Hi All,
I apologize if this is posted in the wrong area. I'm looking for some advice concerning a Motherboard for a AMD socket 939 system that I want to build.
I read Rich's review of the DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR Motherboard & was impressed with the board as well as by Rich's review.
My question is whether that board would be good for someone who isn't a overclocker, at least not yet anyway. Or would it be better for me to go with another board. I plan to purchase the AMD 4000+ CPU to go with the motherboard, along with memory from eithe Corsair or Kingston.
All help provided is greatly appreciated. Thank all of you for your time & patience.
First Time System Build
J, first of all, welcome to the boards..I hope you find our site informative and friendly.
As to your question there are a couple of things to consider. First, are you never going to O/C? Is SLI important to you (probably not if you aren't going to O/C)?
NVidia's NForce 4 chipset has all the bells and whistles, and is a very solid choice regardless of what you are trying to do.
I'd recommend the DFI NF4 Ultra or even the Chaintech NF4 Ultra, both very solid boards, the Chaintech is cheaper, but the DFI has a great bundle that more than makes up for the $25 difference.
As to your question there are a couple of things to consider. First, are you never going to O/C? Is SLI important to you (probably not if you aren't going to O/C)?
NVidia's NForce 4 chipset has all the bells and whistles, and is a very solid choice regardless of what you are trying to do.
I'd recommend the DFI NF4 Ultra or even the Chaintech NF4 Ultra, both very solid boards, the Chaintech is cheaper, but the DFI has a great bundle that more than makes up for the $25 difference.
First Time System Build
Hi Capper5016,
Thank you for the info, as well as the welcome. SLI may be something I'll consider down the road. As far as Overclocking, I'll have to get more information on how it's done.
As you've probaly guessed by now I'm new to computers, however, I realize that the only way to get the system that you want without paying astronomical amounts of money is to build it yourself.
I came across this site surfing, and like the feel of the site as well as the reviews. I hope in time to become more knowledgable concerning computers & help someone the way I'm being helped by you.
Again, Thank You.
Thank you for the info, as well as the welcome. SLI may be something I'll consider down the road. As far as Overclocking, I'll have to get more information on how it's done.
As you've probaly guessed by now I'm new to computers, however, I realize that the only way to get the system that you want without paying astronomical amounts of money is to build it yourself.
I came across this site surfing, and like the feel of the site as well as the reviews. I hope in time to become more knowledgable concerning computers & help someone the way I'm being helped by you.
Again, Thank You.
Hey man, just Capper is fine by me.
We all start somewhere, and to be honest we all learn something every day. Building yourself is the best way to go, you will save tons of money as well as put together the exact system you want, not get a system that has a few high end parts completely wasted in a system full of cheap crap parts.
If you want to start learning how to overclock, I'd recommend DFI..Damn good boards that O/C incredibly well. I think the Ultra is the way to go, don'y worry about SLI right now, you can always upgrade down the road. Use the extra $100 and get some great cooling or spend it on a single video card solution. (I like the X850, great card).
When you get the components, feel free to come back here and get help and give input...I, and I know everyone else, is happy to help out wherever we can.
We all start somewhere, and to be honest we all learn something every day. Building yourself is the best way to go, you will save tons of money as well as put together the exact system you want, not get a system that has a few high end parts completely wasted in a system full of cheap crap parts.
If you want to start learning how to overclock, I'd recommend DFI..Damn good boards that O/C incredibly well. I think the Ultra is the way to go, don'y worry about SLI right now, you can always upgrade down the road. Use the extra $100 and get some great cooling or spend it on a single video card solution. (I like the X850, great card).
When you get the components, feel free to come back here and get help and give input...I, and I know everyone else, is happy to help out wherever we can.
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gvblake22
- Legit Extremist
- Posts: 1111
- Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2005 9:39 am
- Location: Northern Michigan
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Yeah, welcome to our little corner of cyber space! haha
I'm sure you will come to like this place as much as I have
About a s939 board, the DFI is arguably one of the best boards on the market, but it may not necessarily be the best for a beginner. The BIOS has a plethora of settings and options and even experienced overclockers can get lost in the maze of memory timings and settings with this thing. If you are thinking about maybe eventually getting more into overclocking and/or just learning as much as you can about computers, then the DFI is a great choice. But if you are mainly looking to build your first computer and not worry about overclocking or tweaking every different setting possible, then a more modest motherboard may actually be better. Something like the Chaintech VNF4 Ultra as Capper suggested or the Asus A8N would both be good choices.
