Need m-ATX motherboard suggestions for Antec Aria and A64

J

jbaczek

Weaksauce
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Feb 2, 2005
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104
So like the title says, i need a m-ATX board for my aria, any out there that support socket 939 and hopefully good for overclocking, voltage and fsb adjustments and what-not, also needs to be agp, just got a 6800nu for xmas.

Thanks for the advice...
 
There is no Socket 939 mATX board available in the USA with AGP, as of yet at least. The only 939 board currently out and being stocked is the MSI xpress200, which is PCI-E, so that doesnt help our cause. (the MSi board also has NO, i repeat NO overclocking options)

FIC Makes an AGP Nforce 3 250GB mATX board but it is not being released in the USA. The best way to go A64 for SFF/mATX is S754. the MSi K8M800 (I have one in sig) and the Gigabyte K8M800 are great boards, and are the ONLY two mATX 754 boards with overclocking options (no vcore tho).
 
thx for the reply, that's some sad news... i was really getting excited about doing this upgrade but now i don't know if it'll be worth it since the socket 754 is gonna be phased out, and the no vcore kinda rules out overclocking, at least by quite a bit...

i don't know if it'd be worth it upgrading from my athlon xp @ 2.33, i think it's holding my video card back quite a bit too.... *sigh* shouldn't i be getting over 100fps in ut2k4 w/ no AA and no AF with this card and cpu though, i've tried BFG support but we haven't found anything that really fixed the problem, i get around 40-50fps is why i mention it

i currently have a msi nforce2 board

*edit*
i run ut2k4 at 1152x864 res and highest settings, except the no AF and no AA
 
OK so i've looked around a lil bit and i'm thinking i would go with this setup:

Gigabyte K8M800 board - $74

AMD A64 3400+ newcastle - $200

Zalman CNPS700-ALCU HSF - $36

For a total of $310, do you think this would be worth it guys? Also I know my Kingston hyper-x ram needs a higher voltage to stay stable, does this board support changing the voltage on ram? Would it be worth it to go with the clawhammer core, same 3400+ for $50 more? 3400+ clawhammer , also am i right to assume the zalman flower will fit? i've think i've seen it in many other arias, just checking...

I already have the rest of the hardware, including my bfg6800oc, and i'd like this to be an upgrade that will at least last me another year, before i have another overwhelming urge to upgrade again, I really want this setup for gaming and it sounds like a pretty good setup to me, but i wanted ur knowledgable advice.

Wow... i must say i'm in love with the forums, i've been reading for over half a year, but it feels great to participate, really, i appreciate what you guys have going on here, long live the [H]!!!
 
That will be a great setup and you wont regret it. 754 isnt bad at all, its not being 'phased out', just becoming a budget line.
 
There is one S939 micro-ATX board that I've found with AGP. It's a WinFast/FoxConn NF3UK8MA-RS and it's being sold in Monarch Computer System's Hornet boxes, but I also found it at Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-186-038&depa=0

I'm considering it for myself, except I don't know how it overclocks. FoxConn does have overclocking features for their other micro-ATX boards, so I suspect it'll have something. Has anyone else seen/used this board before?

EDIT: Oh and if you take a close look at it, you'll see it only has 2 DDR DIMM slots (but it is still dual channel), 2 SATA ports (still RAID0 and RAID1 capable), and only a 10/100 Realtek network chip (why they didn't use the nForce3 Ultra's built-in gigabit I have no idea). Otherwise, it seems like a nice board and has full 1GHz/FSB2000 HyperTransport.
 
Holy shit! great find! thats the one thats sold in the UK! its finally out! omfg im buying one right now.
 
Dillusion said:
Holy shit! great find! thats the one thats sold in the UK! its finally out! omfg im buying one right now.
Click to expand...

I definately second that! Exactly what I was looking for! You are the man mechabouncer!!!

I did a little more shopping around and it should only be $31 more than the other setup:

A64 3200+ - $205

Zalman Flower - $34

FoxConn NF3 Ultra board - $83

For a total of $322... I love being a nerd! w00t!
 
