Whats up with s939 and pci-e?

I've not been paying attention for a couple months now in whats going on in the computer industry. My boss just asked me to give him an idea of what an upgrade would cost. I figured s939 and pci-e to be a little future proof, but pci-e mobo's (with VIA K8T890 chipset) that were available a few months ago no longer seem to be carried by any local stores, the ABIT AX8 comes to mind. Is there something amiss with that chipset that its not available anymore?

 

the Nforce4 and via k8t890 are currently the 2 chipsets that support pci-e and are only now beginning the appear in shops, mainly pre-order and they most definately weren't available a few months ago. u may have been thinking about the k8t800 but that was just agp.

 

As usual, stuff was "paper launched" and we are yet to see actual products outside of taiwan.

 

yeah the pci x stuff has been on a few review webbys but nothing else, u certainly havent been able to buy them yet. Here in the uk its pretty much any moment now, prob by the end of the month fingers crossed

The ax8 is the via alternative but the nf4 look very good also.

I may have to try one out.......

 

I know i did see it on their web site... must have been either a typo or misinformation on their end then, its a good thing i didn't want to run out and get one back then, i would have been pretty disappointed! Oh well, I don't think I'll tell him to wait for it since there isnt any real imediate performance advantage with pci-e at the moment anyway. Plus he's only going to get a 9600pro and he doesnt game, certainly nothing that will max out an agp bus. So moving on... is there any difference between the VIA K8T800 Pro and the NF3 Ultra?

 

Yea, the Abit K8T800pro seems faster than the Epox NF3U currently (although i have more tests to conduct today). Expect full reviewage soon.

 

Given my choice I think I would always lean towards an Abit mobo, but since they dont have a NF3 U mobo, which is why I thought I'd ask. My boss isn't going to be OCing anyway so I'm assuming that will more than likely take away alot of the luster of the NF3 U chipset (given these two chipsets will compare like the A-XP versions did), and it will more than likely come down to peripherals. As far as I've read though, the MSI Neo2 Platinum seems to be very popular.... I'm still rooting for the Abit .

 

Abit Athlon64 Boards in Retail

Note the NF8 (754, nForce3 250Gb) and AX8 (939, K8T890), the AN8 should hit some in the not to distant future too I'd think. Not that a link to ZipZoomFly helps you find one, but there are some very nice A64 options out there/coming out from Abit.