EVGA’s ‘nForce5′ Mainboard May Not be NVIDIA nForce5 Based ++ Crush 19 To Bring SLI Enhancements To Intel

Hardware maker EVGA, formerly known as eVGA.com, is showcasing a number of innovative products at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Apart from other products, the company is demonstrating what it claims to be a mainboard powered by NVIDIA’s upcoming nForce5 core-logic. However, a brief look at the product causes doubts about its core-logic’s origin.

…But the mainboard could be not what it is claimed to be, e.g., NVIDIA nForce5 platform. The mainboard features ICH6 I/O controller from Intel Corp., by contrast, NVIDIA’s nForce5 includes NVIDIA’s own North Bridge (which may also be referred to as MCH, memory controller hub) as well as I/O controller that are connected to each other using HyperTransport bus, whereas Intel uses a flavour of PCI Express bus to connect MCH to ICH in its latest chipsets. HyperTransport is not drop-in compatible with PCI Express. The EVGA’s platform also has PCI Express x16 and PCI Express x4 slots, whereas NVIDIA’s nForce5 is expected to provide two PCI Express x8 lanes that are compatible with PCI Express slots for graphics on electrical level.

It is unclear which chipsets powers the mainboard.

The Crush 19, which is also called nForce5, chipset from NVIDIA is currently expected to support various Intel processors, including the most powerful and innovative in LGA775 form-factor with 1066MHz processor system bus as well as EM64T, XDB and EIST technologies. Unofficial sources state that the only memory configuration to be supported will be dual-channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz or 667MHz, but no dual-channel DDR memory. NVIDIA is also expected to incorporate special enhancements for Multi-GPU SLI configurations, which will allow installing two PCI Express x16 graphics slots and cards.

Due to external memory controller on Intel-based platforms, NVIDIA is expected to bring dual-chip core-logic for mainboards intended for Intel chips. The MCP04 I/O controller that is proclaimed to be paired with Crush 19 MCH is projected to inherit many features from the nForce4 core-logic, NVIDIA RAID, NVIDIA ActiveArmor firewall, NVIDIA Gigabit Ethernet, Serial ATA-300 and other important technologies, like USB 2.0, FireWire, 8-channel AC’97 audio and so on.Currently it is unclear, how many versions of the Crush 19 chipset NVIDIA may offer. The Santa Clara, California-based NVIDIA usually preps a number of flavours of its chipsets seeking to target various markets with various demands for functionality and pricing.

Xbit labs
EVGA’s “nForce5″ Mainboard May Not be NVIDIA nForce5 Based