Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Intel X48 and Nvidia nForce 790i Ultra SLI Chipsets Compared

Planning to build a new rig that features support for the latest processors, PCI Express 2.0 and DDR3-1600 memory? Two high-end chipsets from Intel (X48) and Nvidia (nForce 790i Ultra SLI) were compared, to help you decide which chipset to choose for your upcoming high-end rig.

X48 and nForce 790i SLI Ultra Common Features:

  • 800, 1066, 1333, 1600 FSB
  • Dual channel DDR3 memory (8GB max)
  • 2 x16 (rev. 2.0) PCIe
  • 6x SATA/300 w/ NCQ ports
  • 0, 1,10, 5 RAID
  • GbE NIC

The nForce 790i SLI Ultra, has these extra features:

  • 1 x16 (1.0) PCIe support
  • 62 PCIe Lanes (against 40 for X48)
  • UltraATA Port
  • Second GbE NIC

The Intel X48, however, has more USB 2.0 ports (12 vs. 10 for the 790i).

"Both platforms provide a better feature set and more flexibility than any other chipset for the Intel architecture available today. ... There are small advantages for the X48 chipset regarding performance and overclocking, but they don't really count towards my conclusion, as no one will ever notice them. ... the Intel chipset will be maxed out with two ATI Radeon HD graphics cards, the Nvidia platform will work with up to three GeForce 8800 GTX or faster cards, or with the GeForce 9800 GX2 double deckers, effectively providing quad graphics for the enthusiast." [Tom's Hardware | High-End Chipset Battle]

Tom's Hardware also suggests the upcoming Intel P45 chipset for those who do NOT need dual PCI Express graphics.

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