I am trying to decide between three nForce4 Ultra motherboards for 939 Athlon. I am requesting for any very brief/general evaluations to make my decision. I have listed what my quick judgement of these boards were, but i would like to know some CONS if anyone here has personal experience.

ASUS A8N-E - popular choice, reputable company, stable but not best OC ability
EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra - best bang for buck? good OC ability
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D - best OCer, also popular choice/hot seller, bios issues?

I guess these mobos are practically about the same w/ minor differences. I feel that I cannot go wrong with any of these. BTW, only diff between non-Ultra and Ultra NF4 boards is the SATA 3.0 xfer rate?

3/29/2006 11:51:51 PM

I have an A8N-E and a 4400+ Toledo. Had no problem getting dual channel RAM working, and the thing has been relatively stable. Only problem is that I'm reading bad reviews on AiBooster, the included OC utility (and it's been giving me whacked readings lately).

Oh, and the northbridge fan may need replacing, they're legendary for dying. I replaced mine with a Zalman fanless heatsink one.

[Edited on March 30, 2006 at 12:11 AM. Reason : .]

3/30/2006 12:11:03 AM

I have the EPox and nearly killed myself and many others in the process of stopping the network manager's constant bluescreens.

3/30/2006 12:13:35 AM

Isn't it better to OC in the BIOS anyway? I don't know how good these included software OCing utilities are nowadays.

Is there a known problem w/ getting dual channel DDR on these boards or something?

3/30/2006 1:03:20 PM

lanparty hands down.

3/30/2006 1:05:13 PM

I remember the DFI board was really picky with memory modules. I didn't pick it for that reason and I got an MSI k8N Neo4 Platinum instead, but I wish I had gotten the Asus equivalent instead. I'll never veer from ASUS ever again. Their boards are solid. Stability > Performance.

3/30/2006 1:07:08 PM

Quote :

"I remember the DFI board was really picky with memory modules."

Picky how? For awhile, it was the only one that could stably (yes, stable) drive fully loaded dual channel at ddr400+.

3/30/2006 1:09:38 PM

It didn't work with Crucial's Ballistix for a while. I have heard that they updated that in a bios revision, but if you only have that memory it would be a little difficult to update your bios.

I would definitley check http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/ and make sure that people there with your memory have the boards working fine.

3/30/2006 1:17:59 PM

i just have to say something about ASUS...now, granted, they may have corrected this problem by now but i've had the A8N-SLI Deluxe for a while now and i've had to get it replaced twice. the chipset fan keeps dying and i am sick of replacing it.

i got fed up and went to Intrex and bought a heatsink that imma install soon. cauz, opening the case everytime you turn the shit on and manually getting the fan up to speed sucks ass.

3/30/2006 2:02:47 PM

I have the dfi, it owns. make sure you have teh correct bios though, dfi makes about 49037587345 boards that look identical with nearly identical features, but interchange the bioses and you'll have nothing but problems

3/31/2006 10:12:50 AM

Yeah, i think my final decision is the DFI. Can I tell what revision or bios I am getting when placing an order with newegg?

3/31/2006 5:08:02 PM

NONE OF THESE MOTHERBOARDS ARE CAPABLE OF RUNNING DUAL PROCESS STACK PORTS. I DONT EVEN KNOW WHY YOU WOULD CONSIDER THEM UNLESS YOU DONT NEED DPSPS, AND TO BE HONEST IF YOU DON'T NEED DPSPS, YOU MAY AS WELL GET YOURSELF A COMMODORE 64.

4/3/2006 2:56:19 PM