How stable is the Nforce2 chipset?

[Dark1]

I was just wondering if this chipset is stable enough for me to start building AMD machines for people with confidence that I wouldn't have to deal with the issues that you get from VIA chipsets.

 

[KF]

People seem to apply the word stable to mean just about anything. I don't see anything unstable about the VIA KT333 or KT400. Any combo of chipset and other hardware could have issues. In the time when I was using Celerons and Intel chipsets, I had issues. I had crashes. I have moved to VIA and AMD more recently, and in general I have less issues, but I can't say that is really due to VIA or AMD. I tend to think it has more to do with Windows and a better class of add-in cards from Taiwan.

Since I have heard people say a few negative things about running the nForce drivers with W98 and Wme, it may be there are some (unspecified) issues. OTOH maybe these issues are related to particular mobos and the fact that ASUS has used some different addresses in their nForce2 implementation so that the generic drivers from nVidia don't install everything.

It seems to me you could have problems with add-in cards that are used in conjunction with nForce2 chipsets. An ATI 9700 for instance. Why not? It's a little too early to say. Give it a year and see what happens.

It looks to me like the intro of the first nForce2 mobos has gone smoothly. NForce2 boards are becoming more available, and prices are just beginning to drop a bit. I'd like to believe that the nForce2 has some advantage over the KT400 in compatbility with add-ins, but I really don't see anything specific to hang that belief on.

Let the flames begin!

 

[CurtCold]

Originally posted by: KF
People seem to apply the word stable to mean just about anything. I don't see anything unstable about the VIA KT333 or KT400. Any combo of chipset and other hardware could have issues. In the time when I was using Celerons and Intel chipsets, I had issues. I had crashes. I have moved to VIA and AMD more recently, and in general I have less issues, but I can't say that is really due to VIA or AMD. I tend to think it has more to do with Windows and a better class of add-in cards from Taiwan.

Since I have heard people say a few negative things about running the nForce drivers with W98 and Wme, it may be there are some (unspecified) issues. OTOH maybe these issues are related to particular mobos and the fact that ASUS has used some different addresses in their nForce2 implementation so that the generic drivers from nVidia don't install everything.

It seems to me you could have problems with add-in cards that are used in conjunction with nForce2 chipsets. An ATI 9700 for instance. Why not? It's a little too early to say. Give it a year and see what happens.

It looks to me like the intro of the first nForce2 mobos has gone smoothly. NForce2 boards are becoming more available, and prices are just beginning to drop a bit. I'd like to believe that the nForce2 has some advantage over the KT400 in compatbility with add-ins, but I really don't see anything specific to hang that belief on.

Let the flames begin!

I don't have any problems with stabilty from the kt133/kt266 chipset either. I think most stability problems are the addin's and windblows too.

Win98 won't be stable with anychipset imo.

 

[pillage2001]

This is a Flame bait. 🙂 Nforce2 has no problems as far as stability is concern. Let the owners tell you that. 🙂

 

[Utterman]

I have not had any problems with the two nforce systems I have built. If you try to use Windows 98 or ME, the drivers are not really that great when I tried it on there. If you stick with windows 2000 or XP, then it's a really great system. The Nforce2 is the top-of-the-line chipset for the new 333mhz FSB athlons.

 

[XBoxLPU]

I don't have any problems with stabilty from the kt133/kt266 chipset either. I think most stability problems are the addin's and windblows too.

Win98 won't be stable with anychipset imo.[/quote]

Ditto, I haven't had any problems with my KT333 chipset.

And XP/2K for me

 

[RanDum72]

The question is not how stable a chipset is, its how much work you put into it to make it stable🙂. Right out of the box, nforce1/2 mobos are usually pretty easy to get up and running with the least headaches.

 

[Dark1]

Does anyone have an Nforce2 board and a 9700 pro.
Have you heard of any issues with this combination?

 

[glenn1]

Does anyone have an Nforce2 board and a 9700 pro.
Have you heard of any issues with this combination?

I'm running a Radeon card on my Nforce2 board now (admittedly it's not a 9700 Pro however) with no problems whatsoever.

And to answer your question about the stability of the chipset, i think it's a bit too early to tell. Nforce2 boards have only been available for what, a month now? My board hasn't given me the slightest bit of a problem, but check back in a few months and it might be a different story. I don't think you can truly say a particular chipset, be it from Via, AMD, Intel, Nvidia, or anyone else is truly stable until you've had some time to work with it and discover any issues. For example, the problems with the i820 "Camino" chipset MCH controller weren't apparent at first either, and that was from the supposed king of stability, Intel.