lookin for a speedy setup, nforce2 or kt400

[Naruto]

I plan to jump on the 2100+ t-bred bandwagon and don't want to spend $200 for the tbred and 8rda+. I rather spend around $140 to $150. nforce 2 boards are more expensive, but are they worth it when i'm looking for very fast, but not fastest available? I know they give u maybe 10 more fps than the kt400, but can anyone give me some really good reasons.

 

[Audiofight]

nForce2 (if later revision board at least) will give you upgradability by supporting the new 400MHz fsb Barton chips
KT400 = no 400 MHz chip support, KT600 will give that support in the near future.

nForce2 - better memory management
KT400 - slightly behind the times, poor memory management and sometimes AGP 8x stability issues (but I think those are all cleared up via bios revisions)


I personally own an Asus A7N8X Deluxe and love it. The sound quality is superb. The dual NIC comes in handy for LAN parties when I need to give up my switch for others to connect, then the WAP can stay online by bridging the two NICs on-board.

The SATA is turned off, but is available. 1394 firewire and 6 USB ports ready to use. AGP 8x and it works awesome with my Asus GF4 Ti4200 128MB AGP 8x card. Granted, no performance increases with AGP 8x but it works without issue. 3DMark registers it as an AGP 8x card.

Anything else?

 

[Naruto]

400mhz fsb barton support is a good point, but i wonder how far the 400mhz barton would go until it is phased out, making a possibility of upgrading to it somewhat pointless.

 

[Audiofight]

I think 400 MHz Barton's are going to become very big in the near future. Why would VIA go through the trouble of releasing the KT600 chipset that will support them if they are going to stick around for a while?

Also, we all know that cranking an Athlon XP on the 133 bus to 166+ makes for some nice memory score increases because of the cache running faster. Why not set the fsb as high as possible to make the performance as high as possible? Easy speed increases, just requiring PC3200 in order to operate at that fsb.

 

[KillaBong]

Buy an 8rda+ for $100 and a 1700+ for $50. Nforce2 is far better than kt400 in my oppinion. . . whats the last kt400 board to reach over 200fsb?

 

[floccus]

Definitely get an nForce2 board.

As for 400Mhz support.... Being able to support them is a major advantage over not being able to. Imagine this, you get a KT400 and then in a year the prices on 400Mhz Barton's drops like a rock... then you need to buy a new board... think about it...

 

[TheCorm]

Another vote for Nforce2....much better boards....KT400 is a good value performer but probably worth spending those few extra bucks...

 

[nick1985]

nforce2

 

[chocoruacal]

Originally posted by: Naruto
I plan to jump on the 2100+ t-bred bandwagon and don't want to spend $200 for the tbred and 8rda+. I rather spend around $140 to $150. nforce 2 boards are more expensive, but are they worth it when i'm looking for very fast, but not fastest available? I know they give u maybe 10 more fps than the kt400, but can anyone give me some really good reasons.

nForce2...SIMPLY for the new chipset and future upgrades. There's also more room for overclocking, compared to the kt400 boards. But, all things being equal you WILL NOT notice any speed increase in an nForce2 board as opposed to a good kt400 or even kt333 board at STOCK speeds.

Ultimately you need to pick the board the has the features you want! I have an 8RDA+ and its a nice board

 

[pcmax]

I also suggest nforce2 however your going to be hard pressed to get a XP2100 and nforce2 board for $140-150. If saving money is critical I would also suggest getting a XP1700 Thoroughbred "B" which can usually hit XP2400 speeds, not too shabby for a $50 cpu. As far as nforce2 boards hit the A7N8X and 8RDA+ threads above to make your own decision.

 

[rogue1979]

I tried a 1700+ 1.5v t-bred "B" and a ECS L7S7A2 with the SiS 746 chipset. $135 for both, happily running 192 x 12 for 2304MHz at 1.71v with my old 512MB stick of Crucial PC2700. I can hit 2400MHz at 1.80v

 

[Naruto]

I noticed alot more people are getting t-bred A 1700+ from newegg. Because of the that, i'm not so sure on getting a 1700+, also since the 1700+ start at lower speeds and require more voltage to obtain a 2100+ overclock, i have seen several people fry their 1700+ =/

 

[yodayoda]

nForce2

get a 2100+ chip retail for $93 shipped. yeah, i know the retail HSF blows, but the three year warranty to AMD is nice and the chip friggin' flies!