Your next AMD mobo chipset... KT400 or nFORCE2?

[sysfailur]

Well what's your new chipset going to be? I'm probably gonna pick up both! *giggle*

[dmitriyaz]

teh Nforce al teh way! :eek:

[IFMU]

nForce alllll the way mah friend.. heh... With any luck.. Id love to get one to review for XS. But I think JBells gettin that perk. LoL

Lucky sob.. lol

[JBELL]

is there really a choice?

nForce!!!

[N8]

The faster one ;)

[DaGooch]

Where is ALi? :mad::p

[JBELL]

Originally posted by DaGoochMeister
Where is ALi? :mad::p

he retired.... and is very very slow now.

[scrllock]

Umm, kinda funny... :rolleyes: Anyways, nForce2 fo' me!!
It's all part of my secret plan. First I become an admin, then I persuade the owners to let me be a reviewer, and them wham!! Hehehe...

[sysfailur]

Hahaha, man. The nFORCE does look the s_ _t!

[LBJGH]

KT333 (8k3a+), new board tomorrow... I'll let everyone else sort out the KT400 bugs.

Hopefully someone will try a KT440 bios on the KT333 mobo and get 1/6 divider working. ;)

[dmitriyaz]

Originally posted by LBJGH
Hopefully someone will try a KT440 bios on the KT333 mobo and get 1/6 divider working. ;)
i dont think kt333 even supports 1/6 divider. not the BIOS's for it, the chipset itself.

[sysfailur]

Ummm ahg!? Look at this picture of the Abit nFORCE2. Yay to the elite ORANGE PCB!!!!! BUT... NO 4 HOLES FOR WATERBLOCKS!!!!!!!!

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/pc/docs/2002/0717/nvi203.jpg

[dmitriyaz]

god darn it...
this better be a joke :mad:

[scrllock]

Woah. Suck. As to 1/6 divider issue... Certain nForce mobo's *cough*a7n266*cough* had set agp and pci speeds, meaning you had no need for dividers... Of course, you couldnt o/c too high. Hopefully that will change with the 2nd ed. of it. But if you cant wait for 1/6th divider, the XP333 has it.

[DaGooch]

nForce2 has full support for 1 MHz FSB changes but will depend on the motherboard manufacturer's implementation.

[JBELL]

Originally posted by DaGoochMeister
nForce2 has full support for 1 MHz FSB changes but will depend on the motherboard manufacturer's implementation.


My money is on ASUS as they were without question the best for nForce1 ... but chaintech has my eye too now

and I hope ABIT doesn't let me down...

[mdzcpa]

There's a whole slew of NF2 mobos here. (http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/pc/docs/2002/0717/nvidia.htm)

It seems both Abit and MSI do not have the mounting holes. I would expect this from MSI, but not from Abit.

Hmmm. I tell ya, after the KT7A troubles with the Palomino...and the more recent KX7/AT7 problem with the Tbreds, Abit is on the verge of loosing my support entirely. I've always liked Abit's hotrod offerings since the KA7 days...but this is getting to be too much now. They seem to have lost their edge.

To not only blow it in basic mobo design for CPU support, but to intentionally leave behind thousands of high end users with highend HSF units and waterblocks is a clear indication they are no longer interested in the market niche we are in.

...a sad day:(

[DaGooch]

Possibly, they are aiming more towards the OEM market and it might backfire on them to forget how they got to where they are now. Their support was mainly from hardware enthusiasts. I do not know what they were thinking when the new TBred is so hot to begin with and using a clip on heat sink and fan combination will severely limit OCing and leaves a lot of the larger liquid blocks with four hole mountings out of the picture. I am now forced to go with the Asus with the nForce. :(

[sysfailur]

Originally posted by DaGoochMeister
Possibly, they are aiming more towards the OEM market and it might backfire on them to forget how they got to where they are now. Their support was mainly from hardware enthusiasts. I do not know what they were thinking when the new TBred is so hot to begin with and using a clip on heat sink and fan combination will severely limit OCing and leaves a lot of the larger liquid blocks with four hole mountings out of the picture. I am now forced to go with the Asus with the nForce. :(

Well I know Epox is pushing overclocking w/ their nFORCE2. For sure I'll be getting an Epox nFORCE2.

