Should I go nForce or stick with my KT266a?

[Imyourzero]

I'll try to make this short...

My current rig is in my sig (hehe). I've just recently installed WindowsXP and am very impressed with the speed and stability that my current machine offers at this point. But, I'm in a position to be able to switch to the new MSI nForce board at absolutely no cost to me.

I've researched the board and it seems quite fast and stable, and has nice features that the similarly-priced Asus nForce board lacks, but the benchmarks on review sites that I'm seeing aren't very consistent. On some of the benchmarks, the nForce pulls ahead of all other platforms. On others, the KT266a boards keep a decent lead. Some reviews conclude that the nForce is faster overall than the KT266a boards, yet some of the benchmarks tell a different story. I've seen the nForce beat the KT266a by a couple frames per second in Max Payne, only to lose by 10 or 12 fps in Quake III.

I just want some opinions on whether or not this would actually be an "upgrade" for me. Don't worry, I'm not expecting a huge speed increase (if any), but the nForce is kind of interesting and I'd like to try new things. Normally I wouldn't consider doing this, as I am not the type of person to go out and buy the newest thing every week just to stay on top (hence the reason why I don't have an Athlon XP 2000+ ). But, as I said, this switch would be free.

To be honest, I'm sort of tired of VIA's problems. I had the Iwill KT133a mobo and now I have the Soyo KT266a board. The speed of these boards is awesome, and they have excellent stability once you get everything set up right and tweaked optimally. I had an SB Live! with my Iwill KT133a board, and I won't even go into how much I went through to get my rig stable and running right just because I happened to have a VIA board.

But I have a feeling nForce would give me similar speed to KT266a without having to worry about 4-in-1 drivers, VIA patches, and other bullcrap that you have to download and install and update just to get your VIA platform running correctly. The idea of a unified driver for everything on the mobo sounds awesome to me...I am an enthusiast and yes a unified driver is simpler and may "take some of the fun away" but to me, fun is tweaking and experimenting, not being forced to download 20 different files each time you format or install a different OS just because you have a VIA board that's plagued with various issues. Examples of this include the SB Live! problems, the Windows2000 DMA problem, the VIA latency issues, the AGP problems, etc etc etc...

So, has anyone else here gone from KT266a ----> nForce? If so, what was your experience? Any regrets? Should I jump to nForce or do you think it will die a premature death? Now that my KT266a rig is running like a scalded dog (and a super-stable dog, at that), should I just keep it and wait for KT333/333a?

Thanks!

 

[Athlon4all]

It really is up to you. I think and many others will say that nForce is fine, and with the latest Unifed Drivers, drivers are great so really, at no cost, provided you won't miss the overclocking (K7N420 Pro doesn't overclock well when using the AGP slot), the RAID, and Smart Card Reader, I would go right ahead. It's fun to try new things! As for performance, nForce and KT266a are more or less on par with each other. KT266A does pulll ahead in gaming by a tad, but it really isn't noticeable so you make the call. I would go right ahead and do it.

 

[NFS4]

<< To be honest, I'm sort of tired of VIA's problems. I had the Iwill KT133a mobo and now I have the Soyo KT266a board. The speed of these boards is awesome, and they have excellent stability once you get everything set up right and tweaked optimally. I had an SB Live! with my Iwill KT133a board, and I won't even go into how much I went through to get my rig stable and running right just because I happened to have a VIA board. >>


You're tired of VIA problems yet you bought a KT266A motherboard? And that board is fast and stable for you. What's the problem? How can you be tired of VIA's problems if your motherboard is fast and stable?


<< But I have a feeling nForce would give me similar speed to KT266a without having to worry about 4-in-1 drivers, VIA patches, and other bullcrap that you have to download and install and update just to get your VIA platform running correctly. >>


The nForce needs drivers just like the KT266A does. What's the big deal that everyone has with 4-in-1's. You click on the setup button, hit OK a couple of times, then reboot. Big Deal! In fact, you don't even need 4-in-1 drivers in Windows XP. They're BUILT IN!! **Me scratches head**

As for KT266A and nForce, I'd just stay where you're at. You'd be wasting the motherboard anyway as you already have a kickass video card and sound card. A more meaningful upgrade would be the KT333A or SiS746 (both have AGP8x, USB 2.0, ATA133, and Firewire)

 

[Mavrick007]

My vote would go with NFS4 as well. You have a great board, the Soyo Dragon+ and a great video card setup. It isn't worth your time to frig around with a new mobo when yours is stable. Added in with the fact that you have lan, raid, and good 6channel sound on the Soyo, I would not exchange boards cause you wouldn't be noticing any extras with the nForce board, you would be losing features. Keep the setup and don't even worry about an upgrade until KT333a or higher.

