Looking for a cool, quiet nforce4 ultra

[roy]

Hello everyone,

I have been out of the game for a while and I'm finally going to do PCI-E. I'm looking for a board with the nforce 4 ultra chipset that is relatively cool and has a quiet northbridge cooling solution. Preferably passive, but a quiet active one is fine too. I'm not looking for overclockability, but rather stability and lots of features. The more inputs and outputs, the better. Optical out would be awesome, but not necessary. A higher quality integrated audio system would be ideal but I can't seem to find any.

So far I've heard the Asus A8N-E has a noisy northbridge fan.
Haven't heard about the MSI one yet, but I don't like how the NB is right under the PCI-E card.
Epox is looking good right now. Their NB is above the PCI-E slot (though unfortunately really close) and haven't heard any complaints about the noise.

If you can help me out with any other worthwhile models, thanks.

[stlouis1]

was gonna suggest something like this (http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=0&model=539&modelmenu=1). but then i realized u said nf4 ultra

[Stone Fox]

Umm, I wouldn't buy MSI personally, they've got a bit of a reputation for unreliability. I would recommend Gigabyte (my GA-K8NXP-SLI is REALLY quiet) but I know you don't like them... (Shame my GPU fan sounds like a light aircraft :( )

[roy]

stlouis1: Actually that board looks really good. I don't really need SLI but it has some awesome features. I guess I could save the exta slot for the future. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check the reviews.

Stone Fox: Actually one of my first boards was a Gigabye and I loved it. It seems like the SLI chip has more attractive features so I might plunk down the cash for one. The Asus board is pretty pricey though, I am hoping to find a good alternative.

[bluegreenshxt]

The only quiet nf4 ultra mobos I know of are the Abit one, the Asus one, the DFI Lanparty nF4 Ultra-D and the Gigabyte one. The Lanparty throttles the chipset fan if it is below a certain temperature. With a little bit airflow and possibly some AS5 in a moderately cool room its in audible in fairly quiet systems. The Gigabyte has a larger passive heatsink. Don't know about how well it handles the heat though.

[AKHandyman]

Hello everyone,
I have been out of the game for a while and I'm finally going to do PCI-E. I'm looking for a board with the nforce 4 ultra chipset that is relatively cool and has a quiet northbridge cooling solution. Preferably passive, but a quiet active one is fine too. I'm not looking for overclockability, but rather stability and lots of features. The more inputs and outputs, the better. Optical out would be awesome, but not necessary. A higher quality integrated audio system would be ideal but I can't seem to find any.

If you can help me out with any other worthwhile models, thanks.
If you can wait a while longer, wait until AMD launches it's M2 socket. The top-end mobo makers will have their finest ready to go, (hopefully) when those procs come out. With DDR2 memory support and no doubt coming out as dual-core, it WILL be the rig to build. Most guys will tell you that if you can wait, then do it and then build using an AMD Socket M2 ... I know I am ... :D

[Stone Fox]

Stone Fox: Actually one of my first boards was a Gigabye and I loved it. It seems like the SLI chip has more attractive features so I might plunk down the cash for one. The Asus board is pretty pricey though, I am hoping to find a good alternative.

Oops, sorry dude, it's St.Louis that doesn't like gigabyte.

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1735

That's the board I use. The Chipset fan is really quiet. I love the board, it's really good, it's just a shame I don't use HALF of all the extras you get with it!

If you're overclocking, go for the -ultra-SLI variant.

[therealwesty]

I've got the Abit AN8 and have been pretty happy with it. The AN8 series boards all have the OTES chipset cooling system. OTES is basically a heat pipe leading to a pair of 40mm fans and a heatsink at the I/O panel. The two fans are temperature controlled and mine are both off most of the time, so its pretty quite. Even when the fans are spinning they use somewhat slower revolutions so it isn't too bad at all. There is an A8N Ultra which obviously sports the nForce4-Ultra chiset.

[yahooadam]

the only NF4 passive solution is the asus 1

but u need a CPU fan that cools it

[Lakario]

I just installed my DFI LANParty NF4 Expert (socket 939) and it's pretty much silent. The CPU fan throttling is nice because the fan gets turned *way* down when the temperatures are safe. Right now it's doing about 800RPMs out of 2000-2500 normal. CPU temp is about 30C. I like this board, plenty of options, nice on-board 8-channel sound (even though I'm using my audigy 2), on board power and reset buttons, two gigabit LAN, SLI, 4 SATA1, 4 SATA2, DDR400, PDIF in and out, a small army of USB 2 ports (6 on the back, 4 on the board), firewire, and most importantly of all: UV Sensative DIMMS and cables. :D

It's a bit pricey at $200, but it certainly gets my seal of approval.

[yahooadam]

huh

my NB fan was up to 7k rpm and very loud

didnt know theyed changed it in the expert

[bluegreenshxt]

huh

my NB fan was up to 7k rpm and very loud

didnt know theyed changed it in the expert

I think only you have the problem with the fan. :confused: I've built 4 computers based on the Ultra-D. They all spin at 3-4k rpm when idle and is inaudiable even in quiet systems. Temps would be around 46-48C idle.