Closer Look: ASUS SK8N Mainboard

The first and the only manufacturer of mainboards based on the new NVIDIA nForce3 150 appeared ASUS Company.  NVIDIA chose ASUS to be their major partner in nForce3 Professional promotion not for nothing. ASUS and NVIDIA have been partnering for a long time, besides, ASUS is a pretty well-known manufacturer of server platforms. Anyway, in the near future ASUS will no longer be a monopolist of the nForce3 based solutions, as other mainboard guys will also start rolling out their nForce3 based mainboards.

So far, the only nForce3 based mainboard available in the market is ASUS SK8N.

Let’s check the product specifications first:

Now let’s discuss the features of ASUS SK8N in a bit more details. First of all, I would like to make a few things clear about the processors supported by the mainboard. Since this mainboard is intended for Opteron CPUs, it is equipped with Socket940. Note that there are three modifications of Opteron processors in the today’s market: Opteron 1XX for uniprocessor systems, Opteron 2XX for dual-processor systems and Opteron 8XX for four- and eight-way systems. All these processors are designed in the same form-factor: Socket940, and any Opteron modification can be installed into ASUS SK8N mainboard. However, it hardly makes any sense to use Opteron processors other than 1XX with this board, because they will offer you the same functionality but for much more money, as these CPUs are targeted for the multi-processor configurations.

For the memory modules there are four 184-pin DDR DIMM slots on ASUS SK8N located in pairs. Since the Opteron memory controller boasts dual-channel architecture each pair of memory slots is assigned to a certain channel. That is why if you want your ASUS SK8N platform show the maximum performance, you’d better use pairs of identical memory modules installed symmetrically into DIMM slots corresponding to different channels. Besides, you should remember about one more thing. Since Opteron processors are optimized for server use, they require Registered memory modules with ECC. ASUS SK8N uses the memory controller integrated into the Opteron processor, That is why only the CPU sets requirements to memory. ASUS SK8N simply will not work with common DDR modules: you have to get Registered DDR333/DDR266 memory modules. So if you decide to build your system on ASUS SK8N mainboard (a hardcore gaming system, for instance), you have to make sure that you have proper memory modules.

Registered DDR333 SDRAM from Transcend