nForce4 Mobos...keeping an eye out at the major national distributors

H

hardwarephreak

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 13, 2002
Messages
1,283
**01/05/04**
Well all preorders have been filled and there are a few left. I just noticed that zip zoom fly is offering these boards for the same price I am, good, its about time. Now we jsut need the other guys to come off their price too. I still have 4 left as of this update... so if you are interested call me up, and I will throw in free ship to the people who get these last four boards.

**12/23/04** Hey the forum is back up...actually saw it was up yesterday, but haven't had a chance to make a post till now. I am on the road, stuck in Tennessee in the hellish winter storm, but still able to post thanks to hotel broadband.

Moving along to what eveyone wants to know about...mobos. I have placed a few calls to Asus, but all I have gotten is voice mail, and no returned calls...Christmas vacation maybe? Anyways, I have spoken with most everyone that had placed a preorder and I have also talked to quite a few people that had got on the list for extras. Well those of you on the extra list will be happy that some people have cancelled their preorders which has made a few more boards available from the initial shipment, however, I am not making any adjustments just yet, as I would like to see what actually happens come the end of the week, beginning of the next. I have placed a few more backorders where I could, but everyone else's ETA is next week, Tues or Wed. More waiting. On the subject of PCIe video cards, they are slated for the same day or first of the year with evga 6800GTs becoming available @ $449.99 and XFX 6800 Ultras available for around $589.

I am happy for all of you that got boards already, just hope you didn't have to sacrifice an arm or a leg for it. I will be answering emails and PMs as I can, but I probably won't have an official update till next week...So on that note Merry Christmas to all...

Dan

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**UPDATE 12/14/04** OK i just got off of the phone with my rep, actually about an hour ago but I have been swamped with customers today. He will have them tomorrow, of course the later of the two days he gave me for an ETA...of course I was hoping for today....Anyway, he will be calling ME tomorrow, which is a nice change, he promised me a call by lunch, so I should have some definitive info by tomorrow early afternoon. I will be getting the boards by Fed Ex on Thursday, and they will go out that night using UPS. IF by some chance I can't get the board out it will go out Friday, but I will have a couple people helping with the packing. I will also be calling each of you that placed preorders tomorrow, just to let you know the board is going out and confiming the charge amounts on your cards. For those of you that are waiting to see if I have any extras available, I will be calling you to let you know either way. I have spoken to some who are praying that some of the people who preorder will have a failed credit transaction :) . Ah the holiday spirit, but seriously if something like that happens I will be on the phone with the person to get that straightened out. I haven't had a chance to look at the posts at the back of this thread yet so I hope the above answers some of your questions..otherwise I will be checking my PMs and email, and as always taking phone calls.

Dan

**UPDATE 12/13/04** Well I have been getting quite a few people that want me to take their names and phones numbers, despite not being a full preorder...which is fine. I have no problems with that, I have told everyone that requested a call back that if there were any that were left over from the initial shipment that I would go down the list in terms of who I heard from first.

The really good news is that it is looking like my vendor is going to get everything in tomorrow, he said all their POs to Asus have no flags on them so their should be no delays. The other thing I was worried about was getting the second order I placed. So what he did for me was due to the fact that I was numero uno reseller with an order on these, he basically tacked my second to my first in his computer system. He said that should almost be a 100% lock, but until tomorrow, when they get them I won't know for sure. If at all possible I'll order even more boards, but again, we'll see tomorrow.

As for plain jane nf4 ultras..I was given a definite time frame of the first week of January. With a slight chance of the last week of December. So yet even more waiting for some of you...hopefully by that time more PCIe Graphics cards will be available. Which I have heard speculation of a sudden availability starting tomorrow, course that is pure rumor, nothing more, nothing less.

More info as I come across it..but man I can't wait till tomorrow. It's like Christmas early



**UPDATE 12/8/04** I am going to have to suspend preorders due to the overwhelming demand both from the forums and from walk in traffic. It's not that I don't have enough on order, it's just that I don't want to accpet any more orders until I am assured that the increased order I placed will actually hold. If you have already preordered I wouldn't worry about it. When I get the order in next Tuesday/Wednesday I will hold any extras for [H] sales only and post how many I have left over in this thread. So stay tuned if you are interested.

I thought there was a thread about nForce4 boards showing up, but I just thought I'd let everyone know when they are starting to show up in the channel. I work for a computer store that has accounts with most of the largest national distributors and I have been checking thier inventories daily. That and I have all of my reps trained to call me the first they hear of NF4 mobos. Now I am not trying to pimp the business I work for so you wont find any names or links to it here. This is just a thread I have started so I can let everyone know when the boards start to get SKU'd up, ETAs, and prelimnary pricing. One of my reps said that they should be getting more info either this Friday or next Monday..

