Asrock 939SLI32-eSATA2 or Asus A8N-SLi or DFI nF4 SLI Infinity

F

fromage

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 16, 2002
Messages
1,814
I need a new budget board, preferably SLi chipset so I can upgrade later in the future.

My current Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe is dead(probably static discharge or something), and the warranty is void(don't ask), therefore I need a new board, and I can't afford to spring $180CAD for the Deluxe again.

My only options are really:

Asrock 939SLI32-eSATA2 $132CAD
Asus A8N-SLi standard(not deluxe) $153CAD
DFI nF4 SLi Infinity $132CAD

I'm not really looking into overclocking all that much(highest I can go on stock cooling/voltages). The rig is in my sig.

I have to buy from a local store, so don't suggest to shop elsewhere.

I'm partial to the Asus, considering I had the A8N-SLi Deluxe and really liked it(bundle, the board layout, the mosfet cooling, etc). Then again, is the standard worth $20 more than the others?

Also, the Asus is the only board that can support surround sound(3 plugs) and a microphone. The others don't seem to have enough connectors.

[edit] Apparently I can connect my surround speakers to it using the 3 plugs, but how would I connect my microphone? :confused:
 
I just put my Asrock 939SLI32-eSATA2 together last week and was pleasantly suprised. No hassles at all with the installation, it runs very solid with my Mushkin value DDR3200 and Opteron 165 OC'd to 2.5Mhz.
 
fromage said:
Yeah, but as with all budget boards, I'm afraid of quality.
Click to expand...

So was I, espesialy because of the ULI chipset. But SO FAR everything has been way beyond my expectations of this board...
 
The ASRock 939dual is very good and solid if you aren't trying to tweak all the way, even though you can certainly overclock with it. I sell a few of these everyday and I don't get returns.

The A8N-SLI is really nice, I have one myself, and it may help resale value later. Otherwise, unless you have a need for the extra SATA+Audio quality (small difference)+Firewire, get the ASrock. It is a lot like a Toyota: cheap as piss but dependable.

Reviews also put it neck to neck with Nforce 4.
 
Generally the DFI is a better board (better caps, volt. regs., more BIOS options), however the ASRock is a great value at its price point, and the ULi southbridge provides up to 26% better disk controller performance (with less overhead) than the NF4 chipset. Not to mention no noisy little chipset fan.

If overclocking the DFI is going to provide you the best overall performance.

I would tend to rule out the A8N-SLI amongst those three.
 
go with the DFI ultra-d and mod it to run in SLI you can buy the SLI bridge from DFI for $10 later when you need it.....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top