Considering the Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9

[Iron Woode]

I am thinking of making a system for myself to upgrade my XP2800+ Socket A PC.

I would like some opinions on the K8N Ultra-9, like stability, overall performance compared to other NF4 Ultra boards, overclocking, support if something bad happens and any problems that others have experienced.

Thanks guys.

 

[mb103051]

the gigabyte board was a fair board as i owned it fo a few months.the problems i had were the nf4 chip gets so hot with the heatsink on it .you cant put a different one on due to the video card overhanging it,i finally pu an 80mm fan inside the case to blow directly on it.after that it was ok.it literally gets so hot it will burn your fingers to touch it.the ram slots are so close together that any ram with heatspredders will bind up against each other.there is no gap between them.the board o/clocked fairly well with mild o/clocks.i liked the layout of the board alot and ive had good luck with gigabyte boards but after going through 4 total ultra boards the board that is the best overall board is the asus a8n-e ultra board.it does everything well and has a perfect layout.it o/clocks well and is fast,has mature bios too.after owning the abit an8 ultra,msi neo4 ultra,gigabyte ultra 9,and finally the asus ,the asus is by far the winner...good luck with your choise......

 

[Ken90630]

I'm looking hard at that exact same board. Looks pretty good, huh? :thumbsup: A few observations though:

1) Are you in America? It appears to be unavailable here. Only vendor I can find that even mentions it is a company called Shentech in N.Y., but their site says, "out of stock." Weird thing is that on Gigabyte's U.S. site, it doesn't say anything about it being discontinued. Looks like a current model (I think it came out last summer).

2) EDITED my original paragraph here due to incorrect info. Sorry. 😱

3) This board appears to have some great features: nForce4 Ultra MCP with passively cooled heatsink (i.e., no loud fan that'll fail 2 years from now), AMD 64 Socket 939 X2 compatibility, SATA, onboard FireWire 800 compatibility, PCI-E, 3-year warranty, 3 PCI slots, logically placed IDE connectors, et al.

4) Potential drawbacks/issues:

EDITED mistaken info here too. Sorry again. 😱 (Dang -- not my day was it? 😛)

The PCI-E slot is very close to the MCP heatsink, and the nForce4 Ultra MCP reportedly gets pretty warm. With no fan on the heatsink (which would normally be a good thing IMHO), I wonder if the heat might harm the PCI-E vid card in that slot over time. Who knows? There is a solution I've thought of, but it involves a little extra expense and time.

Also, the DIMM slots are situated very close together, and if you run in dual-channel mode, you have to use adjacent slots. So active cooling of the RAM modules would be in order if you're gonna overclock your RAM, 'cuz there's almost no 'breathing room' between them. I personally think o/c'ing RAM is perhaps one of the most idiotic things a person could waste their time on :roll:, but to each his own. Just making you aware of this.

No board is perfect, of course -- every one has drawbacks. I still might get one of these though.

EDIT: Looks like mb103051 was typing his reply while I was typing mine. 😛 His solution for the MCP heatsink was exactly what I was thinking: mount an 80mm fan over it. Vantec makes a hanging bracket that would prolly work for such an application, and you could put a quiet Panaflo L1A or M1A on there to cool that heatsink down (without the loud noise a typical northbridge fan, like the one on the Asus A8NE, makes).

I tend to agree with mb103051 that the Asus is prolly a slightly better board. I just happen to need a very quiet machine for my particular environment and thus am looking for a passively cooled MCP. I don't game or overclock, so I can't comment on the Gigabyte's overclocking capabilities.

mb103051: Where did you buy that Gigabyte board?

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: Ken90630
I'm looking hard at that exact same board. Looks pretty good, huh? :thumbsup: A few observations though:

1) Are you in America? It appears to be unavailable here. Only vendor I can find that even mentions it is a company called Shentech in N.Y., but their site says, "out of stock." Weird thing is that on Gigabyte's U.S. site, it doesn't say anything about it being discontinued. Looks like a current model (I think it came out last summer).

2) The board is available in Australia, the U.K., and Israel under a slightly different model number: GA-K8NF9 Ultra. And I found a couple of vendors that will ship it to the the U.S. It looks like the exact same board. You can find that one on Gigabyte's main corporate site (the Taiwanese one). It's written in English, BTW. Don't know if the warranty would be in effect here, though, if you buy it outside the U.S. I was planning to call Gigabyte & ask but haven't gotten around to it yet.

