The chipset thread (for Athlon64x2)

Noone has any thoughts on these other chipsets? bump

I'm leaning toward the Asus AV8 Deluxe at the moment.

Me too. Here's why: UAD-1 Support Link

I have a Chaintech VNF4 Ultra ZENITH VE (which is based on the nForce4 Ultra chipset), Athlon64 x2 4400+, 2 GB corsair DDR, with an EMU 1820M soundcard with the latest drivers (made available yesterday). I have been playing with Sonar 5 in both standard Windows XP Pro and x64.

Some observations:

1. WinXP x64 sucks with Sonar 5; Sonar 5 won't install completely and the EMU 64-bit BETA drivers are beyond junk.

2. Sonar 5 in standard WinXP Pro (with the latest EMU drivers) is stable, so far, down to 5 ms without dropouts or crackles in huge audio-only projects full of plugins and such. I was able to get it to drop out only after removing the pagefile and looping the project and playing it for several hours.

3. After having installed the multiprocessor fix from Micro$oft (info here -> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=896256 ), I have not been able to get it to drop out (exact same settings and everything) whatsoever.

4. I still have more testing and tweaking to do!!



-mr moon

Edit: Added notation that the EMU 64-bit drivers are BETA drivers.
2nd edit: Fixed microsoft link

At this point I don't have any UAD cards planned for my system, but it would be nice to have the option later. Many of the motherboards in question have only one PCI slot to make room for PCI-E. So that's a concern. I've now read that the Via chipsets don't perform as well as nforce3, and probably nforce4 in a dual core arrangement. Anyone have experience with the ATI Radeon Xpress 200 chipset?

Here's a review.

I set my sights on the ATI X200 but when I went to buy the MSI board I had selected it was out of stock. Seems like many of the ATI-based MB's are getting scarce, yet the VIA ones are still around. Must be something to that, besides just production quantities.

For now I'm going to wait but the ATI chipset is still the most interesting item on my scope

ORIGINAL: JDA

I've been trying to research and looking for a motherboard for new build. The Nforce3 motherboards like the Gigabyte K8NS Ultra and MSI Neo2 Platinum are hard to find and probably have been discontinued.

That leaves the ASUS A8V Deluxe system board that uses the K8T800 Pro chipset. Sonica uses this mobo in their X2 systems and ADK offers it too. Some people like it better than the Gigabyte and MSI and others don't.

I've read on one of the forums that the Nforce4 is okay if you go dual core, but still not as good as the older Nforce3. I really don't know what to think on the Nforce4 since the opinions go back and forth on it.

Maybe some others can chime in and give us some more details on the best route to go for an X2 system.

I'm leaning toward the Asus AV8 Deluxe at the moment.

Regards, JD...

According to Pricegrabber, the Gigbayte K8NS Ultra 939 is still available from 6 online retailers:

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=4438606

(EDIT: I was apparently blind, and didn't notice that only 3 of the listed stores still have them. So that leaves 3! Get yer NForce3 boards here... Get 'em while they're hot!).

I'm not trying to talk you out of the NForce4 board, but if the only reason you're leaning that way is because you couldn't find the NForce3, well, here you go! (I have the Gigabyte K8NS, and love it).


Another JD

I have no knowledge about the specs, but there ARE alternatives, based on the ULi chipsets. At least ASrock produces 2 MB's based on the ULi chipsets WITH AGP:

1) 939Dual-SATA2

• Socket 939 for AMD Athlon 64, Athlon 64FX and Sempron processor
  
• ULi 1695 chipset (ULi M1695/ ULi M1567)
  
• For Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64FX and Athlon 64, Sempron processors
  
• FSB 1000 MHz (2.0GT/s), DDR400
  
• Hyper-Transport Technology, AMD Cool‘n’Quiet Technology
  
• Hybrid Booster - ASRock Safe Overclocking Technology
  
• PCI Express x16 slot
  
• PCI Express x1 slot
  
• AGP slot
  
• PCI E SATA2 controller on board, optimizing the support for SATA2 HDD
  
• Serial ATA 1.5Gb/s, RAID 0,1,JBOD
  
• 7.1channel Superior Quality Audio, 10/100 Ethernet LAN
  
• ASRock 8CH I/O: 4 ready-to-use USB2.0 ports, 7.1channel audio jack
  

and

2) K8 Combo-Z

• Socket 754/Socket 939 combo* design for AMD 64-bit Athlon 64/Athlon 64FX and Sempron processor
  
• ULi(ALi) M1689 integrated single chip
  
• Socket754 and Socket939 combo design-EZ CPU upgrade
  
• For advanced 64-bit AMD Athlon 64/Athlon 64FX and Sempron processor, Hyper-Transport Technology, Support AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core CPU**
  
• Hybrid Booster - ASRock Safe Overclocking Technology
  
• SerialATA 1.5Gb/s, RAID 0,1,JBOD
  
• AGP8X, 7.1channel Superior Quality Audio, 10/100 Ethernet LAN
  
• ASRock 8CH I/O: 4 ready-to-use USB2.0 ports,
  
• 7.1 channel audio jack
  

Apart from NO FIREWIRE at least the first one looks interesting. There are other MB's with the other ULi chipsets, but AFAIK the ASrock is the only one available with the ULi 1695 chipset.

J