nForce4 Ultra Roundup: Charting the Mainstream

Biostar NF4UL-A9: Features and Layout

Specification	Biostar NF4UL-A9
CPU Interface	Socket 939 Athlon 64
Chipset	nForce4 Ultra (single chip)
BUS Speeds	200MHz to 300MHz (in 1MHz increments)
PCI/AGP Speeds	Asynchronous (Fixed)
PCI Express	Fixed
Core Voltage	Startup, 1.2V to 1.625V in 0.025V increments
DRAM Voltage	Default, 2.7V, 2.8V, 2.9V
Chipset Voltage	NA
Hyper Transport Ratios	Auto, 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x
LDT Bus Transfer	16/16, 16/8, 8/16, 8/8
CPU Ratios	Startup, 4x to 25x in 1x increments
DRAM Speeds	Auto, 100, 133, 166, 200
Memory Command Rate	Auto, 1T, 2T
Memory Slots	Four 184-pin DDR Dual-Channel Slots Unbuffered ECC or non-ECC Memory to 4GB Total
Expansion Slots	1 x16 PCIe Slots 1 Xtreme Graphics Port (AGP 8X Form Factor) 2 x1 PCIe 3 PCI Slots
Onboard SATA	4-Drive SATA 2 by nF4
Onboard IDE	Two Standard NVIDIA ATA133/100/66 (4 drives)
SATA/IDE RAID	4-Drive SATA 2 PLUS 4-Drive IDE (8 total) Can be combined in RAID 0, 1
Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394	10 USB 2.0 ports supported nF4 2 1394A FireWire ports by VIA VT6307
Onboard LAN	Gigabit PCIe Ethernet by Vitesse VXC8201 PHY
Onboard Audio	Realtek ALC850 8-Channel codec with 6 UAJ audio jacks, CD-in, front audio, and optional coaxial SPDIF cable
Other Features	Dual-Core (x2) Support with BIOS nf4ua614
BIOS	nf4ua614

Biostar took a different approach in the design of their nForce4 Ultra board. If you look closely at the video card slots, you will see how unique this board really is.

Your eyes aren't deceiving you. There is both a PCIe x16 slot and a slot that appears to be AGP 8X. We say "appears" because Biostar calls the "AGP form-actor" slot an XGP or eXtended Graphics Port slot. Like a similar design that we first saw on an ECS board about 6 months ago, the Biostar is not a true AGP 8X slot, since it is derived from the PCI/PCIe bus. We will test the XGP slot in our benchmarks to see what kind of performance hit the XGP entails.

Even though it is not a full 8X AGP slot, the Biostar is still a unique and useful choice for those having AGP cards that they are not ready to replace. Those buyers can go to the Biostar with their current AGP card and still have the option of moving to PCIe on the same board at some time in the future. Since nForce4 does not support AGP, the Biostar allows AGP users to choose an nForce4 board anyway.

Click image to enlarge.

The Biostar is basically a sound board layout, particularly for a lower-priced nF4 motherboard. The 4-pin 12V power connector requires snaking the 4-pin power cable over or around the CPU, a design that many others also use. The board edge is a better location, and fortunately, the 24-pin ATX cable does reside on a board edge where it belongs. The 4 SATA connectors are a tight fit next to the PCIe slot, but they will work - even with a very long PCIe video card with dual power connectors.

The floppy connector is on the lower right edge of the board, which is certainly a better location than the bottom of the board, but still a longer reach than the preferred upper right location. Turning the IDE connectors sideways allows them to fit on the right edge near the center of the board. In most case designs, this will work fine, but a tall case with drives above the board chamber might require snaking IDE cables over DIMMs - not ideal for air flow.

BIOS controls on the Biostar were a pleasant surprise for an entry-level nForce4 Ultra motherboard. Just about every adjustment that you need for overclocking is here, including a useful vDIMM range to 2.9V, a wide CPU voltage adjustment range, and CPU ratio adjustments. The same goes for features, as our board even had dual Firewire ports controlled by a TI controller. Firewire is one of the first options to go when manufacturers build to a price point.

The only glaring omission is the lack of a standard SPDIF optical or coaxial out port. A board with 8-channel sound and 6 jacks should have a supplied SPDIF connector, not an optional feature.

We also ran into a very strange anomaly when benchmarking the XGP graphics slot. When we mounted an 8X AGP card and selected PCI as out boot video, the system booted just fine into Windows XP. However, the Gigabit LAN had mysteriously disappeared and no amount of searching for new devices would bring it back. We removed the AGP and reinstalled a PCIe video card and the Gigabit LAN was back. We hope that Biostar can find a way to correct this strange behavior in a future BIOS update.