3) This board appears to have some great features: nForce4 Ultra MCP with passively cooled heatsink (i.e., no loud fan that'll fail 2 years from now), AMD 64 Socket 939 X2 compatibility, SATA, onboard FireWire 800 compatibility, PCI-E, 3-year warranty, 3 PCI slots, logically placed IDE connectors, et al.

4) Potential drawbacks/issues: It uses a 20-pin power connector rather than the current 24-pin standard. What's up with that? 😕 I think you can get an adapter for your PSU connector, but this still seems odd for a board that just came out last summer. It does have the 4-pin ATX 12V connector though.

The PCI-E slot is very close to the MCP heatsink, and the nForce4 Ultra MCP reportedly gets pretty warm. With no fan on the heatsink (which would normally be a good thing IMHO), I wonder if the heat might harm the PCI-E vid card in that slot over time. Who knows? There is a solution I've thought of, but it involves a little extra expense and time.

Also, the DIMM slots are situated very close together, and if you run in dual-channel mode, you have to use adjacent slots. So active cooling of the RAM modules would be in order if you're gonna overclock your RAM, 'cuz there's almost no 'breathing room' between them. I personally think o/c'ing RAM is perhaps one of the most idiotic things a person could waste their time on :roll:, but to each his own. Just making you aware of this.

No board is perfect, of course -- every one has drawbacks. I still might get one of these, as I think I can mitigate the negatives it has. So long as the warranty would be valid if I have to buy it overseas. If you order one, PM me or post back here and tell me where you got it. 😛

EDIT: Looks like mb103051 was typing his reply while I was typing mine. 😛 His solution for the MCP heatsink was exactly what I was thinking: mount an 80mm fan over it. Vantec makes a hanging bracket that would prolly work for such an application, and you could put a quiet Panaflo L1A or M1A on there to cool that heatsink down (without the loud noise a typical northbridge fan, like the one on the Asus A8NE, makes).

I tend to agree with mb103051 that the Asus is prolly a slightly better board. I just happen to need a very quiet machine for my particular environment and thus am looking for a passively cooled MCP. I don't game or overclock, so I can't comment on the Gigabyte's overclocking capabilities.

mb103051: Where did you buy that Gigabyte board?

I am in Ontario, Canada. The board is available here locally.

All this info is very good. I had heard of lots of troubles with the Asus A8nE.

I was thinking of getting the Epox 9NPA+ULTRA, but I haven't found a supplier with any in stock here.

I will make a decision soon.

 

[Ken90630]

I am in Ontario, Canada. The board is available here locally.

Cool. My Google/Froogle searches didn't yield any Canadian vendors. 😕 If you do decide to get this board and wouldn't mind PMing me with the name of the vendor, I'd really appreciate it. Given the choice, I'd rather buy it from Canada than the other aforementioned countries and save some shipping $$. 🙂

All this info is very good. I had heard of lots of troubles with the Asus A8nE.

It was one of the first boards I looked at, but I quickly dismissed it 'cuz of its supposedly noisy MCP fan. So I didn't research it a lot. There's another A-tech member that I correspond a lot with though, and he liked his A8NE. Like just about every board, some people love 'em and some hate 'em. 😛 Maybe by now it has matured enough and most of the bugs have been worked out? I dunno.

I was thinking of getting the Epox 9NPA+ULTRA, but I haven't found a supplier with any in stock here.

I think I looked at that one too, but I dismissed it for the same reason (MCP fan). I think it also had a comparatively weak warranty, IIRC (only 1 or 2 years?). Not 100% certain of that though.

EDIT: Here is a review if you're interested. I saw another one last night and thought I bookmarked it, but now it's gone. :roll: I'll post it if I come across it again. Oh, and that Epox board is also covered in the Gigabyte review 🙂 (it's a "motherboard shootout" kinda thing). Heh heh -- and notice how its PCI-E x16 slot also sits right up against the MCP heatsink, just like the Gigabyte's does. Just in a different way.

 

[Agent11]

I do not like gigabyte.. just one of those things
I have a GB k8ns.. its not a total p!o!s! but its no dfi lanparty 350.. I think you can do better.

but if engrish easily amuses you go for it.. hours of fun ahead.

