socket 939 motherboard?

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Hi

Can someone help me please? i'm looking for a socket 939 motherboard, really only intersted in Abit, Asus or DFI on a Nforce 4 chipset. I am a computer novice and am not an overclocker and do not intend on overclocking so please bear this in mind. I want a motherboard with the latest technology ie DDR 2 support, fast FSB, pci-e 16x, sata 2 (300), usb 2.0, large memory capacity support, amd 64 x2 support etc.

Please can someone give me some good advice on the best motherboard to purchase, bearing in mind the above?

I have searched through some of the threads in here but most are irrelevant to me as most motherboards recommended are aimed at the overclocker.

Thanks :)
 
You won't find a sckt 939 board with support for DDR2 from any of the manufacturers you mention,for DDR2 support on the AMD platform you would need an AM2 setup.

If you want to stay on sckt 939 then the DFI Ultra D is great value at present,it's essentially an overclockers board but will also be suitable for running a stock clocked system,for the money I don't think you'll find a more stable board on the 939 platform,it provides all of your stated requirements bar the DDR2 support,but as mentioned you would need an AM2 cpu and Mobo for this.

I expect Asrock have a work around though :D ,but I'm pretty sure even they don't offer 939 and DDR2 on the same board.
 
Personally I've just bought the DFI RDX Crossfire board from this site (won't be using more than one graphics card, so didn't really matter if it was NF4 or not). It's to replace a faulty Asrock Dual-SATA2 board, just wanted a cheap replacement board until I change my system completely at a later date. For 41 quid it seems like a good deal, guess I will find out soon enough.
 
Can someone help me please? i'm looking for a socket 939 motherboard, really only intersted in Abit, Asus or DFI on a Nforce 4 chipset. I am a computer novice and am not an overclocker and do not intend on overclocking so please bear this in mind.
Especially as your not intending on overclocking and are a self-professed novice, I don't see why your insisting on an nForce 4, for example: the VIA based boards like the A8V-XE, A8V-E SE are pretty decent for stock and all but identical performance. They also don't have a whiny chipset fan prone to failure (like most of the nForce 4 boards do/did), run cooler, consume less power and the latest (A8V-XE) supports SATA 2.0, NCQ etc just like the nForce 4 boards (not that those features make much diff in the real world), not to mention the added advantage of being cheaper (in some cases/stores a fair bit), which with 939 processors already out of manufacture, is surely gonna be an advantage.

DDR 2 support
As already mentioned this is impossible on socket 939. There is also relatively little performance advantage, even with Core 2 Duo.

fast FSB
All 939 boards are the same, this is moot.

pci-e 16x
Fair enough PCI-Express is good idea for a new board but it doesn't really matter, even the X4 PCI-E boards don't show much difference in performance (best to have 16 for future proofing though and if you plan to use certain cards like a GX2).

sata 2 (300)
Except in circumstances your unlikely to encounter, again this doesn't mean anything, SATA drives can't exceed 150 in average use, heck, PATA 133 was OTT.

large memory capacity support
Irrelevant for average user, Windows 32-bit supports only up to 4GB and even then that includes ALL memory in the system, meaning you end up with about 3GB when you put 4GB in the machine. 2GB is also the most you need currently and some can still get by perfectly on 1GB, fair enough it is good to have enough slots (4) for two sets (so you can have 4GB in the future), but almost all boards fit that criteria.

amd 64 x2 support
All boards fit this out of the box nowadays.

Apologies for picking your post but you say your a novice, so just trying to say it how it is to clarify for you.
 
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hohum said:
Personally I've just bought the DFI RDX Crossfire board from this site (won't be using more than one graphics card, so didn't really matter if it was NF4 or not). It's to replace a faulty Asrock Dual-SATA2 board, just wanted a cheap replacement board until I change my system completely at a later date. For 41 quid it seems like a good deal, guess I will find out soon enough.

You can't go wrong for 41 quid mate! apparently it's a very stable board,capable of high FSB or HTT as the AMD crowd like to call it. :D

Hang on,I'm part of the AMD crowd,still can't justify Core2 Duo,where are the Killer boards?
 
