nForce2 Ultra400Gb may be coming at last

[mechBgon]

And it's about time, too! http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=16723 This would be the first native gigabit solution for AthlonXP/MP and also trades off the SoundStorm audio processors for native SATA RAID. I forsee these being employed as home servers due to the low cost and high network performance.

 

[Insane3D]

Bah! They are dumping the best feature of the NF2 (the sound) for native SATA/RAID? Sounds like a lot of wait for nothing. I'd rather have a board with the MCP-T and a PCI SATA. :|

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Insane3D
Bah! They are dumping the best feature of the NF2 (the sound) for native SATA/RAID? Sounds like a lot of wait for nothing. I'd rather have a board with the MCP-T and a PCI SATA. :|

nV didn't dump SS, the board makers did

This chipset does nothing for me given my usage, but it is good to see some nF3 tech trickle down to sktA.

 

[mechBgon]

Well, and unless I'm mistaken, the new southbridge doesn't *replace* the SoundStorm-equipped MCP-T southbridge, it's just a third southbridge option to choose from. So don't despair

 

[Insane3D]

I realize they aren't dumping the MCP-T, I just wished they could have kept the great sound and added the SATA/GB Lan fuction, but I imagine it must be extremely difficult to engineer all of that onto one SB.

I wonder if there was some way they could take the APU off the SB and give it it's own HS interconnect to the NB.

 

[Megatomic]

Like a southwest bridge chip?

This new chipset makes me want to yawn. I have a router so I do not need the hardware firewall. My cable connection is far slower than 100Mb/s so a GB port is worthless to me as well.

As for SATA, I just abandoned the only SATA drive I had in favor of a faster ATA133 drive. I don't need that either.

I'm sticking with NF2-400 Ultra/MCP-T.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Insane3D
I realize they aren't dumping the MCP-T, I just wished they could have kept the great sound and added the SATA/GB Lan fuction, but I imagine it must be extremely difficult to engineer all of that onto one SB.

I wonder if there was some way they could take the APU off the SB and give it it's own HS interconnect to the NB.

I can't really say much without getting into serious trouble, but suffice it to say that the board makers made it clear in no uncertain terms that they had no plans to use Soundstorm/MCP-T anymore, and since nV doesn't make products it was out of their hands. They could make all the new APU based solutions they want but if none of the manufacturers will use/buy it, it's pointless

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Like a southwest bridge chip?

This new chipset makes me want to yawn. I have a router so I do not need the hardware firewall. My cable connection is far slower than 100Mb/s so a GB port is worthless to me as well.

As for SATA, I just abandoned the only SATA drive I had in favor of a faster ATA133 drive. I don't need that either.

I'm sticking with NF2-400 Ultra/MCP-T.

Precisely my feelings. In fact, I regret buying this 36gb Raptor because there is no observable performance difference 99% of the time between it and my Hitachi 120gb 8mb Deathstar and I paid a huge premium considering how much storage I could have gotten for the same money. I may just trade this drive away for another fast 8mb cache PATA drive soon.

 

[will889]

I agree. PATA for me too. While it may be slighly slower it's alot more reliable and easier to work with with far less chance of data corruption, not to mention easier to deal with when overclocking.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Hoot
I agree. PATA for me too. While it may be slighly slower it's alot more reliable and easier to work with with far less chance of data corruption, not to mention easier to deal with when overclocking.

Hey Hoot where have you been?

I haven't had any trouble with my Raptor and overclocking despite my AN50R not having pci lock and running 240LDT. I just don't think the very minor speed difference is worth the trade off on storage space with this older model 36gb drive. I can see your point for many others though, as I've seen the post with those problems too. I do like the tiny sata cable but that's a minor point.

 

[athakur999]

Anyone found these boards for sale yet? I'm looking to upgrade my aging PC (Celeron 1.1 on a Abit BH6 ). I was originally planning to go with an A64 but I think I'll wait for PCI-E to get more settled in and second generation boards to start appearing, so I'm looking at the AXP as an interim upgrade since it's still the king for bang for the buck.

Hopefully we'll see some review action on this board...

 

[Cheval]

meh...appears to be another snails-pace rollout again.

