Help Me Choose an nForce4 Ultra motherboard

[Starbuck1975]

I am playing around with the idea of building a new system. If I do, I intend to center the system around an AMD Venice core processor an nVidia 6800 based video card, and 1GB of RAM.

I am not an overclocker, nor do I have any intention of utilizing SLI on my new system.

I primarily use my computer for gaming, storage and editing of digital photography and storage of MP3s for my iPod. As I intend to utilize the onboard audio feature on whatever motherboard I purchase, my preference is a stable motherboard that runs well out of the box and provides audio quality that is comperable to the Soundblaster Audigy I currently own.

After doing some research, I selected the four motherboards listed in the poll:
1. Abit, because my last four builds have been with Abit motherboards, and overall, I am quite happy with their products.
2. ASUS, because like Abit, they seem to have a reputation for delivering quality and stable products.
3. Epox, because their board seems to be the darling of review websites such as Anandtech within the nForce4 Ultra offerings.
4. DFI, because their board, like the Epox board, comes up at the top of most review lists.

I would probably just go with the Epox board were it not for the fact that I have never purchased one of their products...there is a certain comfort level with Abit as I have used their boards before...the DFI board seems tailored more towards overclockers, so it might be more motherboard then I need.

Feel free to just vote, vote and add comments, not vote at all, or anything in between.

 

[azev]

I am in the same boat as you are. I havent build any system for almost 3years now, and decided now is the time.
I've been reading alot of mb review lately, but still I cant decide whats the best. I dont use my computer for gaming that much, only occasionaly. So I dont need SLI, but I want the best non SLI mobo out t here. Thinking of getting ati x800 radeon card, 1 or 2 gig of memory. Need mobo that support dual core amd, for when they are more affordable. For now I am going to get a venice core amd 3000. hopefully I can overclock it to 2.5ghz and I should be set for a while. So I need mobo with awsome overclocking ability, that can fit thermalright xp-120. So just like starbucks said, feel free to throw in your comments on any mobo.

Thanks

 

[Starbuck1975]

Epox is winning with a whopping two votes...I was sure this thread would generate some discussion, or perhaps attract the interest of the rabid fanboys who would go to bat for their MOBO of choice.

Keep those comments coming...if you think this thread is redundant to threads already out there, could someone point me to those discussions...the searches I have done thus far are providing sporadic pieces of information that are already available on several websites that provide hardware reviews...that, and many of those reviews were written when these MOBOs launched, and typical for a new hardware release, I know at least two of these manufacturers have released bios updates since launch...which of course effects stability or issues that could have caused previous reviews to be negative.

Looking for comments from people who have purchased one of these boards, or recommendations from experience and knowledge that far exceeds my mere interest in the hobby.

 

[imported_meatball]

I'm about to put together a new system myself.... It really is down to the Epox and the Asus A8N-SLI premium for me. The EPoX is more cost effective, and I won't use the SLI, but I do like the chipset heat pipe on the Asus in lieu of the heatsink with fan on the EPoX. Of course I could replace the fan with a passive heatsink of some kind, but then the price is getting close to the Asus. Historically I've always used Asus and have considered them the best. More recently, though, they seem to have gone downhill. The Premium version of the SLI board, however, seems to be a solid performer with good OC ability and free of a few bugs that plagued the Deluxe version. I think both a good boards. The Asus perhaps has more features on-board, but will I ever use them? I don't know. I tend to keep my PCs for quite a while, so someday you never know. For the price, the EPoX is probably second to none. Great value there for sure.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Keep the votes and comments coming...thanks.

 

[imported_Kensai]

MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum.

 

[Starbuck1975]

MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum.

Any particular reason why, as the reviews I have read on this motherboard are extremely mixed.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Originally posted by: Starbuck1975

MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum.

Any particular reason why, as the reviews I have read on this motherboard are extremely mixed.

Hit 240 systems built off that board to my last count. Great features, looks great.
The PCI-E x4 slot is notched in the back so you can fit another x16 card in there if anyone hasn't noticed.
Great onboard sound, SoundBlaster Live!
Always rock solid stability for me.
Mild overclockers are made easy with the BIOS features.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Great onboard sound, SoundBlaster Live!

