Any nForce4 m/boards without known problems?

[DodgerLD]

As I mentioned in my other thread, it seems a large percentage of AMD/nForce 4 boards have issues with things such as the onboard LAN, USB ports not functioning, noisy chipset fans, etc. (Am I wrong?)

I've just about decided on my CPU (Athlon 64, 3200+) and RAM (Corsair VS 1GB), but I'm really having trouble deciding on a motherboard. I have about $200 (max) to spend on one, possibly less.

I've been looking at Ultra's most of the time, but if any of the SLI's have a better reputation, I may be able to afford one (as far as I know, it's possible to run a single GPU on these boards). I quite like Asus and Gigabyte boards, but I'm open to anything.

While I'm here, Re: "Intel's run hot" -- is this only a problem for OC'ing? Are they OK at stock speeds?

Thanks again,

D.

 

[jakesdad]

I can say, so far, that my Abit KN8 Ultra's been wonderful. Almost 4 months, on all the time, including some near 15hour straight architectural model renderings at 100% processor usage on a 4600+ X2.

I'm not overclocking, either. No issues with using the Windows default IDE and SATA drivers (I avoided the nvidia provided drivers). No problems with USB when booting up - got 3 always on devices hooked up to them. Occasionally, I'll even have my 1GB Cruzer thumb drive in the front panel USB and it causes no problems either when booting up.

I'm not running nvidia's firewall, that's handled differently.

I've got one 250GB SATA drive, 2 optical IDE drives, a zip250 IDE, a floppy, and a 40GB harddrive on a PCI addon IDE Ultra 133 card. I needed the optical drives to stay on separate IDE channels (but could slave the zip to one of them). So I had to get another IDE controller card for the other harddrive because I didn't want the HD to share a channel with the remaining lone optical drive.

I'm also running Corsiar VS ram, 4x512, and even forced it to DDR400 (by default it wants to run at 333 even though the ram itself is PC3200, 400).

So, that's my vote.

BTW, before I got this board, I also read of all the problems. Still, knowing full well that only those with problems complain, and almost no one with no issues will start a post saying how wonderful everything is, it was still a bit disconcerting.

I was pricing a whole system upgrade for nearly a year before I finally got it all last November. But, before that, it got to a point where I priced out a separate Intel setup along with my running AMD setup wishlist. Even with AMD, I ran through several board options over the year I kept the wishlist - Foxxconn, MSI, Asus... I stayed away from DFI only because none of the models at the time had the features I needed (which isn't the gaming oriented side of things). Later they did have one, but I was already past that.

I knew I needed the Ultra. SLI does nothing for Autocad and rendering that I do for a living and so was just a waste of expansion space that I did need.

I settled on the KN8 because it just didn't come up nearly as much as the AN8 line (nor did the AN8s have serial or parallel ports that I needed) in online posted problems.

Yeah, there are a few - but not nearly as many as oher boards I see around here or elsewhere. Even on the Abit forum, the few KN8s that do have problems seem to be more PSU related than anything else - as in, just not enough power.

BTW, newegg has a weekend sale for 96 bucks. I got it for $99 at the time.

 

[RallyMaster]

Agreed, KN8 is probably one of the only nF4 mobos without many problems although the chipset fan does get pretty annoying after a short while.

 

[Starbuck1975]

I had settled on the Abit board as well, but if you go over to their website, it says that the product will be discontinued...I have heard several rumors that Abit is about to go under...something to take into consideration.

I too have been delaying my upgrade because, across the board, it seems that there is no clear choice when it comes to nForce 4 ultra.

I am actually leaning towards the Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe because it has all of the features I want and so far reviews across the board have been overwhelmingly positive...even though I have no need for SLI.

I was leaning towards the MSI NEO4 Platinum for a while, but their user forums and even the AnandTech forums on it have made me a bit hesitant.

 

[DodgerLD]

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one!

Makes me wonder if I should go Intel instead.

That Asus A8N32 SLI-D is a bit expensive for me.

Thanks,

D.

