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Best nForce 4 for <$100 ?

B

B S D

Member
Hello,

What is the best nForce 4 Ultra board out there for under USD $100?

Also, are there any "gotchas" involved with using all 4 DIMM slots? (I plan to put in generic 2 x 256 now and 2 x 256 later..)

Thanks,
David
 
Some boards drop the speed down to DDR333 when using all four slots at once. Also, I don't know of any nForce 4 boards below 100$.
(I'm Canadian) Only know of nForce 2 boards under 100$. 😛
 
I've heard of people having the same problems as Kensai stated on alot of the Nforce boards, including the chaintech. You're best bet would be to buy 1 stick of 512 and get another later.
 
Thanks for the info.

Is there a big speed drop doing to single channel mode?

Also , the Chaintech board says this in it's PDF manual:

Due to CPU specifications limitation, two DDR400 memory modules
inserted into DIMM1/3, three DDR400 into DIMM1/2/3, or four DDR400
into DIMM1/2/3/4 is not recommended.
Click to expand...

Does this mean that you can't run PC 3200 memory in dual channel mode?

Also, I saw this board over at Newegg... seems a tad cheaper... is there any difference?
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-130-491&depa=0

Thanks again,
david
 
For AMD the difference in dual and single channel isn't very big. It isn't noticeable. MSI is (usually) a good mobo manufacturer although I haven't heard anything about that board. I think you can run dual channel in 2 and 4, not sure cause I don't own this board.
 
it's not the board that has the problem, it's the A64 memory controller, which is on the CPU. Winchesters and newcastles can only handle 2 sticks at DDR400 with 1T command rate. With 3 or 4, you drop down to DDR333 and 2T command rate, bringing pretty big performance hits. If you upgrade to a venice core (rev E0), then you should be able to run 4 sticks at full speed in your existing mobo. Just bite the bullet and grab a gig of ram - Newegg has a couple of choices for under $100 - kingmax, mushkin, and Corsair, i believe.

Also, i second the Chaintech. While there are better nforce4 Ultras out there (DFI, MSI), they run you up to $50 more. Chaintech is the only company to have a sub-$100 Ultra board, a price point that was supposed to be reserved for non-ultras, which lack SATA-II, sometimes overclocking options, hardware firewall, etc. And you can run dual channel. Chaintech uses slots 1 & 3 for channel 1 and 2 & 4 for channel 2, so dual channel is made for slots 1 & 2 (or 3 & 4). If you get the board, though, make sure you get the 02-03-2005 bios, cause the version 1.0 shipping bios blows monkey nuts.
 
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