Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 NVIDIA ‘nForce4-4X’ Motherboard Review

Today at GamePC, we’re looking at Gigabyte’s GA-K8NF-9 motherboard, which is the first fairly low cost nVidia nForce4 board we’ve seen hit the market. This new Gigabyte board is not based on the expensive nForce4 SLI chipset; rather, it’s based on a lower cost variant which Gigabyte dubs the "nForce4-4X". With the use of a lower cost chipset, along with not having to implement a second PCIe x16 slot and a bridge chip for SLI mode, Gigabyte is able to cut roughly $50 off the price of the board, while still retaining a very impressive feature set and terrific overall performance.

…While we still would prefer nVidia’s nForce4 Ultra chipset for a desktop nForce4 platform (SATA-II/300 support and full nVidia validation at 5x HyperTransport frequencies), the nForce4-4x is a nice solution until these boards hit the market. It appears if that nVidia is shifting the majority of their nForce4 production to nForce4 SLI chips to satisfy demand, as SLI boards are readily available while nForce4 and nForce4 Ultra boards are nearly impossible to find. It will be interesting to see if the nForce4-4x will continue to be produced even when standard nForce4 chips become readily available. I have my doubts that it will, but for the time being, I have no qualms recommending this board. It’s solid, performs great, and doesn’t bog you down with excessive features. Simple, efficient, and low cost. Sounds good to us

nForce4 Sans SLI : Gigabyte’s GA-K8NF-9 nVidia nForce4-4X
GamePC