A64 with PCIe, K8NXP-9 only one?

[ThePiston]

I'm considering joining the A64 crowd and the better video cards are cheaper in PCIe. Is the Gigabyte K8NXP-9 the only one with PCIe? Is anyone selling them yet?

 

[imported_DangerMouse]

In 2 weeks Gigabyte,Asus and Msi boards will become available.

 

[flexy]

Originally posted by: DangerMouse
In 2 weeks Gigabyte,Asus and Msi boards will become available.

we ehar that since approx a month...btw...last week it still was "next week"...and now it is "in two weeks"

 

[gobucks]

Most websites that have boards listed have ETAs around 12-3-04. Hopefully a few will be out earlier. Gigabyte and Asus both claim their boards are shipping as we speak, so we'll see. Still, the nforce4 launch is still less of a disaster than the K8T890 one. Abit announced their AX8 about 2 months ago, and it was even listed on some websites, but it's been MIA since then. Personally, I expect the gigabyte nforce4 Ultra to be the first board sold, since it is the only mobo maker to actaully send a retail board for review, to anandtech, and that was almost 2 weeks ago. I say, just be patient, they are going to be here in time for christmas shopping, so don't worry. I expect my new computer to be up and running before Saint Nick's day (Dec 5, BTW), which works for me, since it gives me some time to save up some money before I drop a grand on this thing.

 

[stelleg151]

Originally posted by: gobucks
Most websites that have boards listed have ETAs around 12-3-04. Hopefully a few will be out earlier. Gigabyte and Asus both claim their boards are shipping as we speak, so we'll see. Still, the nforce4 launch is still less of a disaster than the K8T890 one. Abit announced their AX8 about 2 months ago, and it was even listed on some websites, but it's been MIA since then. Personally, I expect the gigabyte nforce4 Ultra to be the first board sold, since it is the only mobo maker to actaully send a retail board for review, to anandtech, and that was almost 2 weeks ago. I say, just be patient, they are going to be here in time for christmas shopping, so don't worry. I expect my new computer to be up and running before Saint Nick's day (Dec 5, BTW), which works for me, since it gives me some time to save up some money before I drop a grand on this thing.

gobucks and I are the same person.

 

[gobucks]

lol....how many fingers am I holding up?

 

[stelleg151]

4.

 

[gobucks]

unfortunately, the answer is 3. So maybe we'll just have to settle for being clones rather than the same person.

Anyways, has anyone seen this board for presale anywhere yet?

 

[MBetz]

Originally posted by: gobucks
unfortunately, the answer is 3. So maybe we'll just have to settle for being clones rather than the same person.

Anyways, has anyone seen this board for presale anywhere yet?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Gigabyte1.html
I know it's in UK, but you asked.:laugh:

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

Originally posted by: gobucks
Still, the nforce4 launch is still less of a disaster than the K8T890 one. Abit announced their AX8 about 2 months ago, and it was even listed on some websites, but it's been MIA since then. Personally, I expect the gigabyte nforce4 Ultra to be the first board sold, since it is the only mobo maker to actaully send a retail board for review, to anandtech, and that was almost 2 weeks ago.

Actually ABIT has been doing that a lot lately: announcing boards way before they're actually released.

On K8T890 boards:

ASUS A8V-E Premium:
http://www.hardwareluxx.de/story.php?id=1495

ASUS said it will be available in two weeks, which as we all learned means it will be available some time in the future.

Albatron K8X890 Pro:
http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/7650
picture:
http://www.ocworkbench.com/200...v/K8X890pro%20copy.jpg

ABIT AX8, AX8-V, AX8-3rd eye:
http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/

MSI:
THG had an article saying MSI was going to release their board only in January, but they have removed that from the article.

 

[gobucks]

You know, I never have understood why companies have all started paperlaunching everything and announcing products so far in the future. If you think about it, it actaully will end up costing them money in the long run. After all, when people buy a PC, and something better comes out 2 months later, they might be pissed, but it is something that is expected, and the PC has been bought. However, if you always know what is coming downt the pipe, and know that it is important to get it, then you end up stalling people's upgrade cycles, and people might end up waiting 3 years rather than 2 for their upgrades, which means less money for these companies. This is especially true of changes in infrastructure. Most people are not too concerned with buying a CPU when there is a 200MHz speed bump coming. Likewise, buying an X800 GPU rather than waiting 6 months for an X850 is not too worrisome either. However, when companies basically tell us that the platform you are buying into has a limited life because they don't feel like giving you one with upgrade potential, it's pretty annoying. Take AMD's A64 transitions. First it was Socket 754, which out of the gate said it would be a budget platform, and would only receive 2 speed bumps. Then we got 939, which had a future, but the chips were $500 and up. Now affordable chips are here, and the graphics interface will soon be abandoned. It will take the arrival of NF4 and others to finally afford us a platform that's here to stay for a while. That's why sales of A64s have been so weak. If the infrastructure were there, we'd have all taken the jump a year ago. Breaking the transition into 4 phases is just not gonna cut it. I don't personally like intel, but at least with LGA775, they managed to bring a platform with all the new technologies at once, and have a wide range of CPUs available for it immediately.

