Socket 939 Motherboard Roundup: ABIT, MSI, Gigabyte
Introduction & Chipsets
With the release of each new processor platform comes the inevitable wait for "enthusiast-class" motherboards to support them. We've seen the same scenario play out time and again. When Intel released its Socket 478 Pentium 4 processors, for example, it was a few months before tricked-out motherboards, with a full complement of overclocking tools, made it into the channel. The same scenario will play out for Intel's Socket T, as it has already for AMD's Socket 939 platform. Sure, some decent motherboards hit the streets immediately, but they almost always have some kinks that need to be worked out, whether it be in the form of a BIOS update, a revision to the chipset, or even a complete revision of the board itself. Which brings us to where we are today...
It has been about three months since AMD initially released its Socket 939 Athlon 64 processors. To cover the launch, AMD supplied an early VIA K8T800 Pro-based motherboard from MSI. It worked well, but this prerelease motherboard lacked a few features, namely an AGP/PCI lock and multiplier adjustments, and it wasn't a great overclocker. Then a few weeks later, we looked at another K8T800 Pro-based motherboard, the ASUS A8V Deluxe. It turned out to be a very nice product with a slew of features, but it too has already undergone a revision to add support for an AGP/PCI lock. And now that some time has passed, a few more full-featured Socket 939 motherboards are available that all seem to have gotten it right. We're going to take a look at four of them today in this roundup: MSI's K8N Neo2 Platinum and K8T Neo2-FIR, Gigabyte's K8NSNXP-939, and ABIT's AV8. Two of them are powered by VIA' K8T800 Pro chipset; the other two by NVIDIA's nForce 3 Ultra.
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| Key Features •_Supports full range of AMD Athlon 64 / Athlon 64 FX /Opteron processors •_Hyper8 Technology enables high performance •_HyperTransport bus link between processor and chipset •_Asynchronous bus architecture •_Support for AGP 8X/4X •_Ultra V-Link 1066 MBps high bandwidth north/southbridge interconnect •_Support for VIA Vinyl 6-channel & Vinyl Gold 8-channel Audio •_Support for up to eight USB 2.0/USB 1.1 ports, UHCI compliant |
•_Serial ATA support for up to four devices •_Integrated V-RAID with RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, and JBOD (SATA) support •_Parallel ATA133/100/66 support for up to four device •_Support for VIA Velocity Gigabit Ethernet companion controller & Integrated 10/100 Fast Ethernet •_Integrated MC'97 Modem •_Advanced power management capabilities including ACPI / On Now •_578-pin BGA northbridge •_539-pin BGA VT8237 southbridge |
The VIA K8T800 Pro chipset is essentially an updated version of the very popular K8T800 with a few added features ultimately meant to increase performance and overclockability. The K8T800 Pro supports a faster bridge link between the north and southbridge chips (1066MBps versus 533MBps), supports a faster maximum HyperTransport link between the CPU and northbrige (up to 1GHz [2.0GHz DDR]), and has the ability to run the AGP and PCI buses asynchronously. The AGP/PCI lock makes overclocking much easier because all of the other components in the system can be run within specifications, while the bus speed is increased. This is especially useful with AMD's latest Athlon 64 processors with the "Cool 'n Quiet" feature enabled because lower multipliers can be used in conjunction with a much higher bus speed for peak performance. Getting the AGP/PCI lock functioning properly with this chipset has taken a bit of work, however, which is why ASUS has updated its A8V and most other K8T800 Pro-based motherboards have already gone through multiple BIOS revisions. To read more about VIA's K8T800 Pro, check out this page on the company's Web site.