 

[j2112]

I picked up this board 2 months ago and it's been solid. I chose it over the Neo4 Platinum and ASUS A8N-E because the shop had a deal when buying it with a Gigabyte 6600GT.

I've used the MSI Neo4 Platinum as well and it was great too.

I can't comment on oc'ing, but in terms of operating at stock, perfectly fine boards.

Ken, you ought to be able to get one from PC Cyber (Ontario, Canada), check their website, great prices too. Or online, Canada Computers, Great prices again.

K8NF-9 has 4 SATA, Ultra-9 has 4 SATA and 4 SATAII. Probably other smaller differences as well (lan chip) etc... EDIT : Um, the NF9 appears to have a HT of only 1600, according to Gigabytes specs on the web site. !!!

 

[Ken90630]

Originally posted by: j2112
I picked up this board 2 months ago and it's been solid. I chose it over the Neo4 Platinum and ASUS A8N-E because the shop had a deal when buying it with a Gigabyte 6600GT.

I've used the MSI Neo4 Platinum as well and it was great too.

I can't comment on oc'ing, but in terms of operating at stock, perfectly fine boards.

Ken, you ought to be able to get one from PC Cyber (Ontario, Canada), check their website, great prices too. Or online, Canada Computers, Great prices again.

K8NF-9 has 4 SATA, Ultra-9 has 4 SATA and 4 SATAII. Probably other smaller differences as well (lan chip) etc... EDIT : Um, the NF9 appears to have a HT of only 1600, according to Gigabytes specs on the web site. !!!

Thanks, j.

And I didn't know the K8NF-9 and the Ultra were different boards. I thought maybe the K8NF-9 was the "U.S. version" of the Ultra-9 'cuz of the fact that these identical looking boards have different #'s on Gigabyte's U.S. and (main corporate) Taiwanese Web sites. Thanks for clueing me in that they are in fact slightly different.

Hey -- a question: Have you had any issues with the unusual 20-pin power connector on the board? I'm still scratching my head wondering what Gigabyte was thinking there. This board just came out last summer and it seems odd that they didn't use a now-standard 24-pin ATX power connector. Can I assume you got an adapter for your PSU plug (or are you using and old PSU with a 20-pin power connector)?. This is really the only thing I'm feeling any anxiety over with this board.

And thanks for the vendor tips. 🙂 I got a couple in a PM from Iron Woode too. Between these four, I should be able to get a good deal if I decide to get this board. 😎

BTW, I noticed the 2112 in your user name. You a Rush fan too?

 

[Ken90630]

Originally posted by: Agent11
I do not like gigabyte.. just one of those things
I have a GB k8ns.. its not a total p!o!s! but its no dfi lanparty 350.. I think you can do better.

but if engrish easily amuses you go for it.. hours of fun ahead.

Yeah, I guess I don't have any particular opinion, good or bad, about Gigabyte as a company. Don't know enough about 'em, I guess. I don't recall reading about any particularly heinous behavior on their part or consistently bad products, though. So I'd say I have an open mind at this point. And I will say their Web site looks more professional and 'well done' than most mobo companies' sites. For whatever that's worth. 🙂

Given how so many companies get complained about so much -- Asus, ABIT, MSI, Epox, et al. -- I wonder if there are really any companies that we can 'admire.' Many complaints are about factory QC and after-sale support, which to me indicates a blase and/or dismissive attitude towards their customers. (Does any mobo company offer consistently top-notch customer service or tech support? Clue me in if you know of any! :laugh: )

And "Engrish" (I know what you mean 😛) is admittedly annoying to me. But we see that with almost every computer-oriented Web site and product manuals, advertising materials, product packaging, etc. So I'm prolly gonna have to muddle my way thru whatever silly gibberish is provided, regardless of the brand of board I buy. :roll: I've never tried DFI though; I researched their product line for this build, but they really don't have what I'm looking for. After extensive research, the Gigabyte board looks best on paper to me right now (for my particular needs). I'm gonna look at that MSI Neo4 that j2112 mentioned. I didn't scope that one out yet.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[supastar1568]

have had the board for a year now.

