KT333 or KT400 or nForce2 ??

[EdipisReks]

the nforce2 is better in every way than the KT400.

 

[Jadow]

there's some good VIA KT266A boards. That was a good chipset.

 

[human2k]

Originally posted by: EdipisReks
the nforce2 is better in every way than the KT400.

True dat.

Epox 8RDA+ with Lan/firewire/Soundstorm 5.1 sound can be found all over the net for $99. Best place is mwave.com. This is the board to go with if your overclocking.

 

[Krk3561]

Originally posted by: Varsh
Well actually firstly are you wanting a Pentium or an AMD? The two boards I've mentioned are for AMD, anyway to the point in brief : Unlike the KT333, the KT400 can support DDR 3200+ AND allow for the new higher FSB coming from AMD and Intel later in the year, generally it's the choice now to get a KT400 as it now has the best possible upgrade opportunities compared to the KT333 which can use DDR PC3200+ but it'll be downclocked to 2700. To take full advantage of the KT400 though you'd want a 333MHz FSB AMD or the 800MHz Intel Proc., that way the DDR runs at it's peak. I have however found that with the AMD Proc they tend to have a lot of RAM leaks meaning that for some reason it's not performing any faster than a PC2700 anyway, I could be wrong about that one though.

Ummm, whats you logic behind choosing a KT400. Nforce2 is a far superior chipset, and uses DDR400 also, but in dual channel.

PS: KT400 does not support Intel chips like you mentioned.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: erikiksaz

Originally posted by: Varsh
I've heard there's a lot of hardware conflicts with the NForce mobo's, besides what's wrong with the KT400?

Nothing, besides the fact that the nforce 2 bests it in every way.

haha, yeah.. precisely.

 

[Hottie]

Originally posted by: JavaMomma
Nvidia is the only reason I still use AMD CPUs.

If the KT400 chipset was all there was for the Athlon...I'd almost rather have a Cyrix CPU

 

[UCDznutz]

Originally posted by: Varsh
I've heard there's a lot of hardware conflicts with the NForce mobo's, besides what's wrong with the KT400?

only conflict i've had with my nforce2 board (8rda+) is that Nvidia's IDE driver screws up my burner. THat was quickly fixed with a standard microsoft driver update, and no problems for me since then

I recommend the 8rda+ nforce 2 board.

 

[Whitedog]

The only problem I had with my NForce2 (ASUS A7N8x 'lux) is that I had to re-install WindowsXP.

Blasted thing wouldn't even boot up in any kind of mode.

But I was going to anyway

It just took me 2 days

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: Varsh
I've heard there's a lot of hardware conflicts with the NForce mobo's, besides what's wrong with the KT400?

well having owned a kt400 i can vouch that it is buggy as hell. also currently owning an nforce 2 (a7v8x) i can vouch that ive never had a single lock up or issue with it and its been running non-stop for 4 months....

 

[bsr]

nforce2 all the way !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Via chips are a thing of the past

 

[Varsh]

Originally posted by: Krk3561

Originally posted by: Varsh
Well actually firstly are you wanting a Pentium or an AMD? The two boards I've mentioned are for AMD, anyway to the point in brief : Unlike the KT333, the KT400 can support DDR 3200+ AND allow for the new higher FSB coming from AMD and Intel later in the year, generally it's the choice now to get a KT400 as it now has the best possible upgrade opportunities compared to the KT333 which can use DDR PC3200+ but it'll be downclocked to 2700. To take full advantage of the KT400 though you'd want a 333MHz FSB AMD or the 800MHz Intel Proc., that way the DDR runs at it's peak. I have however found that with the AMD Proc they tend to have a lot of RAM leaks meaning that for some reason it's not performing any faster than a PC2700 anyway, I could be wrong about that one though.

Ummm, whats you logic behind choosing a KT400. Nforce2 is a far superior chipset, and uses DDR400 also, but in dual channel.

PS: KT400 does not support Intel chips like you mentioned.

