Nforce 2,anyone know much about this chipset?

[Z15CAM]

From my experience the nVidia NF2 ChipSet Slot 1 AGP MB was 1st to break the 2 Ghz barrier and go beyond for us PC Geeks when loaded with OCZ Platinum DDR1 and used a Single Core AMD Athlon Barton XP processor.

A Hot Rod that deserves respect.

The build is cheap today on eBay but Geeks, like me, really hate to give up the parts for a MB that took me from Win98 right through to Win7.

If your looking for something Blistering Fast try loading Win95C onto her.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

It's too bad AMD didn't add SSE2 instructions to Barton, it really would have helped it stay competitive with Northwood and last much longer. K-7 was really good at x87 and MMX math though which back then was much more important. Back then having a good chipset and motherboard were really important too.

I'm glad there's some love for this old hardware. Maybe we should petition for a old hardware sub forum or something lol.

 

[Deders]

Build the Platform, frame it and hang it on your wall.

I see I'm not the only one who thought these boards were wallworthy, although most people would just look at me as if I were mad. I think the diamond angle of the central heatsink factored in to the idea.

A Hot Rod that deserves respect.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[Z15CAM]

Deders: Your words are inclining me to find an EpoX 8RDA+ today (never ran it as I could not find one in Canada) to compliment my GA-7N400 Pro2 (rev. 2) as a Wall Flower ;o(

 

[Z15CAM]

The nVidia NF2 Socket A/DDR1 platform will run 32-Bit Win7 and the nVidia NF4 Socket 939 with DDR2 platform will run 64-Bit Win7 very efficiently and as fast if not faster then any modern Tabloid solution and the nVidia ChipSet is over 10 years old and does not exist any more. Credit is now due.

So what it does NOT like WinX - Neither do I ;o)

 

[Deders]

Mine would have looked like this...

 

[Z15CAM]

You found that MSI NF4 Red Devil but looks a FIC or a Alpina k7n2 Tomato?

No ID on the that MB.

Don't keep me guessing. What is it. Whats that Blue slot on the end PCIe x16 - Really? Could it be an ISA slot - LOL.

AGP with a PCIe x16 Slot on a NF2 MB is rare. That PCIe x 16 slot doesn't even have a Video Card lock on it. Haven forbid, a GTX 280 on a NF2 Single Core Barton platform. Did it ever work?

Forgive me, I've reverted to an ASUS P8Z68-V Pro GEN3/i7 2700k with 16GB of Samsung MV-3V4G3D-US_DDR3 @ 1866MHz (9- 9- 9-24 1T) @ 1.35v running 24/7 at 4.8Ghz and tweaks to 5.2 with CF 290X's all under water with a cheap Korean QNIX PLS 1440p Display about 3 years ago running Win7 SP1 64-Bit Ultimate and see no reason to upgrade the Hardware or OS yet.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

You found that MSI NF4 Red Devil but looks a FIC or a Alpina k7n2 Tomato?

No ID on the that MB.

Don't keep me guessing. What is it. Whats that Blue slot on the end PCIe x16 - Really? Could it be an ISA slot - LOL.

AGP with a PCIe x16 Slot on a NF2 MB is rare. That PCIe x 16 slot doesn't even have a Video Card lock on it. Haven forbid, a GTX 280 on a NF2 Single Core Barton platform. Did it ever work?

Forgive me, I've reverted to an ASUS P8Z68-V Pro GEN3/i7 2700k with 16GB of Samsung MV-3V4G3D-US_DDR3 @ 1866MHz (9- 9- 9-24 1T) @ 1.35v running 24/7 at 4.8Ghz and tweaks to 5.2 with CF 290X's all under water with a cheap Korean QNIX PLS 1440p Display about 3 years ago running Win7 SP1 64-Bit Ultimate and see no reason to upgrade the Hardware or OS yet.

It's probably a custom slot for a proprietary Wi-Fi card. nForce 2 doesn't support PCIe or ISA. I had a gigabyte socket A board with a custom slot for Wi-Fi like that.

 

[Deders]

You found that MSI NF4 Red Devil but looks a FIC or a Alpina k7n2 Tomato?

No ID on the that MB.

Don't keep me guessing. What is it. Whats that Blue slot on the end PCIe x16 - Really? Could it be an ISA slot - LOL.

AGP with a PCIe x16 Slot on a NF2 MB is rare. That PCIe x 16 slot doesn't even have a Video Card lock on it. Haven forbid, a GTX 280 on a NF2 Single Core Barton platform. Did it ever work?

