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  • Wesley Fink - Friday, June 4, 2004 - link

    #12 and #19 -
    We received the 2nd motherboard less than 24 hours before leaving for Computex, and did not sleep so first test results could be carried with us to Taiwan - so we could post when NDA expired while we were at Computex. The article was written in-between visiting booths 8000 miles from home - to bring you coverage of the show. Right now I am in Zhongshan, China and will not return until late next week.

    We will test 4 dimms when we review the first SHIPPING 939 boards - when we return from China. I rarely have Reference boards and a stock test bench with me in mainland China.
  • SpaceRanger - Thursday, June 3, 2004 - link

    What bothers me, is that days later, questions still go unanswered. Not cool Anandtech. Your reputation is slipping.
  • daveshel - Thursday, June 3, 2004 - link

    Do the enthusiasts reading this article agree that we tend to upgrade motherboards more often than processors? Not true for me.
  • FacelessNobody - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link

    Another factor I'd like to see included in this roundup is RAID performance. Based on this review, I like the nForce3 250 more, but I've heard that VIA is ahead in their SATA RAID implementation. With the two chipsets so close, RAID performance could easily be a determining factor, not to mention one that means more to me (and probably others) than PCI/AGP locks.
  • Eidolon - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link

    if nVidia isn't going PCI-Express until Q3 or Q4, who is doing it like this or next month? VIA and SiS?
  • HolgMan - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link

    Will there be any Socket 940 Boards with either nForce3-250 or K8T800 Pro?
  • Wesley Fink - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link

    #10 -
    nVidia is showing PCI Express boards for Athlon 64 Socket 939 at Comdex. While the PCI Express boards are an unannounced product, nVidia says we may seen these as early as 3rd quarter.
  • MemberSince97 - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link

    # 12 Very good point...
  • SpaceRanger - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link

    I saw 4 DIMM slots, but they didn't go into how stable and at what speeds these boards were capable of running with all 4 DIMM slots filled. Anyone know?
  • Nyati13 - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link


    #9 That is because the most important parts of what used to be a 'Northbridge' are now in the CPU itself, which leaves much less for the motherboard chipset to do.

    Jeremy
  • Filibuster - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link

    Via will support Athlon 64 with PCI-Express with the K8T890 chipset.

    Nvidia chipset plans are less clear. The only thing I've seen is a Inq. article saying Q4'04. :(
    Hopefully it is sooner.
  • WileCoyote - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link

    After all the buildup in the first few pages of this article I was kind of disappointed by the very close benchmarks. All the chipsets perform within a couple percentage points of each other.
  • ripdude - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link

    <quote>
    2 - Posted on Jun 2, 2004 at 1:55 AM by Brian23
    What's the deal with the orange PCI connector?
    </quote>
    the orange PCI connector is, AFAIK, excepted from the PCI bus bandwidth and is directly connected to the chipset.

    <quote>
    3 - Posted on Jun 2, 2004 at 3:07 AM by adntaylor
    Nice review but... still no tests of the AGP optimisations for the GeForce FX and 6 series cards on the nForce chipset.
    </quote>
    I, too, read about NVidia gfx cards getting a boost on NVidia chipsets, a 6 serie card on nforce-250gb could yield quite some surprises.

    <quote>
    6 - Posted on Jun 2, 2004 at 3:53 AM by Eidolon
    Are PCI-Express mobos using either chipset planned? Any news on when that may be?
    </quote>
    I'm waiting for a good 939 board with PCI-E slots too. With ATI and NVidia announcing PCI-E cards they should be too far behind.
  • XRaider - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link

    No doubt # 6. Motherbord manufacturers seem to be dragging their feet on this... unless they are waiting for Nvidia and Ati..? I REALLY like the 939 FX53.. but I'm holding out until the PCI express standard gets implemented on the new motherboards, cause I'm not planning on upgrading for awhile after this new system build. :\
  • Eidolon - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link

    Are PCI-Express mobos using either chipset planned? Any news on when that may be?
  • Eidolon - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link

  • tfranzese - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link

    From what I remember the orange PCI slot is specifically for communications.
  • adntaylor - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link

    Nice review but... still no tests of the AGP optimisations for the GeForce FX and 6 series cards on the nForce chipset.

    Please can somebody just chuck a card in and see if the GeForce 6800 is boosted by the nForce3 chipset!

    http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q2/nforce3-gefor... - this was the Tech Report's test of the FX 5950, and it delivered some surprising performance boosts. I'm desperate to see if the 6800 reacts similarly!

    I'm interested to know what that orange PCI slot is for too.
  • Brian23 - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link

    What's the deal with the orange PCI connector?
  • nycxandy - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link

    With the 939 CPU's already shipping, when will the 939 motherboards show up in stores?

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