kt333 or new nforce? + nforce questions

[Alex]

i liked kt333 cuz of usb 2.0 and pc333 memory... now the new nforce has both those features... frankly, the only thing i have against the nforce is the integrated video...

i have a few nforce questions too:

- can the onboard sound be disabled, say if i want to put in an audigy? (dont try to convince me to use the onboard sound i WANT audy!!!)
- if im using a non integrated video card will i still see all of the better memory bandwidth things or not? cuz if not then this board is no better than the kt333 except for having more integrated stuff, eh?

thx

 

[jcmkk]

The KT333 has actually surpassed the NForce in memory performance from the benchmarks that I've seen. I think that it is best to go with a KT333 solution unless you're the kind of person who just despises VIA. The NForce boards are a little lacking in tweaking and overclocking features in my opinion.

 

[PlatinumGold]

check out latest reviews of N415 boards. it's the nvidia board w/o the video. still has the nvidia audio tho.

it is at the VERY top of performance. it outperforms the n420 by quite a bit. plus the asus version has thermal protection for the athlon cpu's. pretty important for peace of mind. link

 

[Athlon4all]

Don't get nForce for Twinbank. It's nothing unless Integrated Video is involved. But, though Asus A7N266-C is available for $110, and it is maybe the best ocing board, and has the sound, and LAN, and if you want USB2, and RAID, then Abit NV7-133R is avialable for $130. Frankely, it'd be hard pressed for me to not recommend either of these 2. Yes you can still use Twinbank without video, but it won't be any faster. And yes you can disable all the on-board features but I can't see why you would want to.

 

[billyjak]

I'm waiting for the 620 chipset to arrive, Nvidia will be in my next sytem.

 

[jeffrey]

"I'm waiting for the 620 chipset to arrive, Nvidia will be in my next sytem."

I think that's what franguinho was talking about also.



"The KT333 has actually surpassed the NForce in memory performance from the benchmarks that I've seen."

You've seen benchmarks for the 620? If you were referring to the 420, then that's not what the original post was for.


franguinho, the KT333 is available now and the 620 isn't. If you want a board now, I'd go for the KT333. If you can wait, then you'll probably not be deciding between these two, but between the Nvidia 620 and the VIA KT400.

 

[PlatinumGold]

actually jeffrey

check out this review.

you'll see that the 415 is pretty competitive w/ the Via 333 chipset. the 415 is also slightly faster than the 420 making it one of the fastest solutions possible.

as to the question of oc'ing. i don't know if this board OC's well or not. so if your looking to oc this might not be ur best bet.

finally the recently announced 620 / 615 doesn't look to add too much performance.

you can get the 415 for $110 at newegg or mwave.

 

[Alex]

thanks for all the input guys, jeffrey in particular!

i guess what drew me to the nforce was the whole twinbank memory stuff ... all im lookin for in my next mobo is pc2700 support and usb2.0 support. i dont care for onboard things as ill most likely switch them all off (except maybe for lan, as i have a cheap dlink card) and i wont need raid cuz ill be using a scsi hd...

hmmm the GigaByte G7RX (or something) looks nice... the RXP one has raid and stuff but the just 'RX' model seems to have usb 2.0 altho theres no mention of it in the newegg description.... hmmm and cheap too $120.... i like

the only other thing i would have liked to see was 64bit pci and agp8x altho i habe absolutely NO use for them right now!

oh, btw, will the kt333 be compatible with the thoroughbred?

cuz since im buying it only in late august i might as well get the thoroughbred and i dont want to have bought the mobo beforehand and find out its incompatible!

 

[j@cko]

<< cuz since im buying it only in late august i might as well get the thoroughbred and i dont want to have bought the mobo beforehand and find out its incompatible! >>



and since you are buying it in late August, you will not buy KT333. KT400 will be what you will be looking at or n620.

 

[Fokks]

Here's a vote for the nforce. I'm running the msi420 right now.

+'s
Not Via (no 4in1 nonsense, rock stable)

-'s
Can't think of any honestly.

P.S. I don't know why you would hold the integrated video against it. If you're not using it, it doesn't hurt, and if you do need it. Say in between video card upgrades, you can fall back to it temporarily. Plus it makes it all the easier to sell later on. Think about it, it doesn't need ANY additional cards. You've got good quality built in video/ethernet/sound. All ready for mom, dad, girlfriend, whoever when you're ready to move onto something new.

