Why does everybody say wait for nforce4 ?

[suave3747]

So why go with the 90nm Athlon 3200+ S939?

Everything I've read about the 90nm process indicates that shrinking the die size lowers the overall amount of heat, but concentrates that smaller amount of heat into a smaller area. So I would assume from this that the heat of the chip decreases by a smaller percentage than the percentage that the chip shrinks. So if the heat decreases overall by 15% by going to the 90nm process, and the die shrink from 130nm to 90nm is roughly 30%, then you have 15% less heat over a 30% smaller surface area. That is why manufacturers had so much trouble, from what I understand. But, that 15% decrease in heat means that is 15% further you can push an overclock before reaching the peak that the chip can deliver. (These figures are all theoretical, in case you couldn't tell)

Why not go for the FX55? What is the biggest difference here? Can you OC the 3200+ on air?

From Anand's review of the 90nm athlons, I assume that all of the 90nm athlons can overclock to roughly FX-55 speed. That's 2.6 GHz. Almost every review done on this site, if not every review, has said time and time again that the performance increase gained by moving to 1MB cache from 512KB is negligible. The 3000+ in 90 nm is just under $200, the 3200+ is about $220, and the new 3500+ is expected to be somewhere just above $300. The way I see it, the 3200+ is not too much more than the 3000+, and I won't have to push it as hard to get 2.6 GHz. The FX-55 ought to start out selling at close to $900, so saving almost $700 sounds good to me.

 

[TimTheEnchanter25]

Originally posted by: Zebo
Waiting for... real mobo makers to jump in. ASUS/DFI/ABIT do not make a NF3 939 board. (makes you wonder a bit IMO) These are the top dog makers. All we have in 939 NF3 is crap MSI, and LOL, it's touted as the best. No thanks.


The other 939 alternative is via which has a bad rap (mostly unfounded) so many stay away.

That's why I'm waiting. I don't like any of the NF3 boards and I'll die before I buy a VIA. I'm a big fan of ABIT and their Fatal1ty board is going to kick major ass.

I'm completely replacing my current system and I want to make most of it last for 4 years. With a 939/PCI-E system, I have no doubt that I will be able to replace or upgrade anything if I need to. If I went with a 754, I can never go higher than 3700+. If I got a NF3 board, I would really doubt being able to upgrade my AGP card in 2-3 years.

As far as cost, the Neo2 is around $135 and the Nforce4 Ultra boards are going to be $100-150. What else am I going to do with that $15? I can ship ground instead of air and save more than that. We still don't know what the PCI-E version of the 6800GT will cost, but hopefully it is within $20 of the AGP version. If not, the 6600GT and the X700 are a lot better than any $200 AGP card.

Other than budget, I see no logical reason for someone doing a full system upgrade to get anything other than Nforce4.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: SLIM
For all those waiting on nforce 4 like me, here is a nice link
http://xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=44016

SLIM

Nice link.

A bit OT, but did anyone else notice that the DFI board has odd placement of some things?

1) There is that one PCIe 1x slot above the two PCIe 16x (or 8x made to fit 16x) slots. If you were to run two 6800 Ultras, you would only have a single regular PCI slot left, but you would have that PCIe 1x slot as well.

2) If you had two 6800 series cards in there, it looks like it would be a really tight fit for the SATA connectors

3) The bottom set of SATA connectors are way down on the bottom of the board, the cables would have to do around the video cards(s)

4) There is that one 4-pin molex connector almost in the center of the mobo. Is that necessary to supply power to the video card(s)? As described in this post.

...on the positive side, it does look like there is a lot of room for a nice big cpu heatsink.

 

[SimsFreak]

nforce 4 = Hardware Firewall built in

 

[housecat]

i dont see any reason if someone doesnt already have a A64 to build a new system with the NF3 platform..

even if you dont intend to use SLI, it'd be wise to pick one up.. i'd rather have it as an option rather than not when everyone else is using it, and exploiting all the potential that enthusiasts are bound to discover.

i could see a current A64 user being reluctant, or bitter over the NF4 SLI release (esp if they havent been listening to the rumors of its release for months).. and its understandable.

I'd be PO'd because it really is the next big thing.. and I'd rather not miss out on it.. this is huge (and will remain huge for years to come). Its like spending $1500 on a new system now that doesnt have PCI-E.

But I'm using a 1700+/NF2/GF4 system and this is THE time to upgrade, most of us have known this since we heard the NF4 SLI rumors.

I've had a very long time to save up money, and I have.. I'm looking at a FX53/55, NF4 SLI, and a 6800 GT or Ultra.. and will be adding a second one when they drop price a bit, or if i happen to catch a good deal on a 2nd one in the meantime.

Is it a good amount of money? yes. But it is worth it for the longevity that getting a A64/PCI-E/SLI rig will return you.

I expect it to be pretty much top dog until 2006 when dual cores really take off.. maybe even 2H '06 or later.

 

[Malleable]

Im using a ECS K7S5A, Athlon XP1700, ATI 9100, 512 DDR 2100, 30GB EIDE.

Time to upgrade, as EQII just came out.

I want A64. I dont plan on upgrading for a while (as my current setup displays).
PCI express will be the new standard. 939 will be the new standard. SATA is already a standard, which I wasnt a part of.

I plan on going NF4 with SLI. I'll buy one 6600GT, and when prices drop significantly, I'll grab another one. No huge rush on this, as one 6600 will be just fine for a while on what I want it for.

Mal