The VIA K8T890 chipsets also support PCI-Express on the s939 platform and may be a little cheaper then nVidia's chipset offerings so it is worth checking out. Something like the Abit AX8.
Good luck with your build and be sure to let us know what you decide and how it goes!!!
I'm sure you will come to like this place as much as I have
About a s939 board, the DFI is arguably one of the best boards on the market, but it may not necessarily be the best for a beginner. The BIOS has a plethora of settings and options and even experienced overclockers can get lost in the maze of memory timings and settings with this thing. If you are thinking about maybe eventually getting more into overclocking and/or just learning as much as you can about computers, then the DFI is a great choice. But if you are mainly looking to build your first computer and not worry about overclocking or tweaking every different setting possible, then a more modest motherboard may actually be better. Something like the Chaintech VNF4 Ultra as Capper suggested or the Asus A8N would both be good choices.
The VIA K8T890 chipsets also support PCI-Express on the s939 platform and may be a little cheaper then nVidia's chipset offerings so it is worth checking out. Something like the Abit AX8.
Good luck with your build and be sure to let us know what you decide and how it goes!!!
First Time System Build
Hi Guys,
Thanks gvblake22 for the advice as well as the welcome. I think I'll be going with the nVidia solution, as my research indicates that it's the chipset of choice.
I know what you mean about the DFI board, I went to their site & downloaded the PDF File of the motherboard manual. I'm not sure if I'd know what to do with all of the settings that the board offers.
Chaintech & Asus are next on my list.
I'm taking Capper's suggestion & am going with ATI's X850 card, and whatever memory be it Corsair or Kingston depending on what board I go with.
Thanks Guys.
Thanks gvblake22 for the advice as well as the welcome. I think I'll be going with the nVidia solution, as my research indicates that it's the chipset of choice.
I know what you mean about the DFI board, I went to their site & downloaded the PDF File of the motherboard manual. I'm not sure if I'd know what to do with all of the settings that the board offers.
Chaintech & Asus are next on my list.
I'm taking Capper's suggestion & am going with ATI's X850 card, and whatever memory be it Corsair or Kingston depending on what board I go with.
Thanks Guys.
I've stopped recommending ASUS boards, at least temporarily. Personal opinion, that all.
I recommend the DFI board, and as to settings, the DFI BIOS does seem formidable, but it really isn't, especially with such a good group of people around to help out. i look at it as the DFI NF4 board is more customizable, not more complicated.
As to memory, i always recommend Corsair, Kingston being #2, i personally use Corsair 4400C25PTT, very nice memory that can run 2-2-2-5 at 200FSB, or 2.5-4-4-8 at 272FSB, so all the bases are covered.
I recommend the DFI board, and as to settings, the DFI BIOS does seem formidable, but it really isn't, especially with such a good group of people around to help out. i look at it as the DFI NF4 board is more customizable, not more complicated.
As to memory, i always recommend Corsair, Kingston being #2, i personally use Corsair 4400C25PTT, very nice memory that can run 2-2-2-5 at 200FSB, or 2.5-4-4-8 at 272FSB, so all the bases are covered.
Jtm, what's the projected timeframe from which you'll be putting together this system?
AMD is planning on releasing the first K9 family of processors in early June, starting with the dual core Toledo. I believe it's being transitioned to the Venice core from the SledgeHammer core, which to the common consumer basically translates to serious overclocking potential.
Nvidia and ATI also have speculative release dates for their next GPUs within weeks of the Toledo release.
Even if waiting for this newer hardware doesn't appeal to you, you'll still be able to get all of the hardware you were going to get now for a lot cheaper if you wait.
As far as a motherboard recommendation is concerned, check out Gigabyte. Their SLi based board is a lot more stable than ASUS's.