 

[S4M33R]

OK, well wouldn't having native SATA drastically improve the performance of a SATA RAID 0 of 2x74 GB Raptor II's? I'm trying to get some really sick write to disk performance for video editing and some other stuff I might play around with once I recieve my second drive. The NF2 400 GB might be the solution for me at least.

EDIT: RAID -> RAID 0

 

[joshcloud9]

Yeah,

Where are they! I'm looking for a cheap upgrade for XP2400 / 266FSB MB combo
The NF2 400GB looks ideal combo for the cheap XP 3000/400 FSB

 

[will889]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: Hoot<BR>I agree. PATA for me too. While it may be slighly slower it's alot more reliable and easier to work with with far less chance of data corruption, not to mention easier to deal with when overclocking.

<BR>Hey Hoot where have you been? <BR><BR>I haven't had any trouble with my Raptor and overclocking despite my AN50R not having pci lock and running 240LDT. I just don't think the very minor speed difference is worth the trade off on storage space with this older model 36gb drive. I can see your point for many others though, as I've seen the post with those problems too. I do like the tiny sata cable but that's a minor point.

A little late in reply. Hoot=will889 now just for future trades so that my heat would equal my user name. I have been lying low for the most part and just reading more instead of posting alot. There are some faster PATA drives about to come out (16mb cache) which will keep it alive for a bit longer. I like the tiny cables too, but with PATA systems I would build I stopped using rounded cables and started doing a superb origami jobs on regular ribbon IDE cables that actually nearly totally hid the IDE cables and all you see is drives and a clean case. No wires and better cooling than your typical roundies. I think a single raptor is ideal for most people if they need a really fast drive, and adding nice big PATA for storage is a good idea for data integrity.

 

[tryanasaurus]

I found this earlier today EPoX 8RDA6+ I don't know about the retailer though. Hopefully new egg will have it soon

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

Newegg has a few boards already, from Chaintech (7NJL6), ABIT (NF7-S2, NF7-S2G), MSI (K7N2 Delta2 Platinum - a simpler version, -LSR, will be available soon).

The new southbridges run very HOT, even more than the MCP-T.

 

[joshcloud9]

Preview Message [ CLOSE WINDOW ]

I recently found these:

ThermalFX CSC-45SD Chipset Cooler

Sells them on eBay under username:
db45acp or the off eBay company http://www.thermalfx.com/

Thay are really good, I will be trying one out of a taosty GF4-Ti4200 shortly
Currently stuck on my MSI Southbridge...

All those NF2 400 boards are the MCP version and not the "real" 400GB with onchip TCP etc, correct?

Cheers,
JC9

 

[CraigRT]

I don't even see the point in doing this.. SATA support.... really though... big deal... who wants to upgrade to a SocketA board, when they can go S754 for so little. (I realize this will fit some people's needs, but I can't see it being a big seller)

Meh.

 

[joshcloud9]

That was my thought to start with, but then on further investigation I discover that the Athlon 64 platform is going to 939 (or whatever) socket soon and the current 7xx socket will be history.

I don't really need to upgrade but since I am on VIA chips I figured that NForce will be a worthwhile upgrade along with 400FSB from 266!

I jumped on the Dual Athlon bandwagon, at great expense, and where is that "New Technology" now?

And finally the clincher is that there is no 64bit software available to take advantage of it (No including games).
So a 50% increase in bus speed is pretty good...I will have to wait and see what price the 400GB boards are - they had better be cheap!

JC9


p.s. I just upgraded from a XP1700 to a XP2400 - for a total cost of $10 including shipping cost$!

 

[DAPUNISHER]

will889, good to see you are still active here

joshcloud9, skt754 isn't going to be history anytime soon, it will just be relegated to a 32bit Sempron platform as far as new CPUs for skt754 goes. Considering how well the skt754 Sempron performs, it's going to kill sktA off for budget minded folks *here in the states* once the price of the chips is more in line compared to the skt754 A64 parts IMHO.

I believe this is only being done to counter Via's KT880 and remain king of performance and features for sktA. A title that helps with the prestige factor, and may actually prove profitable in the overseas market where budget AMD systems are in higher demand.