You're welcome. Too bad Newegg didn't have an OEM Athlon 64 3200+ S939 available. You're kind of buying the CPU cooler with it for nothing. At least it seems like there was just a price drop to $220 on the retail package. And you might want to be a bit weary of those capacitors next to the CPU socket. That Zalman cooler looks rather large. It might not fit properly. Regardless, I hope it works out for you. If it does have some good overclocking features, I'm so buying it as well.
 
Yea, I was a bit worried about that zalman flower fitting too, but then i realized you have to remove the plastic mounting bracket that's already there to fit it, and that stock mounting bracket looks like it's take up quite a bit of room all around, i'm not too worried about it fitting...
 
MechaBouncer said:
Thanks! :D

Let us know how it is for overclocking options when you find out, will ya? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Ditto! Nice find. I think I scavenged up a review of that board and it didn't have any overclocking. But I hope I'm wrong. :) That would be f*n sweet! ...and it's AGP!!! Woot, I wouldn't have to get raped on upgrading.

Edit: Nevermind! I am most likely 100% wrong! Checkout this review for the nForce4 version: http://www.ocworkbench.com/2005/foxconn/winfast nf4uk8aa/g4.htm

754 will have alot of life in it, once Lancaster comes out. ...but only if you have a mATX overclocking board to support it.

If that doesn't pan out and you want to take a look @ at the only 754 board with decent overclocking, do a search for Biostar K8NHA-M Grand here: http://www.computeruniverse.net. It's not cheap (~$135 shipped), but it's the best there is. Unfortunately I found out the hard way that the bios doesn't support mobiles. :(

Btw, the Zalman 7000 fits.
 
In actuality, I've pieced out a system with the MSI RS480M2-IL and a PCIe Radeon X800 XL video card that is only about $25 more expensive than using the FoxConn/WinFast NF3UK8MA-RS and having an AGP GeForce 6800 GT. And the price on the video card is supposed to be $300 MSRP, so it should even out with the AGP 6800 GT soon enough (so long as ATi can get more of them out there). And until then, the RS480M2-IL has onboard video (not the greatest solution, but I suspect it's about even with the GeForce4 4200Ti I currently have). So, for building a complete system, it's about the same price. But if you already have a beefy AGP card, then it makes more sense to get the NF3UK8MA-RS. However, what really matters to me is if the NF3UK8MA-RS can overclock. If it can, that surely tips the scales in its favor since the RS480M2-IL cannot. That will be the deciding factor for me and that's why I'm so eager to know for sure.

EDIT: However, that nForce4 board is a full ATX board as you can see here:
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2005/foxconn/winfast%20NF4UK8AA/Picture%202506%20copy.jpg
Most of the full ATX boards do offer overclocking options. So far, I've yet to see a review of what would most likely be the actual nForce4 versions of this board:
NF4K8MC-RS
NF4K8MC-ERS
CK804K8MA-KRS
All of which have something called "SuperSpeed" which I believe to be overclocking options.
 
I'll bet it has the same overclocking features. God damn that would be totally f*cking perfect! 2.8v is also exactly where my RAM limits out... Please God... :D

Actually, 1 more RAM slot for a booster would be perfect... ;)

Btw, for some stupid reason, that board isn't listed under 939. That's why I could never find it.

Ya the Radeon Express boards are pretty nice for stock SFF builders. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them.
 
I noticed that too, which is odd. It is listed on the Chinese website, though. So perhaps they're just slow to add it to the website? The CK804K8MA-KRS was being sold separately at Monarch Computer Systems before there was any information on the webpage. My only concern, then, is BIOS support.
 
I haven't ordered anything yet, but seeing as how newegg just made a nice price drop on the 3200+ I'll prolly order it later tonight. I'd feel a whole lot more comfortable ordering it if i knew it had overclocking features, I mean why wouldn't it? It's an nForce3 board.
 
sleepeeg3 said:
Ditto! Nice find. I think I scavenged up a review of that board and it didn't have any overclocking. But I hope I'm wrong. :) That would be f*n sweet! ...and it's AGP!!! Woot, I wouldn't have to get raped on upgrading.

