Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9 Review??

[snapgt]

Does anybody have any reviews on the Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9? I see this board going for $155 on Newegg and have been wondering if it is worth getting over the MSI K8N Neo 4.

Also, I see a number of different Gb LAN solutions, be it Marvell, nVidia, and others. Is there any difference between the various solutions?

Thanks.

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[Trente]

It is basically a cut-down version of the GA-K8NXP-9; read up on it to get a clue about the GA-K8N Ultra-9.

 

[snapgt]

Looked at the specs, and it looks like the same as the GA-K8NXP-9, save for the 802.11 PCI card and DPS. The one difference I've noticed between this board and other NF4 Ultras, is that there is no fan on the chipset. Do you think heat could be a major issue? Reviews of the GA-K8NXP-9 did not mention it.

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[tmchow]

Originally posted by: snapgt
Looked at the specs, and it looks like the same as the GA-K8NXP-9, save for the 802.11 PCI card and DPS. The one difference I've noticed between this board and other NF4 Ultras, is that there is no fan on the chipset. Do you think heat could be a major issue? Reviews of the GA-K8NXP-9 did not mention it.

-snap-

I'm looking at the same motherboard as you and am particularly interested because of the fanless chipset cooling. This is the only currently available Nforce4 Ultra motherboard that features this.

I don't care too much about he missing 802.11 card but am wondering what the significance of Dual Power System (DPS) is? The gigabyte site also says that the GA-K8NXP-9 supports "MIB2" whereas the " GA-K8N Ultra-9" does not.