Which is better, K8V or K8N?

[Solitude]

Newbie, never built w/ AMD proc. Please excuse me if i ask stupid question.

Could someone please tell me which chipset is better, the K8V or the K8N chipset for the A64 3000+ or 2800+. Which mobo as well? In addition, the AMD cpu has an issue w/ the sheet metal heat transfer, what is that? Similar to the Artic Silver 5. Why do I need to use this, am i required to use this? Intel never did.

Thanks,

 

[theblackbox]

i personally went with the k8n after reading reviews of the nforce3 250. I lke the one chip solution and the fact the gigabit ethernet is part of the chipset so the only limiting factor on the transfer of data through ethernet is the speed of hard drive.

i have a 3000+ in mine and it runs 24/7, i use it as my #2 gaming machine, and a htpc all other times.

 

[JonB]

As a K8V owner, I sure do see a lot of "what's wrong with my K8N" threads. May just be me, though. Or, all the K8V owners may have sold their boards and gotten K8Ns.

As I continue to browse, I see a bunch of ASUS K8V threads (good and bad). Perhaps my MSI K8V is just forgotten.

 

[Nessism]

Originally posted by: Solitude

Newbie, never built w/ AMD proc. Please excuse me if i ask stupid question.

Could someone please tell me which chipset is better, the K8V or the K8N chipset for the A64 3000+ or 2800+. Which mobo as well? In addition, the AMD cpu has an issue w/ the sheet metal heat transfer, what is that? Similar to the Artic Silver 5. Why do I need to use this, am i required to use this? Intel never did.

Thanks,

A64 chips have a "heat spreader", same as P4 chips, which is a metal cap that covers the CPU and makes mounting the heat sink much easier and more fool proof.

Chipset wise, speed is equal unless you are going to try extreem overclocking. In that case, the nForce chipset has a working AGP/PCI lock which is useful. The Pro version of the VIA chipset is suspose to have a working lock so check the details carefully to make sure you know what you're getting.

Good luck.

Ed