Nforce or VIA?

[Apreche]

I plan on building a new computer in the near future, and I have a fair amount of brand loyalty to Abit. And since I'm poor AMD is the obvious CPU choice. However, I am torn between the current Nforce and VIA chipsets.
I generally dislike the fact that the nforce boards have onboard video and audio since I'll probably buy a better video card than the one built in and I already have an SBLive! sound card. But the onboard 10/100 ethernet is something I really want. Also I was wondering if it was possible to have one monitor connected to the onboard video card while another monitor was connected to the video card in the AGP slot on an Nforce board. If this is possible that is a major plus to the Nforce.
As for the VIA chipset the real thing it has going for it is my lack of uncertainty. It doesn't have onboard anything, but its chock full of PCI slots and RAM slots. I know that the VIA chipset is fast, reliable and will do what I need it to. The VIA boards have everythign I need. I am just having trouble deciding because I don't know which one is faster (assuming the same cpu ram and video card in each), and because I am unsure about the capabilities of the Nforce board and whether it will be better for me or not.
Has anyone had experience with both of these chipsets, which one would you suggest?

-----------------
"I EAT YOUR BRAIN"
-Mindflayer

CTHULHU for President in 2004!

 

[Spitfire_x86]

I use a nForce 420-D board with Duron 1.0 GHz processor. My board is built by MSI (MSI K7N-420 Pro, MS-6373).

This board is 100% stable. It is fast enough. In most cases you won't notice the lack 5 to 7 percent more performance offered by VIA chipsets. If you don't want onboard graphics, get a board with nForce 415-D chipset. 415-D does not have onboard graphics. ASUS makes boards with 415-D. Maybe there are other brand that makes 415-D based mobo. I like my MSI mobo but they don't have a 415-D based solution.

nForce APU is at least as good as SB Live! Audigy and it's cpu usage is much lower than SB Live!. If you buy nForce 415-D or 420-D, use the onoard audio.

I don't know about connecting two monitors with the integrated and discrete graphics card.

My recommend nForce 415-D for you.

 

[tbirdXPplus]

never a VIA. now it`s OK, but after my experience with MVP3, 691, 693A, kt133, it`s personal. LOL

nFORCE seems nice, but the 420 is a waste, u`re never gonna use that useless GF2 onchip there. go for a 415D, the one without a graphic core.

"Is Celeron good?"
"No. Celeron is bad."
LOL

 

[tersagun]

I'm using now my 2. via mobo, and i'm really happy with both.Don't think via's aren't stable enough. they are fast and stable. and more important, cheap! the only problem is the "via4in1", but that's ok.. it's worth of it, go for via.

<b>Banshee; The best ever produced card in price/performance!</b>

 

[Crashman]

Stable? I'm running a PIII Coppermine at its fastest settings on an Intel chipset, and getting 1307MHz at 174MHz FSB. Try doing that with a VIA PIII chipset.

<font color=blue>By now you're probably wishing you had ask more questions first!</font color=blue>

 

[tdean]

the nforce audio definately sounds alot better than the sb live. i took mine out b/c of that.

....the birds seemed to be calling him, thought caw....

 

[tersagun]

I have no comment about overclocking, you can be right about the overclocking-capacity.I never tried to overclock because of amd's high-temperature. But i'm using my current mobo since 1.5 years and had simply no error, that's what i mean.

"Don't necessarily listen to tersagun,he's been advocating AMD systems,he thinks Intel sucks ass.."

 

[Crashman]

You're a very lucky man!

<font color=blue>By now you're probably wishing you had ask more questions first!</font color=blue>

 

[upec]

I think VIA is pretty stable now. I have good experience with their KT266A chipset. I have been using Asus A7V266-E for several months and did not have any problem with it.

 

[ksoth]

My nForce 415-D motherboard (Asus A7N266-C) is extremely stable and fast. If you don't want onboard audio or video, then go for an nForce 220 motherboard. You can probably find one that doesn't have integrated audio or video, and it will be a cheaper than a 420 or 415 board because it lacks the dual-channel DDR memory controller. Because you'll be using an add-on graphics card, you don't need the extra bandwith. The only way you'll be able to do two monitors is if you get a second PCI add-in card, as the nForce integrated video requires an AGP daughter card to be installed. I guess that VIA has gotten a lot better in terms of reliability and stability. However, my 2 year old KT133 motherboard with Duron 700 is still alive and kicking, and really stable for simple every day use (not much gaming or anything else though). One thing about the nForce is I hear there are severe problems (which I experienced) with the audio and Windows 98. With Win 98, the audio always cut out, it froze a lot, the monitor energy saving wouldn't kick in, and the time would get all wacky. Apparantly it was a problem with the nForce audio and the Windows Audio Codec drivers that it used. There was a hotfix from Microsoft that was supposed to fix it, which it did for me for one day, then stopped working again. Once I upgraded to XP, this thing runs PERFECTLY, and has only crashed once. Highly recommended (with XP).

"Trying is the first step towards failure."