[H]ard|OCP

Navigation

• [H] Forums
• Archives
• Search
• [H] Folding

GIGABYTE 8KNXP Ultra

The 8KNXP Ultra heads up GIGABYTE’s i875P line of motherboards. Does this board hold its own against other Canterwoods? Or does it really need to?

Introduction

GIGABYTE is well known for their products' speed and stability while operating under normal operating circumstances. The enthusiast market has traditionally not been their strength due to their lack of overclocking offerings overall. Lately, GIGABYTE has tried to widen their market and image to grab their own chunk of the lucrative enthusiast market. They continue this trend with their latest motherboard offering.

The 8KNXP Ultra is GIGABYTE’s star offering based on the i875P chipset. The Intel i875P chipset offers support for the latest Intel 800 MHz FSB processors with Hyper-Threading technology as well as DDR RAM of up to 400 MHz operating in Dual Channel mode. As is common among the i865PE and i875P offerings, the 8KNXP is an all in one solution, designed for high-end power users and workstation type systems. The board includes the following integrated features: 2 ATA-100 IDE ports; 2 ATA-133 IDE ports with built in RAID0, RAID1, and RAID0_1 support; 2 SATA 150 ports with built in RAID0 support; 2 Ultra 320 SCSI ports; integrated Intel PRO/1000CT Ethernet; 8 total USB 2.0 capable ports; 6 channel audio with RCA and S/PDIF digital output; and serial, parallel and PS/2 port support.

Main Specifications Overview:

Detailed Mainboard Specification List:

Board Layout

As you can see, GIGABYTE spared no expense to grab your attention with their colorful sci-fi themed box. The box art just oozes hi-tech, or at the very least a revamped 1950's style of flying saucer.

Inside the box, you find your standard set of cables, brackets, and manuals with a few nice surprises thrown in to the mix. Included are the rear panel shield, 2 SATA cables, a rear audio bracket with S/PDIF input and output connectors as well as center and rear channel speaker connections, a 2 port USB 2.0 bracket, 2 ATA 133 cables, an ATA 100 cable, a floppy cable, and a terminated 4 port Ultra 320 SCSI rounded cable. The rounded SCSI cable is certainly a welcomed surprise and should be noted that they are not inexpensive to purchase either.

As you can see from the abundant feature list above, GIGABYTE obviously worked overtime to fit everything it could on to this board. However, the extensive feature set does make for some fairly tight areas on the board. One thing that stands out with the board is the fact that it has rounded corners, which can be very nice when handling a board this heavy. No cuts or scratches from this board's corners. Notice that the motherboard is a revision 1.0 board. Also note that all capacitors on the board were manufactured by Teapo (Taiwan, China), Nichicon Corporation (Japan, Taiwan), and Sanyo (World-wide).

Unlike the socket orientation on most other i875P based boards, the 8KNXP’s CPU socket is parallel to the DIMM slots. The area around the socket itself is mostly free from capacitors and such with one exception. The upper DIMM slot is extraordinarily close to the bottom of the socket mount. So close, in fact, that you cannot remove a memory stick that is seated in the upper slot with the HSF unit seated on the CPU. Just above the CPU area is the Dual Power System 2 port, which provides a 6 phase power circuit for the CPU when engaged. It also makes it a bit challenging to install and remove the HSF unit on the CPU. To the left of the socket is the Northbridge chipset, sporting a shiny gold colored active cooling unit. The HSF unit itself is held on by push pins, requiring the removal of the board should the need arise to change this unit. Above the Northbridge HSF unit is the ATX12V connector, the CD-IN connector, the S/PDIF I/O header, and the front audio panel header. Note that the rear panel audio ports will not function unless pins 5/6 and 9/10 on the front audio header are jumpered. The positioning of the ATX12V connector is a bit of a mixed bag. The location itself allows for shorter trace routes to the CPU for optimal power distribution. However, you are forced to route the cable around the CPU HSF unit, which could impact the airflow to the CPU itself. The BIOS monitored CPU_FAN header is located on the right edge of the board, just above the CPU socket.

The board sports a total of six DIMM slots, arranged in 2 sets of 3 slots. The slots are colored coded across the sets, with the color coding demonstrating how to enable Dual Channel memory mode. Note that with all 6 DIMM slots filled with 512 MB sticks, the system would only recognize 2 GB of memory. This is due to the fact that the purple colored slots will all only work while using single sided memory. If dual sided memory is used, only 2 out of the 4 purple colored slots will function. The DIMM slots themselves are positioned well away from the AGP slot, allowing for easy memory insertion and removal with a full sized AGP card seated. Just below the lower set of DIMM slots, you have the BIOS monitored PWR_FAN header, two ATA 100 IDE connectors, the ATX connector, and the floppy connector. The IDE, ATX, and floppy connectors are optimally placed to aid in airflow friendly cable routing.

Just below the AGP slot is the ICH5R Southbridge chipset, with its two SATA 150 connectors just below and to its left. Just below the Southbridge are the CMOS battery and the board’s two Ultra 320 SCSI connectors. The Adaptec SCSI controller chip is located between the SCSI connectors and PCI slots 2 and 3. Just below PCI slot 3 is the ITE based RAID controller, with its ATA 133 IDE connectors to the left below PCI slots 4 and 5. Just below the leftmost IDE connector are two USB 2.0 headers, with the SCSI LED header located between them and the SCSI connectors. To the left of the USB 2.0 headers is the front panel header. The board's single jumper for clearing the CMOS password is located between the leftmost IDE connector and the INFO_LINK header.

The 8KNXP Ultra has a total of 5 PCI slots and a single AGP slot. Between PCI slot 5 and the edge of the board are the BIOS monitored SYS_FAN header and the game port header. Just above the game port header is the infrared header. A Wake-On-LAN connector is located between PCI slots 4 and 5. The case open header is located just above PCI slot 3, with the surround speaker header to its right and between PCI slots 2 and 3. The AUX-IN connector is located just above PCI slots 1 and 2.

The rear panel contains your standard complement of ports including a PS/2 keyboard and mouse port, a parallel port, two serial ports, 4 USB 2.0 capable ports, an Intel PRO/1000CT Ethernet port, and 3 audio ports.