[dmitriyaz]

un-freaking-beleivable.
no mounting holes?
Abit is probably just playing with us! :)
um, Abit, you are playing with us, aren't you?

and where is the SATA?
or will it only be on kt400 MoBo's? :mad:

[JBELL]

Originally posted by DaGoochMeister
I am now forced to go with the Asus with the nForce. :(

About nForce2 (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,102647,00.asp)

nVidia's concept for nForce2 board... (http://www.tech-report.com/etc/2002q3/nforce2/index.x?pg=1) <- notice cpu socket location in picture.

The nForce team... (http://www.anandtech.com/chipsets/showdoc.html?i=1654&p=7)

Boards with mounting holes:

Chaintech (http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/shows/computex/2002/day2/chaintechnforce.jpg)

3 ide connectors, yellow on black pcb, phase 2 power, acr slot for audio.


Epox (http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/shows/computex/2002/day2/epoxnforce.jpg)

your standard looking Epox, only phase 3 power catches my eye here...

leadtec (http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/shows/computex/2002/day2/leadteknforce.jpg)

Phase 3 power, acr audio slot.

Soltec (http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/shows/computex/2002/day2/solteknforce.jpg)

Phase 3 pwoer, ACR slot, and onboard raid. Dual firewire!

ABIT (http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/chipsets/nvidia/nforce2/preview/abit.jpg)

ASUS (http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/chipsets/nvidia/nforce2/preview/asusnforce.jpg)



Boards without mounting holes:

MSI (http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/chipsets/nvidia/nforce2/preview/msi.jpg)

[MrIcee]

The Abit NV7ll in JBells link DOES have the 4 holes around the cpu socket:)

Randi:D

[dmitriyaz]

:eek:
yes it does!
i feel like i was just born again!
[:rolleyes:] i guess i really should get out more often [/:rolleyes:]

[DaGooch]

It may be too early to rejoice. If you open the below in two different windows you will notice some things.

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/pc/docs/2002/0717/nvi220.jpg
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/chipsets/nvidia/nforce2/preview/abit.jpg

1. Both are labeled NV7II-8X in totally different locations.
2. The layout of components is so different that one might think they came from different manufacturers.
3. The board from the Impress site is screened with CE and FCC markings and the one from AnandTech is not which leads me to conclude that it may be a newer and closer to production board. :(

[mdzcpa]

I would agree with DaGoochMeister on this one. The Anand image looks much more like an earlier stage preproduction board. We'll have to wait and see.

[dmitriyaz]

unfortunately, you guys may be right :(
but the board with holes looks to have more standard, Abit-like layout, which could mean the opposite.
aslo note:

=>board without holes has the 4-pin p4-style power connector on it, while the "holes" version doesn't. none of the others have that connector (epox, asus, msi, etc.), which could mean that the board without holes is, indeed, the prototype.

=>board without holes has the ATX power connector in the middle, and the "holes" version has it in the corner. like all the other newer Abit boards, BTW.

=>the "holes" version has the CNR or whatever the name of that port is, which looks like it is the production board. think about it, why would they add CNR port on a prototype?

i am just speculating, i have no idea what that all really means....

[JBELL]

Originally posted by MrIcee
The Abit NV7ll in JBells link DOES have the 4 holes around the cpu socket:)

Randi:D

thanks for the correction :toast:

[sysfailur]

Wee! Well that's good! I think I'll stick w/ epox. I have some sort of affection w/ them for some reason. But in any case, that's good one of the 2 abit's has holes! :)

[dmitriyaz]

um, again, where is the SATA??? :mad:

[septimus]

Definately the NFORCE!

I do not want to look upon a VIA chipset based mobo again :stick:

[xgman]

Looks like Nforce2 may have the edge this time! I'll probably go with the epox version.