FoxConn NF4K8MC-ERS, MSI RS480M2-IL, which one?

[cornelp]

I been looking and tracking these boards for a few weeks now. It seems that the FoxConn board is hard to find and the Company itself said they will be available in bout 1 month from now, while the MSI is available now.

From your own experience with the companies, which one would be a better deal?

I want quality, and stability. The system will be used for an HTPC, and more then likely will not be turned off at all, so I want stability.

I am an Abit and Asus fan, and love their boards, never a problem.

From what I read is that the Nvidia Chipset on the Foxconn does a little better performance then the ATI chipset.

Both boards are the same, with the exception of the chipset itself and MSi has 4 RAM slots.

Looking for:
Performance.
Quality.
Stability.
Company Customer Service.

Which one?

Ohh, and the Foxconn seems to be harder to get, so I will have to wait for that one a while.

Thankx all for your help...

 

[Carazariah]

Bump . . .
I've been looking at the MSI but haven't heard about Foxconn at all:

This thread has quite a few user testimonials the majority seem very positive for the MSI 480
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=29&threadid=1480178&enterthread=y

 

[Zap]

Another bump. I just "discovered" the Foxconn board at Newegg.

FOXCONN "NF4K8MC-ERS" NVIDIA nForce4 Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU

$89 for a mATX nForce4 chipset board with PCI-E. Looks nice for a performance mATX system or a HTPC.

Does this board support overclocking? Cool'n'Quiet? No reviews yet on Newegg.

 

[wayne2456]

I'm pretty sure The foxconn Nf4k8MC-ERS support overclocking.

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

Here's a review:
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2005/foxconn/winfast%20NF4K8MC-ERS/g1.htm

 

[Zap]

Thanks for the link.

 

[mamisano]

Well, with the MSI Board you also get onboard video. Granted it is x300se class video, but it does play DX9 games just fine and can probably hold you over until you are ready to spend money on a nice PCI-E video card.

One drawback of the MSI board is the total lack of overclocking features. The main reason for this is that the board was designed for OEM use, which is probably a good thing for stability

No problems with my MSI board, I am running 4x512MB PC3200, A64-3000+, onboard Video/Sound/Lan, XP-SP2. This is my primary workstation.

Regards,

 

[L00PY]

I'd say MSI.

FoxConn advantages: PCIe slot, 0+1 RAID
MSI advantages: 4xDIMM, no NB fan, Coax S/PDIF out, VGA, TV-out

Also, I think with the MSI board, if you use a ATI graphics card you get the option for three displays.

 

[Zap]

Found this link in Hot Deals:
Pre-Tested and Setup AMD Athlon 64/FX (939) Combo
For $221 (before tax/shipping) you get:
A64 939 3000+ OEM
cheapie fan/heatsink
NF4K8MC-ERS mobo
Farcry
Half Life 2
Napster promo
"Included with all AMD Combos: Motherboard with Retail Box, all cables, manuals and drivers. (We also load the latest BIOS, and optimize the BIOS settings for optimal settings.) "

Sounds like a deal. The Foxconn board has minimal FSB overclocking to 250MHz, though some reviews mentioned only getting around 220-230 stable.

 

[Joony]

i'm in somewhat the same dilemma. I've been reading reviews for both boards and they both generally perform the same.

Looking to use one of them in an Antec Aria with one of those Zalman flower coolers.

suggestions?

I don't plan to overclock!

 

[thehstrybean]

Bump for a question...Does the FoxConn have SATA II or not? I can't tell...

 

[user1234]

Originally posted by: thehstrybean
Bump for a question...Does the FoxConn have SATA II or not? I can't tell...

no it doesn't. I think the performance of the FoxConn is better than the MSI board cause nForce4 is DA BOMB and this NF4 board is only 2-3% slower than the top of the line A8N-SLI, while the ATI chipset is about 10% slower. I got this board for $79 and I managed to overclock stably up to 230x9=2070 mhz (with a 3000+ winchester). I know for a fact the CPU can go higher because it does 2400 mhz on my A8N-SLI, but I think the lack of voltage adjustment limits the overlcocking. Still not too bad for a budget board to get 15% overclock.

The quality of the onboard sound was also excellent for watching DVDs and playing music with my logitech 2.1 speakers. The only problem I had was with freezes and lockups in various games that I tried playing under windows xp-x64 rc2. Even the nvidia 64 bit drivers were problematic on this system as installing the activearmor driver would kill the lan connection (?). btw, I had no problems with regular windows xp.....hmmm.....also, none of the foxconn software for hardware monitoring and tweaking works on 64-bit windows, it refuses to start saying "incompatible with OS version" or something. I had none of these problems when I installed windows xp-x64 rc1 on the A8N-SLI system.

 

[imported_bugeyes]

I'm also looking to buy the m-atx Foxconn, they have two model NF4K8MC-ERS and NF4K8MC-RS, what are the different? the only thing I can see is the first one said 300/400 Mhz FSB and the second one is 1000MHZ, how is it important?

 

[imported_Kensai]

I'm fine with the MSI board.

 

[BadAcid]

Bugeyes - Just looking at the spec sheets, the ERS has a firewire port. That's pretty much the only difference I saw.

 

[user1234]

Originally posted by: BadAcid
Bugeyes - Just looking at the spec sheets, the ERS has a firewire port. That's pretty much the only difference I saw.

correct. btw, monarch has both for the same price $79