Skt 939 board

fish99

fish99

fish99

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Hi,

I'm after a cheap socket 939 motherboard to take a A64 4000+. Although I'm not looking to pay a lot I still want good gaming performance, so the board needs dual channel memory support and of course a PCI Express x16 slot (probably for a X1800 XT 256mb). I don't need onboard sound/video (doesn't matter if it's there so long as I can disable it), but I would like onboard LAN. I only need a single PCI slot for my Audigy 2 ZS. I also (and this is where I can save money) don't need or want Crossfire/SLI support.

I've been with intel CPUs and chipsets for a real long time, so I haven't followed the AMD scene and so consequently don't really know anything about the various Socket 939 chipsets. I was looking at something like the Asus A8N-VM CSM which is £55 from OcUK and has the nForce 430 chipset. Spec-

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=1&model=766&l1=3&l2=15&l3=0

I can't see anything wrong with it, and on the face of it it seems to do everything I want, but maybe someone who knows more about the AMD scene will know a little bit more about it? For instance does it take the full range of Skt939 CPUs?

I know Socket 939 is a bit of a dead end, but I only have so much to spend (£380 to spend on cpu/video card/motherboard) and going AM2 and getting new ddr2 ram would push me way over my budget. I just want something to keep me going for 12 months, to provide a 'decent' upgrade over my current system and to free up my old CPU/motherboard/video card (P4 3.2 HT/Asus P4C800/X800 XT) for my brothers PC.

Cheers,
Simon.
 
Hi the A8N-VM CSM does support the full range of 939 CPUs (but may require a BIOS update to properly identify the newest) but are you sure that the extra features of the CSM are required over the standard A8N-VM?

If you aren't aware they are most noticably: gigabit LAN (to 10/100), DVI & VGA for the onboard graphics (to VGA), Firewire (to none) and 4x SATA2 (to 2x SATA2).

I'd also caution that both are Micro-ATX and the PCI-Express x1 slot has been put at the bottom of the board (which is where the most likely to be used PCI slot should have been placed for adequate clearance with double slot graphics cards).

A card of the X1800s size would most likely overhang the Audigy far enough the fan would still have plenty of 'airspace' (and would probably be ok anyway) but it is something to be aware of with those boards in any case.
 
Ah right, I though the A8N-VM didn't have any onboard LAN but it does.

I hadn't thought about the size of the X1800 though, it would definitely block the first PCI slot, and only having one usable PCI slot might not be a good option. I've had problems in the past with soundcard/video card using the same IRQ and needing to swap the soundcard to a different PCI slot, which wouldn't be possible with just one slot. Then again if it's only got 2 PCI slots, the chances of any of them needing to share an IRQ with the PCI-Express slots would be pretty small I'm guessing.

Not sure about those Asrock boards with their ULi chipset. Not saying there's anything wrong with them, they may be excellent, but I just haven't heard of ULi before. I'll have to look into them.

Gonna look for some more options (non micro ATX).
 
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Found some more options-

Gigabyte K8N51GMF-9, another micro-ATX but with a better layout. I would probably rather not have the onboard video though.

Abit KN8 Ultra and KN8 also look good options. Straight forward boards without any unwanted extras.

edit: Didn't realize the Asrock 939 Dual had an AGP slot, interesting.
 
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Any opinions on those Abit boards? (KN8 and KN8 Ultra)

nForce4/nForce4 Ultra still good chipsets by todays standards? Any problems with them?

Cheers,
Simon.
 
From the manual it appears the KN8/KN8 Ultra will only take 2 DIMMs at DDR400, which is no good at all :rolleyes:
 
fish99 said:
From the manual it appears the KN8/KN8 Ultra will only take 2 DIMMs at DDR400, which is no good at all :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
The KN8 memory support table in the manual is wrong - look at the AN8 table (uses the same chipset) instead.

The KN8 is a solid, decent overclocking (over 300HTT) series without too many fripperies.

nForce4/nForce4 Ultra still good chipsets by todays standards? Any problems with them?
Click to expand...
Yes, but I recommend not using the SW IDE drivers or the Network Accesss Manager.
 
Cheers :)

Would I be right in thinking those drivers and that util you mention aren't essential? In other words there's a stable alternative IDE driver, and the onboard LAN will still work without the NAM?

It's a pitty the memory QVLs are always so inadequate (for all manufacturers), I'm hoping to use my current Twinmos DDR400 1GB dual channel kit in the new board, and if that works buy a 2nd kit to bring me up to 2 GB, but there just isn't the info out there to find out if that ram works with any particular board. Will just have to take a chance I guess.
 
fish99 said:
Cheers :)

Would I be right in thinking those drivers and that util you mention aren't essential? In other words there's a stable alternative IDE driver, and the onboard LAN will still work without the NAM?

It's a pitty the memory QVLs are always so inadequate (for all manufacturers), I'm hoping to use my current Twinmos DDR400 1GB dual channel kit in the new board, and if that works buy a 2nd kit to bring me up to 2 GB, but there just isn't the info out there to find out if that ram works with any particular board. Will just have to take a chance I guess.
Click to expand...

RAM incompatibility is pretty rare nowadays, you should be fine :)
 
fish99 said:
Would I be right in thinking those drivers and that util you mention aren't essential? In other words there's a stable alternative IDE driver, and the onboard LAN will still work without the NAM?
Click to expand...
The stable alternative IDE driver is the stock MS (having said that there is a new nVidia UDP out since yesterday).

in the UDP you have the ethernet driver & the NAM which is a firewall but has been buggy.
Again, there is a new UDP so maybe it's fixed but XP already has a firewall & if you have a router as well do you really need 3?
 
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