I am aware of the places in the UK that already have the boards available for pre-order. And while that's all nice and good, it doesn't really let me know expected ETA (i.e. day they are to show up). That and aside from those individuals that live in the UK, it doesn't help me out all that much.

Lastly, as crazy as it may seem...sometimes newegg actually gets product before the largest of the national distros (which pisses them off by the way :p at least the reps anyway) So I have been checking there too.

I'll post with more info as soon as I get it.

Boards that should be available by Mid December are from Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte.

**UPDATE**

OK here's the deal...there was more PMs in my box than I think I ever have had, well except for when I used to stockpile PMs, but never one days worth. Anyway, i had a prior commitment last night which kept me away from a computer for awhile. I came in this morning an my PM box was practically overflowing. I never knew there was a 45sec limit on responses...took me forever to reply to everyone, but as of right now I have finally hit the last reply button :D

We are accepting preorders, and they will be at the $199.99 price point. This is for the A8N SLI motherboard. No tax unless you are unlucky enough to live in Floriday. UPS shipping will come out to about 5 or 6 bucks (thats for ground) anything else and I'll figure it out with you on the phone.

Right now I am only accepting credit cards on the first run, just becuase I want to make sure I can get the final orders in to get in on the first shipment. ALthough if you can get me a check by Friday, that will work too. No one will be charged until the boards are at the door waiting for the UPS guy to pick them up. Not a minute before, I hate when I order stuff and then I check and my card has been charged and the thing isn't supposed to go out for another week. So that isn't going to happen here.

I have let everyone know what is going on (as far as my coworkers). I want to handle everything myself as I always like to get people in touch with who they have been conversing with so just ask for me, Dan. If for some reason I am out of the office (I do take lunch breaks too :p ) you can either talk to one of the other guys or just have them take your name and number and I'll call you back as soon as I get to my chair.

Feel free to call, even if you want to just get some questions answered. Like I said I originally just started this thread as a place to give out some info, but it has developed into quite a bit more than that. So if you don't want to order, but have questions, please by all means call me or email or PM, I'll try and answer you questions as best I can.

I am also getting alot of requests for PCIe cards, more specfically the 6800GT and 6800ULtra. Like I have been telling most of you that have already called, the 6800GT has dissappeared, and the Ultra..hehe..I get laughed at when I ask my vendors about that card. The only one that is available with any consistently is the MSI GeForce 6800 256MB...I have been telling people $349. But I am also taking names and numbers for those of you just looking for those rare GT and Ultras.

I didn't want to post a link to my work, but I think demand has pushed me to it so here it is
www.tftcomputers.com

The contact info is a little ways down the front page. Or you can email me or PM me if you don't feel comfortable calling with questions

danc at tftcomputers dot com.

Dan
 
Thank you, I'll be watching as I'm getting one ASAP for my new computer. I guess I'll be the guinea pig for the early bios versions :p
 
Where I work isn't all that important (well I guess it is to me, they do pay me after all)..what is important is that these damn motherboards become available in a timely fashion :D

As far as S754 and nForce4...I guess I could try and poke an prod some info, but my guess (and I mean GUESS) is that there are 754 nForce4 boards in motherboard manufacturer's labs, and in board rooms everywhere marketing is talking with engineering about what the market will demand, and can they put it together. The bottom line is their bottom line, and to be honest the only thing I can think of that would prevent such a creature would be Nvidia flat out telling manufacturers that it is not to happen. My guess ( and once again it is a GUESS) you will see an nForce4 754 board, but probably no NF4 Ultra and definitely not a NF4 SLI 754...they don't make sense as a product offering. Then again I am only guessing :D

Nothing to report today though.. :(
 
Will these NForce 4 boards include PCI Express? I'm looking to upgrade to an Athlon 64 system soon, and don't want AGP anymore.
 
I haven't heard of any NF4 motherboards being AGP.. as far as I knew, they would all use PCI-e.
 
Taryon said:
I haven't heard of any NF4 motherboards being AGP.. as far as I knew, they would all use PCI-e.
Click to expand...
Heh, yep. As far as anyone knows, nForce4 doesn't support AGP, period.
 
Alright, here's a good looking update.

The vendor that told me he would have something for me by Friday or monday just sent me an email.


They have the Asus SLI board all SKUd up, but I can't tell if they have 1115 on order or instock, so I have an email out to him to hold a bunch if they are in fact in stock. Looks like we will be selling them for $199 when we do actually get them instock. Which is a $hit load cheaper than I thought they would be, especially after seeing all the inflated pre order prices on the web.

I would have liked the MSI, but it lacks any PCIe x1 slots unless they have revised it since I last saw it. Never really had too many problems with Asus, just hope it is stable on the overclock.
 
