rx480 vs nForce4?

[shiro]

I was just wondering does the ati rx480 mobo chipset necessarily have any advantage over a nForce4 mobo when using an ati gfx card? I don't think that should be the case but i was just wondering.

I'm considering upgrading my pc at the moment in lieu of the recent price drops on 64bit processors, and am considering going for a budget board the ECS rx480-a, or maybe spending about $35 more to get the Asus a8n-e nForce4 board for an athlon 64 x2 3800+. I'm planning to just run it stock...no oc'ing for me...

At the moment I'm leaning towards the rx480-a just because it's so cheap, yet I've read that the layout of the board is kind of iffy...

 

[Nocturnal]

I really don't think so unless that motherboard supports CrossFire.

 

[grooge]

Even if there is maybe some difference in performance depending of the task, You wont notice them in use. I was using nforce chipset since nforce2 for the built I did but now, I'm mostly using ATI chipset. The reason is better thermal management as they won't get as hot and you can run it with fanless cooler. For quiet computing, that's a most. While heat pipes are goods, it doesn't help to lower motherboard price at all..

At the end, if noise or chipset heat is not an issue for you, then both will give you the performance you expect from. Just make sure you don't go cheap on the PSU and you'll be good to go.

While the ECS maybe a nice board, I would have a look at the Asus A8R-MVP. I just build one computer with one of these and the X2 and I'm perfectly happy and the whole thing is amazingly quiet and stable. Performance is top notch and even faster in some area compared to nforce4 motherboard I had before. Asrock has some nice motherboard too, based on ULI chipset that was stable and a good performer too. It was passively cooled and I ran it for 4 month in one build then I sold it. Still running great.

 

[shiro]

Thanks for the responses...but I think I may jump on an Asus a8n5x nForce4 instead just cuz it's cheaper than either of the two options I listed earlier thanks to newegg's combo deal.


having a fan on one of the bridges (north/south I don't know I'm sort of a noob lol) wouldn't be a make or break decision on noise would it? I'm sure the other number of fans I have in my pc would drown it out. Less Noise is definitely a good thing to have but keeping my system cool I think would be the better choice..



also I'm runnin off an Antec Truepower 430 watt (not TruePower II)...that should be sufficient enough I hope?

 

[shiro]

well nevermind about the combo as newegg changed around the prices like just an hour ago. Gee thanks Newegg! ...


Anyway now that I've had a little more time to think about it. I guess I can look into other motherboards. I'm kinda looking into one that's about $80 or under...something budget minded since everything else I'm getting takes up a good bit of my budget...

I'll take a look at the A8R-MVP