AGP, Socket 939 motherboard. Which one?

[Wombat]

Hey guys,
I'm shopping for an x86-64 box for myself. What should I consider? From my first looks around, it seems like an nF3 based motherboard is the way to go. But what manufacturer?

I'm keeping my 9800Pro for a while, so I want to go AGP (hence no nF4 thread).

[Delany]

Hi Wombat,

I picked up myself a Gigabyte GA-K8NSNXP-939 (NF3 Ultra Based) board when i went x86-64. It's a good board and seems to be plenty stable etc.

There is one problem with it though, Gigabyte have used a plastic backing plate in the Heatsink/Fan retaining unit so if you are looking at putting some of the bigger heatsink/fans combos on it you need to change that plate. Thermalright make a metal one so that you can mount the XP-90 & XP-120 heatsinks.

That's the only bad thing i've found with my board so far.

[Helevitia]

I was disappointed with my Asus because they lied about overclocking features that don't work on my rev board. Stability wise, I have no problems.

If you look into the A8V, make sure it is a rev 2.0 board. Mine is 1.1.

[Wombat]

You really did okay with a VIA chipset?

[DGhost]

I've had one of the shuttle SN85G4 SFF machines for the last year - I started with a V1 and recently snagged a V3 to replace it. The nForce3 chipset has been wonderful to me during this time - the only problems I had with it existed soley because of design flaws in the V1 related to power, cooling and the use of an external SATA controller as required by the nForce3 150 chipset. The V3 uses the nForce 250 chipset and as such provides SATA natively.

Oh well, it has still be very reliable for me. I've run various 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems with it and have been really impressed with how well it worked out.

Sadly, the machine is a socket 754, so I really don't have any recommendations on the 939 side of the house.

[UtwigMU]

Basically sound, LAN and SATA will be in chipset, so all boards will have very similar features.

So it's only matter of brand preference, layout, perhaps some added feature you really need....

[Helevitia]

Originally posted by Wombat
You really did okay with a VIA chipset?

To be honest, I've had VIA chipsets for years. I think the fact that I always buy Asus is a tribute to not having many problems. I alwasy get the "V" versions of the Asus boards because they feel familiar and they design them the same. Not much to re-learn when I upgrade.

OTH, I haven't used a SATA HDD with this board yet and I have read of some VIA problems with SATA. But this board also has a Promise SATA controller too, so I am not worried. I do use a SATA DVD Burner though. I had a few problems but those were my fault.

[rugger]

The vast majority of Asus boards really are very solid.

Ussually not the most feature laden or overclockable, but whenever rock stability is a requirement, you can just install an asus board and be sure that it will work, be stable, and stay reliable for a considerable time.

[leech]

I bought a MSI Neo2 K8N Platinum, though I can't say I'd recommend it... I would have bought Asus, but they don't have an nForce3 board that is socket 939 (at least they didn't at the time I bought mine. After updating my Bios, my board seems stable enough, haven't had any crashes due to the motherboard (at least since I had to get it replaced about 16 days after I bought it.)

It comes with 4 SATA connectors and has a Gigabit as well as an 10/100 LAN connector on it. It's a great board for the price though.

Leech

[Admiral]

I'm quite happy with my Gigabyte K8NS Ultra-939 board. Gigabyte makes reasonable (price/performance and stability wise) boards for Athlon 64 and Pentium 4, their socket A boards tended to suck.
From what I've read (and heard), if you want serious fsb overclocking for Athlon 64 you should get DFI boards.

[RichL]

Got an Asus A8V here too. It locked up occassionally, but that might be because I'd been running 240fsb when crunching Seti units.
Did have a MSI K8Neo2, but that didnt like my G550 so it got RMA'd then stolen in the post on is way back to me.

[Fat Tone]

K8N-E Deluxe here - rock solid!

[rugger]

Originally posted by Fat Tone
K8N-E Deluxe here - rock solid!

I got that board too. Other then the onboard ethernet pissing me off at various times, it works great. (to fix the ethernet, I disabled all its powersaving features)

unfortunately the K8N-E is a 754 socket board, not a 939 socket board.

[Fat Tone]

True its not a 939 board, but it is lovely and fast and stable and well featured well priced and the nic hasn't given me any problems.

[Wombat]

Hmmm, unfortunately I'm only considering 939s.