ASUS A8n-e Premium NForce 4

[Hammer0id]

Still no official statement from Asus?

 

[gate1975mlm]

How much longer til this board comes out?

 

[geogecko]

We're all waiting to hear something. My guess is that we'll find out once and for all, if we will even be getting this board by the middle of Feb.

 

[AppStar]

MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum released today on NewEgg.com $169.00.

http://www.newegg.com/app/View...tion=13-130-484&depa=0

It will very difficult to wait for the Asus A8N-E Premium with this board out.

 

[geogecko]

Yes, this is a very nice board that has come out. In fact, the only thing I don't like about it, over the ASUS board, is that it uses active cooling on the nForce4 chip. I imagine that this could be replaced with one of the two Zalman passive heat sinks, but doing so, would probably block at least one, if not two PCI slots. No telling how close it is to the PCI-E slot, to know if the passive heat sink would cause a problem with mounting a graphics card.

 

[AppStar]

A few hours after NewEgg.com posted the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum, they dropped the price $10... it's now $159.00

http://www.newegg.com/app/View...tion=13-130-484&depa=0

 

[Melquiades]

I saw the MSI board listed on Newegg this morning too. I heard from Gigabyte as well that their Ultra board started shipping the week before last and should be hitting the retail channel in this US this week or next. A couple of the online retailers in the UK show the gigabyte board as in stock already. What is everyone's opinion on the MSI vs the Gigabyte boards? I have seen a couple reviews of the gigabyte board, but none for the MSI. I think Asus has dropped the ball on this one and won't be getting my business.

 

[geogecko]

Duplicate message.

 

[geogecko]

The Gigabyte looks good too. (Pictures/Review: http://www.ocworkbench.com/200...yte/GA-K8NXP-9/g1.htm ) I just wonder if using the DPS thing is required, or just optional? It adds another fan, if you do have to use it. Not sure about it's digital audio outputs. It has two coax (RCA style) connectors under the parallel port connector. I assume one is S/PDIF, but the other?

I'm at least going to wait another two to three weeks before making a decision. With light of the new MSI board hitting the shelf, and Gigabyte's board in a week or so, I would think we will see once and for all if ASUS is going to make a contribution. If they don't, I'm leaning more towards the MSI board, mainly because you get an extra PCI slot, and a 4x PCI-E slot, in place of one of the Gigabyte's 1x PCI-E slots.

I imagine it won't be another couple weeks, and we'll be seeing an nForce4 Ultra motherboard roundup from AnandTech, ExtremeTech, or Tom's Hardware. Things are getting exciting. There was also a news post on Samsung's site about their upcoming SATA-II (300MB/s) hard drives, with NCQ... Now I must start looking at video cards.

 

[AppStar]

I picked up the Seagate 120GB SATAII drive from newegg.com.http://www.newegg.com/app/View...tion=22-148-039&depa=1

I'll pick up another one once Windows XP x64 edition (final) is release. I'll have no problem running x64 RC1 on one drive untill then (I reformat when the final is released anyways)

 

[geogecko]

I guess I should point out, that there is some confusion with SATA-II drives. That Seagate is still running at 150MB/s, unlike the new Samsung drives that will allow speeds up to 300MB/s. I'm not sure what the SATA-II means, in this case. (Look on the specs on newegg's web page, and you'll see the transfer speed listed as 150.)

It will be interesting though, to see if Samsung can really get close to the 300MB/s, without running into another problem, media limited speed.

 

[AppStar]

Actually I'm glad you mentioned that... it was going to be the whole point of my post, but I was distracted at work. ;-) What makes a drive qualify as SATAII? NCQ?

 

[AppStar]

I also forgot to mention the reason I'm getting another drive is to set up RAID-0 ;-)

 

[SunSamurai]

Originally posted by: geogecko
I guess I should point out, that there is some confusion with SATA-II drives. That Seagate is still running at 150MB/s, unlike the new Samsung drives that will allow speeds up to 300MB/s. I'm not sure what the SATA-II means, in this case. (Look on the specs on newegg's web page, and you'll see the transfer speed listed as 150.)

It will be interesting though, to see if Samsung can really get close to the 300MB/s, without running into another problem, media limited speed.

The samsung will not get anywhere close to half that speed.

 

[Xmate]

I'm sorry if this questions has already been asked ad nauseam, but I don't have time to read the entire thread: When are we going to start seeing these things?