Wow, thanks for the head's up.

That something, are we talking about the Asus or is it unspecified?

Edit: Oh nm, I get it... :D
 
At this piont $199 sounds like a pretty good price.

I too thought they would command more money - but I'm NOT complaining at all :cool:
 
I am absolutely dying for a NForce4 Ultra or SLI to build a new computer around, so hopefully they arrive soon! :) Thanks for keeping us informed too.
 
I didn't want this to turn into a sales thread for the company I work for, I just saw a ton of people looking for these and figured I'd let everyone know when they were coming and how much.

I don't want to piss off any mods or anything, just trying to keep people informed so they don't get screwed by people price gouging. Although ZipZoom says they will be getting them for $219 w/ Freed 2nd Day. Looks like they are getting them the same time I am getting them.

If you guys want to get in on them @ $200, PM me and I'll give you some details.

I jsut got off of the phone with my rep, he said I have first dibs on anything that comes instock and that they already have over 500 backorders from resellers, but plenty coming in to cover the orders. But I will probably actually have them in my grubby little hands by next Tuesday/Wednesday. :D
 
Monarch received 10 of the A8N-SLI boards today, but for $325 I'll happily let someone else buy them. With the gouging on these boards and on high end PCIe cards just getting a Neo2 looks a lot more tempting.
 
Kovalen said:
Monarch received 10 of the A8N-SLI boards today, but for $325 I'll happily let someone else buy them. With the gouging on these boards and on high end PCIe cards just getting a Neo2 looks a lot more tempting.
Click to expand...

Not to rain on anyones paradade but the rumor mills suggests the next 939 winchest cores will support SSE3 and DDR2 (not that it matters), but would that mean a new motherboard of will existing motherboards (new nforce4) support the pin count of the DDR2 due to the controller on the CPU?

The nforce4 has been delayed quite a while and I get this feeling that the first batch/gen of motherboards are going to be overpriced and possibly outdated if there is a dramatic change in motherboard design for next gen winchesters, due out mid January.

Please advise.

thanks
 
Kovalen said:
Monarch received 10 of the A8N-SLI boards today, but for $325 I'll happily let someone else buy them. With the gouging on these boards and on high end PCIe cards just getting a Neo2 looks a lot more tempting.
Click to expand...

I agree. I think part of the reason (price gouging) is also due to:

1) no ultra NON SLi yet
2) delays due to major developments from AMD

???
 
I don't recall reading anything about nForce4 supporting DDR2. Anyone know foresure? I was going to wait another week or 2 for nForce4 Ultra boards, but if nForce4 doesn't support DDR2, which is obviously the next step, you'd need to buy a new motherboard anyway, and possibly have to wait for a new (delayed) chipset.

techz said:
Not to rain on anyones paradade but the rumor mills suggests the next 939 winchest cores will support SSE3 and DDR2 (not that it matters), but would that mean a new motherboard of will existing motherboards (new nforce4) support the pin count of the DDR2 due to the controller on the CPU?

The nforce4 has been delayed quite a while and I get this feeling that the first batch/gen of motherboards are going to be overpriced and possibly outdated if there is a dramatic change in motherboard design for next gen winchesters, due out mid January.

Please advise.

thanks
Click to expand...
 
and if the above is true, we wait, go out and buy ultra nforce4 then the new chips come out with DDR2 (some say that DDR2 is backware compatible with DDR slots), but they'll come out with another set of boards.....and will be stuck with the fastest oldest board we've ever seen :confused:

One has to wonder about why the l-o-n-g- nforce releases....makes me very suspicious.
 
is ddr2 worth waiting for?????? im about to order the asus sli mobo its just ddr or should I wait???? i can not wait another few months if that how long its going to take!!!!
 
militaryman1010 said:
is ddr2 worth waiting for?????? im about to order the asus sli mobo its just ddr or should I wait???? i can not wait another few months if that how long its going to take!!!!
Click to expand...


I don't think DDR 2 is worth waiting for but the curious thing is, where are the Ultra boards and, "the delays", i.e. where are the boards. You know what I mean and I would hate to wait for the nforce4 ULTRA only to have it trumphed in 1-2 months.
 
well, if u want ddr2, u will first of all have to wait, then u have to buy a new mobo, cpu, and ram . thats expensive and if anything they are gonna delay the new cores that will support ddr2 because nf4 is just coming out and that would mean they did all that for nothing, which is simply not gonna happen. even if they have new cores that support ddr2 in january, u are not going to be able to buy them for quite some time.

its all buisness ethics, just buy a sli board and u will be happy ;)
 
Lol its gonna be longer then just a few months.. ;)

militaryman1010 said:
is ddr2 worth waiting for?????? im about to order the asus sli mobo its just ddr or should I wait???? i can not wait another few months if that how long its going to take!!!!
Click to expand...
 
