Conclusion:
When I received the
ECS KN1 SLI Extreme motherboard, my first impression was that it was going to be a decent board, but not a great performer. I figured my current Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI motherboard, which was one of the first SLI motherboards, would surpass the ECS KN1 SLI Extreme motherboard. Boy was I wrong. The ECS motherboard truly surprised me at the scores it received during benchmarks.
ECS is not known for making top performing overclocking motherboards, and although the ECS KN1 SLI Extreme may not be an "extreme" overclocker, from what I've seen it does do a great job. With a quick and simple overclock done by adjusting the CPU frequency, I was able to get a decent overclock that almost anybody could expect to get. Taking the CPU frequency from 200 to 225 MHz is almost a 13% increase. Adjusting other factors, such as the multiplier and RAM settings, you could probably get a 33% increase in performance. From my efforts, and other overclocking information I have seen around the web, the ECS KN1 SLI Extreme can do quite well at overclocking (with the right setup).
As for real world performance, I'm amazed at how well the
ECS KN1 SLI Extreme board performs! This board would be an excellent choice for anybody building a new SLI system, which can be costly. With a price tag of $100 - $125 (see
PriceGrabber), the KN1 SLI Extreme makes it one of the lowest priced SLI boards available.
Probably the biggest complaint I have with the ECS KN1 SLI Extreme motherboard is how little space there is around the CPU for oversized coolers. If you are building your own system, you will most likely choose a higher quality CPU heatsink/fan than the OEM combo, and it is quite possible that it could cause space issues.
Overall I have to give the ECS KN1 SLI Extreme motherboard a score of 4.5 out of 5 stars and a rating of "Highly Recommended".
Final Rating (4.5 out of 5 stars):
Pros:
• Nicely positioned connections
• No SLI flip-card
• Northbridge placed between video cards, NOT under a video card
• Impressive performance
Cons:
• Minimal space around the CPU may raise issue with large heatsinks
• Includes old school, flat ribbon drive cables
• Not an "extreme" overclocker
Special thanks to
ECS for providing the KN1 SLI Extreme motherboard to BigBruin.Com for review!
