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*** The ULTIMATE Motherboard Selection Guide For New Users ***

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Originally posted by: BeakerChem
Nicely done!

:beer:

Sticky?
Click to expand...

Dunno. Not too sure if this is ready for sticky material yet 😉. I want to hear a few more opinions first, and then the mods can decide if they want to sticky this or not.
 
Pretty comprehensive, bro. Nice selection of boards at all levels and fair (read:non-fanboi) descriptions of all.

I can 100% vouch for the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium being far and away the better board (upgrading as soon as someone buys my Deluxe) and also MSI's reliability being a little shaky. I had a Neo2 with some really odd non-repairable quirks that eventually led to it's replacement with an ASUS.

I think this guide is 'sticky-worthy' too, although maybe rename it to "The ULTIMATE AMD64 Motherboard Selection Guide For New Users" so as not to get the Intel flames thrown at you. GOO IT UP!
 
EPOX 9NPA+SLi
$138. Same as the Ultra board except with SLI. This will overclock slightly better than the Ultra because EPOX has chosen to include a fan with a duct that plugs in to the IO panel, sucking cool air directly into the CPU.
Click to expand...
Actually, it may overclock better due to the 4 phase power regulation as apposed to the 3 phase used on the Ultra, but the little fan thingy and the included mosfet sinks cant hurt.
 
Originally posted by: Aquila76
Pretty comprehensive, bro. Nice selection of boards at all levels and fair (read:non-fanboi) descriptions of all.

I can 100% vouch for the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium being far and away the better board (upgrading as soon as someone buys my Deluxe) and also MSI's reliability being a little shaky. I had a Neo2 with some really odd non-repairable quirks that eventually led to it's replacement with an ASUS.

I think this guide is 'sticky-worthy' too, although maybe rename it to "The ULTIMATE AMD64 Motherboard Selection Guide For New Users" so as not to get the Intel flames thrown at you. GOO IT UP!
Click to expand...

Haha. To be honest I know nothing about current Intel boards 😉. I stopped looking at Intel after Northwood.

The "Pentium" Guy has nothing to do with Intel ---> I was about 10 years old and I thought "Pentium" was a color or something. It sounded cool!

Edit: I included the title changes in the Summary.

Actually, it may overclock better due to the 4 phase power regulation as apposed to the 3 phase used on the Ultra, but the little fan thingy and the included mosfet sinks cant hurt.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the information. I'll include that in my guide (your credits obviously)

-The Pentium Guy
 
Originally posted by: MegaWorks
Pentium Guy you could include Intel motherboards. 😀
Click to expand...


But that would be blasphemous :Q

Seriously, great guide Pentium Guy :thumbsup:
 
I'm not even a new user, just been too busy the last couple months to keep up on things, and I found this guide very imformative and helpful. :beer: Thanks for the hard work and good info PG.
 
You know? You've got a point. I'll include those links in my guide. See the thing is, most people (beginners mostly) just ask "What motherboard should I get" without even reading through those. But a thread might help em out, along with user opinion (within the thread).

Thanks for the links, I'll include them in my article. I can't beleive I forgot about that.

-TPG
 
Good Post PentiumGuy
Nit picks: 😀

The nForce4 platform requires a Power Supply that meets the ATX 2.0 requirements, meaning that the motherboard connector from the Power Supply must be 24-pin.
Click to expand...

Should be ATX12V 2.0

This is the Vanilla version and comes with everything that the nForce3 Ultra had. No SATA II support, no Active Armor, no Gigabit Lan (you do get the regular LAN though), no SLI
Click to expand...
I know of a number of NF4 Vanilla Boards that have gigabit lan:
MSI Neo4-F
DFI NF4-D
Gigabyte K8NF-9 etc
 
Originally posted by: DanDaMan315
This is basically a repeat of Anand's articles. I guess maybe this will save some bandwidth by answering some VERY general question newbies have about 939 mobo's.
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2465
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2358
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say this is a repeat of AT's reviews, there are BIOS/overclocking-specific things he lists in this thread that we don't. Pentium Guy also does a nice job of summarizing our information (and other web sites too) into a very solid quick and dirty rundown, while we go into a lot of depth, which can be intimidating to readers sometimes. He also updates this thread on a daily basis, while we don't update articles, we just release new ones.

