¿ VIA K8T890 -=OR=- nForce4/Ultra ?

Mr. Stryker

Supreme [H]ardness
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Well, I'm looking for a kickass motherboard to house my Fx55. I noticed there are a lot of nice K8T890 chipset on mobo manufacturers I like. Is it worth my time to get a VIA K8T890, overclockability good on those chipsets at their price? I'm not looking for a SLI motherboard. Just one PCIe x16 slot, and my rule for a motherboard is to have vertical RAM and CPU bracket to allow fan on heatsink to blow air directly out of the case's exhaust.
 
Sticking with NF4 is best. Via boards are stable and all but many have lots of third party chips that need drivers seprate from the regular chipset drivers. Lan, audio, sata, and raid drivers can be hard to find after the board goes out of production. Nvidia boards are also better overclockers and are generaly well regarded. Stick with Nvidia :).
 
Allright.. you got a point.

But I want to hear more from more people.

Plus, drivers aren't a problem for me. I'm not a noob on that kind of stuff. I'm an expert Driverguide.com adventurer and Googler.
 
I have a K8T890 board (Abit AX8) and I really do love the thing. But I don't have a DFI NF4 SLi-DR coming in tomorrow for no reason. K8T890 is, in my experience, incredibly stable, very fast compared to equally-clocked NF4 boards, and it overclocks decently. (260htt is what mine is good for. Not amazing, but not bad either) Main reason I'm switching to the NF4 SLI is for dual-core compatability. Via claims they're releasing a new rev of K8T890 that fixes the issue...but that doesn't help me and my AX8.

BTW drivers aren't really an issue. Via uses a unified driver set just like nvidia/ati/intel/so on do. It covers pretty much everything, except for whatever LAN and sound chips that particular board has. (it's the same with NF4 boards as well...you get various combinations of lan and audio chips)

Overall I do like K8T890 and the AX8 seems to be one of the best implementations of it. But the no-holds-barred overclockability and the Dual-core compatability of the SLI-DR won me over.
 
Nforce 4 > anything Via can wish about. Via chipsets suck, stability problems, compatibilty problems. Nforce 4 is a great chipset and Via has been lacking since the KT333 days.
 
Skrying said:
Nforce 4 > anything Via can wish about. Via chipsets suck, stability problems, compatibilty problems. Nforce 4 is a great chipset and Via has been lacking since the KT333 days.
i disagree, i like nforce board more, but i think Via can make good cnipsets
 
i have built several asus a8n-sli deluxe and a small number of DFI-lanparty ultra D's

the nf4 is a superb chipset-- can't say about teh 890via-- my past experiences with via have been hit and miss at best.

i am building a a8v deluxe with the 800pro chipset.--mainly because i got a super deal on a AGP videocard 6800gt.

from what i've been told-- the kt-800pro has support for x2 cpu's

i have also been told that the 890 lacks full support for the newer dual core platform.

now all nf4s support the new standard --ot at least can support it with a bios update. if you plan on going x2 anytime in the future the nf4 looks like the best pick--even discounting the stability and overclocking advantages the nf4 has over the 890--or so i'm told. :)
 
Ah, I see.

It's just that I've had three VIA boards for maybe 7 years, and I've never had problems with them. Had them on my K5, 1.2GHz 'Athlon' and 1.73GHz 'Athlon XP'

Thought that it wouldn't kill me to use VIA once again, since they don't make sucky chips for budget.

I'm not using dual core, so the K8T890 shouldn't be a problem for me?
 
well--i've also read--that the 800pro's can't do much more than 250fsb stable. since i haven't had time to test it's limits yet i can't say if that is true.

but i have had the a8n-sli deluxe to 322fsb @9x-- and clocking the cpu down to 5x it will pull 366mhz.


the the DFI topped out with the early winchester at the same fsb 322@9x

but it would do an astounding 409fsb @4x and this is @1.67v core
with the venice core 3200 they pull around 2.75g @10x

the DFI can pull a "bad" core futher than the asus. my crap core late winchester --on the asus 2.45--on the DFI 2.68g stable in windows.

the DFI handles the assorted cpu cors and builds a little better than my asus.

and is in general the better overclocker of the two--but they each do very well in the overclocking area.


if your going to overclock it much--the via is going to have a tough time catching up with these nf4s.

i don't know if the 890's can do any more than the 800s overclocking wise . if what i have read about the kt800s if this is is true i don't expect it to pull much if any beyond 250fsb--

for this application--that will be fine-- if overclocking is the main goal--NF4 all the way. :cool:
 
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