NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra Shootout - ABIT Chaintech DFI ECS EPoX Gigabyte MSI

HardwareZone - It has come to the time to decide the overall winner of our nForce4 Ultra motherboard shootout. Such a board must have a balance between all aspects and be able to deliver on each front. Three boards actually vie for the title, DFI’s LANPArty UT nF4 Ultra-D and both of Gigabyte’s entries, the GA-K8NXP-9 and GA-K8N Ultra-9. The GA-K8NXP-9 topped our benchmarking charts with excellent numbers. It also represents the most complete board in terms of features, at a premium price of course.

Gigabyte’s GA-K8N Ultra-9 however, overclocks extremely well, has better accessories and costs US$30 less. However, if you’ve followed through our shootout and soaked in the pros and cons of each board, we believe that the answer is quite obvious.

The DFI LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D is somewhat a cross between the two Gigabyte models, excelling in performance with superb overclocking in a competitively priced package. What tipped our scales was that the nF4 Ultra-D has a much better board design and it delivered rock solid stability throughout our testing

Motherboards reviewed:
ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 - Chaintech VNF4 Ultra - DFI LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D - ECS KN1 Extreme - EPoX EP-9NPA+ Ultra - Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-9 - Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9 - MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum