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I have decided amd 939 board and a seagate w/ncq hard drive. How can I find a board that supports this?

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Dani AI

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Short summary and what to check first: NCQ is a feature that needs the drive, the SATA host controller on the motherboard, and the OS/driver to all support it — having a Seagate NCQ drive is only one piece of the puzzle. Look for the motherboard spec or manual to say “NCQ” or “Native Command Queuing” (or explicitly list AHCI/NCQ support) before assuming it will be used. Seagate NCQ FAQ. (seagate.com)

nForce4 is a sensible place to start because NVIDIA’s MediaShield/nForce4 family advertises SATA with NCQ on its native ports, which is why pointed to nForce4 boards. Vendors sometimes ship lower-feature variants or add third‑party SATA chips, so confirm the exact board revision and which controller drives the primary SATA ports. (NVIDIA’s product linecard explicitly warns “features vary by product — confirm actual specs with your motherboard manufacturer.”) NVIDIA nForce linecard (PDF). (download.nvidia.com)

Quick practical checklist (applies to the boards listed):

  • Confirm the primary SATA ports are the NVIDIA controller and that the spec/manual mentions NCQ or SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) with NCQ support.
  • Avoid relying on secondary/third‑party controllers (JMicron/SiliconImage) unless their pages explicitly show NCQ and drivers for your OS.
  • Update BIOS and install the chipset/SATA drivers the vendor provides for your OS.
  • Verify NCQ is active after install (Linux example below). See also notes that “SATA II” alone does not guarantee NCQ in every implementation. (tomshardware.com)

Verify on Linux quickly with hdparm (shows queue depth/NCQ): 

sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda | egrep -i 'Queue depth|NCQ'

For Windows, use the motherboard vendor’s disk/controller utilities or device-driver details. hdparm manpage. (manpages.ubuntu.com)

Recommendation for that shortlist: pick the board whose published spec/Manual explicitly lists NCQ on the native NVIDIA ports and offers clear chipset/SATA driver downloads (and BIOS updates). If a model is labeled a stripped/“value” variant (nForce4‑lite/4x), confirm it hasn’t removed the SATA/NCQ features before buying. (download.nvidia.com)

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Member Avatar for alc6379

I thought that NCQ was an Intel-only thing for now...

Member Avatar for Member #11424

nForce4 chipsets have SATA II which support ncq so any 939 motherboard with nForce4 should be good.

Member Avatar for Member #23858

Ncq is not for intel only. All you have to do is look at some of the n4 boards and it tells you. The problem with a certain n4 board from gigabyte was it was a n4x which is a cheaper version of n4. It does support ncq but it says it doesn't support sata ll.

Member Avatar for Member #23858

After doing a lot of checking many are really skeptical about the k8nf-f 4x from gigabyte so instead of risking it I have thrown it out of the mix. I have done a lot of checking and this is what I have come up with.
Ok, now my choice is even harder. I just called foxconn and talked to someone. I got through within 20seconds. That is a good sign. I decided because of that it may be a good place. I could understand them also. Epox doesn't have a place to contact anyone over the phone which is what I like to do but they offer a nice bundle. So now here are my choices.
EP-9NPA+ULTRA by epox, gigabyte K8N Ultra 9 or MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum and Foxconn WinFast NF4UK8AA. What would you do??????????????????They are all good,(i think). I found out today that foxconn is the 2nd largest mobod manufacturer in the WORLD. Learn something everday.

Member Avatar for alc6379

Ncq is not for intel only. All you have to do is look at some of the n4 boards and it tells you. The problem with a certain n4 board from gigabyte was it was a n4x which is a cheaper version of n4. It does support ncq but it says it doesn't support sata ll.

Shows how long it's been since I looked at NCQ. Last time I checked, I only saw it on Intel boards. That's what I get for thinking 3-4 month old information was still relevant, eh? :confused:

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