• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

939 AGP board?

D

Devnull

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Apr 21, 2000
Messages
8,486
My AthlonXP feels slower every day... And I am not going to buy a new video card in anytime in the next 2 years, I have an X800XT PE VIVO(AGP). So I plan on moving over to a 939 based setup and think about upgrading just about every day. I need a stable board. Overclockability would be good, but not mandatory(I am not crazy about FSB overclocking in general). Going to be running dual channel 2x512mb kingston HyperX.

So I see a lot of nForce3 boards from Gigabyte, MSI etc and I have never used those brands. Are the VIA chipset-based boards as bad as I've heard?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130514 MSI K8N Neo2-F... Looks cool because it has 4 SATA hookups and I always have quite a few HDs in my rig.
 
The msi and epox mobos are prolly the best nf3 boards for o/cing out of them all. I dont like the board layout of the epox though.
 
try this one out, it is getting great reviews. I am in the same boat that you are in. tell me what you decide to get. asrock
 
If you get the MSI neo2, for some reason, the onboard nic didn't have a mac address assigned to it. It does have the ability to assign one under drivers though, spent about 3 days fiddling with that until someone pointed that out to me.
 
MSI Neo2 Plat...has been nothing but a pleasure. Along with my x800xt pe and my 3000@2.2, I find it difficult to warrant a switch to pci-e, yet.
 
My 1st choice would be the DFI NF3 Ultra-D. I haven't used this one personally, but if it's anything like my NF4 Ultra-D, it's a very solid board with some very nice overclocking and diagnostic features. I also like the board layout the best of these 3.

2nd choice would be the Epox 9NDA3+. The original version kind of sucked due to poor power transistors, but the revamped newer model is quite solid and reliable.

3rd choice would be the MSI Neo2 Platinum. The problem I have with the MSI board is that when you look at it, it just looks "cheap". The low budget black PCB and the crappy metal backplate that they glued on with tape instead of screwing down. If you go with the MSI, just be careful peeling off that backplate if you put on an aftermarket heatsink. Anyhow, the board itself ran ok, so I still recommend it as the 3rd choice.
 
Astral Abyss said:
My 1st choice would be the DFI NF3 Ultra-D. I haven't used this one personally, but if it's anything like my NF4 Ultra-D, it's a very solid board with some very nice overclocking and diagnostic features. I also like the board layout the best of these 3.

2nd choice would be the Epox 9NDA3+. The original version kind of sucked due to poor power transistors, but the revamped newer model is quite solid and reliable.

3rd choice would be the MSI Neo2 Platinum. The problem I have with the MSI board is that when you look at it, it just looks "cheap". The low budget black PCB and the crappy metal backplate that they glued on with tape instead of screwing down. If you go with the MSI, just be careful peeling off that backplate if you put on an aftermarket heatsink. Anyhow, the board itself ran ok, so I still recommend it as the 3rd choice.
Click to expand...

The DFI NF3 Ultra-d is a complete sack of doo doo. DFI even thinks so and is comming out with a new revision or something if not out already but they took the ultra-d off the shelves anyhow.

and the xp120 fits the msi neo2 fine and im sure it fits the epox as well.
 
Nettwerk said:
The DFI NF3 Ultra-d is a complete sack of doo doo. DFI even thinks so and is comming out with a new revision or something if not out already but they took the ultra-d off the shelves anyhow.

and the xp120 fits the msi neo2 fine and im sure it fits the epox as well.
Click to expand...
Hmmm, well, that's possible. I'm not sure how they could've screwed it up, but I'd hoped it was a solid board like the NF4 Ultra-D.

Guess that leaves the Epox and MSI on my list of recommendations.
 
alldat said:
try this one out, it is getting great reviews. I am in the same boat that you are in. tell me what you decide to get. asrock
Click to expand...


I just got one of these boards this week, and it's great. It has booted up every time with no problems, about the quickest motherboard upgrade I have ever done. So far I am very happy with it!!
 
Great thread, good info I will be in the same boat down the road. Hold onto the AGP cards , they are just as good as the PCI-E counterparts aside from SLi. AGP is going extinct from marketing and bandwagon jumpers, it's not obsolete yet.
 
alldat said:
try this one out, it is getting great reviews. I am in the same boat that you are in. tell me what you decide to get. asrock
Click to expand...


I am wary of that chipset... But look interesting. Still considering the possibilities but this setup feels so slow to me.

Mostly OT but are X2 prices expected to drop much? Not really sure if its worth spending that much at this point but I need something better.
 
Devnull said:
I am wary of that chipset... But look interesting. Still considering the possibilities but this setup feels so slow to me.

Mostly OT but are X2 prices expected to drop much? Not really sure if its worth spending that much at this point but I need something better.
Click to expand...


I upgraded from a AthlonXP setup, this Asrock board seems plenty fast to me. I think that much of the speed difference from Nforce based boards is driver related, as the drivers get better this board will probably get faster. Meanwhile, you can enjoy the benifits of a 939 based system without having to buy a new graphics card!
 
QuimZ said:
Great thread, good info I will be in the same boat down the road. Hold onto the AGP cards , they are just as good as the PCI-E counterparts aside from SLi. AGP is going extinct from marketing and bandwagon jumpers, it's not obsolete yet.
Click to expand...


AGP won't be obsolete for years to come. Although it will be for high-eng gaming.
 
The gigabyte k8ns ultra 939 is both a good overclocker and a standup comedy routine if you read the manual. But not reccommended for some who needs any of that crazy stuff called tech support.
 
Captainfantastic said:
I upgraded from a AthlonXP setup, this Asrock board seems plenty fast to me. I think that much of the speed difference from Nforce based boards is driver related, as the drivers get better this board will probably get faster. Meanwhile, you can enjoy the benifits of a 939 based system without having to buy a new graphics card!
Click to expand...


