Hey, I'm going to buy a new computer... At first, I wanted a motherboard with the chipset nForce4 Ultra... But I found a store with everything that I need except of this motherboard... So ultimately, I chose this one: Abit AN8 Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 (Not Ultra) Is there a big difference between nForce4 and the ultra one? Or it doesn't really matter? And is Abit a good company? Thanks, Loui.
Ok, one thing at a time: 1. Abit is a good company, with a history. So while some people here love them and some hate them, they aren't a fly-by-night company. 2. Heading over to http://www.abit-usa.com and opening a few tabs in our FF browser allows us to see and compare the AN8-V, the AN8 and the AN8 3rd eye blind. The difference? The -V doesn't have IEEE 1394 support. And the 3rd eye has the, well, 3rd eye. But that doesn't leave us satisfied, so we head over to http://www.nvidia.com/page/nforce4_family.html and FF pops up a nice little chart. The difference in nForce4 vs. nForce4 Ultra? The Vanilla NF4 lacks the ActiveArmor™ Secure Networking Engine and "only" gets 1.5Gbs/s on the 4 port SATA controller. Where as NF4U has the engine and the 3Gbs/s SATA. Hmm. The truth is that most top tier mobo guys tweak the reference design, and add all sort of things to the Ultra and Deluxe versions. For example most Ultra and SLi boards have dual gigabit LAN. And added SATA ports coming off a seprate controller. Stuff like that, mmmkay.
I actually don't understand what's is ActiveArmor Secure Networking Engine, and I don't know what it will change to get (3Gb/s) SATA... But will nForce4 be enough for this computer? : Processor: AMD Athlon 64 (S-939) 3200+ Graphic Card: Gainward 6600GT 256Mb Ultra1980 PCI-E DVI TV OUT Memory: Kingston 512MB DDR 400Mhz x2 = 1024MB HD: Western Digital 160GB 7200RPM SATA Is nForce4 good for this computer? Is there a really big difference between this and the ultra? Will I need what the ultra gives plus? If you can explain, I'd like to know what is the ActiveArmor Secure Networking Engine and what will the (3Gb/s) will add!
That is a nice system. I'm happy to help you, but the only reason I can is that I have read a lot and banged Google.com to death with searches. I highly recommend learning the fine art of Internet searches, either at Google.com or at Dogpile.com. For example, nVidia has a FAQ section. There you can use the pull down to slim it down to motherboards. Line 21, ID # 106 yields this and this . It looks like a bulked up, hardware firewall. Which is always nice to have. Whether you need all that? Well that depends on you. Do you have a good hardware firewall in your router/hub/switch? Do you visit a lot of shady porn sites (be honest)? If you plan on plunking down a chunk of Shekles on hardware, look 1 or 2 years down the line and try and guess what you want to upgrade. The Ultra chipset supports the SATA II standard, with 3Gbs/s and Native Comand Queing. So in the future when you buy your next HDD, that might be nice to have since the next generation of drives looks set to take advantage of this. And it works with your SATA drive you have now. That would save you the need for buying a SATA II card later. In 5 years when you are looking at this board for your file server, like we are now with the P3's of our youth, I think it will be worth it. And I like the idea of the NF4 chipset having a firewall; if the active engine is worth the move to the Ultra...that is up to you and your needs. So get cracking on your research.
Thanks for helping me! I'll take the nForce4... Because I found everything I want in one store except for the NF4U, and I don't feel like seaching for another place!!! And I'm planning to buy a computer up to 6-8 months and I wanna finish this! I'd like to ask you two more questions: 1.How is Gainward's graphic card? I chose this one: Gainward Geforce 6600GT 256MB Ultra1980 PCI-E Is it good? 2.How is Kingston's memory that I chose? Is it as good as TwinMOS's memory? By the way, do you have MSN Messenger? I'd like to have your e-mail and chat there! Thanks again!
Gainward is a good company, but I have no personal experience with them. And the twinmos stuff is good. Most people like them. And while I understand that you want to get it all in one place, the fact that you are waiting 6-8 months before buying it tells me one thing...you are going to change your mind. In 6 months the market is going to look a bit different, not a whole lot, since you aren't buying super top of the line stuff. But prices will be changing enough to make you consider other stuff. Just a word to the wise: Be flexible and stay informed. The Venice cores are already out and that will drop the prices to where you might consider a 3500+, the 3500+ Winchester cores are selling for less. Or in 6 months you might decide you like the OCZ memory better. Believe me, it happens. I don't use MSN, sorry. I was on bit-tech's IRC, but I found I was wasting large portions of the day chatting. My email is Jumeira_Johnny (at) yahoo.com. But be aware, I live in Dubai, so both our emails will most likely be intercepted and screened....on both ends.
u have a nice setup there......abit is prob the best well known enthuist mobo makers an make some of the best mobos also ur kit looks cool...also the nForce4 chipset is the best for A64 setups...just depending which one u want...... i know gainward make some of the best gfx cards...and kingston make better memory than twinmoss....but i prefer corsair memory the best overall.
