ASUS P5ND2-SLI Deluxe Motherboard Series with Exclusive Features

Subject: Motherboards | April 8, 2005 - 02:11 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:

*UPDATE* I just got this photo in an email from Asus.

Click to Enlarge

A quick once over of this board shot shows some interesting stuff, like the external, rear SATA channel by the audio output connectors.  The passive heastsink on the north bridge is pretty dang big, as is probably needed for the heat the NVIDIA NF4 Intel chipse

Fatal1ty AN8 nForce4 Ultra Review

Subject: Motherboards | April 7, 2005 - 06:36 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:

HardOCP has reviewed the Fatal1ty AN8 motherboard, based on the NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra (AMD Edition) chipset.  Have a gander at what they have to say, and if you need a comparison, you can look at my review as well.

However, the lack of integrated peripherals on the board itself was disappointing.

Abit Fatal1ty AA8XE Intel Review

Subject: Motherboards | April 7, 2005 - 10:28 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:

It seems that reviews on Intel-based motherboards are still harder to come by than AMD solutions, but here is one for you based on the Intel 925XE chipset. 

Abit Fatal1ty AA8XE — is specially designed for professional gamers who have heard of Johnathan Wendel.

VIAArena Looks at 9 K8T890 Motherboards

Subject: Motherboards | April 7, 2005 - 10:26 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:

VIA Arena is taking a very brief look at the features and layouts of 9 different K8T890 motherboards.  What is even more odd about this is that fact that I haven't seen a SINGLE retail board come to me from any vendor.

The K8T890 of course features support for PCI Express video cards. All of the boards feature one 16x PCIe slot and at least one PCIe x 1 slot for PCIe peripheral cards like networking, audio etc.

Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI NF4 SLI Intel Review

Subject: Motherboards | April 7, 2005 - 10:19 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:

PCStats seems to have the first production motherboard reviewed based on the NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Edition chipset. 

The physical layout of the Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI Royal motherboard is excellent but we've come to expect that from Gigabyte. It's nice to see that Gigabyte includes everything end users would need with the motherboard as well, why can't more manufacturers follow Gigabyte's lead?

Epox EP-9NPA+ Ultra Review

Subject: Motherboards | March 29, 2005 - 01:39 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:

HardOCP has reviewed the Epox 9NPA+ motherboard based on the nForce4 Ultra chipset.  I actually had a review of this board ready for print this morning, and it should go live tomorrow some time.

However, there was one strange thing I encountered with the 9NPA+ ULTRA — its lack of overclocking ability. In testing the board, I only was able to get it to a 250MHz FSB and at that speed, the board wasn't as stable as I would've liked.

Gigabyte K8VT890 Review at Tech Report

Subject: Motherboards | March 29, 2005 - 01:30 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:

The Tech Report has reviewed a Gigabyte VIA K8T890 motherboard with PCI Express support for under $90.

Despite the fact that GA-K8VT890-9 offers a fair bit of value at its bargain-basement price point, enthusiasts will no doubt be frustrated by the BIOS's lack of a PCI Express clock lock and temperature-driven fan speed control. Those features could perhaps be added in a BIOS update, as Gigabyte has done with more extensive memory timings, but they're not available yet.

Epox EP-5NVA+ nF4 SLI Intel Edition

Subject: Motherboards | March 25, 2005 - 10:32 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:

Epox sent over a PR release on their upcoming nForce4 SLI Intel Edition motherboard.  You can see the image below, or see all the specs that I posted in our forums to avoid the long post here. 

Foxxcon Winfast nForce4 Ultra Review

Subject: Motherboards | March 25, 2005 - 10:04 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:

Viperlair has reviewed the Winfast NF4 Ultra motherboard from PC manufacturering giant, Foxxcon. 

This board is priced significantly cheaper however than many other nForce 4 boards, somewhere in the region of $103 US as compared to many boards with SLI that cost at least $60 more.

Yet Another AN8 Review

Subject: Motherboards | March 23, 2005 - 07:59 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:

I guess Abit sent out quite a lot of these boards, eh?  Here' is yet another Fatal1ty AN8 Motherboard reviewed. 