I cant overclock it cause there is nw PCI-E lock. So when I overclock the CPU , the video card goes with it, and then i get artifacts.

Kinda sticks too, cause I passed all of the stress tests when I had it overclocked, so I know my CPU can be overclocked a good amount.

Just there is not lock on the PCI-e.


Those who overclocked this board, what did you do?

 

[Ken90630]

Originally posted by: supastar1568
have had the board for a year now.

I cant overclock it cause there is nw PCI-E lock. So when I overclock the CPU , the video card goes with it, and then i get artifacts.

Kinda sticks too, cause I passed all of the stress tests when I had it overclocked, so I know my CPU can be overclocked a good amount.

Just there is not lock on the PCI-e.

Those who overclocked this board, what did you do?

Bummer, man. 🙁 I won't be overclocking, so I don't care about that personally, but I feel for 'ya. I seem to remember reading in a review of that board that it does overclock decently, but not spectacularly. I don't remember reading anything about the lack of a PCI-E lock, though. Sorry I can't help 'ya there.

Hopefully someone else will chime in with a suggestion. Good luck.

 

[j2112]

Ken, yeah, Rush fan here 🙂

I know I had to get an adapter for a friend on his older nForce3 gigabyte NSCboard, and that is messing with my recollection of the ultra 9 board. The Ultra 9 has a 24 pin power connector and a separate 4 pin connector. I used a Antec SonataII case, has a SmartPower 2.0 PSU, but I don't recall how it all went together.

Maybe looking at the Ultra 9 manual will help you out ?

Gigabyte K8N Ultra9

EDIT : The MSI Neo4 Platinum has the same set up, 24 pin main and 4 pin 'extra'. So does the ASUS AN8-E. Those are the boards I was looking at before settling on the Gigabyte. I would guess it's a standard setup seeing all 3 use it ?

 

[Ken90630]

Originally posted by: j2112
Ken, yeah, Rush fan here 🙂

😎 I was just listening to Moving Pictures for about the thousandth time the other day. Still sounds amazing & I never get tired of it.

The Ultra 9 has a 24 pin power connector and a separate 4 pin connector.

Okay, I think I know why I was confused. In the picture of the board on their site, it looks like the connector is a 20-pin connector (I count two rows of 10 pin 'receptacles' on it). However, there appears to be some sort of black plug or cover over the last 4 pin receptacles on the right side. Do you see it? Is that simply a plug you remove in order to plug a standard 24-pin PSU connector into it? That's gotta be the sitch here, and that would explain everything. Maybe they provide the plug for people still using an older PSU with a 20-pin ATX connector.

EDIT : The MSI Neo4 Platinum has the same set up, 24 pin main and 4 pin 'extra'. So does the ASUS AN8-E. Those are the boards I was looking at before settling on the Gigabyte. I would guess it's a standard setup seeing all 3 use it ?

Yeah, pretty much all boards nowadays use the 24-pin configuration, plus the extra 4-pin ATX 12V connector. The 20-pin is considered "old school." 😛

I looked at those other two same boards too, along with ABIT's AN8 Ultra and a couple from DFI. I'm about 90% sure I'm gonna get the Gigabyte GA-KN8 Ultra 9 at this point. Now I need to start looking at video cards.

Thanks a lot for the info & feedback.

 

[j2112]

Yeah I saw the plug on the end of the connector. I missed the transition of 20 to 24 pins, seeing I jumped from 2001 technology to 2006 and didn't pay much attention in between.

The graphics card I got as a bundle with the board was a Gigabyte 6600GT-VP. Comparable to all the other 6600GT cards, but adds VIVO and a slight memory boost. Gets a little hot though, with it's passive cooling, but no problems that I've seen.

Hope the board works out well for you.

