|
|
"This review compares two budget motherboards the ECS Nforce4 A939 (Nforce4) and the Asrock 939 Dual Sata2 (ULI M1695) using a GeForce 6600 GT and Athlon64 3000. We have used the following software for testing:- Doom 3, SiSoftware Sandra 2007, SuperPI, Tribes Vengenace, UT2004, Warhammer 40K Dawn of War and Xpand Rally."
ECS NFORCE4 A939 REVIEW "The ECS Nforce4 A939 motherboard is a board for the budget buyer looking for the latest Socket 939 Processor support but without the high price of the more advanced Socket 939 motherboards. Due to the ECS Nforce4 A939 being a budget motherboard it lacks features like Firewire and has only limited Overclocking ability. However the ECS Nforce4 A939 still does have alot of the latest technology like the Nvidia Nforce4 (not Ultra) chipset, Sata with Raid, USB 2.0 and Dual Channel DDR. The ECS Nforce4 A939 has the usual extras like 4 DDR slots in Dual Channel configuration which allows upto 4GB Memory to be installed onto the motherboard and 4 Sata headers for the latest hard drives. The ECS Nforce4 A939 comes with a single PCIE 16x slot which it allows the ECS Nforce4 A939 to use all of the latest video cards, however with the ECS Nforce4 A939 being a budget motherboard it doesn't support SLI due to the lack of the second PCIE 16x slot."
GENERAL SYSTEM INFORMATION |
|
SISOFTWARE SANDRA 2007
PROCESSOR - ALU DHRYSTONE
 | 8106 |
 | 7987 |
PROCESSOR - FPU WHETSTONE
| 3661 |
| 3692 |
ECS NFORCE4 A939 ASROCK 939 DUAL SATA2 |
COMMENT - "The ECS Nforce4 A939 finishes 2% faster than the Asrock 939 Dual Sata2 when using the ALU test, however when using the FPU test the Asrock 939 Dual Sata2 is a modest 1% faster."
|
|
SISOFTWARE SANDRA 2007
| 17232 |
| 17004 |
MULTI-MEDIA - FLOATING POINT
| 18539 |
| 18272 |
ECS NFORCE4 A939 ASROCK 939 DUAL SATA2 |
COMMENT - "The ECS Nforce4 A939 finishes 2% faster than the Asrock 939 Dual Sata2 with both of the Multi-Media bechmarks."
|
|
SISOFTWARE SANDRA 2007
MEMORY BANDWIDTH - INTEGER
| 5052 |
| 4978 |
MEMORY BANDWIDTH - FLOATING POINT
| 4997 |
| 4927 |
ECS NFORCE4 A939 ASROCK 939 DUAL SATA2 |
COMMENT - "The ECS Nforce4 A939 offers 2% more memory bandwidth than the Asrock 939 Dual Sata2."
|
|
SUPER PI BENCHMARK
| 224 |
| 229 |
ECS NFORCE4 A939 ASROCK 939 DUAL SATA2 |
COMMENT - "The ECS Nforce4 A939 finishes 3% faster than the Asrock 939 Dual Sata2 using this number crunching benchmark."
|
|
CONCLUSION - "The ECS Nforce4 A939 is more of a workhorse than a cutting edge motherboard for enthusiasts who demand the latest technology like SLI. The ECS Nforce4 A939 offers all of the basic features and performance of the Nforce4 chipset, however the lack of Sata2, Firewire and even basic overclocking options might be a problem for some people. As for performance the ECS Nforce4 A939 was usually faster than the Asrock 939 Dual Sata2 but the performance difference was small that it wouldn't be noticed. Both of these motherboards will appeal to different sections of the budget motherboard market. The ECS Nforce4 A939 will appeal to people who have no interest in overclocking, Sata2, Firewire and already own a PCI Express video card. The Asrock 939 Dual Sata2 will appeal to people wanting overclocking options, Sata2, 16x PCI Express, AGP 8x for older video cards and the main reason will be an easy upgrade path for Socket AM2. If you choose either ECS Nforce4 A939 or Asrock 939 Dual Sata2 you will not be disappointed!"
|
|
|
