Introduction

After our in-depth write up of the of the nForce 500 series MCP and the new technologies that NVIDIA has put into the chipset, let's have a real look at a motherboard based on the flagship nForce 590 SLI and see how it stacks up. By now, you've probably read our previews of nForce 570 SLI and 590 SLI motherboards, so this time we'd like to start off by reviewing a board you've not yet seen - Foxconn's C51XEM2AA. Another reason why we chose to review this motherboard first is due to the fact unlike the modified designs from ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte, the Foxconn C51XEM2AA follows NVIDIA's reference design to the dot. Thus, we will be using the Foxconn board as our benchmark for nForce 590 SLI performance in the future.

The Foxconn C51XEM2AA Socket AM2 motherboard.

The Foxconn C51XEM2AA comes in a very professional looking spiffy black box with a bundle that rivals those usually given out by ASUS or Gigabyte. The box came will a full set of six SATA cables and an extensive range of connection brackets. The full package bundle is as follows:-

6 x SATA data cables

3 x SATA power converter cables (dual plugs)

1 x 80-conductor Ultra ATA data cable

1 x floppy drive data cable

FireWire (2 ports) bracket

USB 2.0 (4 ports) bracket

COM port bracket

SLI high-speed digital link interface bridge

I/O shield

Driver CD

User's manual

Foxconn C51XEM2AA Technical Specifications

CPU Support	Supports AMD Socket AM2 CPUs Supports AMD Cool 'n' Quiet Technology
Chipset	NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI Bi-directional 1GHz (2000MT/s) HyperTransport interface 46 lanes total PCI Express configuration Supports Scalable Link Interface Technology (SLI) for dual PCIe x16 interfaces Supports up to ten USB 2.0 ports Supports six SATA 3.0Gbps ports Single-channel Ultra ATA-133 IDE port 2 x IEEE 802.3 NVIDIA MAC for 1000BASE-T
Memory	Dual channel memory architecture integrated into processor Four 240-pin DDR2 DIMM sockets Supports 1.8v DDR2 SDRAM DIMM modules Supports up to 8GB using DDR2 533/667/800
Storage	NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP 2 x Ultra ATA 33/66/100/133 (data transfer rate up to 133MB/sec.) 6 x SATA 3.0Gbps interface NVIDIA MediaShield Technology Supports SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, RAID 5
Audio	Realtek ALC882D 8-channel HD Audio CODEC Dolby Digital Live Optical S/PDIF Output
Networking	2 x NVIDIA Gigabit LAN co-supported by Marvell 88E1211-TFE1 PHY (Transceiver)
IEEE 1394 (FireWire)	Texas Instruments TSB82AA2 1394b OHCI-Lynx Controller Texas Instruments TSB81BA3 IEEE P1394b Three-Port Cable Transceiver Arbiter 2 x 1394a ports @ 400Mbps  1 x 1394b port @ 800Mbps
I/O Interface	1 x Floppy connector 1 x Ultra ATA IDE connector 6 x SATA connectors 10 x USB 2.0 ports (6 x rear, 4 x bracket) 3 x IEEE 1394a/b ports (2 x rear, 1 x bracket) 2 x RJ45 LAN ports 1 x Optical S/PDIF Output  8-Channel Audio I/O ports 1 x CD-IN 1 x 9-pin serial port (header) 1 x mini-DIN-6 PS/2 mouse port 1 x mini-DIN-6 PS/2 keyboard port
Expansion Slots	2 x PCIe x16 slots 1 x PCIe x4 slot 1 x PCIe x1 slot 2 x 32-bit PCI slots
PCB	ATX Form Factor, 12"x 9.6"(30.5cm x 24.4cm)

The C51XEM2AA doesn't feature any serial or parallel ports on its I/O panel (there is a COM header though). Instead there are six USB ports. Notice the empty spacing next to the PS/2 ports is actually reserved for eSATA, though it is not implemented here.