 

[mb103051]

I bought the board off of newegg when i ran it 6 months ago or so.it was a fair board look i said.the biggest complaint i had was the heatsink on the nf4 chip it get hot really hot unless you have a windtunnel through your case.i had a compunurse probe on the heatsink and it would run 60-65c and literally burn your finger touching it.you need some kind of fan blowing on it.even if you cock the front inlet fan on your case to blow air directly on it,then temps drop into the 40's cel.the layout is great and it o/clocks pretty well too.i believe i had my a64 3200 at a 300 mhz o/clock on stk voltage and ram 1 to 1 with the cpu.the ram slots are close together with heatspredders on them they touch each other,no air gap at all.all of the things i disliked about the gigabyte board were solved with the asus a8n-e board.fir my use and case setup the asus is perfect for me.i truly like the asus board and havent changed boards since installing it.i went through 3 other ultra boards.i am a big fan of gigabyte and use alot of there boards in my customers builds i do as well as asus boards.this time the asus won out.im doing an o/clock on the asus at stk volts at 2500 mhz 1to 1 with the ram at 1T timings.its a mild o/clock and stable as can be.the layout is like the gigabyte,near perfect in my opinion.
i dont know for sure but i think the board has been discontinued as i havent seen it for sale in quite a while.its a feature rich board thats for sure.id have no problem owning one knowing the issues with it,there are workarounds for these things.with proper fan placement all the issues are gone.hope you find one and good luck its a good board.look at the abit boards if you want to see a screwed up layout.designer had to be on drugs with the floppy placement and the ide connectors are awful.the molex placement is on the bottom of the board with the floppy.if it was the perfect running board of all time i wouldnt buy it for its stupid layout.i wonder id the designer ever built a computer and remembers where things are located in a case.abit need to get there stuff together.....

 

[hclarkjr]

i just bought a GA-KN8N pro-sli and just installed it. first impression is that it is a great motherboard and runs my 2X1GB OCZ memmory at 1T like it should. in the process of benchmarking and so forth to see how it compared to the asrock it replaced

 

[grooge]

Originally posted by: j2112
EDIT : Um, the NF9 appears to have a HT of only 1600, according to Gigabytes specs on the web site. !!!

It is still funny how this HT thing of 800MHz or 1000 MHz or or 1600MHz or 2000MHz is confusing.. and overrated.

90% of posters seems to not understand the way the HT link is tied to the system and how it affect performance.

So, here is a nice article with benchmark. read it, then cry.. you fell for marketing trick..you knowledgeable posters...Study of overclocking techniques and HT link benchmarks..

 

[Ken90630]

Originally posted by: grooge

Originally posted by: j2112
EDIT : Um, the NF9 appears to have a HT of only 1600, according to Gigabytes specs on the web site. !!!

It is still funny how this HT thing of 800MHz or 1000 MHz or or 1600MHz or 2000MHz is confusing.. and overrated.

90% of posters seems to not understand the way the HT link is tied to the system and how it affect performance.

So, here is a nice article with benchmark. read it, then cry.. you fell for marketing trick..you knowledgeable posters...Study of overclocking techniques and HT link benchmarks..

Thanks for the link, Grooge. I admittedly don't understand this as well as I prolly should and definitely need to get a handle on it before I pull the trigger on a board. This thread has been really helpful to me, so thanks again to you all. 🙂

 

[Ken90630]

Originally posted by: mb103051
I bought the board off of newegg when i ran it 6 months ago or so.it was a fair board look i said.the biggest complaint i had was the heatsink on the nf4 chip it get hot really hot unless you have a windtunnel through your case.i had a compunurse probe on the heatsink and it would run 60-65c and literally burn your finger touching it.you need some kind of fan blowing on it.even if you cock the front inlet fan on your case to blow air directly on it,then temps drop into the 40's cel.the layout is great and it o/clocks pretty well too.i believe i had my a64 3200 at a 300 mhz o/clock on stk voltage and ram 1 to 1 with the cpu.the ram slots are close together with heatspredders on them they touch each other,no air gap at all.all of the things i disliked about the gigabyte board were solved with the asus a8n-e board.fir my use and case setup the asus is perfect for me.i truly like the asus board and havent changed boards since installing it.i went through 3 other ultra boards.i am a big fan of gigabyte and use alot of there boards in my customers builds i do as well as asus boards.this time the asus won out.im doing an o/clock on the asus at stk volts at 2500 mhz 1to 1 with the ram at 1T timings.its a mild o/clock and stable as can be.the layout is like the gigabyte,near perfect in my opinion.
i dont know for sure but i think the board has been discontinued as i havent seen it for sale in quite a while.its a feature rich board thats for sure.id have no problem owning one knowing the issues with it,there are workarounds for these things.with proper fan placement all the issues are gone.hope you find one and good luck its a good board.look at the abit boards if you want to see a screwed up layout.designer had to be on drugs with the floppy placement and the ide connectors are awful.the molex placement is on the bottom of the board with the floppy.if it was the perfect running board of all time i wouldnt buy it for its stupid layout.i wonder id the designer ever built a computer and remembers where things are located in a case.abit need to get there stuff together.....