I'm doing an upgrade and I'm still not going to have the machine you already do and I don't plan on doing another board/cpu upgrade for a while after this. If you must do something, just start playing around with overclocking cause you have a kick ass machine right now. Hehe I'd trade you though if you were interested.

 

[Link]

I, well my sister, I built it for her, went from KT266a to nForce. Generally, I didn't have much problem with KT266a, except occasional BSOD Everthing was stable. While I was shopping for parts for my sister's new system, I saw ASUS A7N266-E at the local Fry's. It's a very solid mobo. Overclocks better than any of KT266a mobo I've owned (Epox and MSI). Unlike MSI K7N420 Pro, ASUS A7N266-E has many overclock options. Due to built-in sound, n/c, and graphic(as a back-up), all my PCI slots are empty!

 

[Imyourzero]

<< You're tired of VIA problems yet you bought a KT266A motherboard? And that board is fast and stable for you. What's the problem? How can you be tired of VIA's problems if your motherboard is fast and stable? >>



I knew someone would give me crap about this.

First of all, I never said my machine was stable from the start. I've had my fair share of lockups and random reboots with this one, just as I did with the Iwill KT133a. Finally it seems as if I've gotten the kinks worked out.

Yes, I am tired of VIA problems but I bought a KT266a because I wanted SPEED. It is one of the fastest Athlon platforms out now, if not THE fastest. Yes, I could have gone with an nForce board in the first place and gotten similar speed, but at the time the Soyo won me over due to the built-in Promise RAID and the fact that the nForce isn't known for its overclocking prowess. But now I've decided that I'm not gonna overclock (yet), and due to my hard drive choices I'm not gonna use RAID at this time either.



<< The nForce needs drivers just like the KT266A does. What's the big deal that everyone has with 4-in-1's. You click on the setup button, hit OK a couple of times, then reboot. Big Deal! In fact, you don't even need 4-in-1 drivers in Windows XP. They're BUILT IN!! **Me scratches head** >>



I'm not just talking about the 4-in-1's. If you run other OSes, especially Windows 2000, there are several files you need to install to get everything running as it should. I don't mind as much since I know what to get, but it could be troubling for a novice that can't get the speed or stability they think they should have. You shouldn't have to go thru loops to get your board to run properly. With the nForce, there is one driver file that you download and install, and you're set!! No hotfixes or patches to worry about.



<< As for KT266A and nForce, I'd just stay where you're at. You'd be wasting the motherboard anyway as you already have a kickass video card and sound card. A more meaningful upgrade would be the KT333A or SiS746 (both have AGP8x, USB 2.0, ATA133, and Firewire) >>



Thanks for your input...I may just wait...I dunno yet. I think the thing to do would be to benchmark both systems personally and see which gives me better results. In one of the more recent reviews I read, the Soyo Dragon+ was a bit faster than the nForce in games, but in other reviews I've seen the nForce pull ahead of the KT266a. Like I said, I wouldn't even consider swapping at this time if I had to pay for the switch. It's not like I feel a need to move up...just want to try different things.

 

[chizow]

<< I'm not just talking about the 4-in-1's. If you run other OSes, especially Windows 2000, there are several files you need to install to get everything running as it should. I don't mind as much since I know what to get, but it could be troubling for a novice that can't get the speed or stability they think they should have. You shouldn't have to go thru loops to get your board to run properly. With the nForce, there is one driver file that you download and install, and you're set!! No hotfixes or patches to worry about. >>



Hmmm, this is all news to me. I've used 3 different OSes (Win 98SE, ME, and 2K) on both an Asus A7V133 and my current Epox 8KHA+ without having to perform voodoo on my rigs to get them to "run properly". Ran fine with the drivers on the install CD, everything else I did to my rig was completely voluntary to maximize my system performance. I don't think a novice would even notice the difference in performance resulting from my tweaks...hell I don't even think I could, the difference just shows up in benchmarks in points that realistically add up to a few % increases. I've said this many times before, if a novice wants something running out-of-the-box, they should buy a Dell. What some consider a headache, others consider an expected nuisance. If a person doesn't know how or isn't willing to troubleshoot, they shouldn't build their own rig....buy something that has customer support, is pre-tested and pre-built.

