Gigabyte GA-M59SLI-S5 Motherboard Review

Main Specifications

Gigabyte GA-M59SLI-S5 main features are:

• Socket: AM2.
• Chipset: NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI.
  Super I/O: ITE IT8716F.
• Parallel IDE: One ATA-133 port controlled by the chipset.
• Serial IDE: Six SATA-300 ports controlled by the chipset (NCQ, RAID0, RAID1, RAID0+1, RAID5 and JBOD) and two SATA-300 ports controlled by “Gigabyte SATA 2” chip – actually a Jmicron JMB363 (NCQ, RAID 0, 1 and JBOD and Port Multiplier).
• USB: 10 USB 2.0 ports (four soldered on the motherboard and six available through I/O brackets that don’t come with the motherboard).
• FireWire (IEEE 1394a): Three ports controlled by Texas Instruments TSB43AB23A chip, one miniature connector soldered on the motherboard and two available through an I/O bracket that don’t come with the motherboard.
• On-board audio: Produced by the chipset together with Realtek ALC888DD codec (eight channels, 97 dB output signal-to-noise ratio and 90 dB input signal-to-noise ratio) with optical SPDIF output soldered on the motherboard.
• On-board video: No.
• On-board LAN: Yes, two Gigabit Ethernet controlled by the chipset together with two Marvel 88E1116 chips.
• Buzzer: No.
• Power supply: ATX12V v2.x (24-pin).
• Slots: Three x16 PCI Express slots (one of them working at x8 rate and two SLI x16), two x1 PCI Express slots and two PCI slots.
• Memory: Four DDR-DIMM sockets (up to 16 GB up to DDR2-800/PC2-6400).
• Number of CDs that come with this motherboard: 1 CD.
• Programs included: Norton Internet Security, drivers and utilities.
• Extra features: Passive copper heatsinks with heat-pipes, TPM connector and dual BIOS.
• More Information: https://www.gigabyte.com.tw.
• Average price in the US*: USD 190.00

* Researched at Shopping.com on the day we published this review.