Nvidia nForce4 Ultra Mobo Shootout --- TheThirdMedia Hardware

Features At A Glance

Now that we've completed our showcase of all eight nForce4 Ultra based motherboards, we move on towards the benchmarking and testing section of this shootout. The following table represents a guide to the different specifications and aspects of all the motherboards. This is useful as a quick guide for checking board features that we've covered in detail before.

Motherboard Feature Comparison 1

	ABITFatal1ty AN8	ChaintechVNF4 Ultra	DFILANParty UT Ultra-D	ECSKN1 Extreme
Chipset	NVIDIAnForce4 Ultra MCP	NVIDIAnForce4 Ultra MCP	NVIDIAnForce4 Ultra MCP	NVIDIAnForce4 Ultra MCP
DDRDIMM Slots	4	4	4	4
PCIExpress Slots	1 (x16) 2?x1)	1 (x16) 2?x1)	2?x16) 1?x1) 1 (x4)	1 (x16) 2?x1)
PCISlots	3	3	2	3
OtherSlots	-	-	-	PCIExtreme
ATA-133Port (chipset)	2	2	2	2
SATAII Ports (chipset)	4	4	4	4
ATA-133(others)	-	-	-	1
SATA(others)	-	-	-	2
COMPorts (header)	-	2	(1)	1
ParallelPorts (header)	-	1	-	(1)
USBPorts (header)	6(4)	4(6)	6(4)	6(4)
FireWirePorts (header)	1(1)	-	1(1)	2
GigabitEthernet	1	1	2	1
FastEthernet	-	-	-	1
AudioChipset/Codec	AudioMAX(ALC658)	ALC850	Karajan(ALC850)	ALC655
AudioPorts*	F,R, C, I, M	F,R, A, C, I, M	F,R, A, C, I, M	F, R/I, C/M
S/PDIF	In/Out	-	In/Out	Out
Dimension(mm)	305x 244	305x 220	305x 244	305x 244
FSBRange	200- 410MHz	200- 400MHz	200- 456MHz	200-250
PCIeRange	100- 145MHz	100- 145MHz	100- 145MHz	-
CoreVoltage	1.500V - 1.850V	0.900V - 1.700V	0.800V - 1.550V	+25mV- +375mV
RAMVoltage	2.50V - 2.80V	2.70V - 2.90V	2.50V - 4.00V	2.55V- 3.11V
ChipsetVoltage	1.50V - 1.80V	1.60V - 1.70V	1.50V - 1.80V	-
MultiplierSelection	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Motherboard Feature Comparison 2

	EPoXEP-9NPA+ Ultra	GigabyteGA-K8NXP-9	GigabyteGA-K8N Ultra-9	MSIK8N Neo4 Platinum
Chipset	NVIDIAnForce4 Ultra MCP	NVIDIAnForce4 Ultra MCP	NVIDIAnForce4 Ultra MCP	NVIDIAnForce4 Ultra MCP
DDRDIMM Slots	4	4	4	4
PCIExpress Slots	1 (x16) 3 (x1)	1 (x16) 2 (x1)	1 (x16) 2 (x1)	1 (x16) 1 (x1) 1 (x4)
PCISlots	3	3	3	3
OtherSlots	-	D.P.S.	-	CommunicationSlot
ATA-133Port (chipset)	2	2	2	2
SATAII Ports (chipset)	4	4	4	4
ATA-133(others)	-	-	-	-
SATA(others)	-	4	4	4
COMPorts (header)	1	1	1	1
ParallelPorts (header)	1	1	1	1
USBPorts (header)	6(4)	6(4)	6(4)	6(4)
FireWirePorts (header)	(2)	2(1)	2(1)	1(1)
GigabitEthernet	1	2	2	2
FastEthernet	-	-	-	-
AudioChipset/Codec	ALC850	ALC850	ALC850	ALC850
AudioPorts*	F,R, A, C, I, M	F,R, A, C, I, M	F,R, A, C, I, M	F,R, A, C, I, M
S/PDIF	Out	In/Out	In/Out	Out
Dimension(mm)	305x 244	305x 244	305x 244	305x 244
FSBRange	200- 400MHz	200- 400MHz	200- 455MHz	190-400
PCIeRange	100- 145MHz	100- 150MHz	100- 150MHz	100- 145MHz
CoreVoltage	+0.025V - + 0.250V	0.800V - 1.750V	0.800V - 1.750V	0.825V - 1.550V
RAMVoltage	2.50V - 3.10V	+0.1V - +0.2V	+0.1V - +0.2V	2.50V - 2.85V
ChipsetVoltage	1.50V - 1.80V	+0.1V - +0.3V	+0.1V - +0.3V	1.50V - 1.85V
MultiplierSelection	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

* F = Front left/right, R = Rear left/right, A = Alt. left/right (for 7.1), C = Center / Subwoofer, I = Line In, M = Microphone. Ports separated by a comma (,) indicates individual ports while those separated by a forward slash (/) indicates ports with dual functions. Ports listed include using the bundled optional bracket (if any).

** Ports in parentheses () denote optional ports available on the motherboard as headers only.



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