Re: A8N32-SLI Deluxe Primary Ports

In article <wrqDf.147741$oG.107850@dukeread02>, "Larry \(The Other
Larry\)" <none@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

> What is the primary PCIe 16x and LAN Port?
>
> The one's that are native to the Northbridge.
>
> I've read two different things. One place said it's the top PCIe (Blue),
> and the other says it's the bottom PCIe (Black).
>
> I'm only using one card and want to use the one that's native to the North
> Bridge.
>
> How about the LAN Jack's ? Which one is native to the North Bridge? I've
> heard the On-Board Marvel has much higher CPU utilization.
>
> -Larry

You are right. 16 lanes are on Northbridge and 16 on the Southbridge.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2493&p=2

There are a total of 38 lanes, meaning 4 lanes on the Southbridge
aren't shown in the Anandtech block diagram.

http://www.nvidia.com/page/nforce4_family.html

If you zoom in real close on this picture, the Northbridge drives
the blue slot, the Southbridge drives the black slot. There are
differential pairs of tracks for each PCI Express lane, and there
are AC coupling capacitors near the video card slots. If you follow
the pairs of wires back, they go to the chips closest to the two
video card slots.

http://www.amdzone.com/pics/motherboards/asus/32xsli/A8N32-SLI-2D-L.jpg

Blue = Northbridge
Black = Southbridge

There are two LAN interfaces. The Nvidia MAC will be connected to a
Marvell PHY. A second Marvell chip is a complete MAC + PHY. I would
use the second Marvell chip, to avoid the Nvidia Firewall, unless you
like to experiment with firewall settings until it is corruption free.

I think the 88E1111 is the complete LAN chip, and I cannot read the
label on the smaller Marvell PHY chip. The manual is no help on
identifying which chip drives "LAN1" and "LAN2". Sorry.

Paul
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: A8N32-SLI Deluxe Primary Ports
    ... it looks like the top slot is the Northbridge ... the "LAN 1" jack is the one on the NorthBridge. ... A second Marvell chip is a complete MAC + PHY. ...
    (alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus)
  • A8N32-SLI Deluxe Primary Ports
    ... What is the primary PCIe 16x and LAN Port? ... The one's that are native to the Northbridge. ... Which one is native to the North Bridge? ...
    (alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus)
  • Re: A8N32-SLI Deluxe Primary Ports
    ... >What is the primary PCIe 16x and LAN Port? ... >The one's that are native to the Northbridge. ...
    (alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus)