the mainboard design in general, it has a few very unpleasant drawbacks, unfortunately. In particular, the location of the SATA ports is not very convenient, as they have been placed on the left-hand side of the PCB. Also, the BIOS Setup jumper that serves to reset the BIOS settings is in a very hard to reach place: it sits in front of the PCI Express x16 slot, so you will have hard times reaching for it if there is a graphics card with a massive cooler onboard.

For testers?convenience ATI provided its Sturgeon mainboard with two micro-buttons: PowerOn and Reset. Also, the mainboard has a lot of diagnostic LEDs not only indicating the powering status of different mainboard knots but also showing the activity on the Serial ATA controllers. Sturgeon has another interesting peculiarity, which we haven?t yet seen in our lab before: the PCB has several rubber pads on the reverse side, so that you can put it on the desk without damaging the polished surface :)

The CPU voltage regulator on ATI Sturgeon mainboard is designed according to four-channel schematics. All MOSFETs in this regulator are equipped with passive heatsinks. The capacitors come from the Japanese Nichicon Company and are among the best quality ones out there.

The chipset North and South Bridges are covered with pretty simple passive aluminum heatsinks to better dissipate the heat. They are more than enough, since the RD580 and SB600 are manufactured with 0.11micron technology and hence dissipate very little heat. It is one of the trumps of the new ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200 that can be used in quiet and economical systems.