Any NF4 boards that support AGP?

[coremortality]

Like the title says, are there any NF4 boards that support AGP? I'm currently running an ABIT NF7-S 2.0 w/ a 3000 XP+ Barton core but I'm looking at getting an equivalent AMD 64 and an NF4 board. Thing is I would like to keep my PNY GF6800 GT.

Any suggestions?

Eric

 

[grooge]

Why??? nforce 3 is for AGP... go with one of them instead..

 

[mamisano]

Check out this Biostar board. It has PCI-Express and a variant of AGP-8X. The board is based on the NF4-Ultra, NewEgg lists it for $114.
http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdetails.asp?model=nf4ul-a9
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=13-138-249&depa=1

 

[coremortality]

Thanks for the info mamisano. Looks like that board would have some compatability issues though.

As far as NF3 boards go, what are some of the top recommened? What are peoples opinions of the EPoX EP-9NDA3J? I've generally stayed with ABIT for my Mobo's but I interested in trying something new.

Thanks again.

 

[Peter]

That Biostar board, like many others, put an AGP slot onto the PCI bus. That only works with AGP cards that are backwards compatible to 3.3V signalling. Many of today's cards are not.

To add to that deceptive thing, these boards have a wrongly-keyed AGP slot fitted - which means 1.5V-capable cards fit in although you definitely need a 3.3V-capable card. That way, 1.5V-ONLY cards like Radeon 9600, 9800 and X800 cards do fit, but won't work, and may even take damage.

There are two ways of getting full-width PCIE and proper AGP onto one board: Add an AMD 8151 HT-AGP tunnel to any PCIE chipset, or go the other way round and add an ULi M1695 HT-PCIE tunnel to any AGP chipset.
ULi even offer a package, M1695 plus their previous M1689 AGP single-chip-set now relabelled as M1567 "southbridge".

 

[grooge]

Originally posted by: mamisano
Check out this Biostar board. It has PCI-Express and a variant of AGP-8X. The board is based on the NF4-Ultra, NewEgg lists it for $114.
http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdetails.asp?model=nf4ul-a9
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=13-138-249&depa=1

I think they use a PCI to AGP bridge and the performance will be so horrible that you'll regret taking that road.. from the site...:

Xtreme Graphics Port is Biostar's unique engineering solution of adding limited AGP graphics card support to the nForce4 chipset. The XGP slot is not compatible with all AGP cards but has been tested with AGP cards listed below.

Your card is not even listed, as any 6800 video card.. doenst worth it, go with nforce 3

 

[imported_Kensai]

Of course, the AGP is bridged either onto a PCI-E x1 slot or off the PCI bus.

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: coremortality
Thanks for the info mamisano. Looks like that board would have some compatability issues though.

As far as NF3 boards go, what are some of the top recommened? What are peoples opinions of the EPoX EP-9NDA3J? I've generally stayed with ABIT for my Mobo's but I interested in trying something new.

Thanks again.

I have the 9NDA3+ (next model up) and it's been flawless so far.

 

[unclebud]

i needed this thread. thanks.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: Kensai
Of course, the AGP is bridged either onto a PCI-E x1 slot or off the PCI bus.

The problem with those boards is, the AGP isn't being bridged AT ALL. It's straight 33 MHz PCI with 3.3V signalling - and that's something only the older graphics chips support. More recent ones don't, and might even take damage from being connected to it (because of the incompatible signal voltage levels). As I said, board makers could at least be honest about it and use a 3.3V-keyed AGP slot ... but their level of deception reaches far enough to use a 1.5V-keyed slot. Bastards.

IF they were actually bridging from PCIE or PCI to proper 1.5V-signalling AGP, that'd be at least electrically OK - but there are no bridge chips on the market to do that.

The only separate (as in not a tied-in part of a chipset) piece of silicon to give you an AGP slot is AMD's own 8151, which tunnels HyperTransport through and forks off an AGP port.

 

[coremortality]

Thanks for the information everyone. This has really helped and I've decided it would be best for me to stick with NF3. Now i just need to decide which board best fits my needs. Do any NF3 boards use nVidia's Soundstorm codex? My current board does and i really like it, i've had not so great luck with RealTek in the past and I'm not really interested in buying a seperate sound card.

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: coremortality
Thanks for the information everyone. This has really helped and I've decided it would be best for me to stick with NF3. Now i just need to decide which board best fits my needs. Do any NF3 boards use nVidia's Soundstorm codex? My current board does and i really like it, i've had not so great luck with RealTek in the past and I'm not really interested in buying a seperate sound card.

SoundStorm hasn't been around since nForce2.

 

[coremortality]

Originally posted by: MDE

Originally posted by: coremortality
Thanks for the information everyone. This has really helped and I've decided it would be best for me to stick with NF3. Now i just need to decide which board best fits my needs. Do any NF3 boards use nVidia's Soundstorm codex? My current board does and i really like it, i've had not so great luck with RealTek in the past and I'm not really interested in buying a seperate sound card.

SoundStorm hasn't been around since nForce2.

Aw damn! I really liked it on my NF7-S. Oh well, thanks for the info =]

 

[kreactor]

Chaintech VNF3-250 lookin good too

 

[Megatomic]

OP, were you going to go with s754 or s939? I'd personally go s939 and get a venice core A64, there are some nice core improvements that make this the core to have. But there have been reported issues of motherboards not posting with the new CPU core, that you need the latest BIOS update for the system to POST properly. One way around this (I was considering this myself last week) is to buy a pre-tested bundle from Monarch.

Oh, and as far as s939 boards go, the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum is highly recommended. That's the one I had my eyes on.

 

[keeleysam]

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum. I acutually like th e onboard Realtek audio better than my NF7 Soundstorm.

 

[blckgrffn]

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum: STAY AWAY FROM THIS!!!

That may be just my opinion, but these are known to be finicky boards. And mine sucked a lot. If you want power and speed at a reasonable price, pick up a DFI Lanparty, a 3400+, and any gig of ram that you can put your hands on. I sold my 939 winnie and the MSI board for this and couldn't be happier!

Good luck!
Nat

 

[Megatomic]

My advice would be just the opposite, I had nothing but tragic luck with DFI products back in the NF2 days. I won't touch their stuff with your 10ft. pole now.

 

[peleejosh]

i like my neo2 platinum

 

[gobucks]

you could always go sell your 6800GT and buy a PCIe 6800GT or X800XL. AGP 6800GTs are going for $75 higher than their PCIe counterparts right now, so you might be able to sell it cheap and still have enough money to buy a replacement PCIe part with no out of pocket expense.

Barring that, though, you're gonna have to stick with an NF3 and miss out on the PCIe x1 slots and SATA-II. But other than that, they're pretty much identical.

 

[Necrolezbeast]

I just recieved a Neo 2 Plat and a 3200+ Venice...I have been having problems, but I am pretty sure I have solved them now...FYI it was the RAM voltage, my memory does not like to run at any higher than 2.6v it seems. The higher I put the memory voltage the quicker it fails in prime95. But with the voltage at 2.6v I have been running for a little over an hour with a few passes of 3dmark and it is still goin strong...

I like the audio so far, the surround sound on my 5.1 system sounds much more defined than it ever did on my NF7S soundstorm. I also have yet to get the damn problems with my sound in WoW using Teamspeak.

So far I would recommend the Neo2, but I don't feel as if I have had enough experience with it to tell you how awesome it is. It booted up first try, installed everything fine...runs smoothly, Core Center seems actually useful....all that good stuff.