Gigabyte K8N-Pro-SLi Motherboard?

[fotis]

I am thinking of getting one of those for an X2 4400 cpu, any comments/impressions and also how does it compare with the Gigabyte K8NF-9 nForce4 mobo?

thanks

 

[Havana_UK]

Out of interest, why are you only looking at the Gigabyte motherboards?

Hav

 

[fotis]

A mate who is supposed to know (I know very little) has recommended them but I have my doubts.

They also come with the faster firewire (IEEE1394b) compared say to asus

 

[fotis]

Anyone?

 

[Dirk]

Gigabyte are good stable boards but i'd stay away if you were o/clocking. I'd rather have an Asus or DFI either way though tbh.

 

[ToLearn]

as you know very little by the sounds i wouldnt say the dfi would suit you great if your into your overclocking the gigabyte or asus i prefer the asus and most on theses boards seem to along with the dfi but if your just after a non nonenscence board then gigabyte would be fine

 

[Larok]

I installed one for a friend recently, it was easy to set up and worked well. It has a passive heatsink on the chipset which is silent but may not be the best for overclocking. But then do you really need to overclock anyway? I had to disable the raid options in the bios to get windows to see the single sata drive though.

 

[fotis]

No I won't do any overlocking, so is the consensus that I will be ok and I shouldn't have any heat/stability problems?

Thanks for the replies

 

[Larok]

watch out for the non raid issue I had when installing windows, just go into the bios with a keyboard that has a PS2 connecction, (a usb keyboard wont work to get into the bios). And disable the raid options. That's if your using a single sata drive like me though, not 2 drives in a raid config.

 

[Phemo]

Gigabyte boards are fine. As already mentioned, they're not good for overclocking but since you won't be doing that, it's not a problem. In my experience with them, they're good quality, solid motherboards.

 

[dav]

yeh I *** defo go for the gigabyte board if your wanting a stable system, I have had four from gigabyte now and they have all been mint! easy to set up, and stay nice and stable.

 

[Archangelus]

I just bought one of these. Passive heatsink, so it's nice and quiet, good specification, and it installed without a hitch. As one of the other posters said, it's not a board I'd use for overclocking, but it's a doddle to setup and very stable.

Oh, one thing. The bios defaults the memory settings to CAS 2.5, regardless of what your memory actually is. Caused me a few problems, once I'd sorted that, I can't fault it.

 

[fotis]

Oh, one thing. The bios defaults the memory settings to CAS 2.5, regardless of what your memory actually is. Caused me a few problems, once I'd sorted that, I can't fault it.

So which memory should I go for? (cpu will be X2 4400+)? I was thinking the Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200PT TwinX (2x1GB). Will that cause me any problems and what should I do?

 

[Archangelus]

If your memory is CAS 2.5, then you won't have a problem at all. If it's CAS 3, just change it in the bios. My problem showed up just as the system got to the windows desktop, so getting into the bios isn't a problem.

 

[pieman109]

Erm, I previously had an Asus A8N-E mobo a few months back that the USB controller failed. That was running me S/D 3700 at 2.5ghz, but would go to 2.6ghz. I replaced the asus with the gigabyte equivalent, K8NF-9 and I can get the 3700 up to 2.6ghz with this board also, ie, the same clock speeds.
While the Gigabyte mobos aren't the fastest with all the bells and whistles in the bios for overclocking, they will take a cpu to quite reasonable levels, and don't forget, a lot of the cpus out there will not overclock to the same levels as others.
The things I like about them are firewire support, build quality is very good, very easy to set up, they WILL overclock (just not to cpu bleeding levels) and best of all stable and reliable.

 

[badbob]

Pieman, that Gigabyte K8NF-9 looks pretty good. Not SLI and similar to the A8N but it has firewire motherboard connector. How loud is the chipset fan? Any problems fitting memory? (next to each other or one spacing?)

Is the Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) (MY-079-CS) correct memory type? Mobo support X2 4400?