nForce4 motherboard recommendations

Jonathan Berry berryja at gmail.com
Sun Oct 30 03:56:58 UTC 2005


Hi everyone,

I hope this isn't too off topic.  This list is fairly slow, so
hopefully y'all won't mind this question.  I'm looking at building a
new desktop AMD64 system and am trying to decide on a motherboard to
buy.  I want one with an nForce4 chipset and preferably in the ~$100
or less range.  As far as features, I would like SATA II (the 250 GB
WD SATA II drive is slightly cheaper than the SATA drive!) and SLI
would be nice, but not necessary.  Of course, I want to run 64-bit
Linux on it (FC4), so good compatibility there is a must.  Decent
onboard sound would be a plus, but again not critical.  Quietness
would be nice too.  I most importantly want good quality and
dependability.  So, what brands do you like as far as quality?  Or
what specific (desktop) boards do you like?  I'm looking hard at the
GIGABYTE GA-K8N-SLI which is inexpensive, has SLI, and has the plus of
having passive cooling on the north bridge (assuming it stays cool). 
The DFI nF4 Ultra-Infinity is right there at about the same price, has
1394 but no SLI.  Any suggestions?
Also, I could forgo the SATA II and get a board with just SATA and
potentially save $10 - $20 (could either save a little on a Maxtor
drive, or spend a little more on a WD drive, I'm not particular to
either).  Thoughts on that?

Thanks,
Jonathan




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