Forgive me, I've reverted to an ASUS P8Z68-V Pro GEN3/i7 2700k with 16GB of Samsung MV-3V4G3D-US_DDR3 @ 1866MHz (9- 9- 9-24 1T) @ 1.35v running 24/7 at 4.8Ghz and tweaks to 5.2 with CF 290X's all under water with a cheap Korean QNIX PLS 1440p Display about 3 years ago running Win7 SP1 64-Bit Ultimate and see no reason to upgrade the Hardware or OS yet.

It's the MSI K7N2 NForce2., the 333 version not the 400 or Delta.

That's an AGP slot. PCIe was a long way off at this point.

I had an Asrock board at one point that had both AGP and PCIe. Unfortunately it would stutter when I used the PCIe slot for graphics.

 

[Blue_Max]

Whats that Blue slot on the end PCIe x16 - Really? Could it be an ISA slot - LOL.

Definitely not ISA, but in those days many motherboards had a dedicated, specialty modem/audio card that used that special upside-down PCI. I forget what that was called, but it wasn't well-used so it disappeared after a short time.

 

[chucky2]

Check out NForcersHQ.

The great thing about the nForce chipsets wasn't so much the audio improvements, it was that finally if one wanted to run AMD you could get a chipset that didn't suck aka VIA.

NVidia built in one try something VIA couldn't bring itself to accomplish: Stability/Proper Operation.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Definitely not ISA, but in those days many motherboards had a dedicated, specialty modem/audio card that used that special upside-down PCI. I forget what that was called, but it wasn't well-used so it disappeared after a short time.

CNR. (Communication / Network Riser)

Anyways, I had a KT400 chipset based board back then. It used DDR. I used to rant about it, because it didn't support PCI bus parking like the equivalent Intel chipsets for P4 CPUs, so it didn't perform as well, but for me, it was in fact rock-solid stable. I know Via chipsets had a bad reputation, but I didn't have any appreciable problems with mine. (I had more problems with instability with my 440BX Pentium II rig. As it turns out, though, that wasn't a chipset problem, but rather, a hardware bug in my Promise Tech. Ultra66 IDE controller card, which was fixed in the Ultra 100 TX2 controllers.)

 

[Soulkeeper]

I remember playing with an old abit nforce board, ended up frying it with some volt mods
I generally preferred the VIA chipsets during the socket A days, but then I wasn't into the onboard sound/graphics which was the strength of the nforce boards. The nforce and subsequent revisions were well received by the enthusiasts. They were a package deal resulting from the R&D nvidia put towards the xbox.

 

[Z15CAM]

CNR. (Communication / Network Riser)

I think you nailed that Blue Slot Larry - Wonder if anyone used it - LOL

Most the NF2 N400 Boards came with 1 AGP and 5 PCI Slots - Weird DDR1 Dim configuration and Flaky SATA Controllers but man a Single Core AMD Barton XP trounced just everything Intel had at the time.

I believe, the nForce KN8 for Dual Core 64-Bit AMD CPU's was the next step up and the last of nForce Chipped MB's and supported nVidia SLI PCIe GPU's.

I still have both of them nForce MB's in the Gigabyte offering.

I did use a Promise IDE Raid Card at one time ;o)

Here's the VIA Apollo Pro 133A Slot 1 that you could run a Socket A 370 Intel 1.3 Ghz Taulatin FC-PGA2 Celeron at 1700 to 1800GMhz's with 150Mhz VZ SD Dims using a vidded Slot 1 to 370 Converter Card. They did build a Socket 370 version of this MB the next year:

6 PCI slots and an ISA Really! Note where that battery is! That MB has a 200Mhz Clock Generator for a 132 Mhz CPU - Doesn't mean you can't run the CPU and Dims at 138+ Mhz's with insane voltage ;o)

Eat your heart out Abit and the Intel 440BX. Still have that Hot Rod and Boots WinSE - With out a doubt a beautiful machine that runs the old AGP ATi 9700, 9800 and 2700XT's and either an Intel or AMD CPU. Probably the Last of it's kind.

Here are the nForce Boards I have. Both are presently running Win7 32-Bit Ultimate as the MB's are limited to 3 and 4 GB's of DDR1 400 respectively:

GA-K7N400 Pro (Rev2) Socket A 462 for the Single Core AMD Athlon Barton XP CPU's:

Easily runs at 2200 to 2500Mhz +Mhz with with either a 1.833 or a 2200Mhz AMD Barton XP.

GA-KN8 SLI Socket 939 for the Dual Core Athlon 64-Bit x's 2 Toledo (Stacked Bartons) CPU's:

Easily runs between 2500 to 2700Mhz's and GTX280's in SLI. Generally you could run 2GB's of DDR400 at around 418Ghz's @ CAS 2-3-2-1T @ 418 Mhz in Dual Channel or the same CAS with 3GB of DDR400 in Single channel for a 32-Bit Win OS - Really not enough RAM for say a WinXP or Win7 64-Bit OS but it worked if you had the KN8 NF4 nForce Chipset.

