nForce3 250 review

[biostud]

at Hexus

 

[John]

finally!

 

[formulav8]

Yawn.. doesn't look like much to expect from the new chipset. Not that I was expecting anything big. It doesn't look like it has a pci lock.


Jason

 

[Sideswipe001]

Too bad it...sucked? Or at best didn't really offer any improvements in speed.

 

[Mem]

I'm hedging my bets, but I prefer K8T800 Pro on paper, at least as a basis for great motherboards.

That`s the way I`m thinking as well,only time will tell .

 

[John]

Wow, it looks like that Giagbyte NF3 250 is nothing to write home about. Hopefully the 350 will add a PCI/AGP lock.

 

[Dug]

Damn.

Nothing real exciting, but I don't notice anything bad either.

I just want to see how the 939 pans out when its released.

 

[Markfw]

The VIA 800pro is supposed to have AGP lock. But for now, I am cetainly happy I didn;t wait for nothing, which is what nf3 250 is, just coming up to the via 800 chipset.

 

[MichaelD]

I'm hedging my bets, but I prefer K8T800 Pro on paper, at least as a basis for great motherboards.

I don't understand this comment by the reviewer. WHY? The benchmarks are all virtually dead-even. Both boards have the exact same features; number of USB ports, IDE RAID, SATA RAID, etc.

The NF3 has lost Soundstorm, but does Via have that 24-bit Envy on all boards? The NF3 has a Gigabit NIC...that doesn't really matter though.

When I read that the NF3s HT Link was only 800 vs Via's 1,000, I got worried, but ALL the benchmarks prove otherwise. On paper, at least, the difference doesn't seem to show.

So, I think his comment is unfounded.

I am VERY disappointed about no AGP/PCI lock. :disgust: <--disgusted is more like it

What the HELL was NVidia thinking? True the NF2 boards are awesome for a number of very good reasons, but the reason they sold (sell, still!) millions of them is b/c of US, the Enthusiast Community. We buy them b/c of the AGP/PCI lock. B/C of that lock, we can take a $80 AthlonXP and run it at the speed at $200 part goes for!

Again, WTH were they thinking? Maybe they tested it out and the on-CPU memory controller didn't like it or something? It would be nice if they told us why there's no lock...maybe then I wouldn't be so pissed off.

I will wait for more NForce3 250 and VIA K8T800 Pro board reviews to come out before I upgrade to an A64 platform. I'm in no rush...relatively speaking.

 

[knouri]

I don't understand this comment by the reviewer. WHY? The benchmarks are all virtually dead-even.

Why? It's because it was comparing the NF3 250 to the (released 6 months ago) K8T800, not the K8T800 PRO.

The NF3250 is now up to snuff, big deal. I was waiting for it too, but I guess now I'm waiting on the K8T800 Pro

Hopefully that won't be as much of a letdown.

Of course... all of the above is predicated on the fact that this review of the Gigabyte "qualification sample" bears true for production boards.

 

[Mem]

Why? It's because it was comparing the NF3 250 to the (released 6 months ago) K8T800, not the K8T800 PRO.

Also it`ll be interesting to see if the K8T800 Pro will have AGP/PCI adjustment like it has been reported by a few sites.

Well, this is about to change, as VIA's K8T800 PRO will be enable you to fix AGP and PCI values. This means that your PCI and AGP devices won't be over-overclocked. Bare in mind that you cannot change the multiplier on Athlon 64 or FX CPUs except if you are lucky a journo or industry man that has a rare overclockable multiplier."

 

[MercenaryForHire]

And here I thought the nF3 250 was going to bitchslap its little brother the 150 down to "reasonable price".

- M4H

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: knouri

I don't understand this comment by the reviewer. WHY? The benchmarks are all virtually dead-even.

Why? It's because it was comparing the NF3 250 to the (released 6 months ago) K8T800, not the K8T800 PRO.

The NF3250 is now up to snuff, big deal. I was waiting for it too, but I guess now I'm waiting on the K8T800 Pro

Hopefully that won't be as much of a letdown.

Of course... all of the above is predicated on the fact that this review of the Gigabyte "qualification sample" bears true for production boards.

Wait a minute here. Look at this page.

Does it not say "VIA K8T800 Pro" at the top of the column on the comparision features list? Yes, it does. Either I'm not understanding English anymore or you are seeing something I'm not. If the Via K8T800 Pro is not around yet, where'd he get the benchmarks from?

Explain.

*edit*

Nevermind, I see it. This is a POORLY thought-out review. At the beginning of the interview, he shows the specs for the VIA K8T800 Pro board, and then the board he actually measures is not the Pro, but he doesn't mention that.

What a stupid ass reviewer! I think I"ll post in their forums.

 

[Ionizer86]

But the PR sh!tstorm that surrounds stuff like this means I'm unable to tell you that it's a Gigabyte board directly, so I won't. You'll just have to speculate about that on your own.

Hey, at least there's some funny commentary in the article

 

[MichaelD]

bump

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: Ionizer86

But the PR sh!tstorm that surrounds stuff like this means I'm unable to tell you that it's a Gigabyte board directly, so I won't. You'll just have to speculate about that on your own.

Hey, at least there's some funny commentary in the article

That made me ROFL...

 

[nitromullet]

with the ongoing absence of sounstorm, does anyone think that nv may be positioning themselves to enter the add-on sound card market? just curious, wild speculation...

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
with the ongoing absence of sounstorm, does anyone think that nv may be positioning themselves to enter the add-on sound card market? just curious, wild speculation...

IIRC, Creative is a big Nvidia card partner in Europe, and they risk really pissing them off if they forge into add-on SoundStorm cards.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

The goober forgot during his cut&paste to remove Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz, 512KB L2, 16 x 200MHz from the test hardware

BTW, How was it determined by some of you there is no PCI lock based on that poor excuse for an article? That was a truly worthless read, he can't even make up his mind what the HT speed is.

 

[Zebo]

Hexus is a great review site IMO. Anandtech of the UK...very trustworthy.

 

[mechBgon]

I want to see an nForce3 250Gb review. And a dual-processor nForce3 Pro 250Gb review. Give us someadat wicked-sick gigabit-Ethernet-welded-to-Hypertransport goodness :evil: Where's Evan and Wesley?!


Oh, and

:Q