Oops, I've been kinda away from Mobo side of things lately
Anyway the simple fact that I never chose the 8RDA+ is that it simply doesn't have RAID and on top of that I don't need Firewire, sure it's 800Mbps and USB 2.0 is errrr....680Mbps? But I have nothing which uses Firewire, that's left for video editing and cameras, etc., on top of that I never overclock any of my hardware so that's fine with me but so far not a single problem with my 8K9A2+ (KT400) so I'm perfectly happy , and like I've said before, I've never had a problem with a VIA chipset so count me as a happy customer

 

[DannyBoy]

Epox board, nForce2.

Dan

 

[BullsOnParade_]

Go with the nForce2 chipset. Its the leader in performance and
offers some nice ammeneties, like firewire(400Mbps btw), usb2.0(480Mbps)
very good onboard audio (MCP-T)version and is reported very stable as well.
The Asus A7N8X deluxe is probably the top choice motherboard now, but i agree
with the Epox recommendation. They make cheap, stable and arguably the fastest boards.
I'd recommend spending more money on nice speakers and a video card and using the onboard
audio that the chipset offers, but not the onboard video. In any case good lucky,

~bulls

 

[LED]

Gee I'm surprized that no one has suggested for misle to wait a couple of weeks to see what VIA comes back with on the KT400A chip

 

[erikiksaz]

Originally posted by: LED
Gee I'm surprized that no one has suggested for misle to wait a couple of weeks to see what VIA comes back with on the KT400A chip

What's in store for that thing anyways?

 

[cmaMath13]

I am glad that all of you guys like the NForce2. Great!

I personally like the KT400. I have not had any trouble with mine, in terms of stability. I was just adding MY recommendation.

Can't someone have an opinion that is different than yours?

 

[LED]

Originally posted by: erikiksaz

Originally posted by: LED
Gee I'm surprized that no one has suggested for misle to wait a couple of weeks to see what VIA comes back with on the KT400A chip

What's in store for that thing anyways?

All rumors so far but for sure DDR400 support...other possibilities would be 1/6 divider, better onboard sound (True24or M-Audio),Firewire800, SATA, Networking, and of course better benchmarks to show up the NForce 2.0

 

[cmaMath13]

I you are interested in seeing some comparison between these two chipsets, then go here:
NVIDIA nForce2 and VIA KT400 Chipset Gaming Comparison (AMDMB.com)

The article is a little dated, but you can find some good unbiased information.

The KT400 and nForce2 chipset are still very competitive with each other, and have a lot of great features.

Another article:
Epox Nforce2 and 2700+, Epox KT400 boards reviewed (Inquirer)

 

[ShowdOWN]

Epox 8RDA+ with Lan/firewire/Soundstorm 5.1 sound can be found all over the net for $99. Best place is mwave.com. This is the board to go with if your overclocking.

that is exactly what i did today. in a few days i will also be saying. Nforce all the way!

 

[misle]

Originally posted by: warmonger
Over at the StorageReview Forums, I've noticed many more issues with IDE bandwidth on VIA boards than nForce boards. That alone should be enough to convince you about not getting the KT400.
That said, what kind of recording do you do? Do you record 24/96 with multiple tracks simulatneously? What sound card are you using? Give some more specifics on your other hardware and we might be able to make a more informed decision.

Good LORD!! Last time I saw this thread, it had fallen off the first page at 6 responses. Nice surprise!

warmonger, I do record 24/96, 8 tracks at once. I use a M-Audio Delta 1010. I emailed M-Audio about motherboard compatiblilty, but haven't heard back from them yet.

 

[warmonger]

I've heard reports of issues with the Audiophile and nForce2 boards, but it seems that they were very isolated. I haven't heard anything about the Delta though. I would expect compatibility to be fine on either one. The nForce has better performance though.
24bits/sample * 96k samples/sec * 8 tracks is only around 3 megs/sec total. Double that for stereo in each track. That's not too much disk bandwidth, so maybe you just need a drive with better access times? I would expect the CPU to be more of a bottleneck than the mobo based on that math.