Anyway, that's why Anand keeps these forums going, it's a great place for AT readers (or any enthusiast period) to get as much or as little information as they need. Good work Pentium Guy, you remind me of myself 5 years ago on these forums. 🙂
 
KayKay, I think Pentium Guy was talking about native Gb LAN. The base vanilla nF4 chipset does not include native Gb LAN. The vanilla nF4 boards you listed with Gb LAN were simply thrown on by the mobo maker.
 
Woah! An Anandtech writer actually saw this thread? Sweet 😉.

The vanilla nF4 boards you listed with Gb LAN were simply thrown on by the mobo maker.
Click to expand...
I should perhaps mention this. Thanks for the information.

A little nitpick for you Evan 🙂:
"Good work Pentium Guy, you remind me of myself 5 years ago on these forums. "
It says you were registered in 2002 😕

I know of a number of NF4 Vanilla Boards that have gigabit lan:
MSI Neo4-F
DFI NF4-D
Gigabyte K8NF-9 etc
Click to expand...
Thanks for stopping by with information. I'm sure this will benifit some users that are looking at these boards.

I didn't include these boards for the sake of keeping the guide "quick and dirty" as Evan said - and also because there are better alternatives to those boards in that price range. Ex: You could get the EPoX Ultra board instead of the Gigabyte, which comes with only 1 ATA cable (If you're not using SATA, hooking up an Optical drive and a harddrive might be a little bit of a pain, considering the location of the ATA connector). Also the DFI Ultra-D is available for only $9 more than the NF4-D. Small picky things like that made me eliminate those boards.

Edit: And I changed it to ATX12V 2.0 😉. Haha, thanks for that.

-The Pentium Guy
 
A little nitpick for you Evan 🙂:
"Good work Pentium Guy, you remind me of myself 5 years ago on these forums. "
It says you were registered in 2002 😕
Click to expand...

I registered under a previous name in 2000/2001 before I became an AnandTech writer, when I changed my handle to my real name (Evan Lieb). I'm not even joking, I was just like you, a rabid tech enthusiast.
 
I registered under a previous name in 2000/2001 before I became an AnandTech writer, when I changed my handle to my real name (Evan Lieb). I'm not even joking, I was just like you, a rabid tech enthusiast.
Click to expand...

Cool 😉.
 
I'm curious what you consider a better alternative to the MSI-Neo4-F?

I chose it over other NF4 options due to low price ($85 from Newegg) and not wanting to pay extra for SLI or SATA II when I'm unlikely to ever use them. I figure by the time my needs have evolved beyond SATA and a single PCIe graphics card I'll be building a whole new system.

The DFI I think you are referring to is $129.50 at Newegg which is $44 more than the Neo4-F, a better than 50% bump in price. Granted it has 2x gigbit ethernet ports, SATA II, and firewire but I can buy a PCI firewire card for less than $44 and have no need of the rest.

There is an $89 DFI version with comparable features here">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136160</a> but I've had good service from MSI with returns and DFI is an unknown for me.

So I'd say if anyone isn't fundamentally opposed to MSI that the K8N Neo4-F is a good budget NF4 board that runs an Athlon 64 3000 at 2.2-2.4 GHz. With a nice big passive northbridge cooler, a quieter CPU HS/fan, and a Seasonic PSU it's even tolerably quiet without running the cool and quiet MSI utility.

Of course if you are interested in wringing every last MHz out of your CPU while you play BF2 at 1600x1200 12xAA with two PCIe SLI GPUs off 10,000 RPM SATA II HDDs then I might spend the extra $44 on a more fully featured package, but then I'd have to wait for a used copy of BF2 to show up on the FS/FT forums 😉

Max L
 
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