i want to buy this mother board the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra Athlon 64 Skt939 DDR! i have a ati x800xt pci-e

[santacruz]

first question........

i want to buy this mother board the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra Athlon 64 Skt939 DDR! i have a ati x800xt pci-e video card, will it run on a nforce 4 chipset like the mother board listed above or will it run only on nvidia video cards? if it does run on a ati pci-e video card, will the n4 chipset allow the ati card to run as just as good as the nvidia card if its the same performance level, so i guess what i am trying to say does the n4 chipset give a edge over the ati cards if u used a nvidia card or will the performance be the same if the cards are simular!

thanks, i like to buy this board, will my ati x800xt perform in it!


second question........

also i am thinking this, i can get a Intel P4 550 (3.40GHz) w/ Intel D915PBL motherboard for $350 with heat sink and fan VS....................
A AMD 3500 939 and the board i mention above for around $500 with fan and heatsink! do u think its worth the $150 more to get the amd cpu/board, i know the amd will be faster but is it worth it in the long run! i plan to build a computer and keep it for the next 4 years. and i will be using mostly for gaming also if that helps, please help me decide, any advice would be great, but i need a pci-e computer since i have a pci-e ati x800xt i already bought! or even what would u recommend me getting that is not too much i cant spend over $500 for a cpu/board combo. the nforce 3 are not pci are they?

 

[Kovie]

First question: Yes, it will work fine. Nothings been really shown to say there is any performance loss by going with an ATI card with a Nvidia chipset.

Second question: The money you save on the Intel board would be eaten up by the DDR2 memory you would need to buy. If you are using it mostly for gaming then there is no real reason to get the P4.

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

Like Kovie said, that Intel board requires DDR2 memory which is more expensive. There are two other ways you can save some money:

1) get a 915P board with DDR support (and optionally DDR2 too);

2) get a cheaper socket 939 PCI-E board, like the ABIT AX8 for $125.

 

[FastEddie]

This is the board I want myself. Instead, I'll have the Asus A8N-SLI-DELUXE here on tuesday. I'll play nice with the Asus until the MSI Ultra is available.

 

[Jinxt]

Your card will work on both boards. The AMD/Neo4 combination will, however, leave the Intel combos in the dust in terms of performance for gaming, busines, etc. It will also use less expensive RAM (DDR instead of DDR2) while doing it. So if performance and longevity are your goals, the AMD product is awesome. I'm going for the same combo myself after many years as an Intel-only user.

FYI, according to the Anandtech review, the AMD Athlon 64+ 3000 (90nm core) over clocks about 45% while staying relatively cool. In terms of performance, it runs at the equivalent of an Intel Pentium _might_ run if it could hit around 5.0 gigahertz. Wow. It's also an inexpensive chip--about $150 new in retail box. That and the Neo4 will run you about $350 total. See Zipzoomfly.com for the motherboard if you like.

Good luck!