Socket 939 nforce3 ultra questions

[Schadenfroh]

Ones i am looking at:

MSI "K8N Neo2 Platinum"

GIGABYTE "GA-K8NSNXP-939"

GIGABYTE "GA-K8NS Ultra-939"

Questions are as follows:

1. I have 1 gig of Corsair XMS PC 3200, As seen here. Which of these motherboards would be best compatable with this ram and run at the listed speed if i were to buy a gig stick (identical to the 512mb sticks, cept 1 gig) to double my memory in the future, would it cease to run in dual channel or underclock itself to pc2700 memory if i were to fill 3 slots on any of these boards. (would be curious about 4 slots also).

2. What is the differance between the 2 gigabyte boards? the only thing i can see is a HS/Fan over the power regulation circuitry. I assume this affects overclocking, but since i cant over clock it well because of the top locked mulitplier and the fact that my ram im going to be using is gonna suck i wont be able to overclock, so that will really be a non issue for the moment.

3. Which of the 3 would you reccomend? I am leaning towards the MSI brand for the moment because of the price is good, although the cheaper gigabyte seems to have all the features i need.

4. Is the ram i have dual or single sided?

here is what i need:

1. Compatable with my existing and future ram upgrade (see above) without losing dual channel or it underclocking itself to pc2700
2. Works well with Socket 939 Athlon 64 3000 or 3500 (still have not made up my mind)
3. The hardware firewall would be nice.
4. SATA for at least 2 drivers (would the integrated RAID controller on the nvidia chipset even need SATA drivers when loading windows? I know i have to have them for the bridged SATA controller chip on my A7N8X Deluxe)
5. I do not need dual LAN connectors, Sound (i have an audigy 2 ZS)
6. Needs to be quite (im planning on getting a VGA silencer for my 6800GT while i am at it)
7. Rock solid stability and ease of installation of the future heatsink (XP-120)
8. Cant do nforce4 untill they bridge an AGP port onto the thing (if ever) is spent way to much on my 6800GT to sell it.
9. Will work with future dual core athlon64s (keeping fingers crossed if someone will know)

thanks

 

[ts3433]

From what I've heard, the dual-cores should be able to go right into existing 939 boards.

Bad news about your third stick--this is from the MSI site (I haven't looked at what Gigabyte has to say):

Please select the identical memory modules to install on the dual channel, and DO NOT install three memory modules on three DIMMs, or it may cause some failure.

About your XP-120:

K8N Neo2 Platinum Not Compatible (caps mechanically obstruct pipe)
K8NSNXP-939 Require Metal Motherboard Backplate

If you find the MSI is the better motherboard for your needs you'll need to consider the XP-90.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: ts3433
From what I've heard, the dual-cores should be able to go right into existing 939 boards.

Bad news about your third stick--this is from the MSI site (I haven't looked at what Gigabyte has to say):

Please select the identical memory modules to install on the dual channel, and DO NOT install three memory modules on three DIMMs, or it may cause some failure.

About your XP-120:

K8N Neo2 Platinum Not Compatible (caps mechanically obstruct pipe)
K8NSNXP-939 Require Metal Motherboard Backplate

If you find the MSI is the better motherboard for your needs you'll need to consider the XP-90.

thanks, it looks like i will be getting one or other of the gigabytes

from their site comparison:

GA-K8NSNXP-939
GA-K8NS Ultra-939

the only differance is that the following features make it cost about 70 bucks more

Bundle GC-SATA, DPS on board

any reason for those 2 to be worth it? i dont know what DPS is and what is GC-SATA and how is it differant from the SATA on the other, cheaper mobo?

also, i read that it does not support 3 modules, meaning i will have to get a dual pack of 512mb sticks just like my old ones.

 

[SolMiester]

I believe the DPS is Dual Power Supply socket

 

[JediJeb]

As for dual channel memory, its just that requires dual sticks. Anytime you use three sticks it will switch back to single channel because you can't run 2 sticks in dual and 1 in single. So any of those boards will only work dual channel with 2 sticks not 3.

 

[hundesau]

no, iam not sure this is right. dual channel will still work fine. it was the same with nforce2, when u could have 3 ram modules and two of them running in dualchannel, the 3rd in single channel. i doubt its any different with todays chipsets.

the problem with 3 sticks in my oppinion is that if they were NOT single sided modules they wont be running at 400MHZ speed and Commandrate T1 but either on 333MHZ and Commandrate T1 or 400MHZ and Commandrate T2. This wont hurt much but if u can buy single sided instead of dual sided modules.

 

[Icepick]

I agree with hundesau. If you use 3 sticks of RAM with any of these boards they will run in single channel and at 333MHz. That's a quirk of all the socket 939 boards IIRC.

The GA-K8NSNXP-939 comes with dual power supply and dual BIOS. The dual BIOS feature stores a backup copy of the BIOS on the motherboard. This is useful if the BIOS somehow becomes corrupted (from a flash gone bad for example). It will allow you to boot with the backup copy. Not sure what the dual power feature does. Otherwise, it seems to have all the same features as the cheaper model. Not worth the extra $$ IMO.

As far as being quiet, all the socket 939 nforce3 motherboards have active cooling (small fan) over the chipset. This little fan can be quite noisy at stock speeds and you'll hear it after you install your VGA silencer. You'll have a very tough time if you decide to replace the fan with a heatsink due to it's proximity under the VGA card. I used an external fan controller to turn the chipset fan speed down and that is quiet enough for me. If absolute silence is what you're after then I'd recommend you consider one of the VIA-based motherboards. If not, then I'd recommend you go with either the MSI K8N NEO2 and manually turn the chipset fan speed down to make it quieter.