Furthermore, I'm really concerned about how AMD expects their dual core processor to simply be "dropped in" when most of the boards only feature 4-phase power. Dual core processors are going to need at least 3-phase power per core, which is exactly what the Gigabyte boards provide.
I would opt for a Geforce 6 series opposed to a Radeon X850, simply because the Geforce offers better graphical quality.
The Radeon x8 is simply there to give the Geforce 6 a run for it's money on benchmarks... and while it does do this, ATI really didn't add anything more than performance.
AMD is planning on releasing the first K9 family of processors in early June, starting with the dual core Toledo. I believe it's being transitioned to the Venice core from the SledgeHammer core, which to the common consumer basically translates to serious overclocking potential.
Nvidia and ATI also have speculative release dates for their next GPUs within weeks of the Toledo release.
Even if waiting for this newer hardware doesn't appeal to you, you'll still be able to get all of the hardware you were going to get now for a lot cheaper if you wait.
As far as a motherboard recommendation is concerned, check out Gigabyte. Their SLi based board is a lot more stable than ASUS's.
Furthermore, I'm really concerned about how AMD expects their dual core processor to simply be "dropped in" when most of the boards only feature 4-phase power. Dual core processors are going to need at least 3-phase power per core, which is exactly what the Gigabyte boards provide.
I would opt for a Geforce 6 series opposed to a Radeon X850, simply because the Geforce offers better graphical quality.
The Radeon x8 is simply there to give the Geforce 6 a run for it's money on benchmarks... and while it does do this, ATI really didn't add anything more than performance.
I'll never recommend Gigabyte either, I've never had a good overclocking experience with them. as far as NVidia vs ATI, like everything else, its a matter of opinion and personal preference.
As to waiting for your CPU purchase, I expect a price drop, as that happens every time the technology is updated, how far the price drops is another question, as soon as Venice and San Diego start hitting the shelves, you'll probably see Winchesters and Clawhammers start getting harder to come by, so as far as price drops, it may be minimal.
when it comes to dual core, AMD is sticking to their claim that you'll be able to use current boards for them.
As to waiting for your CPU purchase, I expect a price drop, as that happens every time the technology is updated, how far the price drops is another question, as soon as Venice and San Diego start hitting the shelves, you'll probably see Winchesters and Clawhammers start getting harder to come by, so as far as price drops, it may be minimal.
when it comes to dual core, AMD is sticking to their claim that you'll be able to use current boards for them.
Which Gigabyte boards have you used?capper5016 wrote:I'll never recommend Gigabyte either, I've never had a good overclocking experience with them.
The specs available on the Nvidia and ATI websites speak for themselves.capper5016 wrote: as far as NVidia vs ATI, like everything else, its a matter of opinion and personal preference.
ATI left out SM3.0 and didn't offer anything even remotely comparable to the onboard video decoder/encoder available on the Geforce 6.
That might all be well and true, but they would have to seriously pull some strings. If they get above Prescott 1.0 wattage, all hell will break loose.capper5016 wrote: when it comes to dual core, AMD is sticking to their claim that you'll be able to use current boards for them.
I'm speculating that stability will not be possible at all with Via based boards and only partially with Nforce 4 based boards.
First Time System Build
Hi All,
I plan on building my system the end of this month. I should have the funds to purchase the parts by then. I'm thinking that NewEgg would be my best bet for buying said parts.
Capper's explanation about DFI's offering more customization as well as assistance should I get stuck is compelling. So I'll be going with DFI's Ultra board. I do realize that new components are coming forth, however, I want to go ahead with this build as I've priced it out & it falls into my budget.
My Thanks to everyone who has particapated in this thread. I really appreciate all of the help & ideas.
I plan on building my system the end of this month. I should have the funds to purchase the parts by then. I'm thinking that NewEgg would be my best bet for buying said parts.
Capper's explanation about DFI's offering more customization as well as assistance should I get stuck is compelling. So I'll be going with DFI's Ultra board. I do realize that new components are coming forth, however, I want to go ahead with this build as I've priced it out & it falls into my budget.
My Thanks to everyone who has particapated in this thread. I really appreciate all of the help & ideas.
