New comp, need help with AGP 939 mobo

[DeathSniper]

Now I've been out and about and I'm going to be purchasing my motherboard tonight or tomorrow. I've looked around and the local shops around my area carry pretty much only one of two motherboards. I *would* look online, but only if the board was seriously worth it.

I have a BFG 6800GT o/c AGP, so I can't get a PCI-E board (it would have made it so much easier), therefore I'm stuck in the realm of the nForce3 250 Ultra, or the K8T800 I believe, and I'm leaning towards the nF3's. I've looked around and I've only been able to find 2 or 3 reviews on this motherboard - Gigabyte GA-K8NS Ultra-939, none of which are especially helpful. I've read things about memory controller problems, and other weird anomalies such as memory timings, but it seemed to be apparent on the 754 socketd motherboards, not the 939 ones. Is there anyone here that actually *HAS* this board, or has experience with it and can give me some advice here?

Or if someone would suggest a viable alternative - needs to have at least 4x SATA. Some people recommended the MSI Neo2 Platinum, and I like MSI, but if I went for this board I'd have to wait probably a week, so unless it's really *that* much better, or the Gb one is really *that* much worse...

As well, I'm looking into the Thermalright XP-90 & XP-120, but they seem to have compatibility problems/or need modifications with certain mobos, is there something else that's comparable but relatively quiet as well?

My new computer specs can be found here
In short, it'll be an A64 4000+ (San Diego), with BFG GF6800GT o/c 256mb AGP, with 1 GB (2x512) OCZ EL Platinum revision 1 (2-3-2-5), 3xWD Raptors, 1xUnknown (probably WD 250 w/ 16mb cache SATAII, unless Seagate's 7200.9 come out soon)

Thanks!

 

[Icepick]

The socket 939 AGP version of the Gigabyte motherboard had memory issues as well. That's what kept me from purchasing it last fall. If you search the archives you might be able to find some threads covering these issues. There were a bunch of threads about this board last fall. I "think" these issues have been worked out with BIOS updates now. Most of the socket 939 AGP motherboards have been out since last fall so most of the bugs are worked out of them. Any should be safe bets.

The XP-90 fits with any of these boards very well. The XP-120 will not work with the MSI K8N NEO2. I'm not sure about the Gigabyte board.

Since you asked, a very good alternative is the Asus A8V Deluxe that is based upon the VIA K8T800 chipset. This motherboard earned a lot of praise in the motherboard reviews I've seen out on the net. This motherboard performed well at stock speeds, is packed with features and overclocks well.

 

[Icepick]

Here's a thread where some members gave their opinions of the Gigabyte and Asus A8V motherboards.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...hreadid=1426372&enterthread=y&arctab=y

Here's a long thread about the GA-K8NS(NXP). It's essentially the same as the one you are asking about except there are a few more features added.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...hreadid=1373918&enterthread=y&arctab=y