The MSI website shows the following as the oboard audio on the K8N NEO4 Platinum???

Audio
7.1 channel audio codec RealTek ALC850
Compliance with AC97 v2.3 Spec.
Meet PC2001 audio performance requirement.

K8N NEO4 Platinum

 

[imported_Spilson]

I would go with Epox.

This is my second epox motherboard (first was a 8kta3+ - i dont upgrade my computer too often). All i can say is that their quality has impressed me. Both boards have been very stable and very easy to setup, specially the 9npa+.

I also like their support very much. My 8kta3+ came with a locked bios chip that couldnt be flashed, and after a couple of emails they sent me a new one free of charge (i live in Brazil!!).

Looking at all other nforce4 boards, it´s very clear that the value this board offers is simply unbeatable.

Spilson

 

[rise]

i have 3 dfi, 2 sli-dr and an ultra-d so needless to say i voted ultra-d.

if i were to buy a different board it would be the epox.

 

[pulsedrive]

I am going to have to back Kensai up on the MSI, I personally went through a DFI before I settled on the MSI, which I LOVE! Very stable, no problem, especially if you aren't interested in overclocking the MSI is a very nice board. The PCB is laid out nicely. Nothing but good things to say about it.

 

[SilverTrine]

I've always had great success with Aopen boards. I recommend their nCK804Ua-LFS board,.
Aopen has a 3 year warranty on their boards and in my experience has the most stable boards out there.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Interesting that the Abit and ASUS boards have only received one vote each.

It looks like my choices are narrowing down between the Epox board and the MSI K8N Neo4 platinum.

 

[djnsmith7]

I have the A8N-E & so far, so good.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

A8N-E's a great board besides the loud chipset fan (which might fail on ya), and the lack of firewall (if this is important to you).

The ABIT isn't a bad board either, but why do you need to get the Fatal1ty edition? Their regular ultra board (about $130) is plenty, and the passive cooling is excellent.
EPoX ($105) will probably be a better bang for your buck though. Solid, and stable, and rather cheap .

The DFI isn't a bad choice, but why get it if you aren't overclocking? It's picky with hardware, so if you've got existing hardware you're using you might want to be careful.

So my thoughts:
-If you want passive cooling, stick with ABIT as you've done so for years.
-If you want to save some cash, get the EPoX, just as long as you don't mind the active cooling (but the fan isn't that loud, fyi).

Check out the sticky at the top of this forum (or check the link in my sig).

Edit: I just noticed that the Fatal1ty AN8 is nearly $185. If you've got that kind of budget, you might as well take a look at the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium edition as opposed to the A8N-E. It's bound to last you long, and you won't have that chipset fan issue, it doesn't have the problems that the other ASUS's have, and it's packed with features.

-The Pentium Guy

 

[Bona Fide]

ASUS is only good for Intel chipsets. It sucks the big one with AMD.

I would go with DFI or EPoX, depending on the following:

- Overclocking requirements (hardcore=DFI...moderate=EPoX)
- Money ($$$$=DFI...$$=EPoX)
- Firewire (Yes=DFI...No=EPoX)

 

[Zebo]

OTHER

Abit AN8 ultra of course. You like Abit, me too. It's silent design, no squealing chipset fan. It clocks all to hell 330HTT not unkown. Jap caps and high end circutry. Cheap at $122@ newegg.

Not the fatality!!

 

[The Pentium Guy]

- Firewire (Yes=DFI...No=EPoX)

EPoX's got firewire.

And yeah, like me and zebo said, the fatal1ty is a waste of money. ABIT's an excellent company - and it's an amazing overclocker. Unfortunately Anandtech tested it with a bios that wasn't really good for overclocking - look out for some other reviews. Grab the AN8 Ultra.

ASUS is only good for Intel chipsets. It sucks the big one with AMD.

Not true. A8N-SLI Deluxe was pathetic, I have to agree. The A8N-E is a mediocre board, and got popular during the techtour. But the A8N-SLI Premium is an excellent board, and it's not as buggy as the other 2 I mentioned.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Edit: I just noticed that the Fatal1ty AN8 is nearly $185. If you've got that kind of budget, you might as well take a look at the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium edition as opposed to the A8N-E. It's bound to last you long, and you won't have that chipset fan issue, it doesn't have the problems that the other ASUS's have, and it's packed with features.

