Introduction

The MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum

The Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939

With Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 FX processors outperforming equivalent processors from Intel, enthusiasts have been flocking to AMD’s 64-bit chips ever since they were introduced a year ago. At first AMD’s 754-pin socket was the most predominant Athlon 64 interface, but with AMD transitioning to Socket 939, motherboards that utilize this new socket have become increasingly popular. AMD’s recent introduction of cheaper 939-pin chips with model ratings of 3000+, and 3200+ will likely only increase Socket 939’s popularity.

Like other 939-pin processors, these chips feature a 128-bit (or dual-channel as AMD likes to call it) memory controller with 512KB of L2 cache and a 1GHz (2.0GHz effective) HyperTransport interface.

The 939-pin Athlon 64 3000+ is clocked at 1.8GHz, 200MHz slower than the 754-pin version, while the 939-pin Athlon 64 3200+ runs at 2.0GHz. Both chips officially sell for under $200, making them relatively inexpensive upgrade options.

Gigabyte board is loaded with components

Untraditional layout on the MSI motherboard

On the chipset front, VIA’s K8T800 Pro has gotten off to a buggy start. Early motherboards based on this chipset didn’t have a functional AGP/PCI lock, which is crucial for successful overclocking. On the other hand, NVIDIA’s nForce3 chipsets have had an AGP/PCI lock for some time; NVIDIA’s latest nForce3 Ultra is no exception. In addition, nForce3 Ultra supports additional features such as a true native Gigabit Ethernet solution with built-in Firewall support for added security, and NVIDIA’s more flexible IDE implementation, which includes cross-controller and spare drive support. Cross-controller support allows you to build a RAID array consisting of both parallel ATA and Serial ATA hard drives, while spare drive adds added backup capability in the case of RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 arrays.

These added features are important, as the Athlon 64’s integrated memory controller has largely removed one critical equation consumers have considered in the past when choosing a system chipset: performance. Thanks largely to its integrated dual-channel memory controller, nForce2 was able to consistently outperform all other Athlon XP chipsets. With Athlon 64, the performance delta between VIA and NVIDIA’s offerings has narrowed, features, stability/compatibility, and price have become more important.

A closer look at the top of the board

And now the top of the Gigabyte board

Therefore, we’ve decided to take two of the top nForce3 Ultra motherboards, MSI’s K8N Neo2 Platinum Edition, and Gigabyte’s GA-K8NSNXP-939 and pitch them against one another. Both of these motherboards are loaded with features, including dual LAN and 8-channel audio, making them popular upgrade choices among enthusiasts looking for the best. We’ll do our best to compare and contrast the differences between the two in this shootout article.