nforce2, ultra 400 necessary?

[Apreche]

I'm buying a new pc soon, and I've set myself on getting a board with the nforce2 chipset. Probably either the abit nf7-s or the abit a7n8x. By current cpu prices the best value seems to be the XP 2600+. The 2600 is labeled as having a 333mhz bus speed, which is as high as the nforce2 spp can go. However, the nforce2 ultra 400 seems to be quite a bit better than the spp. But with a 2600 will I be able to run it at the 400mhz bus speed and get the extra performance? Is it worth waiting for an ultra 400 board, or will it not matter since I'm getting a chip that only goes 333? I've been out of the loop for awhile, any help would be greatly appreciated.

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"I EAT YOUR BRAIN"
-Mindflayer

CTHULHU for President in 2004!

 

[TKH]

Unless AMD is messing up again or else Barton 2600+ (333FSB, 512k cache, 1.93GHz) is coming now, you may want to get that. And if you buy nForce2 mobo now of course you must get the Ultra 400, because they are same price, better performance, better overclockability which make the 2500+ go to 400+FSB, and no more undervolt northbridge... however the overheat southbridge is still there... if you get the "normal" nForce2 and think you are not going to overclock but at the end you'll do it anyway and regret why you didn't get the Ultra 400 instead...

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[Robc1880]

the nf7-s is a much better board and you will get better performance especially if you OC it. The ultra 400 is more stable than the regular one. AMD finally introduced the 2600 barton core so I would suggest that processor.