# socket am2 chipsets?



## 20machinm (Aug 24, 2007)

I'm not so familiar with the chipsets available on AM2 mobos - can I get a summary of what's around, how they perform etc.

Cheers.


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## mitsirfishi (Aug 24, 2007)

well you have the nforce 4 which is poor, the nforce 590sli crosshair is a great board which is a good chipset overclocks well stable to, nforce 570sli just a downgrade of the 590, 550mcp biostar more of a budgiters buy but still ok for overclocking, ati's crossfire xpress 3200 good solid boards cant knock them msi k9a platinum or asus m2r32-mvp

but it all depends on what perpose you want the board for ? wheather its hard overclocking or crossfire or sli


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## Wile E (Aug 24, 2007)

mitsirfishi said:


> well you have the nforce 4 which is poor, the nforce 590sli crosshair is a great board which is a good chipset overclocks well stable to, nforce 570sli just a downgrade of the 590, 550mcp biostar more of a budgiters buy but still ok for overclocking, ati's crossfire xpress 3200 good solid boards cant knock them msi k9a platinum or asus m2r32-mvp
> 
> but it all depends on what perpose you want the board for ? wheather its hard overclocking or crossfire or sli


I disagree that nForce4 boards are poor. My DFI Infinity UltraII M2 does 342HT, and allowed me to get my 4000+ Brisbane to 3GHz, my 6000+ to 3.5GHz, and my ram to 1200MHz.


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## Sovereign (Aug 24, 2007)

Wile E said:


> I disagree that nForce4 boards are poor. My DFI Infinity UltraII M2 does 342HT, and allowed me to get my 4000+ Brisbane to 3GHz, my 6000+ to 3.5GHz, and my ram to 1200MHz.



Hey Wile! Are the Geforce 6100/6150 NB + nForce 410/430 SB chipset motherboards a variant of the nForce 4 chipset or something completely different?


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## mitsirfishi (Aug 24, 2007)

i said nforce 4 is poor


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## hat (Aug 24, 2007)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136014
This is a great board.


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## Wile E (Aug 25, 2007)

mitsirfishi said:


> i said nforce 4 is poor


That's what my DFI is.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136015

It is not poor, some manufacturers have a poor implementation, but the chipset itself is fine.


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## p_o_s_pc (Aug 25, 2007)

I am using a n-force/Geforce 430/6100 and it works great i got my Sempron 3200+ to 3.2ghz and my x2 4600+ to 2.8ghz.Using onboard didn't limit my overclock by much like it does with some.


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## p_o_s_pc (Aug 25, 2007)

This is the board i am using http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128034
it kicks some ass for the price i paid more for it when i bought it.Don't let the low price turn you away from it.So far it has been solid the only thing that is problem is the chip-set gets hot you will want to have alot of air flow around the chip-set.


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## mitsirfishi (Aug 25, 2007)

the 939 nforce 4 boards where good but when they got them running on the am2 chipset they arnt no where near as good as the nforce 590 or the x3200 580x


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## Wile E (Aug 25, 2007)

mitsirfishi said:


> the 939 nforce 4 boards where good but when they got them running on the am2 chipset they arnt no where near as good as the nforce 590 or the x3200 580x


I agree that the 590 is better in most cases. (Depending on the board's manufacturer of course). But this nForce4 board smokes my old 580X board. That's why I bought it.

You're assessment of the nForce4 chipset on AM2 is mistaken.


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## xnox202 (Aug 25, 2007)

+ How good does the 580x perform? I never had a bold or direct user opinion on those?


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## Wile E (Aug 25, 2007)

xnox202 said:


> + How good does the 580x perform? I never had a bold or direct user opinion on those?


Well, mine didn't overclock well at all. It was great for running at stock or mild overclocking. I can't blame the overclocking purely on the chipset, tho. It was an ECS board. lol. The ASUS 580X board generally does better, but I still haven't personally seen one that will do 342HT stable like my DFI board, let alone the fact that my nForce4 board was $60 cheaper at the time I bought it.

580X is still the only way to have a true dual 16x Crossfire setup, tho. If Crossfire is a high priority, it's the only way to go.


