FOXCONN "NF4UK8AA-8EKRS" NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra or SOLTEK "SL-K890Pro-939" VIA K8T890

[Infohawk]

Which one should I get?

Supported CPU: Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64FX/64 processor
Chipset: NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra
RAM: 4x DIMM Dual Channel DDR 266/333/400 Max 4GB
Slots: 1x PCI-Express X16, 2x PCI-Express X1, 4x PCI
Ports: 2x PS/2, 1x COM, 1x LPT, 8x USB2.0(Rear 4), 1x RJ45, 1x 1394, 1x SPDIF Out, Audio Ports
IDE: 2x ATA 133 up to 4 Devices with NV Raid 0/1/0+1
SATA: 4x SATA2 3.0Gb/s with NV Raid 0/1/0+1
Onboard Audio: 7.1 channel AC97
Onboard LAN: Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000)
Onboard 1394: 2x Ports
Form Factor: ATX


Supported CPU: Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64/Athlon 64 FX
Chipset: K8T890 + VT8237
FSB: HyperTransport 1000/800/600MHz
RAM: 4x DIMM for Dual Channel DDR400/333/266 Max 4GB
Slots: 1x PCI-E X16, 3x PCI-E X1, 2x PCI
Ports: 2x PS/2, 1x COM, 8x USB2.0(Rear 4), 1x IEEE1394, 1x RJ45, 2x S/PDIF In/Out, Audio Ports
IDE: 2x ATA 133, 1x ATA 133 by Promise PDC20579 RAID 0/1/0+1
SATA: 2x Serial ATA RAID 0,1, 2x Serial ATA by Promise PDC20579 RAID 0/1/0+1
Onboard Audio: 8-Ch AC'97
Onboard LAN: Gigabit LAN
Onboard 1394: 2x 1394 ports
Form Factor: ATX

I can't tell the difference. Both the same price.

I don't want to overclock. Is it better to get nvidia since I will get an nvdia video card?

 

[Jim Bancroft]

I'd go with the Soltek. That board has a couple of reviews under its belt, favorable ones. Don't know about the Foxconn.

 

[Infohawk]

Yeah I saw one of those reviews. So is it safe there's no real advantage of having an nvidia chipset if you're going ot have an nvidia video card? (I imagine it would be pretty dumb if nvidia tried to lock in special features only for use with their chipset in terms of competition, but I don't know). What does the chipset really do anyway?

 

[silverpig]

Soltek. I've got the K8TPro-939 (basically the agp version of that board) and it's great. Soltek boards are solid.

 

[AnnoyedGrunt]

I think the choice would depend on what is important to you.

First of all, in the simplest terms the chipset provides the gateway between the CPU and the rest of the motherboard. On every chipset before the A64, it also controlled the CPU's memory access, but the A64 has the memory controller built into the CPU so that the A64 chipsets no longer provide that funcion. Therefore, for pure CPU performance, the chipset doesn't have an much of an effect.

However, the chipset still controls the HDD's, the USB ports, the ethernet port access, onboard sound usage, etc. So, you can still find differences in those areas, although few motherboard reviews give data for those areas.

The differences between the VIA and nVidia chipsets are mostly in favor of nVidia, and it has the following features:
10 USB ports instead of 8 (but the actual number depends on the Mobo maker)
4 SATA II Connectors instead of 2 SATA I connectors (but Mobo makers sometimes add additional chips so more drives can be used). Right now I don't think there's much of an advantage with SATA II over SATA I, since no drives currently max out SATA I anyway. NVidia also supports NCQ which when paired with compatible drives allows the HDD to sort requests to improve performance. However the performance improvement is negligible in most home user environments.
Harware Firewall
Direct link for ethernet (I think there is a specific data path for the ethernet on the NV chipset so the data doesn't need to go through the PCIe bus, although the PCIe bus has enough bandwidth that it shouldn't matter much anyway)

That's all that's coming to mind for NV.
The advantages for VIA are the following (IMO)
Lower power consumtion (but compared to CPU and Video the chipset is pretty low power anyway, so does this matter much?
Passive cooling. Due to the lower power consumption, the VIA chipsets seem to be passively cooled. This is a biggie for me, and one of the reasons I am considering VIA.

So, that's my take. I won't say that one is definitely better over the other, only that IMO NV has more features but VIA currently has the one feature I want. If the Chaintech NV board (which IS passively cooled) had 1394 support I'd probably go with that, but since it doesn't I'm thinking the soltek might be a good one.

However, there is an Albatron board that has the Via Envy24 sound chip (which is supposedly pretty good) so I'm waiting to see if that board ever shows up.

Anyhow, I had a Leadtek GF3 Ti200 (same company as foxconn) and I thought it was a great card. Hopefully the Mobo performs as well as that card did. I've heard many good things about Soltek too, and they even post of the forums sometimes, so that is a good sign IMO. If I were choosing now I'd go with Solteck simply because it is passively cooled.

Good luck with you decision.

-D'oh!

 

[Infohawk]

Thanks for the answer grunt, I didn't realize there was so much difference between the two.

I guess I have a slight preference for upgradeability and the SATAII would be useful in the future possibly, as with possibly NCQ. As for cooling I don't know how much I care about that since I'm not overclocking.

 

[Zap]

I know you said "since I'm not overclocking" but just for the record Nvidia chipset boards seem to overclock better than VIA chipset boards, however the Foxconn brand has been known for being stable, fast and inexpensive. Foxconn has NOT been known for being an overclocking monster.

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

The chipset fan on the Foxconn board is pretty loud, and very hard to replace because of the board's layout. If that's a concern to you the Soltek board is 100% silent.