A64 X2 Motherboard Advice

auto-ignition-unit · Post by **auto-ignition-unit** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 12:33 am

I am in the process of collecting parts for a new system and would like some advice on what motherboard to get for a dual core Athlon 64 FX.

At this stage I am seriously considering getting a Foxconn NF4K8AC-8EKRS which is an NVidia nForce4 board.

I know the Northbridge has a fan on it but I figured I could replace the stock heatsink and fan with a bigger passive heatsink.

There seems to be plenty of room around the CPU socket so I can fit my XP-120.

darthan · Post by **darthan** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 2:24 am

You might also want to seriously look at the Asus and Abit heatpiped motherboards. With an XP-120 used with a fan they provide an excellent motherboard experience according to everyone I've heard from. The problem with a passive heatsink is that the NF4 chip runs real hot for a bridge/chipset chip and the usual small passive heatsinks generally don't cool it adequately. I know I have a 120mm fan pointed in the direction of my NF4 + "passive" cooler to make sure it stays cool. And of course a big passive heatsink blocks the PCI-E slot. Actually, looking at that Foxconn any passive heatsink will block the PCI-E slot.

Sheik Rattle Enroll · Post by **Sheik Rattle Enroll** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 6:34 am

I'm pretty happy with my Asus A8N-SLI Premium. The T-Force boards (like the Asus A8N-VM CSM) also tyically are passively cooled.

auto-ignition-unit · Post by **auto-ignition-unit** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 11:33 pm

Actually, I had been steering clear of the Asus SLI board because I don't particularly want to use SLI. As far as the heat-pipe solution, I had been worried about running into steric problems. I am planning on using an Antec 3700 BQE, 120 mm rear case fan and a Thermalright XP-120 with 120mm fan. Can anyone tell me if all this will fit or whether the heat exchanger will get in the way?

I had a look at the A8N-VM CSM. I'm not especially attached to the nForce4 chipset but I would like a full sized board. The A8V-Deluxe looks good, but AusPCMarket say it does not support X2 Dual Core chips. The Asus site says that it does. Is anyone running an X2 on a A8V-Deluxe? Are there any other good arguments for or against this board?

plympton · Post by **plympton** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 9:56 am

I know it's old by today's standards, but I'm really happy with my Asus A8V Deluxe (not the A8V-E). It uses AGP, which is fine since I had an old AGP card laying around, has 4 DIMM slots, Gigabit-E onboard, good audio, and a passive heatsink on the NB - NForce boards seem to run hotter and need fans (small ones that always seem to fail!).

I only have a single-core in it now, but am planning on getting a Dual-Core Opteron or Athlon soon.

-Dan