nForce Boards

[PlasmaBurn]

Greetings Denizens.

Could anyone tell me the current AMD Socket 7 motherboard implementing the nForce chipset? I'm thinking of getting the newer chipset when it's released, but I haven't yet got a main idea of what mobo manifacturers are using it. Also, I've heard that the sound is built into the South Bridge, is this true?

Many Thanks.

[Darthtanion]

Socket 7 or Socket A? I'm not aware of an nForce board that supports the Socket 7 platform.

[PlasmaBurn]

Ack, my bad.

Darn my youthful insolence. I meant Socket A, yes.

Sorry! :geek:

[fragman]

I've used the MSI K7N420 Pro with success:

http://www.msi.com.tw/products/mainboard/mainboard.php?model=MS-6373

Abit also makes a couple (NV7-133R and NV7M), but I can't say I'm a fan of them (Abit that is):

http://www.abit.com.tw/abitweb/webjsp/english/products.jsp

The nVidia blurb will tell you it has a Geforce2 core, the performance is on a par with a Geforce2 MX

[Morgan_Lander]

Haven't like Abit much in the past, but the NV7-133R kicks ass!

Asus also has some NForce boards out.

The only thing about Nforce boards are that you really don't buy them for overclocking, espcially (and ironically) the Abit.

Both Asus and MSI are good too. The one thing that you may be intrested in is that the NV7-133R is the only NForce board featuring ATA RAID (ATA133 specifically).

It's not the fastest thing available, but it's still very fast.

[FA-MAS]

I've used the MSI K7N420 Pro with success

I may be getting one of these bards for free shortly. I'm wanting to know if you can disable the onboard video and sound?

[Wiggo]

You disable the video (AGP slot provided) but why would ya want to disable the the sound though as it's at least as good as a SB Live. :smokin:
<center>:cheers:</center>

[FA-MAS]

Right, I wanted to disable the video because my video card has a little more power. I've also been reading reviews, and when the onboard video and sound were used, performance went down. I may try the sound though.

Later

[Morgan_Lander]

Of course the performance will go down using the on-board video.
The on-board video is basically a GeForce 2 MX. I've been hearing about some issue using the 2nd DIMM slot on that board--but it's apparently fixed with a BIOS update.

The sound is really nice, however, I hope nVidia adds an equalizer and some bass and treble controls.

[FA-MAS]

I read up on the board. The 2nd DIMM thing is, if you put a stick of memory in either DIMM 1 or 2 or both and DIMM 3, It will be running "twinbank". Supposedly if you don't do it this way, the memory performance is lower.

[fragman]

That is supposed to give the onboard video a 128-bit path to memory but the performance is lower which doesn't really make sense. Result is use a single stick of ram.

[Morgan_Lander]

Or don't use the on-board video.:devil win

[Orac]

Actually the GF2 MX core buit into the GPU isn't on par with equivilent card (i.e, GF2 MX). There's a few reasons for this. In theory and what nvidia would like us to believe, it is, but in practice it isn't. I would disable the video even if you only had a GF 2 MX card.

The reason is because it will eat up your memory bandwidth if you use the onboard video. Even with the Nforce 420.

The built-in audio is a totally different story however. It really kicks ass. It's even better than if you had an SBlive! card. Mainly because of it's very low CPU utilization difference when you start upping the sampling rate and voices in games. This is where it will really shine over the SBLive!.

It's onboard Ethernet, I have no idea about. Have yet to find any decent benchmark tests of that feature of the chipset.

The nforce looks to be a promising chipset, but it's advances by using twinbank memory architecture (dual 64-bit memory controllers) seem to be negated by the Athlon's ****ty FSB.

Regardless of any of that the Nforce chipset seems to be a good value. At least as good as other offerings by other chipsets. Like there doesn't seem to be any advantage to the nforce 420 over the KT266A, but I'd be more inclined to get the nforce because VIA chipsets are total **** IMHO. Nothing but one bull**** problem after another. One patch after another hoping eventually there will be a patch to address a specific issue with your system configuration which shouldn't be there in the first place if the chipset was worth a ****.

I guess you can see I'm a little biased against VIA, but they've earned it. Many people have had good luck with them, don't get me wrong, but way too many have had nothing but headache after headache. While some of it may be attributed to ignorance on the system builder's part, many cases it isn't, but more of ignorance on the chipset manufacturer's part. With VIA you can usually look forward to workarounds and having to disable certain BIOS setting that can make a difference in performance, just to stabilize the system.

I don't think I'll ever own another motherboard based on VIA chipsets again for as long as I live, if I can help it.

I think if I were going to get a motherboard based on the Nvidia nforce chipset, I'd be inclined to get the A-bit NV7-133R. Nice thing about it, is they took out the GF2 MX core and opted for other nice features like RAID, and an extra UltraATA 133 controller. Much better options IMHO of what to integrate, since if you get one a board using the Nforce 420, as apposed the 415-D (identical to 420 in every way with the exception of builtin GF 2 MX), you're going to probably want a decent video card anyway if you play games.

I was originally excited about the MSI K7N-420 pro, but after reading some reviews I was a bit disappointed. Seems like the A-bit is a better way to go. There's probably some other motherboards I haven't researched yet that are pretty good too.

[Orac]

I read up on the board. The 2nd DIMM thing is, if you put a stick of memory in either DIMM 1 or 2 or both and DIMM 3, It will be running "twinbank". Supposedly if you don't do it this way, the memory performance is lower.

Yes this is true. You'll need at least two sticks of DRAM to take advantage of the twinbank, but there's still the issue of the Athlon's frontsidebus.

[viditor]

"Actually the GF2 MX core buit into the GPU isn't on par with equivilent card "

Actually, I've found the opposite to be true with one caveat...you MUST be using 2 sticks of DDR to "activate" the twinbank architecture.

"The reason is because it will eat up your memory bandwidth if you use the onboard video "

If you are using 2 sticks of RAM, then you end up with (essentially) 2-64 bit memory controllers...one for the CPU (which can only utilise 64bit) and one for the GPU (on-board video). These memory contrlollers are interactive, so your processor will still be able to utilise the RAM in the second bank, but the second 64-bit stream will only work with the GPU.

The built-in audio is a totally different story however. It really kicks ass. It's even better than if you had an SBlive! card

Amen to that! It's the best audio chip I've found at ANY price!

The nforce looks to be a promising chipset, but it's advances by using twinbank memory architecture (dual 64-bit memory controllers) seem to be negated by the Athlon's ****ty FSB

I don't know if I agree with your conclusion here...IMHO, the bigger problem is Athlon's inability to address all 128 bits rather than it's FSB (though more speed couldn't hurt...<grin>).

Regardless of any of that the Nforce chipset seems to be a good value. At least as good as other offerings by other chipsets. Like there doesn't seem to be any advantage to the nforce 420 over the KT266A, but I'd be more inclined to get the nforce because VIA chipsets are total **** IMHO

I absolutely agree (I now own 2 MSI K7N420 Pro boards).

I think if I were going to get a motherboard based on the Nvidia nforce chipset, I'd be inclined to get the A-bit NV7-133R

Actually, I'd wait a few weeks...the new nForce boards should be out here in Oz by mid-August at the latest (according to MSI and others). These should have USB 2.0, Firewire, ATA133 native, GeForce4 MX440 on-board, and possibly some other new cool stuff!

Cheers,
Charles