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thanks to all of you for your advice, really appreciate it!

just to keep you all on your toes, i realise now it is an am2 socket motherboard that i need, not a 939 socket, in order to support DDR2......D'oh....warned you i was a novice! Any suggestions???

can someone tell me why a lot of the motherboards nowadays don't include firewire back panel ports????? i know a lot of the boards have the headers but why not the ports on back panel anymore???? :confused:

I would like to stay with the nividia chipset, but theres so many different one's....can somebody explain the difference pls????? i've come across Nividia 6150/nf430? Nividia nforce 570 SLI? Nividia nforce 190/nforce 590 SLI MCP? Nividia MCP55-Ultra single chip? Could someone pls explain it all to me....my head hurts :(

i've got my eye on a few motherboards:

Asus m2n-sli deluxe
Asus m2npv-vm
Abit nf-m2nview

what do you all think of these????

If you aren't much of a gamer is it crucial to have SLI support on a motherboard? If i'm not much of a gamer, do I need 2x PCI-E x16 slots???

So many questions!!! :confused: :confused:

You guys have your work cut out with me you know!
 
If you are not going to game much then you don't need SLI.

Don't know much about Nvidia chips but I would get the ASUS M2N-E with the 570 MCP chip, which is what I was gonna get.

It's the best value for money mobo imho, with good look and design and with all features that you are looking for, great for both OC and non-OCer I think.

The 570 supports 2* 8X PCI-E lanes SLI while the 590 supports full speed 2* 16X PCI-E lanes SLI, but honestly you won't notice the difference.

Avoid the 6150 unless you are planning to use integrated graphics.
 
thanks for the good advice Steve258!

Why do you say to avoid the Nividia 6150 chipset???

Do you know why a lot of the motherboards don't have firewire I/O ports on the back panels anymore???? I know some have the firewire headers on the board, but why not externally anymore????

Thanks :)
 
can someone tell me why a lot of the motherboards nowadays don't include firewire back panel ports????? i know a lot of the boards have the headers but why not the ports on back panel anymore????
Many cases have an internal firewire lead for firewire ports housed on the case itself. Firewire isn't as popular now in any case, since USB 2.0 devices are more common and it offers significantly faster speeds than USB 1.1 did (to the point Firewire is a moot feature). It is usually omitted from budget, lower end and M-ATX boards but professional or enthusiast will still have them.

I would like to stay with the nividia chipset, but theres so many different one's....can somebody explain the difference pls????? i've come across Nividia 6150/nf430? Nividia nforce 570 SLI? Nividia nforce 190/nforce 590 SLI MCP? Nividia MCP55-Ultra single chip? Could someone pls explain it all to me....my head hurts
nForce 4 was the first PCI-Express supporting chip and the 430 with integrated 6100 graphics is part of that generation.

The nForce 5 is the next gen and there are 4 "options" you'll mostly see: 590 SLI, 570 SLI, 570, 550. More info on the differences in the chart here:
http://www.nvidia.com/page/nforce5_specs_amd.html

With AMD boards in particular the differences aren't great between any board since the memory controller is built into the CPU, you'll see a larger difference when talking about added features (RAID performance, SLI/Crossfire) and so on, but even then drivers are more likely to have a noticable effect than a change of motherboard. You'd have to read up more on reviews of specific AM2 boards on sites like Anandtech, since not many people here are particularly versed on AM2 as Core 2 Duo gets 90% of the attention.

If you aren't much of a gamer is it crucial to have SLI support on a motherboard? If i'm not much of a gamer, do I need 2x PCI-E x16 slots???
As already said you only need two PCI-E X16 slots if your intending to SLI/Crossfire or use an expansion card that requires it (like a RAID card). There is also possibility of physics and AI cards in the future but those are more aimed at being the third card in an SLI/Crossfire configuration so you'd be looking at a board with three PCI-E X16 slots.
 
nevski said:
thanks for the good advice Steve258!

Why do you say to avoid the Nividia 6150 chipset???

Do you know why a lot of the motherboards don't have firewire I/O ports on the back panels anymore???? I know some have the firewire headers on the board, but why not externally anymore????

Thanks :)

No problems mate! ;)

Don't get me wrong though 6150 is great if you intend to use integrated graphic, it has a PCI-E 16X as well so you can always add a graphic card should you decide to play games later.

I guess it's just that integrated mobo is usually associated with cheap, budget board with bad OC ability as well as being smaller and has less features then the non-integrated, full size ATX mobo. Pointless IMO if you are using a proper graphic card.

The fire wire ports should be the least of your concern I think, as long as the mobo has a fire wire header on the board the chances are you'll receive a connector for it as well. My mobo (see sig) comes with both USB2 and firewire PCI slot connectors in addition to the 6 USB2 and 1 firewire ports on the back panel.
 
