Non-sli nforce 4 motherboard choice (to be used with X2)

Qwertyiopisme · Post by **Qwertyiopisme** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 2:19 am

I am planning to upgrade my main rig this winter, and have decided what to have for all components except for the motherboard. The parts that I will have are:

AMD X2 3800+
2gb ram (either Twinmos or some other valueram, depending on what the motherboard wants most)
Gainward 6600gt (dual dvi, vivo)

The other components (PSU, Harddisks, CD/DVD and so on will be the same as before).

I am currently quite unsure as to which motherboard I want. All that I know is that nforce4 is good, it doesn't matter at all if it is passively or actively cooled as stock (the cooling will be severly hacked up), and that I want at least 6 SATA contacts (I tend to be a data packrat).

So far I've been looking at the MSI K8N neo4-fi and Asus's K8N-E. (see http://www.komplett.se/k/kl.asp?bn=10482 for a list of the motherboards that I have acsess to). I am also somewhat partial to Asus and MSI.

stromgald · Post by **stromgald** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 3:17 am

Um, not to burst your bubble or anything, but the boards you listed don't really meet your criteria. The MSI board has only 4 SATA connectors and 2 IDE. The ASUS board you have listed is an nForce3-250GB board, but its deluxe version (K8N-E Deluxe) has 6 SATA connections. I don't see why you need so many SATA connectors. The only boards that probably support that many SATA connectors are server boards or really high end boards. I'll take a look at that link tomorrow, or someone else will. Its kinda late over here in the US.

Qwertyiopisme · Post by **Qwertyiopisme** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 5:02 am

As for the MSI board, I am rather uncertain as to whether it has 4 or 8 SATA connectors. It says 4 in the spec, but in the picutre it appers to have 4 orange and four black connectors

It could be that they are left unsoldered, but they sure look like contact in any case.

As for the Asus board, are you sure that you're not mixing it up with something else? According to both asus and the retailer it is in fact nforce4 ultra.

http://www.asus.com.tw/products4.aspx?l ... odelmenu=1

stromgald · Post by **stromgald** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 10:15 am

I see, you meant the A8N-E instead of the K8N-E. At least thats what the link goes to. Having contacts won't really help unless you're willing to solder on connectors yourself. Those contacts are for higher end motherboards. The manufucaturer designs one board, but just leaves off the connectors (and maybe something else) in the lower end boards. If you look at the MSI Neo4-F and the Neo4 Platnium, you can see the same layout, but they have SATA connectors on the Platnium where those flat contacts are on the F version.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813130491
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813130484
This also occurs with the ASUS A8N-E Deluxe (or ASUS A8N-E) and the A8N-SLI Deluxe (or A8N-SLI Platnium). If you really want 6 SATA connections or more, you'll probably have to get the A8N SLI-Deluxe, or look for the Neo4 Platnium (non-SLI) since that one isn't at the website your looking at.

snowman59 · Post by **snowman59** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 2:08 pm

I'd go with the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum or the Asus A8N boards. I went with the MSI board myself but only because it offered a little more in terms of overclocking options then the Asus board. Also as a note with that it does have 4 SATAII ports on the Nvidia controller and 4 SATAI ports on a Sil1344 Controller for a total of 8 ports. Also in regards to the MSI board....people here seem to think that the chipset fan is extremely loud...but I personally don't think so. I have mine running at like 6000rpm and its actually quieter than my AC silencer 5 on my GPU. But since you're probably going to be changing it out, I don't think that it matters a whole lot. HTH!

~Best of luck to you