Soyo Dragon+ or nForce?

[CpG]

OK fanboys, let's hear it.

I'll soon have enough saved up to buy new guts for my box, and I've stumbled into a conundrum. I can't decide between the Soyo Dragon+ or an nForce board (probably the MSI). I like these two boards for the same reasons- quality onboard sound, onboard LAN, overall stability, performance, etc.

Dragon+:

Is the onboard sound as good as the nForce? Does using it affect overall system performance (like how the Gigabyte KT266A board's onboard sound reduces performance by something like 25%)?

nForce:

Will it outperform the KT266A chipset given a few more driver/BIOS revisions and installing memory modules in slots 1 and 2?
Will the price drop over the next month and a half as more manufacturers roll out their versions?
How's the quality? Is anyone having problems (ala the EpoX 8kha+)?
Does the onboard audio affect overall system performance?

The reason I ask about the sound is that a third option is to get a cheaper KT266A board like the EpoX or Shuttle and buy a separate sound card.

Ugh, choices make my head hurt.

 

[romanji]

It does kind of hurt the brain trying to figure out what board is best. I was also looking at the MSI n-force board but I didn't like the lack of multiplier adjustments(which I need for my 1GHZ Athlon for overclocking) and the fact that it is their first attempt at a motherboard.The MSI does seem like a very nice motherboard besides those couple negatives. I decided to go with the Soyo Dragon Plus and I havn't thought about it again. I am using the onboard sound and Lan and they both work great. I would have to think that the Dragon's sound would be very close to the MSI. I can't really see that using the onboard features would decrease your performance. My Dragon+ seems very stable and is easy to setup as long as it comes with or you upgrade the bios right away before trying to install anything. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of posts on here about the Dragon+ but that is a good thing because not many people are having problems with them. Amdmb.com just posted a very positive review on the Dragon+ today and they also have a review of their own posted there as well. Hope this helps you some in your decision.

 

[hunterxx]

I also decided on the Dragon + for the same reasons. For a review of these boards plus many others check out http://www.tomshardware.com/

 

[arynn]

One thing to consider is the CPU utilisation (sp?) of the onboard sound. Looking at Anand's review of the P4 motherboards, the CMedia onboard sound uses a decent amount of the CPU CMedia CPU uage. The nforce onboard sound uses less CPU power than the Creative Labs Soundblaster Live! as reviewed by Ace's Hardware nForce onboard audio.

There seem to be some issues with the onboard audio of the nforce, but I'm not really sure what they are. I will be purchasing a system in about a month and will look at the issue more closely then. I'd say if the onboard sound of the nforce is functional for what you need it for it's a more desirable solution that the onboard sound for the Soyo.

On the other hand, you could buy the Soyo and a sound card for the price of the nforce.

I would personally select the nforce board for a platform if I were going to use a budget video card over the Soyo board. If I were going 266A and budget I'd probably use the Shuttle and a video card.

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< OK fanboys, let's hear it.

I'll soon have enough saved up to buy new guts for my box, and I've stumbled into a conundrum. I can't decide between the Soyo Dragon+ or an nForce board (probably the MSI). I like these two boards for the same reasons- quality onboard sound, onboard LAN, overall stability, performance, etc.

Dragon+:

Is the onboard sound as good as the nForce? Does using it affect overall system performance (like how the Gigabyte KT266A board's onboard sound reduces performance by something like 25%)?

nForce:

Will it outperform the KT266A chipset given a few more driver/BIOS revisions and installing memory modules in slots 1 and 2?
Will the price drop over the next month and a half as more manufacturers roll out their versions?
How's the quality? Is anyone having problems (ala the EpoX 8kha+)?
Does the onboard audio affect overall system performance?

The reason I ask about the sound is that a third option is to get a cheaper KT266A board like the EpoX or Shuttle and buy a separate sound card.

Ugh, choices make my head hurt. >>

FYI, there will be a nForce version of the Dragon+ not too far from now.

 

[Thought]

One consideration you might want to keep in mind when looking at the dragon+ is that there is not enough room to fit the Alpha 8045 in there... or so says the aplha website...

I was actually about to get the dragon as opposed to the msi nforce that i am using now, but i had the 8045 already and that was the big problem... didnt want to give it up, so i got hte msi instead...

the msi i running great right now, and the only other real reason that i would choose it over the dragon is becasue the sound capabilities are much better than the cmedia in the dragon... the dolby digital encoding is a great plus

the only drawback is that the nofrce does not support EAX yet, but knowing nvidia, within a month or two that will be fixed in a driver update...

hmmm... oh yeah, if you do decide to go for the nforce, dont forget to get two stick of ram and then put them in banks 1/3 not banks 1/2... the 1/3 config made my 3dmark score jump from 6245 to 7121...

 

[Ausone]

<< One consideration you might want to keep in mind when looking at the dragon+ is that there is not enough room to fit the Alpha 8045 in there... or so says the aplha website... >>



Alpha 8045 does fit the Dragon+. It's "Dragon" that is incompatible. Soyo altered the layout around the socket with Dragon+. Alpha's website now lists Dragon+ as compatible.

 

[Sockmonkey4]

I have been extremely happy with my Dragon+

Haven't seen any good reviews on the nForce boards.

 

[CraigRT]

I'd get the KT266A chipset, the NForce is too new into the market IMO, i have seen TONS of reviews praising the KT266A, it's a good chipset!

Get the Dragon+ it has some really sweet features and it looks pretty nifty too.

 

[Keen314]

I'm in the same boat as you, dragon+ or nforce? Hmm..... If I were to buy right now, I'd pick the Dragon+ (people have listed plenty of reasons). However, I'm buying a mobo in a month, so I'm going to watch to see what the driver/bios updates for nforce boards do for it.

 

[DefRef]

I was waiting (and waiting) for the nForce boards to come out, but they're late and the MSI appears to be a letdown, so I (and a friend before me) decided to go with the Dragon+. I wish they had put USB 2.0 on it like they did for the D+Ultra P4 board, but oh well. I ordered it from Newegg last night an I hope it'll show before Christmas.

I'm putting an Audigy Platinum on it, so while I'll have an extra card inside, the Audigy will replace my FireWire card and the D+ has the NIC covered. Booyah!

Better nForce boards will come EVENTUALLY, but now, the D+ seems to be the King of the Hill.

 

[CpG]

Hmmm. Looks like I'll go with the Dragon+.

I don't like MSI and ASUS's dodgy behavior when it comes to charging extra for features that should be included to begin with- like Dolby 5.1 decoding on the ASUS and MSI's surround sound CNR and TV out AGP cards. I'm wary about a chipset that launched last summer, yet only has two boards on the market, while the KT266A launched a couple of months ago and now every manufacturer has a solution. I also don't like storries mentioning the fact that mobo manufacturers are "less than enthusiastic" about the nForce.

The last thing I want is to pay $180 mobo that ends up being some kind of new Betamax with no ongoing driver support.

It's too bad. The nForce is a l33t chipset, but nobody seems to care.