Thanks tetras & steve258, you've both been a really big help!

Has every motherboard with a nividia 6150 chipset got integrated graphics then??? I don't want integrated graphics, I will use a graphics card. My graphics card at the mo is AGP so i will have to buy a new one won't i because I want the latest motherboard, chip, PCI-E etc.

I was worrying about the firewire because I've just bought an Alesis Multimix 8 Firewire Mixer for home recording...I#ll be ok then as long as the mobo I buy has firewire headers.

As I'm not an overclocker, which cpu am I best to buy out of all the amd & intel dual processors??? My budget is around £130

Thanks again guys :)
 
nevski said:
{snip}As I'm not an overclocker, which cpu am I best to buy out of all the amd & intel dual processors??? My budget is around £130{snip}
:confused: Depends on what mobo you have? & going by the thread it seems you have or planning to get a Socket AM2 mobo, leaving you with a choice between Athlon X2, 64 or Sempron AMD processors not Intel (e.g. Core 2 Duo A.K.A. Conroe, etc) :)
 
nevski said:
Has every motherboard with a nividia 6150 chipset got integrated graphics then??? I don't want integrated graphics, I will use a graphics card. My graphics card at the mo is AGP so i will have to buy a new one won't i because I want the latest motherboard, chip, PCI-E etc.

Yes, and like I explained, I would avoid integrated mobos if you are getting a new graphic card anyway.

nevski said:
I was worrying about the firewire because I've just bought an Alesis Multimix 8 Firewire Mixer for home recording...I#ll be ok then as long as the mobo I buy has firewire headers.

Yes you should be fine. I'm not sure about other brands but I know ASUS always include all necessary connectors with all its mobos.

nevski said:
As I'm not an overclocker, which cpu am I best to buy out of all the amd & intel dual processors??? My budget is around £130.

Well the best processor for £130 is defenitely the C2D E6300 OEM, best bang for the buck, great OC potential and an excellent performer even when not OCed. But you pay extra for more expensive mobo.

If you are sticking with AM2 then look no further then X2 3800+ available for £129.99 inc. VAT here @ OCUK.
 
nevski said:
any noticeable difference between the amd 64X2 3800+ & the amd 64X2 4200+???

No the 4200+ is not worth it, it has the same amount of cache as the 3800+ but just 200mhz faster. I know you are not a OCer but the 3800+ can easily run @ 4200+ speed and beyond. IMHO you either get the 3800+ or the 4400+ which has twice the amount of cache.

X2 3800+ - 2000Mhz 512Kb each core
X2 4200+ - 2200Mhz 512Kb each core
X2 4400+ - 2200Mhz 1Mb each core

Just so you know AMD is not going to make the 1Mb chip on the low end X2 in the future. So might as well get one if you can stretch your budget.
 
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thanks steve258!

it's either the amd 64x2 3800 or the intel c2d 6300...wasn't even considering intel before.....i seem to have been persuaded a little!! :D ;)
 
smit101 said:
You can't go wrong for 41 quid mate! apparently it's a very stable board,capable of high FSB or HTT as the AMD crowd like to call it. :D

Hang on,I'm part of the AMD crowd,still can't justify Core2 Duo,where are the Killer boards?

Unfortunately it seems I can go wrong. Board is very unstable for me, can't get it to install windows without bsod, yet memtest ran for a few hours with no errors. DBAN repeatedly crashed when i tried to wipe my disks, saying that my disks might have bad sectors; Western Digital's diag tools say nothing wrong (and also let me wipe disks, no problem...?). Bios seems to be full of bugs, doesn't save certain settings and typos seem to be littered everywhere. Looks like I just lost some cash. :(

Don't know whether to bother RMA'ing it, knowing my luck it'll work fine @OcUK and i'll just lose more cash for postage and 'no fault found' charge (and I wouldn't really want a replacement or the existing one sent back).

Sorry to kinda hijack the thread, but my previous post about it is in here so couldn't really reply elsewhere.
 
Probably best to check DFI Street,should be plenty of info regarding the board and possible fixes.

You may have an old bios,look for and install the latest available,also try the windows install with only one stick of ram installed.Try a different sata port,presuming you're using sata hard drives,most importantly,don't give up yet! there's plenty of things to try first.

Don't forget DFI street! it's a great resource.
 
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