Slim picking in micro-atx socket 939 boards

[paulsiu]

According to the web, the following are socket 939 micro-atx boards.

FIC KTMF3-Ulta nForce3
MSI RS480M2 Radeon Xpress 200
MSI RS480M-IL Radeon Xpress 200p
Gigabyte GA-K8A480M-9 Radeon Xpress 200
ECS RS480-M Radeon Xpress 200
Sapphire Technology A56 Radeon Xpress 200
Sapphire Technology A58 Radeon Xpress 200p
Asus A8AE-LA Radeon Xpress 200
Foxconn NF4K8MC-ERS nForce4
Asrock 939vm890 VIA K8T800 Pro + VT8237

In reality, only Foxconn and MSI board are actually available. The FIC seemed to have been discontinued. All of the other boards are essentially future releases.

Of the two boards, the MSI board seems to be a better deal because:

1. MSI has 4 dimm slots vs. Foxconn's 2.
2. MSI board has a SPDIF output (though you can still get Foxconn's SPIF via internal header).
3. MSI has onboard video. Foxconn requires a video card.

One other differences is that the MSI board has 1 PCIe slot and 3 PCI slot and the Foxconn board has 2 PCIe slot and 2 PCI slots. Neither has Gigabit Lan, SATA2, SLI, or decent overclock features.

 

[crazyeddie]

The MSI RS480M2-IL is an excellent, stable board. I bought mine almost two months ago, and I've been very pleased with its performance.

Sure, gigabit Ethernet sounds cool, but who the heck is running a gigabit ethernet LAN at home?

What's more cool is the RS480M2-IL's Cinema display feature. You can use the IGP in combination with a PCI-E video card for 3-display video setup. That's actually useful!

SATA-2 300Mb/sec interface sounds nice on paper, but there's still no sign of drives. Once the drives start shipping, you'll be able to buy a PCI SATA-2 controller card for $29 to slap into your PC. Heck, for that matter a PCI Gigabit Ethernet adapter can't be that expensive anymore, either.

Whatever the MSI RS480M2-IL is missing, you either probably don't need or you can add to it via a PCI slot. For $86 plus shipping, why nitpick?

 

[TSDible]

I'm looking for one too.

I have this Aria just sitting here collecting dust.

I was close to pulling the trigger on the MSI until I found out there was no overclocking options.

 

[crazyeddie]

Originally posted by: TSDible
I'm looking for one too.

I have this Aria just sitting here collecting dust.

I was close to pulling the trigger on the MSI until I found out there was no overclocking options.

Do you really think that overclocking and Small Form Factor cases are a good combination, TSDible?

MSI probably skipped the overclocking stuff because many of their OEM customers are using these boards in SFF configurations.

 

[TSDible]

Originally posted by: crazyeddie

Originally posted by: TSDible
I'm looking for one too.

I have this Aria just sitting here collecting dust.

I was close to pulling the trigger on the MSI until I found out there was no overclocking options.

Do you really think that overclocking and Small Form Factor cases are a good combination, TSDible?

MSI probably skipped the overclocking stuff because many of their OEM customers are using these boards in SFF configurations.

Overclocking is always a good idea...

That being said... there isn't much difference if I run a 3500+ or a 3200+ at 3500+ speeds using default voltages.

I don't plan on overclocking the voltage, I would just like some FSB tweaking.

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

They skiped overclocking features to save money. They never expected anyone who even knows what overclocking is to actually buy this mobo, I suppose.

 

[Macro2]

The MSI RS480M2-IL is an excellent, stable board.

 

[Overclocked412]

!! http://tw.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Products/Products_GA-K8A480M-9.htm

micro-atx overclockers dream come true!

Voltages (For everything from ram to pci-e to CPU!), FSB, Multipliers, HyperTransport

*falls over and dies* :Q

 

[Megatomic]

I feel your pain. I've been looking for an NF3-250Gb motherboard in a uATX format for months now. No luck so far.

 

[TSDible]

Originally posted by: Overclocked412
!! http://tw.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Products/Products_GA-K8A480M-9.htm

micro-atx overclockers dream come true!

Voltages (For everything from ram to pci-e to CPU!), FSB, Multipliers, HyperTransport

*falls over and dies* :Q

That link seems to be down for me



*grumble*

 

[Overclocked412]

Stange, seems to be working for me?

Heres the screenshot, and heres a copy of the features from the site...

http://img151.exs.cx/img151/1916/screenshot3ch.jpg

GA-K8A480M-9
ATI RS480 chipset

Processor


1. Socket 939 supports AMD Athlon64/ 64 FX

Chipset


1. North Bridge: ATI RS480
2. South Bridge: Uli M1573
3. Super I/O: ITE IT8712F chip
4. Integrated peripherals

1. Realtek 8110S Gigabit LAN chip
2. Realtek ALC880 Audio AC'97 Codec

Memory


1. Type: Dual channel DDR400/ 333/ 266 -184pin
2. Max capacity: Up to 4GB by 4 DIMM slots
3. Local Frame Buffer Memory 32MB

Internal I/O Connectors


1. 4 x Serial ATA connectors
2. 2 x UDMA ATA 133/100/66 Bus Master IDE connectors
3. 1 x FDD connector
4. 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 connectors (supports 4 ports)
5. 2 x cooling fan pin headers
6. CD in

Expansion Slots


1. 1 x PCI-Express X 16 slot, supports PCI-Express interface Graphics card
2. 1 x PCI-Express X 1 slots
3. 2 x PCI slots (PCI 2.3 compliant)

