ECS KN2 SLI Extreme is definitely one of the most innovative and promising board for year 2005. In terms of features, it has shaken off its image as just another entry level player. The ECS KN2 SLI KN2 SLI delivers storage convenience and security. Embedding NVIDIA’s advanced NFORCE4 SLI x16 chipset (NF4 SLI+C51D), the KN2 SLI features MediaShield storage technology, providing RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 functionality for safe and easy storage of digital media assets plus SATA II and NCQ for high disk performance. Better yet, NVIDIA ActiveArmor technology activates secure networking as soon as the PC is powered up, delivering the highest level of network security and system performance by protecting the PC from virus intrusion.

ECS KN2 SLI Extreme does not stop there, this board supports 6 SATA II NCQ ports with RAID, 1 GbE, 1 Fast Ethernet, 2 IDE channel, Top Hat Flash, 1394a, 8 USB ports for your future expansion needs. The board provides a fan duct which also helps to cool down the MOSFETs. The board also supports SATA hot plug and eSATA allowing you to connect SATA cable up to 2m to your SATA device.  The top-hat flash allows recovery of Bad BIOS flash and DR.LED uses Fuzzy logic for dianosing PCI slots health. There is also a Anti-Burn Guardian which has a memory module alerting function.

ECS KN2 SLI Extreme's performance in general is comparable to existing NF4 SLI boards in a single card setup. Even in a Dual graphics card setup, we see that the current applications might not be able to take advantage of the dual chipset (NF4 SLI+C51D). In fact, in some of the 3D benchmarks, the results are so identical when we compared the board with 2 x 7800GTX running in 16x+16x with the Jetway NF4 SLI board running the same 7800GTX cards in 8x+8x. In some benchmarks, the ECS KN2 SLI extreme seems to be slightly lower, this could be due to a few possible reasons. NF4 SLI is a single chipset where the trace for NF4 SLI + C51D is definitely longer. With the add on DUO-N, it introduces some latency thereby slower down the performance by a bit. The more apparent results were DOOM3 ran in the 8xS AA, 16x AF mode. Results were 106.1fps vs 98.6fps, a difference of 7.6%.

Installation of the board is pretty straightforward as the board and slots are all labelled with bright colours. I think unless you are colour blind, it is the one of the easiest to install. DUO-N Slot might need some force to get it in, one might just be careful to slot it in snugly into the slot. I noticed that the 7800GTX card is a bit too long and it might block your IDE ports, so it is advisable to install the IDE cables first before installing the graphics card.

The board has vast overclocking features. In fact, it is the first ECS board that I see a large voltage range available for Vcore and Vdimm. Unfortunately, there are some issues with the BIOS, the CPU multiplier can't be lowered in BIOS. Using the 12x multiplier on FX-53, I am able to run at 12 x 220 MHz.

ECS KN2 SLI Extreme's package is amazing compared to previous offerings. Other than the common drivers disc, the bundled software consists of Intervideo WinRip2, WinDVD Creator, WinDVD, Adobe Reader, DPU (Protect and Restore files by timestamp), I'm Intouch, ProMagic Plus and ShowShifter. EzFlash also allows one to Flash Update within Windows.

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Pricing (UK)

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Pros

• USB 2.0 
• 6 SATA II
• 1394
• Top Hat Flash

Cons

• Duo_N card might block airway
• Fast Ethernet instead of GbE

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10 stars.