Thinking of getting a Nvidia Nforce chipset

[shadow3213]

Hello all,
I'm thinking of buying a Nforce based board, are any of these boards on the market yet? and also who would be a better manufacture to go with? Asus, MSI, Gigabyte? any thoughts on Soyo Dragon boards? also should i get DDR or SDRAM? thank for your help

 

[Guest]

I have the Asus 415-D Nforce a7n266c board and its the best/fastest and most stable motherboard I have ever used, its an awesome board, I would recommend the Asus one of course.

Also get DDR PC2100 ram
what CPU are you using?
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by madpriest on 04/09/02 08:28 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[shadow3213]

Thanks Madpriest, Looking at using a athlon 1700 or faster and thanks for the tip on the ram.

 

[jihiggs]

ive built 3 computers with the msi nforce chipset. i have found them to be very solid. just make sure you use 2 sticks of ram, 1 or 3 and you take a performance hit. i think it works like disk striping. i also built myself a soyo dragon+ system, best system i have ever built. i would consider the nforce boards to be a budget type of system, every thing onboard, great if you need a low profile board. the soyo dragon+ is an exelent board loaded with features. only thing it seems to be lacking is usb 2.0.

i went to the tomshardware forums and all i got was this lousy signature.

 

[upec]

I cousin also have an Asus A7N266-C. He liked it a lot.

 

[shadow3213]

I have just been looking at asus and they have a Asus A7N266-E Nforce420 board is this a step up from the 415 board? Also there is a supplier in my area listing a Asus A7N266-WA Nforce420 for 298.00cndn but could someone tell me what the WA designation is? This WA does not show up at the Asus web site.

 

[simactive]

I would suggest getting the A7V333. This board is made by Asus and has the COP feature on it so you wont have to worry about frying your chip if you overheat your computer. Also you can add somne Resisters to overclock the FSB. Asus is so far the best board that i and my friends have used. No problems. You sho8uld also get the PC2700 DDR RAM. Try to avoid Third-party RAM becuase they tend to mess up your computer. Either get the 256MB DRR RAM or 512MB DDR Etc. 1Gb RAM is expensive but worth it i think. Thats my suggesttion.

Asus will be surpreme!

 

[Strife]

WA usually means with audio.

You should get DDR (it has twice the theoretical bandwith), but it is very unlikely you will have a choice. SDRAM is 168 pin and DDR is 184 pin so they cannot fit in the same slot. There are a few motherboards that have slots for both, but the vast majority only support DDR.

The N-Force motherboards do not perform as well as those based on the VIA KT266A or KT333 chipsets. The only reason to go with a n-force board is that you can save money by using its built in Geforce 2 MX video card. But then again, you will be forced to buy two sticks of memory instead of one larger stick or face a 20%+ drop in performance.


I built a system for a friend using the Soyo Dragon Plus motherboard and did not have any problems. It has integrated raid, 5.1 sound, and lan.

Personally I would get the Asus A7v333 with Raid, and Corsair PC3000 memory. Corsair claims that its PC3000 will run at 333 Mhz (PC2700) at 2, 2, 2, 1T. Currently there is no PC2700 than can handle more than 2, 3, 3, 1T despite their being sold as CL 2. Two 60 gig drives cost about the same as one 120 gig, but are much faster when raided.

 

[delpart]

Just for the record, the 415 boards are identical with the 420 boards but without integrated video. Stability is very good and the memory bandwith doubles with 2 bar of 2100 DDR memory installed. I recommend the ASUS A7N266C but there are other boards as good out there. I also got it for the thermal protection for the CPU. I would have probably got a KT266A board but the thermal protection wasn't there. They are still new to chipsets but I don't feel that I am missing anything.

en Xristos

 

[Crashman]

VIA can rot in hell. The NForce is a good chipset with nearly identicle performance to the latest VIA garbage when paired with two modules in the proper slots. And it comes with a superior sound solution.

Another motherboard with an adequate onboard sound solution and nearly matching performance is the Iwill XP333. And then there's the Leadtek Winfast 7350KDA, it has garbage sound but the full 6 PCI slots, so plenty of room for a soundcard. Both these boards have lower PCI dividers for overclocking than the VIA boards. All have similar performance. So there's no reason to put more money in the pockets of VIA, a chipset manufacturer with a long history of screwing the end user, extorting money from their clients, and violating patents.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[Ncogneto]

AMEN

For the record, I am told that the nforce will support double sided Dimms in the first two slots and only a single sided dim in the third. It is when using a double sided dimm in the third that you get the performance hit. can anyone verify this?

It's not what they tell you, its what they don't tell you!

 

[Crashman]

I would just go for a matched pair, like 2 256MB modules.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[tannji]

for the record.... the nforce 420 and 415 are identical, except for the intregated video on the 420. contrary to what some have said, and many subcribe to, the onboard sound, video, and optional lan are all quality solutions. in the past i couldnt be paid to use onboard anything, but that has changed. the video is not the equal of the latest agp cards, nor was it ever intended to be. it is the best intregated video on the market, and those who want this will be satisfied. similarly, the onboard sound is more than adequate... i have simply never heard a better sound solution, including my own SB Live Platinum.
as for the 415 board w/o video onboard... the only comparisons i have seen (for shame, Tom.... where is your comparison? = ) showed the 415 to be equal to or in some cases significantly superior to the via 266a chipset. in fact, the 415 held its own for the most part against even the 333 revision.
as for the ram, you need identical dimms in slots one and three, leaving slot 2 unpopulated, for best results. this board supports 1.5 gb of ram, but speed is achieved with only slots 1 and 3, so max ram would be 1gb.
finally, via has made tremendous strides lately... but as some of us know to our sorrow... it can be a nightmare to get certain things configured, particularly the nvidia agp gforce cards. need i point out that as the nforce and gforce have the same company in common, this is not a problem with the 415d.
last, the asus a7v266e is available with Asus C.O.P.... (cpu overheat protection) but this is not a reason to buy the via... the nforce 415 has it as well... = )

whew, im done

tannji

 

[Crashman]

Where's the news?

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[BGates2B]

Actually, I've read there is a difference between the 420D and the 415, other than the onboard video. I understand that with the 420D, even with the twin banks active, you still only get a bandwith of 2.1 GB/sec. However, with the 415D, you get 4.2 GB/sec with twin bank. I am not sure, but I believe it has something to do with the onboard video being a bottleneck.

There is a <A HREF="http://www.virescentnetworks.com/news/dc04112002.htm" target="_new">good article on Twin Bank </A> that explains it better.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/myanandtech.html?member=87962" target="_new">My Rigs </A>