The vanilla Nforce4 and Nforce4 Ultra was supposed to be out before the SLI haha i have no idea whats going on now I say probably January.. There Probably Going mostly the High End Sli so people who were gonna buy em for themselves or as gifts. Will just buy the SLi since they cant wait and its almost Xmas :p
 
The delay of the non SLI nForce 4 boards is actually good for me, because it will fall perfectly in the time frame when I am planning to build. I always like to wait a month or two after new hardware comes out so if this comes out in January, I should definately have enough money in March or so to buy the mobo. I really don't care about DDR2, DDR1 does the job, and does it great so thats not an issue. I think I'll survive on Corsair XMS RAM (512x2) ;)
 
Jasonx82 said:
The vanilla Nforce4 and Nforce4 Ultra was supposed to be out before the SLI haha i have no idea whats going on now I say probably January.. There Probably Going mostly the High End Sli so people who were gonna buy em for themselves or as gifts. Will just buy the SLi since they cant wait and its almost Xmas :p
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I forgot where I read it, but it says SLI boards were FIRST. Why? Because SLI is this big brand new never before done thing and there will be PLENTY of people willing to pay more then necessary to be the first with an SLI board, not to mention buying up 2 top of the line PCI-E. There is FAR more money to made by everyone to put out SLI first, so it makes sense.

Everything in the PC business is waiting these days, it just likes what when you used to wait 1 year for the next big thing, now it's 6 months, and it seems like soon it will be every 3 months the next big thing comes out. It's crazy! When new advances come that quick, delays end up really hurting you.
 
The way I see it, you should just buy it now (well...not the nForce 4 SLI because it's overpriced), and be happy with it because by the time you finish building your computer, something new and improved will just be anounced, so what would be the point on waiting and waiting, it's like an endless loop.
 
mickey987 said:
The way I see it, you should just buy it now (well...not the nForce 4 SLI because it's overpriced), and be happy with it because by the time you finish building your computer, something new and improved will just be anounced, so what would be the point on waiting and waiting, it's like an endless loop.
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I suppose to some extent your right, but at the same token, you can read about all the AMD64 boards (via or nvidia) having either this problem or that problem, or it doesn't have a PCI/ SATA lock on SATA1/2, etc, etc.....

What I am trying to weed out is it due to a) a immature chip set wheras nforce4 will be somewhat more mature, OR b) most of the problems are due to noobs building the PC and throwing any ole ram in their system, using a weak PSU or basically just not building it correctly.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know what the RETAIL AMD64 PC's use for motherboards, e.g, HP, Gateway, etc.

Thanks
 
For those asking the new Winchesters will work on the nforce4 boards, in fact they will work on all 939 socket boards. It's just a core reversion, sure it fixes issues, may increase speed, and adds some things, but its still a 939 part and no new mobo's or chipset's will be needed to support them (at the most a simple bios update)
 
HDClown said:
I don't recall reading anything about nForce4 supporting DDR2. Anyone know foresure? I was going to wait another week or 2 for nForce4 Ultra boards, but if nForce4 doesn't support DDR2, which is obviously the next step, you'd need to buy a new motherboard anyway, and possibly have to wait for a new (delayed) chipset.
Click to expand...

It's the processor that has the memory support not the chipset. AMD is not going to support DDR 2 any time soon. DDR 2 is slower than DDR because of the higher latencies and they are not interchangable,they have a different pin count. Some motheboards have slots for both DDR and DDR 2,but they are different and not interchangable. Athlon 64 cpu's like lower memory latencies which DDR 2 doesn't have. DDR 2 might be better on the newer P4 1066 FSB motherboards because of the high FSB,but there are somenew high speed DDR dimms like CORSAIR's 4400 that will run at cas 2.5.
 
For those looking for the ULTRA boards there is one showing up at ZipZoom, but it's only $20 less than the SLI board. For that little differance I'll get the SLI just because.
 
SLI boards going for $325 !?? Tech stuff is a big ripoff in Ireland and I can see them for preorder for €179 which is only $225. It makes me sad how much dearer everything else is here though.
 
This is all fine well and good, but my question is this. When are the SLI capable 6800 GT PCI-Express cards showing up? XFX and eVGA are the only companies I have spotted even mentioning them as a product so far. Second to when and where is, how much? One hopes we wont be seeing prices in the stratosphere.

I need SLI bad. Got to drive these games at 1920x1200 on my 23" widescreen LCD. Stuff is playable now, but I'm pushing it with my 9800XT.

Now if I only had enough pennies left after all of this for a Sharp LC-45GX6U to hang on my wall.. sigh... sorry day dreaming off topic. :D
 
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