DailyTech - Epox Boldly Announces Socket AM2 SLI, CrossFire

Submit News

Hardware Epox Boldly Announces Socket AM2 SLI, CrossFire
Sven Olsen (Blog) - March 14, 2006 4:32 AM

21 comment(s) - last by Cygni.. on Mar 14 at 10:10 PM

Epox's nForce 590 *working* motherboard

ASUS might have the first RD580 motherboard in the channel, but Epox's MD580 XR-J will likely be the first working AM2 RD580 motherboard

AMD DDR2 Socket AM2, here we come

Although zie Germans (Deutsche Messe AG) were nice enough to give us presse badges for CeBIT 2006 this year, the best details from CeBIT 2006 didn't come from the show floor at all -- including the first motherboard manufacturer to "officially" announce nForce 5xx.

A few days ago, NVIDIA officially launched the nForce 500 series chipset. Epox has one of the first commercially announced AM2, nforce 5xx motherboards, the MNF55P SLI2. The board uses dual gigabit Ethernet, six SATA 3.0Gbps channels on the southbridge (plus an additional two more from a Jmicron JMB363 chipset. Expect to see the MNF55P on store shelves around late April in anticipation for the AM2 launch.

Aside from NVIDIA offerings, Epox was also quick to sport the widely acclaimed RD580 chipset from ATI on AMD's AM2 socket. The MD580 XR-J also offers a full 2x16 configuration for dual graphic card support, but only six total SATA 3.0Gbps channels are included in the package. Multiple graphic adaptors are powered by ATI's CrossFire support.

Other motherboard manufacturers have been timid to officially announce AM2 motherboards since the processor launch is not officially until June 6, 2006 (Taipei time).

Comments

Threshold

Username
Password
remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

Dual LAN

By Tebor0 on 3/14/2006 10:37:34 AM , Rating: 3

What is the point of having Dual LAN? I can see sharing the internet but a router/switch seems more practical.

RE: Dual LAN

By FoxFour on 3/14/2006 10:47:12 AM , Rating: 2

In my experience the best reason for dual LAN is so that you have a backup when one of them is a P.O.S. (i.e. NForce integrated).

I also find it useful for sorting out IRQs, since each ethernet controller is usually hardwired to a different IRQ (and often one or the other ends up on the same IRQ as the PCI slot I want to use with a fussy Sound Blaster card)...

Parent

RE: Dual LAN

By Tebor0 on 3/14/2006 12:06:05 PM , Rating: 2

Thanks :)

Parent

Er....

By keitaro on 3/14/2006 7:06:41 AM , Rating: 2

Wait, why does their MNF55P board say 'Socket-939' when the PCB print says Socket AM2?

RE: Er....

By ceefka on 3/14/2006 8:04:45 AM , Rating: 2

Indeed, the Epox seems to be mislabled somehow.

Hope this will be standard on AM2 boards from now: 883 is HD audio.

Parent

RE: Er....

By ROB G on 3/14/2006 9:32:49 AM , Rating: 2

I think that the tab on the motherboard is describing details about the MNF55P chipset not the motherboard. All this means is the new chipset will also be able to be used with socket 939 boards as well as AM2 boards. Only question I have is why it only lists DDR2 support? Does this mean we will somehow be able to use DDR2 with 939...I don't think so.... Rob

Parent

No soundStorm

By smn198 on 3/14/2006 11:14:07 AM , Rating: 2

Bah! No soundstorm!

RE: No soundStorm

By blckgrffn on 3/14/2006 2:42:40 PM , Rating: 3

lol, you can't be serious! That's freakin hilarious that some people are actually holding out for this/think that it will return.... :)

Parent

die Deutschen

By Bonesdad on 3/14/2006 9:01:19 AM , Rating: 2

"zie Germans"??? Sounds more like French to me...

RE: die Deutschen

By SunAngel on 3/14/2006 9:44:31 AM , Rating: 2

Quote: Expect to see the MNF55P on store shelves around late April in anticipation for teh AM2 launch.

Is "teh" french also?

Parent

RE: die Deutschen

By bob661 on 3/14/06, Rating: 0

links

By Visual on 3/14/2006 8:17:32 AM , Rating: 3

hey, one other thing, not related to this article exclusively.
when you guys were just anand's news column, you were fairly good at including relevant links to your sources and/or to extra information. now all we get is links to others of your own articles :(

Interesting

By GGA1759 on 3/14/2006 9:55:12 AM , Rating: 2

The Crossfire edition only has 1 Gb Lan port, while the SLI edition has 2 ports. Other than that specs seem to be the same.

Layout

By KorruptioN on 3/14/2006 10:34:18 AM , Rating: 2

Too bad Epox still insists on putting the 24-pin ATX connection by the CPU like that.

"zie germans" is fine but...

By Visual on 3/14/06, Rating: -1

RE: "zie germans" is fine but...

By Tebor0 on 3/14/2006 9:23:58 AM , Rating: 1

I'm with you. The only thing keeping me a visitor on this site is my own laziness for not finding another. (I enjoy the content of this site, do not like the presentation) I constantly feel like these articles are an english class high school project.

Parent

RE: "zie germans" is fine but...

By RandomFool on 3/14/2006 6:07:30 PM , Rating: 2

I agree there's a few problem but it's still a relatively new site, and it's gonna take sometime for everything to get worked out.

Parent

RE: "zie germans" is fine but...

By Cygni on 3/14/2006 10:10:51 PM , Rating: 2

Cry me a river! This is a free website for hardware enthusiasts, not anything more. If you get your panties all up in a bunch over minor jokes, PLEASE leave. The humorless, the grammarnazis, the nit picking, the "going downhill lately"... the more of em that hit the road, the better this site will be.

Parent

RE: "zie germans" is fine but...

By aguilpa1 on 3/14/2006 9:36:22 AM , Rating: 2

phsssha, wy yall be all up n my mans face like that??, shaaa, yall dont got no nooz of ya own,....whadevva ;>

Parent

RE: "zie germans" is fine but...

By FoxFour on 3/14/2006 10:50:41 AM , Rating: 2

The only other place I've heard "zie Germans" is the movie Snatch, in which it was a standing joke (i.e. "hurry, before zie Germans get here").

I'm not sure where it came from before that. I find it amusing for the Snatch reference, but I do wonder if it might be misconstrued as offensive by some readers.

Parent