Well like any project, you have to watch out for budget creep, so the Fatal1ty board is probably not the best investment I could make.

Overall, for my needs and experience, the EpoX or Abit board is probably my best bet...I still need to do a bit more reading, but your post definitely gave the best overview and pros/cons breakdown thus far.

And yeah, like me and zebo said, the fatal1ty is a waste of money. ABIT's an excellent company - and it's an amazing overclocker. Unfortunately Anandtech tested it with a bios that wasn't really good for overclocking - look out for some other reviews. Grab the AN8 Ultra.

Yes I found a couple of reviews that raved about the Abit AN8 and its more expensive cousin, the Fatal1ty board. Honestly, I probably would have simply purchased the Abit board given my experience with them were it not for the less then stellar reviews it received from AnandTech...but other sites seem to be giving it fairly strong scoring.

It seems that AnandTech is somewhat partial to MSI, which is odd, because the NEO4 boards do not score nearly as high on other sites.

I am probably going to go with either Epox or Abit at this point.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Yes I found a couple of reviews that raved about the Abit AN8 and its more expensive cousin, the Fatal1ty board. Honestly, I probably would have simply purchased the Abit board given my experience with them were it not for the less then stellar reviews it received from AnandTech...but other sites seem to be giving it fairly strong scoring.

This is because they used a bios that wasn't known to overclock well (did I mention this before?).

 

[Zebo]

I wish you luck with EPOX. I never recommend that crap unless it's a 6 month build. You want your computer longer than 6 months? If not go right ahead. Why? cause cheap china caps, cheap mostfets and shotty quality. I speak from experiance. Have had two 9NDA3J's. First one audio went out, then started have cold boot issues, then random restarts, then network stopped working before I finally RMA's it for this new one, hope to sell it soon while it still works. <crosses fingers>

Had an 8RDA3+ back in Tbred days, same deal, stuff just started going out on it before I got a real board, NF7-S, and that ABIT's still working to this day wildly overclocked.

Anyway my experiance is probably not the norm since I OC heavy, but just looking at thier boards anyone can see thier not built for longevity but for cost.. e.g. four layer instead of six, cheap parts, low phase design etc.


Then you run into issue of non-existant support as compared to the big boys like abit/gigabyte/asus/msi etc.. Go look is any of thier NF3 939 boards support dual core. Nope! Too busy turing out thier next cheapo board I guess.

 

[secretanchitman]

asus = rock solid OCing, stability, and reputation...

 

[Starbuck1975]

Anyway my experiance is probably not the norm since I OC heavy, but just looking at thier boards anyone can see thier not built for longevity but for cost.. e.g. four layer instead of six, cheap parts, low phase design etc.

Thanks for pointing this out Zebo...although I do not overclock, my threshhold for upgrades tends to be when I can no longer play the games I want to play...which has been roughly a 3 year lifespan for my systems...as much as I try to build a system with the future in mind, the technology moves so fast that whenever I do upgrade, I end up having to swap out the MOBO, video card, processor and RAM. I have managed to use the same hard drives, optical drives and power supply for the last two builds...hard drives and power supply need an upgrade this time around.

This was my main concern with the Epox board...a price point lower then the competition usually means you have to sacrifice something, and with an expectation of getting two to three years out of this system, the Epox board may not be my best option...while reviews may be able to determine the performance of a particular board, the nForce4 boards have not been around long enough to determine longevity...at least I know with Abit, their boards last, and when things do go wrong, I have found their tech support extremely helpful and knowledgeable.

Looks like Abit, ASUS and MSI are still on the table.

 

[vanvock]

If the onboard sound is of import I would go with MSI or DFI. I think some users of all these new boards have had some problems but that's to be expected. I built a EPOX 8kha+ system a few years ago & it is still truckin' right along. Maybe it's the luck of the draw but the're ok by me. I've heard about the cheap caps thing & it seems like there were several makers guilty of that, seems there was a class action lawsuit & I thought they quit using them. Wasn't ABIT involved in that? I'm not a mad overclocker & I'm very happy with this ULTRA-D. I figure if it's built to handle the madmen it will take moderate oc'ing easily. I haven't had any hardware issues.