Rear Panel I/O


1. 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
2. 1 x VGA port
3. 1 x RJ45 port
4. Audio (1 x Line-out/ 1 x Line-in/ 1 x MIC) connector
5. PS/2 Keyboard/ Mouse
6. 1 x COM port
7. 1 x LPT

CPU/AGP/DIMM setting


1. CPU HT / Multiplier / Vcore Voltage adjustable via BIOS
2. PCI-ExpessX16 Voltage / Clock adjustable via BIOS
3. DIMM Voltage / Clock adjustable via BIOS



Power


1. ATX power connector and ATX 12V connector
2. Power-off by Windows 98/ Me/ 2000/ XP shut down and switch

Form Factor


1. Micro ATX form factor
2. 24.4 x 24.4 cm


H/W Monitoring


1. System health status auto-detect and report by BIOS
2. Hardware detecting and reporting for case open, CPU voltage, and fan speed

BIOS


1. 2M bit flash ROM

Other Features


1. Local Frame Buffer 32MB
2. Norton Internet Security
3. XpressTM Installation
4. Q-FlashTM
5. @BIOSTM

 

[razor2025]

The MSI board is perfect for SSF. It has the IGP along with SPDIF, S-Video out that will let you run it as cheap HTPC (once you add a tuner card).

 

[TSDible]

Originally posted by: Overclocked412
Stange, seems to be working for me?

It seems to be working fine for me now too.

I just wish someone would get this board in. I'm dying to put this in an Aria.

 

[jedihobbit]

For a Foxconn

http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/productdetails.asp?linkid=117&item=13-186-040

 

[thejaredhuang]

About the GA-K8A480M-9, I emailed my cousin that works in a computer store in Hong Kong about the availablility of the board. I'll update this if he replies.

The Gigabyte board also uses the ULi M1573 chipset. Its ULi's newest one and its probably one of the best southbridges out there. It kicks ATi's 400 chipset.

 

[Peter]

PC-Chips have presented the A21 yesterday. It's using VIA AGP chipset.

 

[sleepeeg3]

The Foxconn should overclock to ~275fsb using Clockgen. I was only able to get 1.44v VC using Clockgen on the discontinued(?) AGP version.
cpuz (da man) added clockgen support for MSI's crappy offering. Turns out it has no PCI/AGP lock. That better not be a trend on the Radeon Xpress boards...
ECS released their version last week: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-135-191&depa=0 Even less spectacular than MSI's offering, no S/PDIF, 2 RAM slots, but it does have built-in overclocking options. No word on what those are.

...and I still want to know what the Gigabyte board offers, because that looks to be the bomb.

 

[geekfool]

GA-K8A480M-9's south bridge (ULi M1573) rocks even more than the specs on Gigabyte site state.. M1573 actually includes SATA2 (AHCI) support and HD Audio!

So: gigabit LAN, HD Audio, SATA2/AHCI, PCI-E, good overclocking options -> a winner.. if it just were available. Only firewire is lacking,

 

[sleepeeg3]

GA-K8A480M-9 should be available mid to early May! Not sure where I read it, but someone did mention they were told that was when it should come out (OCWorkbench?)

E-mailed Gigabyte and they also said:

Hello,

The model is currently sampling to OEMs. It will be available in retail in mid-May.

 

[thejaredhuang]

Originally posted by: sleepeeg3
GA-K8A480M-9 should be available mid to early May! Not sure where I read it, but someone did mention they were told that was when it should come out (OCWorkbench?)

E-mailed Gigabyte and they also said:

Hello,

The model is currently sampling to OEMs. It will be available in retail in mid-May.

Yeah I got the same thing. I guess i'll be waiting for another month.

 

[Zap]

Went to the link provided, now Gigabyte says:

CPU HT / Multiplier adjustable via BIOS

No more mention of voltage or stuff. Looks like the current OC champ is the Foxconn board, with IIRC multiple reviews stating 220MHz attainable.

 

[ghwerig]

Following on from this does anyone have any suggestions for a socket 939 micro-atx m/b with agp other than the pc chips one suggested earlier ? I need to rebuild an existing system into a micro-atx case.

cheers

 

[sleepeeg3]

If you can get ahold of the Foxconn board, it has everything but voltages. I think the AGP version has been discontinued, though.

 

[hans007]

i have the foxconn board. the main drawback is the voltages. the really bad part is that it doesnt support dram voltage changing. so since most ddr400 ram is 2.6 volts (luckily i have some samsung that is 2.5) it will not run a lot of ram at its default SPD timing @ 2.6 volts since it can only run 2.5.


the board to get now is probably the ECS rs480-m. it just came out and newegg has it for $86. this board is more or less similar to the msi rs480m2-il, but with 2 less dimm slots. however it has memory timing controls (which the msi does not) and also has support for vdimm, vcore and multiplier controls. the rs480 chipset is though slightly slower than the nforce4 of the foxconn, though i figure the ECS board will be better than the MSI. ( i had the MSI before, you cannot even run 1T command timings with ram on it, which is a real shame since it makes more difference than the CL timing, even the foxconn can do that).


so i guess if you want to o/c and want integrated video get ecs. if you want a faster board and dont really intend to o/c much plus have 2.5 v ram (or want to adjust the timings on better ram) get the foxconn. MSI is probably the worst bet, the only thing they have going for them is they are the biggest name and probably have the most bios updates + support.