 

[Alex]

<< Here's a vote for the nforce. I'm running the msi420 right now.

+'s
Not Via (no 4in1 nonsense, rock stable)

-'s
Can't think of any honestly.

P.S. I don't know why you would hold the integrated video against it. If you're not using it, it doesn't hurt, and if you do need it. Say in between video card upgrades, you can fall back to it temporarily. Plus it makes it all the easier to sell later on. Think about it, it doesn't need ANY additional cards. You've got good quality built in video/ethernet/sound. All ready for mom, dad, girlfriend, whoever when you're ready to move onto something new. >>



but what if i want to use an ati video card and i have nvidia integtrated?? is it ok?

what i understood was that in the mobos with integrated video that you couldnt use any other video... but then again i suppose if im using another card then the whole twinbank thing wont work either...

hmmm i think ill go with VIA (love them!!) and kt400

 

[Gstanfor]

Current nforce boards do not support AGP 2.0 at the chipset level, the newer 620 chipset may.

an Ati video card will work just fine on nforce.

Twinbank (128 bit mode) will work regardless of your graphics solution. It is not dependant on it. If you are going to add a graphics card though the nforce 415 is probably the safer route.

IMO twinbank memory architecture has not really had the chance to show its full potential when used with external AGP cards yet (the new codecreatures demo will help answer that question with a 64mb GF3 or radeon installed).

 

[RanDum72]

what i understood was that in the mobos with integrated video that you couldnt use any other video... but then again i suppose if im using another card then the whole twinbank thing wont work either...

You can use any other AGP card as long as its 1.5volts. If the senses an AGP card, it will disable the built-in video. The twin-bank architecture will still work even if you have another video card. All you need are two DDR memory sticks. Twin-bank will increase memory performance but only slightly; its real benefits is if you use the built-in video, where system performance doesn't slow down even if the memory is shared between system and video card. I have the Asus A7N266-C based on the nforce 415 (no built-in video but has built-in sound) and its as fast (probably slightly faster) than my Epox 8KHA+ based on the VIA KT266A. If you don't want the built-in sound, you can easily disable it in the BIOS setup.

 

[Alex]

hmmm good arguments but i think that whatever the twinbank advantage is its only a matter of a few % and IMO its not really worth it. plus the thoroughbred will need a new chipset (kt400) and im not sure if nvidia will have anything ready at the time... actually... on second thought:

if there is any performance increase albeit a small one, nforce is still cheaper than via boards so i might just look into it... i kinda dislike nvidia tho...

 

[matrix175]

I'm running an Abit NV7-133R and it has not given me any problems. From the start, loaded: win xp, usb 2.0 drivers, lan dirvers. I'm not using the sound card since i don't want a sound blaster 5.1 paper weight. Certainly a better experience than messing with VIA 4 in 1 Driver.

 

[Akaz1976]

Would all these boards support my year old Duron 800?

Akaz

 

[Gstanfor]

<< Would all these boards support my year old Duron 800? >>


Yes, they should. In fact most decent socket A boards should be capable of running anything from a Duron 600 (the slowest socket A cpu) right up to the XP 2100+

Greg

 

[AmdInside]

I love my nForce motherboard. I think if it hadn't been for nForce, I'd be using an Intel processor right now.

 

[Alex]

argh

via all the way!!

 

[Sunner]

Another vote in nVidia's favour, based on my personal experiences with VIA.

Generally I dont really think there's anything wrong with VIA, but I dont think they're great either, while everyone with nForce mobos seem to love them.

 

[AbRASiON]

The Nforce does not have USB 2.0 support and it was also not mentioned in any of the PR for the nforce 620 / 615.

Rumours have it the 620 / 615 is just "hacked in" 333mhz support (166 DDR) that won't have any other features, then later in the year they will release a GF4MX DDR 400? version of the board with full AGP 8X and .13 micron support (well they might have that now, but it will be quite official then)

The real question is will the AMD chips scale with 166 FSB or even dual 166 fsb in dual - ddr mode (which could be great) only unlocking the chip would really get that to work.

I don't think we will see a new chipset from nvidia until the .13 chip is officially announced - we might see 2 more chipsets from nvidia total - 615/ 620 and the usb 2 agp 8x verison with 400mhz support later - then it will be all 64bit.

So basically if you want the "last of the 32bits" I figure buying late this year is the way to go.

P.S Screw the KT333, it's a via chipset, = goatse.