nForce2 6-way Motherboard Roundup - December 2002

Leadtek K7NCR18D Rev. B: Basic Features

Leadtek is known as a video card manufacturer more than anything else, so seeing a Leadtek-powered motherboard review is quite rare indeed. However, today we take a look at Leadtek's latest motherboard, the K7NCR18D. Based on the nForce2 SPP and MCP-T, lets first take a look at what features this board has to offer.

The K7NCR18D uses the same RTL8201BL PHY that we've seen on other motherboards. Even though the MCP-T South Bridge has support for a dual onboard LAN ports, Leadtek decided to leave out the second (3Com) port and PHY to minimize costs.

You'll also find a Realtek ALC650 AC'97 codec onboard the K7NCR18D, which does all the sound processing. Remember that the nForce2 APU only acts as a DSP, final sound quality is still greatly determined by the DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) in the ALC650 AC'97 codec.

There's nothing special to report about the K7NCR18D's I/O configuration. Among the I/O ports are two PS/2 ports, one LAN port, two rear USB 2.0 ports, one parallel port, two serial ports, nd three 1/8' jacks, which are driven by the onboard sound. Though not too shabby, we would have liked to have seen a couple extra USB ports in addition to a SPDIF out possibly.

The Leadtek K7NCR18D is yet another nForce2 motherboard that lacks IDE RAID or any other form of additional IDE support besides the standard Primary and Secondary IDE connectors. With support for up to two channels each, the K7NCR18D is capable of supporting no more than four IDE drives total. So, if you can deal with a max of two hard drives and two optical drives (or a similar combination thereof), then you shouldn't have anything to worry about with this particular motherboard.

The MCP-T South Bridge supports the latest serial standard, USB 2.0. In fact, the MCP-T supports six USB 2.0 ports altogether; two rear USB 2.0 ports and two onboard USB 2.0 headers that support an additional four USB 2.0 ports if the rear ports aren't enough to meet your needs. Unfortunately, Leadtek doesn't bundle a USB 2.0-compliant bracket with their K7NCR18D, which is a notable setback.