Would it hurt to wait a month or two?
What might 'fall' into your budget right now could undeniably fit more comfortably if it was a few hundred dollars cheaper.
However, if you're absolutely dead set on getting it now, I would still give the Gigabyte a glance.
I've had the most stable operation with my Gigabyte boards, and with their addition of the dual power system, things have only gotten better. Not to only does this provide tremendous overclocking stability, but there's a wide array of overclocking options available through the bios to make use of it.
http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Pr ... XP-SLI.htm
What might 'fall' into your budget right now could undeniably fit more comfortably if it was a few hundred dollars cheaper.
However, if you're absolutely dead set on getting it now, I would still give the Gigabyte a glance.
I've had the most stable operation with my Gigabyte boards, and with their addition of the dual power system, things have only gotten better. Not to only does this provide tremendous overclocking stability, but there's a wide array of overclocking options available through the bios to make use of it.
http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Pr ... XP-SLI.htm
First Time System Build
Hi Teqguy,
Can I really save that much by waiting a couple of months? It took me some time to come to the decision to build it myself. My Cousin just purchased a System from Falcon Northwest & His head has gotten so big since then. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful system but $6000.00?
I figured okay sans the paint job I could do just as well myself, with some help. I guess I'm just a bit impatient. Sorry for going on like that. I'll give the Gigabyte board a look & see what they've got to offer.
Thanks for the info. By the way, I don't have to have the latest or greatest, just a system that's up to date & upgradeable.
Can I really save that much by waiting a couple of months? It took me some time to come to the decision to build it myself. My Cousin just purchased a System from Falcon Northwest & His head has gotten so big since then. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful system but $6000.00?
I figured okay sans the paint job I could do just as well myself, with some help. I guess I'm just a bit impatient. Sorry for going on like that. I'll give the Gigabyte board a look & see what they've got to offer.
Thanks for the info. By the way, I don't have to have the latest or greatest, just a system that's up to date & upgradeable.
J, Always compare boards, first ask yourself what you want to do, and leave some flexibility to change that and upgrade down the road. I am an AMD fan, and socket 939 is definitely the way to go there. I've personally used the Gigabyte 939 board and RMA'd it two weeks later because it was buggy and didn't O/C at all, but that may have been my experience. you'll hear good and bad about every component made, especially motherboards. one person may love ABIT because it is a good O/Cer, while another may hate it because it isn't stable at all.
As for waiting and seeing if prices drop, thats a tough call. Personally, I don't see prices dropping all that much as AMD will start phasing out older chips as they start implementing their newer chips, so cost won't be affected al that much.....but then again supply and demand will dictate that.
If you can't wait, you might want to look at the 3500+ Winchester. I run mine 24/7 at 2.72GHz no problem......though there is a lot of talk of the 3500+ and 3800+ Venice topping 3GHz, we''ll have to wait and see when they are released early next month, late this month.
Regardless of what you decide, always feel free to come here for help setting things up, there is a lot of knowledge and experience on this board, even if sometimes it doesn't agree.
As for waiting and seeing if prices drop, thats a tough call. Personally, I don't see prices dropping all that much as AMD will start phasing out older chips as they start implementing their newer chips, so cost won't be affected al that much.....but then again supply and demand will dictate that.
If you can't wait, you might want to look at the 3500+ Winchester. I run mine 24/7 at 2.72GHz no problem......though there is a lot of talk of the 3500+ and 3800+ Venice topping 3GHz, we''ll have to wait and see when they are released early next month, late this month.
Regardless of what you decide, always feel free to come here for help setting things up, there is a lot of knowledge and experience on this board, even if sometimes it doesn't agree.
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infinitevalence
- Legit Extremist
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- Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2004 12:40 pm
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The one thing i can say is you may think your not an overclocker now, but just wait... as soon as you get a decent board, chip and memory the demons will tempt you. I mean why not you just paid all this money why not get the best performance out of it you can. So if you even have the slightest inclenation for tinkering then i would buy stuff that lets you.
"Don't open that! It's an alien planet! Is there air? You don't know!"
