Abit's NForce 4 board..

[phill9800]

I figured as I'm looking to upgrade to a 939 based system I'd try and find a review and thanks to this link by harbinger from Madonion.com forum, that was rather possible...
Well its impressive to say the least, managed a 337FSB when they where overclocking.. Might look into it..

Here's the link.. (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/print/abit-fatal1ty-an8.html)

Comments are welcome as always..

[pman]

I realy like the design of the board apart from the 2 fans that cool down the MOFSET's. It'd be too noisy for me!! I really liked the backlit led effect, as it would go down a treat in my clear case :rolleyes:

[bluegreenshxt]

That board has the looks to kill, unfortunately it's also priced to kill your wallet. :(

[Avid6eek]

I used the board for a couple weeks, and it was nothing to die for. I am more happy with the DFI nForce 4 Ultra-D I replaced it with. All the features are there, and it saved me a crapload of money.

[phill9800]

I did wonder Avid6eek but I couldnt remember what you said about it. Apparently some of the reviews they raved about the board, maybe you had a bad batch or something?

Either way, I think the motherboard is going to be the hardest part for me to buy as I dont want to go through what happened with the DFI Nforce 2 board I still have and end up with yet another spare one..

Whats that Ultra-D like? Does it overclock well?

[bluegreenshxt]

The Ultra-D is amazingly good. I haven't overclocked mine yet, but reviews have gotten it past 300HTT. My friend recently got his 3200+ to 10x265 on it.

It has basically all the features of the Abit board but for less $$. It's lots of options/settings in the bios and the fan controlling actually works well. You better have a good PSU to run this board though.

[phill9800]

Would a OC Z 520W be any good? :eek:! Im just wondering which one might be best to get as I dont want to have to buy two darn motherboards again! I dont want more PC's! I'd just like one really good one! ;)

[Avid6eek]

Don't waste your money on an OCZ PSU...Get an Enermax Whisper ATX 2.0 PSU. You'll be very happy with it.

[Crax]

Buying an OCZ PSU isnt a waste by any means. I now feel that my money was wasted on that Antec PSU I used to have... /shrug

[phill9800]

I cant already waste my money, I already have one!! Theres nout wrong with it!!

[stlouis1]

im actually pretty happy with my ocz psu, kinda glad i bought it...now if i can find out what else got damaged :mad: ill be ok

[bluegreenshxt]

Would a OC Z 520W be any good?

Yes it is good as it has a native 24pin connector which is what the lanparty needs.

[phill9800]

Well Im sold!! I know there are 3 different types of the DFI nforce 4 board, is the Ultra-D just without SLI or has it got that? The other two dont look that much different... Are they worth the extra £50 for the top of the line model?

[stlouis1]

usually top of the line will include something like a pretty heatsink, another raid controller and firewire, if you want those that bad, then yeah i guess

[Avid6eek]

the Ultra-D is a great board, it just don't offically support SLI. I believe that is the only difference between the two boards. I'd go with the Ultra-D and hack it if you had to.

[bluegreenshxt]

The Ultra-D does not come with a SLI connecotr, 4 extra SATA ports, FrontX, a diagnostic LED connector among other things, such 2 fewer SATA cables.

It "may" be possible to turn it into an SLI motherboard, but nVidia is making changes to the drivers to prevent it.

If you're going for an ATI card or don't want SLI, get the Ultra-D.

[phill9800]

Im not so worried about the SLI bits, but maybe the extra hard drives could come in handy? I will have a little bit more of a look into it, but so far, Im tempted towards that Ultra-D. If I have more than enough money around, I'll buy the Abit board as well and see what that goes like!! ;)