nForce 420 boards - any experience?

[MeloManiac]

I am considering changing my KT133 (MSI K7T Pro2a) motherboard with one carrying the new nForce chipset soon. I use the computer mainly for
heavy audio work (streaming 160 voices off HD etc), so I need fast IDE, RAM and PCI access most of all, and I think nForce should fare well
in these departments. I couldnt care less about the onboard audio and video however - anyone who knows if nVidia are doing nForce chipset without that? Have anyone had the chance to test an nForce board yet, concerning stability etc? Also, will these mobo's be able to use my 'old' Tbird 1ghz (200FSB) or will I need a new Athlon?

 

[AGodspeed]

Hi MeloManiac.

I just built myself a 1.4GHz nForce system last week (MSI K7N420 Pro nForce motherboard) and I have the following to say about this system:

1. Stability: I haven't encountered a single problem related to the board or chipset itself. Just recently, Nvidia released the latest nForce Unified Driver Architecture. This board is definitely the most stable board I've ever had, and I've used AMD and Intel based motherboard chipsets.
2. Performance: Top notch. Sound, IDE, etc. performance is very good. I don't know how else to convey this except to say that you should do research for yourself on the Internet, you'll find a lot of reviews of nForce boards that show it has top quality integrated features (audio, IDE, etc.).
3. Ease of Setup: The easiest and most simple system I've ever built. Drivers/software quality of this board is great; I really enjoyed doing an all-in-one driver install for my IDE, sound, graphics, etc. Pretty cool.

Since you don't want a lot of those integrated features, I'd suggest you wait for the 415-D nForce motherboards that are going to be coming out later this month or sometime next month, they will be ride of GeF2 MX graphics at least, but will come with all the other features, which most boards come with anyway, except nForce has much higher quality parts.

 

[Gstanfor]

I agree with AGodspeed. I also have the K7N420 Pro and apart from a couple of relatively minor errors in the manual concerning the CMOS jumper and case connector this has to be the best motherboard I have ever owned.

It is stable, fast, and imparts a smoothness of operation to your computer than competing chipset simply can't match.

As AGodspeed said nVidia has just launched the nForce 415-D which is exactly the same as 420-D, except that there is no integrated graphics core.

Unless you already own an Audigy, I think you will find the onboard sound to be superior to anything else currently on the market.

Yes, the nforce is perfectly capable of using older T-Birds and Duron processors. I have my 1.1gig T-Bird with a 200mhz FSB in the board at present and it absolutely screams along thanks to the DASP component of the northbridge (DASP is like hardware prefetch on the Athlon XP and the T-bird really benefits from it).

The IDE performance blows the barn doors off of anything VIA can come up with.

Overall it is my firm belief you will be more than happy with the performance afforded to you by an nforce chipset, especially since support for older processors, fast IDE and PCI are important to you.

Greg

 

[Funky303]

I know, crosslinX are not the real thing, but here are two other threads about the MSI / nforce boardf in general. Here you also find lots of configuration tips & things you should know before starting to built your system

Thread 1 nVIDIA nForce 415-D Chipset

Thread 2 nFoce Stability

Thread 3 The "Official" MSI K7N420 Thread (nForce 420 chipset)

Have phun, enjoy reading

 

[WerewolfX]

I think I will wait for thurobred.

Nvidia and Mobo's still doesnt sit will with me just yet.

 

[RoughDood]

well this nforce chipset was finished in june the manufacturers are the ones that took so long to come out with them from my understanding....... now if NVIDIA can make a chipset that long ago and it's going up against the kt266a which came out not to long ago that has to say something but most of all look at THG's benchmarks and them bashing it when it lands in the middle of the field almost the wholetime other then 3d but what can you expect it was going against kt266a's with geforce 3's? of course it's going to lack a little there so for NVIDIA's first chipset or atleast my understanding of their first look how well they match up and that's with integration...

 

[MeloManiac]

Thanks for the replies, everyone! Looking good.