NForce2 IGP booards

[CDD]

I'm looking for an all-in-one board to build a solid basic system for general use: office stuff, light gaming (think MAME) and DV Video editing/encoding/burning. I was originally going to get the Asus A7N266-VM, but I had to put the project on hold for a couple of months. Now that I'm ready to build again, I notice that the nforce2 IGP boards are staeting to show up. Newegg has the following:



Biostar M7NCG
Leadtek K7NCR18-G Pro
MSI K7N2G-L


Anybody got any experience with these boards? I'll initially have one stick of cheap 256M PC2100 DDR. Will that suffice to use IGP or is a second stick needed?






TIA

 

[mechBgon]

The second stick will boost 3D framerates by about 50%. Something to look forward to, at least. I wouldn't use "cheap" memory if you can avoid it... Crucial would be a safe bet.

 

[CurtCold]

Here is a nice review on the MSI board. Seems to be a pretty nice board, the upper models have all the features, but seems to perform really well for $92

 

[CDD]

The memory was too good of a deal to pass up. PNY for $14 after rebates.

(Showing my lack of experience here) Do the two sticks have to be _identical_ (size, from the same manufacturer), or would it be OK to mix in a stcik of crucial PC2100?



Thanks
CDD

 

[CurtCold]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
The second stick will boost 3D framerates by about 50%. Something to look forward to, at least. I wouldn't use "cheap" memory if you can avoid it... Crucial would be a safe bet.

MechBgon knows what he's talking about here. You ideally want 2 sticks of ram to take advantage of dual channell DDR. You can mix dif brands of memory, but sometimes you have issues. You want both 2100 moudules, because if one is 2100, and the other is say 2700, then they both run at 2100 speeds. Have fun with whatever board you go with, they seem to all be about the equivalent.

 

[MaxTS]

I built a sytem for a friend with the leadtek board, but without the integrated graphics. Seemed like a great board, no problems whatsoever. However the manual was useless. So if you are relatively new to building your own PCs, you may run into some questions the manual won't answer for you.

 

[Killrose]

I notice that Newegg does'nt mention that the lower cost MSI with the IGP chipset has on-board video, nor on the Biostar with the IGP, and if you take the Biostar link to the product it does'nt say anything about on-board video.

Don't all nForce2 with IGP northbridge have the on-board video? Just seems confusing because of the info I posted above.

 

[CDD]

For the Biostar board, you have to go to the 'mainboards' product link, where you'll find the following:

M7NCG harnesses the revolutionary NVIDIA® nFORCE2? designs, delivering the awesome graphics and system performance. It is a complete solution with the powerful GeForce4 MX graphics and the DualDDR memory controller that nicely realizes the DualDDR 400 architecture to a 6.4GB/s bandwidth. Furthermore, you can enjoy the 800 MB/s hi-speed bus between North and South bridges that the incorporated AMD HyperTransport? brings. Speaking to audio excitements, M7NCG delivers the Dolby® digital 5.1-channel for realtime cinematic 3D positional audio. In addition, AGP8X architecture, IEEE 1394a, USB2.0 and LAN are also included on this graphics motherboard.


For the MSI, you have to take a similar route: products->amd nforce2 where you find:

K7N2G-L
High Performance nForce Gaming Platform with Powerful GeForce4 MX Graphics
266/333 MHz FSB, Socket A, AMD Athlon / Athlon XP 2700+
Ultra DMA 66/100/133, 3 PC266/333/400 DDR-DIMM Sockets up to 3GB
ATX Form Factor, 5 PCI, 1 CNR, AGP 8x, 6USB
Ethernet 10/100 LAN



Dunno why newegg doesn't mention the integrated graphics for either board. I'm kinda leaning towards the biostar for the integrated IEEE 1394 (I'm gonna be doing DV transfers, so integrated is nice, especially for $108) although the MSI includes a TV-Out riser if I decide to use this for some HTPC stuff...