Should I Wait for Nforce 415-D???

[DaveTkat]

Should I wait for the Nforce 415-D? I don't know if its worth the wait or not. I would buy a Abit K7RA or Epox 266a motherboard but I had my eyes set on the Nforce 415-D. The review they gave on this link 415-d Review made it sound better but they say it may not even come out because of the market. The asus 266a-c sounds great but when is it going to come out. What should I do?

 

[AGodspeed]

The review you linked to isn't very accurate in one regard, and that's overclocking. Aceshardware was able to overclock the ASUS A7N266-E (nForce 420-D) to 165MHz FSB without any problems. The ASUS A7N266-C (nForce 415-D) is already selling in the UK, and should be released in the U.S. in a matter of days/weeks. A7N266-C should overclock to ~165MHz FSB just like the A7N266-E unless ASUS did something very different to the board, which I doubt.

In the UK, the A7N266-C is ~105 pounds (~$150 U.S.). By the time this board makes its way to the U.S., it should be slightly lower than that price, and will go even lower in a matter of weeks after its release here.

Personally, I think ASUS hasn't given their A7N266-C enough features (and the price is too high IMO). Abit's NV7-133R (415-D) motherboard should be released soon. It has RAID ATA 133, USB 2.0, 3 DIMM slots, nForce sound, and friendly overclocking options. This board is supposed to start out at ~ $130 U.S. This board will be a big hit among enthusiasts here if it's just $130, since it offers almost everything an enthusiast could possibly want.

SiS, VIA, and ALi aren't introducing anything new in the coming months, just as nVidia isn't. There's nothing new to introduce except support for features like ATA 133, USB 2.0, etc. DDR333 won't really matter that much either, since the Athlon can't take advantage of it. From my own experience and from talking to other people about nForce boards (like MSI K7N420 and ASUS A7N266/E), nForce is stable and very fast. Once prices come down, I'm sure a lot of peeps here will be jumping on nForce (415-D).

 

[Athlon4all]

I agree with AGodspeed about the A7N266-C. If I wanted to wait for nForce 415, I'd wait for Abit NV7-133R. It looks like a great board, with loads of features.

<< There's nothing new to introduce except support for features like ATA 133, USB 2.0, etc. DDR333 won't really matter that much either, since the Athlon can't take advantage of it. >>

This is totally OT, but I thought I'd point out that nForce does have something to gain from DDR333 support. Why? With PC2700, the amount of memory bandwidth for the Integrated video on 420-D will increase from the 2.1GB/ps that it's at now to at least 2.7GB/ps (exact same bandy as a MX400), and also if you take into account the extra 0.6GB/ps that the Athlon's fsb can't use, you'll get a "MX" that will perform faster than a regular MX. Just thought I'd mention that.

 

[AGodspeed]

<< I agree with AGodspeed about the A7N266-C. If I wanted to wait for nForce 415, I'd wait for Abit NV7-133R. It looks like a great board, with loads of features.

<< There's nothing new to introduce except support for features like ATA 133, USB 2.0, etc. DDR333 won't really matter that much either, since the Athlon can't take advantage of it. >>

This is totally OT, but I thought I'd point out that nForce does have something to gain from DDR333 support. Why? With PC2700, the amount of memory bandwidth for the Integrated video on 420-D will increase from the 2.1GB/ps that it's at now to at least 2.7GB/ps (exact same bandy as a MX400), and also if you take into account the extra 0.6GB/ps that the Athlon's fsb can't use, you'll get a "MX" that will perform faster than a regular MX. Just thought I'd mention that. >>

Absolutely. If you're going to go with the 420-D's onboard GeF2MX, then the 128-bit dual channel DDR333 feature will matter.

But DDR333 isn't going to yield any significant performance increases over DDR266 in any other situations.

 

[ahsia]

So the nForce boards can use DDR333, but no significant performance increase compared to DDR266?

This may be a stupid question, but why not?

 

[Athlon4all]

<< So the nForce boards can use DDR333, but no significant performance increase compared to DDR266?
This may be a stupid question, but why not? >>

No they can't. nForce II is supposed to have DDR333 support, but I have my doubts. Heeking stability with Dual Channel PC2100 is bad enough, and DDR333 is gonna be a huge job for nVidia to get working without *uper*ability

 

[ahsia]

So it is pretty much a waste of money to get DDR333 for a nForce based board? Will I get all the performance I can get with stuff like Crucial or Mushkin PC2100 DDR266?

 

[AGodspeed]

<< So it is pretty much a waste of money to get DDR333 for a nForce based board? Will I get all the performance I can get with stuff like Crucial or Mushkin PC2100 DDR266? >>

Yes. You might get a couple % more with PC2700 in an nForce board (or any Socket A board for that matter), but don't waste your time or money. Unless you want to do some really extreme overclocking, but that's the fastest way to kill your rig.

 

[Athlon4all]

<< Yes. You might get a couple % more with PC2700 in an nForce board (or any Socket A board for that matter), but don't waste your time or money. Unless you want to do some really extreme overclocking, but that's the fastest way to kill your rig. >>