Another Nforce2 thread: any indications on how they'll compare feature-wise to the KT400?

[glenn1]

Curious, because i haven't seen any sites addressing this issue. Everyone is talking about the capabilities of the new GPU, but not much to be heard about what enhancements (if any) will be made to the core logic chipset. Will the NForce2 be bringing some of the goodies to the table that the KT400 does, such at S-ATA capability, AGP 8, USB 2.0 and Firewire, support for future 166FSB processors, on-diode temp sensing, etc. ? I realize that most (if not all) of these features could be added to the base capabilities of the NForce2 chipset with add-on chipsets, but that will drive the cost up. Even though the KT400 doesn't offer a huge performance boost over my current board (KT266A chipset), eventually i'll probably be upgrading (someone will want me to build them a system, i'll use that as an opportunity to sell them my old board and buy a new board for myself) and it would be nice to have the extra goodies like i named above.

 

[Insane3D]

OK, first off, this doesn't really answer your question, but I think you have some things confused. The KT400 chipset, 8377 North Bridge/8235 South Bridge. offers no new features over the KT333 other than AGP 8X. The two things the 8235 SB brings to the table are USB 2.0 support and a upgraded 8X V-Link connection to the NB (533 mb/s). However, the 8235 is also found in some high end KT333 boards like the Epox 8K5A series as well as the new MSI KT3 Ultra2. The other things you mentioned like Firewire, and S-ATA are not part of the KT400 chipset itself, and are the result of seperate integrated controller chips like Promise, NEC, etc. Everything but S-ATA can be found on some newer KT333 boards.

 

[yodayoda]

as far as i remember, the KT400 (should be called the KT333a) does NOT have certified support for DDR400. the nForce2 DOES have DDR400 support. it also has dual channel DDR, dual NIC, 6 channel Dobly certified sound and of course, the integrated Geforce4 MX graphics--all which the KT400 and corresponding southbridge do not have. also note, the 1/5 and 1/6 dividers that everyone wants are NOT on a given chipset--they are determined by the clock generator chip (usually a Realtek) and it is just up to the mobo maker to support the various features with their BIOS.

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Do we have a revised release date for these boards?

 

[NicColt]

Alot of people were sarcastic when I said that I would eat my monitor if the nforce2 was faster than the KT400 in this thread. Well that was back in early July now it's late september and it's still not even on the radar so as it stands now the KT400 is %100 faster than the nforce2. We all damm know the reason of the delay is because of the performance is most likely not upto par with what's out there now and specially if they follow the hoopla of the original nforce, of course the longer you wait the better the technology will be but c'mon. Frankly when it comes to chipsets in this business put up or shut up.