 

[geogecko]

Originally posted by: aeternitas

Originally posted by: geogecko
I guess I should point out, that there is some confusion with SATA-II drives. That Seagate is still running at 150MB/s, unlike the new Samsung drives that will allow speeds up to 300MB/s. I'm not sure what the SATA-II means, in this case. (Look on the specs on newegg's web page, and you'll see the transfer speed listed as 150.)

It will be interesting though, to see if Samsung can really get close to the 300MB/s, without running into another problem, media limited speed.

The samsung will not get anywhere close to half that speed.

...and you say this because? Why would they advertise 300MB/s support if it's going to operate at 150MB/s?

I can understand it not getting exactly 300MB/s, but it should be better than 150.

 

[geogecko]

Originally posted by: AppStar
A few hours after NewEgg.com posted the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum, they dropped the price $10... it's now $159.00

http://www.newegg.com/app/View...tion=13-130-484&depa=0

Zipzoomfly now has the same board for $149, although their picture if of the reference board, and not the real thing...

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

Originally posted by: geogecko
Yes, this is a very nice board that has come out. In fact, the only thing I don't like about it, over the ASUS board, is that it uses active cooling on the nForce4 chip. I imagine that this could be replaced with one of the two Zalman passive heat sinks, but doing so, would probably block at least one, if not two PCI slots. No telling how close it is to the PCI-E slot, to know if the passive heat sink would cause a problem with mounting a graphics card.

The Chaintech board uses a passive heatsink and the conclusion we have from it is that the nForce4 chipset requires active cooling.

The old picture of the ASUS nForce4 Ultra shows a passive heatsink; however, with them using an active one with the K8N4-E I don't see why the A8N-E would use a passive one.

K8N4-E pic

 

[geogecko]

What do you mean, conclusion? Have you done some testing of the temperatures of the nForce4 chip or something? Just because Abit chooses to use a fan on the chipset, doesn't mean that another vendor has to. A fan that small doesn't really move that much air to begin with, and putting on a larger mass heat sink will sometimes do just as well. Although, it could be said that maybe ASUS is expecting the CPU HSF to provide some air flow over the nForce4 chip, just like their little voltage regulator heat sink does...

 

[Steg55]

I know The Inquirer is unreliable and this post doesnt make perfect sence but it might not spell good times for the AN8-E we all so desperatly want.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20959

Look like I will have to fight you Americans for one of these beauties

Steg

 

[babcom]

Originally posted by: geogecko
There was also a news post on Samsung's site about their upcoming SATA-II (300MB/s) hard drives, with NCQ...

Linky please. I was considering Samsung's SATA-II (150MB/s) Spinpoints for quietness but I can wait until XP 64-bit comes out on 29 April to get these for my new rig.

Info for AppStar:
SATAII =SATAI with extensions ie NCQ and hot-swapping. Still 150MB/s transfer rate.
SATA2.0=SATAII with 300MB/s transfer rate. I don't know if there are any other new extensions.

 

[AppStar]

Originally posted by: babcom

Originally posted by: geogecko
There was also a news post on Samsung's site about their upcoming SATA-II (300MB/s) hard drives, with NCQ...

Linky please. I was considering Samsung's SATA-II (150MB/s) Spinpoints for quietness but I can wait until XP 64-bit comes out on 29 April to get these for my new rig.

Info for AppStar:
SATAII =SATAI with extensions ie NCQ and hot-swapping. Still 150MB/s transfer rate.
SATA2.0=SATAII with 300MB/s transfer rate. I don't know if there are any other new extensions.

Thanks for clearing that up! I was under the impression II = 2.0 ;-)

 

[geogecko]

Funny, the Inquirer is talking about nForce3 Ultra, when I'm assuming that it should be nForce4 Ultra.

Thanks for the clearing about SATA. Then, I stand corrected, Samsung's new drives will be SATA2.0

Linky: http://www.samsung.com/us/Prod...0041019_0000074256.asp

 

[geogecko]

Couple of threads here on AnandTech about the NB47J chipset cooler...

Pictures are in here.
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=1490234&enterthread=y

Information about temperatures after the switch.
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...highlight_key=y#bottom

 

[imported_Tungsten]

So what's the latest word with this motherboard? I see it's still listed here: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/ASUS_Socket_939.html for arrival in Feb.