First Time System Build
Hi Capper,
just out of curiosity, how come you don't recommend Asus Motherboards now? The reason I ask is that while looking at DFI, MSI, Gigabyte, & Chaintec, I also looked at the Asus board. From what I could tell folk hold them in high regard.
Also, taken to heart what you said about being flexible. My goal is to build a up to date system that'll allow me to upgrade down the road.
As far as waiting for prices to come down, while I'm not sure about Intel, but doesn't AMD remove their better performing Processors when they release new ones?
If I haven't said so before I'm saying it now, I'm glad that I surfed in & decided to look around. Other sites that shall remain nameless forums aren't half as freindly as you all have been to me. I really enjoy myself here.
just out of curiosity, how come you don't recommend Asus Motherboards now? The reason I ask is that while looking at DFI, MSI, Gigabyte, & Chaintec, I also looked at the Asus board. From what I could tell folk hold them in high regard.
Also, taken to heart what you said about being flexible. My goal is to build a up to date system that'll allow me to upgrade down the road.
As far as waiting for prices to come down, while I'm not sure about Intel, but doesn't AMD remove their better performing Processors when they release new ones?
If I haven't said so before I'm saying it now, I'm glad that I surfed in & decided to look around. Other sites that shall remain nameless forums aren't half as freindly as you all have been to me. I really enjoy myself here.
I've been through 4 ASUS boards, and really used to swear by them for their stability, all four boards died within one year of being purchased....and having said that, my personal experience with ASUS customer support is horrible....and thats being nice.just out of curiosity, how come you don't recommend Asus Motherboards now? The reason I ask is that while looking at DFI, MSI, Gigabyte, & Chaintec, I also looked at the Asus board. From what I could tell folk hold them in high regard.
DFI on the other hand has a great customer service program, I've gotten good answers back within 90 minutes, and never more than a day or two, they also have a great forum run by some really cool people.
thats the smartest and best way to go. Six months ago, intel said their socket 775 would support dual core, in the end, it didn't. Now AMD is saying their boards will support dual core, but even here there is debate about that.Also, taken to heart what you said about being flexible. My goal is to build a up to date system that'll allow me to upgrade down the road
Regardless of dual core, they have already said that it won't blow the current technology away in the near future, which i agree with, its never a great idea to be the first one to jump on something as soon as it comes out, wait until it matures and reaches its potential.
As to the site. I cannot stand people who sit on boards, criticize others, know everything, and spend more time pissing people off than actually helping. This is the best forum i've ever seen. you will not find a better bunch of people than we have here.
Another question that comes to mind is why you'd want to invest in SLi.
I honestly can't see SLi staying a viable solution, even in the enthusiast range for very long. It costs too much and provides very little benefit. If you take a look at some of the benchmarks, you'll see that the only benchmark SLi does remarkably well in is 3DMark. I don't exactly consider that mindblowing, just wallet blowing.
I wouldn't invest in something simply for bragging rights, which is the only thing SLi seems to be right now.
It would be better to buy a 6600GT or X800 now and then wait for the NV48/50 or the R580. You'll end up saving more and still wind up with decent performance.
I honestly can't see SLi staying a viable solution, even in the enthusiast range for very long. It costs too much and provides very little benefit. If you take a look at some of the benchmarks, you'll see that the only benchmark SLi does remarkably well in is 3DMark. I don't exactly consider that mindblowing, just wallet blowing.
I wouldn't invest in something simply for bragging rights, which is the only thing SLi seems to be right now.
It would be better to buy a 6600GT or X800 now and then wait for the NV48/50 or the R580. You'll end up saving more and still wind up with decent performance.
I'm not a big SLI fan. first as I've said, the performance is nice, but not worth the price. Buy a $240 board, two $200 card (6600GT), or get almost the same performance buying a $140 board with a $450 card.
Another issue is heat generated by the cards, One card will run 15-20 C higher than the other because of air flow.
Just go with an X800XL, or if you are feeling real frisky you can go get the X850XT, which is my current favorite.
Another issue is heat generated by the cards, One card will run 15-20 C higher than the other because of air flow.
Just go with an X800XL, or if you are feeling real frisky you can go get the X850XT, which is my current favorite.