Introduction

While the s754 platform might seem to lose its appeal with affordable s939 based A64 processors (Winchester 0.09u) and the nForce4 chipset around the corner, the s754 platform is still good for a budget friendly overclocking thrill with just a minor performance loss compared to the newer s939 platform.

More importantly, s754 boards are readily available while shops which sell cheap s939 A64's are still scare. If you're going for the s939 you might as well wait for the nforce4 chipset, offering PCI-X to the a64 platform, but this of course means waiting even longer. As waiting is not everybody's best virtue, we decided to do a roundup of the best overclocking s754 motherboards.

This roundup is generally intended for the overclocking / tweaking community, as we won't spend much time discussing features like sound and LAN and RAID. There are plenty of sites which have discussed the benefits of nForce3: onboard LAN which does not use the saturated PCI-bus, the multi configuration RAID setup mixing PATA and SATA drives and the onboard AC '97 6-channel audio are its main selling features.

This roundup consists of the DFI UT NF3 250GB, which has shown some impressive (overclocking) performance in our local forum, the Abit K8V Pro, probably the K8T800 chipset at his best, the Asus K8N-E, offering a wide range of features and high performance, and the MSI K8N platinum, a popular all-rounder.

Enough chitchatting, let's get on with the roundup


Abit K8V Pro
Sample supplier: Bytes@Work

The Abit K8V Pro is the sole K8T800 based motherboard in this roundup. It might not offer as many features as the NVIDIA counterpart, the NF3 250Gb, it's still an interesting chipset for the budget minded users, looking for a stable, no nonsense A64 platform. Another valid reason to consider a K8T800 based motherboard is reliability. NVIDIA's NF2 chipset wasn't the most robust chipset, especially when used for overclocking.

In contrary to the NVIDIA NF3 chipset, the Via A64 platform consists of two separate chipsets: the K8T800 Northbridge, and the VT8237 Southbridge.

The Southbridge is fairly common; it is used in many modern VIA based motherboards, including Intel board. It insures either 6 (AC97 ) or 8 channel (PCI interface) audio, SATA-raid, PATA 133, USB 2.0 controllers, PCI controller and 10/100 or 10/100/1000 Mbit Lan (PCI interface).

So, if the Southbridge handles audio, storage and peripherals, what does the Northbridge do? Usually it's intended for the most bandwidth hungry things, like memory and video, but as the A64 processor has its own memory controller, the K8T800Pro main task is to control the AGP 4/8x slot.

box and peripherals :




Motherboard and chipset cooler :




MSI K8N Platinum
Sample supplier: In house

If you want to be the first owning a motherboard featuring the latest chipset, chances are high you're going to get an MSI. Micro Star International doesn't try to lure their costumers with the lowest price, nor delivering the most features rich or tweak-able motherboard, instead do they try to deliver the latest technology as quick as possible. And their tactic works.

The MSI K8N was the first NF3 250Gb motherboard available on the market. While other motherboards might be more attractive depending on your needs, this motherboard is available virtually everywhere, offering a nice set of features, some overclockability (although it varies a lot from sample to sample) at a decent price, making it a very popular motherboard.


box and peripherals :


2 images above from NeoSeeker


Motherboard and chipset cooler :




Asus K8N-E Deluxe
Sample supplier: Asus Europe

Asus is one of the more prestigious brands, with a large group of loyal followers. The price might be a bit higher, but for your money get a very feature rich, robust - and often overclockable - motherboard. The overclocking community is not their primary market, which is why their bios and tools are set for user friendliness, not overclocking. Generally their motherboards are tweaked right out of the box, which is great for people wanting the most out of their computer, but don't want to mess around with the settings. Mostly this doesn't leave much headroom for overclocking though.

features :

The Asus is equipped with instant music, which makes it possible to play music cd's from your optical drive without turning on your computer. With use of the F1-F4 buttons you can instruct your motherboard to start/stop/prev/next the audio cd in your optical drive and send it to the onboard soundcard. Very handy for people who don't have hifi-system and don't want to turn their (noisy) computer on for playing an audio cd. It might not be useful for everyone; but we applaud Asus for adding a creative feature.

box and peripherals :




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DFI LanParty UT NF3 250GB
Sample supplier: Bytes@Work

It took a long time but it's finally here. DFI (Design For Innovation) surprised the overclocking community by building one of the best overclocking NF2 motherboards, pushing Abit's NF7-S from the throne. Overclocking the NF3 chipset has proven to be easier, but no NF3 250Gb motherboard has proven to be a definite winner. The DFI NF3 250Gb continues this trend and delivers excellent overclockability once more, while keeping this motherboard interesting feature and price wise too. The big drawback is the time it took DFI to deliver this motherboard to the masses. As MSI, and many other brands, had their NF3 250Gb based motherboard ready for months, few people took the time to wait for DFI. Or if they did wait this long, they might as well wait a little longer and jump as well on the nForce4 s939 train. Too little too late, or not?

features :

The DFI might not have any 'useful' features like the Asus K8N-E, it does have everything to please the overclocking and tweaking community. First, their bios is very user friendly. Even if you have never used a DFI board before, it won't take more than a few seconds to find the setting you want. The amount of variables to tweak, especially memory-wise, is extraordinary, allowing you to use your motherboard to its full potential.

Eye-candy might not make your motherboard faster, but its sure is great to show off a pitch-black, with yellow fluorescent slots motherboard running at 300FSB 1:1 at the next Lan Party!


box and peripherals :




Motherboard and chipset cooler :




Let's do a quick feature comparison ->