MB's: VIA Vs nforce 3 - for socket 939

Jasmin

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Oct 10, 2004
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Hello's

I'm ordering a new system to be built.
I will using my PC for some gaming(not much ie The Sims 2)
but it will be used loads for music making, vivo-recording
movies from camera to PC then to dvd.

Im not sure which motherboard to get.
(For Socket 939-based Athlon 64 processors)
Some have VIA chipsets whilst some have nforce 3...
which is better? I will have a NVIDIA gfx card in there anyway.
What are the pro & cons of boths these chipsets?

The choice seems to be from :
Abit AV8 K8T800 Pro chipset Motherboard
Asus A8V Deluxe Motherboard

What else do you guys recommend?
I won't be using it for anything too complicated so
no need for 8.1sound,LAn party etc.

Thanks, Jasmine
 
nForce chipset is generally always a better choice than the VIA. It generally always have better performance, and much better driver support.



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Jasmin

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Oct 10, 2004
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Can you recommend some nforce 3 board for socket 939?
I didn't see any!

I don't think it'll effect me much because I'm not into games(xbox for games) or overclocking..i just want value for money.So rather than spending an extra £250 on an Athlon FX chip or
skimping into getting an Athlon 3200 XP chip. Im hoping im getting a balanced system via :

Abit AV8 K8T800 Pro chipset Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
1GB (2x512Mb) PC3200 Non ECC DDR 400 Mhz Original
160GB Western Digital WD1600JD S-ATA 8MB/7200 RPM
160GB Western Digital WD1600JD S-ATA 8MB/7200 RPM
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malici0usc0de

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Judging by what you need the system for I would not waste my money on the NVIDIA chipset. The NVIDIA chipsets do offer a little bit better performance when it comes to 3D games but we are only talking about a 1 to 3 percent difference and in some rare cases as high as 5% which is still hardly a noticeable difference and since the NVIDIA based boards can cost almost twice as much the choice becomes pretty obvious. When it comes to windows based tasks they are really both the same and the K8T800 Pro is even in some disciplines faster although it doesn’t have quite as much features. If cost is not an option for you then the NVIDIA solution is the obvious choice but if you do not need or want any of the extra features that the NVIDIA based boards offer there is no reason to go the extra cost. For the current price of just one main board for socket 939 based on the NVIDIA chipset you can get a main board based on the K8T800 Pro and a 120 GB SATA hard drive. That is what drove me to purchase the A8V Deluxe over any of the other NVIDIA based solutions. Since you said music and such is your thing I would opt for the K8T800 Pro based boards as they really do offer the best price performance ratio and in doing so you will have an extra $60 to $80 dollars to spend on something else like a DVD burner.

One example of what you will spend for a good NVIDIA based board…
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-128-254&depa=1

And a good K8T800 Pro based board(That also comes with a 802.11G wireless NIC card)…
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-510&depa=1

There is a price difference of about $70 there while less than a 5% performance difference…

Here is the THG review that shows the performance of the two side by side just for general info…
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20040601/index.html



<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by malici0usc0de on 10/11/04 08:46 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 

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