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## p_o_s_pc (Aug 25, 2007)

My n-force 4 board i got 402mhz bus speed and had a 3x in the HT that gives a ht of 1206 without a voltage bump.I am not saying it is the best but if you need something cheap than i would say it would be a good one to get.I would have got a SLI if i had the money for the board at the time.If you do go crossfire or sli get one with a x16 on both pci-e x16 that would get the most out of your cards.So i am say about the same thing as wile e said. Sorry to repeat that i didn't read the post.


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## HAL7000 (Aug 25, 2007)

Here check this link, it will explain alot.
http://www.digital-daily.com/motherboard/amd_socket_am2_roundup/


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## Wile E (Aug 25, 2007)

HAL7000 said:


> Here check this link, it will explain alot.
> http://www.digital-daily.com/motherboard/amd_socket_am2_roundup/


No nForce4 in that round up. I wonder why?


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## HAL7000 (Aug 25, 2007)

maybe he didn't have one?

 20machinm here is another link to compare chipsets,
http://www.nvidia.com/page/nforce5_specs_amd.html


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## cdawall (Aug 25, 2007)

mitsirfishi said:


> well you have the nforce 4 which is poor, the nforce 590sli crosshair is a great board which is a good chipset overclocks well stable to, nforce 570sli just a downgrade of the 590, 550mcp biostar more of a budgiters buy but still ok for overclocking, ati's crossfire xpress 3200 good solid boards cant knock them msi k9a platinum or asus m2r32-mvp
> 
> but it all depends on what perpose you want the board for ? wheather its hard overclocking or crossfire or sli



this is called trolling 

nforce4 works great on a budget as does 550 and the 570/590 oc about the same overall


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## mitsirfishi (Aug 25, 2007)

in that review they use one of the worst if not the worst ati chipset board made by ecs which arent anything to shout about back in the day the nforce 4ultra/sli kicked the living crap out of ati's attempt at the 480 chipset which didnt support usb 2 *shame on them* but the 580x is alot better built and in my opinion its near a good as most nforce 570/590 certainly in the department of overclocking

my 580x reachs 355fsb


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## HAL7000 (Aug 26, 2007)

mitsirfishi said:


> in that review they use one of the worst if not the worst ati chipset board made by ecs which arent anything to shout about back in the day the nforce 4ultra/sli kicked the living crap out of ati's attempt at the 480 chipset which didnt support usb 2 *shame on them* but the 580x is alot better built and in my opinion its near a good as most nforce 570/590 certainly in the department of overclocking
> 
> my 580x reachs 355fsb



I never have had a problem with my ECS KA3 MVP Extreme. it has actually served me well. I am keeping it alive until the AMD 790 is released. I will again buy from ECS, if they keep going forward with their quality. I used to hate them way back when.... they were crappy oem boards. But this one has been very stable in a crossfire setup, but now I use it as a workstation. My next upgrade is the next line of AMD crap if they EVER release it outside of the dam paper trail....

I always was a nvida fanboy until this board. Now I allow them all to flow through my veins. I have yet to return to a intel setup....but I see it coming. If AMD makes me wait to much longer......


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## p_o_s_pc (Aug 26, 2007)

I am still standing by my n-force 430/6100 it hit FSB of 402 without voltage bump and on stock cooling.Also that was stable in Super PI 2m 4m 1m and 30min of Prime 95,3dmark 05 3dmark 06, Aqua mark 3 ,3dmark 01

Sadly i don't have the SS of that and i sold the sempron my x2 can't get that high.


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## Wile E (Aug 26, 2007)

HAL7000 said:


> I never have had a problem with my ECS KA3 MVP Extreme. it has actually served me well. I am keeping it alive until the AMD 790 is released. I will again buy from ECS, if they keep going forward with their quality. I used to hate them way back when.... they were crappy oem boards. But this one has been very stable in a crossfire setup, but now I use it as a workstation. My next upgrade is the next line of AMD crap if they EVER release it outside of the dam paper trail....
> 
> I always was a nvida fanboy until this board. Now I allow them all to flow through my veins. I have yet to return to a intel setup....but I see it coming. If AMD makes me wait to much longer......


