The NVIDIA motherboard chipsets on Intel platforms have caught up with Intel chipsets in the past few months in terms of popularity, pulling down the traditional notion of "Intel chipset with Intel Processors - No-brainer consideration". Initially when the NVIDIA Crush 55 chipsets launched, it was a product that required wallet-muscles. Then the 650i SLI motherboards became available and that opened up a beaming pathway for the mid-range users. The main attraction? SLI support/upgradability without the high cost. Only very recently, buyers get one more option in the 650i SLI list - Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4. When you get to the testing segment of this review, you will see it tested against the other 650i SLI Motherboards.

An attractive box with all the catchy features pimped aggressively on it.

 

Regular Gigabyte blue for the PCB, and the usual Gigabyte "Lego-Building-Block" colors on the connectors.

 Specification
Processor
  1. LGA775
  2. Support Intel® Core™ 2 Quad/Core™ 2 Duo/Pentium® D/Pentium® 4 Processor
  3. Supports 1333/1066/800 MHz FSB
Chipset
  1. NVIDIA® nForce 650i SLI (Northbridge: C55, Southbridge: MCP51)
  2. Onboard Marvell 88E1116 phy (10/100/1000 Mbit)
  3. Onboard Realtek ALC888 chip
  4. Onboard T.I. TSB43AB23 1394 chip
Memory
  1. 4 DDRII DIMM memory slots (supports up to 8 GB memory)(Note 1)
  2. Supports dual channel DDRII 800/667/533 unbuffered DIMMs
  3. Supports 1.8V DDRII DIMMs
  4. Supports DDR2 667/533/400 DIMM
  5. Supports ECC type DRAM
(Note 1) Due to the limitation of Windows 32-bit operating system, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory available for the operating system will be less than 4 GB; Windows 64-bit operating system doesn't have such limitation.
Internal I/O Connectors
  1. 1 24-pin ATX power connector
  2. 1 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
  3. 1 floppy connector
  4. 2 IDE connectors
  5. 4 SATA 3Gb/s connectors
  6. 1 CPU fan connector
  7. 1 system fan connector
  8. 1 North Bridge fan connector
  9. 1 power fan connector
  10. 1 front panel connector
  11. 1 front audio connector
  12. 1 CD In connector
  13. 1 S/PDIF In connector
  14. 2 USB 2.0/1.1 connectors for additional 4 ports by cables
  15. 2 IEEE 1394a connectors for additional 2 ports by cables
  16. 1 power LED connector
  17. 1 Chassis Intrusion connector
Expansion Slots
  1. 2 PCI Express x16 slots (Note 2)
  2. 2 PCI Express x1 slots
  3. 3 PCI slots
(Note 2) In SLI Mode, the two PCIE x16 slots can run at up to x8 respectively. In Normal Mode, only the first PCIE x 16 slot (PCIE_16_1) is available and can run at up to x16.
Rear Panel I/O
  1. 1 PS/2 keyboard port
  2. 1 PS/2 mouse port
  3. 1 S/PDIF Out connection (coaxial+optical)
  4. 1 parallel port
  5. 1 serial port
  6. 4 USB 2.0/1.1 ports
  7. 1 IEEE 1394a port
  8. 1 RJ-45 port
  9. 6 audio jacks (Line In / Line Out / MIC In/Surround Speaker Out (Rear Speaker Out)/Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Side Speaker Out)
Form Factor
  1. ATX
  2. 30.5cm x 24.4cm
H/W Monitoring
  1. System voltage detection
  2. CPU/System temperature detection
  3. CPU/System/Power fan speed detection
  4. CPU warning temperature
  5. CPU/System/Power fan failure warning
  6. CPU/System Smart Fan Control
BIOS
  1. 2 4 Mbit flash ROM
  2. Use of licensed AWARD BIOS
  3. Supports Dual BIOS
  4. PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.3, ACPI 1.0b
Other Features
  1. Supports @BIOS
  2. Supports Download Center
  3. Supports Q-Flash
  4. Supports EasyTune (Note 3)
  5. Supports Xpress Install
  6. Supports Xpress Recovery2
  7. Supports Xpress BIOS Rescue
* (Note 3) EasyTune functions may vary depending on different motherboards.