Edit: Nevermind! I am most likely 100% wrong! Checkout this review for the nForce4 version: http://www.ocworkbench.com/2005/foxconn/winfast nf4uk8aa/g4.htm

754 will have alot of life in it, once Lancaster comes out. ...but only if you have a mATX overclocking board to support it.

If that doesn't pan out and you want to take a look @ at the only 754 board with decent overclocking, do a search for Biostar K8NHA-M Grand here: http://www.computeruniverse.net. It's not cheap (~$135 shipped), but it's the best there is. Unfortunately I found out the hard way that the bios doesn't support mobiles. :(

Btw, the Zalman 7000 fits.
Click to expand...

any american sites sell that biostar board?
 
Dillusion said:
any american sites sell that biostar board?
Click to expand...
I wish. Scoured the search engines and that was the only place I could find that at least ships to the States.

MechaBouncer said:
Dillusion, did you end up getting that board yet, or did you not order yet as well?
Click to expand...
He said he decided against it, based on this: http://forums.sudhian.com/messageview.aspx?catid=45&threadid=72307&enterthread=y
I think those guys are wrong. Overclocking may be somewhat limited, but I think it will be there.The full-sized ATX, PCI-E version requires clockgen to get high fsb, but I can definitely live with that.

I e-mailed Foxconn today so hopefully I get a reply. If I don't hear anything from them by the end of the day, I'm ordering the board anyway.
 
Well FSB and memory are better than just memory (like the MSI RS480M2-IL). And it's still S939 like what I'm looking for. I'll give MSI a little longer to reply, but after that I'll probably buy the WinFast/FoxConn board.
 
-Again, I think Constantine was talking out of his ass, or looking at Foxconn XP boards, because there are no reviews on their mATX A64 parts. More inclined to believe it will look like the OCW review linked to. As for shambler, will have to wait and see where he got his info.

-What are you waiting on a reply from MSI for? I e-mailed them awhile back about overclocking, this may help:

-----Original Message-----
Subject: RS480M2-IL

Q: Is is true this board has *no* overclocking features? Can I get access to a modified bios if I were to buy this board?

A: Hi,

It’s true that we don’t recommend you to over clocking on this board but you still can into the bios menu to choose some option.

Regards

Support
Click to expand...

-As for the CKXXXXX board, I read on the OCW forums that it's being discontinued and being replaced by those other two NK4XXXX Foxconn boards. Monarchcomputer will also no longer be carrying them.
 
That's what I've been waiting to hear from MSI, more or less. I asked them if they planned to add any overclocking features to the BIOS since it had none. Got to love how the manual says it's an overclocking board, and the tech support claims it's an overclocking board, but there's not a single option to overclock it. -_-

I'm intending to buy a Monarch Computer Systems Hornet barebones, so I'm rather limited on selection. And it seems I'll be waiting until Feb. 20th if I'm going to get a NF3UK8MA. They're out of stock right now. Meh. More time to wait and see if MSI does anything.

EDIT:
Oh and Constantine may have been basing that information on the latest nForce4 boards as both the NF4K8MC-ERS and NF4K8MC-RS feature adjustable bus speeds and memory timings under the "Overclocking Features" section. The CK804K8MA-KRS, on the other hand, only offers an adjustable bus speed. Seeing as how it's already weak thanks to the 800MHz HT link, the only thing saving it was Gigabit LAN, which isn't really going to be used by most people. Honestly, I'm not sad to see that board go. At least the other two offer full 1GHz HT links to make up for not having Gigabit LAN (and the ERS has FireWire, which the others do not). I see that as being far more useful.
 
Well no word from Foxconn yet so I overnighted a board/processor and decided to be the stupid guinea pig. Will let you guys know.

All of that I could live with. Sounds like this will be closer to the CKXXX board, since it was likely released first. The only thing that concerns me is whether it has adjustable voltages. I am actually pretty sure my Biostar doesn't have multi control, which totally slipped my mind, but I adjust everything through Clockgen & A64Tweaker so it doesn't matter whatsoever. The one complaint there was with the standard Foxconn was that something was limiting overclocks to around 275HTT or so and some people seemed to think it was an unlocked PCI-E that could be solved with a bios update. But since this board is AGP, that wouldn't be an issue!