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| Networking •_NVIDIA IEEE 802.3 Media Access Control (MAC) •_Supports 10/100/1000Base-T •_Ethernet/Fast Ethernet/Gigabit Ethernet •_Supports HomePNA 2.0 PHYs •_Advanced Communication Riser (ACR) and Communications and Networking Riser (CNR) interface support •_High-performance networking features •_TCP segmentation offloads •_Jumbo frames •_Checksum offloads •_NVIDIA StreamThru technology •_Isochronous controller paired with •_HyperTransport results in fastest networking performance Security •_NVIDIA Firewall technology •_Industry's only native firewall solution •_Unmatched performance and protection •_Advanced management features •_Remote access, configuration, monitoring •_Command line interface (CLI) •_WMI scripts Storage •_RAID 0 disk striping support for highest system and application performance •_RAID 1 disk mirroring support for fault tolerance •_RAID 0 +1 disk striping and mirroring support for highest performance with fault tolerance •_Support for both SATA and ATA-133 disk controller standards •_Dual independent SATA controllers •_Supports up to four SATA disk drives simultaneously •_Integrated SATA PHY with support for two drives •_Digital SATA interface for external PHY with support for two drives •_Fast Ultra ATA-133 disk driver controllers •_Each interface supports two devices, for support for up to six devices •_Supports UltraDMA modes 6-0 (UltraDMA 33/66/100/133) •_Industry-standard PCI bus master IDE register set •_Separate independent IDE connections for 5V-tolerant primary and secondary interfaces Mobility •_Power management •_Full support for AMD PowerNow! technology •_ACPI 2.0 compliant •_Support for ACPI C3 state •_Low power 0.15-micron process •_Maximizing real estate efficiency enabling small form factor designs •_Single chip solution •_Lower latency for higher performance |
Connectivity •_AGP interface •_Supports AGP3.0 - 0.8 V signaling for 8× and 4× with Fast Writes data transfers •_Supports AGP2.0 - 1.5 V signaling for 4×, 2×, and 1× modes with 4× and 2× Fast Writes data transfers •_Supports graphics address remapping table (GART) features •_The AGP3.0 8× 533 MT/s (million transfers per second) interface provides the user with the ability to upgrade the external graphics card, thus avoiding obsolescence. An external AGP add-in card achieves higher performance than it would on existing platforms. •_AGP interface is backward compatible with the AGP2.0 specification. •_USB 2.0 •_Single USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller Interface (EHCI) / Dual USB 1.1 Open Host Controller Interface (OHCI) •_Support for up to eight ports •_Supports transfer rates at high speed (480Mbps), full speed (12Mbps), and low speed (1.2Mbps) •_Dynamically configures slower devices for best utilization of bandwidth •_Allows USB concurrency •_PCI interface •_Integrates a fast PCI-to-PCI bridge running at 33MHz. It includes an arbiter that supports six external master PCI slots. Features of the PCI interface include: _PCI 2.3-compliant, 5 V tolerant _Supports six external PCI slots at 33 MHz _Supports six bus master arbitration _PCI master and slave interfaces _Supports both master-initiated and slave-initiated terminations _Bidirectional write posting support for concurrency _Flexible routing of all four PCI interrupts _Supports read ahead: memory read line (MRL) and memory read multiple (MRM) Performance •_HyperTransport technology •_High throughput (8.0GBps) •_Low voltage •_Differential Audio •_AC '97 2.1 compliant interface •_7.1 surround sound audio •_Supports 2, 4, 6, or 8-channel audio •_Dual AC-Link – supports up to two codecs •_16-bit or 20-bit stereo output and 16-bit input streams •_Supports input, output, and general purpose input/output (GPIO) •_channels for host-based modems •_Separate independent functions for audio and modem •_Supports ACR and CNR interface •_S/PDIF output (stereo or AC-3 output) |
Although the nForce 3's list of specifications above seems much more complete than VIA's (thank NVIDIA's Web site for this, or VIA's, depending on how you look at it!), the K8T800 Pro and nForce 3 are actually quite evenly matched in terms of features. The nForce 3 Ultra chispet, which powers the Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939 and MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum, is the latest revision of the nForce 3. It supports a 1.0GHz (2.0GHz DDR) HyperTransport link, NVIDIA RAID, NVIDIA Firewall technology, and a native Gigabit Ethernet, which provided better bandwidth than PCI-based solutions. The nForce 3 also sports NVIDIA's isynchronous StreamThru data transport system, among a host of other features. For a much more complete list of other features, along with explanations of each, see here.