Chiz

 

[NFS4]

<< I'm not just talking about the 4-in-1's. If you run other OSes, especially Windows 2000, there are several files you need to install to get everything running as it should. I don't mind as much since I know what to get, but it could be troubling for a novice that can't get the speed or stability they think they should have. You shouldn't have to go thru loops to get your board to run properly. With the nForce, there is one driver file that you download and install, and you're set!! No hotfixes or patches to worry about. >>


There is nothing extra to install to get the chipset working other than LAN and Audio drivers if your board is so equipped and you choose to use those options. So what are you talking about? The 4-in-1's are all you need for basic operation. The 4-in-1's contain EVERY fix or whatever pertains to VIA chipsets. And if you're running Windows XP you don't even need that. For Windows 2000, all you need are the 4-in-1's

 

[Imyourzero]

I can name 3 additional things you need if you run Windows 2000:

Microsoft Windows® 2000 Patch for AGP Applications on AMD Athlon?, AMD Athlon MP, mobile AMD Athlon 4 and AMD Duron? Processors (on AMD's site)

Windows 2000 ATA/100 Hotfix: Microsoft supplied file for Win2K, to enable ATA100 under Service Pack 1.

3.12 IDE Busmaster drivers...these increase performance by a good margin on Windows 2000. I had to install these after the 4-in-1's to get my hard disks to perform at a decent level. Before these drivers were loaded, Windows took about 35 seconds to boot. After, it took about 10.

And if you had a Soundblaster Live on a KT133a board, chances are you had problems with the board locking up and crashing often, as well as possible data corruption. There were about 7 different solutions, a few working for some people and a few working for others. The SBLive issue gave me fits with my Iwill board, and there were thousands of other users affected since the SBLive was such a popular card, as was the KT133a.

 

[BD231]

Why in the world would you want an N-Force board if you have a KT-266A already?, seems kind of pointless to me...

 

[NFS4]

1) That is a patch from Microsoft and AMD. It is not related to a problem caused by any particular chipset (hence it is for use with all chipsets from all manufacturers).
2) That is a patch from Microsoft to fix THEIR screwup. It is not related to a problem caused by any particular Athlon chipset (hence it is for use with all chipsets from all manufacturers).
3) Both of the above were addressed in Windows 2000 SP2 so what's your point? SP2 is available for download.
4) The latest IDE BusMaster drivers are included in the 4-in-1's.
5) Fixes for the "SB Live!" issue are included in the 4-in-1 drivers and have been since version 4.31. It's under a directory called PFD once you unzip the file you download from VIA. It is installed automatically.

Anything else??

 

[DravenX]

If everyone is done, I would take a FREE motherboard at the drop of hat. Why not? Unless you have to give up your current board, you could just swap back if it sucks otherwise you have a new toy!!!!

I would love to have an NForce board thrown at me!

For the love of god take the board and have fun!

 

[Athlon4all]

DravenX, I agree. I will say this that the Dragon+ is a great board, and I would never hesitate to recommend it, and really the only reason I say go for it is because you get to mess with something new! So, if you're the type Imyourzero, that likes to mess around then go right ahead and get the K7N420 Pro. The Dragon+ you're on will prolly be fine, but again, so will the K7N420 Pro.

 

[Hendrik]

They are both amazing boards, and I'd be happy to have either of them in my system. The Soyo performs a bit better in most real world applications, the MSI is perhaps a little bit more stable (not that the Soyo is unstable, though). My personal preference is for the MSI, as it's got no VIA inside. VIA stuff tends to make for performance and stability issues.

 

[Mem]

<< Should I go nForce or stick with my KT266a? >>



Seems like a sideways move to me,if you`ve problems with your Soyo board then maybe you`re better off posting the problems here first,we will try and help you out,you never know it might save you the cost of a new board.

Okay I reread your post and you`re saying it`s stable now but you are tired of the hassle of getting it stable and installing drivers?

Well NFS4 is right why did you buy a VIA board then,your best bet is to go XP OS and don`t have to worry about 4 in 1 drivers period .

