ASUS P5NSLI nForce 570 SLI Motherboard

Based on the NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI chipset, the ASUS P5NSLI motherboard is officially targeted at the performance market. However, the relatively limited memory clock speed of 667MHz does seem to preclude that market. The nForce 570 SLI chipset is really designed to provide an affordable SLI solution for the Intel platform and that's what it does.

Of course, as a lower-end SLI chipset, it can only run the PCI Express x16 slots at only x8 speed in SLI mode. But thanks to the use of this chipset, the ASUS P5NSLI motherboard comes with a range of NVIDIA value-added features, like the MediaShield Storage Technology, the nTune utility, and built-in support for RAID.

In typical ASUS fashion, the motherboard comes with a pretty good package. Other than the usual manual, CD and SLI bridge, the ASUS P5NSLI also comes with truly useful accessories like Q-Connectors, a USB bracket, and an almost complete set of cables.

The motherboard comes with a pretty useful number of expansion slots, and plenty of SATA and PATA ports. This is great for those transitioning from a previous generation of hardware. You can reuse much of your hardware with this motherboard.

Although the motherboard components are generally well laid out, a few components seem out of place. We feel the ATX power connector and the floppy drive connector were inappropriately placed, and will force you to run cables over critical areas, and reducing airflow to those areas.

We also think that ASUS' use of the garish pink heatsink for the north bridge chip is rather inappropriate. But we could be biased. Our female reviewer seems to fancy it!

If you are thinking of buying this motherboard, you should remember that it is meant to provide an affordable SLI solution. It's not meant to be a board for overclockers to play with. That's not what it is.

For more details, read our Pictorial Review!

MSRP

• NA

Lowest PriceGrabber Price

Review

• Pictorial Review

Processor Support

• LGA775 socket
  - Intel® Core® 2 Duo
  - Intel® Core® Duo
  - Pentium D
  - Pentium® 4
  - Celeron D

Chipset

• NVIDIA® nForce® 570 SLI® Intel® Edition
   - C19SLI north bridge
   - MCP51 south bridge

Memory Support

• Four DDR2 SDRAM DIMM slots
• Supports Dual channel DDR2-667/533 Un-buffered Non-ECC memory
• Supports maximum memory capacity up to 16GB

LAN Support

• Marvell® 88E8001 PCI Gb LAN controller
• ASUS AI NET 2 network diagnosis before entering OS

Front Side Bus

• 1066 MHz
• 800 MHz
• 533 MHz

Expansion Slots

• Two PCI Express x 16 slots
   - Single VGA mode : x16, x1 ( Default )
   - SLI mode : x8 , x8
• Three PCI Express x1 slots
• Two PCI 2.2 slots

SLI

• Under Single VGA mode ( Default )
   - One PCI Express x16 graphics card on the first slot (blue)
   - One PCI Express x1 card on second slot (black)
• SLI mode supports two identical SLI-ready graphics cards
• ASUS EZ Selector
• ASUS two-slot thermal design

Storage

• Two Ultra DMA 133/100/66/33 ports
• Four Serial ATA 3 Gb/s ports
• Supports SATA RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 and JBOD

IDE Support (Primary)

• SATAII 3G RAID
• Intel® Matrix Storage Technology supports RAID 0/1/5/10
• Supports SATA AHCI, providing native command queuing and native hot plug

IDE Support (Additional)

• PCIe SATA 3G
• Onboard Silicon Image PCIE SATA 3G RAID controller

Audio Support

• ADI AD1986A SoundMAX 6-channel CODEC
• Jack sensing and optical S/PDIF In/Out
• S/PDIF out interface

USB

• Eight USB 2.0 ports
   - 4 ports on the motherboard
   - 4 ports at back panel

BIOS

• 4 Mbits Winbond Flash ROM
• Award BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.3
• ASUS EZ Flash 2
• ASUS CrashFree BIOS 2

ASUS AI Lifestyle Features

• ASUS Q-Connector
• ASUS O.C. Profile
• ASUS CrashFree BIOS 2
• ASUS EZ Flash 2

Other ASUS Special Features

• ASUS Music Alarm
• ASUS Q-Fan
• ASUS CrashFree BIOS 2
• ASUS EZ Flash 2

Internal I/O Connectors

• Two USB connectors support additional 4 USB ports
• One Floppy disk drive connector
• One CPU, one chassis and one power fan connectors
• Azalia analog front panel audio connector
• System panel connector
• One SLI selector card connector
• S/PDIF out connector
• Chassis Intrusion connector
• CD / AUX audio in
• 24-pin ATX Power connector
• 4-pin ATX 12V Power connector

Back Panel I/O

• 1 x Parallel
• 1 x Serial
• 1 x PS/2 keyboard, 1 x PS/2 mouse
• 4 x USB 2.0 / 1.1
• 1 x S/PDIF Out (Coaxial)
• 1 x RJ45
• 6-Channel Audio I/O

Overclocking Features

• Intelligent overclocking tools:
- AI Overclocking ( intelligent CPU frequency tuner )
• Precision Tweaker
- vDIMM: 4-step DRAM voltage control
- vCore: Adjustable CPU voltage at 0.0125V increment
• SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection):
- FSB tuning from 133MHz up to 400MHz at 1MHz increment
- Memory tuning from 533MHz up to 1200MHz at 1MHz increment
- PCI-E frequency tuning from 100MHz up to 150MHz at 1MHz increment
• Overclocking Protection:
- ASUS C.P.R. (CPU Parameter Recall)

Dimensions

• ATX Form Factor
• 12" x 9" (30.5cm x 22.9cm)

Warranty

• 3 years warranty

Contents

• One ASUS P5NSLI motherboard
• One SLI soft bridge
• SATA signal and power cables for 2 devices
• One UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable
• Two IDE cable
• One FDD cable
• One USB module
• I/O Shield
• One 2 in 1 Q-connector
• One ASUS support CD
• One User's manual
• One Q-connector installation guide