Whatever you do, do not buy an nforce 4 mainboard

[Jakc]

I have been having problems with my asus nforce 4 motherboard for a while now.
The thing is, that the asus chipset requires so much airflow to keep it from going so hot that the system crashes, that it is close to impossible to make a slightly silent system with this chipset.
Hence I am buying an MSI mainboard with an AMD 690 chipset on it, which uses way less power, and runs so cool that I won't even need a casefan at all.

If you ever need a MB for a silent setup, don't go for nforce 4 or geforce 6150 boards, as they will turn your life into hell. (yes they're that hot!)

 

[skittle]

or maybe your just dumb... i have had two nforce 4 boards and theyre pretty damn good for the price i paid.

 

[Spikke]

Haha, I've also had 2 Nforce 4 boards and I've had my current one for around 2 years and have had no problems with either of them. The Nforce 4 was a tried and true board, never really heard much bad about em actually. Also, Nforce 4 is pretty old now days, I doubt anyone would go out and buy one for a new system.

 

[SEALBoy]

Yea my nForce4 runs perfectly, and the only ventilation I have is my CPU and PSU fans.

 

[williamfontaine]

Umm... maybe yours is just bad?

 

[double_helix]

I love my nForce4 board, nothin' says lovin' like Asus.

 

[NaDa]

I have the Asus A8N32-SLI and the A8R32. The first is a nForce4 (2 chips) and the other is an ATI crossfire 3200 chip.

Both good and strange mobos. Dont touch their bios too much or they are gonna get weird.

The nforce4 with double chip heats really good and needs some ventilation while the ati chip doesnt warm up at all.

I have my Opty oced to 2.8 on the nforce mobo and I have no problems. But I have to say it's not the best mobo for building a silent HTPC.

 

[aziraphale]

Absolutely no problems with my nforce4 MB.

Dunno what your problem is though.

 

[Rabidpeanut]

Is it just me, or is this thread about a VERY old chipset that no one will be buying anymore anyway...

 

[apache_lives]

I have been having problems with my asus nforce 4 motherboard for a while now.
The thing is, that the asus chipset requires so much airflow to keep it from going so hot that the system crashes, that it is close to impossible to make a slightly silent system with this chipset.
Hence I am buying an MSI mainboard with an AMD 690 chipset on it, which uses way less power, and runs so cool that I won't even need a casefan at all.

If you ever need a MB, don't go for nforce 4 or geforce 6150 boards, as they will turn your life into hell. (yes they're that hot!)

Nvidia chipsets do run a little hot but there decent, no issues or nothin, but if its active cooling and the fan fails, say goodbye to the motherboard 😉

 

[Ycon]

You sure you did everything right?
Cause the nForce4 is one of the best chipsets ever made.

 

[Jakc]

or maybe your just dumb... i have had two nforce 4 boards and theyre pretty damn good for the price i paid.

No actually I am not dumb at all.
Nforce 4 mainboards are known to get very warm.

Nforce 4 may be an old chip, but the southbridge (the chip that gets blazing hot) is still being used in geforce 6150 motherboards, which people still buy all the time.
With this thread I am just warning people not to buy nforce 4 MB's, as they get very hot.

Yours didn't freak out your system yet? Well good for you. You probably have more than just a silent cpu fan and a silent casefan?

Fact stands that the nforce 4 SB needs good ventilation. Running an nforce 4 system on just a cpu fan is just impossible, and touching your southbridge will make you understand why.

I just bought an AMD 690 system and disabled all fans except the cpu fan.
Unlike with the nforce 4 MB's I used, this setup does not get 60+ degrees and does not make my windows crash.

 

[RARRAF]

Billions upon billions of nforce 4 boards have been sold and the majority are very good all boards in todays market of fast PC's get hot because we run fast equipment such as mine with an asus A8n32-SLI 7900 GT 2GB corsair matched pair 4400 and I am very happy with Nforce 4 maybe it was a cheap board

 

[russki]

Well, I do recall that Asus nF4 boards with heatpipe on the SB would not play well in the inverted cases like some Lian Lis... But that's the fault of the cheap heatpipe design (not cheap design, cheap heatpipe. It is conceivable to design heatpipes that do not need gravity assist). Also, at first, Asus was having some problems with fans on the SB going out. That was a long time ago, though...

 

[Jakc]

Billions upon billions of nforce 4 boards have been sold and the majority are very good all boards in todays market of fast PC's get hot because we run fast equipment such as mine with an asus A8n32-SLI 7900 GT 2GB corsair matched pair 4400 and I am very happy with Nforce 4 maybe it was a cheap board

I realize that nforce 4 boards run just fine for the mayority of people, but it's still my opinion that they just get too hot, and get too unstable when case airflow is not correct.
Cheap is not an excuse, either, the AMD 690 is just as cheap but doesn't have the heat flaw.

