+++ 1x Floppy, 4x UDMA133, 4x SATA150 RAID 0+1, 1x serial, 1x IrDA, 1x parallel, 2x PS/2,
onBoard 10/100/1000 Mbps base-T Ethernet LAN (Vitesse 8201 phy),
10x USB 2.0/1.1 (6x internal, Slot bracket for 2x int. is included), 3x IEEE1394b Firewire,
8-Channel AC'97 RealTek ALC850 onboard with 6x 3.5 mm connectors
(1x int. CD in, ext. S/PDIF In, ext. S/PDIF Out, ext. Line in, ext. Mic, ext. Front out,
ext. Side out, ext. Rear out, ext. Center/Subwoofer) and 2x fan connectors.

Overall

+++ The GA-K8NF-9 Socket 939 PCIe board has at present a price of approx. 80 Euro (11/2005)
and is appropriate thereby in the lower to middle price segment of the Socket 939 PCIe boards.

Gigabyte brought the K8NF-9 a Socket 939 board with only one PCIe 16x Slot on the market,
which might be surely nevertheless interesting for several PCs.
Because due to the standardized Motherboard size one has unfortunately the choice between
3 pci Slots with 1x PCIe 16x Slot or 2 pci Slots with 2x (SLI) PCIe 16x video card Slots.

On this quite inexpensive nForce4 Motherboard was selected the variant with 3 pci Slots,
which can naturally quite have their meaning if you're using various pci interface cards.
Furthermore the four S-ATA 150 RAID connectors, 2 connectors for up to 4 UDMA-133 HDDs
and the 4 DDR memory modules with DUAL channel support (up to 4GB) are controlled by the
nVidia nForce4-4X chipset.
The sound chip is the well-known 8-channel ALC850 with six 3,5mm jacks for the 8 channel sound.
Besides Gigabyte used even the Vitesse 8201 LAN chip, which provides up to 1 Gigabit network
speed and thus can be used optimally for a fast home network.

All connectors are exemplary colored marked and the LED connector pin row are marked with
small "+" symbols, well done!

Regarding the overlocking and the tuning options of the components Gigabyte gave the BIOS
several options, which are made accessible partially only with a hidden CTRL+F1 key combination.
Because it's possible to get further features in the BIOS, if one presses CTRL + F1 key, since this releases the Advanced chipset menu with many memory timing and the HT clock options.
Whereby other important voltage adjustments e.g. Vcore (CPU), VDDR (memory),
PCIe core voltage are alterable without this key combination.
Furthermore all frequencies are extensively alterable like the host frequency, memory frequency
and PCIe frequency, so it's very easy to overclock with this mainboard.
BTW Gigabyte eliminated the frequency input bug in the meanwhile, by permitting the
frequency choice only with the selection field.
However one shouldn't overdraw the overclocking without further cooling measures straight
with the HT multi, since the nForce 4 chipset is unfortunately only passive cooled and becomes
quite warm already with the usual frequency and moderate voltages.
Thus as always absolutely respects good cooling, whereby the overall height of an active chipset
cooler may not be too high, so that the video card can be completely inserted.

Result: The Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 Socket 939 PCI express Motherboard offers beside the good
basic equipment a great performance, extensive overclocking options and a well board layout
for little money.
Thus who attaches no importance to the second PCI express 16x Slot for SLI and would like to
acquire an inexpensive and stable PCIe board, is with this motherboard served in the best way
for current Socket 939 processors.

Special thanks to Gigabyte for their support.