939 mobo advice please

[Washoe]

I have 2 sticks of 512MB Kingston HyperX PC4000 RAM, which is DDR500. My current Socket-A motherboard barely scratches the surface of getting past a 400MHz timing, and I want to upgrade to Athlon-64 anyway. So I'm looking for suggestions on a motherboard which can take advantage of the 500MHz speeds of my RAM. I will most likely be going with a Venice Core 3200 cpu. Thanks for any suggestions or advice!

On edit: It's got to be an AGP board, for compatibility with my current video card (eVGA 6800nu)

 

[knothead34]

normally i would say dfi nforce 4 board it gives you over clocking features in the bios however it doesnt like kingston ram that much. so i would guess maybe the msi nforce 4 board.

 

[Washoe]

Thanks knothead -- I should have mentioned in the OP that it's gotta be an AGP board. I've got a 6800 AGP video card that I'm gonna stick it out with for a bit longer right now. Think I'll edit the OP ....

 

[aatf510]

MSI Neo2 Platinum might be a good choice.

 

[imported_rod]

Not many 939/agp boards. especially if you want the nforce4 chipset.

 

[aatf510]

Originally posted by: rod
Not many 939/agp boards. especially if you want the nforce4 chipset.

nf4 is a PCI-E native chipset, so even if there is "any" AGP nf4 board. Do get them.
The nf3 is very similar to nf4 except it's AGP base.

 

[SrGuapo]

I would recommed the EPoX 9NDA3+. Great OCer, completely stable, and a few bucks cheaper than the MSI. The main drawbacks seem to be the hideos green color and the layouyt (power connector is on the left side of the board). Still a great board. I havce been able to boot at over 330HTT. Decent bios as well.

 

[Washoe]

The 9NDA3+ is the one I am leaning towards atm. The color I could care less about. Layout could be a concern - I'll check more into that thanks.

However, one main issue still exists for me. As with each 939 board using AGP (that I've come across), the DDR Standard is DDR 400 (PC 3200). So then my question I guess should be - which one OCs the best? Or is there something I'm missing?

 

[Washoe]

In checking on some of the 939/AGP boards available, I notice (for example with the MSI K8T Neo2) that the FSB is listed as "1000MHz Hyper Transport" - how can the DDR standard by 400 yet FSB be 1000MHz?

 

[nick1985]

see sig

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: toattett
MSI Neo2 Platinum might be a good choice.

Would be the best choice.

Epox makes a nice mobo too, but if you want the best...

 

[aatf510]

Originally posted by: Washoe
In checking on some of the 939/AGP boards available, I notice (for example with the MSI K8T Neo2) that the FSB is listed as "1000MHz Hyper Transport" - how can the DDR standard by 400 yet FSB be 1000MHz?

There is no FSB in A64 unlike P4.
1000MHz Hyper Transport is the speed that the CPU and on-die memory controller communicate.
The closest thing to FSB in an A64 system would probably be HTT(200MHz), the speed which the CPU and northbridge talks.