 

[DodgerLD]

Any other suggestions?

 

[Jorakal]

I disagree that Nforce 4 boards have a large amount of issues. There are many listed here because people come here for help and a lot of those are overclocking them. IMO these are the exceptions. By and large the Nforce 4 chipset works great as long as you don't install the firewall. I do agree that the firewall features are still wacky, but all other features work great.

All of my friends now have Nforce 4 boards and they all work great. Mine works great. I have read several magzine article all using Nforce 4 boards and they all work great.

Make sure you:

Use a good power supply that has a 24 wire plug for the main connection. Don't use an adapter or a 20 pin plug.
Don't install the Nvidia firewall
Don't overclock anything until it has had time to run for a while in stock mode.
Do usually upgrade to the most current Bios.

I used ver 2 of the Asus A8N-E board and it works great. The chipset fan is not noisy at all. The first generation was. Most Gigabyte boards now use a heatsink instead of a fan. Lots of good Nforce 4 boards out there.

 

[Intelman07]

I just built a brand new system with a DFI Lanparty nForce 4 Ulta-D. I absolutely love this board, and this being my first AMD system coming from Intel, I couldn't be happier! The best thing I find about this board is the layout, I love having the CPU towards the middle and my ram at the top. There are little heatsinks on some key chips on the board too, along with using only japanese capacitors. I reconmend this board!

 

[Starbuck1975]

That Asus A8N32 SLI-D is a bit expensive for me.

It is a bit pricey, but wait a few months, and it will come down in price considerably...I actually have a wish list queued up on newegg, waiting for it to hit that magic budget price point...I check it every couple of days, as any combination of sales or rebates could put me well within budget.

 

[DodgerLD]

Does anyone have any experience with the Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9 and/or Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-9?

The Asus A8N-E seems to have painful issues with the chipset fan, and also has no support for Firewire -- whatever that's used for, LOL.

The DFI Lanparty nForce 4 Ultra-D is a bit too much of an enthusiast board for me (no gaming, probably won't OC much, if at all), and apparently has a crappy chipset fan/location.

Help?

 

[DodgerLD]

... bump.

 

[Twsmit]

My DFI NF4 hasnt given me any issues, even when OCed, I think your perception is warped by the fact that the NF4 is pretty much the only chipset for the AMD64 platform, and that happy users like myself are farless likely to post success stories than the minority of people with problems are going to post about breakdowns. If you read up on enthusiast forums of course all you will see are problems with the NF4 chipset..... thats because its what 90%+ of the people are currently buying for AMD64.

The one thing i agree on is to not install the firewall, the software is garbage, much better to use the built in Windows firewall plus a nice NAT router. Not much reason to use anything more.

 

[Jorakal]

The chipset fan issue have been resolved on the ASUS A8N-E since the release of ver 2 last October, with a new fan. The ver 2 board I just got has a quiet fan. Works good.

I didn't need firewire. If I do someday I'll get one of the $10 firewire pci cards.

 

[DodgerLD]

Assuming I can find a revision 2 board here in South Africa, here are some quotes from newegg:

01. Using simple copying from one partition to another results in a read error or int13 error at the dos prompt.
02. NIC had to be specifically set to 100mps half-duplex to work.
03. Autonegotiate didn't work.
04. PCIE x1 slots are too close to the PCIx16 slot. If you have a dbl-wide vid card your out of luck in using them.
05. Asus's proprietary PCIEx4 slot is available.. but I had problems with anything I plugged into it (it's x1 compatible).
06. SATA drives are all detected as removable devices.
07. SATA connectors are "loose" (cable comes off easily)
08. Sound quality is disappointing (occasional artifacts, seemingly poor SNR, minor distortion)
09. The "mybiosscreen" custom splashscreen software doesn't appear to work.
10. Enet phy not yet supported in Linux.
12. Even though the board indicates ECC support, it appears to be DETECT only, rather than CORRECT.
13. 3rd fan connector does not report rpm.

Hmmm ... I ended on unlucky number 13.