 

[jcromano]

Originally posted by: DangerMouse
In 2 weeks Gigabyte,Asus and Msi boards will become available.

By my calculations, two weeks have elapsed since DangerMouse's post. Are any NF4 boards available for purchase in the US today? Or any socket 939 boards with PCI-E? If so, where?

Thanks,
Jim

 

[jcromano]

Originally posted by: gobucks
Most websites that have boards listed have ETAs around 12-3-04. Hopefully a few will be out earlier. Gigabyte and Asus both claim their boards are shipping as we speak, so we'll see.
.
.
I expect my new computer to be up and running before Saint Nick's day (Dec 5, BTW), which works for me, since it gives me some time to save up some money before I drop a grand on this thing.

Gobucks, which websites are (or were?) you looking at? Do any of them offer the board for sale in the US?

Thanks,
Jim

 

[gobucks]

monarchcomputer listed its ATI xpress 200 micro-ATX chipset as 12-3-04, then changed it recently to 12-29-04. So far, the websites I've seen listing NF4 products are going with 12-10-04 (there are 2 such sites carrying the Asus SLI board, you can see on pricewatch, but it is $300). I'm pretty pissed about the shifting launch dates, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since this happens with everything. So far, the zipzoomfly site looks most promising, with an Asus SLI board for $225, unfortunately their ETA is "mid december", and you can't preorder, since it's backordered already.

 

[jcromano]

Thank you for your quick response, Gobucks. Those details were just the sort of thing I was hoping to learn. I suppose there is no guarantee the dates won't change again, but it's nice to know where things stand now.

Cheers,
Jim

 

[Momental]

Hey, I'm with the rest of you in the "Sheesh! MORE waiting?!?!" department, but we really should be thankful that we're not waiting like we do for games. Unreal 2, Half-Life 2 or Doom 3, anyone?

I'd rather wait an extra month or two for manufacturers like ABit, ASUS and the like to get their sh*t together, do additional Q/C on their parts and then ship us out something that doesn't have more bugs than a darkened corner of the Amazonian rainforest.

And I'm right there with ya, gobucks. My intention was to do a complete system build almost a year ago since my AthlonXP 2100+ and GeForce 4 Ti4600 aren't very "Doom-worthy". Truth be told, I have YET to play either Doom3 or Half-life2 or even to see them other than in trailer form. THIS is how long I've been waiting.

It's gotten to the point where I'm ready to throw up my hands and say "F it!! I'm going AGP!!" But, I know that's a hasty decision. So, like the rest of you, I sit idly and impatiently by as I await the advent and appearance of the PCI-Epress-capable MoBo's and GPU's. I swear to everything that's heavenly and holy (no, I'm not actually religious, just incredibly and unnecessarily mello-dramatic ) that I have my entire system already picked out and ready for purchase except for a motherboard and video card.

It's maddening. But, there's something masochistically-stimulating about all this waiting. Hell, this gives me somethin' to look forward to!

 

[gobucks]

try this on for size - 700MHz Athlon Slot A, 256MB ram, GeForce256 (non-DDR). Yeah, I could use an upgrade.

anyways, I'm more irritated with VIA, SIS, etc than nvidia. At least nVidia originally said Q3 2004. Sure, they were off by a few months, but VIA and SiS were shooting for freakin APRIL!!!! what the hell happened there? Did their engineering department take a 3 month vacation? Not only that, but VIA's initial motherboards are gonna be shitty, too. Only the non-pro will be available at first, and even the first Pro boards will use that crappy old VT8237 southbridge, with no LAN, no HD-Audio, no NCQ support, etc. First, they were all gonna use VT8251 southbridges, then only the pro, and now they've stopped even mentioning it, so I can assume it's gonna be a while. Oh, well, I guess that's why I'm not buying their chipset.

 

[Electric Mayhem]

PIII 600 384 MB RAM.....original 32MB Geforce256. It is my first comp ever from Mircon PC-I got it when a GPU was the 'next big thing' in October of 1999. I guess that's why now I don't mind paying 3-40$ too much for a mobo. This one I'm building myself.........if NF4(errr......NF$) ever goes retail.