Nvidia nForce3 Ultra Motherboard Roundup --- TheThirdMedia Hardware

Gigabyte GA-K8NS-939 (The Good)

Gigabyte's GA-K8NS-939 was very similar to the EPoX EP-9NDA3J offering we just discussed in the sense that the board was also budget oriented. With the same manufacturing concept as the EPoX board, the GA-K8NS-939 also sported a stripped down PCB design from its own high-end counterparts.

The Gigabyte GA-K8NS-939 also came with a fairly simple bundle consisting of the following:-

2 x SATA data cables

1 x SATA power converter cable (dual plugs)

1 x 80-conductor Ultra ATA data cable

1 x Floppy drive data cable

USB 2.0 (2 ports) bracket

I/O shield

Driver CD

Hardware installation guide

Motherboard user's manual

Nvidia nForce3 Ultra Motherboard Roundup

The Gigabyte GA-K8NS-939 motherboard.

Just like the EPoX EP-9NDA3J, Gigabyte uses a compatible board layout for most of their nForce3 Ultra motherboard models. Just mix and match components for additional features.

Unlike the EPoX EP-9NDA3J however, the GA-K8NS-939 had a much more acceptable board layout. Gigabyte managed to include all primary connectors in the general preferred location. The two SATA connectors were placed above the AGP slot instead of below, thus avoiding the problems inherent to the EPoX design. If you are wondering why the SATA connectors are in the middle of the board in the first place, it apparently seems that this was the reference NVIDIA design. All the three boards featured in this roundup display the same positioning.

Although still considered wierd positioning, the SATA connectors are above the AGP slot and are not blocked.

If space permits, this is a pretty decent connector placement.

Gold seems to be a popular color for MCP coolers among the boards in our roundup. With a diagonal positioning, the cooler here doesn't hinder any other installed device.

The GA-K8NS-939 had support for one Gigabit Ethernet port. However, Gigabyte eschewed NVIDIA's embedded MAC in favor of Marvell's Yukon 88E8001 host controller. The Yukon is a single chip controller that handles both MAC and PHY functions. While the board can still boast Gigabit Ethernet using either solution, we do feel that it was a waste that the nForce3 Ultra's built-in MAC wasn't put to use.

The GA-K8NS-939 uses a single chip Marvell Yukon host controller instead of the nForce3 Ultra's built in MAC for Gigabit LAN support.

Within the BIOS, the following options can be found to aid overclocking:-

FSB Settings: 200MHz to 455MHz

AGP Frequency: 66MHz to 100MHz

RAM Frequency: DDR200, DDR266, DDR333, DDR400

CPU Voltage Settings: 0.800V to 1.550V (in 0.025V steps), 1.550V to 1.700V (in 0.05V steps)

Memory Voltage Settings: +0.1V, +0.2V

AGP Voltage Settings: +0.1V, +0.2V, +0.3V

HT Link Voltage Settings: +0.1V, +0.2V, +0.3V

Multiplier Selection: Yes (unlocked CPUs only)

A nice touch added to the BIOS POST message was the overclocking identifier. During POST, overclocked speeds and frequencies would be announced. Though this was just a cosmetic function, we believe it is useful information at a glance not just to display MHz figures, but to act as a constant reminder that the system is running beyond specifications. Many users who overclock tend to keep the settings as their personal defaults and overlook it when problems arise. The feature should help raise an obvious red flag.

Additional USB headers are placed at the bottom front of the board. This should facilitate front panel connectors and we also checked that the provided brackets have enough length.

Gigabyte provides extra USB ports for their board, bringing the maximum ports supported out of the box to six.

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