Gigabyte GA-K8NS Ultra-939, full speed on 4 dimms?

[beefkake]

Can anyone verify if the GA-K8NS Ultra-939 motherboard will run in dual-channel mode at full speed with DDR400 with all four DIMM slots utilized? I can't seem to find this info in any reviews (this mobo hasn't been reviewed, from what I can find, on anandtech or thw).

I am searching for an nforce 3 ultra chipset-based motherboard to run an Athlon 64 venice core processor. I would really like to get one that uses passive cooling on the chipset, and I found that the Gigabyte GA-K8NS Ultra-939 (newegg link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128263) is just that. Unfortunately, the Epox and MSI nforce3 boards all use active cooling...

 

[beefkake]

Any other info from current owners would also be appreciated. I'm ready to buy- just need to find the perfect mobo for me (I'm not going to overclock- just want ultimate stability).

 

[angstsoldat]

says it only has 3 audio jacks 4 USB ports and no PCI Express slots.. :S

 

[beefkake]

Well, yeah- I want the nforce3 ultra because of the AGP. as for the usb, i'm pretty sure you can have 4 front/4 back, but i'll verify. I'm mostly concerned about performance with 4 DIMMs...

 

[Joepublic2]

Verdstein couldn't get his to work.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=32&threadid=1620045&enterthread=y

Also, that board has active cooling. Observe the wires leading away from the heatsink into a fan header. I don't think you can buy a Nforce 3 250 board with a big passive sink do to the preffered placement of the chipset (it could block PCI slots). Gigabyte's warranty sucks too. It's three years, but parts and labor is only one year. So if it broke on the second or third year, I guess they would send you an invoice for the components that had to be replaced.

 

[beefkake]

Whoa, good catch on that fan. I never saw that (I was viewing those images last night on a tablet PC). This isn't an nforce3 250, it's an ultra. I was really hoping to find one with passive cooling, but I guess it's not to be. Also, good find on that other posting- it looks like you have to drop the timings down to use all four dimms on the Gigabyte.

So, I Guess I'm going with the MSI Neo2... I guess I could go with a Via K8T800 (since many of those use passive cooling), but I had some issues with my Via KT266A motherboard, and I'm hoping the nforce will have better stability/compatibility. Guess we'll soon see...

 

[JBird7986]

No problems here with the ASUS A8V Deluxe...it uses a K8T800 Pro chipset which is passively cooled. AGP 8x friendly too.

 

[beefkake]

I'll look into that one. Thanks.