Difference between these motherboards...

[imported_cubby]

Hi everyone. I just read the article on AMD motherboards and CPu recomendations and was wondering if any of you could help me. What is the difference between the NF3 and NF4 main boards. I am looking to upgrade and have chosen my CPU as the 90nm Athlon 64 3200+. I am just confused on the boards. Why do the NF boards have only 3 PCI slots. Am I missing something. Sorry if this is a dumb question. Thanks for any help and great article. It has helped me narrow down my choices!

EDIT: After reading the specs I notice that some of the PCI slots are PCI Express. That is what I am confused about. It has great reviews and is realitivly cheap. Thanks again for any help!

 

[SunSamurai]

look at what the other slots are. this info is posted everywhere. read _1_ nforce4 mobo review and youll know.

 

[TheInvincibleMustard]

(don't pay attention to aeternitas ... he seems to have some problems with a certain stick-like thing in a certain part of his anatomy )

Mustard for teh win!
nForce4 Introduction on Anandtech

 

[SunSamurai]

Originally posted by: TheInvincibleMustard
(don't pay attention to aeternitas ... he seems to have some problems with a certain stick-like thing in a certain part of his anatomy )

Im sure youre an expert in that type of thing.

 

[imported_cubby]

Thanks for your help. I like what I see with this board. One question I have is what if you just use one Video Card. Is it still worth getting or should I only get it if I plan on getting two video cards. Also if you were to use two video cards, could you buy the same card twice or would you buy two different cards that are similar in performance. I appreciate the help, I am not an expert by any means and any help is great!

 

[TheInvincibleMustard]

Well, since NF3 only supports AGP and NF4 adds support for PCIe, I guess it would depend upon how often you plan on upgrading and what your schedule looks like. PCIe is going to replace AGP eventually, the only question is when. I would imagine that AGP will still be around for at least the rest of this year, though after the current generation you'll probably start seeing better performance on a PCIe card than a comparable AGP card.

Remember that PCIe does NOT necessarily equal SLI (the dual-card setup). Look around at some NF4-Ultra motherboards. If you're going to use SLI you need to buy two cards that are the same (ie, 6600GT with the same core and memory clock speeds). Personally, I can see no reason to not go with a PCIe-based motherboard if you're going to be looking at upgrading right now. The "To SLI or Not To SLI" debate is much more open-ended, and there's a good discussion from both sides going on in this thread here at ATMobo.

HTH