next motherboard purchase, Via or Nvidia

[SemperFi]

I have been looking over the kt400 boards for the past couple of months trying to figure out which one I want to buy. Well after looking through the forums and reading anand's reviews of the newest Nvidia chipset I am considering going the nvidia route.

I currently have Soyo dragon+ and I wanted the 400 as opposed to the 333 mainly because most of the 333 boards don't read the onboard thermistor of the cpu. Also I am currently running a raid setup and would like to keep it. The only board I have found is the chaintek that has onboard raid support with the Nvivia chipset.

So should I stick with the kt400 or Nvidia? If it is the Nvidia is the chaintek a good board or should I get the Asus and buy a raid card.

Opinions and suggestions requested.

Thanks

Semper Fi

 

[Vette73]

I would go nForce2 right now. But don't get the chaintech as one of the best reasons to get a nForce2 is the DD sound card on-board. Chaintech put a c-media sound on-board(C-Media is good but would rather have the nForce2 sound)

I like the Abit nForce2 board

 

[mechBgon]

For the record, most of the boards still won't report an accurate CPU temperature, whether they monitor the thermistor or not, because everyone freaks out. After being spoon-fed the low temperatures that socket thermistors produced in the past, most people freaked out when a board finally came out that really did give precise and accurate CPU-core temperatures (namely, the EPoX 8KHA+). Since then, even EPoX has backed off and their subsequent KT333 and KT400 boards do NOT give those realistic readings

Having said that, I think nVidia is holding the aces right now.

 

[SpideyCU]

Yes, it was unfortunate that retailers like NewEgg got these boards returned in droves because people, as you said, freaked out. NewEgg had to change their policy somewhat in response to this.

Semper, if you're going to use an nForce2 and want RAID, I *strongly* suggest getting a RAID card (yes, I know you said in your post that you would, but, I'm just reinforcing your decision ). Decent ones can be had for a very reasonable price, a price which more than makes up for paying extra for a Deluxe board with Serial-ATA on-board - and then paying even MORE for parallel-to-serial adapters for your drives (~$40'ish per drive!). It's just not worth it, and you can take that card with you to your next motherboard without paying again for a 'deluxe' version of your next board.

 

[kadajawi]

if all that you want is the temp readings... I recall reading at overclockers.com (I think) that there is some add-on thing, you stick somewhere on the board and then can read the temps... dunno how much it would cost and if it works with you board, but I'm damn sure that it will cost less than a nForce 2 board

Marlin: Sure? Yes, it uses the c-media thing, but not only as a codec? Like with the realtek alc650 used on most other boards?

 

[SemperFi]

Temp reading is not that important to me. Besides the memory speed there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of difference between 400 and the 266 that I have currently. Trying to justify the upgrade when I have 2100 ddr and don't plan on upgrading that in the near future.

Spidey I wish I could hack my controller I got with the drives I bought for my current raid. A couple of promise ata-133 controllers. There is a hack if you use an Asus board that has Award bios. Yet another reason for me to stick with asus. I think they have a board without all that serial ata controller. I will have to check that out.

Thanks for the input.

Semper Fi

 

[kadajawi]

the A7N8X doesn't have Serial ATA in the normal version... but then it lacks of Firewire, the second NIC and the Soundstorm APU. Not a good deal IMHO. Oh... and the A7N8X uses Phoenix BIOS IIRC...

 

[SpideyCU]

The 8RDA+ would be a good option in that case...except he said the hack he had would only work on an Asus board. Tricky situation Semper!

 

[Realguns]

Ha I moved to the ASUS deluxe version and the SI680 Raid card works fine. I will probably use the SATA Ports, they do raid 0/1, in a year or two.
29.00 shipped is not bad for a raid card.
Seems to work extremly well for me except the OCSYSTEM.COM PC3200 ram which barley runs at 133.

 

[SemperFi]

Yea that hack didn't work on my K7V with an ami bios. I'll have to check that site again to see if pheonix will work. As memory serves it is award only.

Realguns where did you buy that raid card at? I need to start checking around. I think the geeks has one under $30 off to check

Thanks

Semper Fi