*HOT!* nForce2 review up on Tomshardware for first 3 M/Bs. Asus A7N8X looks like the AMD "King of the Hill"!

[RideFree]

Be prepared, Tom is getting "hammered"

The Asus A7N8X looks incredible, to say the least!

A little Sticker-shock over at Newegg.

 

[First]

Lol, I'll have the same 3 nForce2 boards in my 3-way shootout in the next week. Oh well.

 

[Insane3D]

Bah..overpriced, overhyped Asus. It's seems pretty early to call it the "King the Hill" don't you think? You can barely even order any of them anywhere yet.

 

[RideFree]

Evan,
Wouldn't that be COL instead of LOL?

 

[Insane3D]

Review Link

I would hold off on deeming the Asus king until the rest of the big boys release theirs...Chaintech and Leadtek are not exactly mainstream....

 

[RideFree]

Insane,

pretty early to call it the "King the Hill" don't you think?

While I agree with you, it did sort of grab your attention, didn't it?
I only used it as a stick to "stir the pot".:Q
As my Grandpa used to say, "Believe nothing of what you hear and only ½ of what you see".

 

[Mem]

Asus A7N8X looks like the AMD "King of the Hill"!

Lol.. not surprised when you only have Chaintech and Leadtek in the test,wait for the Epox,MSI,Soltek ,Abit etc and yes Asus are overpriced/hyped etc in my books .

 

[RideFree]

Mem,
I see by your outfit that you know something about Linux.
Wish I knew enough to get an e-mail server powered up on Linux.

 

[Byte]

the seem to be coming out around next week, but friggin around $200 for most of them....

 

[First]

Originally posted by: Byte
the seem to be coming out around next week, but friggin around $200 for most of them....

Un, not really. More like between $135-188. Even lower once the value boards from ABIT, MSI, etc. come out.

 

[RideFree]

Evan, Byte, ETAL,

I'm aware that there are four levels at which to buy these boards. Tom's Hardware explains the differences (which I won't go into here).

The $200 (Newegg's tentative price) probably illustrates the fully-loaded model(s) coming down the pike. Like dual ethernet, g4 mx400 video, raid, 1394, USB2, SATA, (+ 3/4 bath both up & down and a kitchen sink). You get the picture.
I consider a motherboard with the whole nine-yards @ $200 to be cheap when it includes video display worth $75 just by itself.

This is way more video horsepower for my wife to play Spider SOL than we'll ever need (especially if I continue to never play games).

Others will argue that no one should be without an ATI 9700 (or nVidia equivalent). But then, that is why they make Ford and Chevrolet (and I drive a Dodge Ram Pickup).(The extra s are for the Caddillrack of pickups - aka/Dodge.)

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: RideFree
Evan, Byte, ETAL,

I'm aware that there are four levels at which to buy these boards. Tom's Hardware explains the differences (which I won't go into here).

The $200 (Newegg's tentative price) probably illustrates the fully-loaded model(s) coming down the pike. Like dual ethernet, g4 mx400 video, raid, 1394, USB2, SATA, (+ 3/4 bath both up & down and a kitchen sink). You get the picture.
I consider a motherboard with the whole nine-yards @ $200 to be cheap when it includes video display worth $75 just by itself.

This is way more video horsepower for my wife to play Spider SOL than we'll ever need (especially if I continue to never play games).

Others will argue that no one should be without an ATI 9700 (or nVidia equivalent). But then, that is why they make Ford and Chevrolet (and I drive a Dodge Ram Pickup).(The extra s are for the Caddillrack of pickups - aka/Dodge.)

The board advertised @ Newegg for $200 is Asus top Nforce2 model, with things like Firewire, etc, but it does not include the integrated video. The $200 is for non graphics NF2 board...one can imagine how the similar model with video will come out at...$250?

From what I'm hearing, the NF2 boards with video won't be seen in quantity until christmas time or so..

 

[pillage2001]

I'm a little dissappointed that he did not include any overclocking reviews on that board. Other than that, the nforce2 is looking sweet. If only it can do 200Mhz DC.

 

[RideFree]

From what I'm hearing, the NF2 boards with video won't be seen in quantity until christmas time or so.

Cool! Maybe I'll be able to take a couple off my income tax on 4-15-2004.

 

[RideFree]

one can imagine how the similar model with video will come out at...$250?

Gee! For that price I would expect dual Giga Ether...

 

[First]

The fully loaded ASUS A7N8X (which comes with the MCP-T South Bridge utilizing the APU, FireWire, and dual LAN among other features like SATA RAID) won't be $200. Newegg is just being greedy right now. Wait a week.

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Wow... that price is imaginative...

 

[First]

Case in point, Leadtek's nForce2 board is $115 @ Newegg.

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Looks like this is going to be a winner

 

[Palek]

What I really cannot comprehend is WHY ON EARTH Chaintech would choose to go with the CMedia sound chip when the nForce sound processor is RIGHT THERE on the southbridge. And if I can remember correctly, they use the MCP-T model which has Dolby encoding... Somebody care to enlighten me why they would do that? I am really quite confused about what functions the nVidia APU does and doesn't perform. I thought it was a complete audio solution with no need for external codecs. Do I know wrong?

Evan, I think most users would love to hear about just how good the sound quality is on these nForce2 motherboards and how much CPU time the nVidia APU uses up. A sound quality test (between the boards and when compared to dedicated sound cards) would also be very much appreciated. Most hardware sites were in such a mad rush to claim the bragging rights to a first nForce2 review that they totally skipped over the important parts. We ALREADY know that the nForce2 will be a speed king, so while the benchmarks will be useful, stability, compatibility and sound testing should also be high priority in my humble opinion.

Looking forward to your review! And now over to Tom's...

<EDIT>After reading the article I found out that ALL the nForce2 mobos use an external sound codec chip. What functions do these chips serve? And how do they influence sound quality/performance if at all?</EDIT>

 

[gmenfan]

Case in point, Leadtek's nForce2 board is $115 @ Newegg.

Wow, they even have it in stock. Pretty wicked!

 

[Martijnos]

I'm also very interested in de sound quality. I want to connect my pc to my dolby digital receiver and I've tried everything with my soundblaster 5.1 but it didn't work out. I'm looking to upgrade my motherboard and the nforce 2 boards seem to have a spdif out option.

 

[RideFree]

Insane,

The board advertised @ Newegg for $200 is Asus top Nforce2 model, with things like Firewire, etc, but it does not include the integrated video. The $200 is for non graphics NF2 board...one can imagine how the similar model with video will come out

I hate to tell you, but this is simply not correct.

Specifications:
CPU Supported: Socket A AMD Athlon/XP/Duron (up to 2.8.GHz)
Thoroughbred core CPU ready
Chipset: NVIDIA nForce2 w/ Video

 

[RideFree]

Looks like this is going to be a winner

Exactly, just like the 8k5a2+ & 3+.

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: RideFree
Insane,

The board advertised @ Newegg for $200 is Asus top Nforce2 model, with things like Firewire, etc, but it does not include the integrated video. The $200 is for non graphics NF2 board...one can imagine how the similar model with video will come out

I hate to tell you, but this is simply not correct.

Specifications:
CPU Supported: Socket A AMD Athlon/XP/Duron (up to 2.8.GHz)
Thoroughbred core CPU ready
Chipset: NVIDIA nForce2 w/ Video

I see what the description says, but if you look at this picture, it shows NO VIDEO. Also, the other day, it did not say video. Either way, I don't care, since I don't use Asus boards...