 

[Imyourzero]

<< 1) That is a patch from Microsoft and AMD. It is not related to a problem caused by any particular chipset (hence it is for use with all chipsets from all manufacturers).
2) That is a patch from Microsoft to fix THEIR screwup. It is not related to a problem caused by any particular Athlon chipset (hence it is for use with all chipsets from all manufacturers).
3) Both of the above were addressed in Windows 2000 SP2 so what's your point? SP2 is available for download.
4) The latest IDE BusMaster drivers are included in the 4-in-1's.
5) Fixes for the "SB Live!" issue are included in the 4-in-1 drivers and have been since version 4.31. It's under a directory called PFD once you unzip the file you download from VIA. It is installed automatically.

Anything else?? >>



Just wanted to say that I must have been "one of the unfortunate few." When you say "all that's needed are the 4-in-1's for proper operation," that's never applied to me when running Win2k on a VIA board. The 4-in-1's haven't always solved everything for me like you seem to think they should...as much as I would have liked for them to be a magical set of files that provided instant relief and remedy, they just weren't.

First of all, my IDE performance with my KT133a AND my KT266a mobos absolutely sucked in Win2k, even after installing the 4-in-1's. Windows would take SO long to load and file transfers would take longer than they should. It was like DMA wasn't enabled (to put the performance into perspective). But, upon a quick check of Device Manager, DMA was enabled. So I had to take further action and install the 3.11/3.12 beta Busmaster drivers on www.viahardware.com...Those totally fixed my problem with both boards and allow me to have great IDE performance (finally), but the bad thing is that they are more of a workaround than a true fix because you have this stupid IDETOOL program that loads at Startup and sits in your system tray and you can't disable it or you're back to poor IDE performance. Everyone knows that as performance freaks, we like to have as few startup icons by our clocks as possible because they increase boot time and absorb Windows resources. I don't want to have to load one of those things just to have good IDE performance.

Bottom line is, yes IDE Busmaster drivers are included in the 4-in-1's but those didn't do well for me and I got MUCH better performance out of the seperate beta drivers. Some people that think they are already getting good IDE performance in Win2k may be surprised how much of an improvement the beta drivers might bring. Experiment! (Note: I do not get poor IDE performance in WinXP, WinME, or Win98. Just in Win2k. Installing the beta drivers with the IDE tool in WinME does not offer any more performance than the standard 4-in-1's.)

Second, about the SB Live issue...once again, I must have been very unfortunate because updating my 4-in-1's NEVER solved the issue with me. I had popping and crackling in my MP3's, just like thousands of other users, and I was also very unstable in games. In games such as Serious Sam, the game would just randomly boot me out due to SB Live issues. I would have sound loss and sound glitches. I never noticed any of the data corruption issues that others were having, but with all the trouble I had, I wouldn't be surprised if they were there.

So then I had to go thru the rundown of possible fixes...there were BIOS updates that worked for some people, homemade patches that worked for others (similar to the "686 Bugfix" on viahardware.com I suppose), changing PCI specs in the BIOS, tinkering with soundcard buffer and acceleration settings, staying away from certain PCI slots, changing the chipset registers manually using WPCREDIT and WPCRSET...I mean it went on and on. I searched the forums and found dozens of people affected by the SB Live issues with VIA boards and this was a very widespread problem.

Just wanted to say that I have had my share of troubles with VIA in the past and if their motherboards weren't such high-performers, I would have definitely gone with another brand just to avoid the hassle and headache. I must admit though, that Windows XP and my KT266a make a wonderful combination, as no extra files are really needed, and I haven't had one single crash or hint of unstability.

 

[NFS4]

<<

<< Should I go nForce or stick with my KT266a? >>



Seems like a sideways move to me,if you`ve problems with your Soyo board then maybe you`re better off posting the problems here first,we will try and help you out,you never know it might save you the cost of a new board.

Okay I reread your post and you`re saying it`s stable now but you are tired of the hassle of getting it stable and installing drivers?

Well NFS4 is right why did you buy a VIA board then,your best bet is to go XP OS and don`t have to worry about 4 in 1 drivers period . >>


He's already running Windows XP. I really don't see what the problem is with his current motherboard. It's working fine and it's fast and stable. Why move to nForce when the board he isn't going to even use the audio and video. Seems like a waste of a good board.

