nForce4 for Budget AM2: ECS NFORCE4M-A Review- Page 2/5
July 19, 2006
By
Thomas Soderstrom
Layout and Features
Like its LGA sibling, the NFORCE4M-A supports DDR2 memory, three PCI and two PCI Express x1 cards. But while the C19-A offers SLI, the NFORCE4M-A comes with only a single PCI Express x16 slot. Support for DDR2 memory on the earlier chipsets comes via AMD’s on-die memory controller.
Maintaining quality at reduced cost doesn’t end at the time-honored nForce4 chipset, as ECS also uses extremely old and well-proven 6-channel audio and 10/100 networking via classic Realtek devices.
What’s missing from the rear port panel? An empty space below the parallel port seems to be intentional, and is where a second serial port or a VGA connector might have gone on classic designs. In fact the only things really missing are two analog audio jacks: Making use of the ALC655’s 6-channel output capability will require the sacrifice of line-in and microphone jacks.
Internal audio headers are located in the worst possible place on the board, but this is also the most common location used by the majority of manufacturers. Supposing your front panel audio cables do reach, they’ll probably have to be routed over the cards or under the board. Even if your front audio panel is low enough on the case to avoid those issues, you’ll still need the now-common pass-through-style cables to replace the jumpers, so long as access to both front and rear ports is desired. And remember that line-in sacrifice needed for channels 3 and 4? You won’t be getting it back via internal "Auxiliary Input," as it too is blanked off. All these negatives are common to most boards but still deserve criticism; at least ECS provides an internal S/PDIF header (should you have the required breakout cable).
The chipset sink uses a 40mm fan, which would be commendable had the fan been a standard part. For reasons known only to ECS, the sink chosen uses a special fan, held by four risers that otherwise get in the way of mounting a standard fan. This sink style seems likely to cost more than the standard "flat" sink to machine, and the fan with risers adds 10mm to its height, so it seems the only excuse for this design is to... prevent fan replacement? Fortunately, chipset cooler replacement manufacturers are now supporting wire-type mounting methods.
A very basic support kit includes the driver CD, an SATA cable, an ATA133 cable, a SATA power adapter cable, floppy cable, backplate shield, and manual. Providing only the minimum parts required for installation allows cost savings to be passed to the customer.
Events
IE 7
Firefox 2.0
