![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Thursday , November 30, 2006
- Author:
- Paul Jastrzebski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
AMD Athlon 64 FX-74 & Quad FX Platform Review
AMD's much hyped "4X4" system today brings dual socket Athlon 64 FX processors to the desktop allowing two dual-core AMD processors to be used. This in effect gives us a quad-core system and paves the way for a true octo-core desktop platform next year.
Dual for Your Desktop
We’ve always been interested in the idea of having two CPU’s on our desktop. When going to the local computer store, server boards always looked far more interesting than their desktop counterparts. They had more PCI slots, more memory slots, more hard drive connections, more sockets, and some even had built in SCSI chips. The problem was always that there was never any threading in desktop applications and therefore server boards never had any desktop use and therefore their extra cost was never justified. But AMD has been watching hardware enthusiasts flock to dual processor Opteron systems lately. Our forums are full of them. AMD has this time exactly followed the hardware enthusiasts’ lead.
Fast forward to today’s desktop environment, and you’d be hard pressed to find a CPU intensive desktop application that is not already threaded or isn’t in the process of being built thread aware. This threaded desktop environment is fertile soil for a “server-class” desktop motherboard that features two processors, and that’s precisely what we’ll be getting with the launch of the FX-74 and the accompanying nForce 680a SLI chipset.
The ASUS nForce 680a Motherboard
ASUS is currently the sole launch partner with the FX-74 and nForce 680a SLI chipset, with the board on hand today named the L1N64-SLI WS. And from first glance at the L1N64-SLI WS, you can easily tell that this isn’t your typical desktop motherboard. Just the presence of two large heatsink fans on a single motherboard coupled with three smaller heatsink fans over the board’s MOSFETs are an intimidating sight.
The nForce 680a features a northbridge / southbridge motherboard layout with each chip actually being an nForce 590 SLI MCP, effectively doubling the specifications of the nForce 590 SLI. This allows the nForce 680a to have 12 SATA ports, with two nForce 5 RAID controllers covering six SATA ports each.
To take advantage of dual-channel memory each CPU provides, the L1N64-SLI WS needs all four available memory slots filled, something I haven’t done to any of my personal systems in a number of years.
AMD’s LGA CPU socket works in precisely the same was as Intel’s LGA 775. You simply put the processor in the socket and lock it in with the retention clip.
The board has a large passive heatsink that covers the two nForce 590 SLI MCPs and the board’s 12 SATA ports would make any P2P downloader’s mouth water. 12 SATA ports means that some one could hook up 12 750GB HDDs to the nForce 680a chipset, which would total 9TB of total storage in one desktop PC.
And finally, the board is equipped with four PCI Express X16 slots and features full SLI support.