ASUS A7N266-C (nForce 415-D Chipset)

[CyanideUK2]

I am the proud owner of one of these boards. I have seen many threads stating that this chipset was unavailable and I would like to give you my opinions on it.

This chipset is exactly the same as the 420-D except there is no onboard graphics.

The ASUS board was 105 British pounds.
I have had this now for 2 weeks and my impression of it so far is fantastic!

First of all let me tell you my specs and why I chose the nForce chipset:

Athlon 1400 ThunderBird CPU
Crucial PC 2100 DDR Modules 2x 256 non ECC unbuffered
Creative labs GeForce 3 GFX
Adaptec 39160 SCSI card
Creative SB Audigy Sound card
IBM 40GB Hard Disk

I used to use the above hardware in an ABit KT7a (VIA KT133a) motherboard, Crucial SDRAM instead of the DDR modules obviously. Problem after problem with the VIA chipset drove me to get another motherboard. I got crackling and pops from my audigy which could only be removed by un-tweaking the PCI settings in the BIOS, the infinite loop error on EVERY game I had bar Unreal Tournament, which I was unable to solve. Below par IDE performance and a few other quirks to name a few.

I decided to go with a chip manufacturer I could trust, after owning an original Riva 128, TNT, GeForce DDR and GeForce 3 - all which worked reliably, I chose nVidia.

After reading many reviews on the 420-D chipset, the performance was fairly equal to the KT266A chipset so I hunted round for a new motherboard. The only one I could find with the 415-D chipset was the ASUS board, which was not a problem because ASUS has a good reputation for reliable boards.

A search through the usual online stores I use and I tracked this board down and ordered it from www.scan.co.uk

Two weeks has passed since I changed my old ABit board for this ASUS board and I have never looked back. It's amazing, it is THE most stable board I have ever owned, and that is running my processor at 10.5x143 and GeForce 3 at 225/517

I have not had a single crash or BSOD!

I can play ANY game now without autosaving every 5 mins.

My 3D mark 2001 score has gone up drastically (granted the DDR memory would account for most of this).


I can wholehartedly reccomend this board, its amazing.
If there are any questions anyone has about this board and any benchmarks you want me to run, I will be happy to do so.


Goodbye VIA, you will NOT be missed by me!

 

[jfunk]

Question:

Does this board have the CNR card for analog 5.1 audio outputs?


j

 

[CyanideUK2]

Yes it does and it also has an electrical S/PDIF output. Using the card loses you the last PCI slot.

 

[Athlon4all]

Woah dude! That ROCKS!!! How does it overclock (the board itself)? Forgive me for asking, but how many US $$$'s equals 105 British Pounds? Just wondering. I'm glad you love it. nForce is a great chipset and people just overlook it because of the GF2MX video, but hopefully that will change with 415-D. Congrats on the first person here at the Forums who has a 415-D board!

 

[AGodspeed]

Awesome choice for a board. Just a couple of questions:

1. What OS are you running?
2. What features does this board have? RAID? Firewire? # of DIMM slots? DDR333? USB 2.0? ATA 133?
3. 105 British pounds = ? U.S. $
4. Easy install? Good driver setup?

Thanks for the info CyanideUK2, and welcome to AT.

 

[CyanideUK2]

It's weird, we are usually the last to get things in the UK.

Everything is overpriced here compared to the US, so you will be able to get it cheaper than 105 pounds converted to US dollars which is approx 149 US Dollars

I have overclocked my Tbird to 1503 using 10.5 x 143 - which is the maximum I can get it working without sacrificing stability. Unfortunately there is no option to change the multiplier. I have not tried upping the voltage of the CPU yet (still at default) but on the ASUS bourd this is a jumper setting and not in the BIOS.

The guy in this article had better luck than I have so far : http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=45000290

I browse these forums quite a lot and only registered because I could see the need for answers on this new chipset

 

[CyanideUK2]

<< Awesome choice for a board. Just a couple of questions:

1. What OS are you running?
2. What features does this board have? RAID? Firewire? # of DIMM slots? DDR333? USB 2.0? ATA 133?
3. 105 British pounds = ? U.S. $
4. Easy install? Good driver setup?

Thanks for the info CyanideUK2, and welcome to AT. >>



1. Windows XP Professional
2. Fairly standard, it has all the features of the 420-D board without the on board graphics. I do not use the audio functionality of the chipset because I have the Audigy. The board does not have raid or firewire, and has 4 USB 1.1 ports.
PC2100 memory but uses the twinbank architecture to make it 128 bit instead of the usual 64. 3 DIMM slots and ATA 100.
3. about 149 US dollars
4. Incredibly easy, Just installed XP and used the unified drivers from nVidia's website.