Interesting... While it will likely be years before I can afford any kind of new video card so I may buy a new mobo before then, but I've read that the PCI-E on this board is somehow out of spec or not true PCI-E?


I'm just not sure if I'd want to use a board with a chipset shown to be slower.


I'm not seeing a lot of places with the Neo2 Plat in stock, has it been discontinued already?
 
Devnull said:
I'm not seeing a lot of places with the Neo2 Plat in stock, has it been discontinued already?
Click to expand...

Yes, I believe MSI no longer makes this board, I have been looking for it myself
 
Devnull said:
Interesting... While it will likely be years before I can afford any kind of new video card so I may buy a new mobo before then, but I've read that the PCI-E on this board is somehow out of spec or not true PCI-E?


I'm just not sure if I'd want to use a board with a chipset shown to be slower.


I'm not seeing a lot of places with the Neo2 Plat in stock, has it been discontinued already?
Click to expand...


From what I've read, the difference in benchmarked speed from an Nforce4 based board is currently about 5%. In real world use is this really going to be something you would notice?

As for the PCI-E, everything I've read says it works just fine. I would be intrested in seeing this info about it not being true PCI-E, if you could provide a link it would be great.
 
I have the Epox 9NDAJ and a DFI NF3 ultra-D and i have put my 3000+ venice in bouth of them and they are almost exactley the same except the epox worked out of the box and the DFI took me a couple of days to figure it out.

I had my 3000+ Venice @ 2.8 with the DFI on water and @ 2.75 with the epox and a big typhoon. if you are not interested in a MAX OC i would go with the Epox board and save your self some trouble. The only thing i do not like about the Epox is that the vdrop under load is quite significant but it is managable, i have had the HTT up to 311 with my CPU @ 2.8 but it required too many volts for me too keep cool with only air so i brought it down to 2.75. so far this board has worked flawlessly for me since i got it about a week ago and with a BIOS update it is X2 compatable. I have never owned an MSI but some of my friends have and because of the problems they have had and the problems that i have read about on the forums i will not buy one.

I would recommend the Epox as long as you can handle only 2.8 volts to the RAM and buy the way the DDR booster will *NOT* work in this board it will fry it.
 
Red Shirt said:
Yes, I believe MSI no longer makes this board, I have been looking for it myself
Click to expand...

No problem for us to source these here in New Zealand.

http://www.ascent.co.nz/mn-product-template.asp?cname=Motherboards
http://www.pp.co.nz/Motherboards-Socket939.php
http://www.pricespy.co.nz/pno_4390.html

And the fact that it's still listed on all the MSI global websites makes me think you just need to find a source.

www.msi.com.tw

And yes, It would be worth the effort in my opinion.
 
I've always heard good things about the MSI K8N Neo series. I have two room mates that run them and they have done well so far.
 
Good OC'able CPUs for the ASRock board would be the A64 3000+ & 3200+ venice cores and the Opteron 144. Both are Skt939 and OC like crazy. The Opteron 144s are difficult to find, but they usually sell for just around $140 and can easily OC up to FX57 speeds.
 
I can't believe nobody mentioned the Asus A8V Deluxe V2.

Socket 939, AGP, Overclocks nicely, nice features. I picked up one last week, got a Venice 3000 (1.8) running at over 2.4 GHz easily. That's 3800+ and then some more +. The board is good for more if I put more volts into the CPU, I'm just trying to keep my system quiet. ;) The only complaint I have is it won't OC for jack if you set the RAM CAS to 2.5. It's great at 2.0 or 3.0 though, just a pain to figure that out.
 
I just bought the MSI Neo-2 standard at MicroCenter, they had plenty.

ZZF has this one:

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=241143

and a google search will find you many of both. These boards have been so relialble for me I find it hard to switch and have been using them for customer machines for quite a while now.

They are also very well supported in many forums and new modded bios's constantly being worked on. Amazing how big a fan base this board has.

http://www.lejabeach.com/MSIK8N/k8nneo2.html
 
is the K8n neo2 Platnium worth the $50 over the neo2-f? will it overclock the same?
 
I've had my Neo2 for about a year now. It's an ok board when you consider the other S939 AGP options. The Neo2 could have been legendary if MSI had been on the ball in fixing the BIOS problems. From day one the board has reported incorrect temps and still does. One of their BIOS "updates" even removed USB 2.0 support for God sakes. It's a good board with crap support from MSI.
 
I'm going with the ASrock board and an X2 3800+

I read a lot of reviews from hardware sites, and user info on the board and I am indeed impressed. It looks great for a "budget board" PCI-E and AGP, one SATA II channel. Performance in reviews looks to be pretty damned even with or higher than nvidia chipsets.

My buddy Eraser is going to order the same setup too.
 
Sanitarium said:
I've had my Neo2 for about a year now. It's an ok board when you consider the other S939 AGP options. The Neo2 could have been legendary if MSI had been on the ball in fixing the BIOS problems. From day one the board has reported incorrect temps and still does. One of their BIOS "updates" even removed USB 2.0 support for God sakes. It's a good board with crap support from MSI.
Click to expand...

When you consider the third party support for this board and all the people that just won’t part with it “Legendary” may indeed be the right word.

Total forums devoted to this board, many people writing third party bios programs even very specific ones addressing various individual RAM manufactures.

Almost if not every board I have come across that is supposedly a dud has been made to work just fine following the supplied instructions which it seems a lot of people didn’t think they needed to read.

It’s not nearly as complex as the DFI but it can be tricky but then it can be so rewarding as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top