ATI Xpress 200 chipset & Nvidia graphics

I currently have a Biostar NF4UL-A9 (Nforce4 Ultra) mainboard.
My Athlon64 3800+ should be arriving next week. I was over at Newegg
looking at other S939 mainboards as most user I have found that have
the Biostar NF4UL-A9 say that the board either died after a few weeks,
or had other problems (SATA, NIC, Firewire, & USB ports, or dual
channel was flaky). I looked over reviews of all the Nforce4 S939
mainboards, and found all boards had many users complaining of some
problem. Biostar seems to be trash for Nforce4, while other makes have
some feature that is flaky, or doesn't work at all.
I know I need to put the system together first before I pass
judgement, but I'm concerned. I bought this board back in August 2005.
It was the only Nforce4 based board in my budget range at the time,
and all I heard was how the Nforce chipset was great, so I jumped on
it then as I was planning to have it all running by last Dec. However
hurricane Rita sidelined the project for a long time. If I find that
this board is crap, I'm sceptical about getting another Nvidia
chipset.
I noticed that the other S939 chipsets seemed to have issues
as well, except for ATI's Xpress 200. All the mainboards that use this
chipset have high review ratings. I notice the price is cheaper than
most Nvidia chipset boards, and have comparable features(Nvidia's
firewall doesn't even work from what I hear). If I have to buy another
mainboard, I'm thinking of getting the ATI Xpress 200 chipset, but the
reviews I seen never mention an Nvidia graphics card being used. Only
ATI cards. Are there any problems using Nvidia graphic cards with
ATI's chipset?

"Larry Roberts" wrote in message
...
I noticed that the other S939 chipsets seemed to have issues
as well, except for ATI's Xpress 200. All the mainboards that use this
chipset have high review ratings. I notice the price is cheaper than
most Nvidia chipset boards, and have comparable features(Nvidia's
firewall doesn't even work from what I hear).

Well, nVidia's chipset is the only one with a "hardware-accelerated"
firewall. No other chipset has it. You can always turn the firewall off, as
with any other onboard device that you don't use. The only problem specific
to the nForce4 chipset is the RAID controller. You shouldn't see any other
problems if you stick with reputable brands like Asus, MSI or Gigabyte.

Gigabyte in particular has $90 NF4 SLI board. Price shouldn't be a driving
factor behind purchasing an Xpress 200 board. :-)

I'm thinking of getting the ATI Xpress 200 chipset, but the
reviews I seen never mention an Nvidia graphics card being used. Only
ATI cards. Are there any problems using Nvidia graphic cards with
ATI's chipset?

HardOCP used an NV40 on the Asus A8R:
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...hlbnRodXNpYXN0

Anandtech used a 7800GTX on both the Asus A8R and DFI RDX200:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2617&p=8

There shouldn't be any compatibility issues, though of course you forgo any
possibility of adding another card in the future and running in SLI.

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