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The NVIDIA 650i SLI chipset is the new mainstream/midrange gamer chipset on the block.  Most manufacturers have some variant of this out, and now we're looking at MSI's own contribution with this chipset. Actually recently during NVIDIA's 8600 GT/GTS recent launch briefing, they emphasized that the midrange 650i SLI platform was perfect for the midrange 8600 GT and 8600 GTS cards.  The whole set was part of NVIDIA's continued "platform" concept.  So just what does the 650i offer?  To start off, let's look at a simple of table of all the features one can find in the NVIDIA 650i SLI, and also for what its kin has to offer.

 

	NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI	NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI	NVIDIA nForce 650i Ultra
Segment	Enthusiast SLI	Performance SLI	Performance
Socket	Intel Socket 775	Intel Socket 775	Intel Socket 775
CPU	Core 2 Extreme (dual and quad core) Core 2 Quad Core 2 Duo Celeron D Pentium 4 Pentium D 9XX Pentium D 8XX	Core 2 Extreme (dual and quad core) Core 2 Quad Core 2 Duo Celeron D Pentium 4 Pentium D 9XX Pentium D 8XX	Core 2 Extreme (dual and quad core) Core 2 Quad Core 2 Duo Celeron D Pentium 4 Pentium D 9XX Pentium D 8XX
FSB (MHz)	1333* MHz	1066 MHz	1066 MHz
Extreme FSB Overclocking	Best	Good	Good
NVIDIA SLI™ Technology	Yes 2 x16	Yes 2 x8	No
Third PCIe Graphics Expansion Slot	Yes	No	No
SLI-Ready Memory (MHz) with EPP	1200 MHz	-	-
JEDEC DDR2 Memory (MHz)	800 MHz	800 MHz	800 MHz
NVIDIA LinkBoost™ technology	Yes	No	No
PCI Express
# Lanes	46 lanes	18 lanes	18 lanes
# Links	9 links	4 links	3 links
Configuration	16, 16, 8, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1	8, 8, 1, 1 or 16, 1, 1	16, 1, 1
SATA/PATA drives	6/2	4/4	4/4
SATA speed	3Gb/s	3Gb/s	3Gb/s
RAID	0,1,0+1,5	0,1,0+1,5	0,1,0+1,5
NVIDIA MediaShield™ Storage Technology	Yes	Yes	Yes
Native Gigabit Ethernet Connections	2	1	1
NVIDIA FirstPacket™ technology	Yes	Yes	Yes
NVIDIA DualNet® technology	Yes	No	No
Teaming	Yes	No	No
TCP/IP Acceleration	Yes	No	No
NVIDIA nTune™ Utility	Yes	Yes	Yes
USB ports	10	8	8
PCI Slots	5	5	5
Audio	HDA (Azalia)	HDA (Azalia)	HDA (Azalia)

* Available on CPUs supporting 1333MHz FSB

Our NVIDIA 650i SLI (C55) chipset sitting up north, with the older nForce 430i (MCP51) way down south.

Pretty much all of these features are standard in modern motherboards, with a few standing above the rest. Keep in mind though that we're dealing with NVIDIA's mid-range chipset, so some of the greater features may be left behind. If it's true enthusiast power you're looking for, then perhaps a board running the big boy 680i SLI chipset should be considered. If you're a bargain hunter, then the NVIDIA nFORCE 650i is in order. The 650i SLI is that much sought after blend of both performance and affordable pricing. So what do we get, and what do we loose.

CPU: The socket receives pretty much any Intel LGA775 chip, so no real complaints there.

FSB Frequency: The FSB does take a hit, with 1333MHz available on the 680i, but 1066 for both the 650i SLI and the even more conservative 650i Ultra.

Overclocking Potential: They say it's good, but let's wait and see.

NVIDIA SLI: Running two cards at 8x speeds is better than none. We could always run one card at 16x speeds, but still, dual 16x SLI would be nicer.

PCI-e Lanes: 18 lanes for the two simpler chipsets, and 46 for the high-end. A big hit in potential graphics performance, but expected with a mid-range chipset/motherboard.

Drives: 4 SATA and 4 PATA is nice, though it wouldn't have been difficult to have built this board with a 6/2 SATA/PATA drive configuration.

SATA Speed: These won't change until the hardware abstraction layer beneath the SATA channels stops translating everything to Parallel and goes for pure Serial. Once it does, wicked fast drive speeds ahead.

RAID: A very typical (though very nice) 0,1,0+1,5 configuration.

NVIDIA MediaShield: Just how the NVIDIA RAID is implemented, offering faster access and safer storage.

Gigabit Ethernet: What, only one? Most every mid-stream board nowadays has dual Gigabit LAN. Now I'm sad.

NVIDIA FastPacket: Better LAN communications, standard for NVIDIA.

TCP/IP Acceleration: Again, better LAN communications. Most helpful if building a file/media server or Internet Gateway with an NVIDIA based board, though most all board manufacturers have some software to facilitate better network communications.

USB ports: 8 is fine, 10 would have been nice, but that's what USB hubs are for.

Audio: High Definition Azalia is good. It's actually just a Realtek ALC888 7.1 channel chip, and on-board audio should suit most every user perfectly well.

So there we have it, our MSI P6N SLI Platinum motherboard has all the qualities of a mid-range performance part. Extra PCI-e Lanes would have made it better, but dual 16x cards running in SLI isn't that holy grail of gaming performance all would believe it to be. We did a detailed analysis of dual 16X PCI-E versus dual 8X PCI-E in one of our CrossFire articles and found there to be some difference, but not enough to worry someone looking at this price range. It would have been really nice to have Dual Gigabit LAN ports, as many people will buy a budget board to build into a home server. There's little else out of place though, with exception of the max FSB. Yes, 1066 MHz is decent, but I would have preferred the higher 1333 MHz, linking that drop of 267 MHz in the FSB directly to the diminished overclocking potential for both of the NVIDIA 650 chipsets

But seeing how our MSI P6N SLI Platinum board preforms has to wait. I want to take a quick look at the board itself first.

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