I'm exactly the opposite. I hated my ECS KA3 MVP. Only one BIOS even supported CAS and Command Rate adjustment for ram. That was the 9/9/06 biom ver 1.0m. Up until Feb, when I ditched the board, they still weren't added. Absolutely inexcusable on an enthusiast targeted board. To compound matters, it would only allow a .1V boost in vCore, only went up to 2.15v vDIMM, and was a terrible clocker. I could only manage 270HT stable. The JMicron controller was also a piece of junk.

If you don't overclock, and don't use the jMicron, it's a rock stable board. But, as it's marketed as an enthusiast/overclocker's board, that's just not good enough.

@fishi - Is that 355 *stable*? Because I can run my DFI at 342, all day long, and it only cost me $70.


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## HAL7000 (Aug 26, 2007)

Wile E said:


> I'm exactly the opposite. I hated my ECS KA3 MVP. Only one BIOS even supported CAS and Command Rate adjustment for ram. That was the 9/9/06 biom ver 1.0m. Up until Feb, when I ditched the board, they still weren't added. Absolutely inexcusable on an enthusiast targeted board. To compound matters, it would only allow a .1V boost in vCore, only went up to 2.15v vDIMM, and was a terrible clocker. I could only manage 270HT stable. The JMicron controller was also a piece of junk.
> 
> If you don't overclock, and don't use the jMicron, it's a rock stable board. But, as it's marketed as an enthusiast/overclocker's board, that's just not good enough.
> 
> @fishi - Is that 355 *stable*? Because I can run my DFI at 342, all day long, and it only cost me $70.



I don't overclock it and just drop in whatever and go,,,I was going to drop in the 6400 when released but am reconsidering, using it now for a work station, well it doesn't see many games anymore. 

I was looking into the  MSI P35 Neo2-FR LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard and the E6850 for my next gaming rig, not sure yet. I am still researching. 
*Sorry about your mishap concerning your fry out.*

I am getting tired of waiting for amd, My wife warned me that whatever I choose I have to live with it for at least a year.


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## Wile E (Aug 26, 2007)

Thaxks for your kind words, HAL.


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## KennyT772 (Aug 26, 2007)

What I find funny is any amd chipset can be used on 939 or am2. The only difference is the bios and the physical socket. Some people have the notion that "new is always better".


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## mitsirfishi (Aug 26, 2007)

HAL7000 said:


> I don't overclock it and just drop in whatever and go,,,I was going to drop in the 6400 when released but am reconsidering, using it now for a work station, well it doesn't see many games anymore.
> 
> I was looking into the  MSI P35 Neo2-FR LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard and the E6850 for my next gaming rig, not sure yet. I am still researching.
> *Sorry about your mishap concerning your fry out.*
> ...



yes my asus board sit happy at 355 and will run it all day long not crashed yet and ive had the board a couple of months now so i know the board tops out at 365 and will blue screen  as far as i know im safe  and i only paid $70 (35pounds) for my board as it was on offer which seemed abit mad but it seems to be the best and most stable 580x on am2 regarding value for money to what you can achive out of it


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## Wile E (Aug 26, 2007)

mitsirfishi said:


> yes my asus board sit happy at 355 and will run it all day long not crashed yet and ive had the board a couple of months now so i know the board tops out at 365 and will blue screen  as far as i know im safe  and i only paid $70 (35pounds) for my board as it was on offer which seemed abit mad but it seems to be the best and most stable 580x on am2 regarding value for money to what you can achive out of it


If I don't get a Core 2 setup up and running, this may be what I consider getting.

How high does vCore and vDimm go?


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## mitsirfishi (Aug 26, 2007)

2.45v on memory and it does 1.565v on cpu but it has a over boast option which when i enable  takes the cpu vcore from 1.48 to 1.65 so gives a it big boost so would be able to nuts on voltages northbridge goes up to 1.5v

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=6609 review

most reviews you will find they say it reachs 300-320fsb but i think its the latest bios which lets it go further


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## Wile E (Aug 26, 2007)

mitsirfishi said:


> 2.45v on memory and it does 1.565v on cpu but it has a over boast option which when i enable  takes the cpu vcore from 1.48 to 1.65 so gives a it big boost so would be able to nuts on voltages northbridge goes up to 1.5v
> 
> http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=6609 review
> 
> most reviews you will find they say it reachs 300-320fsb but i think its the latest bios which lets it go further


Thanks for the info. 