Yeah, if I get the Gigabyte board, what I'm gonna do is either buy or fabricate a simple hang-down bracket and position it over the heatsink on the nForce 4 Ultra MCP (that some of us, including me 😱, have been lazily calling the "northbridge" even though it isn't really one). I'll just attach a Panaflo M1A (if it's not too noisy) or an L1A (silent) to the bracket and voila -- heat problem solved. 😎

And I won't be using overclocked RAM or modules with heatspreaders, so the DIMM slot issue is a non-issue to me.

Re ABIT, I looked hard at the AN8 Ultra. In the end though, ABIT has just had too many problems (legal and otherwise) over the last couple years and I would have had some anxiety over long-term reliability and support. I know their mobo & component division got bought out by another company last year, but I'd still have some uneasiness in the back of my mind if I went with an ABIT board right now. I'm sure a lot of people own that board and are happy with it though, so it's just a judgment call. Depends on your priorities and what's right for your particular machine. 🙂

 

[supastar1568]

Originally posted by: mb103051
I bought the board off of newegg when i ran it 6 months ago or so.it was a fair board look i said.the biggest complaint i had was the heatsink on the nf4 chip it get hot really hot unless you have a windtunnel through your case.i had a compunurse probe on the heatsink and it would run 60-65c and literally burn your finger touching it.you need some kind of fan blowing on it.even if you cock the front inlet fan on your case to blow air directly on it,then temps drop into the 40's cel.the layout is great and it o/clocks pretty well too.i believe i had my a64 3200 at a 300 mhz o/clock on stk voltage and ram 1 to 1 with the cpu.the ram slots are close together with heatspredders on them they touch each other,no air gap at all.all of the things i disliked about the gigabyte board were solved with the asus a8n-e board.fir my use and case setup the asus is perfect for me.i truly like the asus board and havent changed boards since installing it.i went through 3 other ultra boards.i am a big fan of gigabyte and use alot of there boards in my customers builds i do as well as asus boards.this time the asus won out.im doing an o/clock on the asus at stk volts at 2500 mhz 1to 1 with the ram at 1T timings.its a mild o/clock and stable as can be.the layout is like the gigabyte,near perfect in my opinion.
i dont know for sure but i think the board has been discontinued as i havent seen it for sale in quite a while.its a feature rich board thats for sure.id have no problem owning one knowing the issues with it,there are workarounds for these things.with proper fan placement all the issues are gone.hope you find one and good luck its a good board.look at the abit boards if you want to see a screwed up layout.designer had to be on drugs with the floppy placement and the ide connectors are awful.the molex placement is on the bottom of the board with the floppy.if it was the perfect running board of all time i wouldnt buy it for its stupid layout.i wonder id the designer ever built a computer and remembers where things are located in a case.abit need to get there stuff together.....

you overclocked it without your PCI-E getting overclocked? let me know how

 

[Frugal1ty]

Originally posted by: mb103051
the biggest complaint i had was the heatsink on the nf4 chip it get hot really hot unless you have a windtunnel through your case.i had a compunurse probe on the heatsink and it would run 60-65c and literally burn your finger touching it.

i have the GA-K8N Pro and yes the Nf4 chip does get hot. . . if you leave you finger on it for 10 sec it will be uncomfortable, but it has not cause me any problems.

 

[Frugal1ty]

Originally posted by: Ken90630

Originally posted by: j2112



Hey -- a question: Have you had any issues with the unusual 20-pin power connector on the board? I'm still scratching my head wondering what Gigabyte was thinking there. This board just came out last summer and it seems odd that they didn't use a now-standard 24-pin ATX power connector. Can I assume you got an adapter for your PSU plug (or are you using and old PSU with a 20-pin power connector)?. This is really the only thing I'm feeling any anxiety over with this board.

yeah, there's a 24pin connector, it just looks like it has a 20pin becasue four are blocked off, i assume to let the people with 20pin conncetor style power supplies know which side to plug their cables in