My Socket 939 motherboard Findings

[dannyaa]

2 reasons for this post...

1.) Please inform me if there is incorrect info, or something I missed. Please tell me any other boards I should consider for a *** Socket 939, PCI-E, SATA-2, sub-$135-ish *** mobo. I want to make the best decision possible for the mobo.

2.) To help others looking for a socket 939 mobo.

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DFI Lanparty UT nF4 Ultra-D

DRAWBACKS: only 2 PCI and 1 PCI-e; only 1x1394a - there are 2 PCI-Ex16 but no SLI, so what’s the point? Also, no COM/LPT ports?

SETS IT APART: dream OC board. Tons of bios features.

SOME INFO: $133 / 1x 1394a / 2 PCI, 1 PCI-E, 2 PCI-Ex16 / SATA 2

http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspItem=N82E16813136152

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Epox Ep-9NPA+ Ultra

DRAWBACKS: ???

SETS IT APART: lots of PCI/PCI-e

SOME INFO: $125 / 2x 1394a / 3 PCI, 3 PCI-E, 1 PCI-Ex16 / SATA 2 http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=13-123-236&depa=1

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Asus A8N-E (deluxe) for PCI-e and nForce4

DRAWBACKS: no 1394a connects??

SETS IT APART: 1 PCI-E x4, Asus EZ flash, built in firewall (do other boards have this)? Good OC features, but not as extravagent as the DFI apparently.

SOME INFO: $124 / 0x 1394a? / 3 PCI, 2 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x4, 1 PCI-Ex16 http://www.gameve.com/gve/store/productdetails.aspx?sku=MB-ASUS-035

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Abit AN8

DRAWBACKS: no SATA 2
SETS IT APART: ???
SOME INFO: $124 / 1x 1394a / 3 PCI, 2 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-Ex16

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Am I looking over any other good mobos that should be here?

Is any of this info wrong?

Help/advice... which to choose?

To me, It looks like the DFI is for OC'ers, which I am not big into, and it lacks more PCI ports and older COM/LPT ports? No features other boards don't have. It's out. ---- The Abit is overpriced and has no SATA 2 and nothing to set it apart, so it appears. It's out. ----

This leaves me between the Epox & the Asus. I can't choose. Is it true the Asus has no 1394 ports? Why? That could the deciding factor... however some Asus features like the EZ flash, and firewall, and easy OC bios seem very nice. Also Asus just sounds more comfortable to me than going with Epox... but what do you think?

Got another board to perhaps give the Asus/Epox a run for their money?


Thanks for reading. Hope this helps someone.

Dan


P4c 3.2Ghz @ 800MHz Northwood / ABIT AI7 / 1GB Corsair XMS-Pro CL2 Pc3200 / 160GB Seagate SATA 7200rpm 8mb cache / BFG-Tech Nvidia GeForce 6800GT 256mb / Antec Sonata case w/Antec TruePower 380W PSU

 

[Rugger]

Hardware firewall is a chipset feature and not specific to the mobo mfr. Look on Epox's website (link from Newegg under the 9NPA+ description) and you will see "Active Armor" in the network portion of the specs - that is nVidia's name for their hardware firewall. The Epox boards have "Magic Flash" for flashing BIOS, but I'm not sure how easy hard it is to use - check it out on their site.

Abit advantages: VERY customer relations oriented. Goes out of the way to satisfy its customers. Very <b>high build quality</b> and very good OCing.

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<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>

 

[Rugger]

Great board, but outside of what he wants to spend on the board (~$125).

__________________________________________________
<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>

 

[endyen]

It's hard to beat Abit's record of performance and stability. Good support to, though you will probably never find out.
Sata2 is every bit as good as ide. The bottleneck for hdds is the rotational speed, not the interface.

 

[apesoccer]

asus a8n-sli:
-gets half the oc that dfi sli does.

<has asus a8n sli...wants dfi sli>


Current machines running F@H:
AMD: [64 3500+][64 3000+][2500+][2000+][1.3x2][366]
Intel: [X 3.0x3][P4 3.0x2][P4 2.4x5][P4 1.4]

"...and i'm not gay" RX8 -Greatest Quote of ALL Time

 

[MadCat2099]

Well, one question is do you want SLI or not? I presume not due to the costs, so here is a <A HREF="http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128268" target="_new">Gigabyte K8NF-9 socket 939 Mobo</A> my brother and I are considering - I believe it has everything you need, according to Gigabyte's <A HREF="http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_Spec_GA-K8NF-9.htm" target="_new">specs</A> and it's for only $118 US (which is right under budget for you).


Mad Cat