Like I said, if I can't salvage some sort of Core2 setup from my TEC debacle, I think this is the board I'll go for for my 6000+.


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## p_o_s_pc (Aug 26, 2007)

are you buying a C2D board to test the CPU?


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## Wile E (Aug 26, 2007)

p_o_s_pc said:


> are you buying a C2D board to test the CPU?


I haven't come to a final decision. It mostly depends on whether or not my 2900 is ok. If it is, I'll run the 6000+ on the DFI for a while, then probably sell them to buy a Core 2 board. Preferably a P35 or X38 board.

I'm also gonna retest the 680i, just for the hell of it. lol.


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## p_o_s_pc (Aug 26, 2007)

somehow i think that 680i board is dead but why not.


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## Wile E (Aug 26, 2007)

p_o_s_pc said:


> somehow i think that 680i board is dead but why not.


Yeah, me too, but it'll be a fun experiment.


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## mitsirfishi (Aug 26, 2007)

yup i think your 680i has set sail and sunk like the titanic ;D


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## Wile E (Aug 26, 2007)

mitsirfishi said:


> yup i think your 680i has set sail and sunk like the titanic ;D


I think the Titanic may have even gone down a little more elegantly.


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## 20machinm (Aug 26, 2007)

what about the amd 69G and SB600? what are they like?


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## bassmasta (Aug 26, 2007)

m2r 32 mvp is awesome.  while it does not like to go above 360 fsb, i can still hit 3.36 ghz w/ my modified tuniq tower (now 3 120mm fans and the stock cooler fan), and my kingston 667 value memory could hit 850 stable.  the only downside is that if you try to set the memory divider to 200, it will not post.  so, i run a 1/8 divider.


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## MrW (Aug 26, 2007)

This is a nforce-4 board. It's an extremely good overclocker, got my 2.0ghz opteron to 3.3ghz.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136015


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## mitsirfishi (Aug 27, 2007)

bassmasta said:


> m2r 32 mvp is awesome.  while it does not like to go above 360 fsb, i can still hit 3.36 ghz w/ my modified tuniq tower (now 3 120mm fans and the stock cooler fan), and my kingston 667 value memory could hit 850 stable.  the only downside is that if you try to set the memory divider to 200, it will not post.  so, i run a 1/8 divider.



you tried slackening your timmings right off to get higher on your ram or is that it  also another person who found the max out the board i think its just general where the chipset cant go further but that is good enough to keep on par with the crosshair and the msi xfire and sapphires attempt to 

that dfi board does look cheap and nasty the infinity range is there cheapo range the asus works better because its a solid overclocker but also very stable


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## Wile E (Aug 27, 2007)

MrW said:


> This is a nforce-4 board. It's an extremely good overclocker, got my 2.0ghz opteron to 3.3ghz.
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136015


lol. That's the board I have my 6000+ in.


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## {Sniping}Waste (Aug 27, 2007)

I would go with this one a  GIGABYTE GA-MA69G-S3H that uses a AMD 690G.  Newegg has it for $89 and Is one of the best OCing mother boards I have used.  I have 2 of them now and one has a max stable in windows and CPU test of 385HTT and the other is stable in windows with CPU test at 420HTT.  One thing you will need to do is get a 40mm fan or put a better north bridge cooler on it because the stock one sucks but that cheap and easy to fix.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128052

For the disbelievers heres this.






The voltage options are great with up to 2.4V for memory and over 1.7v for the CPU with signal strength setting too.


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## Solaris17 (Aug 27, 2007)

Wile E said:


> I disagree that nForce4 boards are poor. My DFI Infinity UltraII M2 does 342HT, and allowed me to get my 4000+ Brisbane to 3GHz, my 6000+ to 3.5GHz, and my ram to 1200MHz.




have the same board.......id have to agree this thing owns face. 1 stick of ram (poor ram) shell bring my brisbane to like 3.2....but look in my cpu-z link.


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## mitsirfishi (Aug 27, 2007)

maybe our friend here wants crossfire


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## p_o_s_pc (Aug 27, 2007)

maybe he should reply to the thread so we will know


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