Anyway, I'm anxious to see. :)
 
ah yes, the wonders of overnight shipping. my fragbox chassis was shipped using UPS effing ground. the slowest and worst service ever! pos! :mad:

let us know about the mobo, and if you keep it, lemme get ure 3400 :D
 
Thanks sleepeeg3, you are my hero. :D

Hopefully, because it is an nForce3 Ultra board, it might have more options. *crosses fingers*

Dillusion, where'd you find a Fragbox chassis for sale? And is that original Fragbox or the micro-ATX Fragbox 2?
 
Heh, I normally talk myself out of wasting money on shipping, but I have been waiting on one of these boards for so... damn... long...

That Frag Box 2 looks great, I'm sure I would have gone with one if the price was lower and I hadn't invested so much time/money in this ARIA. Looks freaking awesome now that it's glossy black - that was a wicked idea. :cool: Heard they may drop the FB2 down to ARIA type pricing if it gets it's own line of production, but I'm sure that will be awhile. I'd like to hear how the noise is.

Sure I'll get that 3400+ ready for mailing - what's your address? Oh btw, one of the pins might end up "missing" but I'll only charge $185 to find it ;)

Anyway, will probably have the board Thursday so will report back then. Btw, they would have to announce the specs of this PCI-E card today, wouldn't they?
 
:D That is really funny. The specs seem somewhat incredible, but I would not be surprised one bit if they are legit. 50% more pipes, double the memory, PS3.0, higher clock speeds - all things I heard talk about them seriously adding.

Checkitout guys. I e-mailed www.hypertechcomputers.com and they claim to have the NF4K8MC-ERS in stock... if'n you want to be bold. It's one of the links on RAINFIRE's list on Anandtech, etc. Not much feedback, but it's all good.

Subject: Foxconn - NF4K8MC-ERS
Q: Excuse me, do you have this board in stock?
A: Yes! We keep in stock for this great NF4 board!!
Click to expand...
 
sleepeeg3 said:
Heh, I normally talk myself out of wasting money on shipping, but I have been waiting on one of these boards for so... damn... long...

That Frag Box 2 looks great, I'm sure I would have gone with one if the price was lower and I hadn't invested so much time/money in this ARIA. Looks freaking awesome now that it's glossy black - that was a wicked idea. :cool: Heard they may drop the FB2 down to ARIA type pricing if it gets it's own line of production, but I'm sure that will be awhile. I'd like to hear how the noise is.

Sure I'll get that 3400+ ready for mailing - what's your address? Oh btw, one of the pins might end up "missing" but I'll only charge $185 to find it ;)

Anyway, will probably have the board Thursday so will report back then. Btw, they would have to announce the specs of this PCI-E card today, wouldn't they?
Click to expand...


Yes its the fragbox2 mATX, i sold my 6800U, downgraded to a 6600GT AGP and spent the cash on this leet cas0r :D

um, what does this missing pin do? and how might it have gotten 'lost' ..... if this pin doesnt effect the 3400+'s personality, and i can rid myself of this 3000+, we have a deal :p
 
Edit: There's a review on Newegg!!!
Oc'ing options seem to be great
Click to expand...




Well I made the mistake of ordering @ ChiefValue... Newegg's slightly cheaper, probably understaffed sister site. They still haven't billed my order! :mad: Never used them them before, so may be why they are checking out my address. Cancelled my order and went with Newegg; all of my other stuff was shipped out yesterday @ 7pm, so I would probably have already had it today. Damnit.

There's another guy here who apparently ordered the board, so if he is in Cali, he might end up getting it first. Might want to check that thread for results too.

Heh, I was kidding about the missing pin on the 3400+, but if everything works out I'll let you know. That would be the price, though.
 
Sweet. Even if the options aren't in BIOS, just how much can you adjust with Clockgen and A64Tweaker? ClockGen seems like everything but voltages and is A64Tweaker just for memory timings? I couldn't find a whole lot of information on that one. And what other overclocking utilities do you recommend?
 
Clockgen does allow voltage tweaks, but only the VCORE up to 1.55v (not bad for a Winnie). The only things it doesn't allow you to adjust are the LDT multi and the RAM voltage, which would be the biggest concerns.