 

[RagingGuardian]

I was waiting for this board all along but I've decided to get the 420-D instead. The reason being that whenever I upgrade my video card or have to ship my video card anywhere I can use the onboard graphics. I had a PCI card for this but it doesn't do that well at high resolutions.

 

[Dulanic]

Thanks for the news! Once I get the cash I want to switch MBs and from now on Asus is my only choice. Had a IWill KK266 and have a EPoX 8K7A now and had nothing but problems with both. So Ill either get this or a Asus KT333 board when it comes out and it gets good marks. Dunno why I ever switched from Asus, I knew I kept with them for a reason.

 

[AGodspeed]

<<

<< Awesome choice for a board. Just a couple of questions:

1. What OS are you running?
2. What features does this board have? RAID? Firewire? # of DIMM slots? DDR333? USB 2.0? ATA 133?
3. 105 British pounds = ? U.S. $
4. Easy install? Good driver setup?

Thanks for the info CyanideUK2, and welcome to AT. >>



1. Windows XP Professional
2. Fairly standard, it has all the features of the 420-D board without the on board graphics. I do not use the audio functionality of the chipset because I have the Audigy. The board does not have raid or firewire, and has 4 USB 1.1 ports.
PC2100 memory but uses the twinbank architecture to make it 128 bit instead of the usual 64. 3 DIMM slots and ATA 100.
3. about 149 US dollars
4. Incredibly easy, Just installed XP and used the unified drivers from nVidia's website. >>



Thanks for the info CyanideUK2.

I crosschecked the $149 figure you quoted, and it is indeed correct. Looking at the "Key Currency Cross Rates" section in the Wall Street Journal (Section C) 1 British pound = 1.434 U.S. dollars. 1.434 x 105 = 150.57

ASUS A7N266-C = $150.57 U.S. Dollars

This is good news for other nForce 415-D boards only because ASUS always charges a premium for their boards. For god sakes, their KT266A board is $146 at Newegg. MSI, Abit, and other mainboard manufacturers will definitely have cheaper prices for nForce 415-D. Supposedly, Abit's NV-133R (nForce 415-D) will be $130, and that includes RAID, ATA 133, USB 2.0, 3 DIMM slots, and nForce sound (but me want firewire ).

We should be seeing 415-D boards in retail channels here very soon.

 

[CyanideUK2]

You can always get an Audigy, that has firewire

 

[bunnyfubbles]

On the otherhand, ASUS is the only manufacturer I've seen to supply a card to take full adavantage of the nForce's audio capabilities.

 

[Athlon4all]

Me thanks CyanideUK2 as well for the info. These boards (especially Abit's) are really gonna give Dragon+ and company a run for their Money in terms of features.

<< On the otherhand, ASUS is the only manufacturer I've seen to supply a card to take full adavantage of the nForce's audio capabilities. >>

Well, some ppl have been getting ACR Cards with their K7N420 Pro's as well.

Oh and thanks for the link to the Ace's Hardware article. He always puts out good stuff.

 

[giocopiano]

You say the chipset "is exactly the same as the 420-D except there is no onboard graphics". Does that mean multiplier settings are supported? Asus don't seem to want to shout about this and don't provide the manuals for the nforce boards in the download section.

 

[giocopiano]

Sorry, read below it and it doesn't. Guess that's one purchase to strike off the shortlist.

 

[WBF]

I have a few questions for you CyanideUK2. One, does your board have the onboard LAN? The reason I ask is I thought on the "c" version this would be standard but I've seen a few overseas online outlets offering it without so I wonder if its being offered in this way where you are.

Two, I have read in the Asus manual information regarding a possibility of using a 56k software modem riser card that would be installed in the boards "AMR" slot. It is listed almost to the end of the book for some reason btw. I noticed though that the manual does not list this modem card as part of the "items included" list, nor is there any showing of a "AMR" slot on any pictures of this board I have seen. My question is, did this modem card come with your motherboard and second does your board have anything that resembles a "AMR" slot. My thoughts on this by looking at the pictures of the board and the card in the manual is that it might designed to fit into the first part of the ACR slot but of course this would not be possible if you were using the ACR 5.1 sound card.

To note a bit of info on this, I read somewhere that the MSI board had the capability to run a software modem but it was not functional at the time of the release. But it has since become operational via a BIOS update. I don't know enough about the MSI board to elaborate as to if has a port built into the board or if it uses a add-on card.

 

[CyanideUK2]

<< I have a few questions for you CyanideUK2. One, does your board have the onboard LAN? The reason I ask is I thought on the "c" version this would be standard but I've seen a few overseas online outlets offering it without so I wonder if its being offered in this way where you are.