 

[Jorakal]

First let me say that most problems I have seen or read about are resolved by:

A good power supply with a 24pin connector (or 20 + 4 connector)
Upgrading to the most current BIOS 1010
Upgrading to v6.7 of Nvidia chipset dirvers.

So here goes...

1. No idea how this happened or how their system was hooked up. I have no problems at all in Windows 2000 or 2003 server and have 3 partitions set up on my 160gb SATA drive.

2. My NIC works fine with Nvidia 6.7 drivers

3. works fine

4. The only PCI-e card I have is my 7800gt graphics card. So I have not had the chance to test the x1 or x4 ports. The only cards I would ever add would be an Audigy sound card or a firewire card and those go in standard PCI slots.

5. same as 4

6. No idea how this is happening. Mine are not detected that way.

7. I used the red SATA cables that came with the motherboard. I got 4 of them. No problem with them. They fit securely.

8. My sound is great. I play World of Warcraft and Everquest 2 mainly. I use Logitech 5.1 speakers. Movies sound good. Music sounds good. I have seen people try to use the Nvidia sound drivers which is a no no. Just use the most current Realtek drivers that work great.

9. I haven't tried to install a custom BIOS screen because... I don't really care hehe. The standard BIOS screen works fine. Most of the time I disable it unless I just want a change.

10. No idea about Linux yet. That is what is going on my 3rd partition so will know within the next month. I have read over 10 posts though that say Linus works great with my board and nforce 4 boards.

12. I'm guessing they mean ECC memory? If so why would I use it? The board works great with standard unchecked memory as it is designed.

13. The manual says that port doesn't show anything. It was not designed to. They provided extra ports for the convenience of making them work from the MB. The ports monitored by ASUS probe are the mb fan, the chipset fan, and the fan port closest to the front of the case. The ports by the cpu port and the one closest to the back of the case are not monitored. They just provide power.

If you want more info on this motherboard from this board, go here http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=29&threadid=1619664&enterthread=y

 

[grooge]

Originally posted by: DodgerLD
Assuming I can find a revision 2 board here in South Africa, here are some quotes from newegg:

01. Using simple copying from one partition to another results in a read error or int13 error at the dos prompt.
02. NIC had to be specifically set to 100mps half-duplex to work.
03. Autonegotiate didn't work.
04. PCIE x1 slots are too close to the PCIx16 slot. If you have a dbl-wide vid card your out of luck in using them.
05. Asus's proprietary PCIEx4 slot is available.. but I had problems with anything I plugged into it (it's x1 compatible).
06. SATA drives are all detected as removable devices.
07. SATA connectors are "loose" (cable comes off easily)
08. Sound quality is disappointing (occasional artifacts, seemingly poor SNR, minor distortion)
09. The "mybiosscreen" custom splashscreen software doesn't appear to work.
10. Enet phy not yet supported in Linux.
12. Even though the board indicates ECC support, it appears to be DETECT only, rather than CORRECT.
13. 3rd fan connector does not report rpm.

Hmmm ... I ended on unlucky number 13.

1- Probably the IDE controller is set as RAID and used as single devices. Most noob tend to believe that RAID has to be used with SATA HDD, set is as such in BIOS and end up with errors..

6- Yep, just like my Samsung is one my Asrock motherboard, and was on my Gigabyte board.. Hey? SATA allow hot swapping within the SATA standard, so yes, it will show up as removable, unless simple Microsoft drivers are used (Yes, SATA dont need driver other that the MS one to work with this board)

Others are mostly user errors or software settings. And the third fan connector.. damn, who care?


I'll tell you, most errors are caused by people that dont care about getting informed or even read the manual. Computer standard are evolving and one has to closely follow what's happening to be sure to set up thing correctly. It's not board fault, nor CPU fault or HDD if there is some advancement done all the time with electronics.. but users and enthusiast always want more and technology goes faster that most can absorb.

 

[DodgerLD]

Thanks guys ... I'm going to contact a few local online computer stores to ask them whether or not they have the revision 2 boards in stock.