I am not the only person to have heat and stability problems with an nforce 4 chipset, a few of my friends had the exact same issues as me with this chip, and googling learns there are many who had similar issues.
All people I have spoken to say that they can not touch the southbridge of the nforce 4 without burning their finger.

 

[killer_roach]

I used to have an nForce4 Ultra-based motherboard (EpoX 9NPA+), and it was an incredible overclocking board... was able to get my old Athlon 64 3000+ up to around 2.5 GHz on it. I'd consider that pretty good. Also ran quite solidly, better than the board I replaced it with when I went to a socket AM2 board...

 

[TyroneShoelaces]

I realize that nforce 4 boards run just fine for the mayority of people, but it's still my opinion that MINE just gets too hot, and gets too unstable when MY case airflow is not correct.
Cheap is not an excuse, either, the AMD 690 is just as cheap but doesn't have the heat flaw.

Fixed. Just because you're having a bad experience doesn't mean you should make blanket statements that apply to ALL nForce 4 boards. I also had two in the past, with -0- problems.

-TyShoe

 

[suddenstop]

Original poster is correct. I have an asus m2n-sli deluxe with heatpipe solution. Thing is, this setup REQUIRES fan cooling. with case open, and silent cpu setup, chipset will overheat. They sell it as passively cooled, but it needs case and cpu fans to move air. I had to install a fan right on the chipset heatsink.

Really only affects us making silent pc's, not people with lots of fans spinning.

 

[mad_murdock]

I currently still have two running. the Abit A8N and the K8N Ultra. Both are zipping along nicely on air and they are both gaming rigs.

But who would buy a Nforce 4 board nowadays anyways ? Newer tech is available

 

[croc]

I have been having problems with my asus nforce 4 motherboard for a while now.
The thing is, that the asus chipset requires so much airflow to keep it from going so hot that the system crashes, that it is close to impossible to make a slightly silent system with this chipset.
Hence I am buying an MSI mainboard with an AMD 690 chipset on it, which uses way less power, and runs so cool that I won't even need a casefan at all.

If you ever need a MB, don't go for nforce 4 or geforce 6150 boards, as they will turn your life into hell. (yes they're that hot!)

I have a dfi with nf4 chipset... No problems. Before that I had a few asus nf4's, the NB fan died twice and wiped out the chipset, and the third board shorted internally, took out my psu and cpu... (4Ryan and I were running neck to neck in who could have the worst luck with Asus A8N series MB's...) But none ever had temps that caused me grief prior to their various failures. Oh well, guess my nf4 days are numbered anyway, what I have will last me just fine until x38 and penryns release.

Seems a bit late to be warning people of a problem that seems to only bother you...

 

[Jakc]

Original poster is correct. I have an asus m2n-sli deluxe with heatpipe solution. Thing is, this setup REQUIRES fan cooling. with case open, and silent cpu setup, chipset will overheat. They sell it as passively cooled, but it needs case and cpu fans to move air. I had to install a fan right on the chipset heatsink.

Really only affects us making silent pc's, not people with lots of fans spinning.

I guess you have a point, for those who don't want a silent system (and those that are ok with warming their room with their computer) nforce 4 should be fine.
Still I would have appreciated it if I would have been able to find a topic like this BEFORE I bought the geforce 6150 motherboard. Would have saved me money.

 

[Lackadaisical]

Nforce4 is a great chipset, however it is a terrible overclocker. I also highly doubt anyone building a new system or upgrade is going to go for a Nforce4 because its pretty old by now. There are many other better choices out there.

I Don't understand where you are getting that terrible overclocker part from. There are many NF4 boards that overclock well. I've had my current NF4 board for 2 years got a 3200 to 2.75ghz, and my current opteron 170 to 2.95ghz, and I'm not being limited by the board but the processor. I'd say the quality of the board and overclocking ability depends on the manufacturer as well as the chipset.

 

[koolaidkitten]

check the sig. NF4 based board
rock solid
overclocks like a beast
being cooled by the stock NB fan and 2 80mm Vantec Stealths pulling in and 2 of the same up top pushing out

thats just about standard case cooling.

Don't have a clue what you are talking about.

 

[Craxbax]

Both my MSI NF4 and Foxxconn 6150 boards run and OC well. Great chipsets for s939 boards in my opinion,

 

[anticupidon]

I have been having problems with my asus nforce 4 motherboard for a while now.
The thing is, that the asus chipset requires so much airflow to keep it from going so hot that the system crashes, that it is close to impossible to make a slightly silent system with this chipset.
Hence I am buying an MSI mainboard with an AMD 690 chipset on it, which uses way less power, and runs so cool that I won't even need a casefan at all.

If you ever need a MB, don't go for nforce 4 or geforce 6150 boards, as they will turn your life into hell. (yes they're that hot!)

owner of an asus a8n e nforce4ultra board
rock solid 33 C max temp on full load ....overclocks well..guess you got a dud mobo