which MB for 939 A64?

N

nismohks

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 9, 2003
Messages
350
im currently thinking of purchasing an athlon 64 pc in the next week or so, but not ure which MB to get?
im thinking of:

Gigabyte K8NS Ultra-939 Skt939
Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939 Skt939
Asus A8V-Deluxe WiFi-G Skt939
Abit AV8-3rd Eye Skt939

im leaning towards the K8NS Ultra since it is quite cheap, bu whats the difference between that and the K8NSNXP besdies the Gigabyte DPS thing?

Is the nForce3 chipset better than the VIA one? or what are the advantages of each one?

should i wait for nForce4?

thanx in advance!

...btw im thinking of getting A64 3500+since 3800+ ie hella expensive
 
hey bounty, whats up kid? :D


im not a large fan of gigabyte anymore... i paid a good $180 for the 7NNXP and it pretty much sucked. the DPS doesnt do really do shit.. its more of a marketing gimmick.

id go with the MSI board i suppose... but if you have some time to kill wait for a DFI board.
 
i have the k8ns 939-Ultra im very happy with it... oh and if you do get the board ctrl-f1 in the bios opens "hidden" menu which gives you all the memory timings...why they hide it i dunno?
 
which chipset is the best?

the problem witht he MSI is that not many stores have it around my area( i live in australia btw)

any news on nForce 4?
 
I absolutely love my K8NSNXP-939, I can actually hit 300FSB with it!
It glows blue, is fast as fuck, and it's certainly stable.
Although, people seem quick to shoot it down and pass it off as having "memory controller problems" or something of that nature. Honestly, it's a bunch of bullshit, it has run great with no problems for several months.
 
The board does have memory issues. Unless you get really lucky with your memory modules, you're going to end up buying new memory for this board. I've also had a few other problems with this board that made me stop trying to overclock altogether.

Part of the reason I got an FX-53 was just in case the Gigabyte board failed to have the proper oomph for overclocking. It did, so I stopped, and its still rather fast.

That said, I am looking forward to a proper overclocker's 939 board (DFI's nf4) arriving to end this. The worst part of the Gigabyte board, though, is the voltages. Just atrocious. Anyone who tells you the Gigabyte board is good has either modded their board to get higher voltages, gotten extremely lucky, or is flat-out lying.

Not wanting to mod my board just for voltages (or buy a memory-frier like the OCZ device), not being lucky, and not lying, I'm telling you I'm avoiding Gigabyte next-go-round.

DFI for me.
 
I'd honestly say the Epox is the best 939 board Ive had closely followed by the NEO 2
 
wait for the DFI NF4 UT-D. If you check out the Anandtech article, you can easily hack it into a SLI capable board for only $130-140.
 
Gibzilla said:
Try to stay away from VIA.
Click to expand...
STFU, When Via was making mobos, nVidia was still playing in it's dad nutsack(probably you too if you stated something like that).
 
PvP-ForLife said:
STFU, When Via was making mobos, nVidia was still playing in it's dad nutsack(probably you too if you stated something like that).
Click to expand...
And your point is? You cant seriously say that any of the VIA 64 bit boards are better than NF3/NF4, ive had 2 K8T800 based board, 1 K8T800 Pro based board, 2 NF3 250GB boards & 2 NF3 Ultra boards and there is no comparison. I did have a NF3 150 board and I admit the VIA performed better than that but for stability and overclocking at least in my experience the Nforce series are far superior
 
Bradmax57 said:
And your point is? You cant seriously say that any of the VIA 64 bit boards are better than NF3/NF4, ive had 2 K8T800 based board, 1 K8T800 Pro based board, 2 NF3 250GB boards & 2 NF3 Ultra boards and there is no comparison. I did have a NF3 150 board and I admit the VIA performed better than that but for stability and overclocking at least in my experience the Nforce series are far superior
Click to expand...
There is a very very low difference(within the error margin) between stock Nf3 and K8T800 Pro, and I belive the great capability of oc of the Msi Neo2 is because of the way they manufactured the board(not saying the K8T800 Pro is a lame ocer).
One more thing, the Nf4 is not in direct competition to the K8T800 Pro but to the K8T890, which will support the Sli version for Ati cards, so we are going to see who will perform better in the future.
 
VIA's past record is kinda shaky but the K8T800 came off nicely imo. I was gonna get a Neo2 originally but it was outta stock mostly everywhere in Nov. when I was buying parts so I went with the ASUS A8V based on all the glowing reviews (here, at Anand, the [H] boards, and elsewhere).

I'm pretty satisfied with it, no stability problems whatsoever with it so far. At my current OC it passed Prime (+a looped MP3 +rhdribl) for 12 hrs with no problems. The latest BIOS from ASUS takes care of the Winchester voltage control with aplomb (vcore doesn't fluctuate much at load), and setup was smooth sailing. I really like it's layout as well.

Frankly these days I think it's more about the particular manufacturer than whose chipset (when talking VIA vs. NVidia) they're using. I'd rather buy an ASUS/Abit VIA board than say... A Soyo Nforce board.

P.S. The A8V was one of the few boards that could handle the Winchesters without requiring a BIOS update or would at 'least let you update it without having to throw in a NC or other 130nm chip to do it. I suppose this point is moot now since most boards out there will have shipped out with more current BIOSes but it could be relevant if it's been sitting on a shelf for months.
 
there is (not sure about the nforce4 chipset) only one 939 mobo that is worth it...

MSI K8N NEO2 PLATINUM

ps. great for overclocking
pss. epox has serious issues
 
I agree that at stock they is little between them, infact the via might even be ahead in some areas, but when it comes to overclocking ive found the NF3 to be far easier and a lot more stable
 
What about the Abit AV8? i recently heard some good news with it and that even Alienware use their motherboards, so i cant really go wrong?
 
Bradmax57 said:
I agree that at stock they is little between them, infact the via might even be ahead in some areas, but when it comes to overclocking ive found the NF3 to be far easier and a lot more stable
Click to expand...
Yeah, from what I've seen VIA does have a slight edge in gaming benchmarks at stock though not in the synthetic stuff... It's hard to explain, not a margin that you'd notice by any stretch of the imagination though. On the OC'ing stuff, I dunno how you can judge that really unless you've got a wide sample batch of various different boards. Even pushing them to the highest possible OC like AT does doesn't really reveal what the next board in the same line may be capable of sometimes.

Word of mouth alone is not enough to draw a conclusion, the Neo2 is certainly the most popular option it seems though. Neo2 users seem to deal with a lot of odd quirks (like that one bug that would freeze the BIOS if you opened the HT menu, had to use the arrow keys, dunno if it's fixed or happened only when Windows flashing it)...

I was willing to buy one regardless because I have the time to read about all those little things, there's a lot of people that could help me troubleshoot them, and I felt I had a pretty good handle on them anyway; none of them seemed like a major issue. But like I said, they were outta stock when I was ready and all the A8V reviews were glowing so I went with it.

Very happy with it, everything's worked as it should and has given me no installation or OC problems (just finished a second battery of tests, this time with small FTTs in Prime instead of Blend mode since it pushes the core more, CPU util remained at 100% all thru it as it should... I read Blend stresses the RAM mostly).
 
Gibzilla said:
Go back to playstation, u fucktard n00b.
Click to expand...
I think comparing a chipset to sexual orientation (VIA=homo) is pretty noobish myself :rolleyes:

I got an Asus A8V and love it. Each to their own...
 
i can only choose between these four boards though:

Gigabyte K8NS Ultra-939 Skt939
Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939 Skt939
Asus A8V-Deluxe WiFi-G Skt939
Abit AV8-3rd Eye Skt939

since i am purchasing whole pc from the same store( www.auspcmarket.com.au) and i currently have quite a hard choice!!! no idea which to get.

please help!
 
nismohks said:
i can only choose between these four boards though:

Gigabyte K8NS Ultra-939 Skt939
Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939 Skt939
Asus A8V-Deluxe WiFi-G Skt939
Abit AV8-3rd Eye Skt939

since i am purchasing whole pc from the same store( www.auspcmarket.com.au) and i currently have quite a hard choice!!! no idea which to get.

please help!
Click to expand...

K8NSNXP-939
 
AV8 I have had one for awhile and it has been rock stable. I also have the 2 Epox boards and they also have been stable. The 2 MSI boards I had both had issues. 1 was DOA and one the pci bus did not work.
 
how come there are no Asus or Abit boards that have the nforce 3 chipset for socket 939? or are there such boards but im just not finding them?
 
I really like my asus A8V. I haven't overclocked it, but it hasn't had a reboot since Xmas. I have been playing doom3 and half life 2 on it a lot also.

In regard to via chipsets. I haven't had any problems with them at all. Before I got this board i had a via KT600 and it was very stable and gave me no problems.

If you already have memory modules you might want to check to see if it is verified by the manufacturer. It could help narrow your choices.
 
Okay. For those of you who went gigabyte: my experience. I ordered a K8N-Ultra-939. After I flashed it to F5, it was more stable than before, but still unaccetably erratic. The K8n and the K8NSNXP-939 are the same mobo, exactly. the dps is no longer 6 phase which is useless. the "dps" on that board is a fan and heatsink. a lot of gigabyte motherboards dont have cmos clear switches. Gigabytes overclocking options are meager. They cut a lot of corners, and in the end, a bad motherboard comes out. I had memory problems and stability issues at stock. I'm no n00b and my computer was properly configured. I now have an AV8, Which I purchased after my freinds computer which I built had one in it for a while. I agree, its not the fastest, Its not the flashiest, but it is stable as all hell, my benchmark scores are beyond acceptible, 24000 3Dmark01, 13000 03, 5500 05. I am happy with the motherboard, and it was very less $ than the others. Nvidia is cutting corners as well. I am no longer pro-nvidia. ATI, and Via are honestly manufacturing
their products, nvidia is not. My friends computer benches less than mine and costs more.
I am running my 3000+ winny at 2.25 ghz, 1.525 volts, ddr333, HT4x, and all on a zalman 7000 cooler. the ram does not create a bottleneck, ram bandwidth means nothing to a64s.
Hope you chose wisely.
-Josh
 
