NF4 Mobo with NO problems

[tjpark1111]

I am getting confused more and more everyday. Basically, I can find NO motherboard that fits my needs. I'm looking for a mobo that can fit a Scythe Ninja, can fit a Zalman Northbridge cooler, or already has passive cooling on the NB, and just everything else should work properly, no frills. The EPoX 9NPA+ Ultra seemed good, even overclocks well,(not a requirement for me though), but that thing ahs USB issues. The Asus A8N-E has issues. The Asus A8R-MVP has issues. The Abit AN8-Ultra has the heatpipe too high and probably won't fit the ninja. The MSI Neo4 Platinum will not fit the Zalman Northbridge cooler. The DFI Ultra-D is good but almost no room for an aftermarket cooler, ridiculous considering overclokcing=cooling. AsRock Dual-SATA2 is incompatible with 3200+ venice. The ECS KN1 Extreme has issues. The Abit K8N-Ultra has the northbridge too close to the CPU socket area. DFI Ultra Infinity has no room around the CPU either. The so-praised A8N-SLI Premium is too expensive for me to justify. I can afford it yes, but I'm not going to SLI at all or the many fancy features with the mobo, and paying $50 more just for A PROPERLY WORKING MOTHERBOARD is just RIDICULOUS. If I had to buy it, I would, but it seems that it is VERY picky about memory, and the list in its manual doesn't have even one-half of memory sticks available today. I'm going to use Crucial Ballistix, and it is listed, but it says 512MB. I want to use 2x512MB, anyone know if that's going to work?

If you don't feel like reading all the crap above, here's the question. I'm looking for a mobo that can fit a Scythe Ninja, can fit a Zalman Northbridge cooler, or already has passive cooling on the NB, and a mobo THAT ACTUALLY WORKS WITH NO PROBLEMS DAM IT!
Sorry for my aggresiveness, but enough is enough. I need a computer NOW. Just for reference, here's the other parts I plan to use.

CPU: AMD 64 3200+ 2.0Ghz 512KB Cache Venice S939 Venice E6 90nm Processor - $163 shipped @ Newegg

Mobo: ???!?!?!?!??!

Memory: Crucial Ballistix 2x512MB DDR400 PC3200 CAS2 Memory w/Aluminum Heatspreaders - $115 shipped @ Newegg

Case&PSU: Antec P150 Silver Performance-One Quiet Quiet Steel Case w/430W NeoHE PSU- $153 shipped @ eWiz

HDD: Samsung SpinPoint P120 SP2504C 250GB SATAII 8MB 7200RPM 3.5" Quiet HDD - $112 shipped @ ZipZoomFly

Monitor: ViewSonic VA1912wb 19" Widescreen(1440x900) 8ms LCD Monitor w/DVI - $320 shipped @ ClubIT

GPU: XFX 6600 GT+Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 6 Rev. 2 Quiet VGA Cooler - $160 shipped @ Newegg & ZipZoomFly

Keyboard: Saitek Eclipse Blue-Illuminated USB 104-Key Keyboard w/Wrist Pad - $50 shipped @ Amazon

Components from Other Vendors - $1170 shipped approx.

From JabTech:

Scythe Ninja(SCNJ-1000) High Performance Aluminum Tower CPU Cooler

Zalman ZM-NB47J Blue Aluminum Passive Northbridge Cooler

Sunbeam Rheobus 5.25" Silver 4 Fan Controller w/LEDs

2 Nexus Real Silent 120mm Orange 1000rpm 22.8dba 36.87CFM Case Fans

2 Nexus Real Silent 92mm Black 1000rpm 19.2dba 27CFM Case Fans

Arctic Cooling Silver 5 All-Silver Performance Thermal Compound 3.5 grams

Arctic Cooling Thermal Compound Remover

= $123 shipped

System = $1300 shipped approx.

Possible Add-ons -

M-Audio Revolution 5.1 PCI Digital Sound Card - $79 shipped @ ZipZoomFly

Logitech Z-5500 Digital THX-Certified 5.1 Surround Sound System - $230 shipped @ Amazon

Super High Quality RCA Digital Coaxial Cable - $20 shipped @ CablesForLess

What I already have:

NEC ND-3540A 16X DVD Burner, quiet when slowed down with Nero's drivespeed.

Logitech MX518 gaming mouse, clicks are annoyingly loud but I don't care, on the fly shifting is awesome, very comfortable mouse.

FX Pro 7-Color Gaming pad, I like the illumination, good smoothness.

Logitech Quickcam, good video quality when offline but MSN messenger horribly degrades the potential of this cam, especially when I only have a DSL connection going 1.5Mbps currently.(moving to Verizon FIOS when contract is over)

 

[grooge]

Foxconn nforce4 board seems good, but no first hand experience. Find some review and have a look by yourself if it fits your needs. But, no board will spare user's errors... The isue with the Asus A8R-MVP seem to be related with not enough voltage for overclocking, because those I know that have it don't OC really hard and had no problem with it. You could check out the Gigabyte K8NF-9 motherboard. It don't use a fan for the chipset, and proved to be rock stable on me for 8 months, before I sell it to a friend. But it don't have the full nf4 ultra chipset, which means not 3.0Gb/s for SATA hdd (who care, no hdd max the SATA150 bandwidth anyway) and the active Armour firewall(yep, anybody seems to disable it anyway).

I've setted up lots of nforce motherboard. I still have to get one that fail to run properly and cause problem once installed.. I now have an Asrock 939 DUAL SATA2 that run properly with a 3000+ venice E6 OCed at 2.35 GHz.. I don't know what I do better because all my system works.. no matter the brand, chipset or CPU ...

Next one will be with the Asus A8R-MVP or I'll wait a bit more until next socket will be there..

 

[imported_Kiwi]

There is a direct correlation between system capability and the creation of waste heat when it comes to MB chip sets. Only Intel has a "Northbridge" anyway. The NF4 is a high performance chip set, with only one ASIC. There is no equivalent to a "Southbridge" on the NF4. If you are building a quiet system, you simply compromise on a less powerful chip set and your waste heat problem is solved. Also, you want to use a low production, minimally flexible CPU cooling solution, that just isn't enough better to justify all of the failures it meets at being small enough for a typical NF4 system board.

I think you are crippling yourself right from the start here. You don't start from the cooling solution, unless it's water cooling.

You start from the MB plus CPU pair, choosing the matchup that best meets your needs. After making that choice, you make sure that the memory choice you prefer is actually compatible, and that there is no conflict with your preference for GPU. Cooling comes pretty far down in the scale of importance. A64's run cooler than XP's, and WAY cooler than P4's. Those huge cpu Coolers that are sold for P4's are tremendous OVERKILL for an A64!

Instead of shooting yourself in the foot right away, pick the parts in a better order of importance, that's what you need to do now.