Two, I have read in the Asus manual information regarding a possibility of using a 56k software modem riser card that would be installed in the boards "AMR" slot. It is listed almost to the end of the book for some reason btw. I noticed though that the manual does not list this modem card as part of the "items included" list, nor is there any showing of a "AMR" slot on any pictures of this board I have seen. My question is, did this modem card come with your motherboard and second does your board have anything that resembles a "AMR" slot. My thoughts on this by looking at the pictures of the board and the card in the manual is that it might designed to fit into the first part of the ACR slot but of course this would not be possible if you were using the ACR 5.1 sound card.

To note a bit of info on this, I read somewhere that the MSI board had the capability to run a software modem but it was not functional at the time of the release. But it has since become operational via a BIOS update. I don't know enough about the MSI board to elaborate as to if has a port built into the board or if it uses a add-on card. >>



My board did not come with onboard LAN, however it is an optional feature so there must be a version for sale which has this capability. ASUS have chosen to use the Realtek chip for the board version with the LAN option instead of the nForce's onboard LAN capability.

The manual has no reference to a soft-modem capability and as far as I know, this is not a feature of the nForce chipset.

 

[Blieb]

Does anyone know where you can order the A7N266-C / nForce 415-D model online??? (US)

I'd like this one over the 420 ... but I can't seem to find it anywhere!

 

[AGodspeed]

The ASUS A7N266-C won't be available in the U.S. for another week or so. Maybe this week actually, since it's already available in the UK.

 

[ahsia]

Any news on who will have these nForce 415-D boards? Is it MSI and ASUS again? Who else is gonna release a 415-D board?

 

[Daovonnaex]

I didn't realize that the Asus A7N266-C was already available. You made a wise decision in purchasing it.

On a quasi-related note, does anyone know the North American release date for Abit's 415D mainboard?

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< Any news on who will have these nForce 415-D boards? Is it MSI and ASUS again? Who else is gonna release a 415-D board? >>

Abit will release one some time this month.

EDIT: Abit's nForce board specs: Link

 

[rei]

hi cyanide, just going through old nforce postings.

what do you mean by:



<< ASUS have chosen to use the Realtek chip for the board version with the LAN option instead of the nforce's onboard LAN capability. >>



"Realtek ALC650 (AC-Link)" it says under the audio portion of the Abit mobo's listing.

http://www.abit.com.tw/abitweb/webj...PRODUCT_TYPE=MotherBoard&pMODEL_NAME=NV7-133R

I dislike RealTek NICs, and the inclusion of this RealTek ALC650 has me puzzled.

 

[airbus]

Lets continue that question about the Abit NV7-133R sound on the thread I just created. The Realtek audio chip might just be a gateway for audio to get to and from the MCP-D (and provide the 6 channel sound)????

Anybody has more info, go to the Abit NV7-133R Sound thread.

 

[ksoth]

Hey. I got this board recently, but am having some issues with it. First here are system specs:

Athlon TBird 1333 133 FSB
256 MB PC2100 Kingston RAM
GeForce 256 DDR
Intel LAN card
LT Win Modem
Using onboard audio with the 6-channel ACR card
300 watt PSU
7200 RPM IBM Deskstar 15 GB
8x4x32x CDRW
Windows 98 SE

The first problemis that I am getting some pretty poor video performance, about half of what it should be. I only get 1300 3DMark2001 on a GeForce 256, when I used to get 2500 on a KT133 board with a Duron 700. That clearly isn't right. The second is that when playing Diablo II or Baldur's Gate, after playing for awhile it starts to get really choppy and unplayable, then I have to reboot. Also, the sound in Diablo is funky, but playing MP3s works fine. I noticed that this motherboard makes the AGP slot share IRQ 11 with the audio proccessor. Does yours do that to? Here are the IRQ assignments that I have:

00 System Timer
01 Keyboard
02 Programmable Interrupt Controller
03 LT Win Modem
03 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI steering
04 Com Port 1
05 NVIDIA nForce MCP Audio Processing Unit
05 NVIDIA nForce PCI System Management
05 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
05 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
05 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
05 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
06 Standard Floppy Disk Controller
07 Intel PRO/100+ Management Adapter
07 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
08 System CMOS/real time clock
09 SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus
11 NVIDIA GeForce DDR
11 NVIDIA Audio Codec Interface
11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
12 PS2 Mouse Port
13 Numeric Data Processor
14 IDE Controller
15 IDE Controller

Now, I know there shouldn't be so many sharing, but there's nothing I can do. This is with COM 2, Parallel, and USB ports disabled in the BIOS. The MIDI audio option in the BIOS is also diabled. What are your IRQ settings like, and have you noticed anything that may be done to improve performance.