ubern00b15 said:
Okay. For those of you who went gigabyte: my experience. I ordered a K8N-Ultra-939. After I flashed it to F5, it was more stable than before, but still unaccetably erratic. The K8n and the K8NSNXP-939 are the same mobo, exactly. the dps is no longer 6 phase which is useless. the "dps" on that board is a fan and heatsink. a lot of gigabyte motherboards dont have cmos clear switches. Gigabytes overclocking options are meager. They cut a lot of corners, and in the end, a bad motherboard comes out. I had memory problems and stability issues at stock. I'm no n00b and my computer was properly configured. I now have an AV8, Which I purchased after my freinds computer which I built had one in it for a while. I agree, its not the fastest, Its not the flashiest, but it is stable as all hell, my benchmark scores are beyond acceptible, 24000 3Dmark01, 13000 03, 5500 05. I am happy with the motherboard, and it was very less $ than the others. Nvidia is cutting corners as well. I am no longer pro-nvidia. ATI, and Via are honestly manufacturing
their products, nvidia is not. My friends computer benches less than mine and costs more.
I am running my 3000+ winny at 2.25 ghz, 1.525 volts, ddr333, HT4x, and all on a zalman 7000 cooler. the ram does not create a bottleneck, ram bandwidth means nothing to a64s.
Hope you chose wisely.
-Josh
Click to expand...

I have the F3 bios on mine, and it's stable as hell. I haven't seen any memory problems (I keep hearing people complain of these, but nobody mentions specifics) this board has every overclocking option that other boards have, and is stable at 275x10 to boot (at least on my fx-53, my fx-55 is still in the mail)
 
ScHpAnKy said:
I have the F3 bios on mine, and it's stable as hell. I haven't seen any memory problems (I keep hearing people complain of these, but nobody mentions specifics) this board has every overclocking option that other boards have, and is stable at 275x10 to boot (at least on my fx-53, my fx-55 is still in the mail)
Click to expand...


Some people got really lucky, like mine wasnt that bad, but I wanted better for what I paid. You take a risk with gigabyte. The ocing options arent great for everyone, the voltage increase for everything doesnt go that high, and if you look on the pcb, there is a lot of things that gigabyte did not implement, to save money. most people dont notice, but I looked. One thing I noticed was the 2 pin cmos clear. its normally 3 pins, and there is a place for 3 pin cmos clear on the pcb. 2 pin is cheaper to manufacture.
I couldnt overclock more than 100 mhz with that board. I posted a thread asking questions about the board and I got a lot of negative replys. Only one guy that said he was a noob, and never overclocked it said he liked it.
 
ScHpAnKy said:
I have the F3 bios on mine, and it's stable as hell. I haven't seen any memory problems (I keep hearing people complain of these, but nobody mentions specifics) this board has every overclocking option that other boards have, and is stable at 275x10 to boot (at least on my fx-53, my fx-55 is still in the mail)
Click to expand...
Yeah, what are the specifics of these Memory problems being reported . I'd like more information on this.


I have been running a Gigabyte GA-7NNXP for over 2 years now and it's solid as a rock. I don't Oc so maybe that's why. Before this board I had the GA-7VAXP and it ran like a stud also. In fact I sent it to my buddy down south and he is very happy with it thus far.


It seems the only knock on Gigabyte is it's not Oc Friendly. But beyond that, I think they offer the most out of the box bang for your buck. I haven't tried MSI or EPOX's newer boards but I've dealt with those manufacturers in the past and it wasn't a pleasant experience. As for DFI I have not dealt with their products yet. So I won't even comment on that as I don't have experience.

As for ASUS. I had 2 boards of theirs before and they either Fried my CPU, or the IDE Controllers died on them. On the asus boards I had they had VIA chipsets on them. And VIA at the time had very poor Drivers for their chipsets. So I'm done with VIA forever.

When my CPU got fried on the ASUS board. AMD said it was due to the ASUS MOBO.He said that the ASUS boards just ran AMD chips HOT for some reason. They still sent me a replacement CPU. Thank God for BOX warranties. when I asked the representative about which boards he reccommended to prevent future CPU's from being cooked,he reccommended Gigabyte. Since then I've been in a love affair with Gigabyte. I have been very happy with my Gigabyte Experience for over 3 years now. Every purchase has been a pleasant one.
 
hmm now im leaning more towards the Abit boards. im not much of an overclocker but i know enough so that i wont fry my future new cpu(939 A64 3500+)

just one thing bugs me with the AV8 thrid eye though. its the psu power plug on the MB. im afaid that there might be a fat bunch of cables thats gonna be in the middle of my case(antec P160). HOPEFULLY i am able to route thatcable behind the psu and come out just under it to the MB header like the Antec Lanboy.

btw. is the AV8 fussy with Ram? im thinkning of getting:
PC-3200 1024MB Corsair TwinX 184-pin DDR SDRAM CAS 2 (2x512MB sticks) 400mhz w/aluminium heatspreader

is that any good and is it the right speed for the A64 3500+?
 
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