Local PC sales have always been traditionally reliant on component sales as its bread and butter. The number of “clone”, or self – built PCs (including those assembled by hand by numerous PC retail shops) outnumber “branded” PCs (like Dell, HP, and IBM) five to one – not including the corporate market. This is particularly true due to the increasing number of quality components that enable the common consumer to build exactly what they need within a reasonable budget. The Palit N8S caters especially to the consumer who’s aiming to get as much performance and utility from their computer without spending money on extraneous items such as discrete graphics – especially if they have no intention to game on their machine.

                                             Considering it has four DIMM slots and on a microATX form factor, the Palit N78S is well laid-out.

The Palit N78S is based on the GeForce 8200 - an AMD AM2+ chipset descended from the admirable GeForce 7050 PV/nForce 630a chipset that launched capable on-board IGPs that departed from the lame performance of older on-board graphics. As the name implies, the GeForce 8200 is part of the vaunted 8 series, meaning it is a DirectX 10 compliant graphics chip based on the GeForce 8 architecture, and is fully Windows Vista Premium certified. It has a 500MHz core clock and has 16 stream processors running at 1200MHz. While its predecessor already offers good performance for an on-board chipset, the GeForce 8200 builds on this, plus takes big steps in the HD video playback and compatibility departments.

                                             8GB of potential memory goodness.

Namely, the 8200 offers complete PureVideo HD engine, capable of 100% hardware acceleration of MPEG-2, VC-1 and H.264/AVC video streams. HDMI 1.3a compliance and multi-channel audio output through HDMI is another great feature not previously offered by any on-board IGP solution. This fact alone will make this chipset a boon to system builders and home video enthusiasts who want an affordable self-built HTPC that is capable of supporting the latest video formats. This affordability is not only based on the actual list price of the product based on the chipset, but rather stems from the fact that the chipset removes the requirement of a discrete graphics card for taking off the full HD-decoding load from the CPU – the first responsibility of any graphics system on an HTPC.

                                             The first implementation of Hybrid SLI - on a budget board!

We have no benchmark numbers at the moment, but based on naming convention, the 8200 chipset should perform somewhere in the region of a 7300 discrete videocard when it comes to games and graphically intensive programs. Nothing to crow about, surely, but still miles ahead from the pack of “performance” IGP wannabes. On balance, the promise of affordable HD performance without discrete graphics, coupled with passable graphics performance, should be more than enough for non-gaming consumers. Also of note is the introduction of Nvidia’s Hybrid SLI technology with this chipset – this is a way to take advantage of the enthusiast technology usin only the on-board graphics performance plus a suitable Hybrid – ready videocard based on the 8400 or 8500 chipsets. Now, to cover the components of the motherboard.

                                             An HDMI connector failed to make an appearance.

Palit has long built components that did not try to flatter and blind the consumer with features, fancy acronyms, and loud packaging. While Palit seemed a bit of a wallflower, they continually produced capable products that were stable and reliable, and more importantly for the local consumer, affordable. The Palit N78S is no different. Catering to the AMD crowd with its AM2 socket, the N78S also boasts of four DMM slots that can support up to 8GB of DDR2-1066 memory, in dual channel mode.  A single PCI-E x16, PCI 2.0 slot stands ready for future graphics upgrading, with two legacy and one PCI-E x1 slot flanking it. Six SATA slots – a notable number for a micro-ATX board - graces the lower right corner of the board. Three front USB headers are also present. For legacy disk drives, a floppy and IDE connector is available. The connectivity options above are all run through the MCP78S, this motherboard being a single ship solution.

                                             Supports the latest Phenom processors. Note thesolid capacitors.

The rear panel consists of some interesting choices – even with the obvious focus on HTPC performance, there’s no HDMI connector present – only a DVI-D and a VGA connector. A DVI to HDMI converter should be able to work, but is an awkward solution at best.Other than this dubious connector choice, the rest of the sockets are pretty standard, with four USB slots, 6 sound jacks for the 7.1 channel sound, a LAN connector, a legacy serial connector, and the PS/2 ports.

                                             Six SATA connectors based on the MCP78S.

To conclude, the GeForce 8200, as represented here by the Palit N78S, is a very capable replacement for Nvidia’s 6 and 7-series chipsets. In addition to the performance increase in graphics performance, the 8200 represents a whole basketfull of important releases that will define the future of on-board graphics and video performance – with PureVideo providing exceptional video compatibility and playback , and the introduction of Hybrid SLI, plus other important features like PCI-E 2.0 and support for the latest AMD Phenom chips, this motherboard is sure to go down well with the budget crowd, as well as smart consumers intending o upgrade in the future with the help of a forward-looking motherboard.

Look out for the in-depth review in an upcoming issue of HWM! More pictures to follow. 

                                              Bundle is sparse, as expected from an entry-level motherboard.

                                             Retail box in Palit's typical green-black and white motif.

                                             Full view of the rear panel.