A64Tweaker is only for RAM timings, but it lets you tweak practically everything.

Both programs allow you to automatically load settings at bootup and don't reside in memory. :cool:

Only other program I would suggest, other than the core ones like Prime95/memtest, is OCCT. Have not had a chance to use it, but it sounds more flexible than Prime95.

Edit: This is what I am talking about! :p Now why did I not use Newegg in the first place? Stupid. Looks like I'll let you guys know the full details in a few hours! :D
 
awesome dude, i just got the board too... don't think i'm gonna set it up though, i'm kinda going into finals right now, but from the look of the manual, looks like it has some decent stuff, no vcore, i don't see any memory dividers tho :confused:
 
^ beat me to it. 2.8v VDIMM, but no VCORE adjustment. Has some nice adjustments for RAM. I didn't think to look for a divider, but that can be adjusted via A64 Tweaker.

Basically, absolutely everything it doesn't have, can be easily done via Clockgen/A64 Tweaker. :cool: I was hoping for an adjustable VCORE, but I'll live. ;) 1.55VC is about = 1.825VC on an XP anyway. ...and there is always a pinmod...
 
argh! so i broke my rule of not trying to install, it won't lemme boot, had to switch back to my xp... dude! do you have a winchester, i heard you need a bios update sometimes, i have a winny and no access to the 130nm version, so am i screwed!?

*edit*
this sucks ass!!! or maybe i'm just tarded, tried just letting it run on the default bios settings, o by the way i pass post and can go into the bios and do whatever, but as soon as it gets by post to boot from cd it hangs, cd drive spins up, then stops, then nothing, or it makes it past this point, i think, and then nothing shows up on screen and the hard drive makes no noise, neither does the cd-rom

worst b-day ever.... haha.... i wanna be an optimist tho... so what's the magic cure?
 
Still screwing around with my case, jbaczek, but it posted fine. If it's posting, it's not a bios conflict. I'm using a Winnie.

All I can say is, if your drives aren't making noise, double-check your connections. Will report back in a bit.
 
i believe all my connections are good, double checked them anyway, when it posts it shows that my hard drive is present, a SATA drive by the way, i have no floppy so i slipstreamed the drivers in, worked fine on my old nForce2 board, and it does come up and say boot from cd.... but then hangs and does absolutely nothing just sits there, and if i leave the cd out it makes it past this point and nothing shows up onscreen... i dunno, i prolly won't get around to working on it til weekend

CS ruined my life.... i hate java programming....
 
Try plugging it into one of the other IDE ports, if it's a multi-device cable, try another plug and lastly play with the RAID settings.

Well, I'm tired as heck, but I'll give you a rundown.
-Undervolts VDIMM by about .05, VCORE by about .01-.015
-Clockgen lists 1.55v as max, however 1.45v is all you're going to get. Suckit.
-Board let me jack up the HTT with no issues up until 285. Then either the chip or northbridge was giving me Prime errors. Lowered the multi to 7 to make sure it wasn't the chip and @ 290 it BSOD'd. Still not bad.
-At the time, I had to run a 12CM fan on the northbridge, because it was getting scalding hot. After that, temps were fine with the Tornado like Thermaltake fan I was using, but it was disturbing. I was downloading files as well as using Winamp with no airflow for about an hour prior, so that partially explains it, but considering how hot it was, I'm not sure whether your average aircooling would be sufficient. Considering this is the same nForce3 Ultra on every other board, I'm not sure why this would be. Hmm, that probably explains why there is a FAN on the newer, PCI-E ones. ;)
-Forgot to check and now am paying the price - socket is closer to the ports. I'm @#$$ed, because my modded PSU can't squeeze between the heatsink and case.

So with the limited voltages and primarily because of the power supply issue, this bad boy is probably going back. Damn.

Offtopic: Newegg is now carrying the MSI RS480M2-IL in stock for under $100.
 
hmmm i'll try that, i hope it works, there's only 2 sata ports, i don't know how changing it will make a difference but it's worth a shot... o... and the zalman's will fit, i had cnps7000b-alcu and it fit no problem, maybe a lil tight but it fit just fine...
 
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