The Palit N73V is the little brother of the N73PV reviewed on these pages a few days back, and like many “little brothers”, this model looks up to his big brother, in both specifications and features.

                                             Specifications are impressve compared to a decade ago.

Looking at the N73V causes a sense of déjà vu – the resemblance is uncanny. The only physical difference between the two boards (that is visible, at least) are a single missing USB header and the lack of an integrated DVI connector at the rear panel. Everything else – the color, placing of components, and layout are exactly the same as its bigger brother.

                                             Similar, clean layout as the N73PV.

One other thing that’s different though is the chipset that anchors the motherboard, in the N73V’s case, the Nvidia 7050 is the chipset hidden under the large Northbridge heatsink, and is the reason behind the absence of the on-board DVI connector. I’ve mentioned before that I was surprised that Palit had the N73PV with a DVI connector, so now I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed with the omission, although I understand the reasoning behind it.

                                             A big empty space where the DVI connector is located on the higher models.

The Nvidia 7050 chipset is Nvidia’s entry-level chipset for the Intel platform boasting a 7-series on-board GPU. Capabilities are almost on par with the 7100 chipset, meaning this particular board will not have any problem displaying an Aero interface courtesy of Vista, nor will it have problems smoothly display scrolling landscape in a google map search. It is however, incapable of displaying over a DVI port due to it partnering with the 610i chipset – it can only output through RGB.

The 610i is the other major difference in chipsets with the 7100 and 7150 on-board GPUs. This less capable chipset does not have Gigabit Ethernet, instead making do with a regular 10/100 connection. It can only reach stock FSB clocks of 1066MHz, as opposed to the 1,333MHz attainable by the 7100 and 7150 – based motherboards. Memory clock support is likewise limited to DDR2-667, compared to the DDR2-800 of its brothers.

                                             Again, this view is similar to the N73PV - minus one USB header.

Not all is doom and gloom though – the 7050 GPU boasts of a GPU clock of 500MHz, and is equivalent to  the old 7100 GS in performance – which admittedly isn’t saying much, although for an on-board GPU is much more than its competitors. Since the N73V is an entry-level motherboard, prices will surely be correspondingly cheap – in the region of P3k or below. For a motherboard that can play HDCP content and boasts of 7-series videocard features, that price is quite affordable.

                                            
Where does this leave the N73V? It is without a doubt overshadowed by its bigger brother, but is compensated by prices that are around P500 to P600 lower than the PV. It is left to the buyer to consider if a faster (but still “low-end”) on-board GPU, Gigabit LAN that isn’t useful locally, a DVI connector and an additional USB header is worth the extra cash. If all you need is compatibility with Intel’s latest combined with good on-board video performance, save that five bills and go visit the Christmas tiangges for something nice to give your beau.