 

[Imyourzero]

<<

<< Should I go nForce or stick with my KT266a? >>



Seems like a sideways move to me,if you`ve problems with your Soyo board then maybe you`re better off posting the problems here first,we will try and help you out,you never know it might save you the cost of a new board.

Okay I reread your post and you`re saying it`s stable now but you are tired of the hassle of getting it stable and installing drivers?

Well NFS4 is right why did you buy a VIA board then,your best bet is to go XP OS and don`t have to worry about 4 in 1 drivers period . >>



LOL, you must have posted your msg as I was typing my last one...as you can see, I am running WinXP now and loving it...no 4-in-1's or extra files needed. Everything's running as it should.

Yeah, it's not that I'm having problems with my Soyo board, it's just that nForce would be a free switch and I thought it might be neat to try something new. Basically I just wanted to know if nForce is any faster or any more stable. From what I'm hearing, the nForce boards are almost as fast as KT266a (a tad faster at some stuff, a tad slower at others), are very stable but aren't great overclockers and I'm hearing an awful lot about some users having problems getting their sound to come out correctly. Not sure what is up with that.

 

[Mem]

<< I must admit though, that Windows XP and my KT266a make a wonderful combination, as no extra files are really needed, and I haven't had one single crash or hint of unstability. >>



In that case no need to change boards just yet,wait for a later nForce model down the road with better performance if you want to change from VIA.

 

[Mem]

<< He's already running Windows XP >>



Hehe I looked at his rig specs and saw nothing and missed the first line on XP but saw "Examples of this include the SB Live! problems, the Windows2000 DMA problem" oh well .

 

[Imyourzero]

<< He's already running Windows XP. I really don't see what the problem is with his current motherboard. It's working fine and it's fast and stable. Why move to nForce when the board he isn't going to even use the audio and video. Seems like a waste of a good board. >>



The nForce 415-D would seem to be a more sensible move than the 420-D at this point, but I don't have time to wait on those boards to come out.

I agree with your earlier statement that moving to KT333/333a would be a more justified upgrade, as far as performace is concerned. But I'm not expecting massively increased performance. Just simpler setup. Of course, as I've said, with WinXP setup couldn't be any simpler on the ol' KT266a.

 

[Mem]

<< Just simpler setup. >>



Hmmm go and buy a console then ,can`t get any simpler then that .

 

[LocutusX]

I intend to be on the lookout for a good nForce board, as the defective PCI bus on the 8KHA+ (not Epox's fault, VIA's... read about it on other sites for more info) is really hurting some of the things I do (which require very high PCI throughput...).

 

[Imyourzero]

<<

<< Just simpler setup. >>



Hmmm go and buy a console then ,can`t get any simpler then that . >>



LOL, so true. BTW I do have PS2 and X-Box for when VIA gets the best of me.

 

[chizow]

Um, sounds like you don't like troubleshooting and workarounds, so wtf would you even consider building a system around a completely new mobo and chipset? The problems you mentioned are simple workarounds that the majority of users wouldn't even notice in their day-to-day usage. The SBLive issue? That was never a problem with KT133A or KT266A.....it died with KT133. Maybe its your card? I've used an SBLive! on boards with both chipsets and never had a problem. As for the Beta Busmaster drivers, they are included on my install CD and listed under "IDE Busmaster for Preformance"....I didn't have to do anything except click on the install button. It increased my Sisoft IDE performance under 98SE, ME and Win2K, but in reality, did I see any real improvement? Not really considering the apps and games I run use burst activity.

What you consider "necessary" in maximizing your system's performance is completely optional to 95% of computer users out there....thats why you "tweak" or overclock your system. There's a term we use in my profession....its the concept of diminishing returns...you can spend 20% of your time accomplishing 80% of the task and 80% trying to perform the other 20%, but sometimes its just better to cut your losses than to keep spinning your wheels. The majority of computer users do exactly that and oftentimes never notice what they're missing, however, the enthusiast will go for the gusto and try and maximize their performance. If you want something that runs out-of-the-box at an acceptable level of performance that you don't have to mess with, buy a console or a Dell. If you think a PC is something that should run out-of-the-box and never have to be upgraded or patched you should buy an Apple. I can't help but chuckle when I see people in the CS line at BB argue 'til their blue in the face about how they're pissed off b/c they had to download a patch to get something to work. People are silly

Chiz