I don't believe the KN8 NF4 ever supported DDR2. I could be wrong on this - Lets hear it - If it did - It would be a great WinXP and Win7 64-Bit Platform and a very rare MB ;o)

OCZ (Samsung) and Patriot (Mozel) DDR 400 really worked on the nForce MB's.

Gigabyte built great nForce MB's but EpoX is considered the Holey Grail as EpoX don't exist anymore.

There was a time when AMD CPU's with nVidia nForce MB's put Intel P3 and P4's to shame.

 

[Auric]

As a counterpoint to the nostalgia ("a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days"), poor standards compatibility may limit expansion -particularly the choice of AGP cards.

 

[Z15CAM]

As a counterpoint to the nostalgia ("a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days"), poor standards compatibility may limit expansion -particularly the choice of AGP cards.

The nVidia'nForce KN8 Chipset over came that with probably the first PCIe SLI MB with 2 mini PCi-Express slots and 2 PCI - Although Primary IDE with Secondary Sata3 - Both Controllers were Raid Optioned and supported a 64-Bit OS.

I believe ATi got into the pic making MB ChipSets around that time - Probably more rare and never played with one.

Yes the nForce ChipSet is a Great Nostalgic MB and today a nForce DeskTop is likely to out perform most modern LapTops. Not too shabby for a forgotten Power Hungry MainBoard ChipSet that existed only for 2 years over a decade ago.

Unless you want to get into one, I suggest you frame it and put it on your wall as they where the Fastest DeskTop MB in their time ;o)

Here'a the Holy Grail for the nForce2 MB: The EpoX EP-8RDA(3)+ Socket 462 AMD Barton Single Core processor. Load this with an an AMD Barton 3200XP+ and OCZ Platinum or Patriot Mozel DDR 400 and you could hit 2500Mhz 24/7 with an ATi 9800 or 2600XT AGP - Gigabyte could do it as well and you can run Win7 32-Bit on her.

Still looking for one - 6 PCI Slots. Really with out an IRQ conflict but only good for 2 or 3 GB of DDR1 400 CAS 2-3-2-5-1T @ 418+ Mhz at say 1.8V's - Pending revisions of the nForce2 MB and OCZ or Patriot Ram at the time.

Here's the EP-EDRA3+. What a Basic, Fast and Sweet Heart NF2 MB:

The GA-K7N400 Pro (Rev2) has it too with a few more extra's - Like Double IDE with Raid , SATA3 and USB plus Fire-ware. The GA-K7 N400 and GA-KN8 are superior but that EpoX is ELUSIVE ;o)

All rare, yet cheap to find on eBay from Enthusiasts who are willing to give away NF2 parts for one of the Fastest Single Core DeskTop Processor MB's ever made and can still run a modern OS (Win7 32-Bit) or the NF4 KN8 Platform that will run Win7 64-Bit .

Can't say a NF2 MB will boot SATA if it has it - Never tried.

I wonder why the VIA Apollo 133a Pro, the nVidia nForce and ATi MB ChipSets DISAPPEARED when they where clearly the fastest MB Chipsets on the market over Intel and AMD for that era and they don't exist anymore - Makes you Wonder?

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

When Intel got rid of the FSB in Nehalem they didn't want to license QPI to nVIDIA which really pissed off nVIDIA because they believed their license for GTL+ should have carried over to any newer buses (or really point to point interfaces) that Intel made but Intel disagreed. nVIDIA ended up suing Intel but lost and after that nVIDIA got out of the chipset market completely.

 

[Soulkeeper]

One thing I kinda miss about the nforce boards was being able to hold down the insert key on boot to force the bios settings into a safe default.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Was this like the first chipset with Sata support?I know my board doesn't have it period.First Sata drives i ran were with my Asus P4c800-E Deluxe 478 socket P4 motherboard.Ran the 74,150 and the 300gb Raptors exclusively for booting with that board.

As you can tell,i have been exclusively a Intel guy since the purchase of a new in box Asus P4C800-E Deluxe mobo for $50 back in 2006 at a swap meet.Loved that board but i certainly wished i had known a bit more about the AMD offerings and this Nforce chipset.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Appears the model of this motherboard has the nforce2 mcp-s.Quick googling does show this model supported Sata and closer examination shows this board certainly had the ports but the oem cheaped out and excluded those and the 1394 ports.

I guess this was a 2004 refresh motherboard.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

The first boards to have SATA for socket A were released in 2004. These boards all used Silicon Image controllers except for those with the VIA KT800 chipset which had SATA on the southbridge. So you could just grab a cheap SATA PCI card and it would be the same.