The rundown of the Fatal1ty's performance and overclocking potential is definitely exceptional. While the board lacks great VDIMM options, the BIOS allows other great voltage ranges and many memory adjustments. I'm pretty sure that most of you are interested in the comparison against DFI's Ultra-D, and our review of that motherboard will arrive soon.

Another Abit Fatal1ty AN8 Review

Subject: Motherboards | March 23, 2005 - 07:56 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:

XBit labs has reviewed the Abit Fatal1ty AN8 motherboard based on the nForce4 Ultra chipset.  It's a big one at 15 pages!  You can check out my review of the board for comparison as well. 

All in all, ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 mainboard makde a very good impression.

Four SLI Motherobards Compared

Subject: Motherboards | March 23, 2005 - 12:21 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:

Gamer's Depot has put up an article comparing four SLI motherboards today.  They look at options from Asus, MSI, Gigabyte and DFI.  You can also check out my reviews by looking in our motherboard section. 

We firmly believe that the importance of SLI has been properly communicated amongst many gamers and certainly ATI — I guess it's easy to talk-down a technology you don't have out on the market eh?

DFI NF4 Overclocking Test

Subject: Motherboards | March 21, 2005 - 11:59 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:

The DFI NF4 Ultra has been getting a lot of play recently, this time in the overclocking arena. 

The DFI will run very stable at 300 x 8 using TCCD 512x2 @1T, achieving 300 x 9 with simple air-cooling credits to how well the BIOS, memory controller and the quality of this board to work in concert with each other. This board is simply splendid in reaching the best possible performance.

DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR Review

Subject: Motherboards | March 18, 2005 - 07:07 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:

Bjorn3d has posted a review of the DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR.  You can also check out my review here as well. 

DFI really set the stage for tweakers and overclockers with this board and are now reaping the benefits of its hard work and research. As of today (March 18), fifteen of the top twenty systems in the 3DMark05 hall of fame use DFI SLI systems!

Abit Fatal1ty AN8 Review @ Tech Report

Subject: Motherboards | March 17, 2005 - 02:53 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:

Geoff (that's pronounced "Jeff" for us Americans) of The Tech Report has posted his review of the Abit Fatal1ty AN8 motherboard today.  In case you also want to read what I had to say about it, you can read my review as well.

In addition to OTES exhaust coolers, Abit also bundles an OTES RAMFlow memory cooler with the board.

Gigabyte K8VT890-9 K8T890 Review

Subject: Motherboards | March 16, 2005 - 11:43 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:

Hardcoreware.net has reviewed the Gigabyte K8VT890 board based on the VIA PCI Express chipset.  They seem to find problems with the overclocking optins in the BIOS, but I wonder if they know the "Alt F2" Gigabyte trick?

Here is the "Advanced Chipset" section, this is where the memory tweaks SHOULD be. Nothing to be found; in fact, I just set up the benchmarking platform to double check that I had the CMOS is "Advanced Mode" when I took these pictures. Sure enough, these are all the tweaks you'll get.

Motherboard Basics

Subject: Motherboards | March 15, 2005 - 12:30 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:

Ever wonder what some of the basic components on a motherboard actually are?  Ever looked at a board layout and been confused?  Then you should check out the motherboard basics article at Big Bruin today.

Many motherboards now include features onboard that were once only available as expansion cards to be purchased separately. A typical motherboard will now include stereo sound capabilities, a 10/100 LAN connection, and a few USB 2.0 ports on the back panel connection.

A Look at the VIA EPIA-SP Mainboard

Subject: Motherboards | March 15, 2005 - 12:43 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:

VIA Arena has just sent out news of an article they have on the new VIA EPIA-SP mini-ITX motherboard. 

Take a reasonably large hard drive, a stick of DDR400 memory, a tiny ITX case along with a wireless keyboard and mouse and there you have it, the ultimate home theater system. Of course you will need to back this flashy little computer up with some impressive audio and a killer television, but I will leave that part of the buying process up to you.