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ECS KN1 Extreme

The KN1 Extreme is ECS' first entry in to the nForce4 and Athlon64 world. In fact, it might be said that it is ECS' first true entry into the enthusiast motherboard market ever. We put it through our normal evalutions and come away surprised.

Introduction

ECS, also known as ELITEGROUP, is a relative newcomer to enthusiast circles. ECS is much better known for their very economical, stable, and solid motherboards that were squarely aimed at the OEM and system builder crowd. With the growing popularity of overclocking, ECS decided to jump into the fray. Their latest motherboard is certainly nothing to balk at, and it will definitely turn a few heads.

The KN1 Extreme is ECS’s newest motherboard introduction for the Athlon64 line of processors. Centered around the NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra chipset, the board features full support for the entire Athlon64 socket 939 processor line, including the dual processor X2 line, DDR type SDRAM modules operating in Dual Channel mode up to speeds of 400MHz officially, as well as PCI Express x16 based video cards operating in single card mode. The KN1 Extreme was designed to be a feature complete solution, requiring a minimal amount of components for a functioning system: Athlon64 socket 939 based CPU, DDR memory, PCI Express video card, drives, and PSU. The following components are included in the KN1 Extreme’s design: 2 IDE ATA-133 ports and 4 SATA II ports (RAID 0, 1, and 0+1 capable) on the NVIDIA RAID controller; 1 IDE ATA-133 port and 2 SATA 150 ports (RAID 0, 1, and 0+1 capable) on the SIS RAID controller; 10 USB 2.0 capable ports (4 in rear panel, and 3 onboard headers supporting 2 ports each); 2 IEEE 1394 capable ports (2 onboard headers supporting 1 port each); 1 NVIDIA Gigabit Ethernet port in rear panel with integrated hardware Firewall support; 1 Realtek 10/100 Ethernet port in the rear panel; Realtek 6-channel audio codec featuring S/PDIF optical and component output ports; and PS/2 and serial port support in the rear panel.

Main Specifications Overview:

Detailed Mainboard Specification List:

Packaging

The KN1 Extreme comes with a very no nonsense black and white box art design, with all the board features and supported processors marked on the box lid. ECS includes the following with the KN1 Extreme: ATA 133 and floppy ribbon cables; SATA 150 cables; dual ended SATA power cables; a network crossover cable; the rear shield, the normal complement of driver CDs and manuals; rear panel brackets containing USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 ports and a parallel port; a bracket for front mounting the USB 2.0 rear bracket; and the Top-Hat Flash BIOS reset module. The Top-Hat Flash module is a non-writeable BIOS chip in a casing that slips on top of the board’s BIOS chip. When aligned properly, the Top-Hat Flash will copy its contents to the onboard BIOS chip, resulting in a reset BIOS. The Top-Hat Flash module that came with the test board contained the latest BIOS version available, version 1.1a.

Board Layout

It’s plainly obvious that ECS put a lot of thought into the design and layout of the KN1 Extreme. The area around the CPU socket is virtually component free, and ECS even added a rear panel fan for added airflow over the critical CPU power components. The board revision is silk screened on the board to the right of the PCI Express x16 slot, indicating that this board is a version 1.0 model. ECS chose to use capacitors from the following manufacturers: Taiwan Ostor Corporation (Taiwan) and United Chemi-Con (USA, Japan) marked as KZJ.

ECS did an amazing job with the CPU socket area design and layout. The CPU is almost entirely free of obstructions, allowing for use of the largest HSF or water block units. This is in part due to 2 things, the single chip nForce4 Ultra chipset and the fact that all CPU power circuitry is located in the upper right corner of the board. ECS uses the standard Athlon64 2 hole design in order to hold the cooler to the CPU. To the upper left of the CPU socket is the CASFAN1 header for the rear panel fan. The CPU power circuitry and rear panel fan are located just above the CPU socket, with the ATX12V connector located directly to the right of the rear panel fan shroud. The CPUFAN1 header is located directly to the right of the CPU socket.

The KN1 Extreme comes standard with 4 DDR capable DIMM slots, arranged in a 4-by-1 configuration. As expected, the slots are color coded in groups of 2, with Dual Channel memory mode enabled when modules are placed in like colored slots. Directly below the DIMM slots are the 2 NVIDIA-based ATA-133 IDE ports and the 24-pin ATX power connector. Note the red LED in the lower right corner of the board. This LED illuminates when an active power source is connected to the board and, if illuminated, designates that it is unsafe to remove the memory modules from the board.

The nForce4 Ultra chipset is located to the lower right of the PCI Express x16 slot. It is covered with a good-sized active HSF unit, which is held to the chipset via 2 top mounted wire loops. The board’s 6 SATA ports, the 4 on the right support SATA II while the 2 left most ports support SATA 150, are located directly below the nForce4 chipset. The CMOS battery, onboard speaker, and CASFAN2 and NBFAN headers are located directly below the SATA ports. Along the lower left edge of the board are the CMOS reset jumper, the front panel header, the parallel port header, the SIS-based ATA-133 IDE port, and the onboard USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394 headers.

The KN1 Extreme ships with 1 PCI Express x16 slot, 2 PCI Express x1 slots, and 3 PCI slots. To the left of PCI slot 3 is the onboard floppy port, with a 3-pin LED header, the CD_IN header, and the front audio header located directly above it. Note that pins 5-6 and 9-10 must be jumpered on the front panel audio header for the rear panel ports to function correctly. Directly above PCI slot 3 are the onboard SMBUS header, and the BIOS protection jumper. When set to enabled, the BIOS is set to read only mode. The BIOS chip itself is located directly above and in between PCI slots 2 and 3.

The following ports are integrated into the KN1 Extreme’s rear panel: PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports; 4 USB 2.0 ports; 1 serial COM port; 1 NVIDIA Gigabit LAN Ethernet port; 1 Realtek 10/100 LAN Ethernet port; 3 analog audio ports; and S/PDIF optical and RCA component output ports.

NVIDIA nTune

For Windows-based system monitoring and performance tuning, ECS chose to included the NVIDIA nTune performance tuning suite. nTune version 2.05.09.08 was used for all the screenshots shown. For performance tuning, the nTune software has 2 modes of operation: automated profiling and manual manipulation. The profiling selection menu displays after clicking on the “Tune my system performance” button in the main nTune window. The automated profiling can be tweaked through the settings within the nVPerformance window, accessible through the expert mode selection in the previous menu. The Clock Control window allows for manual manipulation of synchronous CPU and memory bus speeds, PCI bus speed, HyperTransport link multiplier, memory timings, and GPU speeds. The Clock Control window is accessed via the “Clock Control” button on the bottom button bar in the main nTune screen.

In addition to the performance related options, the nTune application has a built in system information applet that displays CPU, bus speed, memory, and nForce driver version related information. This applet is accessed by pressing the I button in the lower button bar in the Main nTune screen. The “Monitor my system performance” button in the nTune window runs the nVMonitor applet, which allows for real time monitoring of all system level voltages, bus speeds, and temperatures. The “Manage my system performance” button on the main nTune window runs the nVProfileManager applet. The profiles shown control triggers for system responses to configured events. Responses can include warning sounds, program launching, and automatic system tuning on a percentage basis. The “Troubleshoot performance or create a support log” button in the main nTune window has two functions. It can be used to launch a system troubleshooter window or it prompts you to create a system log file. For the former option, various system components are listed in the upper box, with specific performance tips for the highlighted component shown below. The latter option can be used if you, or someone performing technical support, need to view a very detailed system report.